There’s good news and bad news for the TV networks in recent figures released by Starcom, a leading media buying agency. The good news is that the TV networks are making a substantial amount of money off of ads shown during online, streaming video releases of their programs. The bad news is that the writers want a slice of that rapidly growing pie.
We’re a week away from the opening of The Golden Compass, the new film based on the first volume of Philip Pullman’s "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and the pre-release hype has crescendoed to a deafening roar. The central issue is whether the film will influence innocent tykes to become atheists, and whether that would be a bad thing if it happened. Certainly Pullman has made it perfectly clear in all his public statements and in the trilogy of fantasy novels that yes, he is an atheist, and yes, he would very much like to see all religious belief done away with if such a thing were possible.
National Review Online has just published an interesting article praising FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The thrust of the piece is that Martin, a Republican, has been better than a Democrat would have been. That’s true, just as President Bush’s compassionate conservatism is better than the Democrats’ coercive progressivism, but just as with the President’s agenda, "better than the Democrats" definitely does not mean "good". The article’s authors, Cesar V. Conda and Lawrence J. Spivak, make a good case for the proposition that Martin does indeed favor markets in general, at least in the abstract, and they make the following argument:
A very good movie series that has been unjustly overlooked since the cultural cataclysm that began after World War II is MGM’s late-1930s/early ’40s series of films starring Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare. It’s a pity, as the series has much to offer even today. Ayres, then a very young contract player at what was the top Hollywood studio at the time, portrays the title character with the right blend of earnestness and humor, and Lionel Barrymore is excellent as his crusty but ultimately sympathetic mentor, Dr. Gillespie. Laraine Day is likewise solid as hardworking Nurse Mary Lamont, who becomes Kildare’s love interest. Nearly all the entries in the series were helmed by the undistinguished MGM contract director Harold S. Bucquet, but they are quite competently produced, written, and directed.
Here’s a good indicator of how the mainstream media look at the religion the great majority of Americans hold. The headline writer for E! News felt constrained to put the word prayers in scare quotes in the headline of a story on actor Dennis Quaid: Quaid Seeks "Prayers" for Ailing Babies The article reported on a grave illness facing the newborn twin children of Quaid and his wife, and noted that the actor’s representative had sent the following statement to E! News: "Dennis and Kimberly appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers and hope they can maintain their privacy at this difficult time."
U.S. film audiences are continung to make it clear that their preference these days is for politically neutral films that send a positive message.
There’s an excellent mystery film on Turner Classsic Movies tonight at 7:00 EST: Green for Danger, directed by ace British filmmaker Sidney Gilliat from a novel by Christianna Brand, one of the great Golden Age mystery writers. Set in an English hospital during World War II, the film features Brand’s great detective, Inspector Cockrill, and is an excellent adaptation to celluloid. Cockrill is an interesting, eccentric detective, and Alistair Sim brings his great humor and class to the role. This is an essential detective film.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers. Please take some time to consider the meaning of the day.
Critics of the past half-century have never had much use for MGM’s Andy Hardy movie series of the late 1930s and ’40s, but the films really do merit watching. The series of theatrical films starred Mickey Rooney as the title character, a teenaged boy who wants to get things the easy way and always finds out that doing the right thing always works out the best . Guided by his wise and strong father, Judge Hardy, and his affectionate and hardworking mother, Andy manages to muddle his way through girl trouble, money problems, car repairs, and the like, and learns something in each film. Yes, the characters are solidly middle class—upper middle class, really—and the films don’t wallow in an effort to plumb the depths of human evil, which make them entirely uninteresting to most critics.
The rock supergroup Asia can be seen as either having brought progressive rock ideas to the masses or as having bastardized the form. The real answer is probably a good deal of both. The group, started in the early 1980s with a lineup of writer-performers who were not just stars but also were truly gifted musicians: John Wetton (vocals and bass guitar, formerly of King Crimson), Steve Howe (guitars, Yes), Geoff Downes (keyboards, the Buggles, Yes), and Carl Palmer (drums, percussion, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer). After a couple of decent albums with some big radio hits ("Heat of the Moment," "Only Time Will Tell," "Don’t Cry," "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes," etc.), the group disbanded in 1985.
As noted earlier on this site, former Queen guitarist Brian May’s earning of a doctorate in atrophysics is an impressive achievement. The latest news regarding May is not nearly so good, although May himself is not at fault for it. The story reflects an unseemly lack of standards and a vulgar and grasping attachment to our modern-day celebrity cult. The news is that Liverpool John Moores University has named May its next chancellor.
One of my favorite movie detectives is Gay Lawrence, aka the Falcon, a gentleman-sleuth and adventurer who was featured in a series of RKO films during the 1940s. The character was first played by George Sanders, who brought his usual urbanity to the role. The Falcon typically intervened on behalf of some attractive young damsel in distress, and an amusing aspect of the series is that at the end of each episode, just after the Falcon solves the crime, the female lead of the next installment of the series comes on the scene and asks him for his help. The films have that fizzy, cheerful attitude we often find in classical Hollywood mystery films, but they range widely in locations and story elements, with the high-society sleuth traveling around the country to help attractive females get out of trouble, usually with the police providing much more of a hindrance than a help
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