One of the best novels of all time.
"Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."
I've finally got my framed #ArtOfAction poster, featuring my introduction to #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood (1938), on the wall.
You can read "Robin Hood And The Stuntman Lost In Time" below.
#FilmSky
If any #Sheffield folk fancy enrolling on this brilliant 8-week course, whether for the social aspect, to improve your writing and/or public speaking skills or because you want to try your hand at stand-up, let me know and I can get you a discount.
@thehighsign.bsky.social Your Keaton biography is next on my reading list and I thought you'd like to know that a screening of Sherlock Jr. in a northern British town was *extremely* well-received tonight. (It was my friend @latereviewer.bsky.social's first viewing too and he loved it.)
#FilmSky
Buster Keaton's action-packed, hilarious, surreal 1924 masterpiece Sherlock Jr with live musical accompaniment, a Laurel & Hardy short (Two Tars, 1928) beforehand and a very appreciative audience was a hell of a great evening.
#FilmSky
A young woman walked past me after a screening of #HighNoon (1952) once, saying to her boyfriend, "Oh my God, Gary Cooper is so FIT!!!"
If she thought that, after seeing him looking old and exhausted and suffering with a hernia, she's in for a right treat if she's in the audience tonight.
#FilmSky
An excerpt from "Robin Hood And The Stuntman Lost In Time", which you can read below.
Three months after writing this, I went to Mrs. Bradley's funeral service where the first thing her husband said to me was, "I've still not mastered that stunt, you know?"
#TheAdventuresOfRobinHood #FilmSky
I didn't feel like I was going at much of a pace but it seems like I've finally settled back into my under-9mph speed which is great considering I'm tackling #Sheffield's hills.
#RunSky
Morning run at a decent pace and in a decent time in the already sweltering #Sheffield sunshine.
#RunSky
Abbeydale Picture House, #Sheffield, opened in 1920, a mile down the road from where I live and probably the most beautiful building I've ever been in.
#FilmSky
A little black and white atmosphere from my dining room.
#PreCodeHollywood
#RulesAreMadeToBeBroken #FilmSky
A great day hanging out with my fictional friends.
#TheCinemaOfCancelledStars #BookSky
"This is probably the silliest thing that ever happened to me..."
Nissa the leopard and Asta the dog are the real stars of a film I used to really hate but now I'm pretty indifferent to. Screwball comedies are too broad for me but maybe seeing this with an audience might be more fun?
#FilmSky
"How come you have so many copies of Jane Eyre?"
Love a New York movie, love a romcom (especially one set in New York) but this, despite meeting my criteria and starring Rachel Weisz, was just OK. It had enough 'rom' but lacked the 'com', dragged and I'm not a fan of its leading man.
#FilmSky
It's the #Oscars tonight and in two years, the Best Stunt Design category will finally be in place.
If it had existed all along, I'm convinced #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood (1938) would have bagged its fourth #Oscar 87 years ago.
Here's why...
#AcademyAwards #FilmSky
"If I was a relative of yours, I'd shoot myself..."
Probably as good as could be and from memory, a faithful adaptation(?), however, a superb line in #Friends ruins this story for me: An excited Joey's holding the chick he's adopted a little too tightly and Chandler quips, "Easy, Lennie."
#FilmSky
Come on, #FilmSky, get behind this with a signature and a share.
"Whack him!"
The audience and friends I saw it with loved it but I was disappointed by its lack of variance: gunplay in different buildings. That's it. No other variety of violence, just endless indistinguishable shots of shooting/being hit to the point that I was pretty bored early on.
#FilmSky
"I think I've pulled a bollock..."
No cliché left un-brewed in this, possibly the least original film I've ever seen. Everything about it is stock - characters, plot, story - and very few of the funnies landed with my audience. An embarrassing watch that felt longer than its lean length.
#FilmSky
A local tailor has re-cut the £15 #HumphreyBogart trenchcoat I recently acquired from a vintage shop and the results are truly the stuff that dreams are made of.
(original shape - left of both pics; tailored - right)
#FilmSky #FilmNoir #AcrossThePacific #Casablanca #TheBigSleep #TailorSky
I went for pace over distance on tonight's run in hilly #Sheffield.
#RunSky
"Dynamite in the hands of a fool means death..."
Lancaster (explosives) + Marvin (guns) + Ryan (horses) + Strode (bow & arrows) + Palance (moustache) = Testosterone in this half #TheMagnificentSeven (1960), half #TheWildBunch (1969) desert dust-up but with Claudia Cardinale (spirit) too.
#FilmSky
"People are frightened of the dark, makes 'em wanna talk..."
A lot of "facking" and "cunts" from a bunch of aging Cockney scumbags on One Last Job. Whoever cast Jim Broadbent as a supposedly-intimidating character needs to give their head a wobble; he can't do menace to save his life.
#FilmSky
"Your job is to kill McCool..."
Very much not the best western of 1952 starring Gary Cooper and Lon Chaney, Jr. but still alright. You can guess the villain early on from the casting and the plot is predictable but it's always nice to hear a Wilhelm Scream and round off with a shootout.
#FilmSky
Lunchtime for the extras in #GoneWithTheWind (1939).
#HollywoodsGreatestYear #FilmSky
"What do you think I am, a stinking sausage merchant?"
Having recently read Scotty Bowers' salacious memoir of Hollywood secrets, it was fun to see some of his 'tricks' - #IYKYK - starring in a formulaic-but-fine swashbuckler penned by a screenwriter of #TheAdventuresOfRobinHood (1938).
#FilmSky
"I hope he puts one round into you, you rotten son-of-a-pig..."
All Valdez wants is compensation for the widow of a man he killed but nope, evil Frank Tanner has him crucified and flung into the desert. Now Valdez wants revenge...
A solid western based on a decent Elmore Leonard novel.
#FilmSky
"They tell me you wanna be a picture maker..."
Spielberg's love letter to himself is a boring, saccharine, corny piece of drivel whose only redeeming quality is David Lynch's cameo as John Ford - and even that wasn't great. I wonder if we'll get a companion movie about Lucas one day...
#FilmSky
