My Picks for Best Harrison Ford Movies

Most people remember Harrison Ford for his roles in Star Wars, or as Indiana Jones, or as the mature CIA intelligence analyst Jack Ryan. Yes, he is loved for his portrayals as all of these memorable and admirable characters. But if anybody ever asked me … which nobody ever did … so the information is being volunteered … these are the 3 best Harrison Ford movies ever made! Don't even argue with me about this. I will defend my choices to the bitter end!


What can I say? Have always been a sucker for a good love story and these were all good love stories! The first two movies - Witness and Frantic - the plot is intense! The third movie? You say to yourself: Love overcomes everything! ❤

Witness ◊ Frantic ◊ Regarding Henry

Witness

Frantic

Regarding Henry

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Ideas for White Elephant Gifts and Christmas Stocking Stuffers
Gifts Under $10 and Gifts Under $5

Movie Review: Flame of Stamboul (1951) (Reblog)

An alternative title for this blog post could be:  "Welcome to the World of Double Oh!"  Check out Double O Section, a blog for reviews of all things espionage like this 1951 movie.

"After the defeat of Germany at the end of WWII (and the end of the Forties spy classics that went with it) and before James Bond came along, most spy movies were simply crime movies with exotic settings. But as the Cold War warmed up, a few managed to subtly buck the trend in the 1950s, in some ways presaging the direction the genre would go in the Sixties, following 007's explosive cinematic debut. Columbia’s B-programmer Flame of Stamboul, directed by Ray Nazarro and starring the future governor of Hawaii Richard Denning, is surprisingly such a film. ..."

• Continue reading at Double O Section: Movie Review: Flame of Stamboul (1951).

This blog's first post is dated October 2006 and is titled simply "List"; "a Top (double-oh) Seven list of people in the world of fictional spies to keep an eye on."  Interesting list.

It's 2017 and this amazing blogger is still publishing posts. Sharing the link below to the latest post.

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Amazing Fact Generator

This website is extremely popular so the information presented in this post may not be news to many of you. But for those who have never heard of it, check out this site called “Mental Floss”.

Better yet, need ideas for something to write about?

Have a go at the tool they refer to as the Amazing Fact Generator.

For example: 

• FACT! Every film John Cazale appeared in was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

That's Fact No. 48639

Isn't that cool?

So my only question now is: 

• Who is John Cazale? (O.o) 

Need to do a little bit of research to find out, but he could be mentioned in my next blog post. Who knows?  :)

2,500 Movies Challenge | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) (Reblog)

I love old movies. On the hunt for a recommendation and came across this movie review of "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) starring Steve Martin (of "Saturday Night Live" fame). This blog is published by "Dave" and he plans to review a total of 2500 movies. This reblogged movie review is Number 1060. It was posted in 2010. As of June 2014, he was still posting! So much for setting yourself an achievable goal.

2,500 Movies Challenge:
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

FYI. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is available as an Amazon Instant Video.

Sunday, June 11, 2017
#2,367. A Night to Remember (1958) Almost there!

Wednesday, Oct 18, 2017
#2,442. Fear, Inc. (2016) Almost there!

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Classic Movies: The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)

I heart classic movies. 

• True stories about shipwrecks or ships lost at sea always tantalize you. You just got to know what happened! However, if you never really quite know all the truth, you can always make something up!

• The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a classic movie that stars two powerhouse American actors, Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961) and Charlton Heston (1923 - 2008). Based on a novel by Ralph Hammond Innes.

TheWreck of the Mary Deare - from Warner Brothers starring Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston - Directed by Michael Anderson

References:

Innes, H. (1956). The Wreck of the Mary Deare. New York: Knopf.

"The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - Overview - TCM.com." Turner Classic Movies. TCM.com Is Part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. <http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1522/The-Wreck-of-the-Mary-Deare/>. LEONARD MALTIN CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE, COPYRIGHT 2005, 2010. USED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.

Ralph Hammond Innes. 2015. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 16 January, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/253683/Ralph-Hammond-Innes

The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) | * Amazon Instant Video *

Amazon Instant Video - NOT ON Netflix - Amazon Prime Member Exclusives - Subtitles; Closed Captioning - http://t.co/gJlEWD1xK2 via @amazon
— Treathyl Fox (@cmoneyspinner) December 16, 2014

 

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Similar Posts Here at My Blog Stop!:

Classic Movies and History

Superhero Movies: Gladiator (2000)

2,500 Movies Challenge | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) (REBLOG)

Movies Based on Books: The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) https://t.co/QQUkmfiX3W via @flipboard #movies #oldmovies #movireviews Fans of #CharltonHeston #GaryCooper

— My Fox Nooze (aka Joie de Vivre Magazine) (@FoxMarks_ATX) March 6, 2020

JACK AND DIANE (2012): Saturday night movie pick? Watch at your own risk.

OK. OK! I get it! It's an awful movie. I'm convinced. Not gonna watch it. Not into horror movies anyway. Growing up, every Saturday AFTER 11 o' clock was the night to watch creepy scary horror movies. It wasn't a rule of my parents. It was a television programming decision made by our local stations that we all abided by. These days, occasionally, like if it's the Halloween season, a horror flick will be on my watch list. If a thorough critique and review of a horror film is needed, this is was my GO TO blog, "Written in Blood". Everything you need to know about horror films and some stuff you didn't even know you needed to know! Glad to have this blog to help me decide whether my time will be wasted or not. :)  Saturday night movie pick?  Watch at your own risk.

The blog publisher's review of this film was sort of like my review of NOAH (2014).  That movie was awful!  So bad you feel compelled to warn viewers in advance.

* * Apologies.  The blog owners decided to unpublish his blog.  Movie is available on Amazon Video, if interested.


Saving grace for the viewer?  Hmmm? On the plus side, neither movie was bad enough to ruin the joy of munching on a bowl or a box of buttered popcorn. ☺

JACK AND DIANE 


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Halloween Movie : MANIAC COP (1988) ~ What's on Your Watch List?

Definitely out of the loop on this one. There's a Maniac Cop one, two and three, and I have yet to watch the first one!  It's a "late '80s urban horror/action" film and for me, the idea of a crazy cop is for real scary!  It's not at the top of my watch list.  But it is on my list.

Do you have a watch list of movies for Halloween?

MANIAC COP (1988) Movie Review

Other Halloween Movie Suggestions:

Book Suggestions: Mystery , History or Ghost Story?

Peter Ackroyd is a writer, in more ways than one: biographer, historian, poet, novelist. People like to describe him as eccentric.  Mr. Ackroyd is a bit of a recluse, likes to drink, and still writes longhand. Some people consider that type of behavior somewhat peculiar. But he is without a doubt a prolific writer and has written so many books you may not know where to begin. 

Suggest you start with The Trial of Elizabeth Cree; it’s a murder mystery set in 1880 Victorian London.

Or … you could try to tackle his voluminous works of the History of England or his retelling of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

If you like horror or spooky stories or you want to get into the spirit of the Halloween season, maybe his collection of English ghost stories might be fun!

 

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JAZZ : World Music, Made in the U.S.A.

I heart trivia and jazz  :)

DID YOU KNOW?  “In 1912, the first use of the word “jazz” was in print in California, but it was not a description of the music.”  So what was it describing and how did it get connected to this musical art form that people all around the world enjoy today?   

• Answer: WordOrigins.org

• JAZZ: World Music, Made in U.S.A. | Washington Post

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World Music : Spotlight on Zaho, Algerian R&B Singer

Have always thought Algerian music had a moody, exotic, sensual vibe. Right? So tried to sign up at a site (a while back) to listen to Algerian radio stations. Could get other stations from other countries but for some reason could never get to hear music played on Algerian stations. Gave up trying!

Started watching foreign films with my SO (significant other) many moons ago and also began listening to singers from other countries or rather “world music”. You could say he opened up a new world for me; a fantastic point of view. :) But long before we ever met each other, the sound of people speaking in French has always captivated me. Mattered not what they were saying or singing – they could have been cussing at me - if it was in French it sounded way better than in English. Even people who RAP in French sound better!!

 
My SO (significant other) let me listen to this female singer called Zaho. Liked her sound. Did a little extra research on her. 

Zehira Darabid (born on May 10, 1980), known by her artistic name Zaho, is an Algerian R&B singer. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaho

 
Algerian? Yeah. Uh huh. That figures. Oh well! At least access to her videos wasn't cut off from the American audience.


[ Content previously published at Bubblews, Mar 20, 2015. ]

Zaho Music; available in MP3 or Unlimited Streaming with Amazon Music App


YouTube video url

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The Black Girl in Search of God and Some Lesser Tales

By: Philip Spires

The title piece in this anthology is a parable on the nature of religious belief. When first published in 1932 it caused quite a stir and I wondered whether the intervening 75 years might have rendered it something less of a shocker. I found that, apart from one violation of current political correctness and a few inevitable stylistic issues, the message had lost none of its poignancy and perhaps little of its ability to shock.

"The Black Girl in Search of God" (free eBook) is not a novel or a novella. It is not really a short story either. I choose to describe it as a parable because others have, but equally, it could be classed alongside Plato's symposium as a vehicle for examining a philosophical idea. It's not a discourse, but it could be a meditation, albeit a rather energetic one. The idea in question, of course, is the nature of religious belief.

The Black Girl of the title is only cast as such, I think, to provide Bernard Shaw, the author, with a literary vehicle to convey his otherwise naïve questions about Christianity. To this end, The Black Girl is presented as a "noble savage", and thus a tabula rasa. It is here - and only here - that Shaw violates current correctness. The character could have been cast as a child, but then she could not have threatened to wield her knobkerrie, her weapon, and nor could she have been portrayed as bringing no tradition of her own. We must accept, therefore, that there remains a functionality about the role of this character. She does not represent anything, except her ability to ask the questions she is required to ask.

The Black Girl has been converted to Christianity by a young British woman who has taken delight in amorously jilting a series of vicars. She then becomes a missionary, despite her clearly thin grasp of the subject matter. She is, perhaps, an allegory of colonial expansion. She goes abroad to teach others despite not having achieved fulfillment or knowledge in her own life. It might be important that the teacher and the taught are both women.

When her convert starts asking questions, fundamental questions that the missionary herself has never heard asked, never mind answered, she reverts to invention, not scholarship. Shaw's intention is clear. She invents myth to mystify myth. And this cloak satisfies the curiosity of the average Christian, but not The Black Girl, who thus goes off in search of God.

And, guided by snakes, she finds Him. And not just once, because there is more than one God in the Bible she carries. There is the God of Wrath, who demands the sacrifice of her child. When she cannot comply, He demands she find her father so he can sacrifice her. A good part of the Bible thus disappears from her new-found faith.

She meets an apparent God of Love, but he laughs at Job for being so naively and blindly devout. More of her book blows away.

She meets prophets who, one by one, deliver their different messages, most of which conflict and communicate individual political positions or bigotry rather than personal revelation.

On the way, she belittles Imperial power and male domination. She learns that most "civilized" countries have given up on God and hears a plea that people like her should not be taught things that the mother country no longer believes.

Scientists offer her equally conflicting opinions. They are careful only to describe, never to conclude or interpret. In a way, they are just modern prophets, each with their own interested positions.

There is an amazing episode where a mathematician implores her to consider complex numbers, the square root of minus x, which The Black Girl hears as Myna sex or perhaps its homophone minor sex, and is clearly a reference to feminism. Along with economic power and male dominance, The Black Girl sees guns as the highest achievement of white society. This anticipates the description of colonialism's trinity in Ngugi's Petals of Blood.

Then, in a strange section, an Arab discusses belief with a conjuror. These appear to be a pair of major prophets in thin disguise. But their discussions merely confuse the girl and their words skirt her questions.

And so she meets an Irishman, marries and settles down. She devotes herself to him, their coffee-colored children and the fruits of their garden. Note that she does not devote herself to herself. She projects out, does not analyze within. And in this utterly humanist universe she finds not only personal happiness, but also fulfillment and, with that, answers to her own metaphysical questions that religion per se could not even address.

And so, as the parable closes, we ponder whether the Irishman she marries is Shaw, and whether The Black Girl is the questioning, non-racist, non-sexist, socialist and humanist vision of the future he has personally espoused.

And as for the Lesser Tales, they are generally lesser. Don Giovanni explaining himself was fun and the Death of an Old Revolutionary Hero was prescient of the role of the Socialist Workers' Party adopted in maintaining Margaret Thatcher in power in the 1980s. A great, historical and fundamentally contemporary read.

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Author Bio
Philip Spires
Author of "Mission", an African novel set in Kenya
www.philipspires.co.uk
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

War Movie Classics: The Dirty Dozen

Some say the movie “Inglorious Basterds” was inspired by "The Dirty Dozen". This classic starred some of my favorite actors: Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and Jim Brown, to name a few.  Bad guys turned Patriots?  You really wanted these "dirty" guys to survive.

The Dirty Dozen, Clint Walker, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Trini Lopez, et al, 1967 Allposters.com

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