by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 29, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
In 1964 Saturday and Sunday morning matinees became littered with a bizarre little film called “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians”. One of the most notorious bad films ever made, it is a strange movie, but one thing it never is is boring.
Martians kidnap Santa Claus so that he can give presents to the children of mars. It’s a dopey idea, but it could work in a fanciful way. Unfortunately the filmmakers spent about $5 on the film, and in the long run it all comes off like a local theater or grammar school play, acted with that kind of unbelievably amateurish performances.
I’d heard of the film for decades and never cared to even see anything of it, knowing its quality was none existent. Around 2002 I saw they were playing it on American Movie Classics late on one Friday night, and happened to catch it. Right from the opening I was shocked that the opening song was REALLY melodic, and quite enjoyable.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 28, 2020
“I got another one.”
Forty years ago on 6/25/80 Walt Disney Productions’ last G rated comedy would be released. “Herbie Goes Bananas” is an important film in the history of the Disney studio, it being the last G-rated comedy they’d produce. In the preceding 6 months the studio had jumped into PG rated films with “The Black Hole” being released in Christmas of 1979. It was a signal of things changing at the studio, and in some ways “Herbie Goes Bananas” is an example of how they weren’t going back. It has been maligned as rock bottom Disney, and in many ways that is true, a major misfire, but it has some charms that are easily missed if one doesn’t get passed the questionable script. There is plenty to criticize, and, surprisingly, enough to admire.
Herbie is now stranded in Mexico, having been left there by Jim Douglas because in a Baja race Herbie’s girlfriend Lancia Giselle made a bad turn, and Herbie was never the same. Jim’s nephew Pete Stanchek (Stephen W. Burns) and Pete’s friend David Johns, DJ for short (Charlie Martin Smith), are picking Herbie up, not knowing anything about the car, just that it won some races, and that his Uncle Jim is giving it to him. Arriving in Mexico off a bus they are pickpocketed by a rascal orphan named Paco (Joaquin Garay III), who takes the wallet for the money, and puts the wallets in post office boxes, picking up another wallet from Shepard (Richard Jaeckel) who is trying to take ancient Inca gold from a Mexican ruin with mastermind Joe Prindle (John Vernon) and his henchman Quinn (Alex Rocco).
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 27, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
Around 2015 I was coming home from being at the Christmas gathering I go to almost every year, and the radio was on as I turned on the car, the CD I had going off because of little problems that it has with cold weather (and at times in warm weather too!), automatically going to the radio. I don’t listen to the radio, never caring for the idea of listening to what others choose to play, and caring for only a fragment of what would play on that station.
My father always had the classical station on, his love of classical music and opera being something that was incredibly important to him his whole life. As I found out on the day he passed he was passing the halls of a building when he was in college and heard beautiful music. He wondered what it was, and found out it was Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op. 125. His life was sealed from that day on in what he loved in music.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 26, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
In the 1960s there were Saturday and Sunday matinees for kiddie flicks, and it became something of a small market that existed into the 70s. One company named Childhood Productions run by producer Barry Yellen took European films, dubbed them into English, and adapt the edit of the film to fit into a more American format. They had done several of these, and actor/composer/writer Paul Tripp was a founder of the company, working for them in doing narration, etc.
Childhood Productions would make one original production that was released in 1966, the children’s film “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t”. It was shot in Italy with a mostly Italian cast, and a few American actors. The film was made without sound, and everything post synched in the dubbing process, like many Italian films of the time.
Paul Tripp plays Sam Whipple, a lawyer who tries to help Santa Claus (Alberto Rabagliati), Mrs. Claus (Lydia Brazzi), and Santa’s elves when they are going to be evicted from their home in the North Pole by a Scrooge-like character named Phineas T. Prune (Rossano Brazzi). Santa goes to work at a department store run by Mr. Prim (Sonny Fox, the early 60s host of “Wonderama”), trying to raise money, but Mr. Prune will not go down without a fight.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 25, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
46 years ago on 12/22/74 the classic animated special from Lutheran Television “The City That Forgot About Christmas” first aired in syndication.
This quiet little film, animated on a lower budget, is one of the most beautiful animated specials in capturing the true meaning of Christmas.
With a wonderful cast it tells the story of a boy, Benji, who’s grandfather (Sebastian Cabot) is able to let him know how important it is to remember the significance of the Christ child, and not the other things that detract from it just being a holiday. Charles Nelson Reilly, Louis Nye, Casey Kasem, Robie Lester, and Joan Gardner also lend their voices to this beautifully made film that stays with one for life.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 25, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
“He went down in history!”
56 years ago on 12/6/64 the most popular, and the greatest, Christmas animated special appeared on NBC’s General Electric Fantasy Hour. It used songs that existed of Johnny Marks and some he wrote for the special. It was the first big special for Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, Rankin/Bass, having done two animated series up to that point, “The New Adventures Of Pinocchio” in stop motion and “Tales Of The Wizard Of Oz” in cel animation, it having a sequel in 1964 called “Return To Oz” that aired on the GE Fantasy Hour of NBC.
After the huge success of the first airing of “Rudolph” the sponsor, GE, asked for some changes, since audiences complained that Santa didn’t rescue the misfit toys. An additional song, which ended up being “Fame And Fortune”, replaced a second version of “Misfits”, and the misfit toys were rescued at the end.
This all required some edits: “We Are Santa’s Elves” was cut in half, the reprise of “Misfits” was now the “new” “Fame And Fortune” song, after Santa takes off at the end, dialogue with the family is removed, as well as Yukon discovering a peppermint mine (with gorgeous animation), and the original end credits were removed, with the action of Santa delivering toys with the elves taking center stage, and the packages having the credits removed.
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