Destination: Moon Mission

Small video outfits have been restoring old movies that have fallen into the public domain. These are titles for niche audiences that are devoted to physical media.

Ignite Films did a splendid job with its restoration of Invaders From Mars for a Blu-ray release. Now, Film Masters has restored George Pal’s Destination Moon.

https://www.filmmasters.com/destination-moon

The notable names associated with this production include author Robert Heinlein and artist Chesley Bonestell, with animation by the Walter Lantz studio. Here’s the restored trailer.

For the more casual viewer, you can save thirty bucks and watch the movie here in decent enough quality.

I love the way Moon missions were depicted in the golden age of Sci-Fi. Everybody had the same quaint vision of not only the surface of the Moon, but of the rockets and space suits.

Painting by Al Feldstein
Tintin in, ‘Destination Moon’ 1950-53, by Georges Remi, aka Hergé

https://ia600505.us.archive.org/31/items/eFilingComics/16_Tintin_and_the_Destination_Moon.pdf

Superman in, ‘A Game of Moonball’ – Kenner Give-a-Show slide, 1962

Belgium ’75

I’d never heard of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles until now. Which is strange, considering how famous it apparently is, and that I’m a charter subscriber to the Criterion Channel. I happened to catch the start on Criterion 24/7.

The movie is immediately compelling, despite nothing happening except for one quiet, telling event. But I had to make myself stop, because I can’t spare three hours right now.

https://www.criterionchannel.com/jeanne-dielman-23-quai-du-commerce-1080-bruxelles

I’ll set aside the time to start it over and watch through to the end. Something very bad is going to happen. So far, there is no indication of that, but everything is too quiet, so I just know it’s coming.

Found in Translation

Debbie Daughtry and Tom Hanks, of Boss Radio 66

A publication in the Netherlands asked Debbie about working with Tom on Boss Radio 66. You’ll need to use a browser that can translate Dutch into English.

https://www.heavenmagazine.nl/actueel/tom-hanks-heeft-de-tijd-van-zijn-leven-bij-boss-radio-66

Future plans for Boss Radio 66?
“Our contract with TuneIn expires at the end of this year, so we’ll see.”

Original Cast vs. Copy Cast

Multiple versions of a song competing on the record charts at the same time used to be fairly routine. Saturday’s American Top 40 with Casey Kasem on SiriusXM was from 1971. At the time, there were two versions the song ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ on the Billboard chart.

Helen Reddy’s recording peaked at #13. To me it sounds rather rote, almost like she was doing a run-through to check the mic levels.

Yvonne Elliman was an original cast member of Jesus Christ Superstar. In my opinion, this is the vastly superior performance. Yet it only reached #28 on Billboard.

Hearing those records brought to mind another example of two recordings of the same song that were competing on the charts. It’s from the time when I was starting to work as a radio DJ.

Pat Boone’s daughter Debby had a #1 smash hit with ‘You Light Up My Life’. I must have played this single a thousand times.

The original version of the song, for the movie You Light Up My Life, was sung by Kvitka “Kasey” Cisyk. It outshines Debbie’s performance, yet it topped-out at a lowly #80.