Alcoholic Creature Feature

Along with The Day The Earth Stood Still in 1950, and Spellbound from 1945, another movie to feature the sound of a Theremin is The Lost Weekend, also from 1945.
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I’m sure you recognize Frank Faylen, who played Ernie Bishop, the taxi cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life. I inserted the transition after Faylen says “Goodnight” and I chopped out Ray Milland’s escape from the alcoholic ward.

Great stuff with the mouse and bat! I wonder if director Billy Wilder enlisted the services of the technicians at Universal, who did the bats for the Dracula movies?

Bob Dylan’s Dire Warning

On October 1, a big Bob Dylan CD collection is being released. On October 2, D. F. Rogers and I will be seeing Dylan in concert, appearing with Elvis Costello. Dylan has always been forward thinking, and being in the middle of watching Battlestar Galatica on DVD, I’m right with him on this important warning.
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Bismo’s Buddy Wins An Emmy!

I know somebody who knows somebody who’s won an Emmy! In fact, it’s his second such award. Leave it to Bismo to mention it almost as an afterthought in a blog post about beer!

Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz does special effects for the TV show Battlestar Galactica; which, as mentioned previously, we’re watching on DVD with Bismo. The award is for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series. Here’s Mojo holding his Emmy, dressed for the occasion in Battlestar gear from the original series. Big time congratulations!

Credit Due, Not Yet Paid

Now that Mark Evanier has clarified the issue of on-screen credits for the creators of Spider-Man, let’s go back to the first Spidey movie. As expected, it’s worded exactly the same way.
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Something I haven’t noticed before is the first Spider-Man movie has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, only tiny bit wider than HDTV’s 1.77:1. The second movie is much wider — or shorter, depending on how you consider it — at 2.35:1.

Spider-Man’s Co-Creator Gets His Due

Spider-Man was not created solely by writer Stan Lee. As correctly credited in all three movies, artist Steve Ditko co-created the character.
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I feature some panels of Ditko’s distinctively eccentric, compelling work here and here. Thanks to Mark Evanier, I know that tomorrow the BBC will be showing a Steve Ditko documentary. I’m hoping it makes an appearance on BBC America. If not, I’ll have to scrounge around the Internet, the way I did to find the BBC Petula Clark documentary.

IMPORTANT NOTE: On Newsfromme, Mark Evanier corrects me on the subject of screen credits. Thank you, Mark!

By the way, anybody who’s visiting here thinking I’m the same Doug Pratt who puts out The DVD-LaserDisc Newsletter, I’m merely a subscriber. That Doug Pratt is over here.