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rquallsins
Reviews
Angel and the Badman (1947)
A fine picture
This story about the power of love is an interesting addition to the Wayne canon. As one of several pictures made by his various production companies which were allowed to lapse into the public domain, it is widely available for so little that there is little reason for any real Wayne or Western buff, any film buff at all really, not to own his own copy. The effects of exposure to the "gentle persuasion" of the Quakers changes not only gunfighter Wayne but also the cynical, atheistic doctor who attends to him at the Quakers' behest and, along with the ministrations of their beautiful daughter, saves his life. It strains credibility a little bit, though, to think of Wayne's character settling down to a life of farming and churchgoing, even with such a beautiful, loving woman. Her ecstatic reaction to his first kiss is worth the time and money invested in watching this picture in and of itself, however.
Meet the Press (1947)
Tim Russert is a real journalist
Tim Russert is a great host for "Meet the Press". He has never made any real bones about having been raised in a working-class union Catholic household in Buffalo, or acted as if this has in no way shaped his thinking. This background does not, however, prevent him from asking real, probing questions of his guests, Democrats and Republicans alike. He is less objective about his beloved Bills than he is about politics, but he is at his very best when he asks people their stance in light of their own past comments which he has at his disposal on videotape. Russert, contrary to some of the other opinions posted here, has in my opinion been far less of a Democratic partisan than his MSNBC counterpart, Chris Matthews.
McLintock! (1963)
What's not to like?
John Wayne Western (but no one gets killed)! Edgar Buchanan, Yvonne DeCarlo and a very young (and fetching!) Stepahnie Powers; slapstick, cattle, horses, and adapted Shakespeare. And it's all free, or nearly so, since, like some of the other Wayne pictures made by his own production company, it was somehow allowed to lapse into public domain after his death, the only downside to this being that many of the DVDs available are shoddy since they weren't made from the best prints, and probably it will remain that way, since there is little profit motive in taking the time to make a truly superior DVD as long as anybody who wants to can then copy and sell it. An old-time "big" picture which looks expensively made and is well-photographed as well as well-acted in the wink-and-a-nod, tongue-firmly-in-cheek way in which it is intended to be taken.
Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948)
The progenitor of "Star Search", "American Idol", and other talent shows
This program was one of the highlights of my youth, appearing as it did during that time every Sunday afternoon on CBS. This was in a time prior to the NFL "doubleheaders" and there was lots of time to kill between the end of football and prime time; the most prominent shows to do so were "GE College Bowl", Walter Chronkite's "The 20th Century" (which later was to look to the future and become "The 21st Century", and this one. By this era (the late 1960s) the show was past both prime time and its time; the fact that it was always sponsored by Geritol showed that the producers were well aware of this. My parents both thought that Ted Mack was a pretty pale substitute for the late Major Bowes who was the radio host, but they had always heard that shortly after his show during World War II that American ships were sunk and that somehow it was assumed that coded information was being passed over the air by someone involved with the show who was in league with the Germans. Many other people from that era have confirmed that this was rumored, but obviously there is a great deal of difference in stating "It is true that it has been rumored that ..." and "It is true that...". It has been stated many places that the only truly major stars to come out of this show during the TV era were Pat Boone and Gladys Knight, joining Frank Sinatra from the show's radio days; if that is true, and the above comment is correct about all of the many stars appearing on the show, it should probably be modified to state that they were the main ones to BASE a career on their appearances on the show. The start of the show, "Round and round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows," is one of the most memorable in the history of broadcasting in my opinion. This was one of the last bastions of "vaudeo", or TV vaudeville, on the air; there were often jugglers, dog acts, and the like. After this show and Ed Sullivan were canceled there was very little of that sort of material on TV for many years.