My Life , My Blog

This follow-up to  Going My Way  (1944) follows essentially the same story template; but instead of the young priest taking over an old priest’s territory we get a male priest (Bing Crosby) taking over a parochial school and butting heads with a very young Mother Superior (Ingrid Bergman.) Sounds good, huh? Except that there is  very little  butting heads. There is a very unclear item with a boy in a fight who’s been told to turn the other cheek, but with a fight in the presence of the priest the issue now becomes training him to fight properly, which for some reason Mother Superior comes to thinks handling it herself is a good idea. I come from a Catholic school, and in fourth grade some of us were given boxing gloves in order to deal with aggressive impulses, (not me, though, I was a wimp.) Father O'Malley is supposed to be unconventional, but I’ve never heard of a nun giving secret boxing lessons to a boy in order for him to not  ‘be a sissy.’ The second big ...

Keuzes Vrije wil moed wilskracht - verandering Elk moment bevat de kracht om te kiezen. Uw keuzes bepalen hoe u het leven ervaart. Kies verstandig! Verhaal van de kaart Een eenzame amazone in een mistige nacht probeert haar weg te vinden door het bos. Als ze arriveert bij een splitsing in de weg moet ze een keuze maken, maar de wegwijzers zijn moeilijk te lezen. Zo voelen we ons vaak als we belangrijke beslissingen in het leven moeten nemen. We kijken de ene kant en de andere kant op, buiten onszelf om de beste route te vinden, terwijl onze eerlijkste keuze al diep binnen in onszelf ligt. Haar heldervoelende partner, het prachtige paard, voelt de aarde onder zich en begeeft zich al in de richting van het helderste licht. Boodschap van de kaart Deze kaart is een stimulans om u te realiseren hoeveel kracht u hebt door de keuzes die u maakt. Soms kiezen we bepaalde dingen vanwege bekendheid of onbewuste patronen. Soms hebben we het gevoel dat het leven ons 'overkomt', terwijl ons ...

  The beautiful redheaded Tiana Weston sets out to visit her inheritance in Dorset with high hopes. It had been her parents’ dream to restore Castle Rose to its former glory as it is now a dilapidated ruin and only a small part is fit to live in. But Tiana soon discovers that enthusiasm and determination alone do not pay the workmen or keep property developers at bay and soon she is faced with a dreadful dilemma. Her handsome and aristocratic next door neighbour Richard, the Earl of Austindale, also faces considerable problems. He has to be married by midnight on his next birthday or he will lose everything he holds most dear to his cousin Alan, Viscount Paige. A young girl anxious to protect her home – a man desperate for a wife – it seems like a sensible, business-like arrangement that they should marry each other. And Tiana finally accepts the Earl’s proposal and they are due to be married on his thirtieth birthday. But then an old flame of the Earl’s arrives to claim him for he...

John Candy on reading the script of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987) for the first time: "I just cried with laughter when I read it. Its like it was written with me in mind, which makes a big difference. I could see just see the movie in my mind." Steve Martin talked in an interview about Candy and his similarities with the character of Del: "Well, he was a very sweet guy. Very sweet... and complicated. And so, he was always friendly, always outgoing and you know, funny and nice and polite, but I could tell he had kind of a little broken heart inside him." Prior to shooting, Candy arrived with exercise equipment for him to use during production. Crews had installed a treadmill, bench press, weights, and other exercise gear in his hotel suite. Martin said Candy never used any of it. John Hughes originally wanted Tom Hanks for the role of Neal Page and John Travolta for the role of Del Griffith. Hanks was unavailable since he was busy shootin...

The first time I saw this I was absolutely turned off by the soundtrack music which really caught me off guard. This second go around, already expecting the inappropriate music I was able to enjoy it thoroughly. I still think the music choices are not the best, particularly during the comic bits (a lot of 'mickey mousing' going on there,) and I feel the suspenseful scenes would work better with no score at all or something a bit more subtle. This movie falls in the category of the 'ghost mystery story', that is there is a ghost because there is a mystery, and as soon as the mystery is solved the ghost is satisfied and goes away. I don't mind this approach even if it seems a bit silly, but when it is done movie after movie it becomes tiring to me and I find it dissolves suspense and the story ends up with nowhere to go. This has been solved somewhat in the J-Horrors where solving the mystery makes no difference whatsoever to the ghost, or in some like  Mama  (2013) w...

Nieuw begin Laat je leiden door de magie Deze kaart kondigt een heel nieuw hoofdstuk in je leven aan. Je hebt al gemerkt dat er scheuren of zelfs breuken ontstonden in relaties die je altijd zo vertrouwd zijn geweest, zowel op je werk als in andere omgevingen. Dat komt doordat je op een keerpunt staat in je leven en je bepaalde dingen af moet stoten om plaats te maken voor andere dingen. Je hebt lang geploeterd, maar in de verte gloort de hoop dat je het doel dat je voor ogen hebt, kan bereiken. Nieuwe ideeën, succesvolle projecten en gouden kansen liggen op je te wachten. Je krijgt een tweede kans. Gooi alle voorzichtigheid overboord en vertrouw op het Grote Mysterie op je tocht naar de toekomst. Een prachtige boodschap om vandaag even bij stil te staan met de nieuwe maan, maak gebruik van van deze nieuwe maan om jou dromen en wensen kracht bij te zetten.

  When Madelina Winston, a beautiful American heiress, arrives in England, she has at first only one thought on her mind, to try and trace her late father’s English family. Her stepmother, Mrs. Winston, has other ideas. Madelina might have beauty and a fortune, but as far as Mrs. Winston is concerned she lacks the crowning glory of life, an English title. Mrs. Winston knows that there are many impoverished aristocrats hoping to marry money and wastes no time in setting about finding a likely candidate for Madelina’s hand. Madelina meanwhile, is distracted by a handsome, if arrogant, gentleman called Oliver de Burge whom she sees at The Langham Hotel, so she is not at all enthusiastic when a new acquaintance, Duke Tunney, invites herself and her stepmother to his county seat, Belmont Hall, and she is convinced it means that she will never see Mr. de Burge again. Belmont Hall, however, proves to be a place of destiny. There she will find herself entangled in a web woven by both her s...

  Richard Dreyfuss had become quite interested in the ideas behind "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) when he had heard Steven Spielberg talking about them on the set of "Jaws" (1975). When Dreyfuss heard that casting for the film was underway, he began a concerted effort to persuade the director to take him on. Spielberg thought he was too young for the role. However, Spielberg came to see Dreyfuss as exhibiting and embodying the childlike characteristics he wanted for Roy, resulting in casting Dreyfuss for the part. According to Julia Phillips in her autobiography "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again", she and the studio did not want to meet Dreyfuss' price of $500,000 plus gross points to play Roy Neary and offered the script to Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, and Gene Hackman. Pacino wasn't interested, and Nicholson thought that any actor would be overwhelmed by the special effects. Hackman turned down the role because he was i...

  On this date in 1968, "The Lion in Winter" was released. The 1966 Broadway play of the same name had not been a success, getting a bad review in the New York Times and losing $150,000. Producer Martin Poll optioned James Goldman's novel "Waldorf" for the movies. They discussed "The Lion in Winter," which Poll read and loved, and hired Goldman to write a screenplay. Poll was meant to make a film with Joseph Levine and Peter O'Toole, "The Ski Bum" (which would be written by James Goldman's brother William). That project fell through and Poll suggested they do Lion in Winter instead. O'Toole, who was 36 at the time, portrays Henry II at age 50. He had played the same king as a young man in the film "Becket" just four years earlier. O'Toole said that his first choice for Eleanor of Aquitaine was Katharine Hepburn, but he was not sure she would do this movie so soon after the death of her long time partner Spen...

If not the best film adventure fantasy, then certainly way up there and worthy to be included in anyone’s ‘best of’ list. The legend sez the film makers wanted to see a gorilla fighting a Komodo dragon and that is the reason the movie was made. Not necessarily a geographically logical choice, but an emotional one with coolness factor that is still being used ( Godzilla vs. Kong  (2021).) They ended up using  The Lost World  template, but with the added zing of a giant ape creature. The film laid the groundwork not only for (all shapes and sizes of) monsters lusting after women but also for assigning human characteristics to movie apes and ape-like creatures. Despite having been remade multiple times, it’s never been equaled, much less improved upon. It is in fact helped much by its period setting, in 1933 we might still believe there were unexplored areas of the world teeming with crypto-zoological possibilities. The film is also extremely elegant and efficient. It moves ...

De boom der wonderen roept jou naam, Je hebt ooit een wens gedaan in de goddelijke rijken van vervulling. Je voorouders hebben deze wens veilig bewaard sinds die dag, omdat je er nog niet klaar voor was dat deze uit zou komen. In deze wens drukte je een diep verlangen uit en nu is het moment gekomen. Het zal worden aangeraakt door de goddelijke Bron en zal de wereld van het mogelijke betreden. Hoewel je het in de afgelopen jaren bent vergeten, heb je nu de energie en de kans om je verlangen te verwezenlijken. Je pad heeft je geleid naar een punt waar wonderen gebeuren, omdat je erin gelooft. Wonderen kunnen alleen plaatsvinden als je gelooft dat ze mogelijk zijn of als je ze echt wilt laten gebeuren, vrij van angst en met een open hart. Wonderen gebeuren dagelijks over de hele wereld. Je bent een tijdlang het zicht op al deze wonderen verloren en diep van binnen geloofde je niet dat je een creatief wezen bent. Maar jij bent degene die je wereld vormgeeft en het lot creëert een pad van ...

  Princess Caterina of Theiss receives a letter from her close friend Princess Henriet of Istria asking her to stay with her immediately. The two Provinces were close to each other and part of Austria. On arrival at the Palace in Istria, Princess Caterina is horrified to hear that, owing to the Russians’ threatening behaviour in the Balkans, the Emperor of Austria has written to Queen Victoria asking her to send an English husband for Princess Henriet so that the Union Jack can fly over Istria and deter any greedy predators. The Russians at the time are a great menace to all Europe and are especially anxious to acquire access to the Mediterranean, which Istria could easily provide. The Duke of Dunlerton, whose mother was Princess Alice of Saxe-Coburg and therefore Royal has been sent by the Queen to marry Princess Henriet. But Henriet tells Caterina that she is already madly in love with Fritz Hofer, a tall handsome Officer in her father’s best Regiment. Rather than marry anyone el...

A young socialite escapes her father's yacht hoping to meet up with her new husband; and in her travels by bus, by foot, and by hitching rides (with a Classic scene with Claudette Colbert showing Clark Gable  how it's really done  after an extended sequence of him 'teaching' her all his various techniques) traveling from Florida to New York teams up with a recently fired reporter who needs a big scoop to regain his former employer's graces. Her father offers up a reward for her safe return and so it's not just cops on their trail but potentially anyone who recognizes her picture from the papers. Classic, sexy, romantic comedy with a couple on the run, with these elements Hitchcock might have been a perfectly suitable director in this period, but in this case, we have Frank Capra at the directorial reins. The movie is also a fun portrait of bus travel and the people one might have met at bus stations, on the bus itself, at the rest stops, and on the road itself (...