Kiss of Death - let's toss an old lady down the stairs

WHY I LOVE STREAMING

 You know, I consider myself something of a film buff - I'm a life long film fan and my leanings tend to go more towards classic movies.

 

Westerns, - love those.

Film Noir - Bring them on.

 I've got a large DVD, Bluray and 4K collection - I've been buying DVD's since day one, and over the years have moved to Bluray. I also pick up a 4K issue from time to time - Mind you, my 4K collection is a lot smaller than my DVD or Blurays, but then I don't consider 4K to be that much of a jump from Bluray, in terms of picture and audio quality, but that's an argument for another post. 

 

It's streaming I want to talk about and why I think, as a physical media collector it is the best thing to happen since those cranky old VHS tapes were replaced by the shiny discs. 

You see, I do stream shows - I've binged the new remastered Beatles Anthology on Disney this past week, and I do enjoy Prime's Bosch. Netflix too, has some gems amongst a lot of crud.

 

When I settle down of an evening - a glass of whisky, feet up then it's an old movie I reach for - Last night I watched the new 4K restoration of John Ford's Quiet Man. Blown away is an understatement! 

That was physical media, of course since finding a classic movie, that something you fancy, on the various streaming platforms is....well, good luck with that. 

And when you do find something you fancy they are never broadcast in the same quality as a good physical disc. Bandwidth, you see. 

And of course titles can be removed from streaming platforms at the drop of a hat, but my discs are always on my shelves.

 So why love streaming?

 All I've done above is illustrate how inferior streaming is compared to owning the film physically.

I've highlighted how owning titles physically is the only option for the true cinephile. 

 

Still I love streaming.

Why? 

 Well you see, since streaming became mainstream the bottom of the market as fallen out of the physical market, which means you can now pick up blurays for next to nothing. This week I trawled the charity shops and got ten blurays, one of these was a 4k Apocalypse Now, for ten quid.

 

That's thanks to streaming. 

I love streaming! 

 

THE LAST JEDI...THE BEST STAR WARS MOVIE SINCE THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

I'm not what you'd call a rabid Star Wars fan - I can take it or leave it, though there was a time.....

A long long time ago...

I was 11 when Star Wars first hit cinemas and I was immediately captivated. We'd never seen anything like it - it was like the way those Saturday morning Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials they used to show on TV played in the young mind. On the screen those shows were black and white, with ropey special effects too basic even for Doctor Who, but when filtered through a young imagination they looked amazing and that was 1977's Star Wars - It looked absolutely amazing straight out of the box.

It had it all - adventure, a touch of light mysticism provided by the jedi knights and square jawed heroes like Luke Skywalker. It also had the lovable anti-hero in Han Solo and cute comedic robots. But it seemed so real, so vital - it even took the studio by surprise - shooting went millions over budget, so much so that 20th Century Fox even gave George Lucus the merchandising rights if he took a cut in his directors fee, it initially only had a limited release - it was huge, though and alongside the previous year's, Jaws heralded the age of the Blockbuster.

Back then I was a rabid fan - I had the lunch box, I bought the comics and the spin-off paperback novels and I had a few of the action figures. I loved it and my love continued through The Empire Strikes Back and to some extent the far too childish, toy spin-off centric, Return of the Jedi.

Years went by - we all got older and I saw the prequel movies - though only on DVD. I didn't go to the cinema - my Star Wars fixation was part of my childhood. The prequels left me cold - especially the first one which looked like a cinematic computer game, but the other two were entertaining enough.

And then came the new movies, The Force Awakens (2015)  -  I went to the cinema for that one since it was billed as a genuine sequel to the original trilogy and brought back beloved characters. Yeah, I was disappointed.

And so it was only yesterday that I sat down to watch the second sequel, 2022's The Last Jedi - presented in a lovely looking 4k Blu-ray.

 I was once again sucked into the world I'd first witnessed back in 1977.  I know the rabid fans dislike this one - because it dares to be different, much in the way Empire Strikes Back did.

 This time Luke is an aged, washed up Jedi who had lost his belief in the force. He has become Obi Wan Kenobi - well, if Obi Wan was a hopeless loser. He spends his days drinking milk directly from the teats of some strange looking creatures and living within his own mind while he awaits his inevitable demise. Cue  role reversal and it is a young lady, Ray (Daisy Ridley) who is the young Jedi, the person whom Luke once was, seeking guidance from the reluctant master.

While all that is going on we have the usual spectacular space battles to cut to when the sight of a pouting aged Jedi slows the story too much, and it all leads to a great ending that is, for once, not totally positive. Much in the way the ending of Empire Strikes Back was not totally positive.

I really enjoyed that - An intelligent, complex fantasy movie and that's not something one can say about most of the Star Wars output.

In Memorium

 

Recently, my Uncle Johnny passed away. It came after he’d been ill for some time, so it was not completely unexpected—but it still hit hard. Sad times indeed, and coming so soon after I lost another beloved uncle makes it doubly so. I’ve seen a lot of highs in 2025, but the lows have been among the very lowest.

I’m sitting here now, sipping a whisky—likely I’ve had too many tonight—but whenever I feel like this, sad and reflective, I do what I always do. I reach for my mental pen, caress the keyboard. I write. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. It’s how I channel my feelings.

I recently visited my Auntie Marion, Johnny’s wife, because she wondered if I wanted to go through Johnny’s books—of course I did. I was touched to find he’d kept all my own books, each containing some signed message to him: some frivolous, some gratuitous, more often than not just a private joke only he and I could understand. Each book showed signs of reading but was still in near-pristine condition. He’d carefully stored and kept them all; they clearly meant something to him. And now I’ve got them back—they sit on my vanity shelf, alongside my own unread editions.

We always had a shared history of reading. When I was younger he lived on a farm and mostly every Sunday I’d walk the Rhiw Road, to the farmhouse. It was a lovely walk – picturesque. Most of the journey was made beneath the shadow of towering Oaks, downy Birch, shady Ash and spindly Rowan. Crab-apple, Hazel and Alder.

Boots had to be stout, waterproof because the road was not always the best. In summer it was lush, green, yellow and red with birdsong providing the score. In winter not so much with skeletal shadows cast by naked branches and icy howling winds, unimpeded by unclothed trees, stinging the face. I’d mostly be carrying a stack of books I’d read, often westerns since we both loved the genre. Cheap little paperbacks of the kind you could buy anywhere. I do miss those days.

I’d give those books, alongside a few recommendations (Edge 21 is excellent. Great shoot out at the end and I really enjoyed the Louis L’ amour. The Sackett stories are the best.) and in return he’d give me a stack of his own freshly-read books, often with recommendations of his own. I loved those weekly visits – we’d talk for hours about books, films, even music – our tastes were remarkably similar.

In later years when I became a published writer myself I’d look forward to the reviews of my books, but I always gave Johnny a copy and I was eager to visit a few weeks later and get his thoughts of the book. He was often blunt, he didn’t hold back – I admired that about him, but he was always complimentary. Perhaps the greatest feeling I ever got was when he told me he was pissed off that the main character in The Ballad of Delta Rose died at the end. But he had to, I pointed out. That was the story. Johnny nodded, aware of that but still pissed off. The character had connected with him, stepped from the printed page and become real in the landscape of the imagination. Job done, I thought.

Hey, I’m a writer.

I’ll always cherish that particular conversation.

There are so many memories to cherish, though and when my new book comes out next year it’ll be bittersweet. It’s always nice to see your work in print, but I’ll be painfully aware that I’ve lost my harshest critic, my greatest support.

Rest in peace Uncle Johnny – truly a giant of a man

Farewell to a TV Legend

 

Fame is indeed a fickle thing, and I've been reminded of that by the death of Gerald Harper on the 2nd July this year...I didn't even find out that he had died until I saw a small report in a magazine a couple of months later.

 

There was a time when the actor was everywhere - during the sixties and into the seventies he was all over the tube; was in the same league as other big TV actors of the time such as Roger Moore, though where the latter went onto conquer cinema by stepping into the 007 shoes, Harper simply seemed to vanish from screens.

 He was the swashbuckling time traveler in the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives in 1967, and then went onto even bigger stardom playing a millionaire newspaper owner in 1968's The Gazette. This newspaper set drama was such a hit that it spawned a spin-off series called, Hadleigh which centered on Harper's character and ran for four seasons.   

 

17 MILLION VIEWERS WEEKLY, FOLKS!

 

 AND THEN HE SEEMED TO VANISH. 

Only, he didn't - he went back to theater as well as hosting radio shows, but for us 1970's TV kids that was pretty much the same thing as vanishing without a trace. We didn't listen to radio, other than Sunday afternoons Charts rundown.

 

Gerald Harper died on 2nd July at the age of 96. 

 

Filmography as listed on Wikipedia:

• The Dam Busters (1955) – Mocking RAF Officer (uncredited)
• Tiger in the Smoke (1956) – Duds Morrison
• Stars in Your Eyes (1956) – Dicky
• The Extra Day (1956) – Police Constable
• The Admirable Crichton (1957) – Ernest
• A Night to Remember (1958) – 3rd Officer, SS Carpathia
• The League of Gentlemen (1960) – Captain Saunders
• Tunes of Glory (1960) – Major Hugo Macmillan
• The Young Ones (1961) – Watts
• The Punch and Judy Man (1963) – 1st Drunk
• Wonderful Life (1964) – Sheik / Scotsman / Harold
• Strangler's Web (Edgar Wallace Mysteries) (1965) – Inspector Murray
• Up Jumped a Swagman (1965) – Publicity Man
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) – Brian
• The Lady Vanishes (1979) – Todhunter

 

Magazine Watch - Infinity

 Billed as the Magazine Beyond Imagination, issue 87 of Infinity magazine, is on news-stands now.

   (Well, Tesco anyway since it seems that most newsagents have been gobbled up in the UK ) 

The magazine contains, among other stuff, an interesting article on what could have been (should have been) Timothy Dalton's third Bond movie.

 Yeah, I know this type of speculative article has been done to death, but the Infinity piece is really rather good and contains some interesting stuff about the script for Bond 17 which was written by William Osborne and William Davies who were best known for penning the Arnie comedy, Twins.

Basically the long and short of it is that the Twins guys were working on an initial script penned by Michael G. Wilson and Alfonso Ruggiero, a writer who was largely known for his TV scripts for shows such as Airwolf, Wiseguy and Miami Vice.

 

The proposed story-line concerned the weaponizing of advanced technology and robotics. So it seems the Bond team were looking to bring elements of the fantastic back into Bond after the all out brutality of Licence to Kill.

 

Personally, I'd take Licence to Kill over any of Daniel Craig's efforts. Well, with the possible exception of Skyfall. I actually quite liked that one!

 

Ah, what if?

 I always enjoyed Dalton's Bond and it is great fun to wonder what would happened if he'd made a couple of more movies for the franchise.

 The magazine is well worth picking up for the Bond article alone but the glossy magazine has so much other content, that it's a no-brainer  for film and pop culture fans. There are articles on the martial arts star, Cynthia Rothrock - remember the smoking hot China O'Brian...Ah a 1980 teenage boys dream date.

Also a look at TV'S Bewitched, the early years of Patrick McGoohan and much more. - or much much more, as they used to say in the old adverts.

 

INFINITY ISSUE 87 is on sale now. 

Back in the Saddle

 

A Special Kind of Love Story

 If there was one thing that director, John Ford enjoyed, other than herding actors around like cattle of course, it was throwing parties for family and friends - good food would be served, even better drink would be in ample supply. Sentimental songs would be sung, stories  told and reportedly a good time would be had by all. 

 

It was at one such gathering in 1941 that John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara first met and theirs would be a friendship that was lifelong. Of course, there were numerous reports and speculation that the two were having a romantic relationship; those rumours have never really gone away.There have been claims that while Wayne was married to his third wife, Pilar Palette he was also in a love affair with O'Hara.

 This was something that both John Wayne and Maureen O' Hara denied, both of them saying that their relationship was based on friendship....a very special kind of friendship. 

So even if the romantic element is taken out of the picture, there is little doubt that theirs was a love story; a very special kind of love story.

 

'Duke and I were not just friends. We were best friends.' Maureen O'Hara

'There is only one woman who has been my friend over the years, and by that I mean a real friend, like a man would be. That woman is Maureen O'Hara,' John Wayne 

 

 

When the pair first met,at a John Ford party they were both riding high - Wayne had finally shaken off the shackles of the B-movie after the success of  Stagecoach, and O'Hara was about to star in John Ford's How Green was my Valley.

 

QUICK TRIVIA - How Green Was My Valley -  based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn was actually based on my own home of Gilfach Goch. Llewellyn, actually an Englishman was of Welsh descent and used to spend a lot of time as a child at his grandfather's home in Gilfach Goch. The village in his novel was very much based on my home village. In fact we have a blue plaque on the village hall commemorating this fact 

 

 

You can check out a prose poem about my village in video form HERE

They became instant friends, and would often meet socially and finally in the early 1950's John Ford persuaded the pair to take the leads in a project he was developing called, The Quiet Man. This quirky Irish romance was a dream project for Ford but the powers that be were not keen, and would only agree to finance the movie if Ford would first film a western, Rio Grande which was guaranteed to make money at the box office.

This was the first time Wayne and O'Hara would star together on screen and the chemistry between the two was intense - the film, the third in Ford's Cavalry trilogy, is recognized as a stone cold classic of the genre. 

 'We loved working with each other. Working with John Wayne was comfortable for me.' Maureen O'Hara.

 

The Quiet Man followed and was a huge success, grossing $3.8 million in the first year and many times that since. Even the critics were wowed by Wayne and O' Hara together on screen.

 

 'Beautifully filmed.Wayne works well under Ford's direction.' Variety

 

"A delightful and rollicking comedy melodrama of Irish life, directed with skill and acted with gusto by a fine cast." Harrison's Reports 

"Director John Ford and star John Wayne depart the Western for the Irish countryside, and the result is a beautifully photographed, often comedic romance."  ^{91% APPROVAL RATING Rotten Tomatoes}

 

 

The pair's friendship was based on shared values - both believed in professionalism and hard work. Neither of them were divas and both seemed to recognize these traits in each other.

 

They remained friends, both of them laughing off press speculation that there was more to their relationship that the platonic, and they would be reunited on screen in 1957 Wings of Eagles, and then again in 1963 for the quite silly but excellent, comedy western McLintock. Loosely, based on The Taming of the Shrew the movie is in a sense, The Quiet Man out West. 

The movie, which is actually in the public domain thanks to an oversight when the copyright was not renewed is great fun. And you get to see Wayne spanking O'Hara!

 Off-Screen they remained friends - O'Hara often visited Wayne and the pair would take trips on Wayne's yacht, The Wild Goose.

 The pair worked on screen together for one final time in 1971's Big Jake - a solid late period Wayne western. In November 1976 O'Hara appeared in an NBC show entitled, An All-Star Tribute to John Wayne, where she serenaded the Duke with the song, 'I've grown accustomed to his Face,'

 

 

 

The pair became even closer in Wayne's final years and in April 1979 O'Hara flew to Wayne's bedside to spend time with the dying actor. The pair went down memory lane, talking of old times and when O'Hara left she was sadly aware that she would never see Wayne again.

Wayne died on 11 June 1979, and O'Hara, who would outlive him by more than a quarter of a century never forgot her old friend, Duke. In her 2004 autobiography she wrote that Duke's death knocked her on her rear and sent her into a depression that lasted years.

 

So was there ever a romance between the two? Who knows! Though make no mistake theirs was a true love story....a very special kind of love story. 

 

 

Are Blogs dead in the water?

 I'm reviving this blog, after several years of inactivity. There was a time when this blog was vibrant; both in terms of readers and posts. Is there anyone out there still interested in reading the ramblings of an aging western nut?

Ride the High Country

 

Dry January now in the rear view

 

January 31st - I've done it, gone the full month without a drink. I've smashed dry January. Do I feel proud of myself? Well, sort of but put it in perspective - it's not as if I've done something that will benefit us all like kicking the fat knight and his hypocritical cod-communists out of Downing Street, nor have I saved the world from totalitarianism by dismantling the insidious wokery machine. What I have done is proven something to myself. I'm not an alcoholic, just someone who drank a little too much. I always suspected that was the case, but there were moments when...well....

Prior to my Dry January challenge I'd drank every night for a decade or so, and what started out as a glass of whisky every night before bed, eventually turned into a couple, a few, a few more and then too fucking many. It got to the point where it was detrimental to my real work, my writing. Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dylan Thomas, Dorothy Parker, Eugene O'Neill, Hunter S. Thompson, and Raymond Carver may been have been able to create when sloshed but I just ended up slumped over the keyboard.

I plan to have a glass tonight to celebrate and going forward I'm going to reset my drinking - start to once again appreciate the complex, nuanced drink that is the water of life and not submerge myself in its intoxicating depths. I've been there and sometimes it can be hard to surface again.

Anyway my new book - A Dark History of Whisky - is out at the end of this month, so expect daily whiskey/whisky postings as I promote the tome. So anyway, that's it for now from this born again appreciator of fine spirits. Now, where did I leave the that glencairn glass?

BOOK REVIEW - FOLLOW YOU HOME MARK EDWARDS

W H SMITH ON ITS LAST LEGS

 It's sad but not a surprise to hear that W H Smith is in trouble, and will likely vanish from the High Street - My own local store in Pontypridd vanished shortly before Christmas and to be honest has been going down hill for some considerable time. There was a time when I never came out of the store without buying something - a magazine or two, maybe a book or, and it's not that long ago, a discounted DVD box set.

Though over recent years I've boought less and less from the store - some of it is admittedly becuase I could get books cheaper on Amazon, but by far the biggest reason is that Smiths just didn't carry the variety they once did. And as for magazines - well, they were moved about so much that if you were in a rush you didn't have time to find what you wanted. Blame online shopping, blame eBooks, blame what you want but the facts are that Smiths failed to be store worth browsing in. IIt was overly expensive - particularly for stationary and well it wasn't what it once was, but then so few things are.

I can still recall the days when my local town of Pontypridd boasted not only a W H Smith but a John Menzies too -  I think Menzies went in the early 90's or thereabouts and now it looks as if good old W H Smith is going the same way.

Both were great bookshops, newsagents and sellers of all sorts of other entertainment - there was a time when they stocked LP Records, cassettes, video tapes, CD's, DVD's as well as having a varied magazine selection. Of course when Menzies went, W H Smith largely acquired their shops but now a few decades later Smiths is also going the way of Mothercare, Woolworths and the dodo. 

The High Street these days seems to be charity shops, vape stores and Kebab places.

It's sad but proper newsagents seem to have vanished - these day magazines and newspapers are sold in supermarkets, garages and corner shops but there is far less of a selection.

The death of the High Street, scream the newspaper headlines and they're not far from the mark.

RIP W H Smith...you will be missed.