What are you watching right now?

[billd1]

I hope I amm not offending any of the surviving family of Ray Phillips, the Hermit of Manana Island, whose photo I am using as an avatar, but I am getting depressed looking at Mr. Phillips.

I want to get a new avatar, that will make me feel uplifed, and optimistic, although I am glad that I could honor the memory of a Hermit who had an island pretty much to himself, and lived the life he wanted to live, so now that I have accoomplished that, I feel it's time for a new avatar, although it might be awhile before I find the right one.

[Outcast]

May 31, 2018 5:30:27 GMT -5 billd1 said:

I've also been thinking about watching the old 1943 and 1949 movie house serials of Batman and Robin.

Found them for free on u tube or some other such webpage, but didn't get a good playback, and gave up for the time being.

I did, at one time watch all of the chapters of a 1940s theatricl serial, probably KIng of the Rocket Mean, and found it an experience worth having.

That 1943 Batman and Robin Movie is certainly interesting for me. Thanks for sharing Bild1. I still have to finish it though.

[Outcast]

May 31, 2018 5:24:56 GMT -5 billd1 said:

I have not watched any feature films or TV shows lately.

Arizona, my SIA co-founder, sent me a battered old cover, retired VHS rental copy of Stanley Kramer's Bless the Beasts and the children but I dont know when I will watch it.

It was filmed in locations that Arizona has lived near, and still lives near.

I saw Stanley Kramer's On the Beach, and found it extremelhy depressibg, and I am expecting the same effect from Bless the Beasts and the Children (Karen Carpenter, whol sung the title song, starved herself to death from anorexia nervosa).

The feature films I hve watched recently were mostly short, runnkng about an hour to 70 mins, and while BTBATC at 109 mins, is not as long to be depressed by a film as On The Beach, which ran probably over 2 hours, it's still 109 depressing minutes to look or not look forward to.

If you find some other shows depressing, you might want to try watching some funny shows or videos instead. Hopefully they can help you feel a little bit better.

[billd1]

Thanks for the reply, Outcast. One film I just finished watching was Women of the World, made buy the same filmakers who made Mondo Cane. It ended with the story of the babies born to woemn who took the sleeping aid thalidomide, resulting in defects of the arms, and the reactions of the parents were quite different.

One woman comitted infantacicd,killing her deformed baby, and was found not guilty at her trial (that case was outside the USA).

I suppose thalidomide might have produced different severities of deformity, but the film also showed some babies that while their arms were shorter than normal, they were able to function, and use their hands, and they seemed just slightly different from normal, and were really enjoying their lives and their parents really were glad to have them, for their sons and daughters.

While the "Mondo Cane" type films generally dwelled on horror and cruelty, Women of the World actually ended on an upbeat, and uplifting tone, with those scenes of the thalidomide babies being accepted and treated as normal by their parents.

That made what was a generally dreary and boring documentary film worth watching.

[billd1]

I don't really have any money to blow on watching films, and there is enough good free stuff available for those of us who want it.

My next film viewings might be the 1940s Batman serials, once I can get a good playback.

[matthewtheshyperson]

Just watched IT (2017) and it was pretty damn good. Deffinatley reccomend watching.

[billd1]

I got a good playback on a good print of the first chapter of the 1943 Batman serial. Will watch more of it later.

[billd1]

Yesterday, I watched Chapter 2 of the 1943 Batman serial,"the Bats Cave," and I liked it. the entire serial runs over 3 hours, and rather than just one chapter at a time, I might double up and watch 2 successive chapters on occasion. I have read up on the history of Batman in comic books, and in visual media, and it was stated that the comic books would often follow the movie serials and the TV shows.

I've read the earliest late 1930s and early 1940s comics where Batman started solo, then had Robin join him. So far, Robin has not started saying "Holy" you name it, as he did in the 1960s TV show.

In the comics, I think Robin said "Holy cow?" was it? and during the mid 1960s, in an attempt to modernize the Batman and Robin comics, Robin's "Holy whatever it was" was temporarily dropped, but after the TV show started using it, and expanded the simple "holy cow?" to holy you name it, that joke was returned to the comic books, and expanded upon as in the TV show.

[billd1]

Well, I have now watched 9 chapters of the 1943 Batman serial. Some say it was the worst portrayal of Batman and Robin ever, while others say it was the Best Ever.

I like the film, and I think it runs 15 chapters, so I'm past the half way point.

A lot has been made over the film concerning its portrayal of America's enemy in World War 2, Japan. Although the villian, played by J Carol Naish, is Japanese, Mr. Nash doesn't look Japanese to me, and so far the only person I have seen in the serial who looks Japanese is a dead soldier who Mr. Nash's character resurrects from the dead with some far fetched science fiction gizmo.

I like seeing Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in their civilian identities, and also in their costumed characters as Batman and Robin.

Also, Bruce's love interest, forget her name, is a nice and nice looking character who adds a lot to the story as well as Alfred the Butler.

As much love and respect as I have for the memory of Maine Hermit Ray Phillipps, I do view him with a bit of pity, sorry to say, probably because, as the Forlorn Rags of Growing Old have ravaged me,I have come to resemble him. I think he lived about two years after that photo I have been using as my avatar was taken.

I really do want to find a new avatar of a younger gentleman, but it is going to be a hard thing to decide upon.

[Outcast]

I havent been able to watch the series yet. But its great that you re enjoying the shows.

Interesting bit of info about Robin as well.

Regarding your avatar, just go with whatever you feel like using. As long as its not offending anyone. Just use that one.

[billd1]

Thanks for the post, Outcast. I am glad I watched the first Batman serial, and wish I could have seen it on a movie house screen, as it was originally intended to be viewed.

I will hopefully some day see the 1949 Batman and Robin serial, but for now I am satisfied.

Still undecided on a new avatar.

The 1960s TV series brought back some things that by the mid 1960s had been dropped, in an attempt to modernize Batman. For example, Alfred the Butler had been killed in the comic books but was still living on the TV show.

Aunt Harriett never really made it big in the comic books, and so far I have found only one appearance of her in Worlds Finest comics. I think she lasted abougt 5 years before returning home wherever that was. She definitely had more of a presence in the TV show than in the comic books, to the point that some people think she originated with the TV series, which was not the case.

[billd1]

In the movie serial, the Bat Cave, was kind of an interrogation chamber where Batman and Robin brought the villians to scare them with the bats flying over their heads.

[Zoe]

English version

[ura]

I watched the first episode of that Zoe, my first degree is in Biology so I found that show really interesting and fairly weird too

Currently the show I'm watching is Bojack Horseman.

[billd1]

Matthew, one of my friends recently watched IT (2017) and said it was a good film.