Hello!

The new Godzilla-King Kong movie opened up a few days back, and I’ve been getting plenty of emails on the appeal of giant monsters and related subjects. We noticed this on-air blurb announcing a vintage Toho Kaiju romp on Spectrum cable’s program schedule… which misreads the storyline of Mosura tai Gojira but atones by giving concerned parents a badly-needed warning as to how this dangerous film can damage impressionable young minds. ↑  (Actually, Mothra vs. Godzilla is harmless, wholly suitable for any child not terrified by Disney’s The Three Little Pigs.)

We scratched our heads trying to think of what the ‘adult situations’ in this particular show might be … or is it just one ‘situation?’   The all-knowing Gary Teetzel says

“Shame on Spectrum, which failed to warn parents that the movie includes smoking!  The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn here, is that Spectrum is in the pocket of Big Tobacco.”

Reader Mark Throop sends along a pair of great links to two separate performances of the same song, by the same artiste, but separated by fifty-three years. First up, French songstress Mireille Mathieu belts out the energetic, rousing call to battle “Paris en colère”.  Written by Maurice Vidalin and Maurice Jarre, the tune is part of the Maurice Jarre music score for the 1966 René Clément epic Is Paris Burning?  My personal opinion is that that much-disparaged movie needs some kind of big-scale revival — it’s an awesome recreation of the re-taking of Paris from its occupiers in 1944. This B&W piece is a simple pre-music video TV recording, perhaps lip-synched to playback.

In the second link Ms. Mathieu sings “Paris en colère” again in 2019, celebrating 130 Years of the Eiffel Tower.  This second recording is live, on location, and spectacular. I’ve read a translation of the lyrics but I don’t know in what regard the song is held in France. Who cares? — to me it’s inspiring. We hope to see the city’s Notre Dame cathedral fully restored sooner than later.

And as we were assured would happen, The Warner Archive Collection confirmed yesterday on their Facebook page a series of upcoming remastered and restored Blu-ray titles. They don’t say when, but can we assume that the planned month is April?  The list:

Drunken Master II, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, They Won’t Believe Me, The Yearling, and Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson