A double brandy for me, please, bartender! Now this is classic. A prime Frank Sinatra serenading the luminous Rita Hayworth in George Stevens’ 1957 melo-musical Pal Joey. The film itself is light on plot, and even lighter on acting, but … oh, come on. Who are we kiddin’? We’re only here to hear Frankie croon, … Continue reading Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and a Double Brandy …
Martin Scorsese is a favorite here at the Pictorial, and we are truly excited about his upcoming plans to do a Frank Sinatra biopic. (Biopics are scary terrain, granted, but if anyone can do justice to Ol’ Blue Eyes it’s definitely Marty.) But to be frank (hardy, har, har), the buzz that Marty’s favorite muse … Continue reading The Great Frank Debate
So Hollywood is remaking yet another classic film. Big surprise. This time it’s the definitive Hollywood tragedy A Star Is Born. Again, big surprise. This will be the fourth time the story will be retold on celluloid. * Yawn * And it’s set to star Russell Crowe and Beyonce Knowles. Spits milk through nostrils. A … Continue reading A Star Is Born 4.0
Apparently, doing it your way can get you killed. The New York Times reports that the Philippines has been hit by a series of murders all supposedly provoked by karaoke versions of the Frank Sinatra classic “My Way.” Apparently over a dozen people have been bumped off after singing the song in karaoke bars leading … Continue reading The My Way Killings
Luise Rainer’s last Academy Award nod was for her role in The Good Earth … in 1938. The beautiful German actress’ first had come the year before opposite William Powell in The Great Ziegfeld. A win that brought about considerable controversy, as she was a rather unknown at the film opened. (The award is justified … Continue reading Luise Rainer – 100 Years And Counting…
Today John lennon would have turned 69 years old, had he not been so brutally taken away back in 1980. It doesn’t seem possible that he’s been gone nearly 30 years, anymore than it seems possible that, had he lived, the Beatles’ founding member would be flirting with 70. I put it down to the … Continue reading 69 Years Ago Today …
Today being a hell of a big deal to Beatles fans like myself (the release of Rock Band, digital remasters et all), I interrupt the Pictorial’s regularly scheduled programming for a bit of shameless rhapsodizing. The thing you have to understand is that I was thirteen years old when I fell in love with the … Continue reading 09.09.09: A Love Letter
If Italy has art, England has literature, and France has fashion, then America’ s cultural offering in the history of mankind is jazz. Its’ history as the one truly organic art form to emerge from America has been well chronicled and you needn’t look hard for an education on the subject. But harder to find … Continue reading Favorite Website of the Week: Red Hot Jazz
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to completely REVEL in the news that Apple has announced the release of the complete Beatles catalog digitally remastered. There are some big Beatles fans here at the Pictorial, so we are obligated (and delighted) to have Apple’s press release do all the talking: “The albums have been re-mastered … Continue reading Beatles Catalog Digital Remaster
Back in January, we featured a post on the status of Nina Paley’s animated musical Sita Sing the Blues which was facing serious copyright issues over its unlicensed use of Annette Henshaw music from the 1920s. Apparently the Gods have looked kindly upon Miss Paley, and Sita will air March 7th on PBS (WNET) in … Continue reading Sita Sings!
The Kitty Packard Pictorial 