Brad’s “Birthday of the Day” – Actor Joe Penny!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Joe Penny turns 69 years old today! That may not mean that much to a lot of people, but I like Joe Penny so I’m making a point to show the guy some appreciation. As a teenager in the 1980’s, I remember Joe in two T.V. series that our family really enjoyed, RIPTIDE and JAKE AND THE FATMAN. I haven’t watched an episode of either show in a long time, but they were part of my growing up years, so they are seared into my brain. But the main reason that Joe has become part of my family is the fact that he played Charles Bronson’s police detective son, Ben Fein, in the second and third installments of the “Family of Cops” series of T.V. movies. Daniel Baldwin may have originated the role of Ben Fein in the first movie, and he’s good in the part, but I felt Joe Penny was a step in a positive direction when he took over in the second film. His acting style suits the series better than Baldwin’s, and I also think he’s more believable as Bronson’s son. I still revisit the “Family of Cops” series every couple of years, and I’m always happy to hear Joe refer to Bronson as “Pop.”

Happy Birthday, Joe! I hope it’s a great one! I’ve included the trailer for BREACH OF FAITH: A FAMILY OF COPS II below:

Desert Phantom (1936, directed by S. Roy Luby)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In a frontier town, rancher Jean Halloran (Sheila Bromley) has a big problem.  Someone is shooting and killing all of her ranch hands and sending her notes in which he tells her to give up her ranch and leave town.  When an ammunition salesman and trick shooter named Billy Donavon (Johnny Mack Brown), Jean hires him to serve as a bodyguard and to track down the mysterious Phantom.  Billy, however, has a secret of his own.

Desert Phantom is a remake of an old Harry Carey film.  I don’t know why Poverty Row did remakes since all of their films pretty much had the same plot regardless.  A stranger comes into town and gets involved with a female rancher and a bad guy who is trying to hide his actual identity.  In this one, Nelson McDowell gets to supply the comic relief as a befuddled veterinarian while familiar faces like Ted Adams and Karl Hackett are there to keep us guessing about how the Phantom could actually be.  If you’ve watched enough of these movies, though, you’ll always be able to guess who the bad guy is.

This isn’t the best of Johnny Mack Brown’s movies.  The Phantom’s story seems like it could have been interesting but that would have meant taking more risks than most of the Poverty Row studios were willing to do.  Johnny Mack Brown is as convincing a cowboy as always and is the film’s saving grace.  Brown was a western star precisely because he could make even something like Desert Phantom watchable.

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 6.20 “What’s The Matter With Kids/Island of Horror”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites.  Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.

This week, it’s zombie time!

Episode 6.20 “What’s The Matter With Kids/Island of Horror”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on April 16th, 1983)

Dr. Stuart Wharton (Steve Allen) is a tightass stick-in-the-mud who has come to Fantasy Island to give a lecture on how to raise the perfect child.  His wife, Margaret (Jayne Meadows Allen), is sick of Dr. Wharton telling people how to live their lives and basically threatens to leave his condescending ass if he doesn’t allow her to adopt Andy (Justin Henry), who is not perfect but who is still better than any of the imaginary perfect children that Dr. Wharton has written and lectured about.  This fantasy was predictable and kind of boring.  Jayne Meadows Allen actually wrote the script so it’s interesting that the whole fantasy is basically her telling off her husband and accusing him of being a pompous jackass.

There is one interesting scene where Mr. Roarke talks about Stuart’s idea of the perfect child and the kid suddenly appears out of thin air.  Mr. Roarke also makes the kid disappear.  Mr. Roarke is all-powerful!

(So, you may be wondering, why Roarke doesn’t just use his God-like powers in every episode?  I think he wants his guests to sometimes lean a lesson on their own.  I always hate it when people try to make me learn something.  Sorry, Roarke.)

Meanwhile Erica Nelson (Gayle Hunnicutt) goes to a neighboring island in search of her missing fiancé, Dr. Richard Yates (Christopher Connelly).  Uh-oh!  The Island’s controlled by a mad scientist named Dr. Christophe (Jared Martin)!  And Dr. Christophe is into voodoo!

That’s right, there are zombies all over the place!  And one of the zombies is Erica’s husband!  Fortunately, it turns out that zombification is not a permanent condition and Erica is eventually able to cure her husband while the remaining zombies descend upon Dr. Christophe.

I liked this fantasy.  The island was atmospheric and, by Fantasy Island standards, the zombies were actually pretty effective.  The scene of them rising from their graves was surprisingly well-done and I also appreciated that Jared Martin totally embraced the melodrama in the role of Dr. Christophe.  This fantasy also featured a great moment where Roarke appeared on the Island to inform Erica that the zombies were coming and then he promptly vanished.  I love it when Roarke does that

(Of course, I don’t think that Erica was ever in any real danger.  I mean, this episode established that Roarke can conjure people out of thin air.  I’m sure he could have just snapped his fingers and made all the zombies vanish.  But, in typical Roarke fashion, he wanted Erica to learn a lesson.)

The orphan fantasy was annoying but I like zombies!  This was a good trip to the Island.

Song of the Day: The Pine-Tarred Bat or the Ballad of George Brett by Red River Dave McEnery

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Today’s song of the day is based on an actual incident.

In 1983, The Royals and the Yankees were playing in Yankee Stadium.  At the top of the Ninth Inning, the score was 4-3, Yankees.  With two outs, the Royals’ George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team the lead.  However, Yankees manager Billy Martin protested that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.  When the umpires demanded to see the bat, Royals pitcher Gaylord Perry gave the bat to a batboy and told him to hide it.  When they finally did manage to find the bat, the umpires agreed with Martin, nullifying the homerun and calling Brett out.  Because Brett was the third out, this gave the Yankees the victory.  An understandably angry Brett attempted to confront umpire Tim McClelland about the ruling but was physically restrained by his teammates.

The Royals protested the game and the American League President, Lee MacPhail, upheld their protest, saying that pine tar did not give a batter an unfair advantage.  25 days later, the Yankee and the Royals met and resumed the game in a nearly deserted stadium.  The Royals won 5-4.  As for the bat itself, it now resides in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Pine Tar Incident inspired today’s song of the day, The Pine-Tarred Bat or The Ballad of George Brett, written and performed by “Red River” Dave McEnery.

A Scene That I Love: Robocop Comes Home

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Today is the birthday of Peter Weller, the actor best-known for playing the original Robocop in 1987.  Robocop is best-known for being violent and satirical but it also features one of the saddest scenes that I’ve ever seen.

Trying to piece together who he was before he was rebuilt, Robocop visits his former home and has flashbacks to his past life as Officer Murphy.  The house is empty now but the flashbacks show that it was once full of life.  Even with only half of his face visible, Weller shows Murphy’s loneliness as he walks around the house that he once called home.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Visions of the Future

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Who can see the future?

4 Shots From 4 Futuristic Films

Metropolis (1927, Dir. by Fritz Lang)

The Terminator (1984, Dir. by James Cameron)

Star Trek (2009, Dir. by JJ Abrams)

Prometheus (2012, Dir by Ridley Scott)

Music Video Of The Day: Somewhere Over Lardeo by Lainey Wilson (2025, Dir. by TK McKamey)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Lainey Wilson may be heading out west to Southern California in this video but her heart, her mind, and her imagination still rest with that one rodeo rider in Laredo.  The song’s a short story and the video is a visually stunning interpretation of love and regret.

I liked this video.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 3.24 “Dynamite Alley”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, season 3 comes to an end.

Episode 3.24 “Dynamite Alley”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on March 30th, 1980)

After testifying in a trial in Bakersfield, Bonnie (Randi Oakes) is driving back to Los Angeles when, somehow, she ends up flipping her squad car.  In the hospital, Bonnie swears that she had to swerve suddenly to avoid a truck that came out of nowhere.  The only witness to Bonnie’s accident is a pre-adolescent named Corey (Bryan Scott), who was watching as Bonnie drove by his house.  Corey says that he saw the truck but Ponch and Jon come to suspect that he might be lying because he doesn’t want Bonnie to get in trouble.  Meanwhile, Grossman is writing an article on how tired drivers can hallucinate seeing other vehicles and he comes to suspect that this is what happened to Bonnie.

And he’s right!  It’s interesting that, just last season, CHiPs did an entire episode about proving that Sindy Cahill was not responsible for a crash she was involved with.  Meanwhile, this season ends with an episode that’s all about Bonnie being a menace on the streets.  Of course, event though Bonnie flipped her car after imagining seeing a truck in front of her, she gets to keep her job and everyone has a good laugh about it.

My main issue with this episode is that Corey was 1) portrayed as having a stutter and 2) nicknamed Blabbermouth by everyone he knew, even the characters who were supposed to be sympathetic to him.  When he showed up in the hospital to confess that he didn’t really see a truck push Bonnie off the road, Bonnie replies, “Oh, Blabbermouth.”  Even Jon and Ponch call him Blabbermouth.  As a former stutterer, this episode really annoyed me.

As for our B-plot, the “funny car show” is in town.  All sorts of weird vehicles show up on the streets.  One man tries to drive a tank to the show and people start throwing bottles at him.  When Baker and Ponch show up to investigate the tank, Baker nearly gets hit by a glass bottle that’s thrown at him by two kids.  Ponch grabs one of the kids but then just laughs and lets him leave.  Really, Ponch?  BAKER COULD HAVE LOST AN EYE!

And that’s how the third season ended, with Bonnie crashing her squad car because she had a hallucination and a poor kid with a stutter being called “Blabbermouth” by the police.  That’s not the best way to end a season.

Season 4 starts next week!

Brad’s Musical Number of the Day – Gerard Butler sings “The Music of the Night” from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I’m a big fan of Gerard Butler, mainly because of his macho performances in action films and thrillers. I also appreciate his ability to sing. I remember being surprised and impressed with his performance in Joel Schumacher’s version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I really enjoy the song “The Music of the Night,” and since I reviewed one of his thrillers today (SHATTERED), I thought I’d balance it out with a video of him belting out a tune. Enjoy!