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Classic rock stars don’t always think about the long term. For example, Glenn Frey said he wants the handwritten lyrics to an Eagles song back. The tune once had many lines that were left unused.

1 of The Eagles’ songs almost seemed to write itself

During a 2003 interview with The Uncool, Frey discussed where his band wrote “Lyin’ Eyes.” “The house was up on Briarcrest Lane,” he said. “That’s where we wrote ‘One of These Nights,’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes,’ ‘Take It to the Limit,’ ‘After The Thrill Is Gone,’ and a couple of other tunes for the One of These Nights album.

“But ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ — the story had always been there,” he added. “I don’t want to say it wrote itself, but once we started working on it, there were no sticking points. Lyrics just kept coming out, and that’s not always the way songs get written. I...

The giant white elephant statues at the Hollywood and Highland Center, a popular tourists’ destination in Los Angeles, are in the process of being taken down this weekend. The Los Angeles Times reports that the statues, which overlook a plaza of the center featuring many shops and restaurants, are being taken down because of their association with “Birth of a Nation” filmmaker D.W. Griffith. The statues are part of the center’s tribute to the Babylon set from the director’s 1916 film “Intolerance,” which Griffith made in part in response to criticisms over the racist stereotypes depicted in “Birth.”

“All of the faux Mesopotamian elements will be taken out or altered in favor of a design developers hope will be more timeless as part of a $100-million makeover of the mall announced last year that is set for completion next summer,” the LA Times reports.

Los Angelinos have previously called...

The latest in our series of writers highlighting under-the-radar films is a recommendation for an unusual and intelligent teen drama

I missed Tayarisha Poe’s startling debut feature Selah and the Spades at two 2019 film festivals – Sundance and Toronto – and kicked myself after each oversight. When I finally watched the teen boarding school drama on Amazon Prime, I discovered a mafia-inspired plot told from the unique perspective of a black woman, yet steeped in the pressures of black excellence. I loved Poe’s intelligent world building and the frankness she sketched her characters with. When Selah and the Spades premiered in April, amid the world ramping up against the Covid-19 pandemic, Selah’s cutthroat machinations, in some fashion, captured a reality that felt colder by the day. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned pandemic, Poe’s debut seemingly went unnoticed by the general public. As I did last year, they’ve missed out.

Helping you stay sane while staying safe… featuring Leonard Maltin, Dave Anthony, Miguel Arteta, John Landis, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Plague (1979)

Target Earth (1954)

The Left Hand of God (1955)

A Lost Lady (1934)

Enough Said (2013)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Down to Earth (2001)

Down To Earth (1947)

The Commitments (1991)

Once (2007)

Election (1999)

About Schmidt (2002)

Sideways (2004)

Nebraska (2013)

The Man in the Moon (1991)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

The Night Walker (1964)

Chuck and Buck (2000)

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Duck Butter (2018)

The Good Girl (2002)

The Big Heat (1953)

Human Desire (1954)

Slightly French (1949)

Week-End with Father (1951)

Experiment In Terror (1962)

They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)

Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)

Airport (1970)

Earthquake (1974)

Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

Pushover (1954)

Waves (2019)

Krisha (2015)

The Oblong Box (1969)

80,000 Suspects (1963)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

It Comes At Night (2017)

Children of Men (2006)

The Road (2009)

You Were Never Really Here...

Anyone familiar with this column knows my deep-rooted affection for Ms. Kate Jackson; I espoused her many virtues when I covered Satan’s School for Girls (you can ponder my musings here), and I promise (warn?) you I will do so again as I discuss the couple-in-a-house-is-met-with-animosity-from-a-possible-ghost telefilm, Death at Love House (1976), aka How Much Is That Dead Actress In the Window?

Originally broadcast as The ABC Friday Night Movie on Friday, September 3rd, Love House was up against The CBS Friday Night Movies and NBC trotted out The Rockford Files/Quincy M.E. for folks like mine. So who won out? We all did! I loved Rockford and Quincy. Okay, CBS probably lost. But if you were looking for some charming stars doing charming things in a charming manor with a hint of danger, look no further than ABC.

Let’s open up our battered faux TV Guide and see...

You pick up a lot of baggage when you live to be 100, a sentiment confirmed by the long, long movie career of Bob Hope. His unofficial status as the preeminent entertainer of the 20th century is open to debate but he was without a doubt that era’s most conspicuous comedian. Marlon Brando’s infamous dismissal, “He’ll go to the opening of a market to receive an award”, was mean-spirited but it had the sting of truth; for over eighty years Hope was everywhere, for better or worse.

Living up to his nickname, “Rapid Robert”, the 31-year old Hope shot out of the gate in 1934 with a series of quick-on-their feet comic shorts revolving around his unique presence as a leading man and comical sidekick rolled into one. It wasn’t long before he was starring in pleasantly prosaic musicals like The Big Broadcast of 1938 and handsomely mounted...

I wanted to post something truly terrifying for Halloween this year—the first year I believe that Halloween has fallen on a Movie Poster of the Week Friday since I started—but then I came across this beautiful Boris Grinsson poster. Tu Trembles, Carcasse..., which translates very inelegantly as “You are trembling, corpse” is the French title for the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy horror musical Scared Stiff, which was the 8th of their sixteen collaborations (or 9th of their seventeen if you include their cameo in the Road to Bali, a gag appearance that was reciprocated by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in Scared Stiff). Scared Stiff was actually a 1953 remake of a 1940 Bob Hope film The Ghost Breakers, made by the same director, George Marshall, and it was made at the height of Martin & Lewis’s success, when they were the biggest double-act in America. It was...

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in Winterbottom’s “The Trip to Italy”

The Trip to Italy Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom U.K. and Italy, 2014 Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip to Italy reunites the faux on-screen personalities of comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan. It is light fare rooted in fine cuisine and the duo’s off-the-wall impressions as they dine that range from world renown personalities to uniquely British figures that only a smidgen of a broader audience might truly appreciate. In their first movie The Trip- the pair was called upon to blog about U.K. cuisine on a road trip for the news juggernaut The Observer. It was so successful that Coogan is bringing Brydon back into the fold in order to recreate the magic (along with another paycheck)- this time for a whirlwind culinary adventure around Italy. The staple aspects of Coogan’s...

Highly individual American drummer, bandleader and jazz visionary who toured with Lena Horne in the 1950s

A hundred years into its evolution, jazz incorporates ethnic and European classical instruments, drum machines and DJs spinning decks. A half-century or so ago, hardware habits were more cut and dried. A jazz big band had trumpets, trombones, saxes and a rhythm section. A small band had a rhythm section, a sax and trumpet, with maybe a guitar or a vibraphone. One that featured a (very quiet) guitarist, a flute or clarinet, a cellist, and a drummer who preferred mallets to sticks seemed like a strange beast in the jazz forest.

But the groups of the American drummer Chico Hamilton, who has died aged 92, did feature such instrumentation and, contrary to the jazz orthodoxies of the 1950s, they were for a time runaway successes. Hamilton led West Coast bands in that decade that came...

Larri Thomas, an actress and dancer who did a striptease during the steamy opening title sequence of The Silencers, the first movie to star Dean Martin as counter-agent Matt Helm, has died. She was 81. Thomas, who also adorned the big screen as a featured Goldwyn Girls dancer in the classic musical Guys and Dolls (1955), died Sunday at her home in Van Nuys shortly after suffering a fall, a family friend said. A leggy blonde, Thomas also appeared in such films as Road to Bali (1952), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), House of Wax (1953), Artists and Models (1955),

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Director and comedy writer known for his Elvis films and the hit TV series Julia

The director and writer Hal Kanter, who has died aged 92, was one of the great wits of Hollywood. He made his reputation as one of Bob Hope's principal writers, and for many years scripted the annual Oscar ceremonies (he shared Emmy awards in 1991 and 1992 for his work on the shows). He was also a huge influence on writers who followed him. He ended his 1999 autobiography, So Far, So Funny, with this: "If any of my work over the past 60 years has inspired, encouraged or motivated any young person to write comedy for radio, motion pictures or television, I apologise."

He wrote or co-wrote films including Once Upon a Horse ... (1958) for Rowan and Martin; The Road to Bali (1952) for Hope and Bing Crosby; Move Over, Darling (1963), starring Doris Day; and Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles...

Los Angeles — Hollywood comedy writer Hal Kanter has died in Los Angeles at 92. He wrote for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, directed Elvis Presley in "Loving You" and created the landmark "Julia" TV show.

The Writers Guild of America says Kanter died on Sunday. Daughter Donna Kanter tells the Los Angeles Times ( ) he died from pneumonia complications at Encino Hospital. http://lat.ms/vXH8Ck

Kanter wrote for the Oscars show for decades and was among show writers who shared Emmys in 1991 and 1992.

He created the 1968 NBC-tv series "Julia" starring Diahann Carroll, the first sitcom to feature a black actress as a professional woman rather than a domestic worker.

Kanter also wrote the 1952 Hope and Crosby movie "Road to Bali" and Presley's 1957 movie "Loving You," which he also directed.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com...

Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Hal Kanter has died at the age of 92.

Kanter passed away at California's Encino Hospital on Sunday after suffering complications from pneumonia, his daughter Donna tells the Los Angeles Times.

Kanter shared an Emmy in 1955 for Best Written Comedy Material for his work on The George Gobel Show, but he is perhaps best known for creating the 1960s series Julia.

The show made history for featuring an African-American actress, Diahann Carroll, playing a professional employee rather than a domestic worker, and ran for three seasons.

Kanter also worked on Academy Awards broadcasts for more than 30 years, and his screenwriting credits include Bob Hope & Bing Crosby's Road to Bali, and Pocketful of Miracles, which starred Glenn Ford and Bette Davis. He also wrote and directed Loving You, starring Elvis Presley.

Actor Carl Reiner has paid tribute to his pal, saying, "What a dear man. He was considered one of the wits of the industry; there's no question about it. Any time he was called upon, he always could make the audience laugh. He was a funny elder statesman, and there's nothing better than having a witty elder statesman."...

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Veteran writer/director Hal Kanter has died at the age of 92. Kanter is best known for his work with some of the biggest names in entertainment. He wrote the 1952 comedy 'Road to Bali,' starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, as well as the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis films 'Money From Home' and 'Artists and Models.' In 1957, he directed and co-wrote 'Loving You,' starring Elvis Presley.

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Hal Kanter (see photo), creator of the groundbreaking television series Julia, starring Diahann Carroll (photo) as a nurse, died Sunday, Nov. 6, of complications from pneumonia at Encino Hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. Kanter was 92. Julia (1968-71) marked the first time a black actress had an important role in an American television series playing something other than a maid (e.g., Ethel Waters and Louise Beavers in the 1950s series Beulah). As quoted in the Los Angeles Times obit, Kanter said he didn't want to make profound political statements with each Julia episode. But political statements were made all the same, as Kanter explained: There is a fallout of social comment. Every week we see a black child playing with a white child with complete acceptance and without incident. One of the recurring themes in the thousands of letters we get is from people who thank us for...

Legendary actor/funnyman Bob Hope's widow has died.

Dolores Hope died at her home in Toluca Lake, California on Monday at the age of 102.

She and Hope were married for 69 years before the Road To Bali star died in 2003, two months after celebrating his 100th birthday.

A beloved philanthropist, Dolores started her career as a professional singer. She wed Hope in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1934. They later adopted four children.

She made history in 1990 when she became the first female entertainer allowed to perform in Saudi Arabia.

Dolores Hope ended her singing career with a string of hit festive albums.

11:45:  Steven Spielberg classes up the joint when giving out the Best Picture award.  He reminds the "losers" they'll join The Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, Raging Bull and a few other masterpieces that didn't win.

Then he announced The King's Speech as the Best Picture winner.

The King's Speech is a very, very good movie.  But not the Best Picture.  The Social Network, Black Swan, Inception and True Grit are all, in my opinion, far superior.  I even prefer The Kids Are All Right.  127 Hours and Toy Story 3 are around the same level as The King's Speech.  (Winter's Bone, I felt, was interesting, but not all that great.)

I suppose this is why awards shows annoy me.  How do you compare art?  You can't.  But Oscar Night can still be fun.  It affords me an opportunity to think back about all the great movies of the past year.

When most folks think of Bob Hope movies, it's those "Road" pictures with Bing Crosby. But he made loads of "solo" films and Shout! Factory will release a mix of both as The Bob Hope Collection December 7. The three-dvd set features five Bob Hope classics, completely remastered from brand-new, high-definition transfers.The films include two with Der Bingle - Road to Rio (1947) and Road to Bali (1952), plus The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), My Favorite Brunette (1947), and The Seven Little Foys (1955). Teh fims co-star Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, James Cagney, Marilyn...

Beloved entertainer Bob Hope is to be honoured with a new U.S. postage stamp next year.

The late Road To Bali star's new stamp will be unveiled at a ceremony on New York's Ellis Island, where the British-born singer/actor first arrived in America as an immigrant.

Hope, who died in 2003, becomes the first person to benefit from a new U.S. postal rule change, which allows celebrities to be honoured on stamps five years after their death.

Before the 2007 rule change, only ex-presidents could be honoured in such a way. Everyone else had to wait at least 10 years after their death.