BEST OF JANUARY 2025

December brings Balladeer’s Blog’s annual retrospective of my most popular blog posts. Here are January’s best.

WILDSIDE (1985) – This Forgotten Television item was a short-lived series that had the elite Old West secret agents appeal that The Wild, Wild West, The Barbary Coast, Bearcats and Brisco County, Jr. had.

Howard Rollins, William Smith and Meg Ryan were among the cast. Click HERE. 

MABEL NORMAND: HER SILENT FILM COMEDIES FROM 1910-1915 – The pioneering comedienne who blazed cinematic trails and had a long collaboration with the iconic Fatty Arbuckle and Mack Sennett.

For my review of her movies like The Water Nymph, Bangville Police (Keystone Kops), Mabel Lost and Won, The Inventor’s Secret and – with Charlie Chaplin – Mabel’s Strange Predicament click HERE. 

SUPERHEROES FROM INDIA – Reading superhero stories as a kid served as a gateway to some of my adult passions like mythology and opera, so I will always have a soft spot for them. This blog post looked at some Indian superheroes from the 1960s onward.

For my look at Ironclad, Kanga (left), Tiranga, Dragoness, Commando Dhruva, Spitfire and many more click HERE.

THE SILENT TWENTY-THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1916) – Submarine technology as well as filmmaking were still very young when this silent movie adapting the Jules Verne novel was made by Universal Studios.

Spectacular underwater footage and special effects in this effort which fused elements of the later Mysterious Island with 20,000 Leagues. Click HERE.

BRUCE CAMPBELL AND SAM RAIMI SHORT FILMS: 1974-1982 – Bruce, Sam and the rest of their Michigan Mafia when they were making youthful short films. My reviews of Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter, The Blind Waiter, Holding It, Attack of the Helping Hand and more HERE.

MARVEL SUPERHEROINES OF THE 1970s – My look at the likes of Dazzler, Ms. Marvel, Thundra, She-Hulk, Tigra and Shanna the She-Devil HERE.

A LOOK AT 1925 – A month-by-month examination of historical events, plus movies, gangsters on the loose and much, much more. Click HERE.

DC SUPERHEROES OF THE 1960s to 1980s – Featuring characters like Flash, Black Lightning, Black Orchid, Manhunter II, The Spectre, Swamp Thing, Creeper and the Legion of Superheroes. Click HERE.

NELLIE BLY’S NOVELS – My brief reviews of reporter Nellie Bly’s eleven novels from 1889-1895. Considered lost for decades, they were finally found intact in 2021 and republished.

Includes Eva the Adventuress, Alta Lynn M.D., New York By Night, Twins and Rivals and The Mystery of Central Park HERE.

PALADINS OF CHARLEMAGNE: ASTOLPHO REUNITES BRADAMANTE AND RUGGIERO. My take on it HERE.

BAD MOVIE: SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK (1956) – When rock and roll music is blamed for the Juvenile Delinquency epidemic, one city not only bans rock but PUTS A LOCAL DJ ON TRIAL for complicity in the JD’s crimes. With Fats Domino and more. Click HERE.

MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Best of Broadway (1954-1955) Hour-long adaptations of Broadway hits of the past and (then) present HERE.  NBC Opera Theatre (1949-1964) Back when networks aired classic operas AND brand new ones HERE.   Arrest and Trial (1963-1964) A forerunner of Law & Order HERE.