I’m continuing my annual end of year retrospective with this look at June’s best.
NATIONAL VCR DAY – I marked the day with this blog post reviewing 8 films from several genres and all released on video during the 1980s heyday of VCRs. Click HERE.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR: NEGLECTED BATTLES FROM MARCH AND APRIL 1777 – March: Overlooked battles in New York and New Jersey HERE. April: Overlooked battles in Connecticut, New Jersey and off the coasts of Delaware and South Carolina. Click HERE.
COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM – Texas Southmost College HERE.
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Paris (1979-1980) – James Earl Jones starred in Steven Bochco’s show about police detective Woody Paris HERE. The Witness (1960-1961) – Dramatized versions of how trials might have gone against figures like John Dillinger, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Mayor Jimmy Walker and more HERE. The Devlin Connection (1982) – Rock Hudson plays a detective who works as a private investigator alongside his long-lost son Jack Scalia HERE.
COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM – Truckee Meadows Community College HERE.
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.’s SWASHBUCKLER FILMS – The son of THE swashbuckler from Silent Movies appeared in several of his own, like The Corsican Brothers, Sinbad the Sailor, The Fighting O’Flynn and more. I reviewed all of them HERE.
ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES – My reviews of the fragmentary remains of ancient Greek comedies from hundreds of years B.C. Plays like Poleis HERE, Callipides HERE, and Cothurnus HERE.
D-DAY AND OTHER HISTORICAL EVENTS FROM JUNE SIXTH – I looked at that date’s events from various wars, scientific progress, disasters like fires and much, much more. Click HERE. Continue reading
A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY (2022) – Let me state right at the beginning that this version of the Carol has jumped into my Top 10 favorites, yet astonishingly as of this writing there are NO user or critic reviews of the production at IMDb. 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – This year’s title tilt featured the 2023 champions – the IOWA WESTERN COLLEGE REIVERS – against the 2024 champions – the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS. 
BLOOD SABBATH (1972) – Anthony Geary, best known as Luke Spencer on General Hospital when that soap opera was kicking off the absurd trend of daytime dramas being more like Republic Serials, has passed away. Balladeer’s Blog marks the sad event with this review of Geary’s most Psychotronic movie. 
For her part, Genie had to suffer through a real-life marriage to Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Anthony had to suffer through bombs like Blood Sabbath. 
These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 
THE EMPEROR SURROUNDED – When we left Emperor Charlemagne, he and his army were surrounded on all sides by the forces of Islam which had invaded the land of the Franks from both Moorish Spain and from North Africa. NOTE: Not all Tales of Charlemagne involve clashes with Muslims, in fact most involve his Paladins fighting giants, dragons, sorcerers, etc. However, this one does happen to feature them in such a clash. 
My late mother was, unfortunately for me when I was a teenager, a country music fan so, strange as it may seem, I actually know who the singers in this flick are. This version of the Carol is set in fictional Flint City, Tennessee, a town dominated by the financial pull of banker Cyrus Flint, played by Hoyt Axton.
MINNIE’S BOYS (1970) – My review of the original production of this stage show about the hilarious comedy team the Marx Brothers. Click 
JOHN DEREK: HIS SWASHBUCKLER FILMS – The man who married Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans & Pati Behrs also starred in swashbuckler movies like Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950), The Sword of Monte Cristo (1951), Prince of Pirates (1953) and The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954). Click 
THE SILENT FILMS OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE – This pioneering woman was for a time the only female director in the industry. I reviewed her works from the 1890s to 1920, including comedies, dramas, westerns, black cast movies, love stories and horror movies like Esmeralda (1905) – the first known film adapting The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Click 
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