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DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR’S SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

“See how he apes his father” was a saying long associated with contemporary enemies of John Quincy Adams as a complaint about how the younger Adams was as stubborn and single-minded as his father John Adams. He pursued his own ends regardless of political consequences.

On a lighter note, I have always used those words as a compliment to jokingly describe the fun, high-spirited swashbuckler films of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. – especially those moments that were homages to specific scenes from his father’s silent film classics. Here’s a look at Junior’s sword-wielding spectacles.

THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1941) – Another of the many adaptations of the Alexandre Dumas novel that have very little to do with the original storyline. In this case the tale was transformed into an action-packed sword-fighting, gun blazing, hell-for-leather chase vehicle for Doug Jr.

That’s not a complaint, I’m just letting Dumas purists know in advance. In this movie set in the early 1800s the twin brothers from Corsica are Lucien and Mario Franchi. Due to family vendettas in Corsica the brothers are the sole survivors of their bloodline and as infants are hidden by family friends – Mario in France and Lucien in the Corsican hills.

Each grows into a man of action, Lucien as a bandit chief and Mario as a dueling, gambling ladies’ man. When they are reunited they set out to bring down the man who massacred their family – Baron Colonna (Akim Tamiroff), now the tyrannical ruler of Corsica.

The brothers, with Lucien’s outlaw gang behind them, strike at Colonna and his forces again and again in their quest to free Corsica while avenging their family. Tragically, they both fall in love with the same woman (Ruth Warrick), leading to a bittersweet ending. 111 minutes. Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASEBALL CHAMPIONS FOR 2025

A look at the 2025 college baseball champions in the divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. The NAIA champs had an unbelievable 59-0 season – a college baseball record!

NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)

National Champions – LSU-SHREVEPORT PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots)

Runners-Up – Southeastern University Fire

2024 Champions – Hope International University Royals  Continue reading

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POLEIS (422-419 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of ancient Greek comedies. 

classical greecePOLEIS – In this post I’m looking at Poleis (Cities), written by Eupolis, one of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. This satirical comedy is dated from approximately 422 B.C. to 419 B.C.  Like so many other such comedies it has survived only in fragmentary form.

The title refers to the all-important Chorus in ancient Greek comedies. In this case the chorus consisted of actors costumed to represent some of the city-states which were under the influence of Athens at the time.

As for how people can be “costumed” as cities, picture how it would be done with American cities. The chorus member representing New York might be depicted as the Statue of Liberty, Saint Louis as the Arch, Pittsburgh as a steel worker, Los Angeles as a brain-dead movie star and so on.

Part of the political satire dealt with the love-hate relationship that many subject- states had with Athens. Being the combination Paris/ Tokyo/ New York City of its time, Athens had a lot to offer its allied polities, but a certain air of tension always existed because of what some of those locations felt were Athens’ high-handed ways of dealing with them.

Eupolis depicted the personified subject-states/ allied states as workers with a not altogether beloved “boss,” Athens. Continue reading

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CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES FORTY-ONE TO FORTY-FIVE

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE.

A BATTLE BETWEEN AIRSHIPS – Word reaches our Air Pirate Kapitan Mors about French efforts to duplicate his Luftschiff in anticipation of the global conflict that many fear is inevitable. Still considering himself outside international law, Mors determines to nip in the bud any challenge to his aircraft.

It turns out he is too late since the French have just completed their own flying vessel. Our masked hero and his crew fly to Belle Isle near France, where the experimental craft is based. Soon Kapitan Mors’ ship and its French imitator are fighting it out in the skies over Europe. Continue reading

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THE WITNESS (1960-1961) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

THE WITNESS (1960-1961) – This David Susskind production offered a nice change of pace in a crime drama. It wasn’t a standard police story nor was it a courtroom drama. Instead, it featured a revolving committee of real-life lawyers cross-examining actors (Telly Savalas most frequently) who portrayed real-life criminals, their victims and their accomplices.  

The Witness filled a one-hour time slot with commercials. The committee of lawyers represented “the conscience of the community” and verdicts were dispensed with because the figures being grilled had already been sentenced or killed in real life.   

Some critics disliked the sometimes-disorganized air of the proceedings, since the lawyers were given enough latitude to ad-lib. The program’s Robert Altmanesque overlapping dialogue was ahead of its time for staid early 60s critics, too.

William Griffis and Verne Collett were the only characters in every episode. They played the Court Clerk and Court Stenographer, respectively. Paul Tremaine was the announcer.

THE EPISODES:

ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN – Telly Savalas portrayed the notorious gangster who – among other criminal deeds – fixed the 1919 World Series.

Rothstein was even mentioned in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and was the inspiration for writer Damon Runyon’s fictional crime boss the Brain. Continue reading

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TEXAS SOUTHMOST COLLEGE: COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM

Bored with college sports teams called Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats? Well, here’s another team name that is outside the ordinary.

TEXAS SOUTHMOST COLLEGE Continue reading

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EVERYONE BELIEVES THEY ARE ON “THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY”

I love exploring the mythology behind the world’s various belief systems.

America’s Democrats have regressed into a faith-based belief system that’s every bit as irrational as any other religion, but since Democrats – or “Democrat Fundamentalists” – are such pompous, hypocritical and close-minded fools it’s A LOT of fun to describe their myths as sarcastically as possible.

THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY – This is the Democrat Party’s version of an afterlife. Narcissistic Democrats strive to live their lives in such a way that people every bit as pretentious and snobbish as they are will sit around in the future sipping wine and pompously expressing approval of the worldview and political opinions that today’s Democrat Fundamentalists held while alive.

This notion of an afterlife is every bit as flawed and fantastic as any other religion’s tales about what happens after human beings die. No one alive today knows how the people of the future will feel about any of us or about our worldview.

SnobIf anything history has shown that people – ESPECIALLY the self-congratulatory asses called Democrats – take great delight in loudly and repeatedly condemning people of the past for (GASP) having opinions that differ from their own. It takes no courage and little effort to put on an air of moral superiority toward long-dead human beings.

That being said it’s more likely that American Democrats of the future will look down on even the most self-consciously “progressive” Puritans of today as hopelessly misguided or simply ignorant.

Those future Democrat Fundamentalists very well may just sit around sipping wine and reassuring each other that they are morally superior to every Democrat of this era for not having THE EXACT SAME opinions as they do regarding race, gender, etc. Exactly like pompous Democrat Fundamentalists of today do with people of the past.

Claiming to be on “the right side of history” represents the same flawed thinking process as being convinced that you have God on your side. EVERYBODY tends to feel that way.

#WalkAwayThe obsessive conformity, status-anxiety and insecurities of Democrats prevent them from questioning their faith and thereby realizing that their own condemnation of figures from long ago is every bit as much of a shallow, meaningless pose as the attitude that may be shown toward them by Democrat Fundamentalists of the future. Continue reading

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GHOSTS OF HANLEY HOUSE (1968) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 …

Before MST3K we had The Texas 27 Film Vault! Before Joel and Mike we had Randy and Richard! Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of this neglected cult show from roughly February, 1985-August, 1987.

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday October 26th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma. 

SERIAL: Before showing and mocking the movie Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, our Film Vault Technicians First Class showed and mocked a chapter of the 1940 serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.

FILM VAULT LORE: Randy and Richard’s presentation of Ghosts of Hanley House has occupied a very odd niche in Movie Host trivia for quite a long time. Among people who remember The Texas 27 Film Vault this episode is famous as “the one where Psychotronic‘s Michael Weldon seems to have confused T27FV with MST3K.”

In Weldon’s 1996 book The Psychotronic Video Guide he refers to Ghosts of Hanley House as having been riffed on by the folks at Mystery Science Theater 3000. Actually MST3K NEVER showed Ghosts of Hanley House but The Texas 27 Film Vault DID.

Randy Clower and Richard Malmos of The Texas 27 Film Vault (both lower right) featured in a Movie Host article with Stella from Saturday Night Dead and Elvira.

Weldon was a fan of Movie Host shows like Ghoulardi, Zacherley, Svengoolie, Elvira and others, so it’s possible he had also sampled episodes of Randy and Richard’s show in the 80s but the subsequent years blurred his memory to the point where he confused T27FV with MST3K in this instance. It’s a very easy mistake to make given the similarities between the shows.

THE MOVIE: The Texas 27 Film Vault often presented low-budget movies that had been filmed right there in the Lone Star State. Larry Buchanan’s ouevre was covered almost in its entirety on the show as were films by Russ Marker and Hal Warren. Ghosts of Hanley House, a low-budget horror flick filmed in Victoria, TX fit right in. Continue reading

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BATTLE BRICK ROAD (2020 – ?)

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the independent comic book series Battle Brick Road from Eric Weathers, Farah Nurmaliza and Zeb Hatfield.   

BATTLE BRICK ROAD IS NOT TO BE MISSED.

This ongoing series is an exciting work from some of the most daring and visionary creators in sequential art today.

Battle Brick Road presents a post-apocalyptic take on Frank Baum’s Oz stories twisted through the ingenious prism of artist ERIC WEATHERS and writer ZEB HATFIELD with lettering by FARAH NURMALIZA.

Get ready for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion like you’ve never seen them before – as technologically and biologically enhanced warriors in a dystopian world that not even Mad Max could survive. 

Battle-hardened, survival savvy Dorothea Gale – Thea for short – searches for her father through the futuristic technological wasteland called O.Z. (Operation Zephyr).

Continue reading

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THE AUTOMATIC MOTORIST (1911) SILENT FILM SHORT

THE AUTOMATIC MOTORIST (1911) – Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another silent movie short by England’s Walter R. Booth. It’s a remake of his own 1906 short film The Mad Motorist but taken to the extreme. Running time is 6 1/2 minutes.   

Booth more than lives up to his reputation as “the British Melies” with this light-hearted fantasy. A pair of newlyweds – as in the bride is still in her gown and the groom is still in his tux – visit their eccentric inventor friend.

The inventor’s newest creation is a robot which is skilled enough to serve as a chauffeur for the bride, groom and inventor. The robot drives off with its three passengers but the vehicle’s speed gets it pulled over by a traffic cop. When the robot punches the policeman he becomes infuriated. Continue reading

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