Balladeer’s Blog’s end-of-year review continues:
ALIEN OUTLAW (1985) – A review of this vintage B-movie with a butt-kicking heroine. CLICK HERE
KEVIN JACKSON: A MARTIN LUTHER KING PERSON OF COURAGE – A look at yet another courageous iconoclast on the political scene. CLICK HERE
TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT ANNIVERSARY – The 34th anniversary of the first broadcast of the Pre-MST3K show The Texas Twenty-Seven Film Vault. CLICK HERE
PETER TORK IS DEAD, MISS HIM, MISS HIM – With Peter Tork’s passing in February came this review of the NEW Monkees show from the 1980s – CLICK HERE
FIVE MOST UNQUALIFIED U.S. PRESIDENTS – The title speaks for itself. CLICK HERE
FLASH FOR FREEDOM – A review of another of George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman novels. CLICK HERE
SIXTEEN OVERLOOKED SECRETARIES OF STATE – No Kissinger, no Hillary, just forgotten figures. CLICK HERE
BLACK PANTHER: THE FIRST KILLMONGER STORY (1973-1975) – CLICK HERE Continue reading
THE GUTHRIE THEATER PRESENTS A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1982) – Stage performances of any story getting filmed for video are pretty hit and miss, but this production is much more of a hit than a miss. The Guthrie Theater Presents A Christmas Carol was filmed at the famed Minnesota theater of the title and aired on The Entertainment Channel in 1982 before being released on VHS. 
HARRY FLASHMAN NOVELS – My reviews of George MacDonald Fraser’s series of Flashman novels have been very popular items. January saw three items: 
ROBERT GINTY MOVIE MARATHON – Six of the most psychotronic movies from the one and only Robert Ginty. 
FACULTY LOUNGE FASCIST ROUNDUP: JANUARY 21st – Yet another look at the Theater of the Absurd known as the United States “Educational” System. CLICK 
GENTLEMAN JEKYLL AND DRIVER HYDE (1950) – One of Canada’s most bizarrely entertaining Driver’s Ed shorts. CLICK 
THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC (1982) – My review of the Robert Ludlum novel. CLICK 
BARBIE IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2008) – Mattel provides us with a plastic version of the Carol in a plastic cartoon about its plastic creation Barbie. Just as Mr Magoo was an actor portraying Scrooge in Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol, Barbie is the story-teller relating the tale to her younger sister Kelly. 
Balladeer’s Blog continues its annual orgy of versions of the Dickens classic as Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2019 resumes!
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2012) – This adaptation of A Christmas Carol was a noble effort to try something different that was not just a gimmick. Ignore the negative IMDb reviews which accuse this adaptation of using “Elizabethan language.” They’re off by a few hundred years, since in reality the dialogue follows that in the Dickens novel of 1843. 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2019) – Directed and co-written by Steven Salgado, this adaptation of the 1843 novel sets the story in present-day Miami. Though some may try to pigeon-hole this indy film as “a Hispanic-American Christmas Carol” that would not be quite accurate. 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2006) – This computer-animation version of the Dickens classic was produced by BKN and distributed by Genius Entertainment, Kidtoon Films and Image Entertainment. Ric Machin directed. The 48 minute film had a brief theatrical run in November of 2006 before being released on home video. 
MASERATI: A HUNDRED YEARS AGAINST ALL ODDS (2019) – This fascinating documentary directed by Philip Selkirk is so riveting it flies along like one of the automobiles in the Maserati line. 
ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (1976) – Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the infamous Italian parody of Disney’s Fantasia. In our current year, where the avaricious Disney corporation has engulfed and devoured countless film properties and tried to trademark so many figures from world folklore, writer and director Bruno Bozzetto’s satirical poke at The Mouse That Ate Entertainment deserves to be revisited. 
Micheli’s character keeps his animator (Maurizio Nichetti) in chains in a dungeon as another swipe at the House of Mouse. As if that’s not enough he also keeps his musicians in a cage, letting them loose only to do their work for him. 
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