{"id":37640,"date":"2022-05-29T13:43:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T17:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=37640"},"modified":"2023-04-25T10:02:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T14:02:50","slug":"desert-island-cinema-laura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/05\/29\/desert-island-cinema-laura\/","title":{"rendered":"Desert Island Cinema — Laura"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is a new category I’m creating at Willceau Illo News<\/em> to share the movies I can’t live without. These are the movies I would hope to have with me if I were trapped on a desert island. They are the cinematic equivalents of comfort food in that they are movies that stand up to repeated viewing and never get old. For that reason, I have purchased the films on physical media i.e. DVDs so that I can watch and enjoy them any time I want. I tend to buy the disks used from sellers on eBay. A number of the sellers are charities such as Goodwill so the prices are fair and it’s going for a good cause.<\/p>\n

It seems that I can’t rely on streaming channels to simply offer a classics section filled with films from Hollywood’s golden era. For reasons unknown, some of the top streaming channels I have tried either have a very loose interpretation of what is considered a classic or the subject is avoided all together. It seems that one has to do an awful lot of digging in order to strike gold, and there are tons of dirt in the way of those nuggets. There may be a genuine classic here and there, but it is surrounded by low budget, direct-to-video garbage prominently featuring an actor who needs the money. Is it too much to ask for a section that has genuine classics? Bogart? Bacall? Jimmy Cagney? Howard Hawks? <\/em>A lot of them were made before I was born, but I grew up watching and loving these movies on UHF television and occasionally on the screens of repertory\u00a0theaters.<\/p>\n

There are a number of channels that have old material that has entered the public domain, but the quality is hit or miss, and a lot of the titles seem to exist to teach me the lesson that just because something is old doesn’t make it good. There were a lot of rotten movies made in the good old days which may explain why a lot of these movies lapsed into the public domain. Nobody wanted them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Otto Preminger’s Laura<\/em> which was released to theaters in 1944 is one of my most recent purchases. It’s a movie that has been remade in one form or another and has been countlessly referenced in any number of movies, detective fiction as well as in song. In case you are unfamiliar, the synopsis is basically: A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating. <\/em>If you have not seen it, giving away any more would be criminal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a new category I’m creating at Willceau Illo News to share the movies I can’t live without. These are the movies I would hope to have with me if I were trapped on a desert island. They are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5332],"tags":[2599,5334,645,5117,196,5333,1001],"class_list":["post-37640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desert-island-cinema","tag-2599","tag-classic","tag-dvd","tag-laura","tag-movie","tag-physical-media","tag-used"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9N6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36227,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/07\/10\/a-lady-cabbie-and-george-sanders-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":0},"title":"A Lady Cabbie and George Sanders’ Brother","author":"Joe","date":"July 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another satisfying but forgotten mystery movie the likes of which used to play regularly at local movie houses when there were local movie houses. Eventually films like this would pad out the schedules of local UHF channels to be enjoyed by insomniacs as they were unspooled during the Late,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movie Matinee"","block_context":{"text":"Movie Matinee","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/movie-matinee\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mystery Matinee","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Mystery_Matinee.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Mystery_Matinee.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Mystery_Matinee.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37699,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/05\/desert-island-cinema-the-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":1},"title":"Desert Island Cinema – The Thing","author":"Joe","date":"June 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Another movie that I couldn't live without is Howard Hawks' 1951 production of The Thing or more specifically The Thing From Another World. It's based on the short story \"Who Goes There?\" by John W. Campbell, Jr. The bare bones description of the story is that something mysterious has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Desert Island Cinema"","block_context":{"text":"Desert Island Cinema","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/desert-island-cinema\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23105,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/01\/09\/more-thoughts-on-leaving-netflix\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":2},"title":"More Thoughts on Leaving Netflix","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"January 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a few more thoughts bouncing around my brain pan on cancelling my Netflix subscription\u00a0which I thought I would share with you. I have been a Netflix subscriber since the end of the 20th Century and practically all of the 21st Century with a short detour to a forgotten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weird World of the Roku"","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/netflix.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/netflix.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/netflix.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38057,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/07\/03\/the-fabulous-flea-market-of-streaming-channels\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":3},"title":"The Fabulous Flea Market of Streaming Channels","author":"Joe","date":"July 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've said before, when I am sketching, I like to have noise in the background which is sometimes music but it's usually the TV tuned to something that doesn't require my strict attention. Trashy television shows and B movies tend to fit the bill, but on the ordinary streaming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stuff Joe Likes"","block_context":{"text":"Stuff Joe Likes","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/stuff-joe-likes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/The-Flea-Market-of-Television.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/The-Flea-Market-of-Television.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/The-Flea-Market-of-Television.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23951,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/07\/03\/black-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":4},"title":"Black Sunday","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written before about the Wonderfully Weird Channels of the Roku and how the little device is a gift of modern technology for which I have always been thankful. Well, now I am afraid to report to you that I have to look this gift horse in the mouth. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weird World of the Roku"","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/spraypaint.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/spraypaint.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/spraypaint.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34898,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2020\/08\/20\/product-tampering\/","url_meta":{"origin":37640,"position":5},"title":"Product Tampering","author":"Joe","date":"August 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a follow-up to my article regarding my declining ardor for streaming services. What I adored in it's infancy has grown into a fairly ugly and bratty child. I don't hold out a lot of hope for streaming entertainment's adolescence which will be fairly awkward, and I fear that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weird World of the Roku"","block_context":{"text":"Weird World of the Roku","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/weird-world-of-the-roku\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/SW-Bsheet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/SW-Bsheet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/SW-Bsheet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/SW-Bsheet.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/SW-Bsheet.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}