Monthly Archives: July 2026

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July 19, 2026

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Singin’ in the Rain-Revisit (Paramount Summer Classic Film Series)

This is the last full film I saw at the Paramount Theater before it closed.  For the next 11 months it’s going to undergo renovation and hopefully be restored to even greater Beauty. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting closure then seeing the greatest musical of all time one more time on the big screen.

I love singing in the rain, I can’t understand people who don’t like musicals, and I’m especially suspicious of anybody who doesn’t love this musical. This film has everything, is in hysterical comedy, with terrific dancing and singing numbers, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, dealing with some of the real problems that came with the Advent of sound, and it stars the great Gene Kelly.

There are so many iconic numbers in this film, that I’m not sure I could get to the mall and it doesn’t paragraphs. So I’ll just remind everybody the gene Kelly’s dancing in the rain, will probably the most visually iconic, is certainly not the only memorable musical sequence in the film. Donald O’Connor steals the movie for 5 minutes with his routine make him laugh. Debbie Reynolds, takes the lead on good morning, and  Cyd Charice doesn’t sing she just dances like an angel Moving On A Cloud along with her partner Gene Kelly. 

Of course the biggest thief in the film is Jean Hagen, who plays the movie star with a voice to die for, I’m sorry I meant to voice to die from. Silent screen Stars sometimes didn’t make the transition to the talkies for a reason. Instead of making this a tragedy however, Gene Kelly and co-director Stanley donen turn this into a farce. And what a lovely time we all get to have as a result. 

Good luck and for a short time farewell to the Paramount Theater, You Are My Lucky Star.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark-Revisit (Paramount Summer Classic Film Series)

As Indy himself said, it’s not the years it’s the miles. Although 45 years does seem like a long time and that’s how long it’s been since the first Indiana Jones Adventure stormed onto our screens and blew away the movie houses and their audiences.

We’re not going to go into depth on this particular post, there are plenty of other entries on the blog then look at the particulars of the film. I’m just happy to see it once again on the big screen and in particular at the Paramount Theater during the summer classic film series. The Paramount Theater is about to close for a year for renovation and remodeling so I have one final week to enjoy the beautiful old theater and then a whole 11 months to wait to get to enjoy the restoration.

I’m not sure there’s a better way to go out than with the screening of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The theater was packed this evening, and I was flying solo, Amanda haven’t gone to a conference.  Believe me at the first crack of the whip I was set to enjoy the evening, I wish I had my old Indiana Jones fedora, it either shrink or my head got too big and I lost it long ago. I did have on the right shirt for the evening though and I got a couple of comments about that.

Don’t let any may tell you that there’s a plot hole that makes Indiana Jones completely irrelevant to the outcome of the film. First of all that short-sighted, the point of the film is to enjoy the adventure, and without Indiana Jones there would be no Adventure. As for solving the puzzle, there are actually two or three spots where Indiana Jones presence is necessary for the plot to proceed. Those nitpickers who are trying to tell you otherwise should just mind their own business.

Seeing Raiders on the big screen immediately invites me to revisit the rest of the films in the series. Although the world is full of people who hate the fourth movie, I’m not one of them. It may be the least of the Indiana Jones films but it’s still a heck of a good time. Indiana Jones and the dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the franchise, and the only one not directed by Steven Spielberg, is also quite good, but let’s face it the first and the third are the best in the series. So maybe for Father’s Day I’ll catch up with Last Crusade, but until then I’m just going to enjoy the memory of Indiana Jones swinging out to the biplane, punching Nazis in the face, and falling in love with Marion all over again.