Smile this Friday - watch Let's Dance

 A tribute to the joy of dance...it's a wonderful thing - and it will make you smile
Great video featuring "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers. All rights are theirs. Images gathered from pubic domain resources
1) Svetlana Zakharova - Swan Lake
2) Riverdance - Reel of the Sun
3) Michael Flatley - Lord of the Dance
4) Michael Jackson - Beat It
5) Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse - Singing in the Rain
6) Elvis - Jailhouse Rock
7) Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times
8) John Travolta/Olivia Newton John - Grease
9) Jimmy Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy
10) Debbie Reynolds - Singing in the Rain
11) A Chorus Line
12) Patrick Swayze - Dirty Dancing
13) Natalie Wood/Richard Beymar - West Side Story
14) Al Nims & Leon James doing the Charleston
15) Maxim & Mel B - Dancing with the Stars
16) Elvis and Ann Margret - Viva Las Vegas
17) Michael Jackson from TV Special
18) Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers - Swing Time
19) Gene Kelly - Singing in the Rain
20) All That Jazz
21) Three Stooges get a dance lesson
22) Flashdance
23) Shirley Temple & Bill "Bojangles" Robinson - Just Around the Corner
24) Anne Reinking - All That Jazz
25) Nicholas Brothers - Stormy Weather
26) Wizard of Oz

Judy Garland sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from the 1944 film Meet Me in St Louis

Have yourself a merry little christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
Out of sight
Have yourself a merry little christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be
Miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, well have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little christmas now

Extreme Shepherding - While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks

This YouTube video is of " Crazy shepherds fit their sheep with LED vests to create awesome designs on a hill. They recreate a game of Pong, fireworks, and the Mona Lisa." Certainly puts a different slant to

While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around
And glory shone around

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp - Weekend Film

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp is a 1956 British black and white part-fantasy comedy film directed by Alan Bromly and starring Felix Aylmer as a second hand store owner, and Diane Cilento as the Angel. I've never seen it but having read the book by Charles Terrot I would very much like to, here is a scene via Youtube:

Weekend Read - The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp by Charles Terrot

"On a certain Monday in May, business was very slack in Mr. Webman's second-hand store. Just before closing time, however, there came into the shop the most beautiful girl Len Burrows, the assistant had ever seen. Beside her stood a full-sized harp. Was she an angel? She looked like one and behaved like one, but here she was in Mr. Webman.s East End shop apparently trying to raise a loan, and on her harp of all things! Nor did she seem too scrupulous about how she came by the money. yet it was curious, as time went on, the effect she had on people, the way ahe brought out the best in them, the way in which, in the end, she showed them the way in which their happiness lay."

So far I'm completely completely and utterly charmed by Charles Terrot's The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp and now I've found out that there is a 1950's film of the book starring Diane Cilento which of course I'm now quite keen to see.

Weekend Film - Black Narcissus

Both my maternal Grandmother and her Daughter-in-Law, my Aunt Viv, loved films about nuns and and the 1947 film adaption of Rummer Godden 's book Black Narcissus was one of their favourites. I watched it many times in their company, usually on a Sunday afternoon after a huge roast dinner.

It's a rather melodramatic, psychological drama, in glorious Technicolor, with emotional tensions running high in a convent of Anglican nuns living in a remote location in the Himalayas. Apparently it created quite a bit of controversy and censorship back in 1947 with some scenes being removed prior to the USA release so as not to offend the Catholic Legion of Decency.

 I've added the official trailer to this post but it would seem that you can actually watch the whole film on this Youtube video Black Narcissus

Black Narcissus released by The Rank Organisation, directed byMichael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jean Simmons, Kathleen Byronm, Esmond Knight, Jenny Laird, Judith Furse, May Hallatt, Eddie Whaley, Jr., Shaun Noble.

Weekend Film - Genevieve 1953

When I was a child the BBC used to show some great classic films on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon, perfect for grey, rainy days like today.

The 1953 British comedy Genevieve has long been one of my favorites, it would seem that I'm not the only one to love it as apparently it was the second-most popular film at the British box office when it came out.

 The film is about two obsessive enthusiasts, Alan McKim, his friend Ambrose Claverhouse and their partners Wendy and Rosalind, taking part in the London to Brighton run. Things get badly out of hand, and the journey back from Brighton turns into a no-holds barred race.

Genevieve  is herself a 1904 model Darracq car bought by Alan McKim's grandfather, kept running by his father and now entered each year by Alan for the Veteran Car Club's Annual Commemoration Run from London to Brighton.


Genevieve, a Sirius Production, released by The Rank Organisation, directed by Henry Cornelius, starring Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall, Kenneth More

"One of the favorite British Films of the 20th Century"