The Silver Screen Oasis

Sylvia Sims, a British character actress has passed at the age of 89. She is best known for her roles in Victim, The Tamarind Seed (BAFTA nominated), and as the Queen Mother in The Queen.

https://variety.com/2023/film/global/sy ... _OTkYtMNR4

I attended a screening of No Trees In the Street (1959) at BAFTA a few years ago and Ms. Syms was thrilled to be there too with her peers and fans. My favourite of her films is Expresso Bongo.

So sorry to hear of the death of Ms. Syms. I particularly remember her in Expresso Bongo. I did not realize that her daughter was the actress Beatie Edney.

Lisa Loring, who was best known for playing Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family TV show died at age 64 over
the weekend. I watched the show as a kid and watched it again when one of cable channels reran it a number of years
ago. Not as much fun as the first time around, but it had its moments. Lisa was a guest star in a few more TV shows
of the time and was on a soap for a few years. She also appeared in a few low-budget slasher films in the late 1980s and
had a couple of film appearances more recently. A real pig-tailed cutie. R.I.P. LL.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/entertai ... index.html

Re Cindy Williams, I just watched her in Mr. Ricco (currently on TCM On Demand).

Lot of celebrities checking out since 2023 began. What did those folks know that we don't?

Piers Haggard (1939-2023), who directed The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), one of the truly great British horror films, has died aged 82. In addition to The Blood on Satan's Claw, Haggard directed the hugely popular 1978 British television miniseries, Pennies from Heaven (written by Dennis Potter) and many other films. The Guardian obituary gives an excellent overview of Haggard's life and career. (I did not know that he had been given his early traineeship in directing by George Devine, one of the giants of modern British theater, or that he was related to H. Rider Haggard.)


Piers Haggard

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/j ... d-obituary

The Blood on Satan's Claw is one of the great folk horror films, made for Tigon Studios (not that other British studio that, for the most part, churned out a string of stodgy horror films).

Here's the title song from Haggard's Pennies from Heaven:

Burt Bacharach is dead.


https://variety.com/2023/film/obituarie ... 235517943/

Wow. So many great songs.

So sad. So many great songs Burt and Hal David gave us.
Decades of wonderful songs. PBS shows the tribute filmed in 2021, hope everyone gets to see it. Thanks for all the music Burt, you were a musical genius.

RIP. Burt Bachrach

I play Dionne's albums with Bacharach and David all the time. Timeless music. A shame it didnt last (though they all made up later on). Bacharach was great, but so were David's lyrics. And no one sang them better than Dionne. Now only she is left. Very sad. Oddly, they just released a box set of his collaboration with Elvis Costello (Painted From Memory) with new material. I wasn't going to buy it as I have the original CD, but I will buy it now!

I couldn't pick a favorite song, there are dozens of them, but I have a special fondness for Wishin' and Hopin' Dusty Springfield's big hit (love her too). It's one of the first songs from my childhood I remember falling in love with. Lots of memories connected to all his music.

So true Hibi. I have so many memories listening to Burt's and Hal David's songs as a young teen and beyond. Their songs were always on the radio, so easy to listen to and sing along with their songs. I love Dusty, The Look of Love, Wishin and Hopin. There was always Dionne singing one of their songs and I never tired hearing them.Great music, feel bad for the kids today having the junk they get to listen to instead, what crummy memories they'll have
We were so lucky. Thank you Burt

I know. I feel thankful for being young in those days when music was REALLY music! I can't bear listening to what passes for music today.

Hibi wrote: ↑February 9th, 2023, 11:12 am
I couldn't pick a favorite song, there are dozens of them, but I have a special fondness for Wishin' and Hopin' Dusty Springfield's big hit (love her too). It's one of the first songs from my childhood I remember falling in love with. Lots of memories connected to all his music.

My favorite Burt Bacharach and Hal David song is "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" and my favorite interpreter of that song is Dusty Sprinfield.

Here's a clip of her singing the song live on a BBC radio broadcast. She mentions Burt Bacharach before she sings.