Completely having kittens.. ..with a lady and two gents

Today this post features the always popular Siamese cats, an apparently red cat and hopefully much to the delight of Michelle (and Alice) several black cats..

This is part of a meme hosted by Michelle @ THE TRUE BOOK ADDICT.

When it comes to male actors there are two who are my number one 

- I know, I know.. I really can't decide who I like more - I just love them both! 

These two gentlemen are 

Peter Lorre and Vincent Price.

Both men had their appearence in this series before - but nevertheless: here they are again - and they brought the wonderful Joyce Jameson with them! I also like her very, very much - a very funny (and quite gorgeous) actress she was.

They appeared in TALES OF TERROR (1962) (based on Edgar Allan Poe's stories) together in the segment THE BLACK CAT..

From the film:

and here they are together: 

Joyce and the boys:

Just Joyce:

Just "the boys":

You can tell me what you want:

 I think black cats seem to have the most impressive eyes! 

Just look at those little fellas! 

Those of you who visit via THE TRUE BOOK ADDICT might not know that this month my blog has a special theme - it's called On the Run : Runaways & Refugees - Escapees & Escapists

So how does this post fit into the theme?

It fits because of Peter Lorre - born as László Löwenstein on June 26, 1904 in Rószahegy (Austria-Ungary - now: Ruzomberok, Slovak Republic) - ran away from home when he was a teenager. In Vienna (Austria) he first worked as a bank clerk before he became an actor (a really great actor if I might add this..). He appeared on several stages and in some German films before he had to leave Germany to rescue his life. Being jewish he wasn't safe in now 3rd Reich..

And in a very sad way also Joyce Jameson  fits into the series: she decided to choose the ultimate way to run away: On January 16, 1987 she commited suicide. 

...

Without the approach to belittle Joyce Jameson's fate - but to make this post end with some brighter thoughts:

- here are my favourite cat pictures of Peter Lorre:

The first one I posted now three times:

But this one is (as I hope) new to you:

Thank you all for visiting and listening!

Have a wonderful day!

Yours

Irene

Let's have "a Date with Fate"!!

Every month in a certain cinema in Hanover, Germany they are showing a "special" film in a series called "Filmcafé" (you don't need a translation - do you?). For they changed the dates to Wednesdays I now am able to attend this series. (yay!!) - Today I will take you with me - but please be aware that it will cost you some time! This post turned out to be another epic.. - so please take a few days off and come with me to watch today:

CASABLANCA (1942)

So, here we are.  - And here.. ..is..  ..your ticket:

~ don't worry - I have one for everyone of you.. ~

oh.. and: with the cinema ticket comes a coupon for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.. 

At one wall two young men are "hosting" kind of a buffett with plates of cake and two thermos jugs of coffee.. (not very classy.. but kind of cute..) give them your coupon to get a little snack..

About the cake - in case you have a sweet tooth:

It's just some (old-fashioned but apparently freshly baken) German classic cake: "Bienenstich" (Bee-Sting [-Cake]).. (-> here's one recipe - I am not sooo terribly fond of it.. but maybe you'd like to give it a try..) 

Oh - but now: Hurry! The film is going to begin in an instance!!

Wait! Who's that standing in front of the screen? Oh, one of this cinema's top brass - with a co-worker (a very well-known person from [actually excisting] Hannover cinema scene!) They greet us - explain how "Filmcafé" works and that CASABLANCA wasn't meant to be the film for today at first - but due to changed copyrights for the New Year the planned movie 

RAGING BULL (1980) can't be shown.. 

(okay with me.. I would like to see that one, too one day - but: Hey! CASABLANCA!!!)

Now they ask us to vote by showing of hands for next month's film:

MOONSTRUCK (1987)

or

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1981)

I haven't seen either of those two films - and I think I won't watch them in cinema.. Just by the way: THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE won..

Now the two gentlemen are playing a little quiz with the audience - answer the questions right and you get a DVD, a Blu-ray Disc and/or some coupons..

Two of the questions:

1. When November 3, 1956 the first comercials were aired in German Telly - which product was the first to be advertised?

Answer: Washing agent PERSIL

2. In which year did "DIE AUSGBURGER PUPPENKISTE" (the here quite famous Augsburg Puppet Theatre) air one of their plays for the first time in German Telly?

Answer: January 21,1953 - it was Sergei Prokofiev's PETER AND THE WOLF. They broadcasted live because there wasn't any videotaping in German Telly yet..

(I borrowed this picture from the page of Augsburger Puppenkiste - sadly the page is just in German.. 

I could write a whole series just about those puppet plays.. 

They are sooo great and imaginative!)

And now: Dim the lights! Let's watch CASABLANCA!!

No - wait! What's that?!

A German newsreal - from the mid to late 60's (1967??) is now on the screen! Oh my!

Frankly - in the beginning I didn't notice that the little film clip that was shown first was meant ironic. It showed people shopping and working and such. Then an off camera voice saying:

"Don't start about development aid with me! I really don't see why those politician are blowing all our money to those Negroes.. When I die I hope to be reborn as a negro! I won't have to work and will get money from all people.. I say we'll should use it for German economy! Export and stuff like that.. What?!? "That's what development aid means?"  ... 

Honestly: In the first moment yours Irene was like "What the heck is going on here??! Did this guy really say what I think he did??" So after we live through this little shock (for me it was..) the next clip is shown:

Ah.. something "for lads".. Sports.. (usually in German news and newsreels sports has the comparatively biggest part..) - but wait: Don't start chatting, ladies and uninterested-in-sports-gents! This one is fun: It shows clippings from a rugby game between France and New Zealand - but it is made up like a ballett! Classic music is playing while those guys on the screen try to beat each other up and catch the ball..

Music like Rossini's WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE

Well.. you can imagine how it looked, can't you? We all saw things like that in several films.. But still it's fun.

Last clipping - German pop singer Pat Simon is singing about how she fell in love in a taxi.. Guy who she is adressing sports one of those impressive Omar Sharif moustaches.. like my daddy once did.. have to call him soon again..

And now? CASABLANCA?? ..?  please? .. pretty please???

No.. of course not! First we will watch two movie trailers!

First one for a German drama:

...UND FÜHRE UNS NICHT IN VERSUCHUNG (1957)

(English title: AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION)

It's based on Ödön von Horvath's play DER JÜNGSTE TAG (JUDGEMENT DAY):

- with Austrian heartthrob Gerhard Riedmann (not yours Irene's type.. too schmaltzy..) and lovely Johanna Matz

They fall in love with eachother - though he is married to possessive Heidemarie Hatheyer ...

(LOVE her.. great, great Austrian actress with a wonderful smoky voice..)

... 

The second trailer is for 

WHO WAS THAT LADY ? (1960)

So great to see a bit of Dean Martin and Janet Leigh on big screen!! Now I want to re-watch that film..

But no! Finally!! There it is

CASABLANCA!!

I won't tell you about the film now - there is so much said about it.. maybe some other time.. 

Frankly, I decided to write about CASABLANCA before I was sure which topic to choose for this month - amazingly CASABLANCA fits in almost every topic I thought of before! I am thinking about doing kind of a monthly "CASABLANCA-factor" post - sharing one scene or a piece of information matching the month's topic..  

And for I wrote so much now - I guess you are a bit tired.. so please come back to read my little text about how CASABLANCA fits into my On the Run series.. Quite obvious.. I know.. but I want to share one of my favourite scenes from this film with you - so: please return to this corner of blogland for the first issue of

 "The CASABLANCA factor"..

Thank you very much for this lovely afternoon in cinema and all the time you spent reading this post!

Yours

Irene

Some puppy love.. .. with Victor Borge

So... Today's guest is birthday boy

Victor Borge 

* January 3, 1909 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

† December 23, 2000 (Greenwich, Connecticut, USA)

So - how does he fit into the On The Run series??

In short:

He was born as Børge Rosenbaum and in the 1940s his parody of Adolf Hitler was quite popular (and by that famous) in Denmark - that is: he wasn't too popular with the Nazi ocupying force that he was Jewish didn't help either - so he escaped over Finland to America - and became there also very popular with mostly comic performances..

Back to Dog Tuesday:

He not only appeared on Telly with a very famous dog:

- he also had one of the coolest autograph cards ever:

~ I love that little arrow showing WHO of them is Victor Borge..~

Thank you very much for listening!

Yours (very well and) truly 

Irene

Start with a smile!

Start the week (and the still New Year) with a smile 

- and because this month AND THEN THEY START TO SPARKLE is "On the Run":

 have some pictures of the most carefree and wonderful scene from French Film 

JULES & JIM (1962)

with Jeanne Moreau, Henri Serre - and one of my favourite European actors - Oskar Werner (on the pictures in that order):

Don't you just love that? (and yes: Jeanne Moreau is wearing a fake moustache..)

I for one have to smile when I look at these pictures!

That's how fun looks!

Have a wonderful start into your week - and wear a great smile!

Yours

(very well and) truly

Irene

Welcome to a brandnew year!

I certainly hope that you all arrived savely in 2012  - Don't be irrated by the numbers in the Debra Paget pic - What? You didn't notice any numbers? mhm.. Me either.. 

[insert Groucho-Marx-eyebrow-wiggle

]

Where was I? Oh - yes: I hope you all arrived savely and happy. 

New Year's Day is an approved day to look into future and make plans - and tell those plans to each and every one  - no matter if they're interested or not. 

Oh - it's a wonderful tradition.. 

~ here illustrated by Zsa Zsa Gabor and Esther Williams ~

I myself looked into the cards for our beloved blog Sparkles (wait - did I hear a chuckle?? no.. must have been from another world..)

~ looking at this - I see.. I see a cold coming her way.. ~

And what did I see besides?? That's a good question indeed.. 

I saw: 

The "Start with a Smile" posts on Mondays will return

Have a little reminder - one of my guests then was Mr. Rock Hudson - doing something like a smile..

Then of course there will still be the Puppy Love Tuesdays and Completely Having Kittens Thursdays.. 

~ hope the guests then won't be as stressed as Elizabeth Taylor's friends here.. ~

I also saw some new things: 

 I will  post now and then (I don't know if I can do it weekly..) short posts about new released films in cinema I'd like to watch.

There will be definitively more European films on this blog - and for those films are now and then hard to come by (or frankly: hard to watch at all..) I will try to do kind of "photo novels" to illustrate some scenes.. I do not know if that really will work but I'll give it a try - and please be aware that I might get awfully ironic when I talk about German films..

~ German actress Ilse Werner with her a bit ironic look.. ~ 

And finally:

Themed months - I will start this month with a theme called:

ON THE RUN 

~ my cover girl will be Miss Lillian Gish ~

- and I will talk about some films dealing with Runaways and Refugees and Escapees and Escapists.. (Hence the new header..) Sometimes it'll make only sense for those who are brave enough to follow my "logic" - I will post after my own rules.. 

I hope I can also link the guests of my series to the themes somehow - we will see.. If it works out I will go on doing themed months like that.. A little challenge for myself.. (and hopefully not that challenging for you..)

Thank you all so very much for listening!

Yours 

(very well and) truly

  Irene

Just the last post this year..

I hope for all of you that you'll have a wonderful start into a great and happy new year!

This year for me was full of some awful news in my private live - but also some really nice new friends I met.. 

I will be back with some new ideas for this blog tomorrow - but first:

 Start your new year right - and treat it with respect and love - because it's filled with miracles just for you! 

Thank you all for following this blog - and listening to me! 

(it's really great that so wonderful people out there seem to care about what I think.. I am still amazed. THANK YOU!!)

Thank you for all the nice comments you you left!!!

Yours

Irene

Completely havin kittens.. ..2011 wrap up - and a new one..

 Welcome to the last completely having kittens post of 2011..

This is part of a meme hosted by Michelle @ THE TRUE BOOK ADDICT.

Michelle re-posted some of her favourite Cat Thursday pics, which she shared with us through 2011. I'd like to share three of them with you, too before I am going to show you twelve of my favourite this year (followed by a "brand new" one on this blog..)

Here are three I borrowed from Michelle, who posted loads of great pics beside those..: 

And my favourite of them:

Okay - here are my 12 favourite pictures I posted this year on this blog:

 I was participating on this meme before I started it here - I did it on another blog of mine NOT SOPHISTICATED (I'M THE SWEET AND SIMPLE KIND)..

Frankly - I love almost every picture I posted in this series - so I had a hard time to pick just twelve of them.. But here we go - and of course we'll end with my favourite picture of them all..

We had a lot of cats showing their pals (most of them I confess are my favourite actors):

Ava Gardner

Agnes Moorehead

 Elizabeth Taylor

Marilyn Monroe

James Mason

Judy Garland

 Alain Delon

Ursula Andress

(I simply had to re-post both pictures..)

Peter Lorre

Laird Cregar

Romy Schneider

 And here is the new picture - sporting one of the few actors I dare to call by first name when talking about her (another one would be Romy Schneider..) - our cat-lady of the week is a lady who would have turned 110 years this week:

Marlene Dietrich

* Decemeber 27, 1901  Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

† May 6, 1992 Paris, France

Thank you all for listening!

Yours

Irene