Clip of the Day

Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 One of Hollywood's greatest, grandest and slickest musicals. The nostalgic, shamelessly-patriotic, entertaining film also supported the war effort as it paid tribute in its mostly fictional story to a popular Irish/American entertainer and the grand American gentleman of the theatre in the early 20th century. The timeliness of its release, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, helped the 'propaganda machine' of going to European battlegrounds overseas with a song that was a rousing theme song written years earlier for WW I - Over There. And a second song, You're a Grand Old Flag, contributed to morale-boosting, flag-waving patriotism and love of one's country. Yankee Doodle Dandy is a lively, sensational and dynamic film with a superb performance by the high-pitched and energized James Cagney. The film tells the musical rags-to-riches life story and times of early 20th century entertainment legend George M. Cohan, from vaudeville through to his later success on Broadway.

2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in 1968 and is considered to be an epic science fiction movie. It was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon's surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) who "seems human" and has full control over their spaceship and two astronauts (Dr. Dave Bowman played by Keir Dullea and Dr. Frank Poole played by Gary Lockwood) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.