After I posted the blog post I decided to drop the list down to 10 because my summer was looking busy with some health things going on with myself, my husband, and my elderly parents.
At this point though, it looks like I should squeak out 12 books and one audiobook before all is said and done on August 28.
I made some substitutions and tossed some books from this list altogether, not because they were bad (in most cases), but because I am a mood reader and they didn’t fit my mood this summer.
First, my original list:
Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh
Between Sound and Sea by Amanda Cox
The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Woodhouse
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner
‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara
Death In A Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonassen
But First Murder by Bee Littlefield
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano
The Unlikely Yarn of The Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon
Now what I have read so far this summer:
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt
A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner
Killer in the Kitchen (A Murder She Wrote book) by Donald Bain
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
I am almost done with Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry and will probably finish Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse before the end of the month. I’d love to say I’ll also finish The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson but. . .. oh gosh this book is so boring. Gah! I don’t know if I can get through it. I’m trying because my husband liked it and told me to read it. God bless, him for liking it, but I am seriously struggling.
I also plan to finish The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon on audiobook before the end of the month.
What I will have to decide at the end of the month is if I am going to move the books I didn’t read to my Autumn TBR, and I might do that for a couple of them. As for the others, I might not read them at all because a couple of them I tried and could not get into (The Summer of Yes being one of them).
There is a questionairre on the host blogs about what we read so far so . . .
Which book surprised you the most this month? The Scarlet Pimpernel suprised me the most because I thought it was going to be written in very old language and just not be very good. It was much better than I expected!
If your July reading experience was a weather forecast, what would it be and why? My July reading experience was a mix of sunny days and dark confusing nights (looking at you for that last one, Spill the Jackpot!)
Name a setting from your July books where you’d love (or hate) to take a summer vacation. I hated the inn in The Pale Horse. It was creepy and I didn’t enjoy the occult stuff the women did there.
If you could turn one book into a summer festival, I would turn The Scarlet Pimpernel into masquarade ball where everyone has to guess who the real Scarlet Pimpernel is.
If you do reading challenges, how are you doing this summer on your challenges? If you don’t do challenges, have you read anything interesting lately?
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I made a comment to someone in the comment section last week that the bear I saw on our back porch, and purchased a Ring camera to keep an eye on, probably would never show again.
How wrong I was.
The other night the dog was barking crazily outside. She is hooked up on a lead and I periodically walk back to check on her. Now we have a Ring camera that I can turn on and watch from my phone, but I didn’t because, well, I really didn’t think anything would happen.
The only thing that might happen is she might take off after a skunk like she did last weekend, yanking the stake to her lead out of the ground and disappearing behind our shed where she, and our son, was sprayed by a skunk.
That’s what I thought would happen anyhow but as I headed toward the back door I turned on the Ring camera from my phone and before I even looked down at it, I was at the back door looking out at Zooma face to face with a black bear, ten or twelve feet from our back door.
Zooma was barking bouncing back and forth in front of the bear, who looked quite confused honestly. I called Zooma back with a tremble in my voice, worried the bear might reach out and take out a swipe at her.
Luckily, Zooma barked a few more times but then came to me and I quickly opened the door and let her in while the bear continued to look confused.
This video does not do justice to how close the bear was to the house because of the angle of the camera. I left the audio in even though I sound like I’m crying, which I really wasn’t, but I was nervous and recovering from the virus we had so my voice sounded pretty shaky. I was just worried Zooma was going to get smacked around.
As the bear turned to leave, The Husband and I noticed he or she was limping, which was so sad to me.
I couldn’t film any longer because the bear was headed toward my neighbor’s backyard and sometimes they are out watering their garden late at night, so I wanted to warn her.
We did contact the game warden and they said they’d send someone out, but we never heard anything back. Hopefully, next week someone will update us on the condition or location of the bear.
Seeing the bear has made me very nervous but really it is a little silly to be afraid of the bear. They are black bears and aren’t really huge fans of people. They also aren’t known to attack people or, usually, pets. They simply come down looking mainly for food and our one neighbor has food out for the animals (yes, I’m pretty sure this is illegal and if not it is at least dangerous!). If you make loud noises or have a barking dog they tend to leave.
Still, I don’t relish the idea of stepping outside of my house and finding myself face to face with one.
That was the exciting part of our week. The rest of the week was spent being up weird times of the night while Little Miss coughed a lot from sinus drainage left over from the virus we had earlier in the week. We spend our days napping and trying to catch up from the weird sleep the night before.
We are still trying to recover from all of that and from the lack of sleep.
This next week I am actually going to start school for Little Miss. I wanted to do it the last couple of weeks but with being sick and recovering, that went out the window.
I have all of Little Miss’s curriculum so there is no excuse to not just get started. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year, especially art and literature, which are her and my favorite subjects.
I am still reading the same books, for the most part, but I am making progress. I finished The Scarlet Pimpernel last night. I enjoyed the book, even more so than the 1970s movie with Jane Seymour, but the ending did seem quite sudden to me. I would have liked a little more of a wrap up.
I am still reading Dave Berry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry. It is a collection of his columns for the Miami Herald and they are so funny.
I did not read any from Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse last week but I will be back into that this week. The Jeeves books are so funny.
I was very excited to receive a delivery this week from Thriftbooks that included two P.G. Wodehouse books, one of them a Jeeves book.
The books are Very Good, Jeeves and A Damsel in Distress. I am gathering that A Damsel in Distress is not a Jeeves book, based on the title and the description on the back, which is fine with me. I am interested in trying Wodehouse’s other books.
The order also included Nancy Drew books Nancy’s Mysterious Letter, The Whispering Statue, and The Triple Hoax, Remains to be Seen by Elizabeth Caldell, An Enola Holmes Mystery: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, and Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan.
I am looking forward to reading Nancy Drew: The Triple Hoax soon but first I am going to read the Nancy Drew Mystery Password to Larkspur Lane.
Little Miss is reading The Clue of the Missing Diary by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew).
The Boy is reading/listening to Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven.
The Husband is reading. That’s all I know right now because I forgot to ask which book he is reading. I know he finished Targeted: Beirut by Jack Carr about a week ago.
This week I watched Murder She Wrote, The Picture of Dorian Gray, episodes of Canal Boat Diaries, and a movie called Raffles, which ended terribly.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Our family is still recovering from the effects of a virus that hit us out of nowhere.
Our daughter has been dealing with horrible sinus drainage that has kept her and us awake. We are truly hoping to turn a corner next week. I can’t believe how long the effects lasted for a virus that didn’t even last a week. I think it would all have gone away faster if it hadn’t been for all the sleepless nights that followed it.
The weather has been sort of nice, though, despite the haze from the wildfires in Canada making everything look very dystopian.
Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about Judee: I am a retired high school teacher, author of the popular cookbook, Easy Plant-Based Soups From Farm To Ladle (which you can purchase below), wife, mother of two and grandma Judee to four adorable grandkids.
I have always loved to cook and entertain. I post heath conscious plant-based recipes that are also naturally gluten free.
I live a vegan lifestyle with a focus on nutrition, wellness, and personal development. My blog has given me a platform to share and connect with the blogging community. I’m grateful to all of my dedicated readers.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
Today’s prompt was: Genre freebie (Pick any genre you’d like and build a list around it. You can even narrow the topic if you’d like, such as: thrillers with unreliable narrators, fantasy romance with fae characters, or historical romance with suspense elements.)
My choice was 10 mystery/cozy mystery book series with men as the protagonist (as shown by this post title *wink*)
Because it is such an obvious choice, I am not going to include Sherlock Holmes in this list, even though it would have taken up a spot that I didn’t have to fill with another series. There are a lot of series which could be added to this list, but I added ones I’m either familiar with because I or my husband read them, or ones that I have read and enjoyed.
The Cat Who Mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun (29 books)
This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series, if not my favorite. James Macintosh Qwilleran, or simply Qwill, is the protagonist. He is a newspaper reporter in the big city in the first two or three books and later he is a newspaper columnist who has inherited a large sum of money from a woman he barely knows and is living in the small town of Pickax, which is “north of everywhere.”
He is helped in his mysteries by his two Siamese cats — Koko and YumYum.
I’ve read almost all of these books and, yes, there are a couple duds, but the series is a comfort read to me.
2. The Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson (21 primary books and several novellas)
This series is about the sheriff of Wyoming’s Absaroka County and the various cases he has to solve. Yes, the show Longmire is based on the series. Walt’s sidekick is Henry Standing Bear, and his deputies are Victoria “Vic” Moretti and Santiago Saizarbitoria.
I’ve read five or six in this series and have enjoyed them, but they do get a bit repetitive after a bit. Book series are supposed to be a bit predictable, though. It is what makes us feel familiar with them and makes the books become “comfort reads” even if the topic is heavy.
One thing you come to expect from a Walt Longmire Mystery is that there is going to be a fairly gruesome murder, Walt is going to have to go on a long journey (often in the snow) where he will probably see his Native American spirit guides, Henry is going to be both a support and a smart mouth that provides the comic relief, and Vic is going to figure out how to make complete sentences using only the words “the” and the f-word. So, no, these are not “clean” books. But the writing is really great.
3. Detective Daniel Hawthorne series by Anthony Horowitz (5 books)
In this series, screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz has inserted himself in the mystery. He solves crimes with a complex and unlikable retired police detective turned private investigator named Daniel Hawthorne. Mixed up in the mysteries of each book is the mystery of who Hawthorne is and why he left the police force.
I’ve read two of the books in this series and plan to read the rest.
4. The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy Sayers (15 books)
This series is about an aristocrat from England who seems to have nothing better to do with his time than solve mysteries. Lots of tongue in cheek humor mixed in with a ton of satire.
(Have read one and enjoyed it and plan to read more)
5. The Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Agatha Christie (34 books)
One of the most famous mystery series with a male protagonist. Hercule Poirot is a private detective from Belgium living in England. His trusty sidekick is Arthur Hastings.
I have read four or five and enjoyed them. Will read more.
6. The Hamish MacBeth series by M.C. Beaton (36 books)
This is a series about a police investigator in the fictional Scottish Highland village of Lochdubh. There was a show based on the series but it is much, much different. For one, Hamish is a ginger in the books and has dark brown hair in the show, but a lot of the characters are different in general.
I do think Hamish sleeps around a bit in both, though.
I have read one and it wasn’t amazing writing (I’ve never thought Beaton’s writing that good but it gets the job done to deliver the story) but for some reason I still fell for Hamish and will be reading more. I have one on my physical bookshelf right now.)
7. The Albert Campion Mysteries by Margery Allingham (21 books)
According to the site, booksinorder.com, “Author Allingham has introduced the central character in this series in the form of a suave sleuth named Albert Campion. Along with the novels of this crime fiction series, the character is also seen in a few short stories, which are also written by author Allingham. It is believed that author Allingham has created the Albert Campion’s character as a parody to the character of Lord Peter Wimsey created by author Dorothy L. Sayers. But, she eventually went on to develop a unique personality of Albert Campion.”
I haven’t read any yet but have one in my Kindle and can’t wait to try it.
8. The Perry Mason Mysteries by Erle Stanley Gardner (82 books!! In this series)
This series follows the investigations of attorney Perry Mason. Yes, they are the basis for the TV show from the 60s and 90s and yes, they are a lot different than the show.
I have read two Perry Mason Mysteries and enjoyed them both. I plan to read more and looks like I have a lot to choose from.
9. The Father Brown Mysteries by G.K. Chesterton (52 short stories compiled into 5 books)
I read one of the short stories and listened to another and enjoyed them both and hope to read more. This series of short stories is about a Catholic priest who is also an amateur sleuth. Yes, the shows are based on the short stories.
10. The Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Rex Stout (48 books)
I have not read any of the books in this series so I don’t know as much about it, but my husband has and enjoys them. They are about a detective named Nero Wolfe and are narrated Wolfe’s confidential assistant Archie Goodwin.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Today is my mom’s 81st birthday. Sadly, we are probably not going there for dinner because my family is recovering from a summer virus/cold. We are almost all the way over it but we’re making sure we are still not contagious before we go. So, we will celebrate her birthday later this week.
The biggest issue with our illness this week was Little Miss’s cough at night and our being unable to stop it so she, and we, could sleep. We were happy to have some beautiful weather the second half of the week that allowed us to go outside and get some fresh air. During the first part of the week, it was simply too hot to enjoy anything outside.
Fans of Summer have been disappointed this week since we had fall-like temperatures for the last few days but I have been loving it. I would love it even more if Little Miss could kick her cough all the way. I have a feeling that will happen by tomorrow or Tuesday, however.
A couple of quick reminders:
I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here (https://lisahoweler.com/2025/08/02/a-good-book-a-cup-of-tea-monthly-link-party-for-august/) . It is for posts about books that you are reading, have read, book reviews — just anything book-related really. So even posts about book collections, authors etc. etc.
We will be holding another one in August, but I am not sure when yet.
The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
This wasn’t the worst cold/virus/whatever I’ve ever had so I was able to get some reading in, mainly from Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down while I sat up keeping an eye on Little Miss in the middle of the night. I also read quite a bit of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
I didn’t read any of the 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson this week but I do plan to continue it and finish it. I did read some from Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse and I love it.
Soon I hope to read The Clue of the Broken Blade, a Hardy Boys Mystery, and Password to Larkspur Lane, a Nancy Drew Mystery.
The Boy is listening to Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven, a Warhammer book.
The Husband is reading something or other but he laid down for a nap because he might be getting the virus next so I will have to ask him later.
Little Miss and I have not started anything new lately but I hope to finish Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink soon. That title was later changed just to Caddie Woodlawn’s Family. I think that’s a good thing because the first title was .. a little weird in modern times.
Last week I watched The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, a few episodes of Murder She Wrote, an episode of As Time Goes By, a documentary of David Suchet on the Orient Express, and an episode of a new-to-me show called Canal Boat Diaries. I also watched The Court Jester as part of my Summer of Angela series. Next week I will be watching The Picture of Dorian Gray.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea Monthly Link Party for book and reading posts! Each link party will be open for a month.
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.
4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.
5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).
This week I watched The Court Jester (1955) with Angela, Danny Kaye, and Basil Rathbone. It is a musical/comedy.
The main words to describe this movie are silliness, ridiculousness, and peak Danny Kaye moments.
It really fell apart toward the end, I felt, but there were some hilarious moments that made up for it.
First, a bit of the plot with a description from Google:
“Former carnival performer Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) and maid Jean (Glynis Johns) are assigned to protect the infant royal heir from tyrannical King Roderick I (Cecil Parker). While Jean takes the baby to an abbey, Hawkins gains access to the court by impersonating the king’s jester, unaware that the jester is really an assassin hired by scheming Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone). When Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury), falls for Hawkins, a witch secretly aids him in becoming a knight.”
This film is just a lot of craziness caused by misunderstandings, misdirection, and generalized oopsies.
We start the movie by learning that an entire royal family was killed so that the current King, King Roderick I, could take the throne. Actually, though, the entire family wasn’t killed, according to rumors anyhow. The rumors say an infant survived and bears upon his bottom a birthmark of a purple pimpernel.
The rumors further say the child is being cared for in the forest by an “elusive, dashing outlaw” known as the black fox. As if to prove these rumors, one of the king’s men is killed as they are riding near the forest and a note attached to the arrow announces that the child is alive and The Black Fox has him.
Not sure why this was being announced because I would think it would be better to keep this all a secret until the child is older and then they bring the child in to overthrow the usurper, but…what do I know?
After the note scene we are taken to the castle where the king’s advisor, Sir Ravenhurst (Rathbone), is stating the rumor about the child being in the care of the black fox is simply a silly story to scare the king. The other advisors say there is something to the rumor and to the power of the black fox. They feel that the king should form an alliance with Griswold of the North because he is strong and has men who can help them fight against The Black Fox.
Ravenhurst is against this and the other advisors say it is because Ravenhurst wants to be the king’s right hand man and have more power.
The king says even if he wanted to form an alliance he doesn’t have anything to offer Griswold to sweeten the deal. The one advisor says that the king does have something he could give Griswold — the hand of his daughter Gwendolyn — our fair Angela — in marriage.
Angela is gorgeous in this movie. She’s super skinny (not that she’s ever been big), tall and elegant.
My son told me recently that young Angela was beautiful and that even “old Angela” in Murder She Wrote wasn’t so bad. I can’t wait to show him her in this film (I watched it on my own) because this will further solidify his feelings.
Gwendolyn says she is not interested in marriage because the castle witch, Griselda, told her that a more dashing man than Griswold would be coming along to sweep her off her feet.
Now the scene switches to the lair of the black fox, where Hubert tells the black fox he has brought a group of midgets with him from the carnival (Hubert’s former job) to fight for The Black Fox. This brings me to one of the weirdest promo photos I’ve ever seen:
I’ll be seeing this one in my nightmares tonight.
It is the job of Danny’s character, Hubert, to care of the baby and he thinks it is a job that should go to a woman. Well! How rude.
But The Black Fox doesn’t agree and tells Hubert he will continue the job.
Hubert is a little more excited about having to take care of the baby when he is charged with traveling with the beautiful Jean to take the child to the abbey for protection.
When I was reading about the actors in this movie, I found out that Glynis Johns (Jean) also played the mother in Disney’s Mary Poppins. The first one, of course.
Anyhow, moving on — The pair stop for the night and that’s when they not only admit their feelings for each other (smoochy, smoochy) but a man stumbles into the small stable they are in and asks to stay with them for the night. He’s on his way to see the king, he says. He is a court jester and his name is Giacomo.
Ah-ha! Hubert and Jean were just talking about how it would be a good thing if they had a spy in the castle who could tell them if the king was coming after The Black Fox. How very fortuitous this unexpected meeting has been.
Giacomo is knocked out and Hubert steals his clothes and his wagon, which is emblazoned, for some weird reason, with Giacomo’s name across the back of it.
So Jean takes off toward the abbey and Hubert takes off toward the castle.
Sadly, Jean is captured by soldiers from the castle who are looking for good looking women for the king. The baby is hidden in a basket and she and the baby are taken to the castle where she manages to hide the baby away from the king and his men.
Meanwhile, Gwendolyn learns that Griselda lied to her about the dashing man and is about to have her killed when Hubert shows up on the road below and Griselda claims that he is the man that Gwendolyn is supposed to marry.
Whew. This plot is starting to get pretty twisted at this point. From here on out, things get pretty crazy with Griselda casting spells and poisoning people left and right. Ravenhurst also thinks that Giacomo (Hubert) is an assassin who is going to take out the three advisors who wanted to create the alliance with Griswold.
Before all is said and done there will be sword fights, a jousting match, fake and real romances, a midget army, and, of course, plenty of musical numbers by Mr. Kaye.
There is also the famous scene between Danny, Glynis Johns, and Mildred Natwick where they discuss which vessel the poison is in.
Here is a clip of it, in case you’ve never seen the movie:
I won’t share too much more in case you want to watch the movie yourself.
The movie was directed by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank.
According to an article on TCM.com, Panama and Frank formed a production company with Kaye called Dena Productions, named after Danny’s daughter, after Kaye’s success in 1947 with the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
The idea behind the production company was to introduce the real Danny to film audiences. He had been acting on Broadway and in smaller productions on stage for years.
The Court Jester was the company’s second movie and proved to be a huge success but not right away. It actually bombed at the box office, despite it’s stellar cast. Years later though it was regarded as one of Danny’s finest films with, according to TCM, “comedy routines that have entered the annals of film history.”
Amazon features trivia and facts through their xray feature when you watch a movie there on a computer or device. I often forget that because I usually watch the movies on my TV but this time I watched part of the movie on my phone and bits of the trivia popped up.
One of them was a story from Danny’s daughter who said that fans often came up to him and recited the entire tongue twister scene for him.
What Angela said about the movie:
Angela had been playing mainly dramatic roles before this movie and was able to have some fun with the role. Part of that fun was watching Danny Kaye work she said in the Kaye bio Nobody’s Fool by Martin Gottfried.
“His use of hands was inspired by commedia dell’arte,” she said. “And in the way he moved, he was absolutely original; he was one off the mold.”
She added, “Danny wasn’t an ensemble player – he was the one around whom everyone danced, and we all dressed to him. We never stopped laughing. There was none of that moodiness he could have elsewhere, that abruptness, ignoring people. If something interested him, sparked him, he came alive. The minute that was over, he was closed for business, which I think is true of many of the great comic performers. They are constantly out to lunch. Where they are, I don’t know.”
Gottfried also wrote an autobiography on Angela and said of her role in the movie: “It allowed her to play not only a princess, but a princess her own age. She was made up to look young and lovely. She got to wear beautiful clothes that showed off her fine, slender figure.”
What I thought overall
This was a ton of fun. As I mentioned above, I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending when things started to fall apart in some ways and just descend into chaotic ridiculousness but that was a minor issue when there were so many other great moments and interactions in the film.
Angela wasn’t in this one a ton but she was in it enough to enjoy her mix of wide-eyed adoration of Danny’s character and her devious ways to get what she wanted. She truly was beautiful in the film as well.
I loved the wordplay and back and forth between the characters. None of the songs really stuck out to me but they were fun.
This is a great film to escape into and forget about your problems with. The bright and colorful outfits alone will distract you from the stresses of your days.
Trivia about the movie:
Basil Rathbone had made many movies where he was the sword-wielding villain so when it came to his role in this film, he was ready. He was 66 at the time, though, having already redefined Sherlock Holmes in 14 films from 1939 to 1946, and wasn’t ready for how quick Danny would be able to move the sword. A body double had to be called in to film some of the fencing scenes because Danny was moving so fast that Basil was almost injured. It was because of his superior fencing skills that no one was injured but he still couldn’t keep up with Danny’s fast, though less accurate, moves.
According to TCM.com. “(Basil’s) talents were carefully observed by Danny: With his quick reflexes and his extraordinary sense of mime, which enabled him to imitate easily anything seen once, Kaye could outfence Rathbone after a few weeks of instruction.” (various sources, including TCM.com.)
During the “Maladjusted Jester” sequence, King Roderick I (Cecil Parker) kicks Hawkins (Danny Kaye) every time he makes a mistake. It took 11 takes, and afterward, Kaye said he had bruises all over his hip. (source IMdB)
The “Now I can shoot and toot” speech during “The Maladjusted Jester” was previously said by Danny Kaye in Up in Arms (1944).
From IMdB: “This was composer Vic Schoen‘s first movie. He was not officially trained in the mechanisms of how music was synchronized to film, so he had to learn on the job. It took him a long time, but he was very proud of his work. Composer Igor Stravinsky listened to his score and later complimented Schoen, saying he had broken all of the rules.”
A U.S. Civil War reenactment group, The American Legion Zouaves of Richard F. Smith Post No. 29, Jackson, Michigan” performed the intricate high speed marching maneuvers during the knighting ceremony. (source, Classic Movie Hub)
Have you ever seen this movie?
What did you think?
Cat from Cat’s Wire shared her thoughts on the movie here..
Here is what is left of my Summer of Angela:
August 1 – The Court Jester
August 8 – The Picture of Dorian Gray
August 15 – A Life At Stake
August 22 – All Fall Down
August 29 – Something for Everyone
If you want to read about some of the other movies I watched you can find them here:
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
My kids and I came down with a virus over the last couple of weeks and it has not been fun but we are luckily on the mend. The worst part of it was the sore throat and earaches for my son and I and for my daughter the worst was the sore throat and then the sinus drainage that made her cough and kept her up all Wednesday night. And by all I mean ALL.
I’ll be glad when this is over!
Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about Joanne: I’ve been homeschooling since June of 2012 and that’s when I started my blog. I was new to homeschooling and while I jumped in with both feet and lots of enthusiasm I was feeling overwhelmed and over my head– and I was a teacher by profession!
I have my master’s degree in early childhood education and worked in the public school system as both long term & regular substitutes. Within one year of having all three of my kids attending school full time I realized we were all miserable and with the support of my family we turned to homeschooling.
They all had far more confidence in me than I did.
We live in a state with little to no homeschooling laws & guidelines which I found even scarier at the time. I hoped to use my blog as a way to hold myself accountable for what I was teaching and have found it tremendously helpful over the years to look back and see all that we do manage to cover even when I feel like we aren’t doing any schoolwork for long periods of time.
Over time my blog has evolved to showcase more of me; my interests, crafting ideas, recipes and more. I love that homeschooling my children has allowed us all time to peruse so many other interests– That’s why I had to change the name of my blog!
I used to blog over at Our Unschooling Journey but found more and more of my posts had nothing to do with homeschooling. I changed the name of my blog to Slices of Life since that’s what I felt like I was sharing!
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up each week, Joanne!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I shared on my blog yesterday about my black bear incident on my back porch. I’ll copy what I wrote here:
This past week was interesting if only for one thing that happened to me — something I knew would happen one day, but luckily it wasn’t as dramatic as I worried it would be.
I don’t have any photos, but it finally happened — I went out to my back door to get my cats in, and there was a black bear on the back porch. A black bear. Yes. Maybe three feet away from me but luckily there was a glass door between us.
I thought I was seeing a reflection on my door or just a shadow, and then the shadow moved! It hopped off the porch and took off across the yard while my cat watched from the other side of the yard, apparently amused by how I gasped, slammed the door shut and locked it (because the bear was clearly going to open it again) and then tried to get Little Miss to come see it by gasping. “Bear. Bear. Little Miss. See. Come.”
It was gone before she got there, sadly.
The Husband and The Boy were both upstairs so I couldn’t call for them.
We are now investing in a ring camera so I can get a better look before any of us step out there from now on.
I did a search on Facebook in a group that focuses on bear sightings in our area to see if anyone had seen our bear and learned that bear sightings are up. One reason they are up is because the state game commission has changed the weigh-in locations for bears when they are hunted. This means hunters aren’t as interested in hunting bears. They have to drive them too far to weigh them. Since the bears aren’t being as hunted as much, there is more of them. More of them means more of them are wandering into backyards and small towns.
Hopefully, we can keep ourselves and the bears safe. In most cases bears leave as soon as they see a person and we’re lucky that black bears aren’t like their grizzly bear cousins who sometimes do attack people (but probably rarely).
A couple of quick reminders:
I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here. It is for posts about books that you are reading, have read, book reviews — just anything book-related.
We will be holding another one in August, but I am not sure when yet.
The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
Last week I finished Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis and A Murder She Wrote Mystery: Killer in the Kitchen by Don Blain.
I am currently reading the 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.
I’m also reading a couple of chapters of Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry a day.
I also just started The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
Soon I hope to read The Clue of the Broken Blade, a Hardy Boys Mystery, and Password to Larkspur Lane, a Nancy Drew Mystery.
This past week I watched several episodes of Murder She Wrote and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I also watched an episode of The Danny Thomas Show (which I had never seen before).
I enjoyed a movie with John Wayne called Without Reservations and then watched for my Summer of Angela feature.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
