It Looks Like a Silver Record, but it's not a Silver Record

"It's a Laser Disc! There's a movie on there!"

Hello again folks. As you may have guessed, I am going to talk a bit about Laser Discs. I have been the proud owner of a Laser Disc player for a little over a month. It was a birthday present from our very own Sethifus. In much the same way that retro gaming is big these days, I have a special place in my heart for outdated video formats, and a Laser Disc player is something I had sought after for quite a few years. So armed with a stack of discs and a player, I was ready to take my journey. The general viewing experience with a Laser Disc is not unlike VHS. Though it is a disc based format, like DVD, the films lack a menu. This is especially strange because many Laser Disc had commentary tracks and the like. The picture quality is just a step above VHS; it's pretty clean, but nothing to write home about given the availability of both DVD and Blu-ray. The real downfall of Laser Disc is that the discs are huge and require flipping. I have to say, it does take you out of the viewing experience, and some films have multiple discs, which means flipping and switching discs to watch a single movie. All the same, I am glad to count the player and the movies amongst my fetishized possessions.

Double it, you still get zero

I saw this movie sitting on the shelf at my local library and thought "I like Groucho movies, I like Sinatra songs, I'll watch it!" And I did.

It was fun. The story is kinda boring. It's about Sinatra thinking some money he won betting on horses or something was stolen from his girlfriend's bank. This sucks because he only made the bet because she wouldn't marry him because he was poor. Something like that, I don't know, it was hard to pay attention.

The reason I recommend this film is because Groucho Marx is in it. I love the Marx Brothers, and while this movie is not as good as any of the Marx Brothers movies (in my opinion), Groucho's part is pretty close to the characters he portrays in said Marx Brothers movies. His delivery might be a little slower and a smidge less energetic, but it's still Groucho! I missed Groucho, and it was nice to see him in a new-to-me movie. He also has this odd character trait of delivering appropriate quotes from books and plays and such. Odd... but not uncomfortably so.

I also enjoyed both of Sinatra's songs. The first sung with Groucho (!) and the second with Jane Russell. Good stuff.

If you're a fan of Groucho Marx or Sinatra song styling's, check it out.