Elvis Presley: Highbrow Movie Star

Elvis Presley and highbrow are two things that would never come to my mind at the same time. However during 1957 Elvis was accused of becoming just this. His recordings of gospel standards such as Peace in the Valley, where shockingly different from the wild rock and roll he was known for. Many were telling him with these songs he would be alienating his (at that time) mostly teenage audience, who were going wild over Heartbreak Hotel, Don't Be Cruel, Shake Rattle and Roll, Ready Teddy or Hound Dog. However those teenage fans loved these new gospel recordings just as much. These gospel songs were near and dear to Elvis' heart and he sang them with such strong conviction that they became some of his finest work in the field of audio recordings. This was simply great music and his teenage audience felt that just as much as anybody.


Around this time another accusation was being placed upon Elvis. This was that Elvis was selling out. This a shocking accusation once you consider had brief of a time, Elvis had been in the music business (His first recordings were in 1953). What had changed at this time was that Elvis was no longer just a singer, but a movie star. With his 1960's movies in mind many today might agree that this was selling out. However what we must realize is that by this time Elvis had only made 3 movies. These were Love Me Tender (1956), Loving You (1957) and Jailhouse Rock (1957). These are definitely good films, and well above the quality of much of his 1960's cinematic output. I enjoy his 1960's films quite a bit myself, but will admit that they are guilty pleasures and despite how much I enjoy them, I will admit they aren't great. These 1950's films though, are quite good. In fact I'd say that the incredible performance of the title song in Jailhouse Rock ranks as one of the highpoints in Elvis' great career. The storylines are better in these films than in the 1960's output and quite enjoyable on their own. These movies also showed that Elvis' music career was still in good form. From just these three movies had come such amazing Elvis songs as Love Me Tender, Mean Woman Blues, Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear, Loving You, Got a Lot of Living to Do, Jailhouse Rock, Treat Me Nice, You're So Square Baby I Don't Care and Young and Beautiful. No other Elvis movies with the exceptions of King Carole and Viva Las Vegas (even if story wise that is one of his weakest, the songs are fantastic) would feature songs of this high caliber.


The magazine TV Radio Mirror wrote a fantastic article (in 1957) about this period in Elvis' career. To read it click here and if you don't want to flip through too many pages the article continues here.


-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM The Hearth's Warming Club S8 E16

So a Christmas episode in August. Well, why not? After all I am used to it from this show and the episode is delightful.


This episode is the second written by Brain Hohfeld (the first being Surf and/or Turf). It was storyboarded by Kat Dela Cruz and Ward Jenkins. Both have been boarding for the show since Season 6.

This is an excellent episode. It really shows how in such a short time, the School of Friendship's student have become as characters. They all feel completely real and devolved here. They also all play off each other perfectly. That is a real rarity is enjoying seeing the characters together just as much as on their own. Each tell about their own backstories and Holiday celebrations here, and they are all extreme well thought out and even quite touching at times. All in all this is just a pure delight of an episode.


-Michael J. Ruhland  

MlP:FIM A Matter of Principals S8 E15

This episode was the sixth written by Nicole Dubuc. Her previous episodes were Shadow Play Parts 1 & 2, School Daze Parts 1 & 2 and Marks for Effort. This episode was storyboarded by Kaylea Chard (who has been boarding for the show since the Season 3 premiere) and Nicole Wang (who has been boarding for the show since the seventh episode). In this episode Twilight puts Starlight in charge of the school, however Discord tries to sabotage her time in charge.

This is a very funny episode. The humor hits completely. Discord's choices for subsite teachers were especially hilarious. I especially love the scene with Iron Will. After not liking the episode he first appeared in I really like the uses of this character afterward. Also hilarious was Discord and Trixie's scene together. They are just as good together here as they were in To Where and Back Again. I am glad they are continuing this rivalry.

The only complaint I have is that Discord acting this mean here, kind of takes away from the lessons he learned in previous episodes. Still on its own this episode is a delight.

-Michael J. Ruhland  

Movie Review: Christopher Robin

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland












Michael's Movie Grade: B+

Review: An excellent film that is full of a simple and very effective charm.

There is no better word to describe this movie than charming. There is little in the storyline that we have not seen before. However it is still a good story and it is told so simply and sincerely that I found myself quickly falling for its charms. There is something heartwarming about seeing all these characters together for another movie. They all are still the characters we fell in love with years ago. Each is given proper time to shine. Eeyore in particular made me laugh out loud various times during this movie. Pooh also hasn't changed a bit. Walt Disney once described the appeal of Mickey Mouse, by stating that he was so simple, you couldn't help but like him. The same is true of Pooh. Despite him referring to himself as a "Bear with little brains" there is a profoundness to much of what he says. Lines like "Doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something", drive home a very important point we too often forget. In many ways the lesson of this story is a very important one. It is not just a simplified, "Always pick your family over work" type of lesson. Rather it is about the importance of doing nothing. Once I think about all the best moments in my life, my favorite memories are always doing "nothing" with the people I love. Simple things like having a conversation, sitting watching TV, or going for a ride in the country are my fondest memories with people, and this movie sends the important message to always remember and cherish these seemingly unimportant times.

The use of CGI here is surprisingly great. I excepted to go into this movie thinking it would have been better with a mixture of live action and traditional animation. However that was not the case. The CGI was extremely expressive and conveyed every emotion for these characters in a very subtle way. They also blended in perfectly with the live action and while watching the film I never doubted they were really there. For those of us traditional animation fans though, the opening credits feature some great traditional storybook animation. This is not only a great delight to see, but it gets you immediately in the mood for what is to come before the story even starts.

This is a very familiar movie, but it is full of so much simple-ness and charm that I found it hard to resist and hopefully you will too.

-Michael J. Ruhland

How Porky Pig Became a Star

Are you ever curious how our favorite ham, Porky Pig became a movie star? Well luckily for you in 1936,Hollywood Magazine covered this history for you. Below is that article. If you want to see where I found these are look more closely click here and here.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Fallout

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland

Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: I know I am swimming far against the tide when it comes to this movie, but I just found it really boring. I will admit, this is not fully my type of movie, as I can easily get bored by action scenes, but even still the appeal of this film escapes me.

Ethan Hunt has to be one of the most boring characters in the history of action movies. He seems to be completely devoid of anything resembling personality. He is given some backstory (though even that is boring), but this does not a personality make. None of the other characters work on this level either. I can see the actors are given it their all, but because the characters are so bland it doesn't make a difference. This movie is in many ways one long action scene. People who read my reviews know that this is going to be a problem for me. To me action scenes are fun when the start off, but the longer they go on the less I care. With this over two hours of nothing but action holds little interest for me at all. I just found myself completely bored by everything happening on screen and couldn't wait for the movie to end.

I know I am slamming a very popular movie here, but keep in mind this is about as far from my type of movie as you can get. Truth is I can turn my mind off and enjoy a dumb comedy very easily, but the same does not work for a mindless action movie for me. So if you are like me, and prefer your action movies with interesting characters and a good story line, as well as liking your action scenes on the shorter side, then just completely avoid this movie. Again this movie seems to be one everybody else is enjoy so this review is probably just me. I guess all film fans have popular movies, that we just don't like, but are glad everybody else can enjoy. This is that movie for me, I was bored out of my mind watching this, but I am happy others had fun.

-Michael J. Ruhland   

Silent Film of the Month: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

Run Time: 13 minutes. Director: James Sibley Watson Jr. Writers: James Sibley Watson Jr., Melville Webber, E.E. Cummings. Based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Main Cast: Herbert Stern, Hildegarde Watson, Melville Webber. Cinematographer: James Sibley Watson Jr. Set Designer: Melville Webber.

When many film lovers think of art films and the silent era, their minds go to cinema made outside of the U.S. Think for instance of German expressionism, the works of Sergei Eisntein, Un Chein Andalou, or Ballet Mechanique. Still in the 1920's there was a movement in the U.S. for Avant Garde films. These films naturally never became as main stream as the slapstick comedies, westerns, or romantic melodramas. Still these films still existed and had their influence on much of cinema. One of the best of these films was 1928's The Fall of the House of Usher.

This film is anything but a straight retelling of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story. First off the film takes place in modern times, and second off the story itself is anything but clear. There are no intertitles here, making the story harder to follow. One gets a feeling though that the point of this short movie was not to tell a straightforward narrative. Even if you cannot put together what is happening on screen, the images have an emotion connection that can still easily resonate. The film follows a dream logic, where nothing is connected by a clear narrative but rather by strange desires and fears. After first seeing this film, I found it a bit disturbing, but it also left me very intrigued and almost hypnotized by what I just watched. I immediately wanted to watch it again. The second time watching it things may not have become clearer, but I was just as in awe with this strange indescribable piece of cinema. If the goal of cinema is to create a reaction from its viewer (which I fully believe it is) than this film succeeds beautifully. Interestingly the filmmakers chose this story since they hadn't read it in years and therefore would not have to strictly follow its plot.


The two main collaborators for this film came from non-cinematic backgrounds. James Sibley Watson Jr. had recovered a medical doctorate in 1923. He also published a literary journal called The Dail (E.E. Cummings (who wrote an early draft for this film) was a contributor). Appropriately The Dial often featured various works of Edgar Allen Poe. Melville Webber was an art historian who worked at the University of Rochester. The two would make one more film together after this, Lot in Sodom (1933).  

An issue of Movie Makers (dated December 1928) featured an article talking about the great art made by "Amateur" filmmakers apart from the Hollywood system. It stated about this film "They have through cinematic experiment, reached new artistic levels, as in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'." See the whole thing here.

In 1930 prints of this film were being sold by Home Film Libries Inc. for home viewing. The price for a copy of this was $30. To see a full advertisement for this click here.

Looking this film can be viewed for free on the website for Nation Film Preservation Foundation.

-Michael J. Ruhland