I am extremely pleased that Richard Harland Smith selected yours truly at ONE WAY STREET as a Premio Dardo Award winner on his always-fascinating TCM Movie Morlocks blog. This award (which is presented sans any obligatory bric-a-brac like a gold statuette, a stuffed marlin for that odd wall of mine that lacks a film noir one sheet or a Fifth Skull of Jonathan Drake candle holder) is predicated on: “...the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers (and) gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.” As someone who has a consistent record of winning bupkiss, the Dardos award personally means a lot… well... as Mel put it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wDdFyDq7oA&feature=related All kidding aside, Richard's writing in the fantasy genre magazine Video Watchdog, the TCM Morlocks site and elsewhere is relentlessly entertaining. I recommend that you read his recent post on one of the great, all-time sci-fi movies, The Incredible Shrinking Man...

  Here's a link to my chat with Ernest Borgnine on Filmmonthly. Ernie tells it like it was. Great guy. Alan

  Ricardo Montalban died today and the world lost a veneer of badly needed class. I never met the man, but I sure admired him. His memoir, Reflections, A Life in Two Worlds published in 1980 is only 163 brief pages. I've had it in my library for years. No matter the length, Montalban’s book bespeaks a class human being who was first and foremost a gentleman, a term that has all but vanished from our public lexicon. Ricardo Montalban radiated confidence without arrogance, lightness without frivolity and gravitas with sincerity. When he first came to this country in the 1940’s, Montalban stopped at a roadside diner in Texas that had a sign out front: “No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed”.He swallowed his outrage and continued on the road to Hollywood. He married his wife, Georgiana Young (Loretta’s sister) soon after. She was the one and only love of his entire life....