Just my luck

 Meeting in Didcot

My lady friend in Oxfordshire

Svitlana

It wouldn't suprise me if the release of the stress I have been under for the most of the last year causes a mental breakdown. The only good thing about the last 10 months, is being able to chat online with my friend, Svitlana, in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Without the help of Svitlana, I am certain, I would have hit a deep depression, so deep I doubt I would have recovered.

Now things are beginning to look a little brighter 🤞. I am hoping our chats can become more than only a quick hello

All in the Family

 I have moved on

My lady friend in Oxfordshire

Svitlana

To show how evil Pamela Olsted is, she "claimed" her sister died of Covid, knowing my wife died from the illness only a year before. She could be telling the truth, but as she had been telling me lies for months, I take it with a large dose of salt, in hindsight. She also "claimed" her daughter Ellah was ill, to gain sympathy. At the time, I had serious doubts about that, she said Ellah was 8, while it is not impossible for a lady in her late 40's to have a child, it is highly unlikely, as there are a lot of medical risks involved. The latest development is a lady "claiming" to be Pamela's younger sister told me she is in hospital in Bristol, again, I take that with a dose of salt. Knowing I live in Bristol, it is easy to find a hospital here.

I am very pleased I met Svitlana (above), on the site SoulmateMeets, we have moved to Charming Talks for our online chat now. Our chats are very different to those I thought I had with Pamela.

Southern Comfort

 Deliverance

White Line Fever

Louisiana

 Shortly after Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight came out, noticing the sales potential, diector Walter Hill made the film Southern Comfort, the film is about a group of Louisiana state troopers on an exercise in the swamp lands, who get hunted by the locals.

The film fetured Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, and Keith Carradine, but despite its premise, like White Line Fever, it sank into the area where only film buffs know about it. Keith Carradine, later appeared in the film The Long Riders, almong with his brothers Robert, and David, the Keach brothers, and two other sets of btothers, all playing real-life brothers from Mid-west USA. That film was about the James - Younger gang, and the killing of Jesse James, talk about All in the family, you had three sets of brothers playing three sets of brothers. Of the brothers, only David Carradine ( Cole Younger), and Stacy Keach (Frank James) made a name for themselves. I enjoyed Stacy Keach in the the series The new Mike Hammer, years before he notorious for his drug bust

What happened next?

 Escape from Alcatraz

Butch and Sundance

No Escape

There is no doubt Frank Miller, and the Anglin brothers escaoed from Alcatraz, but like Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid there is no record of them in later life.

My opinion is the got carried away by the tide under the Golden Gate Bridge. One theory I had was they were eaten by the Great White sharks that inhabit the waters near the bridge.

An equally plausible theory is the were so tired after the escape, they had no energy to fight the tide. They had hauked the raft up a ladder, across the roof, down the other side, and onto the beach. Then they had to inflate it, even using a makeshift pump, it takes energy, which they had ran out of.

In 2017, a letter was posted by a person "claiming" to be Frank Miller, you have to take this with a large dose of salt. The question you need to ask is if he had survived, why did he wait so long to send his letter, when an escape from a prison built to be unescapable would have made him a hero in the gangster world?

Ok, he was dying, but what did he have to gain? He was hardly clearing his consience.

Another aspect you need to consider, these men were hardened criminals, I doubt they could have stayed out of the life of crime for long

White Line Fever

 Trucking Movies

Before Smokey & the Bandit

Trucking Movies

Many years before Smokey & the Bandit, and Convoy made trucking movies a trend, I saw a film about truckers, in Southanpton, Hampshire, UK. That film was called White Line Fever, and its star was a young actor called Jon Voight.

For years, I tried to track the film down, but the price it costs is too high for one film.

To hog the trucking trend, Sylvester Stallone made a film called F.I.S.T., with Rod Stieger, both men and all the people who say the film call it trash. The premise is a group called the Federation of InterState Truckers fight off companies so they can control thier routes, and jobs.

Dead men don't wear plaid

 Steve Martin

Film Noir

Steve Martin

To many viewers if you mention Steve Martin, you think of Little shop of Horrors. However, he made an excellent pastiche with the film noir movie, Dead men don't wear plaid.

What is the difference between pastiche and parody?

A pastiche is what you get when you take cuttings from films, and make another film. A parody is when you make a movie to poke fun at something.

I haven't seen the movie Bilko, I don't think I'd enjoy it, to me Bilko is Phil Silvers. Also, the times have changed, a modern audience wouldn't know half of what went on

Though I am not a fan of musicals, I did enjoy Little shop of Horrors, as it wasn't purely musical, also it had Bill Murray and Rick Moranis in before they played in Ghostbusters.

Before Smokey & the Bandit

 Convoy

                                                                      White Line Fever

To many viewers films such as Smokey & the Bandit, and Convoy started the craze for trucking movies. Years before these I saw a film in Southampton, UK called White Line Fever. The star was a young Jon Voight, who would later play in the classic Deliverance with Burt Reynolds.

Talking of Burt Reynolds, and lost films, I have been trying to track the film Hooper, a film about stuntmen. In the cast is his friend, and fellow stuntman, Hal Needham, who directed Smokey.