Jolson Sings Again (1949)

You know, I actually thought that we were going to get through Jolson Sings Again without having to see Larry Parks in blackface playing Al Jolson in blackface. Nope. Jolson Sings Again takes a really weird turn and for act three takes us into the making of the film The Jolson Story, which, like this movie, starred Larry Parks lipsynching to Al Jolson. It's a strange meta-movie third act. Jolson Sings Again is the sequel to that 1946 film, and we watch the effect of the film's smash success on the real Jolson... played by Larry Parks. It's kind of cool but also strange. Parks is excellent, as he was in the original film, and actually Jolson sounds wonderful. He's in great voice. I even liked the script for the first two acts of the film. But Jolson Sings Again stumbles in its final sequences, especially when we just watch Jolson watching clips of The Jolson Story for at least ten minutes – maybe more!

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a fairly typical late-1950s science fiction story, although this one has a pretense at being a literary adaptation, that is... if you want to call Jules Verne literature. Haha.

But this film has lots to recommend it. It's funny and sweet, and it has plenty of adventure in it. Pat Boone spends over half of the movie shirtless, and he's pretty and sings beautifully. At one point he's sweating profusely and he cuts off most of his clothes with a knife and it's really more than a kid's movie should allow. If I had seen this as a kid I might have turned gay immediately. Arlene Dahl is also fairly wonderful in this. And there's a really adorable duck called Gertrude. In short, I had quite a lot of fun with Journey to the Center of the Earth.

I got Disney+ so that I could watch Hamilton and Frozen (again – for a research project). But I still haven't watched either Hamilton or Frozen and instead I watched this bit of silliness. I stand by my choice.