Archive Classic Movies

Who remembers Black & White Flash Gordon on BBC2? I do. That was back when TV's had three channels: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. You had to push the clunk buttons really hard to change channels. There was white noise between channel changes. Remote control? Use your legs, son. When you you switch the TV off, the picture shrunk into a white dot in the centre of the screen. If the TV had been on a while, the white dot stayed for ages.

Anyway, Archive Classic Movies have got Flash Gordon. They've also got José Ferrer's Cyrano de Bergerac (opinions - is this one or the Gerard Depardieu one better?). They've got La Ciociara - An amazing Sophia Loren movie. There is plenty of pulp, including Reefer Madness - the completely ridiculous film on the perils of smoking weed. Possibly more appropriate now with everyone growing their own strong hydronic versions.

All these movies are free to download. The site is beautifully simple and the amount of content is mind boggling. You can subscribe to the podcasts which makes searching and choosing even easier. It almost makes me want one of those video ipod thingys and commute two hours everyday - almost. I'd much prefer a large Chesterfield, daquiri in hand, watching on a screen that doesn't have tacky silver plastic around it - but these things seem are becoming more difficult to achieve in this modern world.

Well, more soon, I'm off to watch the entire series of Radar Men From the Moon!