wilhunteye

I wish I could remember all of the doctor Seussish poem the Groon . The Groon came on the ABC 'Children's Television Workshop' Saturday Mornings. A break from the standard cartoons. I do remember the first time I saw it. I was sitting for my sisters kids around Halloween . My young nephew who was eight years old and my niece a year younger were throwing pillows and jumping around, suddenly stopped and sat down, first lured then mesmerized by the eerie tone of the narration and totally captured by the Chuck Jones visual on our small black and white TV. It reran a few time for a couple years, but them faded into TV history. For months nay years to come when it was dark I could get both of the kids to cringe, by in the deepest voice I could muster, by simply saying, Beware the Groon is coming soon, so keep one eye on the moon and the other on anything moving about the room. What a terrible Uncle I was.

I thought of it from time to time in the following years and yet when asking about it only a few remember. Just the same I have been desperately seeking a copy of this T.V. series or even a printed version of this Ray Bradbury poem for a long time. I think many would enjoy this if it were available on DVD

It was a memorable film that i first saw on 'Saturday Night At the Movies" when I was 12 years old, (six years after it was released in 1958). Being raised on a diet of TV and movie westerns, 'From Hell to Texas' stood out from all of them; I identified with the lead and had a crush on Diane Varsi that lasted for years.

I saw this feature only one more time when I was 21, just before shipping out to Nam. This time I identified with the scope of the film and the depth of the characters. Chill Will gave a memorable performance definitely a cut above his typical side-kick comic relief roll, and I thought it interesting for a father to actually help his daughter's suitor in such a unstinting fashion. Opposite Wills was R.G. Armstrong and his son Dennis Hopper, though the heavies one could not really hate them. It was through these characters that it was easy to understand that it is not the person who is evil it is the deed. This film has always been in the back of my head and deep in my heart, for it stood out as having both action and a message. I hope it will be transferred to DVD soon. On memory alone I give it an '8'out of 10.