Benny Hill done it, that's who! Before the famed English comedian made a name for himself on television as the star of The Benny Hill Show, he made this fast-moving farce playing a detective who sets out to capture enemy agents bent on destroying England with a weather-making machine.  Hill stars as Hugo Dill, an ice sweeper at a skating rink who long dreamed of becoming a private detective. When he wins £100 and a bloodhound in a contest, he feels he is ready to embark on his new career. Within one day of opening his office doors, he gets embroiled in a scheme by a ruthless Iron Curtain ..read more

This month's featured film album is a departure from the usual soundtrack LP and features two popular stars of the 1960s - Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren - joining forces for a rollicking good time on a self-titled album. Peter displays his ability to change his voice for various characters on some comedic tracks and the remaining pieces are musical numbers performed as duets or just by Ms. Loren herself. Sophia Loren had a charming singing voice with a heavy Italian accent. Her "Americano" number from It Started in Naples (1960) is probably her most famous song, but she also did the wonderfu ..read more

               Caught in the act! Oh, Mr. B... you should be ashamed of yourself. Hazel caught you raiding the refrigerator again - and after you swore that you were going to stick with your diet! Tsk, tsk, tsk.  From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures ..read more

Every once in a while, you might come across a wonderful film and wonder why it is not more well-known than it is. At least, I do that....and, unfortunately, it is quite rare to find hidden gems; but Alive and Kicking is one such movie. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it instantly. Granted, its plot would not appeal to a large audience so I can understand why it is as obscure as it is.  Sybil Thorndike, Estelle Winwood and Kathleen Harrison star as three elderly women who escape from a nursing home when they learn that they will be relocated to other nursing homes a ..read more

When you have listened to a lot of record albums, it is easy to dismiss an album just by a glance at the songs included. I've heard so many with the same songs (do you know how many versions of the themes to Lawrence of Arabia or Exodus were made?) that sometimes when I see nothing "new", I pass up listening to the album.  Well, a few days ago, I came across Enoch Light's "1963 - The Year's Most Popular Themes" LP on Youtube and am so glad that I took a chance on it despite the familiarity of all of its selections. This album is a gem! Enoch Light was a sound engineer who produced some ..read more

  This month's Impossibly Difficult screenshot is a from a well-known film and is a fairly easy one to guess, especially if you are familiar with women-talking-on-telephones scenes. Of course, if you aren't then you may be out of luck.  As always, if you need to know the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game or the prize, click here ..read more

Mix together Judy Garland, George Murphy, a little romance, and some lovely Irish folk tunes and what have ye? Little Nellie Kelly, that's what. This MGM musical from 1940 features Judy Garland playing not one, but two parts. You may be sad to see her character Nellie Kelly die within the first 20 minutes of the film but shortly after she pops again, this time in the form of the daughter of Nellie Kelly.  Nellie is the apple of her father's eye and when she elopes with Jerry Kelly (George Murphy) behind his back, he fills his heart with spite against the young man. Jerry takes his new b ..read more

St. Patrick's Day, that most honored of Irish holidays, be comin' o'er the week-end and if ye be feeling for a bit o' whimsy then look no further than The Luck of the Irish, a gem of a film starring himself, that handsome lad Tyrone Power.  Tyrone Power plays a freelance writer named Steven Fitzgerald who befriends a leprechaun ( Cecil Kellaway ) while he is stranded in a village in Ireland. He manages to capture him and demand his gold but, not wanting to take the old man's life savings, returns the pot to him. The leprechaun is so grateful he follows Fitzgerald back to New York City an ..read more

Here's that dynamic dancing duo Astaire and Rogers tapping away on the beautiful hardwood floor of a set designed by Art Van Nest Polglase. Fred must have scuffed up many a floor in his day with all his toe-tapping.  From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures ..read more

This month's lineup of films available for streaming features some entertaining British pictures including the comedy Genevieve (1953) about a man and his wife who take part in the Brighton run with their antique 1904 Darracq and the excellent adventure flick Flame Over India (released stateside as Northwest Frontier) starring Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall. Also, be sure to check out some of the Powell and Pressburger productions which are now available on FreeVee including our personal favorite I Know Where I'm Going which is set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and features the dashing R ..read more