Transcript: Christian Faith and Black Cinema: A Man Called Adam, Anna Lucasta

3, 2, 1, 0, 0, and liftoff! Welcome to the Retro Drive-In Podcast with Jason, Pastor Jay Locker. Welcome to the Secret Word and Divide $100. It's a common word, something you find around the house. We want to thank all our sponsors for their help in making this podcast possible. The African Queen. Humphrey Bogart. Boy, is he lost. Hey, hey, bogey. Now let's rewind the tape and join Pastor Jay for some retro entertainment talk on the Retro Drive-In Podcast. Greetings, classic cinema and TV fans. Pastor Jay here with you once again on the Retro Drive-In Podcast. If you're new to this podcast, well, be sure to go to retroac.blogspot.com and check out our archived broadcasts there. We've done a lot of interesting things here recently, So you may want to go back and check those out if you're new to this media podcast. But anyway, February is Black History Month, and it's a great time to look back at some classic black cinema. And I really enjoy these releases we're talking about today. And they're two releases from Kino Lorber. And wow, they are from the Kino Lorber Studio Classics Collection. And wow, good stuff. And they both feature one of my favorites of the Rat Pack. Now, the Rat Pack, maybe some of you don't remember, if you're younger, you don't remember the Rat Pack. I wasn't young enough. I'm not old enough to remember the Rat Pack either. But I know history of films and TV and stuff like that. And I love that old era. And so, yeah, I know the Rat Pack. Rat Pack was Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and others that kind of all piled together. They kind of went around together, went to the clubs together. They would have concerts together and do all kinds of stuff. And they were known as the Rat Pack, just a bunch of people gathering together and just being buddies. Admiring ourselves again, eh? Son of a gun always buys his own records. Now, let's know. I made some pretty good albums here, didn't I? Look, this one won an award. For best singing? Forget it. Nelson won it for the best orchestration. Forget it. Wait a minute. I think I know what he got it for. I know. Don't tell me, Joey. Best sound engineering. No, you're both loose. What? It was the best cover. You son of a gun. I didn't know you could draw. You, you painted the hall. Are you accusing the leader of not being able to draw? I made a mistake. I am sorry, oh, ruler of the soul. And one of them was Sammy Davis Jr. And, wow, he was an amazing, amazing singer. Oh, so good. He just had such a velvet-like voice. I mean, when he sang, it was just so, so good. I mean, he just had a very special way about him. Very hard life. If you don't know the life of Sammy Davis Jr., I definitely suggest checking that out. You can check that out at Wikipedia, or maybe you can get a biography of Sammy Davis, and you should check that out. He had a very, very hard life and all, but brought from that hard life some great music and some great entertainment. He doesn't get a lot of love for his dramatic presentations. uh we think of him as uh the singer we think of him as uh you know the uh you know the guy along for the ride in a lot of the um the rat pack movies um they had so many of them Ocean Eleven and Robin and the Seven Hoods and different ones like that But Sammy Davis Jr. was an amazing, an absolutely stellar, dramatic actor. He could have been Oscar nominated. That's how good he is. And Kino Lorber Studio Classics have released two of Sammy Davis Jr.'s amazing dramatic presentations this month for Black History Month. And wow, some great stuff. First off, Kino Lorber released Ana Lucasta. It is an amazing film starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr. Now, originally, Anna Luquesta was a stage production, and then they transferred it into the film starring Sammy Davis Jr. and Eartha Kitt. And it basically tells the story of a woman named Anna who is kind of pushed out by her father. She falls into, you know, a really, really bad lifestyle of alcohol and prostitution and all kinds of bad stuff. And her family decided to try to bring her in with ulterior motives to marry this man. she comes in she falls in love with the guy and it all seems to be going well she gets married to him and everything and they're going to be married and have a brilliant and beautiful life and Danny comes back into the picture Danny of course Sammy Davis Jr. and he tells her you're going to go down this lifestyle you're going to get married to this farmer you're going to do this and he said you can't live like that You're not that type. And she ends up going back with Danny and leaving her husband and going down a bad lifestyle yet again. And it takes tragedy for her to turn her life back around. And wow, this film is just unbelievable. It is so dramatic and so just heart-tugging. It is absolutely probably one of the better films that I've seen of Sammy Davis Jr. He is really, really great in this. And Eartha Kidd is amazing as well in this film. And I have to say, Keena Lorber has done an amazing job putting this on Blu-ray. It looks absolutely spectacular in glorious black and white. And I'm telling you, it is amazing. It is so good. If you love those dramas, the dramatic presentations, this one from Sammy Davis Jr. and Eartha Kitt is one you've got to check out. It is absolutely stellar. It is so good. And it's a pretty awesome little tale as well. It's really good. But King of Lorber didn't go just there this month. No, no, no. They went a step further and they gave us another Sammy Davis Jr. film, and that is A Man Called Adam. Another dramatic presentation of a man named Adam who is a musician, a trumpet player, and all the trials and tribulations he goes through with all the hatred and the racial hatred and everything of him trying to be a musician and people not wanting to accept him. And wow, it is so now, if you will. It's such a great presentation for right here and now. It's really amazing. Sammy Davis Jr. is not alone in this release at all. Absolutely not. There are so many great actors in here. You get Peter Lawford, one of the Rat Pack. You get Mel Torme, the great Mel Torme, is in this. You get Miss Cicely Tyson. Now, as we're recording this, just a few days ago, we lost Cicely Tyson, the amazing actress. Unbelievable. And she is in this. Now, no one would have ever dreamed that when Keena Lorber would have released this, that that would have been a tribute to Cicely Tyson. But it has become that. It's unbelievable. You get Ozzie Davis, and you get the great Louis Armstrong in here. Unbelievable Just filled with great actors and musicians and singers I mean it is a great great film Sammy Davis really really takes the bull by the horns as they used to say and really, really fights that injustice. And sadly, in this film, it kind of takes him down. And I'm not going to go any further than that, but I'll just say it takes him down. You have to watch the film to find out what I mean by that. But it is a great, great film. And wow, two amazing releases from Kino Lorber. I am, oh, I tell you, I have been reviewing Kino Lorber releases for a little bit now. And every time new releases come out, it surprises me. They are continually surprising me with some of these releases that they're coming out with. I have to be honest with you, I never saw these before this. So I can't really judge them in comparison to other releases because I've never seen them in any other releases. But I can tell you right now that these look absolutely stellar. They are gorgeous. There's no signs of damage in the prints or anything. They are just beautiful. The audio is perfect. I mean, everything is just amazing. They're in 1080p and all for high definition. It is just great stuff. That glorious black and white, right? There's something about that old black and white that you just love. At least I do. I really enjoy that old black and white. There's just something about it. And I'm going to tell you, Keena Lorber has done something here that I really think they need to be applauded for, and that is giving us movie fans something for Black History Month that is unbelievable, and that's two features of Sammy Davis Jr., the great Sammy Davis Jr. Something as a side note, though, with Sammy Davis is when I watched this, a man called Adam and you see Sammy Davis and he's sitting here blowing that trumpet and he is unbelievable. And if you don't know Sammy Davis Jr. and you see him sitting here blowing that trumpet you sit there and say, wow he really plays that up really good you wouldn't even know he doesn't know how to play it. He does know how to play it. Sammy Davis Jr. is known for just being a singer and a dancer, but Sammy Davis was an amazing musician. An amazing musician. He could play basically anything, and he was just so spectacular. I don't know. There's just something about it. Just a great, great film. Both are just amazing. They're heart-tugging, dramatic presentations, and wow, I am so glad that Kino Lorber has released these on Blu-ray because they are just so, so amazing. I just feel as though sometimes I'm trying to tell you, and it's not coming out like I want to because there's just so much words you can say. and sometimes words just are not enough. What? Hmm? What? Oh, no. Wait a minute. What? I will not have that botanical freak in this room. That's why I say definitely go get a copy of these and check them out. They are absolutely amazing, dramatic presentations. They are so good, and they look absolutely stellar. We want to remind you to, if you want more details on these releases, we have two full written reviews of both of these Blu-ray releases. Go to retroac.blogspot.com and check out the full reviews of both Anna Lucasta and A Man Called Adam. I think you're going to be amazed at the quality if you pick up a copy. I think you're going to be amazed at the quality, and I think you're going to be really in love with them once you see how amazing they really, really are. As we said, this is Black History Month, and this month we wanted to celebrate some of the great actors from Black History Amazing And we could go on forever of all the great actors And we don have time for that of course But so many, many great actors that have graced the silver screen throughout the years. And just amazing, amazing people and amazing actors. And they deserve our respect. and they deserve a lot of love and that's why we wanted to spotlight Sammy Davis Jr. and Eartha Kitt this time around along with other great actors in these two releases. Just great stuff and we want to thank Kino Lorber for releasing these two. Man are these great stuff and the great Cicely Tyson as well. We forgot about that with the great Cicely Tyson as well in this and she is amazing as well. so just great great great actors and just wow mind blowing how amazing these are so we want to thank Akina Lorber for sending these over our way so that we could add these to our library we're going to be revisiting these very very soon again because wow they are so good they are rewatchable really are they're rewatchable I'm going to watch these several more times I mean unbelievable stuff good, good dramatic presentations. I'm gonna love you all all me Holy mackerel Sapphire, let me explain here the whole thing. Oh yeah, if all the women in Texas look like your mama Sapphire, the Lone Ranger gonna be alone for a long time. Alright, I want to remind you to go to KinoLorberg.com wow go and check out their immense gallery or catalog of amazing amazing stuff they got a little bit of something for everybody they got animation they got science fiction they got tv they got horror they got drama they got westerns they got they got everything you can imagine it's there at kinolorever.com so go check it out and uh and see all the amazing stuff i think you're going to be pleasantly surprised and I would be shocked if you came away from there and didn't find a whole bunch of stuff you'd like to check out. So go check that amazing, amazing catalog of great stuff from Kino Lorber. We want to remind you to like, share, and subscribe to these videos. We appreciate you listening in. If you're listening to the audio version or if you're watching the video version, whatever the case may be, subscribe. We would appreciate it. We'd I'd love to know you're listening out there or you're watching these videos. Be sure to do that. Also, be sure to go to retroac.blogspot.com and check out all the amazing reviews and articles and videos and podcasts and all the amazing stuff we got on that website there. It's just jam-packed full of stuff. and you'll be there for days and days and days just reading all the great stuff. So go check that out. And until we see you next time with another Retro Drive-In Podcast, this is Pastor Jay reminding you that if you want to see a great film, check out a classic and we will see you next time. Have a blessed one. We want to thank you for joining us today on the Retro Drive-In Podcast with Jason Pastor Jay Lockard. Have you heard the latest about McTavish? What? He don't know. He's living on the roof. Why would he be living on the roof? He heard someone say the drinks are on the house. The drinks are on the house. You don't, but me. It's a little late, so good night, folks. Be sure to subscribe to our channel so that you can be notified when new content goes live. Bam. Out of an ecchi. Thanks again to all our sponsors for their help in making this podcast possible. I'll see you back at the hut. Oh, no, we couldn't leave a poor defenseless girl like you out alone in this jungle. Yeah, you need two defenseless men to protect you. Think for yourself. Remember to join us next time for another retro drive-in podcast with Jason Pastor Jay Lockard. Thank you.