Happy Spring! Though it is not very Springlike here in Southern California and though we are supposed to have yet another gigantic rainstorm tomorrow, we still welcome Spring with wide open arms because Winter sucks.
Although......now wait a minute, Ad. We just finished with Winter, but overall the weather was pretty nice. 87 degrees at Christmas. The most beautiful first half of February in memory. January wasn't too shabby either, though the light quality is always a bit depressing at the start of the year. But yeah - how can you say Winter Sucks, when Winter was better, for the most part, than Spring is starting off to be?
Oh, hell. I don't know. Why do you bug me with this stuff? I can't keep up with Global Warming Weather anyway. You never know what you are gonna get, except for this year - so far - you can be sure that either the wind is gonna be blowin' or the stormclouds are gonna be gatherin', or both.
And our Summer last year didn't start until September. June, July and August were Spring.
I think I'm losing my marbles. :)
But I must have a few left, because I watched an excellent movie tonight called "On Borrowed Time" (1939), starring the great Lionel Barrymore, eldest member of the famed Barrymore acting clan. Man, do I love old movies, especially from Hollywood, because they created a mythology about a time of relative innocence in America. Now, it must be stressed that Americans of that era lived through two World Wars and The Great Depression, so how relative could that innocence have been, right?
The movies from that time show that the innocence was intact, all the way through the late 40s. It was the wars and the post-war politics that destroyed American innocence, but man could they ever portray the way it was in the old films. Movies from that era have a "Gee Whiz" quality that is very appealing now, in the time of Trump.
Lionel Barrymore plays a crochety old man who becomes the guardian to his beloved grandson after the boy's parents (Barrymore's son and daughter-in-law) are killed in a road accident. In his role, Barrymore is confined to a wheelchair as he was in real life. He played all of his "Dr. Kildare" roles in the chair as well. But anyway, he loves his grandson, who is about 9, and his grandson idolises him, because he has an "us-against-the-world" attitude. Though elderly and crippled, he relates to childhood, and his "screw convention" attitude rubs off on his little grandson, who would rather do "boy things" like dig in the ground for worms, than do "proper things" like go to church.
Grandpa is a rebel, and grandson worships him. They are two peas in a pod.
But there is a character who hovers around the edges of the story. His name is Mr. Brink, and he is an agent of Death (kind of like an assistant to the Grim Reaper). Mr. Brink is played by the great Sir Cedric Hardwicke (who could play anything), and he appears out of nowhere in the story, to collect people, usually elderly, whose time has come.
Lionel Barrymore is feisty, however, and when Mr. Brink comes calling for him, he turns the tables. Mr. Brink has already taken his wife, and his son. All he has left is his grandson, to whom he is closest of all. There is no way he is gonna let Mr. Brink separate him from the kid.
His grandson, being a child, believes in magic, and in things like wishes and magic spells, and he tells Grandpa Barrymore to wish Mr. Brink away. The spell they cast on him has to do with an old apple tree in their front yard. The two of them trap Mr. Brink in the tree, and thus Death is captured.
Mr. Brink is stuck in the tree and can no longer come calling for anyone. There is no more death, as long as Grandpa's spell is maintained.
"On Borrowed Time" was a Broadway play before being made into a film, and apparently it was a hit. You can see why in the relationship between Grandpa and Grandson, and their hold on the magic of life as viewed through the eyes of the child. Other adults in the film conform to the things that are expected of "adults", but only Grandpa Barrymore and his pal, his 9 year old grandson, can see the inevitability of death, and the wonder of this life, and can see through the cynicism that affects those who allow themselves to pass from childhood - to lose their childhood - to a forced vision of adulthood.
Meanwhile, Mr. Brink, ever the gentleman but running out of patience (because he is Death, after all), is still stuck in the apple tree, by the magic spell. There is no Death as long as he is stuck there.
I discovered "On Borrowed Time" from one of my usual library searches, and wow is it ever a fantastic movie on so many levels. Most folks probably would not watch a movie from 1939, that is based on a play and is very stylised to represent a bygone era of wholesome values, mythic or not.
But for those who would give such a movie a chance, you would not be disappointed.
Lionel Barrymore was, I think, the best actor in that famous family. His performances always had an energy of rebellion against the norm. He always displayed a cantankerous leadership in his wheelchair. When you see him in a movie you are seeing an America that existed almost a century ago.
That America existed in real life. It was mythologised by Hollywood, but the emotions and mannerisms that you see on screen were reflected in the populace at that time. That "Gee Whiz" quality in regular American folks was real. But there was also a rebelliousness against cynicism and conformity. There was an "F-You" quality, too, though it was presented in a clean-cut and non-violent way. In those days there wasn't near the crime or social decay of today. There was just an innocence in the way people displayed their personalities, even if some personalities conflicted with one another.
I give "On Borrowed Time" Two Huge Thumbs Up, and as you can tell from the length of my review, I loved it. It was a great find and is highly recommended. :)
That's all for tonight. See you in the morn. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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