Well, I think it's safe to say that the Super Bowl sucked. Not only did the Rams lose, but they played their worst offensive game in Coach McVay's two years with the team. Now, the Rams defense was another matter. They were pretty incredible, holding The Brady Bunch to a mere 3 points through three quarters. Had Goff & Co. been able to get anything going offensively, there might have been a different outcome, but I'll not engage in shoulda/woulda/coulda. Overall, even besides the unhappy outcome, it was a boring game. Nothing much happened, and if there is a band in the entire world that is worse than Maroon 5, please don't tell me, I don't wanna know.
So, scrub it and wait til next year. We've got the Dodgers in the World Series and the Rams in the Super Bowl, but we just can't seem to beat those teams from Boston. But next year, we're gonna win one.
Right, Charlie Brown? :) I am referring to myself there, because I am the Eternal Optimist, haha.
Anyhow, enough sports. I am glad I don't get worked up about these things any more. /////
We made it to church this morn, despite all the rain, and I got to sing my little solo verse again, the same one I did last September, in an anthem called "Everyone Is Welcome Here". Folks seemed to like it, so maybe I will have a chance to sing some solos in other songs in the future. ////
Tonight I watched "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934), the first sequel to "Tarzan the Ape Man" which we saw last night. If the initial film was an adventure story, this one is even more so. The plot involves another search for ivory at the Mutia Escarpment, the location of a hidden elephant graveyard. Expedition leader Henry Holt (played by Neil Hamilton of "Commissioner Gordon" fame on "Batman") is ready to set out again for the Escarpment. He was along for the first safari, headed up by Jane Parker's father (C. Aubrey Smith), who died at the end of the first movie. Jane decided to remain in the jungle with Tarzan, and in this first sequel Holt is not only seeking a haul of ivory. He also hopes to convince Jane to return to civilization with him, for he is in love with her. Holt has a partner with him, a co-investor and ladies' man, who will prove to be devious in his motives.
With the help of one hundred African bearers, Holt and the safari make their way to the Mutia Escarpment, where they run into Jane just beyond the cliffside. Holt has brought with him several new dresses from London, of the latest fashion, as presents for Jane. She is happy to see him, and loves the clothing. This gives the filmmakers an excuse to have Jane engage in some pre-code undressing-and-changing, a staple in many pre-code movies as we have seen.
Holt is to be ultimately rejected, though, because Jane - living in the jungle for a year now - has fallen in love with Tarzan. A long segment comes up next that shows her teaching Tarzan to speak a bit of English, in between romantic cuddles and some athletic manhandling of Jane by Tarzan. This bonding sequence serves to verify the title : "Tarzan and His Mate", and it culminates in the most graphic pre-code sequence I have seen so far, a fully nude underwater scene for Jane, with Tarzan chasing and catching her for some synchronized swimming, Hollywood Style, in lieu of sex.
Tarzan not know sex at that point anyway because Jane not teach yet.
But this is certainly the most risque scene we have seen thus far.
After the romantic interlude to establish Jane as Tarzan's Mate (leaving Holt in dismay), the film returns to adventure with a vengeance. Peril is around every corner, hidden in the bushes and behind every treeline. The animal scenes in "Tarzan and His Mate" are incredible : charging Rhino attacks, crocodiles waiting in the river for anyone unfortunate enough to wade in, prides of lions stalking hunters and native bearers with organized precision. The lion scenes are particularly scary, and the thing is that the filmmakers wanted you to see how smart these animals are, and to demonstrate that the jungle is their land.
If you mess with them there, you are toast, no matter how many guns you are carrying.
And there is a hierarchy among the animals themselves. The elephants are at the top, with their size and superior intelligence. Even the fearless lions go running when a stampede of elephants is heard approaching.
Through all of this animal action Tarzan issues his own commands by his trademark yell. The beasts are mostly on his side, though again as with the first film, there are a few shots where you hope no animals were harmed.
This is really Maureen O'Sullivan's movie, so spirited is she and natural as an actress. I had not seen much of her work prior to the Tarzan films, but she is a very uninhibited actress and in that way she personifies the "pre-code ethic" if there could be said to be such a thing. She steals every scene she is in, and if the studio hadn't had Johnny Weissmuller in the lead role, a lesser Tarzan would have been overshadowed by O'Sullivan for certain.
Considering that these movies were filmed mostly in California and Florida, the filmmakers did a great job of simulating a jungle location. You really do feel as if you are watching an African safari when you see these early Tarzans. The editing especially gives you the feeling of being right there in the hunt, with animals appearing all around you, suddenly and without warning.
You are lucky to have Tarzan come to your rescue, or you would become lunch for a lion, dinner for a crocodile.......or even stew for a cannibal. Hey - they've gotta eat, too.
But even more, you are lucky to have Jane. Maureen O'Sullivan is stealing these films so far. We've got four left. ////
See you in the morning, more rain is supposed to fall. Sleep in, since you got up early for church today.
Love and more love til then. xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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