"Eyes in the Night" starring Edward Arnold + The Goff Trade

Tonight I watched an entertaining thriller called "Eyes in the Night"(1942), starring Edward Arnold as a blind detective who uncovers an espionage ring while working on a murder case. The plot is convoluted at first; Arnold is visited by his adult niece, a former actress now married to a government scientist. She's worried about her stepdaughter (played by Donna Reed), a rebellious 17 year old who is seeing a much older man - an actor the niece once dated herself. See, I told you it's complicated, but don't waste too much time trying to figure it out because it's a red herring, placed in the script just to add spice and get things going.

Arnold agrees to investigate the relationship, and to "suggest" to the actor that he stop seeing the teenaged stepdaughter. But when he goes to the man's apartment, he finds him dead. His niece is on the scene, as is her stepdaughter. Did either one of them kill the guy? I can't tell you and that's not what the movie is about.

It's about characters, of the kind you used to find in a Ten Little Indians movie, where everyone is ensconced inside a mansion and one by one, suspects are eliminated. This picture was made by MGM and directed by the great Hollywood craftsman Fred Zinneman, who made "High Noon" among other famous flicks, so the budget is slightly higher than the typical "single location" movie from a poverty row studio made in the same style, but the spirit is similar. The whole thing is carried on the considerable shoulders of the burly Arnold, an early Hollywood star with a charismatic screen presence. He and his guide dog end up being pitted against the various members of the spy ring, which includes Donna Reed's drama coach, the house butler, and a host of henchmen including a young Barry Nelson. There are a lot of familiar faces here, but again, don't ask about the specifics. It's never explained if the spies are Nazis, though I suppose we should assume they are, even though none of them has an accent (and they are lead by a drama teacher).

Instead, what you have is a well-made popcorn picture, not of the modern blockbuster variety but of the old-school, Saturday Night at the Movies kind, where you paid a quarter for a ticket and walked out with a smile on your face. It feels like the producers were trying to create a franchise, in line with other individualistic detective characters of the early 1940s such as "Charlie Chan", "Mr. Moto" and "Mr. Wong". True, all of those were Inscrutable Orientals, but why not try a blind man with a dog that's a genius at breaking and entering? 

"Eyes in the Night" gets Two Big Thumbs Up as pure fun, with a star turn from Friday the German Shepherd. Definitely worth a watch if you are still scouring Youtube in the what are, hopefully, the waning days of the pandemic. ///

In football news, I'm not sure about that Jared Goff trade by the Rams. I mean, I know Goff didn't live up to expectations, but still, he helped to get us to a Super Bowl and was in the playoffs for three of the four years he was a starter. Yeah, I know he was a turnover machine this year, and that he had no mobility, but the Rams just traded him for Matthew Stafford, who is 32 years old, and while his quarterbacking skills and passing stats are in the upper eschelon, he's an old guy, good for another couple of years at best, because he's injury prone, coming off back surgery a year ago among a host of other ailments.

I know Goff was not a great quarterback, but at least he got ya there, into the playoffs and even to the SB, where he and the Rams did lose, but they lost to Tom Brady and Belichick, which is no disgrace. So at first glance, I think this trade was a mistake. I hope I am proved wrong. ////

That's basically all I know for tonight, but I also watched an episode of "Project Blue Book" about the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. Blue Book is an amazing show, it's only lasted two seasons so far, and was recently cancelled by the History Channel (maybe because it's too hard core), but this episode reminded me of the book "Hunt For The Skinwalker" by Colm Kelleher. I read it a few years ago and recommend it as one of my top five books on the subject of the paranormal, in this case where it meets military technology.

Read it if you dare. 

See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Dresden", a miniseries made for German TV from 2006 + Elizabeth

 I'm back at Pearl's since yesterday, and for the past two nights I've been watching a miniseries called "Dresden", made for German TV in 2006. If you've been reading recent blogs, you know that I just finished a book about the bombing of that city during World War Two, and was moved enough to do some Googling afterward, to see if there were any movies on the subject. I found "Dresden" in the library system and sat down to watch, beginning last night after Pearl had gone to bed. It's a three hour film, presented in two parts, and I won't go into a lengthy description except to say that the focus of the story is a love triangle, the bombing raid is the background, and grand finale is horrendous, akin to the descriptions read in Sinclair Macay's book. 

In brief, an English pilot is shot down over the German countryside during a prior bomb run. He somehow manages to make his way to the city of Dresden, blending in to the bedraggled masses ground down by the attrition of war. He speaks enough German to get by, and ends up hiding in a hospital basement, hoping to get treatment for his wounds (he was shot by a villager after parachuting to the ground).

In the basement, he encounters a German nurse, who at first is frightened of him, but because she believes in the Hippocratic Oath, she bandages him up and helps him to stay hidden. She thinks he's a deserter and isn't aware he's English until later. The nurse is engaged to be married to a young German doctor, but she soon falls in love with her concealed English Patient. Her end of the plot is all tied up in the patriarchal politics of Fascist culture. Her father and her fiancee are in cahoots with the Gestapo to steal and sell the hospital's  dwindling morphine supply. She doesn't really love the doctor and is only marrying him because it's expected of her. Soon, she is ready to run off with her Englishman, to London or wherever fate may take them.

But the Lancasters are preparing for takeoff, and on the night of February 13, 1945, beginning at 10:03pm, any plans made, by the young lovers or anyone else, will be thrown into a maelstrom resembling the 9th Circle of Hell. I'll spare you the grim details except to say that in the last half hour, the movie depicts a truncated but authentic looking version of events detailed in the book.

The love story is heartfelt but told in conventional dramatic fashion, and in that respect the film resembles most of the modern productions of similar topic (think of "The Reader" for general reference), however, when the bombing raid finally arrives, the actuality of what took place is shown with no holds barred.

I read about these things, and watch movies about them, because I want to try to comprehend, in this case, a real life horror that took place only fifteen years before I was born. I feel that people should not just worship celebrity "bling bling" culture and constantly move forward in a world where numbskulls are deleting history they don't like, but instead that real history should not only be taught but mandated to school children (in appropriate form, minus the gruesome details), so that the reality of the World Wars will not be swept into the trash can. I worry because right now we see all these nutcases on the Right, some even in our Congress like that woman from Georgia, who have a similar Fascist agenda, based on the same type of paranoia that fueled Hitler. In the past, she'd have never gotten elected because we had an informed population. I do think the Internet has caused an enormous decline in the sanity of our nation, because it has allowed all the neuroses and psychoses of every individual nutjob in a country of 360 million to be hurled into the I-stream, on Facebook and Twitter and whatever the heck have you. And now some of these nutjobs, who aren't even professional politicians but are bar owners or gun nuts (or both), are now elected members of congress. 

This is something that never would have happened before the Internet, and we've got to get control over all of this (and I include, as always, nuts on the Left as well as the Right).

Well, end of rant and end of story. I just don't want anything bad to happen, so I feel like a watchman in the spiritual sense. It's important to look at the big picture and project a positive spirit into the world, even in a quiet way, to counteract all the derangement and aggressive negativity. ////

I've also been watching episodes of "Project Blue Book" Season Two, also acquired from the Libe. It's an incredible show, very exciting and informative, in the field of UFOs. Highly recommended. ////

Elizabeth, I'm glad you're back and I'm glad you're writing. Your new melody is expressive as always and it's fair to say that you've developed your own style. I hope you will keep working with string backgrounds; they really add counterpoint and emotion. If you complete you newest piece, post the whole thing if you feel like it. I'd love to hear it. I hope everything is going well for you. Keep the faith until the pandemic is over, and you'll be right back in the thick of things creatively speaking, in the world where you belong.  :):)

That's all for tonight. The rain just started pouring down a minute ago, supposed to continue all day tomorrow. See you in the morning. 

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxo  :):)

"Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" w/ James Cagney & "Coastal Command", an RAF wartime documentary

 Tonight, Grimsley came over with a movie called "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye"(1950), starring James Cagney as a sociopath who, after breaking out of prison, uses sheer hutzpah to strongarm a crooked detective (Ward Bond) into joining his ambitious crime racket. At first, the movie seems to be a straightforward cops & robbers yarn, but Cagney has higher aims. While searching for a shady lawyer who will help him blackmail the Inspector, he is introduced to the daughter of a multimillionaire, known as "the most powerful man in California". They meet at a lecture given by the head of a Theosophical Society, of all things, an existentialist group given to pondering the meaning of life. Cagney couldn't care less about the metaphysics, but he sees in the young lady a kindred spirit. She is loaded with money, drives a 12 cylinder motorcar (British, but don't know make or model), and is reckless with it, taking Jimmy for a ride in which she tops 100 mph on a curving canyon road.

Now he's found a woman who's as edgy as he is. She's in love with him and he's got his eye on her money.

But.......he's got his other eye on Barbara Peyton, because he's already attached to her. She's the sister of a prisoner who was killed during the jailbreak; the guy was Cagney's partner. Jimmy used phony sympathy afterward to gain Payton's trust, but she's at rock bottom emotionally and Cagney has to continually pep talk her into sticking with the program. She's an "honest girl" who has never committed a crime, so he plays her like a pawn, only she knows about the rich chick and has told him, "I'll do anything for you, but I won't tolerate another woman".

"Yeah, yeah".......thinks Cagney. He's so sure of himself, and so sure he's got the world by the tail, that he overlooks Barbara Peyton's warning. 

It's a good flick, but feels too long at 102 minutes because this is one of the rare scripts that is overdeveloped. Usually I complain about thin writing, as you know, but this time the writers tried to cram in too many layers, without exploring any of them to sufficient depth, and the result is a soap opera Noir where the plot becomes forced. It would've worked better as a straight crime story involving the blackmail of the detective character, taking that plotline to wherever it might've lead. But the screenplay was adapted from a novel, always a tricky proposition, and while the end result still James Garners two thumbs up (or Jennifer Garners, if you want to be gender equivalent in this day and age), you may find yourself flagging in the final twenty minutes. 

Still and all, it was a damn sight better than the movie Grim brought over the last time. That would be "The Dictator", by Sasha Baron Cohen. I don't know why I agreed to watch it, but needless to say it was garbage. 

Much more my style, and in line with things we normally watch, was a Veddy Brrrittish airplane movie, a documentary called "Coastal Command"(1943), which follows the real life crew of an English coast guard plane as they search for German U-Boats and the infamous Bismarck, which they encounter and help to sink. The amazing thing about this movie, which runs just 62 minutes, is that it is directed and edited as if it were a regular motion picture with actors and a plot, but in fact it was created entirely from footage of actual flight missions of the RAF Coastal Command, with the pilot and crew members playing themselves. The pilot especially comes off as a movie star in his own right, with his unflappability and his Dashing Moustache, and though the film is sparing in technical excellence (it has the look of a professional home movie), if you stick with it, by the end you will find yourself cheering, and appreciating the value of the Stiff Upper Lip. ////

That's all I've got for this evening. It's Super Chilly tonight, the L.A. Cold has finally arrived and my space heater is running full tilt as I write. Tomorrow I will be back at Pearl's until mid-February. I've been listening to my Archiv set of Mozart Symphonies, purchased about ten years ago. They are great to read books to.

I wish I had a social life, but don't we all. (or is it just me?)  :):)

Eyes on the prize. See you in the morning. Stay safe and well. Tons and tons of love.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

 

"No Highway In The Sky" starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich

Tonight's movie was a surprise find called "No Highway In The Sky"(1951), starring Jim-may Schtooart as an absent-minded scientist trying to prevent a plane crash. Wow - this flick was a genre-bending original! At first, you think it's gonna be a straight-up disaster movie (and it just might be, I can't tell you), but then it turns into something much deeper, a story about a man who cares so much about people's lives that he's willing to risk his professional credibility to save them. Here's the plot, in brief, without giving too much away. Stewart is an American engineer working in England at the flight test center of an aircraft company. He's a Rhodes Scholar and a mathematics genius, and he's discovered a problem in the tail section of a new airliner called the Raindeer. During stress tests on the tail, his equations lead him to the conclusion that it's design is faulty, and that it will break off from the fuselage after a certain number of hours in the air. There is also the fact that the Raindeer prototype has recently crashed in Newfoundland after months of test flights. Is this a coincidence? The airline executives hope so, because the Raindeer is their newest workhorse. If Stewart is right about the faulty tail section, it will cost the company millions.

But because he is so insistent ("the math can't be argued"!, he says in his most "Jimmy Stewart" of voices), the bosses agree to send him to Newfoundland to inspect the wreckage of the prototype. And of course, they fly him there in a Raindeer, which makes him very nervous. Once onboard, he introduces himself and asks for a tour of the airplane. The captain grudgingly agrees. He and the stewardess have observed Stewart's behavior and think he's eccentric to say the least. Then Jimmy spills the beans about his theory concerning the stress tests. He gets emphatic (as only Jimmy Stewart can do), and they think he's nuts. In reality, what he's saying goes right over their heads, technical as it is, but the captain understands enough of the math, and it's prediction for the tail section, to call for an emergency landing, especially after Stewart finds out that the plane they are riding in is at the limit of it's in-flight hours preceding a tail collapse.

This is the "disaster movie" portion of the film, and I shant tell you what happens.

In the aftermath, however, the story becomes one of human interest, and of the value of caring, and of the worth of the individual versus the corporate entity. Because Stewart's manner is so peculiar, the airline bosses want to have him tested by psychiatrists to see if he is insane. This will provide them with an easy excuse to avoid the loss of the Raindeer model, and to keep it flying. During this part of the movie I thought of math geniuses like Paul Dirac, who minds were in the stratosphere as far as physics were concerned, but who were withdrawn and possibly even autistic in social ways.

As the story continues, Jimmy Stewart finds an ally in the young stewardess (Glynis Johns) who tended to him during the "disaster flight" part of the film. She sees his humanity and wants to help.

Also, out of the blue there is a Movie Star on board. Marlene Dietrich plays a famous actress who just so happens to be on the flight. She is heading from England back to America. She too will become entwined in Jimmy's endeavor to stop the flight in progress, and a relationship will form between the two of them.

In Hollywood terms, Marlene is the "Lonely Movie Star", enormously famous but intimately aware of the isolation within her fame. Really, she's an ordinary person looking for connection, and she finds it in the moment of crisis aboard the airplane.

I said this was, in part, a disaster movie, and it is. But when that part is over, the recovery begins. Am I referring to a plane crash and emergency response? You'll have to see for yourself, because this is one of those multi-layered plots and deeply emotional stories where I can't give too much away.

"No Highway In The Sky" is yet another film from the Golden Age in Hollywood (in this case near the end), where the screenwriting rules the day. Folks, I could harp and tirade on this subject from now until doomsday, but the only way for you to understand the incredible talents of the screenwriters of that era is to watch the movies for yourselves. Those writers not only had a supreme facility for plot, and juggling multiple threads while keeping things nice and tight, but they also were able to fit in all the philosophical and moral points they wanted to make, in their entirety, without wasting any time, and without wasted scenes.

They were able to achieve this, in part, because they were working with some of the greatest actors of all time, like James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, and Glynis Johns, who gives a strong supporting performance as the stewardess.

I know I have only hinted at the outlines of the story and usually I give you a lot more, but this is one of those intangible films dealing with the human psyche where it meets matters of the heart, where a book should not be judged by it's cover. Think of "The Enchanted Cottage" for another example, or even the recently reviewed "I'll Be Seeing You", both of which deal with damaged people. Add in elements of "A Beautiful Mind", and you've got the idea here. Two thumbs way, way up. //// 

In football news, can you believe Brady is going to his tenth Super Bowl? Or that his first was 19 years ago? I used to hate the guy but it just isn't possible anymore. He's without a doubt the G.O.A.T., and now that he has done it again with Tampa Bay, in his first year with that team, and at age 43.........what more can you say?

See you in the morning. Watch "No Highway In The Sky", it's a 10/10 and the print was razor sharp.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Christ Stopped At Eboli", based on the book by Carlo Levi

Over the past two nights I've been watching another tremendous film from Criterion : "Christ Stopped At Eboli"(1979), a four part, 220 minute adaptation of Carlo Levi's book that, like the Rossellini History Films, was made for Italian Television. Also, as with "Blaise Pascal" and Pensees, I knew of Levi's book beforehand because once again my Dad had a copy. It sat on the family bookshelf for years and I always wondered what the title meant. Was it a book about the travels of Jesus? No, Dad later explained. What Levi meant was that southern Italy, particularly the area at the sole of the "Boot", was so destitute that it was like a borderland over which the miracles and message of the Lord did not cross. Levi meant that once you passed Eboli and went further south, the towns were beyond hope. Furthermore, the authorities in Rome didn't care.

When I was in my 30s, Dad would occasionally mention the book and suggest I read it. His interest stemmed from his own experience in Naples and Sicily during the war, in which he observed the same abject poverty that Carlo Levi saw. This was very moving to Dad, and when Levi's book was published in 1945, he bought a copy and read it, and it became a favorite of his.

The story is a memoir of Levi's year in exile as a political prisoner of Fascist Italy. In 1935, he was arrested for having "subversive" political views. Instead of throwing him in jail, the authorities sent him to live in a remote mountaintop town called Matera (named "Gagliano" in the book & movie). The fascist leaders under Mussolini must not have been entirely ruthless, at least not yet, because in Germany he'd likely have been put in a concentration camp. In any case, when he gets there after a long bus ride, he is astonished to see the state of the town. It looks like the ruins of a thousand years ago. Google "Matera, Italy" and click on images to see for yourself.

Levi is resigned to his fate and does not complain. He is an intellectual, originally from Turin, who was trained as a physician but did not practice, preferring to paint and write. He is an observer of life who expresses himself through his art. Even in his politics he is not an agitator but just one making suggestions to the powers that be.

The town is a mixture of exiled prisoners and the peasants who have always lived there. They take immediately to Levi, who is kind in return and never condescending, though he is quietly amused by their many superstitions. The mayor of the town, a fascist underling who plays nice, also takes a liking to Levi, because he fancies himself a fellow man of culture. They talk about art and literature. The mayor quietly suggests he not read Montaigne (a proponent of the French Revolution), and he also censors Levi's letters to his sister, again using gentle persuasion. The mayor sees himself as an intellectual peer and talks to Levi as a "friend", and while he isn't evil (he doesn't persecute anyone), Levi nonetheless sees him for what he is, a halfhearted middleman who is just going along with Mussolini's program.

Once the townsfolk find out that Levi is a doctor, they start calling on him to treat their ailments. He protests that he's never actually been in practice, but it does no good. After he successfully treats a little girl's stomach ache, they see him as an angel of healing, and soon they are chanting in the town square for him to become the official doctor of Gagliano. This causes friction with the mayor, because Levi's sentence requires that he refrain from practicing medicine.

There are other storylines, one having to do with the local priest. "He's always drunk", the mayor complains, but then the priest delivers an anti-fascist sermon during Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and this sets off another ruckus among the townsfolk, some of who support Mussolini. The toady mayor is at his wits' end, trying to keep the peace and keep all thoughts and actions at a base level. He doesn't want trouble, only for things to continue as they always have, with the poor in their poverty, unquestioning. All of this is set against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, which is depicted only through radio broadcasts. Mussolini wants to make Italy great again, and reminds his listeners that Rome once had it's Legions, who ruled the world.

Carlo Levi takes all of this in during his time in Matera. Suddenly his three year sentence is commuted and he is set free. Back home, he contemplates what he has learned from his experience, and distills his observations into a treatise on wealth and poverty, nationalism vs. local pride and tradition. The people of southern Italy live in a different world than those of the north. They're basically living the same way as in pre-Christian times, which can also be inferred from the title of the book. The irony is that they've been forgotten about by Rome, and the very authorities who preach national unity under totalitarian rule.  

"Christ Stopped At Eboli" makes it's points in a subtle manner. Gian Maria Volonte gives an expressive, knowing performance as Levi, who rides out his fate, accepting that he cannot defeat the aggression of those who seek power. Instead, he befriends the powerless and discovers his own strength in theirs. ////

It's a beautiful film, in the same vein as "The Tree of Wooden Clogs". See them both.

That's all I know for tonight. Stay safe and stay well. Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Hard To Be A God" (good luck to you if you decide to watch)

Way back around 2016 or so (maybe earlier), I bought the dvd of a Russian film called "Hard To Be A God", which was released in 2013. I don't recall how I heard of it. It might've been an Amazon recommendation, as I'd already purchased a movie called "Marketa Lazarova" which had a similar medieval setting. "God" was also said to be Tarkovskian in style. I know my friend Jon and I talked about it. He is a big fan of Russian art cinema and we both love Tarkovsky, so maybe it was he who recommended the film. In any event, I bought the dvd at least five years ago, and set out to watch it one night around that time. It's a three hour film, so I wanted to be in the mood, and I geared myself up. But in the course of that first viewing, after only five minutes in, I said to myself : "Y'know, maybe tonight's not the right night". The way the movie started was off-putting, and I thought "if this is how it's gonna be, I don't know if I can do three hours".

That was five years ago, at least, and the dvd has been sitting on my shelf ever since. I've seen all the five star reviews over at Amazon, and was aware that some critics hailed it a masterpiece. But I just remembered the way it started, in the muck and mud of a rain-soaked 13th century village. Furthermore, it's supposed to take place on another planet, one that is "just like Earth only smaller". The screenplay is adapted from a science fiction book, but the movie shows no indication of that genre.

Well, anyhow, a couple weeks ago, I saw the dvd staring me in the face for the umpteenth time, and I said to myself, "Y'know, I paid about twenty bucks for that flick. I should at least try to give it a go, if only to get my money's worth". And so I popped it in - five years after the first try - and once again pressed play.

If there's one thing I've learned in my 60 years on Earth, it that you've gotta trust your intuition, because it's your basic instinct, your sixth sense that protects you from things like grizzly bear attacks, crooked investment deals and ghosts in haunted houses (not to mention The Boogeyman under your bed when you were a kid). When you were a kid, you knew The Boogeyman was under your bed, or in your closet, even though you never saw him. How did you know that? It was your intuition. And as a four year old, you knew to trust it because your brain wasn't all clouded up with adult stuff like doubt and reason. So yeah, your intuition is your baseline compass in all things good and bad. How does this apply to tonight's screening of "Hard To Be A God"?

Easy. I should've trusted my own intuition back in 2016 when I tried but failed to watch the movie the first time. Instead - and simply because I just had to get my money's worth (not a good reason) - I sat through the entire three hours this evening. All I can say is that, if you wanna be mired down in the slop for 177 minutes, this is the movie for you. The setting could be compared to a giant outhouse in the Dark Ages. There is no plot or story, but a regional Lord does ride around visiting his people, slaves and villagers mostly, but he also encounters rival barons and other warrior chieftains and monks.

But the deal is, that every line of dialogue is either a non-sequitur or a close approximation. Imagine being in the midst of a filthy village where you can't tell the mud from the (guess what), with people everywhere, many of them half-wits wearing idiot grins, and then the director of the film decides to take random lines from any given person in the scene and just string 'em all together. Meanwhile, the camera is continually moving and you can't tell who is saying what, and even if you could, none of it makes any sense. Meanwhile, characters are blowing loogies, body fluids flow freely, butchery occurs at random, and you still can't understand a damn thing that's going on. If this is like Tarkovsky, then please don't tell him cause he'll turn over in his grave.

Now, it must be said that a tremendous amount of effort went into the making of this movie. Just to create the setting of a medieval horror show - and make it look real - is a huge credit to the production designers. I mean, this is One Ugly Movie, but it looks like it takes place in it's own world, be that on another planet or on Earth or whatever the Russian novelist intended. So in that respect - in the art direction, the sets, the costumes, and the mud! (the mud crew should've been nominated for an Oscar) - the picture deserves accolades.

But in all other respects? Shirley, you jest. And no, I won't stop calling you Shirley. Listen, because this is important. Aside from it's look, which is impressive, "Hard To Be A God" is one of the worst motion pictures ever made. Don't believe me? Then do what I did and sit through it, all three hours.

During that interminable time, I found myself playing guitar (I always hold my guitar while watching films, and if the movie is riveting, I don't play, and vice versa). I found myself staring at the screen, looking at more muck and mire, and more close ups of grinning characters covered in filth (and the constantly twisting camera), I found myself time-checking a lot. At first I tried to keep it to what I thought would be every fifteen minutes or so, because when a movie sucks, you can get though it quickly in six to eight 15 minute chunks. But before long I was looking at the counter on the dvd player every six minutes, then every four........

I mean, I went for an hour and a freaking half in this mode, and then I realized I was only halfway home.

As Jeremy Irons said in "Reversal of Fortune"........."You have no idea".

So yeah. That's all I have to say about "Hard To Be A God". Sometimes it's better to just eat the twenty bucks. Watch it if you want - and you will indeed be impressed by it's look and it's world - but if you do decide to watch, prepare to be drowned in a world of s**t, which is what the movie is basically about, both literally and figuratively.

Or do yourself a favor and watch "Blaise Pascal" instead. ////

See you in the morning. Tons of love. Trump is toast, hooray!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

 

"Blaise Pascal" directed by Roberto Rossellini (ten stars, highest rating)

Last Fall I was browsing the Criterion Eclipse releases on Amazon. You probably know Eclipse, it is Criterion's subsidiary label for films that are a tad more obscure than those put out under the main banner. Also, Eclipse films are unrestored, a cost-cutting move by Criterion which allows them to pass the savings on to the customer. It must be added that they use the best available source prints for transfer to dvd, so the picture quality is still very good. I've watched many movies from Eclipse and have purchased a few (all are in themed box sets) and I've enjoyed every one of them. Therefore, I was browsing looking for something new, and I came across a three film set called "Rossellini's History Films", referring of course to director Roberto Rossellini, whose work included the Neorealist classics of his postwar trilogy : "Rome Open City", "Paisan" and "Germany Year Zero" (none of which I've seen, but they're available in their own Criterion set so that's a future purchase for me).

Looking at the History Films, the titles intrigued me : "The Age of the Medici", "Cartesius", and "Blaise Pascal". I've heard of the Medici family but know nothing of them, however, most everyone knows of philosopher Rene Descartes, if only through his most famous maxim : "I think, therefore I am". And I also knew of Blaise Pascal (also a philosopher though not as famous as Descarte) because back in 1995, when we all lived at the Burton Street house, Dad had a book called "Pensees" that was written by him and published posthumously. The title means "Thoughts", and I remember that it was the late, great Mister D who discovered Dad's book on the shelf and began to read it. I myself did little more than leaf through it at the time, but I never forgot the name Blaise Pascal, and indeed I went on to learn that he was not only a philosopher, but a genius mathematician and inventor who created an early mechanical calculator. In short, he was one of the most brilliant minds of the 17th century.

Seeing these three titles, and the low price (30 bucks for the set), I had to have it, but because it arrived during the holiday season, and also due to the length of the films and the chaotic nature of recent months, I put aside watching any because I wanted to concentrate on them, without any preoccupation. 

In a final aside I should mention that all of these works were made for Italian television, so they aren't motion pictures per se, and from the one I watched tonight - "Blaise Pascal"(1972) - the difference in production values is evident, though mainly in the use of a static camera and very basic framing. However, the sets are period-correct, the color is rich and warm to simulate non-electric light, and above all, the acting and pacing is tremendous.

Blaise Pascal (born in 1623) was the son of a French court administrator who showed an early aptitude for calculation when doing the taxes for the villagers overseen by his father. At 17, he solved a problem involving the intersection of a cone with a plane that astounded the man who proposed it. After that, he was feted in local surroundings as a dinner guest. Elder scientists and well educated priests sought to hear him speak, for he was able to articulate his thoughts with high clarity, and his arguments went beyond the disciplined (and exalted) reason of the day. This was The Age of Reason, but Pascal was raised in the Christian faith, and as he thought things through, he concluded that God could not be comprehended by reasoning but only by the higher intellect of the heart and intuition.

He was an experimental physicist who undertook to prove the existence of the vacuum, which is explored at length in the film. This led him to ponder the meaning of infinity and the impossibility of certainty in religious matters. The church hierarchy at the time made pronouncements in absolute terms, and it is depicted in the story that they had priests who were also high level thinkers, but in one scene, Pascal out argues a priest who is certain of the composition of light, light being an emanation of God.

His individualistic mental acuity eventually sets him apart from both the scientific and religious communities. He wants to go beyond reason to know God, and yet he rejects the absolute truth of church dogmas.

He was cursed with poor health all his life and died at just 39 years of life, already an old man.

The film runs 129 minutes and has many subthemes, including that of Pascal's sister, who seeks to become a nun. Christianity is presented in it's highest sense but also in it's most superstitious. In a lengthy and early scene, a young Pascal sits witness to a Witch Trial. This scene alone is mesmerising, but then Rossellini moves on to Pascal's achievements in math, science and overall thought. Imagine yourself when you're just plain thinking, and you'll be able to relate.

The actor playing Pascal carries the film. The pacing is slow and mesmeric as he maintains his intellectual prowess even while the years pass and his health deteriorates.

As great as Rossellini's filmmaking is, it's the dialogue above all that makes "Blaise Pascal" a masterpiece. And the dialogue is made up largely of his thoughts. I'd give it Ten Stars if the ratings would allow. If you want a movie that will make you think and feel, this is it.

Two Thumbs Up To The Absolute Highest. /////  

"Decision Before Dawn" starring Oskar Werner + Football

We're sticking with World War Two for the moment, and tonight I found an epic film entitled "Decision Before Dawn"(1951), directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Oskar Werner (pronounced Vare-ner) as a captured Luftwaffe medic who volunteers to spy on his own country for an American intelligence mission. The time is January 1945, shortly after the Battle of the Bulge. A U.S. unit in France is using German prisoners of war to gather information on Panzer Division movements. The feeling is that, if the tanks can be located and neutralised, the war - which is rapidly turning in the Allies' favor - can be brought to a swift end. Richard Basehart leads the spy unit, but needs the help of his prisoners, because the SS and Gestapo at the borders can see through any attempt by French or American agents to impersonate a German. Basehart needs the genuine article, but he's not sure which prisoners he can trust. After interviewing several, he settles on a Wehrmacht sergeant nicknamed "Tiger" (Hans Christian Blech, a familiar face in war films), and Werner, whose character is nicknamed "Happy" because of his serious nature.

Tiger is of dubious trust, a man with no allegiance to anyone but himself. But his abilities as a soldier and his desire to "be on the winning side" (now that he's aware of imminent German defeat), mark him as a selection for Lieutenant Basehart. The two of them will parachute behind enemy lines and meet up in Mannheim with Happy, who will be operating solo under an assumed identity. His job is to find the location of the 11th Panzer Divison. Richard Basehart trusts him implicitly.

Director Litvak was a supreme Hollywood craftsman who made many excellent films, and with "Decision" he created the kind of sweeping chronicle that gives you not only the action of a major Hollywood war extravaganza, but has the emotional impact of an Oscar winning drama, and indeed, the movie was nominated for Best Picture. For me, a feeling of Deja Vu occurred about halfway through. I realized I'd seen it before when a very memorable character appeared, a nosy and excitable SS messenger played by Wilfried Seyferth, another familiar face. When he showed up, I said "wait a minute, I know this flick", but I've seen so many movies over the past ten years that I can't always recognize a repeat in the first five minutes.

Nonetheless, chances are that you haven't seen "Decison Before Dawn", and you should see it because it's up there with the best World War Two films ever made. I wish you (and I) could watch it in a theater on a giant screen, as it was filmed in the actual post-war locations of Nuremberg and Mannheim, which were still in a state of destruction from the Allied bombing. I constantly harp on this because it's not enough - and not right - to simply move on with the teaching of history and cancel out what a current generation might feel is not important to be learned.  

In truth, nothing could be more important, for young people to know the history of the world. ////

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. I did watch a another film last evening, called "The Way To The Stars"(1945), a Veddy Brrrittish production about an RAF Squadron based in Suffolk. I was expecting another nail-biting ride inside the Lancaster, as we experienced in "Appointment In London", but the movie - while well executed - was instead mostly a romantic melodrama about life on the airbase. There was almost no action in the skies. Worth a watch anyway. ////   

The Rams lost, though it was not unexpected, playing beat up as they were, and against Aaron Rodgers at the top of his game. I like Rogers, but from here on out, I will be rooting for TB12 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yeah, it's ironic. Brady was formally my most hated player ever, due to his beating the Rams in the 2001 Super Bowl (and his six Super Bowl wins and his general Brady-ness), but as time has gone by, there's no denying he's the G.O.A.T., and it's incredible that he's not only still playing at age 43, but playing at a championship level.

So yeah........Go Tom Brady. I like Josh Allen, too. He's the new John Elway, big yet mobile, and with a rocket arm. That would be a great Superbowl matchup, Bills vs. Bucs, Brady vs. Allen, Watch you some football tomorrow.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

"Appointment In London" (featuring the Avro Lancaster) and "Strongroom" (both Veddy Brrrittish)

The book I am reading, about the bombing of Dresden in 1945 by the RAF (with help from the USAAF), describes - in addition to the horrific experience of the citizens on the ground - the stresses and constant fear of a bomber crew on each mission it undertook. Being an airman was one of the most dangerous jobs in the war. In Britain, only four out of every ten crews came through their assignment of 30 sorties unscathed. Many more, tens of thousands actually, were blown out of the sky by German fighters, or died in training accidents. The book spares no details, and in the course of reading you become well acquainted with the Avro Lancaster bomber, which was the Brit equlvalent of an American B-17. You had to be tough as nails to be a crew member in either plane, not just to stuff your fear but also to maintain focus during a seven to nine hour flight on the tasks at hand. I've said numerous times that I don't know how anyone made it through World War Two (and you'd think the same thing if you read the books I have), and despite the hell on Earth that they rained down on Dresden, this thought applies also to the youthful crews who rode inside the Lancasters. I am learning so much about that plane and it's strategic use, that I wanted to see if there were any movies in which it was featured. So I Googled some search terms, and came up with a picture called "Appointment In London"(1953), starring Dirk Bogarde as the leader of a Bomb Group flying Lancasters.

The plot is straightforward, with devices that could apply to any equivalent film out of Hollywood. Bogarde is the legendary captain at his base, who has flown nearly three times the missions required of him. He's on number 87 and wants to try for 90. The RAF Commander is badgering him to quit while he's ahead, but he feels lucky, and also wants to be there for his men. There is the inevitable War Movie Romance injected into the proceedings, and conversely the plight of the sudden war widow, who's husband is there one day and gone the next. As a drama it's fairly standard, though well done, but as a record of history it does indeed deliver the goods. I sought it out to watch Lancasters in action, and to see what it was like for the crew, and this film puts you in the pilot's seat (or the navigator's, or the gunner's, etc) and straps you down until your knuckles are white. It is recommended on that basis, if you are a fan of Warbirds or of WW2 history. But you must also read Sinclair McKay's book for the other, and far worse side of the story, of what happened in Dresden to civilians who didn't deserve what was visited upon them, no matter that they were subjects of Hitler's Germany. But yes, watch "Appointment In London" and while you're at it, watch "The Dam Busters" too. That also features the Avro Lancaster.  ////

Last night's movie was also Veddy Brrrrittish, and a surprise find at that : a bank job flick called "Strongroom"(1963). It came up on a Youtube list; I checked IMDB and was surprised to see it had a 7.1 rating. I'd never heard of it, but others obviously had. Confident of a Jolly Good Show, I gave it a shot and was subsequently riveted to my seat for the next 75 minutes.

As a bank is closing for the day, three young men sit in a van across the street, waiting for the last of the employees to exit so they can break in and rob the joint. I must note that it isn't made clear how they will get to the money if no one is there to open the vault. But that point is moot, because the manager and his secretary remain inside. They are staying late, because the manager has some paperwork he wants to finish up before the three day Easter weekend. The robbers have planned this job for weeks, counting the number of employees who leave every day (among other things), and as the minutes tick away they can't understand why the last two haven't come out. So their leader decides on a Plan B.

Using a uniform he brought along just for such a contingency, he dresses as a postman and walks up to ring the buzzer. The manager and secretary are in the basement. He instructs her to look through the window before answering. "It's only the postman", she yells back, but as soon as she opens the door she is subdued by the disguised bank robber. His two cohorts enter quickly behind him, wearing nylon stockings over their faces.

As all bank robbers do, they tell the manager to open the vault (known as the "strongroom" in England), assuring him, as all bank robbers do, that no one will be hurt if he does as he is told. All is going smoothly as the thieves load up the cash, but then they hear chatter from upstairs. Two cleaning ladies have entered the bank. They have their own keys, and this is something the crooks had not planned on. Now they've got an emergency on their hands.

From the start, we know that these guys aren't professionals, just first timers, young men who want to make what they think will be an easy score. But they aren't killers - they aren't that hardened - so instead of merely eliminating the cleaning ladies, they shove the manager and secretary into the strongroom, lock the door, and then sneak out of the bank. The cleaners are oblivious to what has gone down.

But as the robbers make their getaway, a realization hits "Griff", the group leader. The strongroom is airtight. The bank manager and his secretary will surely suffocate in there, especially since this is a holiday weekend and the bank will not re-open til Tuesday. His right hand man, a more cynical bloke, thinks they should just leave 'em in there, but Griff knows this will lead to a murder charge if they are caught, which in 1963 England means a death sentence.

"We've got to go back and get them out of there", he decides.

A plan is devised to do that, involving the keys to the strongroom, which the robbers now have in their possession. As Griff thinks it through, one of them will plant the keys in a phone booth after calling police anonymously, so that the cops can free the captives from the bank vault. It will all work out to a "T". The trio will keep the cash, leave no trail, and the coppers will find the keys and get the bankers out of the vault before they suffocate.

This is one of those "race against time" plots, where a lot of contingencies crop up to get in the way of solutions. I can't reveal what happens after the robbers decide to go back to try and free the manager and his secretary, but as you can guess, it doesn't go as smoothly as they hope. And inside the air locked vault, the trapped pair are using their remaining willpower to try to find a way out.

"Strongroom" has an interesting premise. Do these guys actually have a conscience? Do they really care about the two bankers they've locked away to die? Or are their motives only self-serving? Watch and find out. Derren Nesbitt is excellent in the role of group leader "Griff".  He's got a distinctive face, which you may have seen if you are a fan of English shows from the 1960s like "Secret Agent" or "The Prisoner".  ////

And that is indeed all I know this evening. See you in the morn. 

Don't forget to Swirl The Numbers.  

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Man's Castle" starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young

Tonight's movie was "Man's Castle"(1933), a Depression Era tale starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young as a down-on-their-luck couple living in a shantytown in New York City. They meet on a park bench. Tracy is feeding popcorn to the pigeons, Loretta eyes them with envy - she hasn't eaten in two days.  He's gruff at first, but offers to take her to dinner at a nice restaurant. He appears to be loaded, decked out in a three piece suit, but when it comes time to pay the bill, he hasn't got a dime. He's as broke as she is. They have to pull a variation on the old "dine and dash" scheme, and - once outside the restaurant - they're ready to go their separate ways. But Spencer can see that Loretta (only 20 years old here and waiflike) has nowhere to stay. So he brings her back to his homeless camp, which in this case is an acre sized lot of small shacks, built of scrap and tar paper.

Soon, they are a couple, and Loretta is happy with her newfound domestication. She loves keeping house, doesn't care that it's a hovel, and enjoys cooking stew for Spencer over a makeshift stove. 

Tracy, however, abhors the very thought of being tied down. He's a vagabond who's used to living on the edge, riding trains and never staying in any city for more than thirty days. He does aspire to respectability, however, and vows to buy Loretta a real stove one day. She's devoted to Spencer, and in his own way he loves her too, but he's never had responsibility before and he's ill at ease in their relationship.

Then the news comes that she's pregnant. Loretta is delighted. Family is what she's always wanted after being alone most of her life. But for Spencer Tracy, the proposition of a child is cause for him to flee. Still, he wants to do the right thing by this young lady with whom he's become attached, so he scrapes up the cash for a civil ceremony. Now they are officially married, and Tracy makes his plans to escape. But he will not leave her without funds to raise their child, so without her knowledge, he decides to rob the safe inside a toy factory where the couple's surly neighbor has a job.

This guy, who lives in the shack next door, is a true loser who has designs on Loretta when Spencer isn't home. He has his own plan : to assist in the robbery, then frame Spencer Tracy. Once Spencer is in prison, he will coerce Loretta Young into living with him. He sees her as naive and helpless.

The movie is not about the struggle for money, though. It's more concerned with the different ways the characters react to their lot in life. In Young's case, the shantytown is a step up from life on the street. And her relationship with Tracy (now a marriage in name only) is a quantum leap for an orphan girl without relatives. So she's perfectly happy. But for Tracy, the marriage is a death sentence, one he must break free from. But his conscience dictates he must do so with honor, because he's gone "all in" with this girl he met by chance, and he can't leave her hanging, especially since she's carrying his child.

"Man's Castle" was a lot better than I expected, being that it was an early talkie and had the transitional production qualities that marked the period between the Silent era and the onset of Golden Age Hollywood. Much of it's success can be attributed to the acting, but credit must also go to director Frank Borzage, one of the great craftsmen of classical Hollywood. His talent takes the film out of pre-code simplicity and gives it some depth, despite the budget.

I give it Two Big Thumbs Up, but even beyond that, it's worth watching just to see the depiction of life in a shantytown in the 1930s. The only other film I'd seen this in was (of all movies) John Waters' "Desperate Living"(1977). And at 17, I thought it was an absurdist fantasy, because that's how Waters portrayed the lifestyle of his characters. What I didn't know - but Waters obviously did - was that shantytowns once existed in America, just like they remain in existence in countries like Brazil to this day. Yet as bad as they look in "Man's Castle", they are better than what homeless people have now, living in cardboard boxes on concrete.  And the movie does show the other side of the argument, via Spencer Tracy, that there are some folks who cannot adapt to society, and can only find freedom in the margins. You can't force people to conform, in other words, even by offering them a roof over their head. In Tracy's case, that's the last thing he wants. ////

Well, that's all I know for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be writing from home, off work for the next two weeks.

Stay safe and stay healthy, and I'll see you in the morning. Tons and tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Trooper Hook", a Western with Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck

Last night I watched a Western for the first time in weeks. We only saw a handful of 'em in 2020, a disturbing trend that has to be reversed, so I chose "Trooper Hook"(1957) from yet another Youtube list. It sounded good on paper : Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck in the lead roles, a script written by Charles Marquis Warren, the creator of the "Rawhide" TV series, which made Clint Eastwood a star. And a solid sounding story about a US Cavalry Sergeant (McCrea) who is charged with returning a white woman (Stanwyck) and her half breed son to her husband. Stanwyck is a captive of the Chiracahua Indian chief "Nanchez", who kidnapped her years earlier in a raid. He had a son by her and brainwashed her into Apache culture. When we first see her, she has the blank stare of a zombie, but holds on to her son with the protective instinct of any mother.

Some of the soldiers in Joel McCrea's regiment question why he would bother providing escort to such a woman. The underlying message, left unsaid, is that - because she has a half-Indian child (a small boy) - she must have been "asking for it" from Nanchez. In other words, they think she lusted after him. But nothing could be further from the truth. She's a victim of kidnapping and rape, and in her years as a captive she has withdrawn inside herself. McRea, as "Sergeant Hook", understands all of this, but the people he encounters as he brings Stanwyck home do not. At every stop they make, she is harangued with prejudicial comments, such as "White Squaw", meaning an Indian lover who willingly left her husband to join with the Apache.

Worse, her little boy is vilified. If not for Trooper Hook's protective presence, he would likely be killed by some white man on the desolate frontier. 

It was a good concept, with a heartfelt script, and you can't go wrong with the pairing of Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck, two major stars who've acted together in previous Westerns. But the execution was slow as molasses. I found myself nodding off here and there as Warren - who also directed - subjected his audience to yet another cramped scene inside a stagecoach.

It's safe to say his forte is television. Besides "Rawhide", he was also the co-creator of "Gunsmoke" and "The Virginian", each a legendary series, but in tv you move quickly. Scenes are short - 10 to 30 seconds. Warren is expert in that format, but here, in "Trooper Hook", he seems lost at maintaining dramatic tension in a lengthier presentation. There is a flatness to the plot, and the performances are professional but slightly wooden. McCrea in particular recites his lines bloodlessly, as if he was on set waiting for lunch break. And he never phones it in; he was one of the greatest Western Stars of them all.

It's not worth it to pick on this film, because it's still watchable and it means well. But there's next to no action and the conflict, despite the serious subject matter, is minimal. All in all, it's better thought of as a nice story than as a motion picture. Give it a shot if you want, but my thumbs are both pointed sideways. ///

We're gonna keep heading out on the dusty trail, though, because we are humongous Western movie fans and we haven't been watching nearly enough of them. Remember that Motorhead song, "Shoot You In The Back" from "Ace of Spades"? That was an ode to Westerns, and Lemmy even used the line "in the Western movies".

Man, I was a huge Motorhead fan back in the day. In 1981-82 they were in regular rotation on my Denon turntable, not just "Ace of Spades", but also their albums "Bomber" and "Overkill", and then "Iron Fist", the last one with Fast Eddie Clarke on guitar. I got to see that original lineup a couple of times, and they made such an impression on me that I even carved "Motorhead" into the newly poured cement of the gutter in front of our house, at 9032 Rathburn Street. I had a bunch of favorite bands in those days, and at the top were always Rush, Van Halen, Judas Priest or Rainbow, but Motorhead were also included for a while, and they had a different image from the other groups. They really did look like outlaws from the Old West. ////

That's all I've got for tonight. I finished reading "1915" by Lyn Macdonald and "The History of Warfare" by John Keegan, and now I'm continuing in the same vein with a book about the bombing of Dresden called "The Fire and the Darkness" by Sinclair McCay. I know it's grim stuff, but besides being a history buff, and especially war history, I really feel it's important to know what has happened in the world due to the dark side of human nature. The dark side never rests, and the only way to keep it down is to be aware of it. 

Peace and love for the week ahead, and for the final ten days of American Psycho.......

xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Riot In Cell Block 11" + Elizabeth

It's a little difficult to write a movie review in light of everything that's going on, just because the news is so unsettling and distracting, but I'll give it a shot anyway. 

Tonight's picture was once again "ripped straight from the headlines", not as fully as "The Killer That Stalked New York", but it was topical all the same. The title speaks for itself : "Riot In Cell Block 11"(1954), the story of a prison uprising led by inmates rebelling against what they feel are inhumane conditions. And as violent as these guys are, you actually have some sympathy for them as they list their complaints. Though they belong in prison, they have some legitimate beefs, compared to the rioters in Washington DC, who stormed the capitol because their seditious, insane cult leader can't admit he lost the election.

The movie was directed by Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry fame, and there isn't a set-up or plot. He shows us the riot in real time. It begins right away, in a isolation block that holds the prison's most dangerous inmates, some of whom are psychotic and some who are barely out of their teens. This is one of the complaints listed by Neville Brand, the leader of the convicts, that crazies and young 'uns should not be housed in the prison at large, but sectioned off in their own wards. Brand, who will always be known for his performance in Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive", was a very good actor whose looks, and perhaps the roles he was offered as a result, went strikingly downhill in fast fashion. Here he is strong, tall and athletic, with an unlined face. See him 27 years later in Hooper's movie, and he looks fried to a crisp, though his acting is still fantastic. In "Cell Block 11", his right hand man is Leo Gordon, an actor we've commented on recently. To recap, Gordon was a regular on Western TV shows of the 1950s, and he made many films as well. He also wrote several screeplays for television. But what makes him so interesting was his background. He really had been in prison, doing hard time, but he reformed his life, and when he got out he became a famous actor. If I'm not mistaken he did at least five years in San Quentin (where "Cell Block 11" was filmed), and besides his acting talent it's his physical presence that makes him so memorable. He's broad shouldered and muscular, with no fat, and he has the hard face of a real prisoner. Gordon must have been an intelligent man to change his life to the extent that he did, but his onscreen persona is downright scary from actually having lived his role.

And, in this film he plays one of the psychos who should be in a mental ward instead of solitary confinement. Just when Neville Brand is starting to make progress in his negotiations with the warden, Leo Gordon hijacks his leadership, and the situation breaks down into mayhem. Guards are held hostage. The State Police are called in with orders to shoot to kill.

"Riot In Cell Block 11" classifies as a prison flick with a strong social conscience, but devoid of dramatic conventions. There are no cutaways to outside characters at other locations, or interwoven subthemes. The riot is in your face from the start, and Siegel uses the confines of San Quentin as a device to ratchet up the tension, which never lets up. I was surprised to see it was a Criterion release, uploaded right there on Youtube, so the print is once again razor sharp, and it's a hell of a movie. But the current flick in Washington is more frightening.  /////

Elizabeth, I am glad you are writing songs again. Your new one is deeply personal, which is why I didn't comment on Instagram, but your lyrics are beautiful and of course that's where you are always gonna get your best material : when you are writing straight from the heart......I hope all is going well for you in every way, and I also hope that (yeah I always harp on it, lol) that you will make an album of your songs. Maybe you could work toward releasing at least one of them in a completed version? I will hope so and keep fingers crossed.  :):)

That's all I know for tonight. Just like you, I wish peace for the world, but I am dismayed that nothing serious is being done to stop this SOB in the White House. I was heartened to see Colin Powell who said on MSNBC that the military should be deployed to protect against any further threats from Trump and his faction. I am a big supporter of the armed forces of the United States of America, because they have always protected us from threats to our country. And while I am fully aware of unjust wars and misadventures (so don't waste your breath), without a military we would be toast in two seconds, just as our cities would be toast without police. The last couple of days have proved that. We're looking at "Walking Dead" scenarios, where violent mobs take what they want, if we don't put the hammer of law enforcement down on these lowlifes, and cut the heads off of their leadership, and do it now.

Sorry to end the blog on a bum note, but this isn't a joke, it's not just some guy in a wolf skin and steer horns who led the charge on the Capitol. It was the fucking so-called president. In other countries, he would have already been dealt with, and been done with. If we don't do the same, it's to our own peril.

See you in the morning. Tons and tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Donald Trump Must Be Put In Prison + "The Killer That Stalked New York"

In writing my blog, over the years I've generally tried to maintain a policy similar to that of my favorite radio station, KUSC. No matter what is going on in the world, they never mention it, except for the most allusive of comments, and then only when the incident or situation is extreme. For instance, they only refer to the pandemic by telling their listeners to "stay safe, stay well". Even 9/11 would only have elicited a reference to "this tragic day", and the music would have kept playing. And if I'm not mistaken, one of their hosts on that day quoted Leonard Bernstein, who said (regarding some other incident) : "This will be our reply to violence; to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before". KUSC has always set itself up as a refuge from worldly events (meaning chaos), and for that it's faithful listeners are grateful. The news media already saturates us with coverage, and the chaos never stops, so why add to it with one more opinion? That's my take, although if I'd been blogging in my twenties you'd have gotten nothing but opinions. However, though I plan to stick with my "no news" pledge, I will offer one comment on today's riot. It's not anything I haven't said before, but I reiterate it now because it's of primary importance.

Donald Trump must be arrested, convicted of not just inciting today's riot, but of his many, many crimes, before and during his presidency, and he must be put in prison for the rest of his life.

In addition to this, incoming President Biden must sign on to a total rebuilding of the Justice Department, so that the FBI once more commands the respect it used to command among criminal groups. We need a massive recruitment of agents, vetted to the max to make certain they are not cretins like the shaven headed guy Trump appointed as acting director a while back. We need an apolitical FBI, we need each and every agent to be ultrapatriotic - not to party but to country - and we need to use them to infiltrate the kinds of groups from which today's rioters emerged - militias, gun nuts, racists and idiots of all stripes - and then to use maximum law enforcement to break up these groups and destabilise the Trumper movement. This, of course, is after Trump is in prison, which is our first priority.

In short, we need to shut these folks down, because if we don't, what happened today will seem mild to what they will do in the future.

Just to be clear, I include rioters of all political persuasions in that statement, including ANTIFA, and the looters and property destroyers from last Summer, who came from the Left. They too should be prosecuted to the max.  

But it's Trump who stirred all of this up, and if someone had stopped Hitler before he built his cult of personality, who knows.........World War Two might have been averted.

Mary Trump said it best : "Stop treating him as if he's normal". He isn't. He's a fucking sociopath, a criminal and an inciter of violence who today had his mob pull an early Hitler tactic, i.e. "the putsch". 

We need leaders who will work to restore the power structures of America where law and order are concerned, so that the everyday citizens don't have to live on a knife edge of constant chaos. I hope to God Joe Biden will be that leader, especially now that we have the Senate and House on our side as well.

What Trump has done cannot go unpunished and he must be put away for good. That is all. ////

Tonight's movie was so close to real life that I may as well have watched the news. It was called "The Killer That Stalked New York"(1950), and while I hadn't heard of it beforehand, and didn't seek out the subject matter, when it did appear in a list of black and white noirs, I knew I had to watch. Evelyn Keyes stars as a diamond smuggler who's just returned to NYC from Cuba (pronounced Koo-ba for period accuracy, or Kyoo-ber if you wanna go for the JFK effect). Straight off her flight she doesn't feel good. She's got a headache and is feverish, but tries to shrug it off until she nearly collapses on the way back to her boyfriend's apartment. A beat cop carries her to a nearby clinic, which she walks out of after the policeman leaves. But not before she encounters another patient in the waiting room, a little girl who inquires about her condition.

They talk, and then Keyes leaves the clinic, not wanting to be examined because of her need for anonymity. Soon the girl is transferred to the hospital, where her condition worsens. Then she dies.

The cause of death eludes doctors, until one of them recalls similar symptoms in patients he saw in the Third World. "But it can't be"! , he says to his colleagues. "It would be a throwback to the Middle Ages". The diagnosis is smallpox.

This is a red flag alert to the doctor in charge, and suddenly the Mayor of New York is on the radio, urging the public to stay inside, to avoid contact with anyone, and for anyone with symptoms to go directly to the quarantine ward at the county hospital. Then the search is on for Patient Zero - Evelyn Keyes - who's getting sicker by the hour but has the complication of needing to avoid authority because of her profession.

On top of that, her boyfriend - the mastermind of the smuggling ring - is ready to leave her high and dry, now that he knows she's sick. But he's got a dose of the 'Pox too, from contact with Keyes, and by now so does half of New York City. 

The noir aspect is minimal, provided only by the subplot involving the diamond smuggling, but the photography by Joseph Biroc is shadowy and excellent as always. He should be considered with the greats in my opinion. Mainly the story is about the breakout of a pandemic, and the attempt by NYC officials to stop it in it's tracks before it kills millions. 

Evelyn Keyes avoids detection until the end of the film, where the smuggling plot kicks in again and reaches a conclusion.

"The Killer That Stalked New York" is thin on story, it's mostly about the attempt to locate Evelyn Keyes, but there isn't much mystery in that chase because we the audience always know where she is. Instead, the film turns on her performance as her condition deteriorates. In the surrounding context there are parallels galore to today's news, no different than discovering that there was a mask/anti-mask controversy during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Human behavior stays the same, no matter the era. Which makes it all the more important to learn from history. ////

See you in the morning. Sorry about the politics but it had to be said. The print of tonight's film was once again razor sharp, so give it a look.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Shield For Murder" and "The Naked Street", two excellent crime films with strong lead performances

Remember two nights ago, in "The Man Who Cheated Himself", we had a Good Cop/Bad Cop theme happening, with John Dall and Lee J. Cobb in those roles, respectively, as homicide detectives? Cobb covered up a murder and his Honest John partner (Dall) found out about it? Well, we have a similar plot tonight, and boy is it a good one. The movie is "Shield For Murder"(1954), about a psycho cop who kills a runner for a rackets boss, in order to steal the 25 Grand in cash he's carrying. Noir legend Edmond O'Brien, who also co-directed the film (along with Howard W. Koch), plays "Detective Barney Nolan" as pure evil, a powder keg ready to blow. His colleagues suspect him of murder in the shooting of the runner, but it's ruled as legit by the precinct captain. But just like Lee J. Cobb in the previous movie, O'Brien has a by-the-book partner, played by.......gotta have a drum roll for this......... the one and only John Agar! How weird is that? In writing about "The Man Who Cheated", we said that John Dall might be "the John Agar for 2021". Agar must have read that blog, because tonight he comes storming back to reclaim his crown, in a non-smug good guy role as the cop who has to shut down his partner O'Brien, who goes crazy with rage - and more murders - as the evidence builds against him.

Explosive is the word for this flick, which features some great mid-'50s L.A. locations, in Cheviot Hills near Culver City. When Edmond O'Brien played a heavy, he was as bad as they came, and in this movie he is willing to destroy everyone around him, including his beautiful girlfriend, in order to avoid detection. For a while, he is protected by the Blue Wall of Silence, even though everyone on the Homicide Squad knows he's guilty. But it isn't until new guy John Agar starts examining the chain of evidence that the police face up to the fact that their lead detective is a stone cold killer.

We struck gold with this one, not only because it's an excellent movie, but because we are huge John Agar fans. We became such because of his smug, and often downright smarmy and condescending performances in C-Grade sci-fi flicks from the same era. But here, not only does he turn in a sincere effort, but he's actually quite competent in his role as the morally upright investigator who faces a crisis of conscience, in having to turn in his partner. "Shield For Murder" is brutal in it's depiction of a corrupt, cornered cop, and all the way back in 1954 it sets the tone for what we see in the news today, with police shootings and the internal investigations thereof.

 I give it two big thumbs up.  But that's not all.....

Last night I found a character driven crime drama of the type Martin Scorcese might've made, had he been working in 1955. Perhaps he was even influenced by this film. It was called "The Naked Street", the story of a Brooklyn mobster (Anthony Quinn) whose domineering ways land hard on his kid sister (Anne Bancroft) and her punk boyfriend (Farley Granger). Quinn is one of those gangsters who thinks of himself as a Legitimate Businessman, and though he's loaded with dough, it's never made clear exactly what his business is. Loan sharking, maybe, with some protection racket thrown in. He has an office, and wears a shiny suit, but he's strictly a neighborhood Hood, not one from the big time. And none of that is the point of the film, anyway. This is a family drama, because - sociopath though he is - Quinn does love his Mama and his sister.

The movie opens with a man on fire, literally. This brief scene demonstrates Quinn's ruthlessness in dealing with his enemies, and allows us to know him in full, before the real story begins.

He plays at loving his family, which could be said to be the reality of all Mafiosi, and it's interesting to consider the way this has been portrayed in films. We always see the Benevolent Mafia Kingpin, who provides for his family, takes care of the neighborhood, and attends church, at least when it helps his image. My guess - which I make because of my ongoing attempt to understand the sociopathic personality - is that the Mafioso is attempting to "fit in" to what would be expected of him from his (usually) very religious, ethnic family. So he hides his corruption behind a facade of material respectability. By becoming rich, and playing the role of Gentleman Benefactor to his blue-collar (or poverty stricken) family, he can be seen as a hero, and thus legitimize himself as much in his own eyes as in theirs. I know that's not a profound insight, but it's brilliantly portrayed here, by Quinn and an ensemble of actors. 

Well anyhow, as the story continues, at a family dinner, Quinn finds out that his sister is pregnant. Worse, it's by Farley Granger, a small time neighborhood romeo who's sitting on Death Row in Sing Sing. Granger has only two days to live, for killing a liquor store owner in a holdup. But Quinn has pull. He uses his henchmen to put the muscle on the witnesses who got Granger convicted. They recant their testimony and he is set free. Quinn orders him to marry his pregnant sister straight away, and Granger - in awe and grateful for his new lease on life - obeys.

Talk about your shotgun weddings. Anthony Quinn wants to be loved and respected by his mama and his little sister, the only two people who have emotional power over him, because of his Catholic upbringing. They live right by God and he does not, so he tries to usurp their moral authority by providing luxuries in their lives, which they do not want or need. Finally, when he springs Farley Granger from Death Row, to force him to marry his sister, he's taken his dominance a step too far. You see, Granger is a criminal, and has a criminal mind just like Quinn. He's grateful to be spared the gas chamber, but he'll only take Quinn's orders so far, until he's had enough. Then he stands up for himself, with his wife Ann Bancroft caught in the middle. Bancroft is very young here, and looks like a different person entirely from her later performances in the 1960s and beyond. But this is Anthony Quinn's picture, and he owns it with an authoritative acting job that would've been right at home in "The Godfather" or any other Oscar caliber Mafia film.

Both of tonight's films are available in razor sharp Youtube prints (we've been lucky on that score lately), and both are highly recommended. Please note that I wrote this entire blog from scratch, tonight, so if it reads like gibberish or has unfinished thoughts, come back and re-read it again tomorrow. I will fix all syntactical errors and typos in the morning. Thanks.

Tons of love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Hooray for 2021! + "Berlin Correspondent" & "The Man Who Cheated Himself"

Happy New Year once again, and welcome to another year of blogging. I see that my total was way down last year, with only 261 blogs written as opposed to 331 in 2019 and an astounding 349 the year before that. I guess the main reason for the downturn is that my hours changed dramatically in 2020. After Pearl got out of the hospital last January, I became a round-the-clock caregiver. Since then, I am with her 22 hours a day, whereas before that, I had a lengthy break each night, during which I could write. Now, I am relegated solely to late night writing, a time I used to use to edit what I'd written earlier in the evening. At this time of night, I am too tired to write off the top of my head and then go back and clean it up, which is why my blogs take two days now, instead of one. I know that earlier in 2020, I was still managing a blog a day, but it wasn't easy, and by late Summer I threw in the towel and decided to cut everything in half. Maybe when I'm at home during my weeks off, I can try to write every day. I can't guarantee I'll achieve it, but let's make it a goal.

Well, how 'bout some movies? I started off the year in an excellent way with an Espionage flick, a genre we haven't frequented much, but this was a really good one and it was called "Berlin Correspondent"(1941), starring Dana Andrews as an American radio announcer working in Berlin (pronounced Behr - LEEN) just prior to the U.S. entry into World War Two. He's using code in his news reports, to sneak out messages to the US War Department concerning the movement of German troops. The date is Thanksgiving 1941, which means that the United States is still technically neutral (at least for another couple of weeks), therefore Andrews is in Germany as a neutral party reporting on the war, and is protected by the American Embassy.

But an upstart Gestapo Colonel, played par excellence by Martin Kosleck, gets wind of Dana Andrews' broadcast messages and decides to have him tailed, since he can't arrest him. He enlists his girlfriend in the scheme. Played by Virginia Gilmore, she is a young fraulein who's been brainwashed into believing in National Socialism. Many young Germans suffered the same fate.

The plot hinges on her personal crisis, because it turns out that her father is the man supplying Andrews with his information. Because she is the Gestapo Colonel's girlfriend, she is pressured to turn her Dad in. The Colonel promises her he'll be "well treated", because he'll be sent to a mental institution instead of a concentration camp. But Dana Andrews investigates, and discovers that lobotomy is the treatment of choice in the Nazi's nuthouse.

Martin Kosleck's performance sets the tone for this picture. You've seen his angular face before, and you'd recognize his officious onscreen persona. He specialized in playing fey-but-deadly Nazis and was very good at it, but in this film he goes too far by persecuting his girlfriend's father. She fights back, with the help of Dana Andrews, and the plot is set for a series of counterattacks by both sides. It's Grade A stuff for a B-Picture, one of those movies that's off and running at the starting gun. ////

Then tonight I found a top notch noir entitled "The Man Who Cheated Himself"(1950). Lee J. Cobb stars as a San Francisco homicide detective who's involved with a wealthy woman. When she kills her husband, Cobb helps her cover it up. But at the same time, Cobb's brother, also a detective (and played by John Dall of "Gun Crazy" fame), has just been promoted to homicide. In fact he's paired with his bro on the same case, the murder of the husband that Cobb has been covering up.

Because Dall is an eager beaver, trying to solve his first case, Cobb keeps having to shut him down, using seniority and experience as excuses. But Dall - who had a weird acting style bordering on caricature (but who was really good nonetheless) - keeps following his instincts, and little by little the clues add up that it's his womanising brother who is involved in the murder.

As with "Berlin Correspondent", "The Man Who Cheated Himself" runs at a steady pace, with no wasted scenes. You can't take your eyes off either film, and with "Man Who Cheated" you get a lot of great San Francisco location footage to boot. Lee J. Cobb was good at standing behind his physicality. He had that stocky physique, the cleft chin, and his deep voice, and like Brian Dennehy, he "threw his weight around" in the roles he played. His body was part of his acting. But here, in "The Man Who Cheated Himself", he is outdone by goofy John Dall, skinny and tall, whose combination of weirdness and earnest resolve - morally driven and relentless - are more than a match for the brawny Cobb belligerence that Lee J. was most known for. 

Both movies are available in razor sharp prints on Youtube and both are highly recommended. If we can find enough John Dall, he could become our John Agar for 2021!

That's all for tonight. I am hoping, as you are too no doubt, that this year will not just be a rebuke of Trump, and an end to the pandemic, but something very special. Concentrate on what it means to you, and it will happen.  ////

See you in the morning. Tons of love. Go Rams.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

The Year In Review (Part Two) + Some Books + Happy New Year

Happy New Year! The fireworks are still booming throughout the 'Hood as I write (at 12:30am). Folks in Reseda, and all over the world, are very happy to usher in 2021, and even happier - no doubt - to see the end of 2020. 

Well, I was hoping tonight to expand upon my Year In Review (my last blog was subtitled "Part One"), but in looking over my movie list for 2020, I don't see much in the way of Criterion art films, War Movies, Westerns, Musicals, Screwball Comedies ala Preston Sturges, Silent films or pre-code pictures that usually contributed to our compilations in years past.

What I do see, hehe, is hundreds of flicks watched on Youtube, for reasons explained in the previous blog. 

In November we did watch the epic version of "Les Miserables", which clocked in just shy of five hours. It was a towering achievement by any standard, and if I recall correctly, I mentioned that - for me - it was now a candidate for the greatest French film of all time (the current contenders being "Children of Paradise" and "Diary of a Country Priest"), but that may have been the one-and-only Criterion release I watched all year.

So instead of listing the various "mas-tah-pieces" of every stripe that we didn't watch, I'm just gonna mention some of the notable sci-fi and horror flicks that we saw on Youtube, and maybe a couple of others that we actually watched on dvd.

In fact, here are two right now: in October, I acquired a couple of horror films I'd sought for years, both from Hammer Studios : "Plague of the Zombies" and "The Devil Rides Out". We watched them almost back to back (with "The Wolfman" sandwiched in between) on the consecutive dates of October 29, 30, and 31. If ever there was a Triple Scoop of horror, this was it, and while you are familiar with "The Wolfman", you should also become acquainted with the other two films, "Plague" in particular. They represent Hammer Horror at it's lurid best, and upon watching them for the first time, as I did after ten years of anticipation, you'll understand why the original dvd pressings became collectors items. ////

And now, let's present a Top Ten (or thereabouts) of our Youtube flicks. No particular order. 

I'm gonna start with "Indestructible Man" starring Lon Chaney Jr. That one ruled, and would even be worth buying on dvd, if it was restored.

Another good one, in a decidedly cheesy way, was "The Brain From Planet Arous". It was somewhere around this time (and this movie) that we discovered the genius of John Agar. If you aren't already a fan, make it a point to become one in 2021. To say he enlivens any picture he's in is redundant. He's John Freakin' Agar, and in this movie he takes on a giant talking Brain in a cave. And the Brain is good special effects.

Let's see, we've also got "The Alligator People", a superior sci-fi worthy of a higher classification among all the B-movies. That one starred Beverly Garland, one of our favorite actresses of the 1950s.

"The Killer Shrews" also stood out, and starred James Best, who was a great actor in a wide variety of roles (watch him as a morphine addict on an episode of "The Rebel"), but who will always be remembered, by me anyway, for his portrayal of a Redneck Sumbitch, who orders William Devane's hand to be stuck down a garbage disposal in "Rolling Thunder". Sorry about the graphic description. Maybe you'd have had to be there. 

"The Beast of Yucca Flats" is worth mentioning, even though it rivaled any Ed Wood film for cheapness. What it did have, as we noted, was a Zen quality, brought on by it's minimal, almost poetic narration, in which the narrator described why Tor Johnson was wandering the Mojave desert as a mindless killer, after absorbing the brunt of a nuclear test explosion.

A great horror re-run was "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things", perhaps the greatest Zombie movie ever made. They used to show it almost every Saturday night on local TV, for a while in the mid-70s, and my friends and I all had seen it several times. We thought it was a joke when we were teenagers, because of the campy portrayals of the hippie characters, including the performance of Alan Ormsby, the actor who also wrote and produced the movie. But in rewatching it 45 years later, I saw that it is much more than a camp classic. Rather, it's a genuine high achievement in the annals of horror, especially in it's art direction, which features "hand-made" Zombies that actually look like they've just come out of a grave. (Yeah, how would I know, right?)

Sorry about all the gruesomeness, but hey........it was 2020.

And last but not least, let's not forget "Teenagers From Outer Space, an eccentric but very original take on the Alien Invasion motif, written and directed by a young film student named Tom Graeff. The cliched title belies the thoughtfulness of the script, and cheesy as the production is (almost devoid of budget), Graeff manages to articulate a purpose behind his idea, i.e. why the Aliens must be stopped, and why Romance must endure. I was so startled by the competency of this film, that when it ended I had to look up Mr. Graeff. I was sorry to see that he met a tragic end, but for "Teenagers From Outer Space" he will always be remembered, somewhere in the Universe. ////

Let's do a few books before we call it a night. 

I'll start with "Norco 80" one of the top five crime books I've ever read, and in fact maybe the best ever. If you like True Crime, give it a shot. You won't be able to stop reading.

I also recommend "Me & Lee" by Judith Vary Baker, the girlfriend of Lee Harvey Oswald. "1915" by Lyn Macdonald. I am just now finishing this book, and I almost don't know how to comment, because the horror of World War One, and the sheer agreement by all sides to participate in such a brand new form of technological warfare (and to subject millions of young soldiers to it), really defies description. It's almost as if it took place on another planet, with another species of human, so horrible is the battering of life. No other terrible thing in life compares, except for World War Two, which was worse. I do suggest you read "1915", however, though I know (and understand) that you won't. But for me, it's part of my job in life to try and comprehend these things. Here are a few more books : "The Paris Wife", "Worlds In Collision", "Gobekli Tepe", "Roadshow" by Neil Peart, "Survivor Song" by Paul Tremblay, "The Ox" (a biography of John Entwistle), "A Fast Ride Out Of Here" (about Pete Way),........and "The Temple of Man", by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz" (already lamented over, several times).

Give 'em all a shot, but if you're short of time, go for "Norco 80". Holy smokes, folks. Wait til they make a movie out of this. ///

That's all I know for this evening. I wish the best of health for everyone in the New Year, and all good blessings.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxo  :):)