This blog was begun the night of April 14th, 2021 :
John Mills took the night off, but we've got Sir Alec Guinness subbing for him, with Jack Hawkins in support, so I trust you'll not be disappointed. The movie's a good one : "Malta Story"(1953), a literal title that gives you the basic idea about the island's strategic importance in World War Two (and in wars past as the narrator points out, for the Phoenicians, Byzantines, et al.). Guinness stars as an archaeologist on his way to Egypt who becomes stranded on Malta during a refueling stop. When the airstrip is bombed by the Lufwaffe, his plane is destroyed and he's taken to an RAF base for safety.
While there, a Colonel (Hawkins) discovers Guinness has a pilot's licence and recruits him for photo reconnaissance missions over Italy. At first, he draws the Colonel's ire for straying from a planned flight route, but when this spontaneous departure leads to the discovery of a German ammo dump, he's given more leeway for his methods. Further missions by Guinness reveal enemy convoys on their way to the island, allowing the ships to be sunk before they can attack. He's very good at what he does, but then everything changes when he meets a young woman who works at the base Operations Center. She is "Maria" (Muriel Pavlow), a native Maltese who lives with her poverty stricken family in the village nearby. They fall in love and plan to marry. Maria's mother objects at first, fearing her daughter could become a war widow, but then reconsiders after Guinness promises to take Maria to England when the war is over. The family has so little food that they're near starvation. Surely England will be better, and safer.
But then another equally serious snag hits the relationship when Maria's brother is arrested as an Italian spy. He protests, telling his RAF interrogators that he's only a partisan for Malta. "This is my country, not yours. If you'd never have come here, we wouldn't be getting bombed by the Germans. All we want is to be left alone to live in peace". When he is sentenced to death, this stirs up the previous tensions anew between the mother and Alec Guinness. But Maria stands by him, and is by his side when he gets the call for an especially dangerous mission, one that will dispense with the mandatory radio silence that is customary for reconnaissance. The upshot of this is that, by using his radio to call base, the Germans will hear him and locate his position. With no fighters in support, he'll be on his own.
I shant tell you how this works out, of course, but it's a very good war film, specifically in our favored category of "movies about the RAF". There's an interesting mix of styles involved, including the softly-lit romantic interludes, and the Neo-Realistic approach to the scenes of poverty and life in the village. This is contrasted with spectacular aerial combat footage (both actual and studio produced), of screaming Spitfires chasing down German bombers, and Guinness's lonely missions as a photographer..
Alec Guinness is excellent as the dignified "Lt. Ross", but has a stiffer acting style (at least in this movie) than say, John Mills, whose very natural style might've lent the role more emotion . Jack Hawkins, on the other hand, is his usual macho self, square-jawed and brawny, and in fact one scene has him shaving whilst carrying on a conversation with a Lieutenant about his wife, the point being that "Jack Hawkins shaving and making small talk" in front of a fellow officer is filmmaker shorthand for his manliness. Have you seen Jack yet in "The Cruel Sea"? You really must. :)
With it's various themes, "Malta Story" works on all levels mentioned above, and is worthy of Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture quality is good too, so give it a look. Finally, as an aside, I must mention Maltese Crosses. Did you ever draw them as a kid? I did. For some reason, maybe because of a war movie or a reference in 1960s pop culture (like the German helmet on Big Daddy Ross' "Red Baron"), some of the boys at my elementary school, myself included, became fascinated with the Maltese Cross. We'd mention them and draw pictures of them. Maybe it was the way the words sounded : "Mall-teeze Cross, man. That's wicked"! But yeah, we liked Maltese Crosses for about a year or two, then they faded away, just like STP stickers. But the thought of them originating with Malta never crossed our minds. We just thought "Maltese" sounded bitchin'.
I only have the one movie this time, but I finished "The Skorzeny Papers" by Major Ralph Ganis, so let me give you the lowdown on that. Having read a number of JFK assassination books, the best being Phillip F. Nelson's "LBJ : The Mastermind", my opinion of the Skorzeny book is as follows. As mentioned in a previous blog, I was surprised at the author's depth of research into Skorzeny's postwar career as a covert ops adviser to Western governments, particularly the United States. Ganis establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt that Skorzeny was recruited by the CIA following a brief stint in prison after the war. In fact he escaped from that prison (Camp King) with Agency assistance. Simply stated, they wanted him because of his skills as Germany's top commando. His exploits were legendary and he was also a brilliant engineer. So, much like we took in German scientists after the war (Operation Paperclip), we also recruited certain members of the German military, and without a doubt the most notable of those men was Otto Skorzeny. The newly formed CIA was concerned, bluntly speaking, that a Western democracy like the US could not (and would not) be ruthless enough to maintain superiority in the Cold War. In other words, with our government and civilian oversight on everything, and our free press, our agencies like the FBI and CIA would not be allowed to act with the same impunity as their counterparts in the Soviet Union, where, if the KGB wanted to assassinate somebody or assist Leftist rebels in a war, they just went ahead and did it. Who was gonna stop them?
Frank Wisner and the other heads of the early CIA felt they needed the same capability, but it would have to be kept Top Secret. Also, National Security Directive 10/2 was signed around the same time, which gave the CIA more latitude in covert affairs. Not being naturals at the game, they turned immediately to someone who was, and who was the best in the business : Otto Skorzeny. He was an ardent anti-Communist who also worked for French intelligence beginning in the late-1940s. Ganis details every connection on this timeline, all the way up to November 22, 1963, so there is no doubt Skorzeny was a CIA asset of utmost importance. It is also 99% certain that he headed up the infamous QJ/WIN program, which was organised to carry out assassinations, and may have plotted the kidnap and murder of Patrice Lumumba of the Congo in 1961. Other plans were drawn up to get rid of Charles de Gaulle of France and Fidel Castro, for whom a designated group was created at the CIA, known as ZR/RIFLE.
So beyond question, Major Ganis shows that Skorzeny ran QJ/WIN, and that QJ/WIN acted as the "action arm" of the JFK assassination, with the actual shooter being Jean Rene Souetre, a notorious French assassin with previous credentials. Souetre has long been suspected by researchers of being the Grassy Knoll shooter, you can Google him for more info. Anyway, as far as those aspects are concerned, the book is a valuable, even indispensable addition to the JFK bibliography. It's just Ganis's explanation of the motive that I have trouble with. He claims that JFK was killed because he was sleeping with a woman named Ellen Rometsch, who was suspected of being an East German spy. Rometsch's name has come up in other JFK books, but she's never been seriously discussed by their authors, except as a problem for Kennedy's handlers when her status became known. However, Ganis states that, because she was a spy, it so gravely worried those in the National Security community that they felt they had no other choice than to eliminate the President. He goes into much greater detail and presents worthwhile evidence, but at the end of the day it just doesn't make sense that they'd kill him for an affair. It's not as if Kennedy was dumb enough, or loose lipped enough to whisper state secrets in her ear. Ganis says it was as much the potential embarrassment of the revelation as anything else. "JFK In Bed With Commie Spy"!, would read the headlines, and so democracy would collapse. I just can't buy that he was assassinated for that reason (again, read Phillip F. Nelson's book for a much more likely motive), but other than that complaint, "The Skorzeny Papers" is a mindblower, and a must-read for JFK buffs. ////
Well, that's all I've got for the moment. Have an awesome evening, tons of love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment