Last night, in "The Frightened Man", angry young "Julius Rosselli" (Dermot Walsh) comes home to his father's London antique shop after flunking out of Oxford, which Dad scraped to pay for. Julius is self centered and surly. "Dad Rosselli" (Charles Victor) wants to make him co-owner of the shop, but Dad's fussy & flaming assistant "Cornelius" (Michael Ward) thinks Julius isn't temperamentally equipped to run a business. Julius doesn't want it anyway, he wants easy money so he can marry "Amanda" (Barbara Murray), the girlfriend of an older, strait-laced gent who he's stealing her from with no compunction. She flaunts it in the man's face and marries Julius soon after, but on the side, we see that Julius is hanging around a used car salesman who pulls robberies at night. Soon, he's the driver on these jobs, but Amanda doesn't know about it.
Then, after gleaning info on the jeweler she works for, he tells his partner-in-crime about a bag of diamonds Amanda's boss is holding in his safe, and the movie turns into a heist flick. Julius and his partner are breaking through an office wall to cut through the back of the safe with an acetylene torch. Well, it turns out that the strait-laced gent Amanda was seeing is an undercover cop who's been tailing Julius's partner for months, and the partner has been selling stolen antiques to Dad for years. It's how he paid for Julius's Oxford education. Julius has long sensed his Dad was a crook; it's why he's so resentful. John Gilling, of "Plague of the Zombies" fame, directed. Other than the twists mentioned, the plot isn't that complex, but Gilling keeps the suspense tight during the heist, and the way he peels back the onion skin layers, with the late-in-the-game undercover cop revelation, and Julius's Dad being a fence for stolen antiques, is very effective. Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is wide screen and razor sharp. ////
The previous night, we found a British parable on truth telling called "Snowball"(1960), which begins when ten year old "Mickey Donvan" (Dennis Waterman) is two hours late from school. His mother is worried. Did he miss his bus? Was he kept after school? His Dad says the kid needs discipline, "or he'll wind up like I was at 18. We've gotta straighten him out now." But Mickey arrives home in time for supper, and all is forgiven. His story is that he lost his shilling through a hole in his pocket, thus had no bus money and the driver threw him off. "You mean you had to walk four miles home?" says Mom. Dad shrugs it off. "Every lad should walk four miles every now and then." Dad's a man's man, and wants Mickey to be the same. Still, Mom feels it was a little heartless for the driver to kick him off: "He could've let him bring twice the fare the next day."
It's forgotten about until their neighbor, a busybody, pops in to borrow a stick of butter. She overhears the tail end of the discussion, pries the rest of it out of Mom, and becomes outraged. "That driver should be drawn and quartered. If it were my child I'd have called the bus company and reported him." But she doesn't have children and is always butting into other people's business. This time, she goes so far as to call the local paper and report the incident, completely unsolicited by the Donovans. Dad is pissed off. "How dare she make an issue out of this without asking us!" The woman protests that she was just trying to help. "I make lots of complaints about all kinds of things people tell me. I believe in justice." Yeah, and she's also a nosy parker.
The title of the movie tells you what happens next. The miniscule incident snowballs. Pretty soon, the newspaper's publisher smells a story with legs. He sends a cub reporter out to grill the bus company's dispatcher, to find out which driver kicked the boy off. At first, the company protects the driver, saying he's got a clean record and would never treat a child like that, but when the reporter keeps pushing, the owner agrees to do a "lineup" to have Mickey identify the driver, which he does. The driver (Kenneth Griffith) swears he didn't kick Mickey off. "I don't even recall him riding that day." The trouble is, the driver was tortured in a German pow camp during the war and has had trouble with his memory ever since. His fellow drivers faux-sympathize with him, while talking behind his back and looking at him askance because they think he's "touched" in the head, and therefore, he may have indeed kicked Mickey off and forgotten it. The driver has a supportive wife who believes him, but the accusation is getting to him because he doesn't trust his memory himself. Still, he's sure he didn't kick Mickey off. Meanwhile, Mr. Donovan wants the busybody neighbor banished from the house. "Look at all the trouble she's caused!"
And it's gonna get worse. One night, while out for a walk to de-stress, the driver sees a dog walking on the railroad tracks, unaware that a train is bearing down. He scrambles down the hill to save it, but slips and slides and winds up on the tracks himself. I'll leave you to find out what happens next, but the film is about telling the truth, and minding your own business. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Snowball". The picture is very good. ////
I need to report that my life has changed greatly this week, as I have learned of an incident, quite profound, that was part of the September 1989 experience, and may have come at the very end. In all this time, over 33 years at this point, I have never known about this, never remembered it, and I'm not going to provide details except to say that it involved me, and it happened on Rathburn Avenue in broad daylight. What it was, was a reaction to two weeks of being tortured. Learning of this, and realizing that it indeed happened, has had a powerful effect on me this week. When the incident was over, I ended up lying in the street and was taken to Northridge Hospital, and that's all I wish to say for now. The thing is, is that there is no way my family couldn't have known about this. For certain my parents would have known, as would the neighbors up and down the street. There is no way they could not have known. And so, it has been kept from me for over 33 years, kept from me by by family, and everyone involved in 1989. My life was then stage-managed in the aftermath.
Of course, I wrote an 800-page book about September 1989 that included 1001 extreme details. But this incident is the most personal to me, especially because I haven't previously been aware of it, and as I said, it's also the most emotionally profound. It's an overwhelming thing to know that I've experienced pure evil in my life, evil beyond measure, and have survived it. I am proud of myself for surviving.
My new hero is Lys V., and I hope I get to talk to her someday.
And that's all I know. I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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