Rosamund John and Guy Middleton in "Never Look Back, and "Radar Men from the Moon", a Chapter Serial starring George Wallace

Last night's movie was "Never Look Back"(1952), an English courtroom drama about love, loyalty and a woman's honor. In earlier decades, England, even more than America, was very conservative when it came to the social mores of unmarried women. Solicitor "Anne Maitland" (Rosamund John), serious about her career, turns down the marriage proposals of colleague "Nigel Stewart" (Hugh Sinclair). "I wouldn't make a good wife for you. I'd be too busy in court." Nigel doesn't give up, however. "All right, my dear. I'll propose again tomorrow." He's clearly in love with her, but she seems to have a man in her past who's still on her mind, and lo and behold, that man, "Guy Ransome" (Guy Middleton) lets himself into her flat shortly after Nigel leaves, using a spare key hidden in her planter.

Guy seems a self-assured chap, tall and thin with a Bridge Over the River Kwai mustache. We gather that he and Anne were once an item; she's not shocked that he let himself in, and though she asks him to leave as soon as he finishes his drink (which she willingly pours), she ends up offering him to stay the night, provided he sleeps on the couch.

He's got a scratch on his face, which she treats with ointment. Knowing he's a ladies man, she asks, "Which alley cat gave you that one?" The culprit was his actress girlfriend, a tempestuous type. Guy departs in the morning, but comes rushing back just as Anne leaves for work. "Anne! I have to talk to you right away! She's dead! I just found her body!" He's referring to his girlfriend, the one who scratched him, but when Anne asks him, "Did you call the police?" Guy answers that he did, but only after hesitating and walking around "in a daze" for half an hour. Then he lied to them, telling them he slept in the park the night before, instead of the truth that he spent the night at Anne's apartment. "I did it to protect you. Your career would be ruined if it came out you were with a murder suspect." Yes, it's a murder. The gitlfriend has been shot, and the cops suspect Guy, because of his scratched face. Also, he was seen arguing with the woman at a party earlier that night. Soon he's charged with her murder. Anne becomes his defense lawyer, and in so doing, further alienates her suitor and fellow lawyer Nigel Stewart, who - in a screenwriter's twist, becomes the prosecutor in the case. Now, he's working directly against Anne and her client Guy, with extra motivation to convict him, as he sees Guy as his romantic rival.

The last 45 minutes of the 73 minute film takes place in the courtroom, with Anne skillfully defending (and protecting) Guy. They agree to keep their night together a secret, even though he only slept on her couch. Prosecutor Nigel has all the witness testimony on his side, including the fact that it was 34 degrees on the night in question, not conducive to sleeping in a park (as Guy claimed), and not one single person saw him there anyway, including the night watchman. But several witnesses saw him at the party, including a female impersonator. Finally, a brash bimbo is brought in as an undeclared witness to say that she saw him enter Anne's building! Now she has to recuse herself from the case, which is taken over by her assistant, and she becomes a defense witness and admits, at the stake of her reputation, that she and Guy spent the night of the murder together. That's what the film is really about, more than the crime. This is 1952, and unmarried women, especially in England, and especially professional women, absolutely did not have a man overnight (or if they did, they made sure no one saw).

I won't reveal the jury's verdict on Guy Ransome, but the mystery is riveting and warrants Two Big Thumbs Up with a very high recommendation. Who doesn't love a good courtroom drama? The picture is very good.  //// 

The previous night, we began one of the most legendary of chapter serials,"Radar Men from the Moon"(1952), which introduced Commando Cody to a nation of wide-eyed matinee-aged boys. Man, what a time to be alive: 1952! The Cold War was heating up, Ivy Mike was detonated, Ike was in the White House and Joseph Stalin was still alive. Accordingly, what an opening chapter! Things are looking bad on Earth: Electrical towers are being downed by the dozen. Dams are blown up, trains derailed. It's positively Mabusian. Who is doing it, and with what weapons? Washington thinks it's atomic bombs and ray-guns, but from what country? "Commando Cody" (George Wallace) advises the generals otherwise. From the trajectory of the blasts, he thinks the attacks are coming from "One of the cities on the Moon". Cue Richard Hoagland: "Told ya so!" He's been writing about the Ancient Glass Domes for a while now (and it's no joke). But yeah, Commando Cody agrees, and schedules a trip up there in his rocket ship. His crew includes his sidekick "Joan Gilbert" (Alice Towne), who some of the men don't want along on the trip (they think it's too dangerous), until she reminds them she can cook: "How else are you going to eat?" But before they can leave, someone starts blasting away at trains coming out of the Chatsworth Park tunnel. We see two gents in cheap suits hidden under a tent with a large ray-gun on a tripod. They blast one train, then drive to the Simi Valley side to blast another. Commando Cody actually says, "Someone's just destroyed a train in the West Valley." Wow!

He puts on his rocket suit and flies there, beats the two guys up, finds out they're hired hench-humans for the men on the Moon, and he flies to the Moon (with crew) to confront their leader "Retik" (Roy Barcroft), who wears a body hugging guru get-up that looks like he's trying out for The Seeds in 1963. Retik the Moon Guru explains that the atmosphere there is too thin to grow food, so they plan on taking over our joint: "And there's little you can do to stop us. Our lunarium (a radioactive element) is far more powerful than your uranium." Several big-league punchouts ensue as the Commando and his troupe try to foil the Moon men (and I love how, with all this technology, they always resort to fistfights and pistols). This is only the first chapter, but man...it's some legendary stuff that gets Two Huge Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp. ////

I'm now entering the final draft of each of my two upcoming books, which are companion pieces you might say. Each final edit (the third draft of both) will take a month to six weeks. One book clocks in at about 260 pages, the other will be around 300-325. One is a true story, the other a novel based on true stories. Both should be ready for publication as early as mid-July, but probably mid-August is more like it. And that'll be the hard part because I know absolutely nothing about getting a book published. Still, we'll get it done one way or the other. And then we'll start a new book in September. That's the schedule, and I can't wait til people get a chance to read the two upcoming ones, because they aren't at all what anyone might expect from yours truly. Anyway, that's all the advance notice for now. The next notice will come when they are done. In the meantime, anyone know any agents? 

My blogging music tonight is "Demons and Wizards" by Uriah Heep (one of the greatest albums ever made), and my late night is Handel's Acis and Galatea Opera. I wish you a great start to your week and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Robert Arden and Anne Heywood in "The Depraved", and "Barbados Quest" starring Tom Conway and Michael Balfour

Last night, in "The Depraved"(1957), U.S. Army "Captain Dave Dillon" (Robert Arden) runs out of gas on his way back to base. It's past midnight; you'd think he'd have filled up at the motor pool, but then we'd have a two minute movie. As it is, he has to hoof it to the nearest English country mansion where "Laura Wilton" (Anne Heywood) answers his knock. We've just watched her being verbally abused by her drunk, provoking husband, a wealthy entrepreneur. "Tom Wilton" (Basil Dignam) is one of those borderline personality drunks whose conversation is reactive. He explodes then retreats: "Oh c'mon, Laura. Have a drink and let's talk about old times." She seems to have the routine down pat, and when Captain Dillion knocks she lets him use the phone. But wouldn't ya know it, right then, the electricity goes out because Tom has pulled the stereo out of the wall, and in the process he's gotten a shock which has knocked him unconcho. Captain Dillon helps him to bed before leaving in Laura's car that she's loaned him for the night.

At the door, he asks if he can see her again, sensing all is not well in paradise. She turns him down, but she's hot so he's hooked, just like Fred MacMurray in "Double Indemnity," to which this film bears no small resemblance. When Dillon returns her car the next day, husband Tom invites him in. "So you're the chap who saw me to bed? Ah, the big American hero. Army, are you? The local U.S. base? You lot put up quite a racket. Here, have a drink." Captain Dillion is non-plussed by the man. "I'm just returning your wife's car, Sir." "Oh. Are you sure that's all you're returning? Have you ever killed a man, Captain? Me, I'm a pacifist." Dillon manages to excuse himself and leaves in his own car (now refueled). But he cant wait to see Laura again, and he's in luck because the base Colonel wants to throw a party for the local English residents to make up for the noisy maneuvers the Army has been carrying out. Dillon volunteers to deliver the invitations, which gives him a chance to once more visit Laura Wilton. 

This time when he rings the bell she's home alone. She's been tanning with a sunlamp, naked of course, and before answering the door she throws on a loose robe that leaves little to the imagination. This drives Dillon crazy, and the postman always rings twice. If Dillion had watched more movies he would recognize he's in a jam, but he's busy in the Army, and the dame's got him pegged. Therefore, lust ensues. The next thing you know, she's asking him to help get rid of husband Tom. Dillon storms out: "Sorry Laura, I draw the line at murder!" Yeah, sure you do, Captain.

Because of course he reconsiders, because after all, any idiot will commit murdalization in order to get laid. And, Dillon has just discovered the perfect method! The same road he ran out of gas on has a dead man's curve, right next to a lake. Several accidents have recently happened there. It's just right for killing Tom.

Dillon and Laura schedule it for the night of the residents' party at the base. Dillion has to make sure and "be seen" (for an alibi) but he also has to sneak out to set up the roadkill. Drunken husband Tom is at the party, getting drunker, but you start to feel sorry for him. By now, Laura has admitted she only married him for his money. He's actually the most nuanced character in the movie, an a-hole to be sure, but a sympathetic one and you'll see why.

He ends up in the lake in his car, as planned, but then a Dogged Police Inspector with an Unrelenting Hairline (which has to be seen to be believed and may be a wig) arrives at the base and starts asking questions. Captain Dillon, who's been acting shifty ever since the party, is counting on his office mate, "Major Kellaway" (Carroll Levis),  to cover for him, but the Major will only bend so far. He knows Dillon is having an affair, but not that he's committed murder. It plays out as you'd expect for cheating killers, and Captain Dillon is in for a big surprise. Two Huge Thumbs Up because it's expertly done, even if the plot is familiar. The picture is very good.  ////

The previous night's film was "Barbados Quest"(1955), a title I've been avoiding for awhile because I thought it was a Bahamian adventure story, not that there would be anything wrong with that, it's just that we're on a British crime flick binge, and.....well anyhow, I was left with little choice because the pickins' were slim, and I should've known that, just as you can't judge a book by its cover, you also cannot judge a movie by its title. For proof, just look at "The Hornet's Nest" from our last blog: 'twas a jewel theft farce. It took place on a barge, had nothing but goofy characters, with nary a hornet, nest, or anything that menacing in sight.

Likewise, but only partially, "Barbados Quest" did have a quest, and it did have a Barbados, but the Barbados was a rare stamp, not a city, and the quest was to acquire it. And once acquired, to make sure it wasn't counterfeit.

Tom Conway stars, playing a variation of his Falcon character (we love The Falcon film series), a suave private eye, looking not unlike a slightly smaller Errol Flynn. He's hired by philatelist "J.D. Everleigh" (Launce Maraschal) after Everleigh learns of a rare Barbados stamp when there's only supposed to be three in existence. Conway has to fly to England to investigate, and when he gets there, the plot begins. He contacts an old reliable source "Barney Wilson" (Michael Balfour), an expert in all things counterfeit, and together they make an investigative team for the rest of the movie, which features style over substance, but there's plenty of style. It soon becomes apparent there's indeed a stamp counterfeiting ring at work, with a preference for printing the valuable Barbados. Canadian Pompadour star Ronan O' Casey (seen the other night in "Cross-Up") is a printer/engraver working at a local shop. He wants 2000 lbs to keep his mouth shut, otherwise he's gonna cop to Conway about the fakes.

Because it's Tom Conway (brother of the more famous George Sanders but we like Conway better), there's gotta be a romance, and of course it "comes at first chance" when, in investigating the Barbados, he meets the attractive "Jean Larson" (Delphi Lawrence), the female assistant to "Lady Hawksley" (Grace Arnold), owner of one of the three legit Barbados stamps in existence. I gauged where things were going after this; it's fairly well-telegraphed, but, as noted, this movie is all about style, character, and the actors, mainly Conway and Michael Balfour, a terrific supporting player who we've seen in several of these Brit flicks (but they still don't have a British Charles King, nobody tops him). The Thames is part of the plot in this one too, making it three in  a row. Two Bigs. The picture is razor sharp.  //// 

Now, regarding the notice in the last blog about Lillian and Gary Patterson, we have an interesting new theory to report. One of the stranger appearances of the entire Event was Gary's, in the aftermath of the Rappaport kidnapping incident. That situation went on long into the night, on Sunday, September 3rd 1989, and as I was standing around in the area of Rappaport's front porch, along the sidewalk between 9032 and Etiwanda Avenue, I saw Gary Patterson actually drive up in his BMW, on Sunburst Street, which runs between Rathburn and Etiwanda and fronts both Rappaport's and my house. I can remember Gary pulling up and rolling down his window, and he said: "I'm looking for Lillian (last name)." And he had a piece of paper with him, like he'd written her name down or something. And in considering Gary's arrival over the years, I always thought of it as "Gary was some kind of chess piece for the bad guys", like he was "sent in" on a treasure hunt of sorts, to "look for Lillian". I thought this because initially Sean Young's participation also seemed like part of a game, like a ritual from "Eyes Wide Shut." But the other night, on my CSUN walk, a whole new possibility occurred to me. What if Gary, in reading from his piece of paper, had written down not Lillian's name (which he wouldn't need to write because he already knew it) but an address? What if he had written down Rappaport's address and was attempting to make a coke delivery? You've gotta keep in mind. "man, do these dipshits love cocaine." And so what if he was originally scheduled to make this delivery for the "orgy" but didn't know the orgy got called off, and when he showed up at the address, he saw people milling about out front, wondered WTF was going on, and asked "Does anyone know a Lillian (last name)?" And he'd unknowingly just driven into a Federal black-op situation. It seems more plausible that he drove up unknowingly, perhaps on a pre-scheduled coke run, only to find himself in one hell of an unusual situation. Then he would've been both scared and pissed off like Howard Schaller was, so he sent the evil David Friedman to bring me to his drop house the following Saturday, which was of course the Wilbur Wash house. Now it all makes more sense! Also, Lillian might've owed Gary money.

It is established beyond any shadow of a doubt that Lillian was dealing with not one but two coke merchants: Howard Schaller and Gary "Skull" Patterson. Now, I am guessing she was doing business with them mainly through go-betweens (Dave Small in Howard's case; The evil David Friedman and Dennis in Gary's case), but the real question is this: what did Lilly need all that coke for? I mean, we're talking two dealers, both of whom came looking for her after the situation blew up. Howard unfortunately found her at the Northridge Hospital parking lot, and Gary (using a written-down address) came looking for her at Rappaport's house (or even possibly my house) having no idea he'd just driven into the aftermath of a kidnap situation (what a fucking idiot, serves him right, haha, hope he's dead).

But again, why did Lillian need two coke suppliers? She didn't do drugs (I mean, I don't think she did. Maybe the occasional line.) And I can't imagine she'd need ounces and ounces for Rappaport's and Marshal's stupid parties. So why all the coke, and why all of a sudden? Why in 1989? I've traced a change in her behavior and demeanor (around me at the time), and I first began noticing an "aloofness" in Lilly around mid-1988. She even remarked on it in her "ultimatum" letter to me in June 1989 (see previous blogs). In that letter, she said, verbatim: "and if I seem distant or aloof right now, please understand I'm just scared of what's to come." What had she gotten herself into? Why the two dealers? And why Howard and Gary? That means that Lillian didn't know anyone in her own circle who could acquire cocaine (or she wanted to keep it a secret) so she used my friends Dave Small, and Dennis and Friedman as contacts to get introduced to their dealers. But why? It seems like a lot of coke for the whole "sex party/swinger" consortium, yet Howard wouldn't have become enraged over just a few grams or a couple hundred bucks of owed money. Ditto Gary, who wouldn't have come looking for Lillian unless he'd just suffered a significant loss of some kind.

So what was going on? Did it have to do with Cheap Trick? But why would they need Lilly for that? Of course, she was their friend, and she loved Tom Petersson, but still, couldn't they just have their roadies get their coke? Did it by any chance have to do with Priority Records? Seems unlikely (as shady of a character as her boss was, he'd do his own dealings, I imagine). I used to think it had something to do with her friends Joanie and Lanny (fellow Cheap Trick fans). They kept shuttling up to Vancouver in 1988/89. But Joanie is a well-respected teacher in Los Angeles, and Lanny works for the airlines. I don't really suspect them any more as having anything to do with The Event.

Well  anyhow, it's worth pondering. Why two dealers, which seems to mean Lots of Coke? And what the hell was she thinking, dealing with lowlifes like that? 

Anyhow, God Bless, and that's all for tonight. My blogging music is "In Camera" by Peter Hamill, my late night is Handel's Fernando, King of Castile Opera. I wish you a good weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Paul Carpenter in "The Hornet's Nest", and "Master Spy" starring Stephen Murray

Last night, we found a very clever crime farce of the type the English excel at, with quirky stereotypes playing off each other to make a silly situation sillier. In "The Hornet's Nest"(1955), we're down by the Thames again. Two elderly sisters live in a flat overlooking an industrial alley near the wharf, and as the movie opens, they see a man running down the street with a package in hand. He disappears behind one of those block-long high brick walls the Brits construct for industrial areas, behind which are combined any mixture of shops, offices, garages, converted apartments, etc. It's like a rabbit warren in those alleyways, behind those brick walls, and the sisters like to look out their window every night for entertainment.

The next morning, the headlines scream of a 20,000 lb jewel robbery. The sisters are excited: "Do you think it was the man we saw?" "He looked like he was runnin' for the wharf."

Right across the street is an office for something called The Society for the Reformation of Societal Unfortunates, a scam company that pulled the jewel job, run by another Wellesian cigar chomper with perfect diction (playing the "flustered" three-piece-suit guy required in English crime farce). The job was carried out by a jolly but marginally-brained ex-boxer, who ended up getting pinched for a bar fight after he hid the jewels. Now the boss and his other toady have to wait a week, while the boxer stews in jail, to find out where the loot is.

Meanwhile, nearby in the same alley, a small businessman is trying to eke out a living. Paul Carpenter, he of the Canadian receding hairline and the Dick Sergeant personality who usually plays ladies-man reporters, is this time a hustler who procures whatever is needed by the customer. He finds deep sea diving suits for film companies, he finds apartments for renters; whatever you need, he can get it. Two pretty models have just been evicted from their apartment in town, for cooking steaks (the implication being that models aren't allowed to eat). They go looking for new digs, and Carpenter hooks them up with a barge. It needs a lot of work, but they're willing, and move in. Part of the confusion necessary in farce is supplied when two other potential tenants claim residency also, including a film company who plan to burn the barge and sink it. By now, we know that the boxer hid the stolen jewels beneath its floorboards, and when he gets out of jail, Orson Welles tells him to get them stones back, stat! But when he goes to the barge, it's now occupied by the models: one English one French, oui, oui!

The French model "chance meets" a Boy Scout troop leader (a manly man) who interests her in the particulars of Scout knots. (I told ya this is a quirky farce). But Welles and the boxer just want the jewels beneath the floorboards. Boxer poses as a health inspector: "Sorry ladies, I've gotta check all barges for dry rot." Here the Thames comes in once again as a character, with the rising of the tide - mud flats at low tide, submerged buildings at high.

The barge eventually floats out to sea, sinking at the same time because the thieves have cut holes in the hull to flood it, so the models will have to move out. Then they can recover their jewels. But the old ladies are still watching it all unfold from their window, so you never know what will result. In all, it's a ton of fun, and thus rates Two Big Thumbs Up, almost Two Huge. It's the kind of thing they would later do in Mike Leigh movies, but with more screwball. The picture is very good.  /// 

The night before, in "Master Spy"(1963), communist scientist "Boris Turganev" (Stephen Murray) defects at the London airport, over the protests of his chaperone. The British government agrees to grant him asylum, but only after vetting his motives. Ultimately, it's the decision of their MI5 security chief, who tells the foreign office that Turganev's research into neutron acceleration is so groundbreaking that the Brits haven't even thought of it yet. "He can help us catch up." Turganev is given work at the small but important Barfield Nuclear Lab, a defense contractor. Humble when wanting asylum, he's haughty and picky upon joining the lab, finding the facility lacking in equipment, disapproving of his female colleague. "In my country, bad as the conditions were, I did not have to work with women and listen to their constant chatter."

Important papers are disappearing at Barfield. There's been a security breach. A scientist is found drowned; he's believed to be the spy, so the MI5 chief says "case closed". But just to make sure, a new, on-site security man is assigned. Turganev, as the new hire, and a foreign defector, is told to keep all files locked up and he emphatically agrees. He knows what would happen to a spy in his country, and he's grateful to his new British hosts. He even starts coming out of his shell, attending after-hours gatherings at the laboratory's lounge. He even warms to his female assistant, who's as smart as he is. Pretty soon he's giving her fatherly advice on marrying her co-worker boyfriend, who's research is on irradiated bunnies.

Turganev tells her his life story; how his parents were killed in the war, and as a result, how he doesn't want his research used for killing. But he also attends parties at a wealthy man's estate, somewhat out of character for him, though he attributes it to a shared love of chess.

The new security chief thinks the spy problem is settled. No more papers have gone missing. "We're a small facility. Likely they only sent one spy" (meaning the commies). But then, one night when Turganev is playing chess, he and the wealthy "Mr. Skelton" (Alan Wheatley) are interrupted by the arrival of his female colleague, who tells him that her file on neutron magnetization has gone missing. Could Turganev be the culprit? And if so, why did he ask for asylum? And is there twist upon twist? An absolutely superior spy flick, told in 68 minutes. Two Huge Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

And that's all I've got for this evening. Coming up, we'll have more about Lillian and Gary Patterson. My blogging music tonight is "Hughes/Thrall" by Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall. I had this album when it came out in 1982 (saw 'em at the Country Club, too) and it holds up pretty well, but boy does it ever have a "bright" 1980s production. My late night is Handel's Semele Opera. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Dennis Price in "Murder at 3 am", and "Piccadilly Third Stop" starring Terence Morgan and John Crawford

Last night, we found a fast-moving murder mystery called "Murder at 3 am"(1953). Demonstrating this, a woman gets out of a taxi at that time of night and walks to her door, clearly tired from the late hour. As she fumbles with her house key, a lurker sneaks up behind her, and with a karate chop to her neck, she's dead. "Inspector Peter Lawson" (Dennis Price) is at an all-night club drinking sham-pag-knee with his singer girlfriend when he gets the call, arriving at the murder site soon after with his partner "Sgt. Bill Todd" (Rex Garner). They compare details with other recent killings and determine that a serial killer is at work.

The next night, at a restaurant, Lawson casually discusses the case with his sister "Joan" (Peggy Evans) (with whom he shares a flat) and her new fiance "Edward King" (Philip Saville), a writer of detective novels. Protective of his sister, Lawson doesn't much like "Teddy", a handsome chap who offers his own clever theory as to the killer's "pattern", based on the letters in the names of local nightclubs, which Lawson politely derides. "Unfortunately Teddy, I don't have the luxury of working from fiction as you do. I have to operate on facts." Later at home, he tells Joan, "The man's only published one book. How is he going to support you?"

We see Teddy eavesdropping on the Inspector's conversations with Joan and his partner Sgt. Todd. Teddy becomes an obvious suspect in the serial killings, but there's also the problem of the "sharp-blow-to-the-neck" karate chop the killer employs; Sgt. Todd says "It's taught in Commando school," therefore the killer had to have been Special Forces. But was Teddy? 

Meanwhile, the River Thames becomes a character in an important part of the plot. When they can't figure how the killer keeps escaping police stakeouts, Lawson and Todd decide that it can't be by car cause they've had all the roads blocked. Could he be using the Thames? Voila! They start checking the waterfront, and interview an old salt who lives on a riverboat, a night watchman. Sgt. Todd plies him with hooch to open him up, and the old guy explains about motorboats and the tide. This part of the movie is fascinating because who knew rivers had tides? But we learn that the Thames is connected to the North Sea, and the tide rises and falls twice a day by up to 30 feet! Holy smokes! Riverside buildings go underwater. Buildings from centuries past are permanently submerged. The old salt says "you can only get a rowboat or motorboat out of a boathouse at 3 pm or 3 am, during high tide, otherwise, it's a mud flat by the banks." 3 am - Bingo.

Now Lawson and Todd have the killer's escape route narrowed down. He's certainly working from the river, and as a side note, we get some great location shooting there. Besides Teddy the detective novelist, there is one other possible suspect, whom the director shows looking nervous in reaction shots. The police finally decide to use a female as bait, and you'd think they'd use an officer but Lawson's sister Joan volunteers, wanting to help prove fiancee Teddy isn't the killer. Joan goes to a club and takes a taxi home at 3 am, as did all the other victims. Boom, she's attacked, and she (and we) recognize the killer, who doesn't even try to conceal his identity. A dragnet is formed that tightens at the river, yet though we've just seen Joan get attacked, our two main suspects remain in place. Because then, a major-league plot twist occurs, and when it does, you go : "Man, this is how these movies should be done: super tight, fast, and without let up (except for a pause so the old salt can drink a bottle.) For playing Gentleman Inspectors, they don't get any smoother than Dennis Price with his perfectly low-key London accent. Two Big Thumbs Up, and again, very interesting stuff about the Thames. The picture is very good. When the killer is finally cornered, the actor playing that part gives a very convincing portrayal of a desperate psycho on a power trip, and when you find out who it is, read his Wiki acting history, its very interesting, as well.  ////

The previous night, we had a top-notch (if overlong) heist movie called "Piccadilly Third Stop"(1960). Fancily-named "Dominic Colpoys-Owen" (Terence Morgan), a pretty boy professional pickpocket, presents the image of a rich playboy, but really he lives in a shared flat with his fellow pocket-picker, the less-assured "Toddy" (Charles Kay), and Toddy's girlfriend "Mouse" (Ann Lynn), a dim blonde. As the movie opens, Dominic and Toddy have crashed a wedding party, looking like they belong in their expensive suits which are tools of the trade. Dominic has gotten them this job through an American fence named "Mr. Preedy" (John Crawford), who's married to wealthy German painter "Christine" (Mai Zetterling), who is secretly having an affair with Dominic (because it's in Mai Zetterling's contract to play the Lustful but Ice Cold Blonde). At the wedding, Dominic and Toddy are working under contract for Mr. Preedy. They're supposed to "pick" a pair of valuable earrings given to the bride as a wedding present. They do this and leave, mission accomplished, but when they meet up with Preedy at Dom's uncle's casino, Preedy has run up a 9000 pound poker debt that he can't pay. Dom's uncle (Dennis Price again) threatens to have him "dealt with."

Meanwhile, just prior to this, at the wedding party, ladies man Dominic shared some sham-pag-knee with a gal he met offhand, one "Saraphina Yokami" (Yoko Tani), the daughter of an East Indies ambassador. As a side note, in the early sixties, it was hip to have either an exotic (sexy) or demure (sweet and naive) Asian woman as a love interest. That cultural motif is used here, as scene after intercut scene in the first half hour is used to build up a romance between Dominic and the sheltered Fina (as he calls her), who's lived most of her life in an embassy. She barely knows London, though she tries to compensate with articulate conversation, made endearing by her heavy accent. The motif of the East meets West romance was popular when the United Nations was coming into being and the whole Pacific Rim thing was consolidating, pre-Vietnam.

Anyhow, the filmmakers build up this romance between Dominic and Fina, but we know from the beginning it's one-sided. He's using her, and he's already sleeping with the blonde-but-hard Christine on the side (and using her too; the only thing he's in love with is the mirror), and by the time we find out it's a heist movie (which we don't know going in), we could've saved 20 minutes and had a tighter 66 minute flick if they'd cut out the extended romance. When the plot does tighten at the 35 minute mark, the movie gets damn good. Mr. Preedy is in debt to Dom's uncle the casino owner, who's gonna have him messed up big-time if he doesn't pay. Dom, formerly in Preedy's employ, finds out from Fina about 100,000 lbs in cash stashed in the embassy safe. Normally a good "Oriental girl", who would never break a law, she now is willing to help Dom steal the money because she's all charged up with being in love, something she's never ex-schperienced.

So now the heist is on. Dom figures out all the logistics, which includes subway tunneling and avoidance of the electrified third rail (and once again, if the makers of "Pelham One Two Three" didn't see this film, my hat will be tomorrow's lunch). Regarding artistic steal-age, ya gotta remember: its done all the time. In music, just consider Deep Purple lifting the entirety of It's a Beautiful Day's song for "Child in Time". We aren't talking just a riff or a melody but lifting the whole song. Now, DP made it their own, but it was still a 100% steal (not 99%), and the same thing goes on in movies or any other art form, business model or what have you in the world of commerce. So yeah, "Pelham One Two Three" (one of the top ten heist movies of all time) was influenced by this flick, zero doubt. And of course, as in Pelham, there are complications here as well. It's established early on that Mr. Preedy hates Brits, thinks they're pompous, and was acting like an Ugly American big shot before he got in debt to the leg-breaking club owner. But then all of a sudden, he needs Dominic (who's poor but pretending to be rich) to go through with the 100 grand heist. At the end, it boils down to a two-man battle for the money, and then, with Mai Zetterling as the getaway driver, all goes to hell as you'd expect. Two Bigs, almost Two Huge if they didn't waste so much time early on. The picture is razor sharp.  //// 

Now, an interesting question regarding September 1989 concerns Lillian's work. At the time The Event began, she'd only recently started at Priority Records, a major employment change for her that's a story in itself, because she went from working in a doctor's office to being an executive assistant at a record company, and she seemed to make the change seamlessly. Lillian was (and no doubt still is) highly intelligent, capable, and trained in business at CSUN, so I suppose her ability to jump into her new career should not be looked at askance. On a side note, I never did trust her boss Bryan Turner (I thought he was a shady character), but the bigger deal was that, even though we'd been together for 8 1/2 years by then, there was never any explanation on Lilly's part for how she got the job. One might expect it was through a CSUN placement, being that she'd just graduated from their business school. But you'd think, if that was the case, that she'd have been all excited: "Hey Honey, guess what! I just got placed at a record company!" Instead, I heard about it second hand, off hand, after she got back from France, right in the middle of when all of our post-graduation stuff was going down (see past blogs). She just casually remarked, "Yeah, I'm now working for this company called Priority." It was like she was telling a friend she hadn't seen in a while. She went on to say, "We're talking rap music, hard-core rap. They've got this group called NWA." Lilly, of course, took to promotion like a duck to water. She was a natural at selling rap, and indeed is one of those most responsible for it's success and persistence in American culture, but for our purposes the points here are twofold, given everything else we know about Lillian, the summer of 1989, and her transition from college student to record executive in training.

She started at Priority in late June/early July 1989, so she was still a newcomer there when, just eight or nine weeks later, she got attacked by Howard Schaller on the night of September 1st. He slapped her, she fainted, and was out cold. I was by her side on the parking lot pavement. An ambulance came and paramedics gave her oxygen. Her sister Ann was very concerned. I don't know what happened to Lillian after that, on that night, but she was driven away in an ambulance, so maybe she was kept overnight in the hospital or treated and released late that night. Howard slapped her pretty hard, but it was open hand, so I don't think there were cuts or bruises, and no fractures. One night in the hospital would've likely been sufficient, so theoretically, she would've been sent home that night or the next day, but still bearing the psychological damage of being assaulted by a linebacker-sized madman, which is huge. You don't just "get over" being attacked like that.

And all of this leads to my question: how, and when, was Lilly able to return to work? As noted, she'd only just started at Priority 8 weeks earlier. If she was treated and released on the night of September 1st, it's possible she'd could've returned to work on Tuesday Sept. 5th, when the three day Labor Day weekend was over, without missing a single day. However, she'd still have been carrying the psychological weight of watching me nearly die on Friday Sept 1st. and of getting attacked herself, by Howard Schaller, on that same night. And she was almost certainly questioned or talked to by the FBI or CIA agents who responded, and who made me sign a Federal non-disclosure oath at Concord Square on Saturday morning September 2nd. Surely Lillian (and Ann and possibly Lys too) was subjected to similar questioning and/or advisement. So, how did she return to work after all of this? And when?

And if she did not return to work immediately, on Tuesday September 5th, then what was Bryan Turner told about her absence?

I've long wondered about this, and it's an interesting question, because if her absence was in any way extended, she would've had to have given a reason. Or, she went right back to work without missing a day, but with a world of worry on her mind, in the middle of while The Event was still happening.

You see, the culmination of The Event began (all evidence indicates), on the evening of Saturday September 9th, when the evil David Friedman tricked me into accompanying him to the Wilbur Wash house so he could visit Gary Patterson, whose connection to Lillian is already established. The Wilbur Wash Incident, which began later that same night, was the biggest and most bizarre of the entire Event. We shant get into it now (way too detailed), but I've always wondered if Lillian was there that night, and I've always thought she might've been, in the area where onlookers were cordoned off on the other side of Wilbur Avenue. I've always believed, based on evidence, that Lillian's friend Malia S. was there (Malia has since passed away and was a nice person). And if Malia was there, as an onlooker, then Lillian was likely there also. And the Wilbur Wash Incident, all by itself, was Big Deal enough, and weird  enough, and National Security enough, to make The Event into the biggest secret in American history. And everyone who was present at the Wilbur Wash was sequestered the next day at the Howard Johnson motel on Reseda and Valerio. And that became an incident in itself that lasted all day Sunday, September 10th.

So, how the heck did Lillian return to work with all of this going on? And if she was out for more than a few days, how did she explain it to Bryan Turner? 

Just wondering 'cause it's always perplexed me.  ////

And that's all I know for tonight. My blogging music is "Fool's Mate" by Peter Hammill and "Pudding En Gisteren" by Supersister. My late night is still Handel's Admetus, King of Thessaly Opera. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Reed de Rouen in "The Six Men", and "Witness in the Dark" starring Patricia Dainton and Gordon Phillips

Last night, what luck! We found another Reed de Rouen movie! We love this guy. You might remember him from "Naked Fury" a week or two ago, in which we said he was a cross between Marlon Brando and Dave Madden. In "The Six Men"(1951), he's all cleaned up in a suit and slick haircut, but he's still got that Wisconsin accent and wise-guy smirk (when he's not doing deadpan), and then, out of the blue he'll go totally tongue in cheek like he's in a Roger Corman flick. Talk about idiosyncratic! He even pitched in on the screenplay for this one, a tale of vengeance upon a six member criminal gang. The gang, run like a syndicate by a cigar chomping Wellesian lookalike called"The Chief" (Peter Bull), pulls varying heist and counterfeit jobs. The Chief doesn't have to do any of the dirty work because he's the planner, the boss.

Reed de Rouen plays "Lewis", his #2 man. Then there's the safecracker, "Keyhole Russell" (Edward Malin), "Johnny the Kid" (Christopher Page), "Colonel Leon" (Desmond Jeans), and "Wainwright" (Ivan Craig). Each man was recruited for his specialty. There's even a religious reformer associated with the gang named "Captain Emsley" (Judith Furse), who provides Keyhole Russell with an alibi every time the gang pulls a job. But the "Captain" is a woman, running a fake halfway house, and when Skeertlynd Yeeeard gets involved, in the person of "Inspector Hunter" (Michael Evans), the gang start to disappear one by one, as if someone was checking them off a list.

And that's exactly what's happening, right down to the Gloved Hand crossing off names. This is a Reed de Rouen film, so it's as diabolical-yet-comically accented as you'd expect, even Three Stooge-quoting at the end: "Why youuu!" 

The gang knows they have a mole in their midst. Young Johnny boy has already been shot on a safecracking job that was supposed to be secret. Who knew about it? A rival gang? The mole appears in shadow as a hunched-over, bespectacled, rain-coated old man, silent and tall. Inspector Hunter bumps into a teary woman in the hallway at Yard Headquarters, but there must be a scene edited out for television because after he bumps into her, and asks if he can be of help because she's crying, we immediately see them sitting on a bench together in the park in the rain, talking as if they're well acquainted. At any rate, she will figure in the film's major plot twist, when we find out who the mole is. "The Six Men" has more charm than plot, and the plot it does have is not that well-executed, but that's no problem because the quirkiness is what's important here. De Rouen doesn't star, as he did in "Naked Fury", but he's in enough scenes that you won't feel gypped. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Six Men". The picture is razor sharp. We've gotta find us some more Reed de Rouen.  ////

The previous night, we watched "Witness in the Dark"(1959), a Blind Woman in Peril story with a superior cast and tight plot. The excellent Patrica Dainton (from "The Third Alibi", seen a couple years ago) stars as "Jane Pringle", a telephone operator blinded in an accident that took the life of her fiance. She lives on her own, wants to maintain her independence, and even teaches Braille on the side to a young pupil still struggling with his recent loss of sight. In addition, she helps an old, arthritic widow in the flat upstairs, who has no relatives, no friends and can't get around very well. In this way, the "peril" aspect (which will soon be introduced) is weighed against Jane's insistence on resilience over self pity. She helps others she considers less fortunate than her.

The old lady, "Mrs. Temple" (Enid Lorimer), has a valuable brooch ("pronounced 'broach', Gilligan") she keeps in a tea jar. Jane tells her she should put it in the bank in a safe deposit box. Jane has another neighbor named "Mrs. Finch" (Madge Ryan) who also knows about the brooch. Mrs. Finch is what you'd call a "deliberately well-meaning busybody", a gossipy non-stop talker who always "wants to help" to make herself the center of attention. Mrs. Finch's lifeblood is a listener, any listener, and in Jane she has a captive audience. "I enjoy helping you, dear." Yeah, because you get to yak about yourself and Jane's blind and can't get rid of you. But Mrs. Finch's husband has her number. He tells her to shut up about the brooch ("I told you, it's pronounced 'broach', Gilligan!") because he just bought a "hot" watch in the park and he don't want them coppers comin' around asking questions.

Well, the next night, old Mrs. Temple is murdered. We see the killer, a big man wearing a Macintosh. He's been staking out the building and somehow knows about the valuable brooch. He's even knocked on Mrs.Temple's door to acquaint himself with the interior of her apartment, but when he comes back and kills her, he can't find the brooch, which ends up being given to Jane as a gift. 

"Police Inspector Coates" (Gordon Phillips) starts questioning everyone in the building. Mrs Finch at first seems suspicious, given that her husband buys stolen watches in the park, but the crux is more substantial than just the murder mystery. The movie is about Jane's blindness, and how it makes her sensitive to touch and sound. Coates finds out that she passed the killer on the stairs. She touched his coat and can remember every wrinkle. She knows voice inflections, and when someone is lying from a pause or a too-glib reply. She can tell a man's breathing from a woman's. She's a detective in her own right. Inspector Coates takes a liking to Jane (and protects her from the obnoxious Mrs. Finch), and finally, he has her recreate the moment she passed the killer on the staircase.

I won't say anymore about the plot, but this movie makes an excellent counterpart to the classic, and similarly titled "Wait Until Dark" (which has gotta be inspired by this film), in which Audrey Hepburn gave a legendary performance against Alan Arkin's sadistic psycho. What kind of monster would torment a blind person? But that film, while an out-and-out classic, was all about the terror. The reason this movie contrasts it is because it's more about the strength of Jane and the details within her blindness, and how her detection abilities are enhanced in other ways, which helps her stay alive when the killer finds out she inherited the brooch and comes looking.  The final shot shows Jane throwing away a door chain given to her by Inspector Coates, who believes she should take precautions. She likes him, and they've solved the case together, but if being blind has taught her one thing, it's that she has to trust in people and not live in fear. Two Bigs, verging on Two Huge, because the filmmakers pull all of this off in 58 minutes. The picture is very good.   ////

And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Ashes Against the Grain" by Agalloch, in honor of their just-announced reformation which I'm super excited about. I was fortunate enough to see 'em thrice between 2012 and 2016 (each time at The Echoplex). Then they broke up, but now they're back. Check 'em out. My late night music is Handel's Admetus, King of Thessaly Opera. I hope you're enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Richard Cromwell and Helen Mack in "The Wrong Road", and "Tiger by the Tail" starring Larry Parks and Constance Smith

Last night's movie was "The Wrong Road,"(1937) a cautionary tale for Depression-era young people considering a life of crime. "Jimmy Caldwell" (Richard Cromwell) and "Ruth Holden" (Helen Mack) are two college kids from wealthy backgrounds, but the entitlement they've come to expect hasn't panned out after the Great Crash of 1929. Instead of the stockbroker position he was promised after graduation, Jimmy finds himself working in a bank, "for peanuts" as he puts it. Ruth is similarly disillusioned, declaring her accustomed lifestyle a birthright.

Thus, they have no qualms about executing their next move, which is to steal 100 grand from Jimmy's bank. They plan it out over a bottle of expensive champagne (that they can't pay for) in a high class restaurant. Jimmy will take the cash from the bank's vault and slip it to Ruth during a transaction. They even plan to confess the next day and accept prison time, after hiding the money, of course, to be retrieved upon their parole.

They rationalize the theft by telling each other they'll have "earned" the money by spending up to ten years in prison. "I'll only be 33 when I get out" says Jimmy. "We'll deserve every penny of it", Helen adds, "and we're hurting no one." Their belief is that they're stealing from an insured institution and "earning the money" by confessing and going to prison.

Before turning themselves in, they hide the dough in an antique music box, and mail it to Ruth's Uncle Billy, an antique dealer, with instructions for him to hold it in storage for them.

They end up serving only two years of their sentences, when the bank's insurance agent "Mike Roberts" (Lionel Atwill) convinces the prison board that it would be in everyone's best interests, including Jimmy's and Ruth's, if they were given early parole, because, he says, it will lead to the bank's recovery of the money. It's his job to do that, so naturally he's for their parole, but he also believes it will redeem the pair from a life of crime. "Ten years in prison will only harden them further." 

But major complications ensue when Jimmy and Ruth are let out, and resolutely try to keep the money for themselves. First, they find out that Uncle Billy has died. All his antiques are now up for auction. They go to the auction house in Sunnyvale, California (via the Chatsworth train station), only to be outbid by an eccentric auction habitue. It turns out he's given the music box to his sister, so it's back on the train for Jimmy and Ruth, but by now, Jimmy's old cellmate from San Quentin is also on the trail, Jimmy having stupidly (and unbelievably, Mr. Screenwriter) told him about the money, the music box and the location of Uncle Billy's antique shop while he was in stir. It becomes a race to converge on the music box, between Jimmy and Ruth (who now thinks it wasn't worth it), and Blackie the cellmate. Insurance agent Roberts is on their trail the entire time. "How did you find us in Sunnyvale?" Jimmy asks, incredulous. "It's my business to know things," Roberts answers. And, he's also on a mission, besides recovering the money, to save "the kids" from choosing "The Wrong Road". You can almost picture the movie's tagline: "Attention 30's Parents! Take Your Children To This Movie!" And at the end, both Jimmy and Ruth, having been saved, extol the virtues of honest living. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Wrong Road", our first American movie in many weeks. The picture is slightly soft.  ////

The previous night, we had another good one from director John Gilling: "Tiger by the Tail"(1954). For some reason, the Brits had a motion picture fascination with American reporters covering their turf in the late '50s, which is what happens to "John Desmond" (Larry Parks) when his magazine assignment is changed from Paris to London at the last minute. He's picked up at the airport by his World News colleague "Jane Claymore" (Constance Smith), who brings him up to speed on all things English, being that he's never been there before. He's a ladies man (of course, what American reporter isn't?) so after Jane turns him down for a dinner date, he goes to a nightclub where a torch singer is belting a tune (which always signals the arrival of a Femme Fatale). Spying "Anna Ray" (Lisa Daniely) at the bar, coolly pulling a cigarette from her pack, Desmond is quick with his lighter, then he's pulling up a chair and buying the next round. Soon they're dancing, then it's back to her place for a make out session. Desmond likes Anna, so much so that he's late on his assignment, which is supposed to cover "The cultural attitude of the modern Englishman". His editor is complaining. Jane Claymore keeps reminding him of his deadline, but he just can't keep his mind off Anna, and when he arrives at her apartment unannounced one afternoon, and overhears her through the door talking to another man, he becomes jealous. Later, when she lets him in, he sees her diary on a table and snatches it!....."Ahh, let's see who you wrote more about, me or that other guy?"

This doesn't go over well, and Anna pulls a gun. "Give me back my diary." When Desmond assumes she's joking, or that the gun isn't loaded, he soon finds out differently. In a schtruggle, it goes off. Anna is dead.

Not knowing what else to do, Desmond wipes her apartment of fingerprints, runs to the nearest bar and gets hammered. Jane Claymore finds him there and again reminds him of his deadline. Unable to hold it in any longer, he tells her about the shooting, swears it was in self defense and she believes him. This is when the plot gets launched, because when Desmond and Jane open Anna's diary, which he took from her apartment, they discover it's full of coded messages; runs of numbers and phrases.

Figuring Anna was some kind of government agent, Jane becomes scared and tells Desmond to lay off. "Even if she was MI5, they have nothing on you, your prints are all gone." But then, Holy Smokes! Desmond remembers he sent Anna a telegram the same day. "I wanted to tell her I loved her." He was jealous of the other man, who will turn out to be a bad guy. And that's why the telegram is dangerous; because if this man finds it at her apartment, he'll know who shot her.

This begins a Mission Impossible-type "peeling away of the layers of secrecy" in which reporter Desmond, in his search for the truth, follows twisting plot threads, not knowing if he's up against organized criminals, a shadowy government agency or both. He'll face 3rd degree torture from The Other Man and his thugs (lead thug played memorably by Ronan O'Casey, he of the Canadian pompadour and big schnozz). They want Anna's diary back. Desmond manages to escape their clutches, but is then found by the coppers, who mistake him for an amnesia victim (don't ask, too left field by the screenwriter). He gets taken to the hospital, plays along with his diagnosis, while Jane visits him to try and break the diary code.

It turns out they are dealing with an international gang of counterfeiters who are trying to collapse the British economy by flooding the market with American dollars (how very John LeCarre of them). The mysterious Other Man will schtop at nothing to get Anna Ray's diary back, because it contains the names of all the group's international contacts. Desmond and Jane painstakingly break the diary code, but the key to the whole flick is when The Other Man leaves Desmond in the custody of the lanky henchman O'Casey, (a great caricature actor). Actress Constance Smith's life was incredibly tragic, read up on her at IMDB. You'd never know it from her performance here, which is first rate. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Tiger by the Tail", verging on Two Huge. We always like to point out that director Gilling helmed the greatest zombie movie of all time, "Plague of the Zombies", but his specialty seems to be crime and espionage. This one is highly recommended and the picture is very good.  ////

And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is Hatfield and the North (both albums), my late night is Handel's Tamerlano Opera. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Fuzzy Knight and Forrest Taylor in "Kelly of the Secret Service", and "St. Benny the Dip" starring Dick Haymes and Nina Foch

Last night, we went back to Poverty Row for the first time in a while, to visit with producer Sam Katzman and our old pal Fuzzy Knight from so many of last year's 60 Minute Westerns. In "Kelly of the Secret Service"(1936) Fuzzy plays "Lefty Hogan", a hapless boxer who, along with his dimwit manager, is in need of money as the movie opens. Lefty can't get a fight these days, so the guys are forced to look for work, and they find jobs guarding the laboratory of "Doctor G. Marston" (Forrest Taylor), a mad scientist who is working on an "aerial" bomb (which is really a death ray). Lefty and his manager are as lousy as guards as they are at boxing, for no sooner do they begin than they are knocked unconcho by a gas-masked, chemical-suited assailant, who then enters the lab, gasses Dr. Marston and his assistant, and steals the plans for the aerial bomb.

That's when "Special Agent Kelly" (Lloyd Hughes) enters the picture. He starts by questioning all who were in the lab at the time, including Dr. Marston's secretary "Sally Flint" (Sheila Bromley), a self-assured dame who isn't afraid of Kelly and denies his accusations. But this isn't a mystery plot, and it's pretty clear she was in cahoots on the gas attack, because we next see her in a Chinese restaurant meeting with some suspicious "Orientals" (the word used in the script). A radio-controlled battleship is then blown up at sea by the aerial bomb, which resembles a Van de Graaff generator, a metal sphere emitting spidery electric currents like lightning in all directions, which is different than a Van der Graaf Generator.

Soon after this, people start getting hyp! no-tyezd! by a pair of mysterious hands. Kelly's Secret Service colleague of is killed. Lefty Hogan's manager tries hyp! no-tyezing! him so he'll become a pianist, which gives Fuzzy Knight (a talented vaudevillian) a chance to play and sing. This movie reminded me of last year's excursions into the Kitchen Sink approach of Poverty Row, and studios like Katzman's Victory Pictures, which always gave you some comedy and music along with your cowboys or G-men. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Kelly of the Secret Service". The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night's movie was "St. Benny the Dip"(1951), a quasi-religious comedy with a premise like "We're No Angels." As it opens, three New York City flimflam men are drugging and setting up a blackmail target with a prostitute, when they in turn get set up by the telephone operator they've been using as a go-between. She calls the cops, who respond instead of the hooker, and our boys, who include "Benny" (Dick Haymes), "Matthew" (Roland Young) and "Monk"(Lionel Stander), are forced to flee. With the cops in pursuit, they hide in a huge, Gothic church, where they sneak into the priest's chambers and, in an inspired moment, steal the clerics' frocks and hats so they can pose as clergymen in the outside world. Their reasoning: who would draw less suspicion than a priest?

Well, the plan works until the actual parish priest and his fussy, Harry Potter-ish assistant go in search of their missing garments, accompanied by an Irish police sergeant. By now, Benny, Matthew and Monk are hiding in the basement of a Midnight Mission that happens to be run by the church. When the actual priest (and his assistant and the cop) go there, they find the gang dressed in their priest clothes. Not suspecting them, because they talk a good game, speaking in biblical parables, they instead ask the men, who they think are fellow priests, if they'd be willing to take over the shelter. The priest says to Benny, "You seem to have such a rapport with the men." Homeless guys are sleeping all over the place. They awaken and agree that they'd love to see the boys lead their flock.

By now, their scheme to dress as priests seems to have backfired, precisely because they're so believable. Now, everyone wants them to be priests, and they can't say no without drawing suspicion, so they're forced to do the one thing they didn't wanna do - go legit. And they're not only legit but  doing the selfless work of God. Each one is tempted: Benny by "Linda Kovacs" (Nina Foch), a beautiful church benefactor he meets at the homeless shelter. Matthew, the eldest and most believable of the "priests" is put in charge of the donation funds, which are substantial. His temptation is not to steal the money.

Monk's temptation is the reverse; can he go straight and earn a living? He has no future as a fake priest, he's too much of a mook - all "youse guys" and "dis and dat". Monk actually goes back to his sister's tenement apartment and contemplates a return to cab driving. Meanwhile, the real priest, his Harry Potter assistant and the faithful Irish cop are still on the trail of the frock thieves while our boys are running the shelter and hoping for a way out of their predicament. At first, they vow to stick together and continue the criminal life, but their temptations are pulling them apart. Meanwhile, Christian aphorisms are uttered as allegories for the bind they are in.

I loved this movie and you might also. Two Bigs. Dick Haymes sings a song, and boy what a voice. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

Now then, we have another detailed issue to raise, concerning September 1989, which is the spread of information, specifically the dissemination of the news that something out of the ordinary had occurred at Terry's apartment on the night of September 1st. We've discussed the initial phone calls that were made, to paramedics and Lillian's sister Ann, and to Lys V., though we don't know if she was contacted by Lillian or Ann. But others were also called, either initially or by secondary callers. Among the others who were called were Dave Small, and of course the madman Howard Schaller. We have surmised that Howard was called by the Security Thug, because he would've known we were headed to Northridge Hospital, where Howard later attacked Lillian. We further point to the Security Thug as the person who called Howard Schaller, because - and this is important - Howard was very specifically angry at Lillian, not me.

Now, the Security Thug, when he was summoned to Terry's apartment by the Concord Square manager, at first blamed me for the ruckus in the courtyard. As noted, he handcuffed me and held a knife to my stomach, but then he gave me a chance to explain myself, and when I did, he went back inside Terry's apartment and excoriated Terry and Lillian, telling them (and this is almost verbatim): "What do you expect when you (do that) in front of him?" In other words, "how do you expect him to react?" Thus, in the eyes of the Security Thug, blame was now shifted from me to Terry and Lillian. He thought they were at fault for the commotion, and would've reported as such to Howard Schaller, who was obviously lying in wait for us at the hospital. He saw Lillian drive up with Terry in Terry's Mom's car, and attacked us when Lillian got into our car. Then he attacked her when she got out of our car to face him.

But in this way, using deduction, we can reasonably assume that Howard was contacted by the Security Thug, who blamed Terry and Lillian for the trouble at Concord Square. Thus Howard, so informed, also blamed Lillian (he wouldn't have known Terry, who wasn't in our car in any case).

But there's another person whom we haven't yet discussed, who - in order for him to know about the trouble at Concord Square - would've had to have been contacted by someone already in the know, because this person - like Howard Schaller - was not on scene when the trouble happened, and would not have immediately known what happened at the building on the night of Sept. 1st. 

That person is Jared Rappaport, the man who kidnapped me.

Jared Rappaport kidnapped me, at gunpoint, on - all available evidence indicates - the night of Sept. 2nd, a Saturday, the second night of the Event. Strange though it may seem, though we've given much investigative thought to the questions surrounding Howard Schaller's contacts and participation, we've never really considered the fact that Jared Rappaport, in order for him to learn the news of Concord Square, had to have been told by someone who already knew what happened there. As noted, he wasn't on scene, so, like Howard, someone had to call him with the news.

Now then, the news would've been important to Jared Rappaport, because he had a big party scheduled for that weekend, which was the three-day Labor Day holiday. His party, in fact, was likely to begin on the very Saturday night he kidnapped me. Corroborating this is the fact that, on Sept. 1st, before I was stun-gunned inside Terry's apartment, Terry had a knock on his door from a friend of his named Scott E., whose nickname was "The Pimpster." The Pimpster knocked on Terry's door that night, unaware that trouble was brewing in the apartment. He may have just "shown up" to hang out with his pal Terry, or he may have wanted to smoke some pot, and his reason for arriving isn't important. However, before Terry shooed him away (due to the brewing trouble), I very clearly heard The Pimpster say, "Is the orgy tonight?" He may have phrased it differently: "Is tonight the orgy?" Meaning, "Oh, that's why you're shooing me out." Terry didn't respond to his question, and at the time, I didn't know what it meant. But I clearly heard him say it, and I've never forgotten it. And that question ("Is tonight the orgy?"), combined with the fact that Jared Rappaport had a sex party (an orgy or porno-movie shoot) planned for Labor Day weekend, suggests that it was the "orgy" The Pimpster was referring to. Terry had likely bragged to him about it.

Jared Rappaport's planned "party" over Labor Day weekend is thus established. He was no doubt very excited about it, was anticipating it, and then all of a sudden, it wasn't going to happen. It got called off. Now, I am guessing that Jared Rappaport didn't call it off, but some of his main participants were now not going to be available, and why? Because, according to him when he kidnapped me, I had fucked things up by causing a shitstorm at Concord Square. And now Lillian was not going to be able to attend his party, and without her there, none of the other goons, like David Birke, Terry, and others, were going to be there, either. 

The cancellation of his party so infuriated Jared Rappaport that he was willing to risk his whole life, his career, and his family by kidnapping me (which is a whole 'nuther issue, that he would risk these things, and prison also), but what is important here, is that his party was not going to happen, and in his case, he blamed me, not Lillian. Which means he got the story from someone who either blamed me, or told the story in such a way that the emphasis was placed on my actions at Concord Square (even though I was the victim who was stun-gunned and nearly died that night).

For us, in tonight's blog, the question becomes, using deduction similar to that used on Howard Schaller: Who contacted Jared Rappaport to inform him that his party was not going to happen? Who called him to inform him about Concord Square?

It's amazing that we've never given this question much thought, but we'll do it now. Firstly, I don't believe that Jared Rappaport had any dealings at Concord Square. In other words, he obviously wasn't part of Terry's "hangout crowd", didn't know Terry (other than at possible previous "parties"), and really didn't know Lillian all that well (except at possible previous "parties"). She was introduced to "the scene" through Marshal Lester, not Rappaport. Lillian, I am guessing, introduced Terry. But neither of them would've been in a hurry, even if they did know him well, to contact Jared Rappaport, on a night when I almost died in Terry's apartment. They had bigger things to worry about at that point than his stupid party. And Rappaport would likely not have known Howard Schaller, or anyone connected secondarily to Concord Square. The only people he would've known, from our circle, was Lillian, Terry, and.......the ubiquitous David Birke. He also very likely knew the Smalls (see previous evidence on Pat Small).

Now, even if Pat Small was a "client" of his neighborhood "services", I doubt she was a participant at any of his parties, for the simple reason that she was 61 years old, and would've kept what she was doing to herself. She wouldn't have attended swinger parties. For that, Jared Rappaport and Marshal Lester recruited young people, and, with our circle of friends, Rappaport began by inviting David Birke, whom he met when David was shooting his student movie at 9032 on Memorial Day weekend 1989, three months earlier. In short, even if Pat Small, a likely Rappaport "client", heard about what happened at Concord Square, likely from her stepson Dave Small, she wouldn't have been in a big hurry to contact Jared Rappaport because she wasn't a participant in his parties. Also, if anything, she'd have wanted to keep her name out of the whole doggone thing. Therefore, through the process of elimination, David Birke becomes the person most likely to have contacted Jared Rappaport, to say, "I'm sorry but I can't come to your party this weekend, and in fact nobody's probably coming, because something happened last night at Terry's apartment building."

Just as possible is that Rappaport called David Birke, to remind him of the party, or to make sure all arrangements were in order: "Don't forget the chips n' dip." Either way, whoever called who, David would've given him the news that there was a blowup at Concord Square and now, nobody was coming. And that would've (and did) piss Jared Rappaport off mightily, and he took it out on me, because whoever told him the news put the emphasis on me as the cause of the trouble.

Remember, Howard Schaller took out his anger on Lillian, because he got the news - first hand - from the Security Thug, who was there when the trouble started. The Thug blamed Lillian and Terry, ergo Howard blamed them, and specifically Lilly (and she might've owed him money, also.)

But Jared Rappaport blamed me, and he likely got the news second hand, from David Birke, who wasn't there, and David Birke had to have gotten the news also, because he also wasn't there, so the question now becomes, "who told David Birke?" How did the news ripple outward from Concord Square, in the 24 hours between when I was stun-gunned and the next night when I was kidnapped by Jared Rappaport? Someone had to call David Birke, who broke the news to Rappaport (regardless of who called who, in that case). The ripple effect begins with someone who had direct knowledge (someone on scene), who called either David Birke to inform him, or called someone else.

Again, as I barely escaped death that night, I don't think the first thing on Lillian's or Terry's mind was to start calling people to say they were gonna have to miss "the orgy." They had much bigger worries. But, because I was in bad shape, someone might've thought it prudent to contact my family. Terry, or Lillian or Ann, wouldn't have been able to get hold of my Dad. He'd moved to a HUD apartment earlier that year. No one would've known his number. But both Lillian and Terry knew, obviously, the number to my house. My Mom was likely not home, and even if she was home, and got the news about me, she'd have had little reason to call David Birke.

My guess is that Terry or his Mom, but likely Terry, called my house, and someone answered. Terry reported what had happened (and you can bet he was scared shitless because he'd just seen me non-responsive on his floor), and you can bet he put the blame on me, to avoid responsibility, as he was the one who stun gunned me. So, he called my house to report what happened, pinned the blame (or at least put the emphasis) on me, and then the person who took Terry's call, called David Birke to report the news to him, again with the "blame emphasis" on me. "Did you hear what happened to Adam at Terry's apartment? It all started when.....".

And after that, likely sometime the next day, Saturday Sept. 2, David Birke either called Jared Rappaport to tell him what had happened, and that the "party" was off as a result, or Rappaport called Birke to remind him to bring the chips n' dip, and he heard the news that way.

Either way, it infuriated Rappaport to the point where he was willing to risk his whole life to kidnap, imprison, and torture me, which he proceeded to do.

And again, it developed through a chain of phone calls, beginning at the source point (Concord Square), likely from Terry calling my house to report what happened. Whoever took that call from Terry later called David Birke, and David Birke very, very likely broke the news to my kidnapper Jared Rappaport. It's very doubtful it was Dave or Pat Small, the only other people who would've had the news that early.

Other evidence directly implicating David Birke as the person who broke the news to Jared Rappaport, is the fact that David Birke was inside Jared Rappaport's house on Sunday September 3rd, while I was still in Rappaport's captivity.

To repeat: While I was still in Jared Rappaport's captivity, David Birke was in his house.

And that's all I know for tonight. Please know that I report these findings only in my search for truth. I'm not out to get anyone. The Circle of Friends from the old days are not my enemies, and I know they wouldn't have wanted me to get kidnapped by a psychopath. But I did get kidnapped (among many other things), and I almost died at least twice. When a paramedic examined me in the aftermath of the Rappaport incident, my heart rate was over 200 beats per minute. I was in a state of shock. So it's no joke. I was kidnapped and tortured, and it's never been acknowledged, and it happened because I inadvertently fucked up a nutjob's sex party. It's too bad that some of the friends got involved in that kind of depraved stupidity, and I'm sure if they could do it over again, they wouldn't do it. But at the time, they did do it, and I'm the guy who paid the price. I've been living with it for almost 34 years. 

So please keep that in mind, because there's going to be a resolution to all of this. One day, there's going to be a resolution. And I have to work toward that resolution, because if I don't, I'm disrespecting my own life and throwing what happened to me (and to others) into the proverbial trash can, and if I do that, if I too ignore what happened, I'm disrespecting God, who created me. And so, I won't pretend it didn't happen like everyone else does. I just can't do that. I need the truth, and as long as we keep examining and questioning, we'll get closer to the full truth of what happened.

So that's all for tonight. My blogging music is the new Metallica album, "72 Seasons", which is really good, my late night is Handel's Tamerlano Opera. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Paul Carpenter and Jackie Collins in "Undercover Girl", and "Hidden Homicide" starring Griffith Jones, James Kenny and Patricia Laffan

Last night's movie was "Undercover Girl"(1958), another Paul Carpenter-starrer from The Butcher Brothers, in which Carpenter, an American, plays (as usual) a ladies-man reporter, doing the "receding and needing a drink" deal. He's got kind of a Darren McGavin or Dick York thing happening, and he gets upset when a fellow journalist is killed for "digging too deep" into a Soho racketeering case. In his Butcher Films, Carpenter's reporters aren't afraid to get into punchouts, or threaten mobsters. He's always meeting women aplenty in his search for the truth, and every one is attracted to him, including Miss Brazil in this flick, who in Carpenter's words "has a bust of 42 and a featherweight brain." His favorite girl is his childlike but super intelligent secretary, who dresses like a very hip bobbysoxer.

You'll need a baseball program to keep up with all the players, and after a while, the names just run at you like a fountain and you can't tell who's who, except for main characters Laura and "Peggy" (Jackie Collins before she was a writer!) But the hoodlums? There's Foster, Austin, Hunter, Farrell......too many last names without the character development to make them memorable.

The plot is that someone is running a heroin ring in which young, moneyed women are surreptitiously doped, then, while stoned out of their gizzards, they are framed up in hit-and-run schemes, where they wake up and "find out" they've plowed into an old man, who's now barely clinging to life in a convalescent hospital. Then they are blackmailed by Foster, Austin or whomever is running the show, to threaten them with payment or going to jail.

Paul Carpenter does some digging and discovers that it's the same old man over and over as the "hit and run victim", and that he wears bandages in the hospital, but underneath, he doesn't have a scratch on him. It's a scam, and all the female targets are now not only blackmailed for hit and runs they didn't commit, they're all hooked on heroin, too. But because it's the usual "give em bits and pieces" script, and then "explain it all at the end", you end up enjoying the movie more for Carpenter's "necktie adjusting" acting style. He's a Bewitched tough guy, with the all-important David Janssen hairdo. As for Miss Brazil, she just wants to attend parties, and thought London would be more exciting than it's turned out to be. Jackie Collins is actually the best actress of the parade of women. She and her sister Joan were talented before succumbing to bimboism later on (or in Jackie's case, writing mega-sellers). Bruce Seton, who plays "Austin", and whom we've seen a lot of lately in bad guy roles, plays his usual canine-faced Ruthless Bahstahd. He bears a resemblance to the Bud Lite dog Spuds Mackenzie. Two Big Thumbs Up, you can't go wrong with The Butchers and Paul Carpenter. The picture is very good.  //// 

The previous night, we watched a murder mystery so "high concept" (i.e. convoluted) and filled with chance meetings and introduced-out-of-nowhere characters that you'll for once be thankful for the exposition that ultimately explains things. In "Hidden Homicide"(1959), writer "Michael Cornforth" (Griffith Jones) wakes up to find he's committed a murder. But he couldn't have! We just saw him put on his po-jammies and go to bed! He even took a sleeping potion beforehand. But he must have committed the murder! We also just saw him awaken with a pistol in hand, dressed in a suit as if he'd gone out. He then finds the body in his cottage, or rather his cousin's cottage, where he's staying while he writes his book. The cousin is the dead man.

Now here comes the Chance Meeting. Just after Cornforth discovers his cousin's body, there's a knock at the door. It's two cute women, early 30ish. The night is pouring rain. The gals are soaked to the gills. "Can we please use your phone?" "Sorry, I haven't got one." "Well, then can we please use your fireplace to dry our clothing?" He can't wriggle his way outta that one, cause they can see the smoking chimbley on his roof. The women barge in. Cornforth has a dead body in his kitchen that he couldn't-have-but-must-have killed. The Chance Meeting turns into one of those "no, I'll make the tea! I insist!" scenarios, because he doesn't want the ladies entering the kitchen. That's where his cousin's body is. But, being women, they can't be kept down. "What do you take us for? Layabouts? I can make tea quite well." You also can't keep 'em out of the kitchen, so of course the tea-making gal finds Cornforth's dead cousin. Now he's forced to hold them at gunpoint so's they don't run to the Veddy Brrrittish cops. Cornforth explains himself. "I didn't kill him; I found him. Someone is trying to frame me."

Characterwise, the body-finding gal has done her job and is now out of the movie, having gone bonkers at the sight of a dead man. But the Meet Cute was designed to set up a slow-growing romance between the second gal "Jean" (Patricia Laffan) and Michael Cornforth. Suddenly, she believes his story and wants to help him, and you're gonna need help from here on out, because the screenwriter uses a technique of Obscure Now and Reveal Later, introducing characters that just walk on with no preceding context. Suddenly, There They Are! You're going, "Who's he? Who's she?" Mr. Screenwriter answers, "Don't worry, I'm just being clever. I'll tell you all about them in the last two minutes."

Cornforth calls on his old private eye buddy (and would that we all had one) because he can't figure out what's going on, either. Jean also helps him investigate for a while, but her real mission in such a flick is to ultimately fall in love with Cornforth, then get kidnapped so that he'll have an emotional reason to rescue her, and thereby enwrap them both in the movie-ending Kiss-Off. The inclusion of the Jean character is a near-Red Herring, because Cornforth spends most of his time driving around with the private eye, and of course the coppers have their own, always intercut, Dogged and Thorough Investigation.

I am glad James Kenney is in this film. We've now seen him several times, and twice recently. He's the fresh faced young actor who played the robber's naive brother in "Ambush in Leopard Street", and we've seen him in a number of such roles, as the Charming Young Man Who gets Compromised but is Slightly Smug. However, we've always suspected he had something more substantial up his dramatic sleeve, and he shows it here, in a role predating Hitchcock and DePalma by decades. This is once again a case of "I Know They Saw This Film". I can't tell you why, but it has to do with James Kenny's character, and also his portrayal. Besides that, there's another character named "Mungo Peddy." Gee, do you think Mungo Jerry saw this flick when he was 12 years old? Two Bigs! But man, don't even try to pay attention to the plot details. Just watch it and let things happen. The picture is very good, as is the location shooting in the London suburbs, where woods are always about to happen. The whole country is on the edge of the forest.  ////

And that's all I know. I had a very nice birthday, with my first hike of the year, taken at Aliso Canyon where all the rainwater is still flowing through the creek bed. I also got my hair cut yesterday, a return to The Shorter Look for the first time in three years (i.e. before the pandemic). I'd love to have long hair (and I just did) but the problem nowdays is maintenance and hair quality. My hair is drier than it used to be and thus frizzes easily. If I had hair like Ty Tabor, I'd color it and let it grow super long, and I suppose I could do that if I was willing to maintain it, and have the ends trimmed on a regular basis and such, but.....well, I didn't go through with it, so my hair is shortish again. And it'll probably get long again, too. And then short.

My blogging music is an incredible-sounding bootleg of Deep Purple's May 1987 concert at the Irvine Meadows amphitheater. I was at that concert, which was also memorable because Sir Richard played much of the show with his back to the audience (he's a sensitive guy). But boy - we've been talking about his playing on Rainbow's "Stranger in Us All" from the mid-90s. Well, his axemanship at this gig is off the charts, even for RB. Check it out. Go to Youtube and put in "Deep Purple Irvine Meadows 1987". Yow! Ritchie's got a tone like a Stinging Wasp.

My late night music is Handel's Florinda Opera. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):) 

Lee Patterson and Ann Sears in "Cat and Mouse", and "Crow Hollow" starring Donald Huston and Natasha Parry

Last night, we had a hostage drama in "Cat and Mouse"(1958). As it opens, "Ann Coltby" (Ann Sears) gets off a bus to visit a "Mr. Scruby" (Hilton Edwards), an Alfred Hitchcock-looking chap who's sent her a letter requesting she see him, claiming he was a friend of her late mother. When she gets to his apartment, he starts insinuating things about her father, and a Coltby family secret is revealed: that her Dad was hanged for a diamond robbery/murder. Three minutes in, and Scruby is accosting Ann. "Tell me where those diamonds are!" Ann, a shy young woman, says she was an infant when it happened. "I know nothing about my father's crime!" Scruby becomes increasingly belligerent, tells her he was present when her Dad killed the jeweler (he and Scruby stole the ice together), and her Dad gave the diamonds to her Mom before he was caught and hanged. Just when it looks like Scruby is gonna beat Ann up, she manages to shove his Hitchcock-lookin' butt and he falls backward over the fireplace bricks, conking his head in the process. For all intents and purposes, he appears to be deader than a doggone doornail.

But now, it's out of the frying pan and into the fire for Ann, because no sooner does she kill Mr. Scruby than his door is kicked open by one "Rod Fenner" (Lee Patterson), a classic '50s American tough guy, tall and lean, with a huge pompadour, Kevin Bacon face, and leather jacket, doing a cross between James Dean and Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb. Fenner's an awol GI from an American airbase in London. He's been missing for two years, working secretly for Scruby on other blackmail and criminal jobs. He breaks the door down because he's been eavesdropping at Scruby's doorstep, listening to his fight with Ann. Now that she's killed him, Fenner is gonna blackmail her. He takes her hostage, because he's heard about the diamonds and wants them, too.

We still have 70 minutes to go (an eternity in film, as we have come to know), and if you're gonna make a movie that's longer than 62 minutes, you better have some concise drama to present. The results here are hit and miss, and the film's title is apt, because Fenner keeps trying to tie Ann up, or alternately to romance her. He likes toying with her because shes a budding spinster, so there's your Cat and Mouse motif. Ann, never having been kissed, briefly experiences Stockholm Syndrome and is swept up in Fenner's attentions and manliness, but her straight laced nature eventually wins out, as she's extremely distrustful of his ultimate intention. Does he want to marry her, as he claims, or is he just after the diamonds and planning to kill her when he obtains them? She keeps trying to escape (more Cat and Mouse), and all of this interplay hinges on the acting of Patterson and Sears. His style varies, from too-carefully modulated Method acting, playing the quintessential 1950s Chicago greaser, to a genuinely frightening schizo portrayal. Actress Sears is English, and thus a Total Pro (have you ever seen an English actor who wasn't?) As a consequence her style has less variation, but she stays in character. Patterson is all over the map, but then his Fenner is a nutjob.

Fenner just wants the freakin' diamonds, and it turns out he's been gaslighting Ann the whole time, because lo and behold, we find out she didn't kill Mr. Scruby after all, she only knocked him out. Rod Fenner killed him by placing him on the railroad tracks.

Intercut throughout is the police investigation, and the British coppers are some dogged sons of guns. They close down on bad guys by swift deduction and thoroughness. They aren't armed themselves, but the English judges hang your ass. God bless ya if you're a criminal and you get caught in England.

The investigation breaks up the Cat and Mouse game, which does go on too long in places. I'd have cut the 79 minute flick down to maybe 68. Still, Two Big Thumbs Up. Mr. Scruby is a great character (if awful), you actually wish for more of him. Good location footage in the London suburbs, with more of those American-style houses, scenes of Ann riding the bus, and trying to mail a "Help!" letter. The picture is razor sharp.  //// 

The previous night's movie was "Crow Hollow"(1952), one of those House With a Secret mysteries. It's kind of a Greenhilly deal: "Tell me, you aren't planning to leave Greenhilly, are you?" "Not until I've dealt with Mr. Cherrywood, if indeed that is his real name."

Sweet "Anne" (Natasha Parry) is excited to have met the love of her life, young doctor "Robert" (Donald Huston). Though she's only known him a week, they plan to marry. Her roommate tells her to be careful, and her dying aunt goes a step further when she hears the honeymoon is to be at the manor known as Crow Hollow. "Oh no, dear. You mustn't go to Crow Hollow! The three sisters who live there are evil! Stay away from Greenhilly!" Her fiancee Robert assures her that, while his elderly aunts may be eccentric, they are harmless.They're kind of like Addams Family aunts: one collects spiders, another makes chrysanthemum soup, and a third insists you eat whether you're hungry or not. "You're too thin, dear. My to-mah-to sandwiches will fatten you up." At first, Anne is charmed by the old ladies, even if she doesn't like Aunt Judith's new acquisition to her spider collection, a big old hairy tarantula. Anne is more put-off by the aunts' tall, striking blonde maid, "Willow" (Patricia Owens). They're about the same age, but Willow addresses her as "Miss", and seems resentful and sullen. You'd think Willow never gets out of Greenhilly, I mean Crow Hollow. It's like she's a prisoner or something.

The aunts treat her special, however, enough so that Anne thinks Willow feels superior to her, and she does come off condescendingly.....hmm, or is she just provincial? Anne and Willow finally make a tentative, unacknowledged truce. Dr. Robert is never present, he's always out on a house call. Some honeymoon this has turned out to be. Anne is thus left with the aunts and the chilly Willow the whole time. "I'm thinking of leaving Greenhilly"! And she should leave, asap, because one day, while Willow is doing her hair, at Auntie Opal's suggestion, she puts the finishing touch of orchids in Anne's hair, and out pops the dreaded tarantula, which crawls down Anne's dress and nearly bites her.

You may be wondering: "Where is Mr. Cherrywood in all of this? Surely he must fall under suspicion!"

Anne is fascinated by a portrait of Robert's mother, the matriarch of Crow Hollow, deceased lo these many years. Her three sisters don't seem to like reminiscing about her. Anne finds her grave site out in the windswept manor fields. She died young, at 26. Rumors are that she was poisoned. Leave Greenhilly, Anne! Don't wait!

Because this a House With a Secret movie, and 65 minutes long, you start running the outcome scenarios in your head. It's the curse of having seen a billion movies. 'Twas more fun when you were younger and didn't know all the plot possibilities, but it's always fun to guess whodunnit, and how and why, and that's what you do here. What is the secret of Greenhilly? Why is Willow so formal yet provincial the same time? She a knockout in her maid's uniform, but she's never been to London and has likely never left the manor grounds.

Anne gets a stomach ache one night, and that's all I can tell you. I'd love to see a restoration of this film, because I believe a razor sharp print with perfect sound would do wonders for building the creepiness. At one point it looks like Dr. Robert is gaslighting Anne. "Just take your medicine, dear, and get some rest. You've not been well of late." Leave Greenhilly! Two Big Thumbs Up for "Crow Hollow, which would be upped to Two Huge with a perfect print. A weird and highly recommended gem.  ////

And that's all for tonight.I hope you had a good Ritchie Blackmore's Birthday. My blogging music was "The Aerosol Grey Machine" by Van Der Graaf Generator, my late night is Handel's Alcina Opera. I wish you a nice weekend, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Laurence Harvey and Sydney Tafler in "Scarlet Thread", and "Ambush in Leopard Street" starring Michael Brennan and James Kenny

Last night, in "Scarlet Thread"(1951), Laurence Harvey is "Freddie", a pickpocket starving until he tries lifting the wallet of "Mr. Marcon" (Sydney Tafler), a professional thief. Marcon stops Freddie in the act, threatening to summon a nearby policeman. When Freddie begs him not to, Marcon feels sorry for his ineptness and offers him dinner at his house. As they enter, two hoods ambush them and try stealing Marcon's briefcase which is jammed with jewels. It's then that Freddie proves his worth, as a fighter. He beats the thugs and saves Mr. Marcon, who is otherwise helpless with a crippled arm. Marcon thus sees he can use Freddie as a bodyguard, and gives him money to buy new clothes to look sharp. Marcon, through a successful career of thievery, is loaded. He lives in a penthouse and presents himself as a sophisticate. Freddie, though an uneducated tough, is handsome and quick-witted. He wants in on Marcon's action, and the kind of women it attracts.

Marcon has a big smash-n-grab job coming up, at a top-end jewelry store in Cambridge, near the university. His colleague "Sam" (Harry Fowler) doesn't trust Freddie, thinks he's jumpy, and Sam is proven right when, during the robbery, Freddie panics and shoots a man on the sidewalk who happened to get in the way. The fallen bystander was a Cambridge professor emeritus, an old and distinguished man, beloved in the campus town. "I told you no guns!" Marcon shouts at Freddie as they run away, pursued by a dozen Cambridge students. Sam, their getaway driver, bails after the shooting and has the old professor's body in his car.

Marcon and Freddie barely outrun the students in pursuit, and manage to enter a gate at Masters College, which is part of the Cambridge campus. They're hiding in a garden, having ditched their raincoat disguises, and fortunately for them, they look proper and distinguished when the lady of the administrative house sees them and walks up. "Hello, may I ask who you gentlemen are?" Marcon, being erudite, saves the day by introducing himself as a Cambridge alumnus. "I just wanted to see the old garden again." He introduces Freddie as a visiting American (because actor Harvey can do a convincing American accent).

At this point, the final hour of the 76 minute film becomes a criminal fish-out-of-water situation in which Marcon and Freddie must ingratiate themselves with "Miss Josephine" (Kathleen Byron), the pretty Lady of Masters House. Freddie, a fast mover, comes on strong to the reserved but restless Josephine, who falls for him, even though a lanky, black-cloaked professor who also courts her, brings news of the recent jewel robbery that occurred just blocks away. He even gives descriptions of the robbers, but Josephine thinks it couldn't be Mr. Marcon and the "American" Freddie. They're just too nice, not to mention charming.

Things hold together for the pair until Marcon decides to stash a valuable stolen necklace behind some books in the Masters House library. This plot point is hard to believe, because why would he hide the necklace, then attempt to retrieve it again ten minutes later? What is his reason for hiding it? More egregious is that Freddie would hold on to his handkerchief mask from the robbery, which has been identified by a witness as having red lipstick marks on it, from kisses he earlier wiped off. In that respect, there are a couple of stretched plot points, but what's interesting about this film is the Cambridge campus setting, because the two robbers must therefore blend in with articulate, scholarly professors and fit like they belong there. Mr. Marcon does a good job of faking recollection his professor's names when he "attended Masters". But the duo's downfall is of course romance, when Freddie gets too hooked on the innocent Josephine. Two Big Thumbs Up, almost Two Huge. The picture is very good. Actor Laurence Harvey went on to superstardom with "Room at the Top" and "The Manchurian Candidate". The finale is set against a Cambridge fireworks tradition, and in an interesting side note, David Gilmour's father was a Cambridge professor.  ////

The previous night, heist films don't get much better than "Ambush in Leopard Street"(1962), in which "Harry" (Michael Brennan), a beefy career criminal, has one last job to pull before retiring, or at least that's what he's promised his wife, who says "that's what you told me last time you got out of prison." This time, they've got a child, a little girl, and Harry he swears he's doing it for her and for all of them as a family. "It's a big one, darlin', 500,000 lbs in diamonds. We'll be so rich we can live on the Riviera. We'll be set for life, that's why I'll never have do another." But as Heist Movie fans, we know that the One Last Job motif has a double meaning, because it's inevitable that the Last Job will be exactly that, but for altogether different reasons than retiring from a life of crime.

Harry's bigger sin, in the eyes of his wife, is recruiting her younger, naive brother "Johnny" (James Kenny) to assist, by acting as a come-on to a gal who works for the diamond broker. Harry and his professional mates have staked her out, discovered her personal history with men, and are using Johnny as a lover boy to set her up romantically. They want him to get close to her, and gently extract the info about when the diamonds are to be moved by truck. Johnny courts her after deliberately "meeting" her at a cafe. She's been burned by men, but Johnny is fresh faced and aw-shucks nervous, which she finds appealing. He's also about fifteen years younger, cute in his sweater vest, and the 35-ish woman is flattered. She takes him to symphony concerts. Johnny plays along according to Harry's plan of getting the diamond-transfer information out of her. But at heart Johnny's a nice boy. He feels terrible about deceiving the lady, not to mention leaving a trail when, after the robbery, she eventually figures out he's tricked her. Johnny at one point tells Harry he wants out of the job. He's never broken a law in his life. But as Harry explains, "You promised, and you don't break promises to chaps like Kegs (their cohort). He'll kill ya."

Johnny feels trapped. He's been using a fake name on the jewelry clerk. She won't be able to trace him after the fact, but he just doesn't wanna get mixed up in a major half-million pound diamond robbery. Then a curveball hits the gang in the form of an unforeseen player in the heist, a rival gangster named Big George. He knows about the diamond transfer also, but according to Harry, "Big George can't make a move. The coppers got him staked out." Big George is indeed being watched, but that doesn't meant he can't get the diamonds. Two Big Thumbs Up, again bordering on Two Huge. You cannot make a better heist film in 56 minutes, and this one is as good as most that are twice that long. The actual robbery takes place in the last ten minutes of the movie, and unfolds about as you'd expect. The picture is very good.  //// 

That's all for tonight. My blogging music is again "Stranger in Us All" by Rainbow. Ritchie's playing is exceptional on that record. I saw a Facebook post from Robert Fripp noting Sir Richard as a very early influence: "I was 17 and attended a concert by The Outlaws, where I saw Ritchie Blackmore, who was 18. He had it all, the sound, the playing, and the music. It was phenomenal." RB will be 78 on Friday and has been gigging since 1961! My late night is Handel's Aetsi Opera. I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)