Last night's movie was "Booby Trap"(1957), a very clever comedy about a professor who loses his pen. "Oh, c'mon, Ad, is that all? Not exactly a barrel of monkeys." Well, two things are important. He's no ordinary professor, and this is no ordinary pen. "Mr. Hunter" (Sydney Tafler) is something of a genius in electronics and sound, and he's invented a special explosives-filled pen that can be set off by a tone, say a bell tone, tuned to an exact frequency. In a fascinating 10 minute opening sequence, he explains the principles to a military demolition team, then takes them out to the range to demonstrate how it works. He's brought two of the pens with him but only uses one, then on his way home, he leaves his briefcase in a taxi. The case holds the remaining pen, which could blow a city block to smithereens. Needless to say, he's gotta find it and get it back asap. He's an absent-minded professor.
He calls the cab company, and they trace the driver, who says a young man got out carrying a briefcase at a nightclub. The cabby thought nothing of it; thought it belonged to the kid who took it. Well, Professor Hunter shows up at the club, definitely sticking out like a sore thumb because it's a tawdry place and he's a man of science, but he's not intimidated because he builds gadgets that blow things up. Club employee "Sammy" (Harry Fowler) is the bloke who found the case, and sold it, including it's contents, to a nearby pawn shop. Professor Hunter tells Sammy he's got to retrieve the case, find the pen, and bring it back from the pawnshop, and pronto or he'll call the police. To be nice, he offers Sammy a 30 pound reward.
Well, now the chase is on, because the search for the exploding pen becomes a farce, but with just the right balance between straight face and wink-wink. Actors Harry Fowler and Sydney Tafler make great foils, then there's "Jackie" (Patti Morgan) the leggy bar gal who Sammy fancies. She's coveted by the 30-ish club owner, a slick bastage who's dealing drugs on the side, and wouldja believe it? He's using pens to hide the dope in, which are being picked up at the pawn shop by addicts redeeming marked pawn tickets, one of which Professor Hunter finds on the sidewalk. His discovery of the drug/pen scheme, while searching for his own bomb-pen, gets him targeted by the club owner and his hoodlum. When a director can set just the right mood for such a flick, and establish a pace appropriate to the plot (the speed depending on the complexity), you can have an effective comedy. I am not normally a comedy person, because so much of what passes for comedy, especially nowdays, isn't the least bit funny.
The night before we had "Fate Takes a Hand"(1961), an anthology dealing with the stories that are revealed when a mailbag of old, undelivered letters is discovered in a vacant lot. Schoolboys uncover them in a trunk leftover from a mail robbery 15 years prior during the war. Only five letters remain, but postmaster "Tony" (Ronald Howard) feels they should still be delivered, provided their addressees can be located. Early '60s fashion model Christina Gregg, who we really like, plays reporter "Karon" (first names only in this flick), who tags along with Tony on the deliveries. She's looking for some good human interest stories and gets them. The first letter is addressed to a man informing him he's just won 2000 lbs in an advertising contest, one of those Name That Product! deals that were popular back then, like mailing in box-tops. He's surprised to receive the letter and tells Tony and Karon his story in hindsight.
He'd been working as a law clerk in Victorian-era conditions, with a domineering boss looking over his shoulder, watching his every move, doing repetitious pencil-work day after day. But he'd finally had enough, and when he won the 2000 lbs, he told his boss to shove it, and quit. But then the next day, the boss came calling, and, like Scrooge, he had a revelation. "You were right about me, and I'd like to hire you back at twice your salary". The clerk accepted the bosses' offer, and the moral of the story is: "had I not taken my job back, my wife and I were scheduled to sail to New Zelland on a ship that got torpedoed. We'd have died and I wouldn't be talking to you now."
Other "dead letter" recipients include a war widow blinded and disfigured in The Blitz. Karon has to lie about her letter, because it was from her soldier lover (before he died) saying he was gonna leave her because she was scarred and blind, and he couldn't stand seeing her that way. Karon burns that letter so the woman can never have another person read it to her.
The third recipient is a wealthy man whose letter is a service of divorce by his wife's lawyer. But we find out that his wife, who was after his money, hired a bimbo to set him up, and staged an in flagrante situation so she and her lawyer could "walk in suddenly" and witness them in the act. Then she'd have grounds to sue him for a big-money divorce. But fate steps in to stop her. It's one of those kinds of anthologies; every letter is from The Hand of Fate.
The last two are delivered to a boxer who refused to throw a fight, and to a bank robber who defied his gang to save a little girl in a bombed-out building, then protect her from the gang leader who wanted to hold her for ransom. The robber is redeemed in this way, and Karon has five good stories for her paper. Two Big Thumbs Up, a likable film. The combination of Christina Gregg and Ronald Howard is appealing, and we like anthologies because you get many different stories in one movie. The picture is very good. ////
Concerning 1989 once again, one thing that has interested me is my dog Alice's pregnancy. Alice has always been an important person in our investigation, because I was out of commission for most of the month of September 1989, including a hospital stay at the end of that month, and somebody had to have taken care of her for all that time. Somebody had to feed Alice, and give her clean water, maybe even take her for a walk. I sure wasn't doing any of those things, because I could not. I was out of commission. This means that the person who was caring for Alice knew I was out of commission, and hospitalized at the end of my ordeal. Which means, in turn, that the person who cared for Alice has always known what happened to me, and has known it for all these years and never said anything. That's huge. And getting back to her pregnancy, that's why it has interested me, because she delivered her puppies on November 27, 1989. Dog gestation is around 63 days (I Googled it), which means she got pregnant around Sept. 25. Now, how that happened is a mystery (at least to me) because Alice never went out front by herself, never ran away, and if I'd been "compos mentis," or even at home, she'd likely have been with me and in the house. The dog who impregnated her was a little mutt who couldn't have hopped our fence, which would mean that either the gate was left open (and I never left it open) or Alice wasn't at home and someone else was caring for her besides a family member, because on September 25th I was either still at Northridge Hospital or had very recently gotten home but was still "out of commission."
I am glad Alice got pregnant, because she gave us the beautiful Trixie, aka "The All-Natural Sweetener" (there was nothing artificial about her), but Alice's pregnancy and it's timing is most interesting because Alice was a house dog unless I took her outside, and that little mutt could not have hopped our fence. All of this is important, and most of all the feeding of Alice is important, because the person feeding her had to have known I was not present for an extended period of time.
In that regard, the movie "Sea of Love" is interesting, because that is the first thing I can remember doing after getting out of the hospital: going to see "Sea of Love" with Lillian. We very often went to movies on their opening weekend; "Sea of Love" was released on Friday, September 15th, and for years, I thought (or assumed) that we went to see that movie on Saturday September 16th. But now, I believe, and am nearly certain, that we didn't see it until two weeks later, likely on September 30th. I believe, and allege, that I was hospitalized for approximately ten days after The Event was over. I have long believed The Event ended on September 12, 1989, which would mean I was in the hospital until approximately September 22. And Alice got pregnant not long after that. My hospitalization is a story in itself, be we won't get into it today. For now, the fact that someone fed Alice for most of the month of September 1989 is enough for us to dwell on. ////
And that's all I know. My blogging music is "El Greco" by Vangelis, my late night is again St. John Passion by Bach. I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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