I did watch two movies over the past two nights: "That Wonderful Urge"(1948) starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and "Love is News" starring Power and Loretta Young. How's that for star "power", if I may pun? Three of Hollywood's greatest and three of my very favorite actors. The later movie is a remake of the first. In both, Ty Power plays a newspaper reporter who is trying to create a sensation by misrepresenting the high-flying lifestyle of an heiress. He reports gossipy details gleaned from anonymous "sources", then exaggerates them to titillate his readership. The heiress (Young in the first film, Tierney in the remake), is familiar with his column and fed up with his yellow tactics, especially after he tricks her into an interview by pretending to be someone else. So, she turns the tables on him, by announcing to a throng of his fellow scribes from other papers, that the two of them have just been married. Now, Power is on the spot, caught in his own trap, as the other reporters pounce on him, and he can't prove otherwise, because - as he tells his irate boss - "how can you prove you aren't married?"
The scripts are fast-paced and as screwball as they come. You have to be on your toes to keep up, and in that regard I can't say I was able to follow all the twists and turns, which are like a roller coaster in both flicks, because I was just trying to ease myself back into movie watching, and I was not totally focused (and it's likely that I won't be for some time). Mostly, I just watched both films and let them wash over me, enjoying the performances and the style. I love that time period, and the lack of cynicism in movies from the Golden Age. Also, the acting can't be beat. Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Loretta Young. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Two Huge Thumbs Up for both films. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Yet in other news, I am stunned, folks, just stunned. I am just trying to figure out how my brother came to be involved with Lillian and her family, meaning her Dad and whatever the hell he himself was involved in, which was likely cocaine. I am having a memory, mind-boggling as it sounds, that LIllian's Dad was actually inside my Dad's apartment! I was there, too, at the time. It was some kind of attempted "summit" on her Dad's part. I think Chris and Lillian may have been there, also, especially Chris.
My Dad shot them down, and threw her Dad out of the apartment. This may have set up what happened to me at Terry's apartment at Concord Square, not only on the night of September 1, 1989, but also on the "Candid Camera" night in August, about ten days prior.
This August 1989 stuff is blowing me off the map. I have a strong, visceral memory of Chris and Lillian standing in our dining room at 9032. I can see Dad's Highboy dresser behind them. They are together. I am the outcast. Chris is playing the tough guy, and both of them are spewing threats and hatred at me that is shocking and out of the blue. It is August 1989, and I was not aware of anything that had developed behind my back, other than that Terry and Lillian were having an affair. I'd been aware of that for most of the year, but in August, this Chris and Lillian association is rearing it's head, and they are in our dining room, and I can see Dad's Highboy dresser. And, while it's happening, it's hitting me that this is a psychotic and very dangerous situation. Lillian and Chris are like two people I never knew. So, to protect myself, I went in the kitchen and got a knife. You'd think he'd be happy to "be with" Lillian, but he's belligerent and angry, threatening me, looming over me, trying to intimidate. This version of my brother is an absolute shock to me, but as I say, I never knew what was going on behind my back. He's arrogant that he's "with her" and I'm not, yet he also knows that in the capacity of her Other Life, and what that life entails, she prefers Terry.
Think about it: Terry, of whom his Mom once said to my Mom, "Would you go out with a guy who had green teeth?" Terry's own Mom said that about him. But Lillian liked him (didn't love him; she never loved anyone but herself), and she preferred him over Chris, and Chris knew it. But Chris was a honcho for her Dad, so he had a measure of clout.
And imagine me, standing there in the dining room, trying to take all this in. I'd been suffering Lillian's provocations all year long in 1989, her open flirtations with Terry, and now in August, I find my brother in on the act as well. I didn't remember his participation until just last month - 34 years later! Holy shit. Imagine being me right now, and knowing that my entire relationship with the demon known as Lillian was nothing but a fucking joke. And that her Dad was an ex-Nazi coke dealer. Wow. And that my brother chose her family over his own.
It's one fuck of a lot to take in.
Now, Terry (whom Lillian, true to her nature, abandoned once the shit hit the fan) lived a miserable life after September 1989, and he died a fucking horrific death. You don't know all the details, but I do and I am not gonna tell you. Dave Small died, too, and we still don't know the circumstances. David Friedman died a horrible death as well, and while I don't wish death or illness on even the worst people who ever lived, it's also true that David Friedman was a horrible person. And Mr. Davey, I'm sad to say, wasn't much better. Since about three weeks ago, I wake up and go to sleep knowing I only have had about two or three actual real friends in my life. And the only "girlfriend" I ever had was a witch and a split personality.
A demon is she.
One thing I do know, is that I have Marine Corps and Air Force values, and none of you guys are Air Force, and you certainly aren't Marine Corps. Semper Fi you are not.
You guys thought you knew something about my life, but it turns out that you didn't know shit.
This August '89 stuff is blowing my mind, and there's no doubt lots more still to come. ////
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