Jeffrey Lynn in "Strange Bargain", and "Chicago Syndicate" starring Dennis O'Keefe and Allison Hayes

Last night's movie was "Strange Bargain"(1949), another Noir with an unlikely plot. Jeffery Lynn stars as "Sam Wilson", head of a classic 1950s household. He seems to have it all : a pretty wife, two precocious kids (a boy and a girl), a nice suburban house, and a job as the assistant bookkeeper at a bank. But looks are deceiving. His son wants a bike. Sam tells him they can't afford it. At dinner, his wife looks over the electric bill. "I can't believe it's the first of the month and we're already in the hole". The Wilsons are broke. Later that night, wife Georgia (Martha Scott) makes Sam promise he'll ask his boss for a raise. "You're worth it and you've been with the bank for twelve years.

The next morning, Sam steels himself to go in and talk to his boss. But it turns out the boss was waiting for him. "Sam, I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you. I have to let you go. The bank is insolvent. We're going to have to close down". Holy smokes. Things have just gone from bad to worse for Sam. Instead of the hoped-for raise, he's just been given his pink slip. However, and this is one of those howevers that must be stretched out and pronounced Howww-ev-er.......Sam's boss has another piece of news to deliver that includes a proposition. "Sam, the bank isn't the only thing that's out of money. I'm broke too. I took out a loan to cover our losses. I can't pay it back, and....." He states the next bit matter-of-factly. ".....I'm going to commit suicide". Sam looks at him like he didn't hear him correctly. "What? But Mr. Jarvis (Richard Gaines), you can't do that! You shouldn't do that. What about your wife and son"? "They're the ones I'm doing it for. You see Sam, when the bank started to default, I purchased a life insurance policy that's worth 250,000 dollars. This way I can provide for my family. Now, it doesn't pay out on a suicide, but if it was made to look like a murder, my wife would collect the money".

"This all sounds so crazy", Sam declares. "Mr. Jarvis, are you serious? And why on Earth are you telling me all this"? "Because Sam, I need your help. You've been with the company for twelve years and I trust you. In fact you're the only one I trust. I mentioned my suicide must look like murder; that's where you come in".

"What?! Mr. Jarvis....I won't....I can't.....you shouldn't....". Jarvis cuts him off. "No, no Sam. That's not what I had in mind. I'm not asking you to actually murder me, just to be there after the fact to set up the scene. I'll shoot myself like I've told you. What I need you to do is wipe my prints, take the gun outside and shoot it through the window. Put a couple of bullets into the wall, as if the killer fired several shots. Then drop it in the bushes, where the police are sure to find it. They'll call it murder, my wife will collect the insurance money. And, for your trouble I'll pay you ten thousand dollars".

Sam's jaw in on the floor. He can't believe what he's hearing. But he needs money and his kid wants that bike. Still, it's wrong and he knows it. It's against all of his core beliefs. "No, Mr. Jarvis. I'm sorry but I can't help you". "Don't say no just yet, Sam. I want you to go home and think about it. Now I'm asking you to think of my wife and son. This is the only way they'll be out from under my debt. With the money they can pay off my loan and have enough left over to live on for a long long time, maybe for the rest of their lives. So please go home and think about it. I'm going to call you later tonight with a coded message". He gives the code word to Sam. "When I call and you hear that word, it means I'm about to carry out my plan. If you decide to help me you'll be doing my family a heroic favor. If you decide you don't want to, I'll understand, but I'm going through with it one way or the other, and there's ten thousand dollars in it for you".

Oh my goodness, all Sam wanted was a raise. Just enough to pay the bills and buy his son that bike. Now his boss is leaning on him to fake a murder, the boss's own. Good grief, what's a decent family man to do? Later that night the phone rings. Sam's wife has gone out and the kids are asleep. He answers it. It's his boss, with the code word. Sam hangs up. He fidgets and fumbles. Then he gets in his car and drives. Next stop, the boss's house. Sam's not going to help him, but to try and prevent him from killing himself.

Is that a good setup or what? Yes, it's implausible as already noted, but it's fast moving and there's never a dull moment. I don't want to tell you what happens when Sam gets to Mr. Jarvis's house, but I can reveal that, despite his initial good intentions, he gets into a jam he'll need a lot of luck to get out of.

Jeffrey Lynn is one of those actors you've seen a million times but can't place. He's very handsome. I thought he was a TV Dad from one of those '50s shows like "Leave It To Beaver", but IMDB says he mainly worked in film. He's first rate as the nervous, unwilling accomplice to his boss's sacrificial plan. Our old pal Harry Morgan also has a substantial role as a detective. For once he's not playing a troublemaker. As with many of our recent films, there's some great location footage, once again in late '40s L.A. I was caught up in "Strange Bargain" from the opening scene, where the Wilson family sits down to dinner. The plot begins there and it builds to the very end. I give the movie Two Big Thumbs Up and highly recommend it. We've had good luck with the prints lately - the picture is once again razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, we saw a documentary-style crime flick called "Chicago Syndicate"(1955), in which an accountant (Dennis O'Keefe) is asked by the Chi-town aldermen and a newspaper editor to infiltrate the Mob, or what's become of the Mob in Chicago. A narrator explains that after Capone went to prison, the rest of the Mafia big shots ate each other up like sharks, trying to fill Al's shoes. The result was that a nationwide organisation took over, a crime corporation known as the Syndicate. They ran things efficiently, without all the bloodshed. The name of the game was money and more money. The Syndicate usurped every Mafia racket and added new ones, like drugs and laundromats. The Mayor wants O'Keefe because besides being an accountant, the position he's going undercover to fill, he's also a decorated WW2 hero. He's fearless in other words.

They send him to cozy up to a Syndicate honcho named "Arnold Valent" (Paul Stewart), who runs a corrupt insurance business. Here we go again with the "Legitimate Businessman" routine. That's what they always pose as, right? Valent has just murdered his former accountant, because the guy was gonna rat him out. The problem is the cops can't prove it because Valent is an expert at covering his tracks. That's the thing about The Syndicate. Unlike the Mafia, they don't leave a mess in their wake. Dennis O'Keefe's job is to pretend to be an accountant-for-hire, a crook who can cook the books. He's supposed to get in Valent's good graces, then get the goods on him and turn the evidence over to the district attorney.

The problem for him is that there's two dames involved. One is Valent's girlfriend, a sultry nightclub singer (Abbe Lane), the other is the murdered accountant's daughter (50 Foot Woman Allison Hayes). Allison wants Arnold Valent dead. She falls in love with O'Keefe. Abbe Lane is a Si-a-mese Cat! of-a-girl, who, tired of being Under Valent's Thumb (see what I did there?), throws herself at O'Keefe too, and is jealous when he sticks with Hayes.

I have to warn you, there's a scene toward the end that I wish they had left on the cutting room floor. I mean, even for me, Mr. Non-Squeamish, there's a limit to what should be shown. I won't tell you what it includes, but it's there to reveal to you the real Arnold Valent, not the faux-humble "honest businessman" who loves his mother and still knows all the playground kids from the old days. The you-are-there narration interrupts the action at intermittent points throughout the movie, giving it a newsreel edge. The only downside for me was that the direction was a little flat, maybe due to that documentary presentation. The chronology of the story thus had a "he did this, then he did that" feel to it, instead of the dramatic removal of a Noir, which takes you into a stylised criminal fantasy world via Hollywood. This one felt like a Study Film (remember those?) about The Syndicate, and while it still gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and is recommended, it coulda been epic with a better director.

Having said that, you should still see it. For one thing, you should see everything Allison Hayes was ever in, and besides that, it's a good movie. I'm only disappointed cause it could've been great. (the picture is razor sharp which goes without saying in recent days.) ////

And that is all I have for you this evening. It's late on Sunday night. The Rams got creamed today. I hope that's not indicative of who they really are, but we'll see, because before today they looked like legit Super Bowl contenders. Ah well, it's only sports. I'll see you in the morning and I send you Tons and Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Donald Berry and Ann Savage in "The Last Crooked Mile", and "Step by Step" with Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys

Last night we watched "The Last Crooked Mile"(1946), a Noir starring Donald "Red" Barry as an insurance investigator looking for the loot from a bank robbery. The crooks made off with 300 Large but died in an ensuing car crash. The dough wasn't on scene; where the heck is it? The car itself has been bought by the owner of a carnival side show. "Come See The Bank Robbers' Death Car"!, reads the sign. Barry checks it out. What could've happened to the money? A tip leads him to the girlfriend of one of the robbers. She's "Sheila Kennedy", a nightclub singer. Because she's played by the great Ann Savage (of "Detour" fame), Barry should be careful who he's messing with.

Barry and Sheila hit if off, which doesn't sit well with "Bonnie", his sometime girlfriend. The last time Barry had a gal pal, Bonnie didn't see him for a year. She's loyal though, and fatalistic about the situation. Barry tells her about the payoff : "when I find the dough they're gonna pay me ten percent. That's thirty grand. We can go away to Costa Rica or anywhere you want". That keeps Bonnie happy. "And Sheila means nothing to me", he adds, but she doesn't believe him.

Two hoodlums are also in the hunt for the missing loot. One is tall and sharp (Sheldon Leonard), the other is a mook (Ben Welden). Barry figures they're connected to the dead robbers but that might not be all. At one point, they jump Barry and knock him out, but then both wind up dead. "Who hired those guys", Barry wonders. Through many plot twists, we'll find out. The movie features a lot of banter, mostly from Donald Barry who throws a Cagney-ish persona at all comers but saves his best barbs for Bonnie, his long suffering lady. Adele Mara, who plays her, has the bubbly blonde spirit for this kind of repartee. She gives as good as she gets, but the real star of the picture is of course Ann Savage, who you might already know. She's one of those performers who you can't take your eyes off of. Besides being a knockout, she has a dual vulnerable/tough quality. The toughness you've seen in spades, in"Detour", where she took on Hollywood Hard Guy Tom Neal and kicked his butt. In "Crooked Mile", she shows a softer side that's highly appealing. But she's always dangerous, so Red Barry watch out. I loved this movie, which has some great location shooting in what I assume is 1946 Los Angeles. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Last Crooked Mile". The picture is razor sharp. ////

In a similar vein, the previous night's flick was another Noir with light comic touches. "Step by Step"(also 1946) stars Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys as couple on the run from German spies in Malibu. They meet on the beach by chance. As the movie opens, Jeffreys has just been hired as the new secretary for "Senator Remmy", who we assume represents California, though it's never stated. The Senator seems to be involved with top secret work. Jeffreys answers the phone on her first day and the man on the other end talks gibberish. It's a coded message, so the Senator takes over the call. When he hangs up, he sends Anne out of the room. "Why don't you go down to the beach and take a swim? There's bathing suits downstairs in the closet".

The next we see Anne, she's diving off a cliff into the ocean. Who should come along at this time but beach bum Lawrence Tierney. We've all seen him as "Joe Cabot", the leader of the robbery gang in "Reservoir Dogs", where he was old, stocky and shaven headed, but if yooooouuu can be-lieve it, to quote David Lynch, he was once young, handsome and as physically fit as an athlete. He also possessed an ability for rom-com repartee like Red Barry, except Tierney is nonchalant if you can believe it. He walks around in a swimsuit for half the flick to show off his physique, but it's no big deal cause he's so low key. He drives a Woody and he's got a little dog named Bazooka. You've gotta love Tierny when he was young. He's not a gruff curmudgeon like he became later on.

What happens is that Anne Jeffreys emerges from the waves. Tierney tries a few pick up lines and she brushes him off. "Sorry but I've gotta get back to work". He watches her walk back up the bluff to the Senator's house on the hill. Not one to give up after the first try, Tierney follows her up there with Bazooka alongside. He talks his way past a butler, and finds "Evelyn Smith" (Jefferys' character) in an office. But it's not the Evelyn Smith he just met. This gal's a taciturn type with her hair in a wraparound braid. The Senator appears and asks, "Can I help you, Sir". "Yeah, I'm here to see Evelyn Smith and that's not her". "That's the only Miss Smith we've got". "Well she ain't the one I just met on the beach, and who I followed to this house. I just saw her walk in the door". "Uh, Sir? My butler tells me you're a Marine? And you just got back from Iwo Jima"? "Yeah that's what I told him. Nosy guy, wanted my life story". "Excuse me for asking, Sir, but is it possible you're........uh"..... "What're you sayin', that I'm suffering from shellshock? You think I'm crazy? I'm tellin' ya I just followed Evelyn Smith up here. That one in the other room is an impostor"! 

What we the audience know but Tierney doesn't, is that the Senator is an impostor too! Yepperino, Mr. Shortino. He ain't the guy we saw with the real Evelyn Smith. So what in The Wide, Wide World of Sports is-a goin' on? Well, while Smith was at the beach with Tierney, a gang of Nazi spies snuck in to the house and replaced the real Senator Remmy. They've got him tied up in the basement, and when Evelyn comes back to the house they tie her up too. Then they gaslight Lawrence Tierney, or they try to but he calls the cops. Trouble is, they've already branded him as crazy from the war. The cops don't believe his story. The Nazis are gonna get away with their scheme.

But what is it they're trying to achieve? Well, they're looking for a list of German spies that has their names on it. That was the Senator's secret mission : i.e. to round up every Nazi who remained in America after World War Two. It's explained at the beginning of the movie that, for the Reich, the war never ended. The surviving Nazis just went underground. The Senator's job was to rout them out and arrest them. Now they've got him captive but they still can't find the list. That's because Tierney has it! He decided to get dressed while he was in the house (keep in mind when he got there he was only wearing swim trunks), and he borrowed some of the Senator's clothes. Sewed into the lining of his coat is the list of Nazi spies.

If all that sounds far-fetched, well.......it's supposed to be. The charm of this movie is it's offhand implausibility. Tierney's a typical beach dude, too casual to lose his cool or even notice the bigger picture at first. He's only upset because, a) he knows the "Senator" and his staff are giving him the runaround about Evelyn Smith, and b) because they have the nerve to suggest he's off his rocker. His mild outrage is reflected by Bazooka, who runs around the house looking for Evelyn, and......that's all I can tell you.

As with "The Last Crooked Mile", I enjoyed the combination of Noir and rom-com sassafrass. Like Ann Savage, Anne Jeffreys has a singular screen persona, replacing Savage's tough chick brass with a savvy, sweet resilience. Also like "Crooked", "Step by Step" has great lost Los Angeles locations. A long gone motel called "Fisherman's Village" (or something like that) is featured prominently. The movie gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and in this case I heartily recommend a double feature as the total running time for both movies is just 127 minutes. These are Noirs for Fun, there's a lot of it, and the picture for "Step by Step is also razor sharp. /////

And that's all I know for tonight. I hope you're enjoying the start of your weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Boris Karloff in Howard Hawk's "The Criminal Code", and "Swamp Water" by Jean Renoir, with Dana Andrews

Last night we watched a prison movie called "The Criminal Code"(1930), directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Boris Karloff as a convict seeking revenge against a squealer who broke his parole. Phillips Holmes stars as "Robert Graham", a young man celebrating his twentieth birthday in a big city. He's new in town, alone and looking for someone to dance with. "Gertrude Williams" (Mary Doran) happens by and they go to a nightclub. While dancing, another man accosts Gertrude. Robert is drunk and reacts by smashing him over the head with a glass bottle. The man dies and Robert is arrested. At his trial, he pleads self defense. "I thought he had a gun". From what we've seen, his claim is legit, but the D.A. (Walter Houston) is playing hardball. Robert is found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In the slam, Robert is quickly worn down. After six years, he's a shell of his former self, half-crazy and counting the hours of each day. If he has to work one more minute in the prison's polluted jute factory, he's gonna jump out of his skin. A shrink is sent to talk to him. He finds Robert to be remorseful and self aware. "He accepts responsibility for his victim's death, but he's not a killer and I believe he told the truth at his trial".

Walter Houston has now become the prison warden. As the former D.A., he's responsible for putting many of the men in there. They hate him, and stage a protest his very first day on the job, by setting a time to chant and yell in the prison yard. Houston hears them and knows he needs to make peace. One of the things he does is to call on the staff psychiatrist who examined Robert Graham. "He's typical of the way they're treated", the doc reports. "Monotonous work, in a workshop with safety hazards. No sunlight. They never see a female. The guards break the rules and treat them roughly without cause". Houston decides to do something about these conditions. He interviews Graham and offers him a job as his driver. Graham slowly comes back to life. He can see the light at the end of the tunnel. "I have three years left to serve", he tells a cellmate. "But I know I can do it now". Conditions are improved across the board. Family visits are increased. But Houston can't control everything. Some of his guards still get away with harsh treatment. One is particularly brutal.

Graham has another cellmate named "Galloway" (Karloff). He's got his eye on "Captain Gleason" (DeWitt Jennings), the brutal guard. "He's the reason I got sent back here". It seems that Boris got paroled, and one night went out for a beer. "I slipped up. Alcohol is forbidden for parolees. Wouldn't you know it? Gleason was in that bar. He saw me and reported me to my parole officer. Now I've got eight more years to do, but he's gonna pay the price, you can count on it". Boris is waiting for the right moment to catch Gleason alone. Then he's gonna kill him. Graham's other cellmate is planning to escape. Graham just wants to do his time and go free, but now he's gotta keep silent about his cellies. That's "The Criminal Code" of the title. When Karloff does kill the guard, Graham's in an extremely difficult position because he was in the next room when it happened. Warden Houston doesn't believe him when he says he saw nothing. "How could you have missed it? There's only one door in and out"! Graham maintains his silence and gets sent to The Hole, where he reverts to his former state. Broken again, he's near collapse after thirty days. But during the course of the movie, when he was the Warden's valet, he had the occasion to drive his daughter "Mary" (Constance Cummings) around. She fell in love with him and is horrified with what her father has done. She returns from a trip, sees what's happened to Graham, and demands that Dad set him free.

It's an epic story, combining Robert Graham's trajectory with a commentary on prison conditions. Because it was made in the early days of sound, the absence of even incidental music and silence between dialogue indicates, to me at least, that the filmmakers were still adjusting to the new technology. At times, it sounds like the actors are reciting their lines in a vacuum. Howard Hawks, of course, was a legend and he does show a grasp for grand-scale storytelling. I give "The Criminal Code" Two Big Thumbs Up. It almost rates Two Huge. Some of the fans at IMDB call it the greatest prison movie ever made. Watch it yourself and decide. It's very, very highly recommended. One final note : apparently, James Whale saw the film and Karloff's performance as the ruthless "Galloway" convinced him to cast Boris as "Frankenstein". The rest is freakin' history. /////

The previous night we were back in the swamp, with "Swamp Water"(1941), a Swamp Opera/Melodrama about a man who goes looking for his dog in the Okefenokee and gets more of a morass than he bargained for. Dana Andrews stars as "Ben", the adult son of hard-bitten "Thursday Ragan" (Walter Houston again), a shack dweller who lives at water's edge with his young wife "Hannah" (Mary Howard). Ben wants to become a trapper. Dad Thursday forbids it, because it entails going into the swamp. It's a dangerous place, full of gators and cottonmouth snakes. But when Ben's dog "Trouble" (Fleeter) runs off after a deer, he wants to go find him. "All right", Dad relents. "But swear you'll be back in two days".  

Ben heads out with his canoe and pole and finds a small patch of solid ground on which to spend the night. He builds a fire and tries to stay awake (gotta be vigilant against them gators), but sleep takes him over and the next morning he arises tied to a tree. An interloper has skulked into his camp during the wee hours. "Tom Keefer" (Walter Brennan, not the guy from Cinderella) is a fugitive on the run from a framed-up murder rap. He's been living in the Okefenokee for many moons. The joint is 700 square miles of quagmire and critters. Some you can catch and eat, others are beasts that will eat you. Keefer's a survival expert. That's how he snuck up on young Ben and bound him to a tupelo tree, but after some tussling and a trade of information they become allies. It turns out Ben knows Tom's daughter, a  squatter scruff named "Julie" (Anne Baxter), who's lot in life is tied to her Dad's (donald)-trumped up conviction.

Now, there's another gal in Shacksville who's got the hots for Ben. "Mabel MacKenzie" (Virginia Gilmore) is oversexed and overwrought. She thinks her feelings are mutual, so when she sees Ben at the Saturday night dance with Julie Keefer, she becomes A Woman Scorned. Hell hath no fury like Mabel, who starts spreading the news that Julie is Tom's daughter - which everyone already knew, but - much more importantly - that it must be the reason Ben has a sudden interest in her, and why he's spending so much time in the swamp. "Tom Keefer's gotta be hiding in there and Ben's helping him, bringing him food"!

Two local trappers bend an ear. "What?! That murderer"?, says one (Ward Bond). "If he's in there we oughta go in and get 'im"!

"Dang tootin'"!, says the other (Big Boy McGuinn). "No tellin' how many others he'll kill if we leave him out there to hunt us".

"He's not out there"!, Ben states emphatically, but he doth protest too much and the trappers don't believe him. Neither do the rest of the residents of swampland, who think Tom Keefer's guilty and want him on the end of a rope. Then one day Ben learns a secret. Bond and Big Boy have a side business in addition to their fur trapping. By night they're a couple of hog thieves. This revelation first leads them to stalk and threaten Ben, but when he gets the Sheriff on his side, they back off and leave him alone. The trappers are the ones who lead the charge against Tom, because they're in cahoots with a local goon named "Jesse Wick" (John Carradine), who knows about their secret thievery. They know something about Wick, too, so it's a mutually assured standoff. Honor among thieves causes the bad guys to stick together and railroad Tom Keefer, a trapper himself but an honest one.

It's a gumbo-pot boiler of a story, part 'Lil Abner and part "Southern Comfort" Backwoodserism. "Swamp Water" is directed by Jean Renoir, of all people, he of " La Grande Illusion" and "Rules of the Game", which Roger Ebert called the greatest film ever made (I don't agree). For Renoir to canoe down the Okefenokee strikes some critics as "he's slumming it", but I don't agree with that assessment either. There's nothing wrong with a French director goin' South by way of Hollywood. The production values are good and he used the real swamp on location. Dana Andrews is likeable as always, Walter Brennan is sympathetic, and Walter Houston is tough and excellent in both movies reviewed herein. I give "Swamp Water" Two Big Thumbs Up. Watch it with a big plate of Jumbo Shramp....er, Shrimp?.....no, Shramp. Just like Bubba Gump says in the movie. ////

That's all I've got for the moment. I hope you had a nice day. I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Two Gems from PRC : "Strangler of the Swamp" and "Devil Bat's Daughter", both starring Rosemary LaPlanche

 Had a real find a couple nights ago. I've mentioned that it's getting more difficult each time for me to uncover any horror movies I haven't seen. I'm talking mostly about black and white ones made before 1963. After that, you start entering the "psyched-out" period of low budget horror and it looks dated and exploitative. And don't even get me started on Italian or Spanish horror from the mid-60s. "Blood and Boobs" is an apt description, Big Hair too. But the films are terrible. Anyhow, as far as finding watchable horror movies, meaning more or less black and white flicks from 1930-62, lately I've had to search and search on Youtube, trying all kinds of keyword combinations, and I'm dealing with the law of diminishing returns. I was able to find Peter Lorre's "The Lost One" that way, and a couple others, but the point is that the searching process is getting lengthy. Tonight I searched for almost an hour. But boy was I rewarded when I found a flick from PRC. You know those guys : Producers Releasing Corporation, the quintessential Poverty Row studio.

The movie I found was called "Strangler of the Swamp". With a title like that, you'd be a fool not to click "play" (after checking it's IMDB rating of course. "Trust but verify" to quote Ronald Reagan). I saw it was PRC, so I wasn't expecting Universal production values. I just hoped they wouldn't be bottom of the barrel with a static camera and rote dialogue. The inclusion of "Swamp" in the title was a hopeful sign. Usually a swamp indicates atmosphere. And when you throw in a "Strangler" (and boy we've had a lot of those lately), it sounds like you may have yourself a major spooker.

Rosemary LaPlanche stars as "Maria", a young woman who takes over as the ferryman (ferrywoman?) of a Southern swamp after the previous ferryman is found dead. The locals warn her not to take the job. There's said to be a strangler on the loose. Murders have occurred, but the townsfolk chalk them up to a ghost. Maria is from the big city and doesn't believe in such nonsense. What they don't tell her is that the strangler is her deceased grandfather. Years earlier he was hanged for a murder he didn't commit. Some folks still think he was guilty. The previous ferryman strung a hangman's noose on the pier at the end of his run. It's still in place now, and serves as a talisman to warn away the grandfather's strangly spirit. But the thing is, he really was wrongly accused. That doesn't mean he isn't pissed about getting strung up, however.

A new guy arrives in town. He's "Chris Sanders" (the one and only Blake Edwards, young and handsome). Chris is the son of the man who orchestrated the hanging. The ghostly Grandpa Strangler knows who he is, and decides to strangle him, since Chris's pa is not available (he's already dead). But the thing is, Maria falls in love with Chris. Now she's in a conundrum. She doesn't wanna be disloyal to her Ghostly Gramps, whose history she's by now aware of, but she doesn't want him to throttle Chris, either. What is Maria to do?

I was caught up in this movie from the first frame, and surprised because it exudes atmosphere, something you don't expect from PRC. They went all-out to build a great swamp set, replete with a barge-like wooden ferry that runs on a track between ropes. The ropes are pulled by the ferrywoman to make the crossing. They must have spent a small fortune on fog machines because the swamp is thick with the stuff.

Have you ever heard of Rosemary LaPlanche? I had not. She was Miss America 1941, and Miss California twice before that. You might not expect a beauty queen to be a good actress, but she is very good and carries the picture. Two small things to note : the pace is a tad slow (just a tad), and the theme is as much romance as it is horror. But it's well acted and the story is unusual. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Strangler of the Swamp", a well-done job by PRC. The picture is on the soft side, not razor sharp but not mush either. Absolutely don't miss this one! Highly recommended.  ////

Last night on Halloween, I looked for more films with Rosemary LaPlanche, and I found another one from PRC, the intriguingly titled "Devil Bat's Daughter". According to Wiki, it's a sequel to the PRC/Lugosi vehicle, "The Devil Bat"(1940). This time, Rosemary stars as "Nina", the daughter of a Mad Scientist named Dr. McCarron. As the movie opens, she's in the hospital with amnesia. The cops are puzzled because she appeared in town out of nowhere, took a cab to the old McCarron place and passed out when she got there. Now she remembers nothing of her visit. A psychiatrist, "Dr. Elliot" (Nolan Leary), works to restore Nina's memory. But Dr. Elliot is a gaslighter. He's got an ulterior motive for telling her nothing happened at the house. Now he's drugging her to make her appear crazy. Nina sees bats fly through the windows of her room. Her head is spinning and her vision's blurred. Then her mother is killed. Dr. Elliot convinces her she did it. He tells her she killed her boyfriend's dog, too.

If that sounds like some weird stuff, it is. The movie is not the Halloween Horror Flick I thought it would be, however. It's more of a whodunit in a psychologically disturbing context. Like "Man in the Attic" two nights ago, the villain is unfortunately telegraphed. Dr. Elliot has a reason for wanting his wife dead. He tells Nina she has a genetic "compulsion to kill" inherited from her father, a murderer who was dubbed "The Devil Bat" by the press, because of his tendency to drink the blood of his victims, like a vampire. "It's not your fault you killed her", the evil Doctor says, absolving Nina of her guilt (yeah right) while pinning the blame in her impressionable mind. "I'll stand up for you in court if it comes to that". Gee, thanks Doc. Nina is convinced she killed his wife, and her boyfriend's dog too, but her boyfriend (John James) believes no such thing. "There isn't a genetic predisposition to murder", he says. Doc Elliot is good at hiding his motivation, but James eventually uncovers info, and a stash of hypnotic drugs, that leads him to suspect the deceptive Doctor.

"Devil Bat's Daughter" features some schpooky schpecial effectchs, like when the camera goes out of focus and the room spins and the bats come. This indicates Nina is going crazy. Rosemary LaPlanche gives another strong performance as the trusting, vulnerable patsy of Doctor Elliot's murder scheme, but the direction isn't as taut as it is in "Strangler of the Swamp". The story is clever and involving but it really isn't a horror movie, which was a little disappointing on Halloween night. It's still a good thriller though, and you'll be an instant LaPlanche fan after watching "Strangler". That means you'll certainly wanna see her again, so give "Devil Bat's Daughter" a view. I give it Two Solid Thumbs Up. Though the rating is one lower than "Strangler", it's just as highly recommended. They just don't make movies like these old PRC classics, so you've gotta see them both. Watch 'em as a Double Feechum or on consecutive nights. ////

And there you have it. We're lucky to still be unearthing such gems after mining the horror vein for so long. I hope you had a great Halloween. Mine was pretty good. This was the first time I didn't hand out candy since 2008, but I had a nice walk to see the decorated houses, and I watched The Great Pumpkin and Ichabod Crane in addition to the aforementioned movie. That's all I know for now. Have a nice night and a great day tomorrow. I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Jack Palance in "Man in the Attic", plus "The Ghost of Rashmon Hall", and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with Bela Lugosi

Last night we saw Jack Palance in "Man in the Attic"(1953), a remake of "The Lodger"(1944) starring Laird Cregar. Both are based on the Jack the Ripper story. I'll state right off that "The Lodger" is the superior picture. "Attic" is well produced and acted, and Palance is particularly good (though not as good as the late great Cregar), but despite the lavish production values and attention to period detail, the movie lacks tension because we know going in that Palance is The Ripper. No attempt is made to disguise that fact, unlike in "The Lodger" where scriptural feints are made to keep you guessing for at least half the movie.

What happens is that Palance, as "Dr. Slade" (a pathologist), moves into a rooming house late one night, after the first Ripper murder has been committed. He takes the attic as it's the only room available but really it suits him just fine. He doesn't want to be bothered. "I have to concentrate on my work", he tells the landlady (Frances Bavier aka "Aunt Bea"), who thinks he's nice but a little strange. Her niece "Lily Bonner" (Constance Smith) comes to stay at the house soon after. She's a Can-Can dancer with a following in London. Slade disapproves of Can-Can dancing, but falls for Lily anyway. He seems to want to save her from something. Could it be from his alter ego, Jack the Ripper?

There are moments when you think that, just maybe, Palance is not The Ripper, and that he'll be exonerated or even become the hero when the real Ripper is caught, maybe at the end of the movie. I didn't know beforehand that it was a "Lodger" remake, so I thought a surprise might be coming. But that thought was brief, because soon the plot becomes telegraphed. Midway through, it's clear that Slade is The Ripper. The only question is what will happen to Lily Bonner. Again, it's a stylishly made film, and in that respect it's eminently watchable. The trouble is that in a mystery, there's got to be something mysterious, some aspect that keeps you guessing. Here the mystery runs out halfway through, and all that you're left with is the style. That part of "Man in the Attic" is high quality, so I'm gonna give it Two Solid Thumbs Up, with a recommendation that's more than the execution of the film warrants. I give it a high recommendation for the effort of Jack Palance and the other actors. See it for something "not bad" to watch, or if you're a Jack the Ripper completist. ////

Much better was another film we saw beforehand on the same night. It was a short one, just 49 minutes long, so I'm not sure we can even call it a movie, but it was released as one, in theatres in England so I guess that makes it official. It's called "The Ghost of Rashmon Hall"(1952). Valentine Dyall stars as "Dr. Clinton", a parapsychologist who is narrating the story of a haunting to a group of houseguests. They are gathered at the home of "John" and "Phyllis" (Alec Faversham and Anne Howard), an old, formerly decaying mansion they bought for next to nothing and restored. No one wanted it because it's said to be haunted by it's former owner, a self-styled necromancer. The guests make a round of comments. Most believe the ghost story is hogwash. Dr. Clinton assures them that it isn't - "I've seen the ghost myself". He then tells the tale of how he was summoned by John and Phyllis to investigate their experiences in the house.

The budget is low and the special effects rudimentary. Some look like "now you see it, now you don't" home movie effects on a 8mm camera. The thing is, though.........they're effective. Cheap doesn't always mean cheesy. Sometimes it just means inexpensive, as in "that's all the money we had". But when your heart is into it, a little money can go a long way. It's the energy of the effects and their intent to scare that come through in the finished product.

The telling of the tale sets an unsettling tone. I had never heard of Valentine Dyall but apparently he was Britain's Vincent Price, tall with pronounced features and a mellifluous voice. He's gentlemanly but with an undercurrent of disquieting threat. You think it's because he's insistent that the guests believe him, but perhaps there's an additional reason. John and Phyllis, the owners whose story he is telling, sit quietly as he recounts it. The action is intercut in flashback. I thought it was frighteningly suspenseful. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Ghost of Rashmon Hall". You might find it under a different title on Youtube ("An English Ghost Story"), but look it up by either name and don't miss it. The picture is slightly soft but in this case it adds to the ghostly atmosphere. And it's sharp enough not to take away your enjoyment of the film. Highly recommended for tonight, before Halloween! You won't be able to watch it tomorrow cause you'll be out Trick or Treating..... :)  ////

The previous night we were back with Bela Lugosi in "Murders in the Rue Morgue"(1932), his first major film after "Dracula" (he had a co-starring role in "The Black Camel", a Charlie Chan movie, in 1931). In "Rue", Lugosi plays "Dr. Mirakle", a Mad Scientist who is trying to initiate evolution by injecting human blood into an ape. He's got the beast locked up in a cage in his lab, but lets it out when he needs a human guinea pig. The ape carries off young women, who become subjects in Lugosi's blood experiments.

Holy smokes is Bela bad. He's got a torture chamber in his basement, and there's a scene which is extreme even by today's standards and would surely be canceled by the wimps of the 21st century. If Lugosi was evil in "Voodoo Man", he's positively malevolent in "Rue". At least in "Voodoo" he had a semi-legit motivation. He was trying to reanimate his wife. The great Leon Ames ("Meet Me in St. Louis") plays one of Dr. Mirakle's students, who discovers what he's doing and tries too late to intervene. His fiancee gets kidnapped by the ape and is next up for the experimental transfusion. If "Voodoo Man" broke the bank on weirdness, then "Rue Morgue" has the market cornered on savagery. As written by Poe, it may be a commentary on evolution. That's the way I see it, though admittedly my views are not in the mainstream.

The movie is staged like a play, with theatrical performances and costuming. Lugosi began his career on the stage in Hungary in 1901, so he was a veteran actor by the time he attained stardom on the silver screen in the early '30s. I think he was a lot better than he's often given credit for, though indeed he didn't get a chance to stretch out. For sheer horror, though, he can't be beat, and with "Dr. Mirakle" he's playing perhaps his most merciless role. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Murder in the Rue Morgue". This one looks like it's been restored in addition to the picture being razor sharp. It's only an hour long, so you can watch it on a double bill with "The Ghost of Rashmon Hall". That's the route I'd take tonight, if I were you. Even if you're going to a Halloween party, you can still get to bed by 2 am if you start the flicks shortly after Midnight. /////

So there you have it. Sorry the reviews weren't as full bodied as you've come to expect, but I had three films to cover, and I'm working on my book as well. I'm also getting in the Halloween spirit myself. Gonna watch the traditional "Mr. Toad/Ichabod Crane" dvd tonight, as well as another movie. Have a nice evening and a great Halloween in case I don't see ya tomorrow (though I'll try to). I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Peter Lorre in "The Lost One", and "Voodoo Man" starring Bela Lugosi, George Zucco and John Carradine

Last night we found another buried treasure, a previously unheard of German film from 1951 called "Der Verlorene" (English title : "The Lost One"). Peter Lorre directs and stars as "Dr. Karl Rothe", who is working at a refugee camp at the end of World War Two. Dr. Rothe is in charge of vaccinating the camp's populace, until one day when he is replaced by a doctor named "Hosch" (Karl John). The two men know each other and share a sordid past. Hosch is a jovial backslapper who boasts about covering for Dr. Rothe in the aftermath of some crime. At first we don't know what it is. Rothe resents his presence but keeps things friendly for the moment. Later on, as the story is told through flashback, we will see that Hosch was covering up something even more sinister than what Peter Lorre was involved in. I have to cut in to note that the subtitles are a problem. Because they are closed captioned and, I assume, generated by the computer rather than embedded in an uploaded commercial dvd, they are less than accurate and only give a general idea of what is being said. This leaves the viewer to have to interpret much of what is going on. It's like reading a "See Spot Run" version of the actual dialogue, so you only get the gist of the plot (and apologies to the author of 'See Spot Run' because in that book you know exactly what's happening. I only chose it as an analogy because of the book's simplicity.)

Having said that, the film is well acted and the photography is masterful. Lorre does his trademark Downcast Look, to emphasize his eyelids, while he smokes cigarettes and paces back and forth. Still, it's a great performance because of the psychological weight he is carrying. It turns out there was a secret at the camp, to infect the refugees with a poisoned vaccine. The scheme was concocted by the Nazi administrators.

Lorre murders his fiancee when he discovers she knows the secret, but it's all alluded to. I had to look up the meaning of that sequence on IMDB because the subtitles and Lorre's directorial style are minimal in the extreme. Watch the murder scene for yourself, and see if you can find any reference to the secret of the poisoned vaccine, or even that the woman is Lorre's fiancee. What I assumed while watching was that she was the daughter of his landlady, and that she was sexually tempting him. I thought he killed her because he was doing his Repressed Peter Lorre Thing. She was branded a "tramp" by the other doctors in the compound, and I thought he was ashamed at having had relations with her, and killed her because of that.

But apparently the explanation is far more conclusive. You'd never know it from the subtitles, though, nor the action. I think that even if you understood German you wouldn't get it, because Lorre intended to keep it mysterious. It's still a great movie, however - if a little slow. For sheer Peter Lorre-ness, it comes in close to "M". I apologize for the vagueness of the review, but it's in proportion to what I gleaned from watching. You might be surprised that I'm gonna give it Two Big Thumbs Up, but I am, and Two Huge Thumbs for Lorre's direction and the expressionistic photography and sets. Don't worry about getting only bits and pieces of plot information to work with. Just go with what you're given and let it lead you into the mystery. It will resolve to some level of satisfaction (and yikes! watch out!), and the rest you can look up when it's over. The picture is razor sharp. "The Lost One" is very highly recommended. ////

Alrighty, then. Just when we thought we had seen every available Bela Lugosi movie, up jumps one of his weirdest. I'm talking about "Voodoo Man"(1944), which we watched the previous night. Are you ready for the cast? Are you sure? Okay. You've got Bela as a Mad Doctor, who's trying to revive his dead wife. Then there's George Zucco, who runs a gas station in the daytime but is a Voodoo Priest by night. Finally, you've got tall, gaunt John Carradine, who plays a creepy half-wit. He's one of Lugosi's assistants, who kidnaps blonde girls for his experiments. To picture Carradine in this movie, think of The Hitchhiker in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He's a maniacal numbskull but harmless compared to his compadres.

The movie opens at Zucco's gas station. A blonde chick pulls in to fill up. While waiting - because there was full service in those days - she asks George for directions to the highway. He obliges, but deliberately sends her to a phony detour on Mulholland Drive, where she becomes trapped when Lugosi sends an electromagnetic pulse from his lab and her car stalls. At that point, Carradine and his fellow creep "Grego" (Pat McKee), emerge from the bushes and capture her, then carry her to Bela's house.

His dead wife is sitting in the basement. She's a knockout for someone who's been deceased for 22 years. The blonde gal is placed in a chair next to her, and now the weirdness goes into overdrive as Zucco, in a runic robe and pointed hat, recites an incantation designed to transfer the blonde's soul into Lugosi's wife's lifeless body. (yeah sure, but yeah, sure).

So far we've only covered the first five or six minutes. Monogram Pictures was the studio, usually noted for their Poverty Row production values but they've gone all-out here, giving Lugosi a decked-out Mad Scientist lab with all the bells and whistles.

It turns out that the hijacked Blonde Gal isn't the right soul-match for Bela's wife, so the kidnapping must begin anew. This time, another blonde pulls into Zucco's gas station. She too needs directions to the highway and he gives her the same phony detour, but she's traveling with her boyfriend, so when their car goes dead from Lugosi's EM pulse, he goes in search of help. She gets abducted during this time, but when the boyfriend returns, clues lead him to Lugosi's house. Now, Lugosi is also a legitimate doctor, who tends to his patients in town. He has a sterling reputation there, so when the boyfriend comes calling, he puts on his Good Doctor face to get rid of him. But the boyfriend's no stooge. He starts to suspect his fiancee is trapped in Bela's house, and he concocts a ruse involving her sister - also a blonde - to get inside and find her.

Topping all of this off is that the boyfriend is a Hollywood screenwriter who's been signed to write a horror movie. But! - and this is an Important 'But' - this is not one of those 1940s Lugosi horror comedies like "Spooks Run Wild", which, while they're fun, aren't particularly scary or weird. On the contrary, "Voodoo Man" is one of the weirdest flicks in Bela's canon. It's completely off the wall. Lugosi is downright evil as "Dr. Marlowe", and when he chants "soul into body!......body into soul"! and other creepy incantations while performing the revival rites for his wife, it looks like you're witnessing the real thing, if there really were (or are) such weirdos who'd perform reanimation rituals. I'm surprised "Voodoo Man" isn't more well known. I'd never heard of it and only discovered it by looking up Lugosi's filmography on IMDB. For what it is, it's unique. George Zucco is off the charts as the Voodoo Priest. Then you've got John Carradine slapping a bongo drum during the ceremony with a cretinous grin on his face. In it's weirdness it reminds me of a film like "The Devil Commands" starring Boris Karloff, which involves a similar subject, communication with the dead. But "Voodoo Man" is even weirder, and for that I'm gonna give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. This is not to say it's a masterpiece on the scale of epic films that are usually are given that rating, but for what it is, it's tremendous and unmissable. I can't recommend it highly enough, especially for fans of Lugosi. You also get Zucco and Carradine in the bargain and the picture is razor sharp. ///// 

So there you go, two Weird Ones, from Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi. The Lorre does qualify as a Halloween movie, I think, just by it's grimness and chiaroscuro lighting. You don't wanna miss either one, so watch 'em back to back. I hope you have a great day and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Herbert Lom in "The Dark Tower", and "The Clairvoyant" starring Claude Rains and Fay Wray

Last night's movie was "The Dark Tower"(1943), a British thriller about a hypnotist (Herbert Lom) who comes to work for a circus. Lom plays "Mr. Torg", a secretive man of unspecified European extraction. The circus is in financial straits. "Phil Danton" (Ben Lyon), the owner who doubles as the ringmaster, is about to lay the performers off when Torg walks into the Big Top. He has a pitch for Danton : "What you need is a draw. Something unique that will bring people in. Something they've never seen before. I can give you that". He wants to work with the tightrope walker.

"Mary" (Anne Crawford) normally performs using a parasol for balance. "I can do the same thing through hypnosis", Torg tells Danton. "My mind will become her mind. She'll maintain her balance by a transferred force of thought. It will add an extra element of danger to her act. I promise you'll see an increase in ticket sales". Danton thinks it's a great idea, and Mary is willing to try it if it's safe. Torg promises her it is. Less pleased, though, is Mary's trapeze partner, "Tom Danton" (David Farrar), Phil's brother. He and Mary are unofficially engaged. "I don't want her risking her life with some Mesmerist"!

Danton's the boss, however, so Torg is brought in and he transforms the act into a success. The audience thrills to the sight of Mary gliding down the high wire unaided by a balance apparatus. Word gets around and the shows sell out. Now Torg demands a share of the business. Phil Danton agrees to make him an equal partner, which infuriates not only his brother Tom but also another performer, the Lady Sharpshooter. She believes Torg is evil and is out to destroy the circus, using Mary as his instrument. This isn't quite accurate, as Torg's now in love with Mary, but what he is out to do is to pull her away from Tom, using hypnosis as his rope. Torg's motive doesn't matter to the Sharpshooter. She threatens him to his face that he'd better quit.

It's an excellent set-up that combines the supernatural aspect of mentalism with hard-boiled revenge. Herbert Lom, who is best known for his roles as "Inspector Dreyfus" in several Pink Panther movies, is great as the spooky, sullen Torg, whose magnetism enthralls everyone around him, save Tom Danton and the angry Lady Sharpshooter. The hypnotism and circus context adds an eerie quality to an otherwise straightforward suspense plot. Some performance scenes run long, like the dancing in "Jungle Street Girls", but it's less obtrusive here. Maybe five minutes could be cut from the running length of 93, but it will not detract from your enjoyment of this unusual story. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Dark Tower". It would make a great double feature with our next film, which also involves extrasensory perception.......

I'm talking about "The Clairvoyant"(1935), which we watched the night before going to Disneyland. It stars Claude Rains and Faye Wray as a man-and-wife mind reading team. He plays "The Great Maximus"; she is his prompter. Really they're a couple of charlatans who use memorised verbal cues to fool their audience. I was about five minutes in when I realized I'd seen it before, sometime in the last 19 months since we began watching movies on Youtube. I'm surprised I didn't remember the title, given that I've seen it that recently, but then again we've watched close to 600 films in that time, so maybe it's not so surprising that it slipped my mind.

Anyway, it's a doggone good flick. Rains and Wray fake their act to begin with. Then one night, a Mysterious Woman is in the audience : "Christine" (Jane Baxter) is the daughter of a wealthy publisher. She possesses the ability to send. In this way, she becomes an engine for Rains. Her power of thought transference turns him into a real clairvoyant. She continues to be present at his shows and soon he's predicting things like the winner of the English Derby. He becomes famous but the press has a field day when he's wrong. Once a charlatan, always a charlatan, right? Fay Wray is feeling neglected because her husband is spending all his time with Christine. He swears it's strictly for business reasons. "We need her, don't you see"? But Fay knows that Christine is in love with Claude and will steal him first chance she gets.

Or maybe not.

Rains ends up on trial, for causing panic with one of his predictions. He foresees a mining disaster in which a dozen of the miners are trapped. Many in the press, and some in the legal sphere, believe he caused the situation by preconditioning the workers with his prediction. The lawyers theorize that Rains made the miners nervous and and therefore they became distracted. The result was an inattention to their jobs that caused a flood in an underground tunnel. At the trial, Rains' spooky telepathic reception is presented by the prosecutor as something evil, just like Mr. Torg's hypnotic talent in "The Dark Tower" (see above). But the lawyers don't account for the willing participation of Christine. Is she the real clairvoyant, and Rains just her mouthpiece? More importantly, will Rains let go of her hold on him - an altruistic hold to be sure - in order to save his marriage? Fay Wray will eventually approach Christine for her help. "I know you love my husband but he's about to go to prison. You led him down this road. If you love him lead him off it". The trial takes a turn from there.

"The Clairvoyant" is filmed and acted in the mid-30s style of affected elegance. Fay Wray is noble as Rene, Rains' loyal wife, who steps aside when Christine comes into his life but never deserts him when the chips are down. As in "The Dark Tower", the dialogue delves below the surface into the subject of ESP, how it works and how, in this case, Christine's natural ability for thought transfer is absorbed by Rains, who was merely an impostor before they came in contact. It turns out they have compatible wavelengths ("she's like an engine for him", says someone), which also causes her to fall in love with him. He falls for her also, but in the end.......well, I won't tell you. Watch the movie for yourself and find out. It has the emotional/romantic context of a melodrama, with the eerie overlay of a suspense thriller. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up and highly recommend it on a double bill with "The Dark Tower". If you can't watch 'em both in one night, watch 'em two nights in a row. Good stuff for Halloween week. //// 

That's all I've got for the moment. I'm back here at Pearl's, housesitting for a couple of weeks and helping to clear out the house. I'm also working like mad on my book, and because of the subject it's a great place to write. I've been asked "is it sad to be there"?, and the answer is yes, in the sense of the house being emptied. Pearl lived here for so long - 68 years - and many of her belongings were in place all that time. They became part of the spirit of her life, as the house did. Maybe that's why they call them "belongings", not because they belong to you, but because they belong with you. So yeah, that part's sad. But Pearl's still here, and I can feel her. I have a lot of experience with The Other Side and it just feels comfortable to me, and comforting to know that it's really All One Big Side with souls in different forms. Some of us are still in physical form (with our spirits inside our bodies), and others have left their bodies and are living as pure spirits! But they're all still here, still with us, and I find that incredibly reassuring. Earth is included in Heaven. Eternal life is real, continuing in another form, and we're connected by love and the unbreakable desire to remain together. I learned that when my parents crossed over (I like that phrase better than "passed away"), and I am feeling it again now with Pearl.  

I have just begun reading the new Stephen King, "Billy Summers", about a hit man who takes on one last job. I'll be looking for previously unseen scary movies for us to watch this week, so stay tuned and have a wonderful day. I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)