Gotta serve somebody
by chuckofish
Lord, grant us grace, to make Thy goodness our trust: shutting our hearts against pride, our mouths against evil words, our ears against foul knowledge, and using Thy gifts to the promotion of Thy glory and of man’s salvation; for His blessed sake, in Whom we have all and are full and abound, Jesus Christ.
-Christina Rosetti
Many things these dark days are an outright affront to God, such as a drag queen parading down the aisle at Grace Episcopal Church in New York City. I could go on, such examples are everywhere, but what’s the point? They are all trying to provoke us and mock God.
But God will not be mocked and I try not to be provoked.
This past weekend I stayed in my lane by watching movies directed by the great Cecil B. DeMille. First I watched Samson and Delilah (1949) which was a huge box office smash when it came out, the #1 highest grossing film of the year. I have to say, I enjoyed it. Beautiful Hedy Lamarr, as Delilah, stole the show from Victor Mature, who doesn’t have the personality to match her…
…but they are well supported by George Sanders, Henry Wilcoxon, Angela Lansbury et al. The screenplay sticks to the biblical story fairly closely until the end when they soften up Delilah quite a bit. The real Delilah never had a second thought for Samson or a moment of guilt. (I will add that a drag queen would have gone unnoticed in this film and maybe there’s a point to be made there.)
Next I watched Reap the Wild Wind (1942), a technicolor historical romance directed by DeMille and starring John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, and a giant squid.
It is a good movie featuring all the bells and whistles–sets, costumes, music, a great cast, and lots of action–but it suffers somewhat because, I’m sorry, the audience is rooting for John Wayne, but he isn’t the hero! He does a bad thing and has to die, doing a good thing, killed by that giant squid. Paulette Goddard has to settle for Ray Milland. Sigh.
Both these movies have very strong female characters at the center and both are appealingly played. Points to Mr. DeMille.
My plan was to watch The Buccaneer (1938) which I have never seen. It stars Frederic March as Jean Lafitte…
…who one imagines is very different from Yul Brynner who played Lafitte in the 1958 remake. But I haven’t gotten to watch it yet since I was sidetracked on Sunday night when we went to see the boy play in his Men’s Lacrosse League championship playoff.
It was fun to be back at DeSmet HS watching a game. It’s been quite awhile. The wee babes were there yelling, “Go, Daddy, go!”
…even when he wasn’t on the field…
But he scored once and they are league champs!
And we saw a rainbow!
I am content.
Look at that little face!
The film is full of comedic exchanges such as “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good!” and “The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!” I found it to be very diverting and a lot of fun. I always liked Danny Kaye, and if you like him in White Christmas, you will love him in this.
The excellent supporting cast includes Basil Rathbone, Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury, and Mildred Natwick. Together they manage to spoof movies like The Adventures of Robin Hood without going overboard. The production values are very high. The script is genuinely clever.
Rather than being gimmicky, the real brothers lent an air of authenticity to the film which I appreciated. The musical score by Ry Cooder was also excellent. And I enjoyed the Missouri setting and the story of our homegrown famous outlaws.
I watched The Green Mile (1999) about the mysterious goings on in a prison in 1935. It was as good as I remembered it. One of Tom Hanks’s best.
It is over three hours long, but I can’t think of anything I would cut. So if you have three hours, I recommend it. I read the book by Stephen King back in the day and it is good too.
It was real good and I recommend it, along with John Wayne Monday nights. Mondays are hard, what with Zoom meetings and starting back to the work week.
We also listened to a lot of old CD mixes from 15 years ago. Very angsty. Remember this one?
After reading daughter #2’s blogpost yesterday about some “mildly captivating” recent films, I got thinking, of course, about classic films. I had just watched Juarez (1939) and really marveled at how good it is.
dual personalities 