leslie howard | dual personalities

February 22, 2024

A certain natural gift for rhetoric

by chuckofish

A few nights ago I watched the movie Pygmalion (1938) which I had not seen in many years. It is based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.

It was really good! The screenplay is by Shaw himself (he won the Oscar for writing that year) and stars Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins, a part he was born to play. Wendy Hiller plays Eliza Doolittle and the wonderful Wilfrid Lawson plays her father Alfred Dolittle. Here’s a clip that shows both of Lawson’s big scenes.

It’s readily available on Youtube and I highly recommend it.

I could launch into a vent on why no one can write a screenplay like this today, one that even includes a good amount of social commentary, but I will not. What’s the point? Instead I will repeat my old mantra: watch an old movie, read an old book, look up from your phone, step into the sun, step into the light!

As for going outside, yesterday afternoon, the boy and the wee bud came over after school while Lottie was in dance class. The bud said, “Can we have some driveway sittin’ time, Mamu?” and I, of course, said YES. Since it was in the high 60s, it seemed right–the first day of driveway sittin’!

He tuned up the Raptor and drove around the yard, waving at all the neighbors and every dog that walked by. The boy and I sat on the driveway and talked. When the OM came home from work, he joined us. Lovely.

And here’s a poem for Thursday by William Blake:

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June 12, 2020

Natural circumstances and the perversity of human will

by chuckofish

Another week almost gone with the wind. They do go by. I had a busy week “at work” and I went to a Vestry meeting. Yes, the Vestry meeting was actually at church, in Albright Hall, where we sat 6 feet apart and wore masks. It was a little ridiculous, but at least we were together all in one place. It felt kind of normal. We are the only Episcopal Church in the diocese that is meeting together on Sunday and I am proud of our Rector who is jumping through a lot of hoops to do this. I have a feeling there are many ministers/priests who are sleeping through this period and glad of the excused absence.

I liked Paul Walker’s daily devotion (from Charlottesville) the other day, which read in part:

I also went to the dentist (high fives all around) and drove to pick up a Victorian chair I won on the online auction held at our local auction house. It is a needlepoint rescue and nothing special, but it felt good to be back in the game.

Of course, there has been much FaceTiming and cooing over our sweet Katiebelle. She has changed so much in her first week!

And look how confident DN is getting compared to 3 years ago when he practiced holding the wee babes.

The wee babes at six months are about the same size as Katiebelle at one week!

Meanwhile the OM and I have been watching The Last Ship, a series on Hulu that was originally aired on TNT back in 2014, about the crew of a U.S. naval destroyer that is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic kills off most of the earth’s population. Timely, right? It stars Eric Dane and Adam Baldwin. We are enjoying it and I recommend it if you are in the mood for an action series that has some depth to it. And the leads are handsome.

We also watched 49th Parallel (1941), a British war film made by the Pressburger/Powell team with the help of Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier and Raymond Massey to help sway American opinion in favor of joining the war effort. It is pretty good and maybe it was considered tough stuff back then, but the Canadians seemed rather dim-witted and trusting next to the dirty Nazis who are trying to escape the RMP. I guess that was the point.

You can watch it on Amazon Prime.

Have a good weekend!

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June 8, 2018

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing*

by chuckofish

Friday is here. I have a few fun things planned this weekend–a belated birthday adventure primary among them. The rest of the time I will spend recovering from the week and catching up on vacuuming etc.

I am also belated in reporting that June is Leslie Howard month on TCM, so check out the schedule every Monday night. Coming up on 6/11:

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 1.05.25 PM.png I will definitely watch Pygmalion (1938) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)!

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 1.12.11 PM.png I will also note that Sunday is Judy Garland’s birthday (b. 1922) so you might want to watch The Wizard of Oz (1939)…

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 7.18.42 PM.png …which really is one of the all-time great movies of all time. (It’s in my top 5!)

Side-note: I read an interesting essay by Salman Rushdie recently about The Wizard of Oz (the movie) and how he saw it when he was 10 years old and how it really got him started on his literary career. It was a good essay, but there was one thing about which I really disagreed with him. He said he never could stand Toto!

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 7.27.21 PM.png I think Toto is one of the great dogs in movie history and smarter than most of the people in the film. He saves the day over and over. I would like a dog like Toto. Unfortunately, most dogs are not actually that smart.

And, excuse me, is there a trampoline in Busch Stadium?

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 1.19.04 PM.png

How do they do that?

Have a good weekend!

*James Weldon Johnson

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April 3, 2018

“I had a vague idea that I’d like to see the Pacific Ocean and perhaps drown in it…”*

by chuckofish

Well, today happens to be the birthday of two of my favorite actors: Leslie Howard (1893-1943)

and Doris Day (b. 1922).

Pillow Talk3.jpg

What a quandary this puts me in! TCM is showing Doris Day films all day:

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(so set your DVR)…

but I think I will opt for an evening of Leslie Howard. The Petrified Forest (1936) was the movie that made me a lifetime fan. I was in the tenth grade and was just dumbstruck by how great he was. I still think so.

Add Humphrey Bogart, a young and appealing Bette Davis, funny, old Charlie Grapewin and you have a stellar cast in a really good play by Robert Emmett Sherwood, who was one of the original members of the Algonquin Round Table and won four Pulitzer Prizes and an Academy Award (for the screenplay of The Best Years of Our Lives.) You can’t go wrong.

Anyway, a toast tonight to Leslie Howard AND Doris Day!

P.S. I will also toast Stephen Bochco, who died on Sunday. You remember, he was the producer behind such groundbreaking series as Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, and L.A. Law. He enjoyed pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo. Those shows (especially NYPD Blue) were terrific, and so much better than anything on television today. With large ensemble casts supported by great writing, these shows were character-driven and real. Andy Sipowicz is, in my humble opinion, one of (if not) the all-time best characters in TV history.

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*Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest

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February 3, 2017

Friday movie pick

by chuckofish

Tomorrow is the birthday of the famous character actor Nigel Bruce (1895–1953).

The second son of a baronet, Bruce served in WWI as a lieutenant in the 10th Service Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Cambrai (1917)and spent the rest of the war in a wheelchair. After the war, he went on the stage and then moved to Hollywood, becoming a leading member of the British film colony in Los Angeles where he was captain of the (mostly British) Hollywood Cricket Club.

Best known for portraying Dr. Watson in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone,

he made 78 movies–many of them classics. He is one of those guys who is always turning up in favorite films.

My personal favorite is The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. Bruce played the Prince of Wales: “Why, damn me, Percy, you’re brainless, spineless, useless: But you do know clothes!”

I think I will toast Nigel Bruce tonight and watch The Scarlet Pimpernel, but you could watch The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Rebecca (1940), Lassie Come Home (1943) or any one of those Sherlock Holmes movies.

Lassie_Come_Home,_Original_Theatrical_Poster.jpg

charge of the lught.jpg the blue bird.jpg

They just don’t make ’em like Nigel Bruce anymore!

I should also note that February is ’31 Days of Oscar’ month at TCM, so check out their schedule for a particularly strong line-up of Academy Award-winning titles.

Have a great weekend!

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June 1, 2016

“Darling, we’ve all got to pack up some time or other. It isn’t when we pack up that matters; it’s what we do while we’re here.”*

by chuckofish

Today is the 73rd anniversary of the sad day in 1943 when the plane in which Leslie Howard was riding was shot down by Nazis. He died along with the other sixteen people on the flight from Lisbon to Bristol when the camouflaged airliner came under attack by a schwarm of eight V/KG40 Ju 88C6 maritime fighters.

The son of a Hungarian Jew and an English mother, Leslie Howard was a shell-shocked British veteran of WWI when he took up acting after the war. In America he came to embody the perfect Englishman on stage and on screen. He was a good polo player as well.

A great patriot, he worked feverishly as a British propagandist and, some say, spy during WWII.

So you see, he died as heroically in real life as he did in many of his films and on stage. Here he is as Hamlet (onstage in New York, 1936). I bet he was pretty great.

Of course, it goes without saying that tonight we will toast LH and watch The Petrified Forest (1936).

But you could watch Pygmalion (1938)

or The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

or Outward Bound (1930)

or even Gone With the Wind (1939), a movie he kind of hated.

Whatever movie you choose, Leslie Howard will be terrific in it. I’m not biased or anything.

*R.J. Mitchell in Spitfire (1942)

Photos all from Google.

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July 16, 2013

This other Eden

by chuckofish

RIchard II, King of England

Richard II (6 January 1367 – ca. 14 February 1400) was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard, a son of Edward, the Black Prince, was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III. Richard was the younger brother of Edward of Angoulême; upon the death of this elder brother, Richard—at four years of age—became second in line to the throne after his father. Upon the death of Richard’s father prior to the death of Edward III, Richard, by agnatic succession, became the first in line for the throne. With Edward III’s death the following year, Richard succeeded to the throne at the age of ten. (Read more about him here.)

If you are wondering why you are reading about Richard II, it is because today is the anniversary of his coronation in 1377. Huzzah! The history major in me likes to remind you of these important facts which I fear you may have forgotten. (I had.) And I am always happy to dig out a good Shakespeare quote, especially this one, which conjures up images, not of Sir John Gielgud and Derek Jacobi, but of Leslie Howard as the Scarlet Pimpernel!

“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty,
this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,–
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”

― William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1

You remember Leslie Howard at the end of the movie, reciting these lines to Raymond Massey, don’t you?

You felt that he meant every word and he did. No one loved England more than he. He proved it a few years later by dying for his country during WWII. (I blogged about that previously here.)

Well, this post is further proof that I can bring just about any reference around to a movie. Who, sir? Me, sir? Yes, sir. You, sir.

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May 22, 2013

“Maybe you’re right, pal.” “Oh, I’m eternally right. But what good does it do me?”

by chuckofish

Oh, Leslie Howard. I still love you after all these years.

Did you see The Petrified Forest (1936) last night? It was on TCM*. I have been a fan of LH since high school when I first saw this movie on TV. One of the quotes on my senior page was from this play/movie:

“I had a vague idea that I’d like to see the Pacific Ocean and perhaps drown in it. But that depends.”

Boy, if you put that on your senior page these days, you’d be sent to the guidance counselor’s office for sure. But back then, if they even noticed, no one thought twice about it. Just an angst-y teenager, whatever.

* Full disclosure: I recorded it, because DWTS finale was on.

P.S. Kellie Pickler won the mirror ball on Dancing With the Stars! This made my day. My week. What is wrong with me?

Hat tip to daughter #1’s instagram feed. Hello, Cynthia McFadden.

7 Comments

July 5, 2012

Good news!

by chuckofish

July is Leslie Howard month on TCM.com! Here is the line-up for the Star of the Month.

So set your DVR for Tuesdays in July when they’ll be showing some well-known Leslie Howard movies like Pygmalion, Of Human Bondage and The Scarlet Pimpernel and some not-so-often seen ones like Berkeley Square and The Animal Kingdom. What a treasure trove!

You can see my favorite Leslie Howard movie The Petrified Forest (1936) next Tuesday–so mark your calendar! This movie was based on the play by Robert Emmet Sherwood, which Leslie Howard had starred in on Broadway. He insisted that Humphrey Bogart reprise his role as Duke Mantee, “the world-famous killer” in the movie. He did and the rest, as you know, is history. Bogart was duly grateful and even named his daughter after Leslie years later.

Bogart has lots of good lines which he makes the most of:

“Since I’ve been a grown up, I’ve spent most of my life in prison… I’ll probably spend the rest of it dead.”

and

“You can talk sitting down; I seen ya’ doing it.”

But Howard, as the dreamy Alan Squier, gets plenty of his own:

“So that was once a tree? Hmmm. Petrified forest, eh? Suitable haven for me. Well, perhaps that’s what I’m destined to become, an interesting fossil for future study.”

and

Gramp Maple: “But let me tell you one thing, Mr. Squier. The woman don’t live or ever did live that’s worth five thousand dollars!”

Alan Squier: “Well, let me tell you something. You’re a forgetful old fool. Any woman’s worth everything that any man has to give: anguish, ecstasy, faith, jealousy, love, hatred, life or death. Don’t you see that’s the whole excuse for our existence? It’s what makes the whole thing possible and tolerable.”

I even included an Alan Squeir quote on my senior page: “I had a vague idea I’d like to see the Pacific Ocean and perhaps drown in it. But that depends.” My mother raised an eyebrow at my teenage angst, but no one else ever commented!

Above all else, Leslie Howard was a great British patriot, who used his Hollywood fame to further the cause of England in WWII, by making several propaganda films like Pimpernel Smith and The First of the Few.

He died at the age of 50 in 1943 when the plane he was in was shot down by the Nazis. They thought he was a spy and they were correct. According to Sir William Samuel Stephenson, the senior representative of British Intelligence for the western hemisphere during the Second World War, the Germans knew about Howard’s mission and ordered the aircraft shot down. Stephenson further claimed that Churchill knew in advance of the German intention to shoot down the aircraft, but decided to allow it to proceed to protect the fact that the British had broken the German Enigma code.

I’m surprised no one has ever thought to make a movie about Leslie Howard. Wouldn’t he be an interesting subject?

8 Comments

January 16, 2012

I remember nothing

by chuckofish

I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound doesn’t it? By handling the obligations of the search mechanism, you almost prove you can keep up.”

–Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing

Almost. And I don’t have an iPhone. I have to be content to look things up on my laptop, so I can’t do it in restaurants or on the subway etc.

Actually the search engine I love and use the most is IMDB.com–the internet movie database. My brain used to be its own movie database, but, sadly, it is no more. I have to look things up. But thankfully there is IMDB, just in the nick of time. Sigh.

I used to be a whiz at Trivial Pursuit (the original version) and could always answer the movie questions. It was almost embarrassing at times how much I knew. But fun facts about old movies just took hold in my brain like French vocabulary or chemistry equations did not. I have no doubt that some of my friends growing up thought my interest in the movies was a tad tacky, bien sur, but that’s the way it was/is. I loved the movies themselves–it wasn’t some screaming-Beatlesmania-kind of thing. I will admit I was probably the only tenth grader in 1972 who loved Leslie Howard, who had been dead for nearly 30 years at the time. I even stayed home from school once to watch It’s Love I’m After (1937) on television. There were no DVDs back then and no telling when the chance might come again to see it, so I had to take such action! (My mother approved.)

So anyway, I had to check on IMDB to find out the name of that movie I stayed home from school to watch. Thank goodness I can handle the obligations of that particular search mechanism!

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