movies | dual personalities

July 31, 2024

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

by chuckofish

The world is a clown show but that does not mean that we have to be surly. The joy of the Lord is our strength. As a wise man once said, “We are not called simply to fight with the evil around us, but rather we are called to fight this evil with a song in our hearts.”

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Since we can’t watch the news and the Olympics are another clown show, I have been watching–you guessed it–old movies. Recently I watched Sergeant York (1941), a film I had previously written off as patronizing folksy hocum with Gary Cooper winning an Oscar for perfecting his aw-shucks persona. But this true story of a Tennessee farm boy, who is transformed from a n’er-do-well to a conscientious objector to a hero in WWI, really hit me differently this time around. It was the highest grossing film of 1941 and I can see why now. Of course, it is a Hollywood propaganda film aiming to gain support for America joining the war effort, but they do it well. They also handle York’s Spurgeon-esque conversion experience directly and unapologetically as it is central to the story. I enjoyed it and I recommend it.

I also watched I Know Where I’m Going (1945), a production of The Archers–Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The story is about a young Englishwoman (Wendy Hiller) who goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. She thinks she knows what she wants, but when the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts–most of them to do with Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a dashing local laird home on leave from WWII. It is a very romantic story of the type no one has been able to tell on screen for 50 years. Although Hiller is not a favorite of mine, I enjoyed it very much. The rest of the cast is wonderful.

And here’s good news: it’s time to set your DVRs because TCM’s Summer Under the Stars, where they celebrate a different star each day in August, starts tomorrow! Here’s the schedule. William Powell starts off the month on August 1.

So watch an old movie, keep cool and make lemonade (or a margarita).

This lemonade is insane!

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July 29, 2024

Hillbilly rock etc.

by chuckofish

We made it to Jefferson City on Friday and the Marty Stuart concert was superlative! Our seats were front and center and we could really see everything. It wasn’t too hot and there was a nice breeze. Marty, Cousin Kenny, Handsome Harry and Chris Scruggs were rockin’. Before the concert we also managed to have a lovely and relaxing lunch at the Les Bourgeois Vineyard in Rocheport on the Missouri River.

Can’t do much better than that.

We spent the night in JC and then we drove to Boonville where we dropped daughter #1 off at a DAR Regent workshop. The OM and I then drove home where I went to a good estate sale at the kind of house I like best–one where someone has lived a long time and has a lot of stuff like my stuff. Best is when I can figure out whose house it was. (I did.) I usually find something. I got some books and a Christmas present.

We picked up Mr. Smith at the kennel, but it was pouring rain and he freaked out, becoming enraged by the windshield wipers. I talked him down from the ledge and we made it home, thankfully, without wrecking the car, and daughter #1 retrieved him after returning from her DAR workshop. He was happy to be back home again and at his post…

I went to Sunday School and church as usual where we had a trombone accompaniment (with piano) to our hymns, It was different, but surprisingly effective. I was also pleased to hear that my old colleague Abram Van Engen, the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and chair of the English department at my former flyover university, is going to give a talk at church in a couple of weeks about his new book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church. He is a fellow admirer of the Puritans. I ordered the book and look forward to reading it.

I watched Red River (1947). Did you? Walter Brennan won three Academy Awards, but he really deserved one for his portrayal of Nadine Groot. A terrific and layered performance. John Wayne is iconic and Montgomery Clift at the beginning of his career was never better.

Anne had a good take on the anti-Christian display and general debauchery at the opening of the Olympics with good links to other comments. “I like telling my 10 & 7 year-olds, “We’re skipping this because those are men dressed up like women” and seeing the look of revulsion on their faces. God’s created order is pretty straightforward to kids.” We’ll try to keep our sense of humor and as usual just turn off the telly, keeping in mind Romans 1:24-25.

Meanwhile we will be girding our loins and staying inside this week as we have this to look forward to…

Jealous of the boy and his fam who are in Hilton Head…

Have a good week! Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

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July 25, 2024

“Give me a condor’s quill!”

by chuckofish

Unlike the narrator of Moby-Dick, I have no great topic to write about today (see above quote), but only some odds and ends of my small life. But I do love that image of a condor’s quill.

Tomorrow the OM and daughter #1 and I are heading to Jefferson City (woohoo!) to see Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives in concert. While in town we will visit our favorite winery down there and other old haunts. I was pleased to see Marty visiting with Robert Duvall…

Speaking of Red River Valley, Saturday is the National Day of the Cowboy, so you will want to plan accordingly. We will toast my ancestor John Wesley Prowers and watch Red River (1948) which is our tradition.

If I was in Oklahoma City, I would, of course, go to the celebration the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum has planned, but we do what we can.

In other news, maybe you have noticed that there is nothing to watch on TV and, if you do watch–even streaming platforms–you are inundated with ads and more ads. And political ads. So the OM and I are watching (on DVD) the Hillsdale College series on WWII with Victor David Hanson. It is intellectually stimulating and the politics is 85 years old. After watching last night’s episode, we watched Operation Pacific (1951) with John Wayne as a submarine commander in WWII. Not the greatest movie ever, but entertaining and diverting. If I was in a submarine in WWII, I would want the Duke as my commander! (The freckle-faced kid below is Martin Milner of Adam-12 fame.)

Meanwhile here is something good to read about Mothering in today’s world. “Mothering is a fraught profession in the modern world. The stakes are high to do it right. If you’re going to ‘waste your intellect’, as my own mother so kindly put it, you’d better have exceptional children to show for it. Or at least a podcast.”

So learn something new, call your mother (or mother substitute), watch a cowboy movie, and listen to some good music:

Live for the glory of God and the good of others.

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July 16, 2024

Grace and peace to you

by chuckofish

We had a pretty quiet Monday, because we had to change our plans when daughter #2 was afraid she had torn her retina. She had to go to my eye doctor (everything is okay) while I stayed home with the prairie girls. We had lunch and played a little and read some books…

…and watched part of Heidi (1937) with Shirley Temple, which was a big hit.

Both girls were riveted. And with good reason!

I am behind in my Bible reading and in general, but this by Carl Trueman is encouraging: “I went to Europe expecting to be somewhat discouraged by what I would see. I returned exhilarated. The LORD is not done with his people yet…”

And I guess Marilynne Robinson has a new book out: Reading Genesis. Like I said, I am behind, but this is good news to me. “In her essays, as she defends the philosophical frameworks that once made religious belief almost universal, she is impatient, even testy, with what she finds reductionistic in most descriptions of the world today. You get a sense that she just wants to write about grace but finds herself needing to argue for the idea that something like grace can even exist. Her defense of the grandeur not only of the world but of each human being, her defense of the testimony of “felt experience,” is everywhere in her essays.” Robinson has engaged with a pantheon of “older theological writers”, especially John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards. Of course she has! Good grief.

Well, may you take the truths you hopefully heard preached from the pulpit of your church on Sunday and may they sustain you through this week. (I wrote this blog post during “quiet time” with Katie while she “pretend-read” this book.)

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July 9, 2024

“Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.”*

by chuckofish

The Olympics are coming up and I really don’t care anymore since it is just a bunch of pumped up professionals competing.

However, July 11th marks the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell winning gold in the 400 meter dash during the Paris Olympics. Here is a short interview with Eric’s daughter, Patricia Liddell Russell, and John MacMillan, Chief Executive of the Eric Liddell Community. I guess it’s time to watch Chariots of Fire (1981) again!

I am also re-reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. Louis Zamperini, the subject of the book, ran in the 1936 Olympics on the U.S. track team.

Zamperini is quite an interesting guy and the book is well-worth reading. Angelina Jolie made a pretty good movie about him in 2014, but she left out the “Redemption” part altogether, which is a shame.

Lt. Zamperini was a bombardier on B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, his plane experienced mechanical difficulties and crashed into the ocean. After drifting at sea on a life raft for 47 days, with two other crew mates, he landed on the then Japanese Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a total of four different POW caps in Japan, where he was tortured and beaten by Japanese military personnel. Following the war, beset with terrible nightmares and afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, he struggled with alcoholism. Then he happened to go to a Billy Graham revival and he turned his life over to Jesus. For the rest of his long life he was a devout Presbyterian who worked with youth and as a Christian evangelist. It is quite a story.

So watch an old movie, re-read a good book, run in such a way as you may obtain [the prize].

*I Kings 18:46

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July 4, 2024

For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?

by chuckofish

Happy Independence Day!

We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall;-
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?

The noble craftsmen we promote,
Disown the knave and fool;
Each honest man shall have his vote,
Each child shall have his school.
A union then of honest men,
Or union nevermore again.

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “Boston”–read it here.

Today in St. Louis we are also celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of Eads Bridge, a true architectural marvel. It was the first bridge in St. Louis, the first in the world to use steel and the first in the U.S. to use caissons for its piers.

At the time there were many doubters who were concerned about the safety of the structure, but people were reassured two weeks before the grand opening by the sight of an elephant lumbering across the wagon deck. It was an unscientific test, but in the 19th century many people believed elephants knew instinctively not to set foot on unsound structures. (This made me think of that famous scene in Gunga Din (1939) when the elephant is willing to step onto the rickety bridge to follow Cary Grant…)

Needless to say, Eads bridge was sound…

Well then, exactly at daybreak on July 4, 1874 on a clear and sunny day, a thirteen-gun salute was fired to honor the original colonies of the United States. At 9 a.m. 100 guns were fired, fifty on each side of the the Mississippi River, to signal the beginning of a huge parade.

“A link of steel unites the East and West” was painted on one side of the bridge’s main arch. On the other side, decorated with evergreens, appeared a fifty-foot-high portrait of the man of the hour, James B. Eads. A display of fireworks completed the evening festivities.

I hope you all have fun plans to celebrate Independence Day with friends and family. If not, read some Emerson or Whitman, watch an old movie like Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) or Alleghany Uprising (1939)…

What is the meaning of this intrusion?

…Read Esther Forbes’ fine book Paul Revere and the World He Lived In or Eric Metaxas’ If You Can Keep It: the Forgotten Promise of American Liberty or David McCullough’s 1776.

“The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.”

Be proud. Be loud. Open the windows and blast your neighbors! That’s what we did when I was growing up. We had this LP and this was one of my favorite pieces:

God bless America!

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June 25, 2024

Catching up

by chuckofish

Since I have had such a busy two weeks, I confess I fell behind in my daily Bible reading. However, I have caught up and it wasn’t easy considering I was in 1 and 2 Kings. Lots of violence and mayhem and even sassy boys being devoured by bears! But it did supply me with a good bear story for the twins on Sunday, complete with a moral: never call a prophet of God “you baldhead!” Show some respect or it will not end well for you. (I keep my MacArthur Bible Commentary close by to explain these sometimes troubling passages.)

Speaking of bears, a baby bear was spotted in Ballwin, a neighboring suburb here in flyover country, which is a little too close for my comfort. (Since then it has been spotted in Sunset Hills and Kirkwood!) Where there’s a baby bear, there’s a mama bear close by.

Today we remember George Armstrong Custer and his brothers, Thomas Ward Custer and Boston Custer who all died on this day in 1876 at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer’s nephew and brother-in-law died there as well.

And Myles Keogh. You remember Myles…

Side note: Our ancestor, Arthur Newell Chamberlin, fought at the battle of the Rosebud Creek (between the U.S. Army and its Crow and Shoshone allies against the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne) eight days before and lived, thankfully, to tell the tale.

In local news, the day before on June 24, 1876, Forest Park was formally opened in our fair city. This 1,380-acre tract had been purchased by the city a year earlier for just under $800,000. Because more than 1,100 acres of its land was forested, the name Forest Park was agreed upon. At the time of its purchase the park was considered to be ridiculously far from the city–of which it is now a central and integral part. The park’s vital role in the life of St. Louis really began in 1904, when it served as the site for the St. Louis World’s Fair.

It was, and still is, pretty great.

So seize the day, learn some history, watch an old movie! And count it all joy.

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June 20, 2024

I continue to press on

by chuckofish

Two more days (and counting) of VBS!

Today we toast Errol Flynn on his birthday. Born in 1909 in Tasmania, he moved to Hollywood in 1934. His third movie was Captain Blood (1935) with 19-year old Olivia de Havilland, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Wow.

I always say Errol was a much better actor than people give him credit for, because he always comes across as such a nice gentleman, and we know that probably wasn’t the case. Whatever. I like his movies and will watch one this weekend. It is a pleasure to watch him handle a horse…

…a bow…

…a sword…

…and the ladies…

In other news, here are the Seven Wonders of the South. You will get no argument from me, Matt Mitchell, and #7 is right on the money!

Roll Tide.

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June 12, 2024

Questo e quello

by chuckofish

We are experiencing some lovely weather this week and–bonus!–the cicadas seem to be gone! I was working outside on Tuesday when I suddenly noticed how quiet it was. The incredible din was gone. Thanks be to God.

The boy and his family have been in Florida this week–first at DisneyWorld and then in Sarasota with the other grandparents–so, even without the cicadas, it’s been pretty quiet around here.

(I had no idea it ever rained in DisneyWorld!!)

But I am getting ready for a short jaunt of my own up to Michigan on Thursday to meet with my sister and brother at his lake house. It has been a decade since I ventured up there, so I am looking forward to it.

The summer moves along…

I watched the great Italian movie La Strada (1954) the other day. It is one of my favorites. Federico Fellini’s masterpiece about a traveling strongman who buys a young girl from her poverty-stricken mother in ugly postwar Italy should be depressing, but somehow it is not. Anthony Quinn plays the strongman, who is a brute, a beast without an inner monologue. Giulietta Masina gives a shining performance as Gelsomina, the simple girl who follows him, and Richard Basehart is the Fool who tries to teach her that everyone has a purpose in life. It is a hard lesson to learn under the circumstances. “The Road” is a metaphor for life, of course, and so it is full of sadness and comedy. Here is Martin Scorsese talking about it.

“And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.” (Isaiah 35:8)

Have a good day–enjoy the good (or bad) weather, watch an old movie, and remember that your most important attachment is to God.

*This and that

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June 10, 2024

Like a tree planted by streams of water*

by chuckofish

My weekend was a quiet one, especially compared with last weekend. Since I was still recovering from a cold (or whatever), I didn’t do much. Daughter #1 came over while Mr. Smith was being groomed on Friday and we went to Hobby Lobby. After we picked him up we enjoyed Happy Hour at my house, which has become somewhat of a routine (a good one.)

I did very little on Saturday, but watched the PGA tour on TV. I’m so happy to see Scottie back on top. The OM and I watched The Boys in the Boat (2023) on Prime and enjoyed it. It is based on the fantastic (true) story of the University of Washington J.V. crew team that beat the Ivy League elite teams for a spot on the 1936 US Olympic team. I read the book back in 2015.

(The blond kid really reminded me of my nephew Foster throughout the movie.)

The film, directed by George Clooney, is well done, but lacks a certain spark that would have made it a great movie. I know I sound like a broken record but back in the day Michael Curtiz or Howard Hawks or John Ford would have known how to supply that spark. For one thing, you don’t learn much about any of the guys on the crew team except for the hero Joe Rantz (Callum Turner). In a sport where all eight members of the team must move in unison, it is a mistake to make them all invisible except for 2 or 3. Also, the coxswain was an integral part of the team and you don’t get to know that really until the end. It just fell a little flat to me. Too bad, because it is such a great story! Read the book!

It was good to be back in church after a week away when we were out of town. We had a guest preacher, a church member who is on the faculty at Covenant Theological Seminary up the road. Our pastor introduced him by reciting his impressive CV and also by mentioning that once in a meeting J.I. Packer had conceded a point to him. Everyone laughed–Presbyterian humor. Anyway, it was a good sermon on Psalm One.

After church there was a meeting for VBS volunteers–zut alors!

They had me with the first graders, and I was, like, no way, José ! They switched me to 4/5th graders. Okay, then. They can at least go to the bathroom by themselves.