dual personalities

Tag: movies

July 11, 2022

What’s playing at the Roxie?

by chuckofish

I was sad to hear about James Caan passing away. He was one of my first movie star crushes. When I saw El Dorado (1966) when I was ten or eleven years old, I thought he was the coolest. I still do.

Yes, most people will remember him for starring in The Godfather (1972) but he had a long career and was a working actor right up to the end. I’m sure he knew he was pretty lucky to have gotten the chance to appear in a western with the Duke and Robert Mitchum, directed by Howard Hawks. For a few years he even took time off to ride in the rodeo circuit. Like Dean Martin, he loved being a cowboy.

I just watched El Dorado very recently so I will have to watch something else in memory of James Caan. Maybe this Civil War classic, which you will be happy to know is available to watch in its entirety on Youtube:

Besides Caan (in a wig)…

…Journey to Shiloh boasts some other soon-to-be-famous actors (including Harrison Ford) and a lot of old reliables, but even as a twelve-year-old, I knew it was pretty bad. My brother and his friend Randy went with my sister and me to see Journey to Shiloh at the Tivoli Theater and fifteen or so minutes into it Randy was so disgusted with the film that he wanted to leave. No one else wanted to go, so he marched out the side exit door in a huff. We did not hear him banging on the door and yelling to let him back in (he was just kidding) so he had to walk home to our house, where he talked to our mother until we returned when the movie was over. It was a real Eddy Haskell moment and we thought it was hilarious.

In other entertainment news, last week the OM and I watched all eight episodes of the new Amazon series The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt, because the OM is obsessed with Jack Carr (who wrote the books on which the series is based) and had been waiting with baited breath for months for the series to be released.

I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t. (He enjoyed it.) The story is about a former Navy SEAL officer investigating why his entire platoon was ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission and then methodically wreaking vengeance on all the bad guys involved. There is no moral to this story and (spoiler alert) the hero does not pay for his crimes. Call me old-fashioned, but I have a problem with that. Regarding vengeance, let’s remember what the Bible says–leave room for God’s wrath (Romans 12:19).

I also started watching season two of Only Murders in the Building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. It is much more “me” and it is off to a good start.

“Where is the Charles in Olimabel?”

My only old movie recommendation is Westward the Women (1951) which I watched on TCM. I had seen it 50 years ago on television, but not since. Directed by William Wellman, it tells the story of a trail guide (Robert Taylor) who escorts a group of women from Chicago to California in 1851 so that they can marry men that have recently begun settling there.

It was not nearly as melodramatic or sex-filled as the poster suggests (of course). Indeed, the story by Frank Capra and the screenplay by Charles Schnee focuses on the hardships endured and the determination needed by the women in order to go West for a better life. I was actually moved to tears several times. Really. I thought it was excellent–quelle surprise.

What have you been watching?

6 Comments
June 21, 2022

 “Consider the lilies, how they grow”*

by chuckofish

Yesterday was Juneteenth, which I wrote about back in 2013 before it was a whole thing. As is our custom, we watched The Professionals (1967), starring Woody Strode, in honor of the day. It is a great movie, one of my top 20 favorites.

Coincidentally, we also watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) recently–another great movie starring the inimitable Strode. Sergeant Rutledge (1960), of course, is his greatest role.

“That was a classic,” he said later of his part. “It had dignity. John Ford put classic words in my mouth… You never seen a Negro come off a mountain like John Wayne before. I had the greatest Glory Hallelujah ride across the Pecos River that any black man ever had on the screen. And I did it myself. I carried the whole black race across that river.” Amen, brother.

Ay, man is manly. Here you see
  The warrior-carriage of the head,
And brave dilation of the frame;
  And lighting all, the soul that led
In Spottsylvania’s charge to victory,
  Which justifies his fame.

A cheering picture. It is good
  To look upon a Chief like this,
In whom the spirit moulds the form.
  Here favoring Nature, oft remiss,
With eagle mien expressive has endued
  A man to kindle strains that warm.

–From “On the Photograph of a Corps Commander” by Herman Melville

We didn’t watch any special movies for Father’s Day, but here’s a list of Father’s Day movie picks which isn’t bad, but, of course, it only mentions two films made before the year 2000. Here’s my list from a few years ago, which includes some older, excellent movie choices.

This video is inspiring as well as a good reminder of how quickly we forget the devastating things that happen to other people.

And guess what? It’s Day Lily season! The hearty orange blooms are everywhere and will continue to cheer us up for several weeks as it heats up in flyover country.

The lilies in our yard are lagging behind, but they are coming along. Ain’t they grand?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

*Luke 12:27

6 Comments
May 26, 2022

“Gaily bedight, a gallant knight”*

by chuckofish

This truly is the big birthday week. Besides Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan, already duly noted, yesterday was the birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Today, of course, is the 115th birthday of John Wayne.

To celebrate I have been watching movies all this week starring the Duke. Alleghany Uprising (1939) is a favorite of mine–it’s all about guys that might be considered domestic terrorists these days. But in the pre-revolutionary days, white men who dressed up as Indians to thwart the British (who were selling trade goods, i.e. guns, ammo, tomahawks manufactured in England, and rum to the Indians), were considered heroes. In 1939 it was assumed the viewer understood this.

Every time I see this movie I love Wilfrid Lawson as MacDougall even more.

Next I watched War of the Wildcats (1943) (also known as In Old Oklahoma) which is standard 1940s B&W Saturday matinee fare, but, hey, it was nominated for two Academy Awards. Of course, it also features the Duke uttering those immortal words: “I’ll build you a house at the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow,” which famously caused Joan Didion to swoon along with millions of other American girls.

Did anyone in Oklahoma, much less a school marm, ever wear a dress like that?

I had not seen this movie for probably 50 years! The screenplay (by two women–Ethel Hill and Eleanore Griffin) was actually quite witty and the fast-moving plot held my interest as did the always appealing, swoon-worthy JW as a former Rough Rider.

Tonight I plan to watch one of my favorites, El Dorado (1967).

This weekend I’ll switch to war movies in honor of Memorial Day on Monday.

It’s good to have a plan.

P.S. If you are in the Fort Worth area, today is John Wayne Day at the Stockyards with special events including birthday cake with members of the Wayne family. Festivities will take place throughout the day—and all John Wayne Day activities held in the flagship John Wayne Stock & Supply store (inside the exhibit) are free! Entrance to the museum is free to veterans on Memorial Day.

*Edgar Allan Poe

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May 10, 2022

Let’s face the music and dance

by chuckofish

Today we celebrate the birthday of Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), American actor, dancer, singer, choreographer par excellence. Fred was born in Omaha, Nebraska where he started performing at age five. I always liked his movies from the 1930s the best–the ones with Ginger Rogers–but he was in some good movies later in a long and storied career.

He wasn’t much to look at and his singing voice was a warbly soprano, but he could sure dance like nobody’s business. So let’s watch a Fred Astaire movie tonight. They’re always good for what ails you. Here’s a list.

And there’s this…I gather Fred was not amused…

This interview with Saint Paul on the subject of what is wrong with us is brilliant. Just to make things crystal clear.

This article about the late Sen. Orrin Hatch makes me like him even more.

This is hilarious.

Meanwhile, it finally stopped raining and we have been enjoying beautiful weather. It is also getting hot and we had to turn on the air-conditioning. Zut alors, it is May 10!

This little gal and her mommy are arriving on Thursday, so I have to get busy preparing the house for visitors. Woohoo!

4 Comments
April 28, 2022

The sun also rises, and the sun goes down*

by chuckofish

The temperature has fluctuated mightily of late, but I went ahead and planted geraniums in the pots on my front porch (before Mother’s Day!) and I think they’ll be okay.

I have had a quiet week compared to last week and my weekend will be likewise sedate. No impending social events beyond the usual Sunday family get-together. I will use some of the time to catch up on the Errol Flynn movies I DVR’d over the month of April when he was the TCM Star of the Month. Many of these movies I have not seen since I watched “Errol Flynn Theater” on Sunday afternoons during my childhood. Some of the ones I have watched are better than I remembered.

I liked Desperate Journey (1942) which follows the crew of a downed British bomber as they escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence. The desperate journey they make to get out of Germany alive is exciting and full of derring-do. The cast of Warner Brothers A-teamers is excellent and includes Ronald Reagan in a scene-stealing part.

I also liked Objective, Burma! (1945) which is a gritty WWII adventure about a platoon of special ops who parachute into the remote Burmese jungle to destroy a strategic Japanese radar station, but find that getting back out isn’t easy.

The Master of Ballantrae (1953) is an entertaining swashbuckler loosely based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Filmed in technicolor in England and Scotland, it exhibits high production values and its stars, Errol Flynn and Roger Livesey, look great in their costumes and seem to be enjoying themselves.

No, it’s not Captain Blood, but it’s not bad.

As I have noted before, our mother was a huge fan of Errol Flynn and it really bothered her that he ruined his career and his looks with his lifestyle and heavy drinking. (He died at age 50 in 1959.) She basically wrote off all his movies after the mid-1940s. She had a point, but I would argue that some of his later movies are not that bad and, really, compared to a lot of actors, he looked good right up to the end. It’s just that he started out so great. Sigh.

EF playing his hero John Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon (1958)

I liked this post about how people, as they age, just want to remain useful and bear fruit. The author even quotes from Psalm 92 which I also did last week.

I love reading about guys like this.

I also liked this post about Elon Musk buying Twitter (although the writer uses ‘pretty’ as a modifier way too much.) “Lest we forget, it seems that Elon Musk got it in his head—at least in part—to purchase Twitter when Twitter gave a temporary suspension to the Babylon Bee.”

I love it. Never underestimate the Bee.

*Ecclesiastes 1: 5

6 Comments
April 25, 2022

Let all things seen and unseen/ Their notes in gladness blend,

by chuckofish

For Christ the Lord hath risen,
Our joy that hath no end.*

How was your weekend? We had a glorious (but windy) Saturday, followed by a rainy Sunday–par for the course this spring. Daughter #1 came home and we went to the Sappington House Country Craft Festival where we walked around their lovely grounds, checked out their library and perused the craft booths.

Junior fiddlers tuning up

We moved on to a couple of estate sales. Daughter #1 found a nice little “brown” table and when one of the guys helped us move it to my car, he asked, “Which car is yours?” I said, “The little green car over there.” “Oh, the Mini Coop!” he replied. “I remember you ladies! Have a blessed day.” Yes, we are that Mother-Daughter pair in the Mini Coop. My day was made.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the patio soaking up the vitamin D under the umbrella, which, thankfully, did not blow over.

We went to church on Sunday and heard a good sermon on shame from the text, Genesis 18:9-15. After church we celebrated my birthday (again) with a breakfast casserole and cake…

and more presents…

We played inside…

…but we also managed to spend some time outside…

We found a good spot for my new elephant…

Then everyone went home and I caught up with daughter #2 on FT.

Are those baby Crocs not the cutest?

Meanwhile, continuing on my theme of watching Akira Kurosawa films, I watched The Hidden Fortress (1958) last week, which stars Toshiro Mifune and Misa Uehara as the princess. The story follows two unlucky and rather stupid peasants who seemingly cannot do anything right. Bickering constantly, they end up in the middle of a war and become pivotal in helping a princess get over the border to safety in Hayakawa. Of course, Toshiro Mifune is there as the general tasked to escort the princess and do all the heavy lifting and thinking. The princess herself is a very interesting character–smart, dignified, courageous, kind, and beautiful. The bond forged between her and the bondswoman she saves is quite touching. (Boy, you can have all your Disney princesses–this is a great princess.)

There is a lot of action and we get to see Toshiro do some great stunt riding– standing in the stirrups and wielding a sword with both hands while screaming the Japanese version of a rebel yell. It doesn’t get much better than that.

A lot has been written about George Lucas being heavily influenced by this movie when developing Star Wars. This is not surprising since everything he has ever done is derivative of something else. (He has said that R2D2 and C3PO are based on the two peasants.) You can argue that Kurosawa was derivative of John Ford–okay. But the bottom line is that this is a very entertaining and insightful film. It also has something significant to say about kindness (what an overworked word these days) and friendship. The princess learns a lot and she isn’t ashamed to say so. Even on the verge of being beheaded, she can say:

I have enjoyed the journey. The happiness of these days, I would have never known living in the castle. I’ve seen people as they are, without pretense. I’ve seen their beauty and their ugliness with my own eyes.

Great, great movie–check it out. You can rent it on Amazon Prime or watch it here.

P.S. We also watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop II (2015)–one of our low-brow favorites. The OM was riveted, but apparently unamused. Sorry (not sorry) Kevin James is a laugh riot.

*The Day of Resurrection, John of Damascus, 749, tr. by John M. Neale, 1862

6 Comments
March 31, 2022

“The world’s full of wolves. Be careful.”*

by chuckofish

Since I started watching postwar Akira Kurosawa films earlier this week, I have continued down that trail. I watched Scandal (1950) with a young and very handsome Toshiro Mifune.

It is the story of Ichiro Aoye, an artist, who meets a famous young classical singer while painting in the mountains. They share an innocent encounter and are photographed by the paparazzi who spread a lie to sell their trashy magazine. The artist takes the magazine to court and drama ensues.

Like the director John Ford, Kurosawa had a “stock company” of his own, and many of the actors are included in this movie to great effect, especially Takashi Shimura, who plays Aoye’s lawyer.

You probably remember him from more than twenty appearances in his films. He is the Ward Bond of Kurosawa films.

After Scandal I watched The Idiot (1951), Kurosawa’s monumental adaption of Dostoevsky’s novel. Filmed originally as a two-part production running 265 minutes, it was released in a truncated 166 minute version. The movie, heavily edited by the studio, was a failure at the box office, but I have to say, I loved it.

Kurosawa follows the events of the novel, but he changes its setting from 19th century Russia to post-war Japan. Dostoevsky’s Christlike Prince Myshkin, returning to St. Petersburg after being treated at a clinic in Switzerland, becomes Kurosawa’s Kameda, returning home from the war after being saved at the lat minute from being executed (by mistake) as a war criminal. Masayuki Mori as Kameda (the Idiot) and Toshiro Mifune as his friend Akama are both wonderful in this tale of “the destruction of a pure soul by a faithless world.” Setsuko Hara and Yoshiko Kuga, the female leads, are wonderful too. There is no rain in this film, but the snowstorm which rages throughout deftly conveys the storm within each of the principal players.

I don’t know what exactly it is about these movies, but they speak so eloquently to the human condition. The characters all seem so real. All the actors give 100% unselfconsciously. There is so much feeling without any melodrama. I was riveted.

Ayako: How did it feel when you were facing certain death?

Kameda: Everyone in the world suddenly seemed so dear to me.

Ayako: Everyone in the world?

Kameda: Each and every person I’d ever known. Everyone I’d ever passed on the street. And not just people – the puppy I’d thrown a rock at as a child. Why hadn’t I been kinder?

Anyway, I highly recommend you watch these terrific movies!

In other news, daughter #1, the OM and I are getting ready for our big car trip next week. Leaving on Sunday, we are driving to Oklahoma City, then on to Fort Worth and Waco, Texas. Then we’ll head home by way of Tulsa. We are going to check out some great museums along the way.

Daughter #2 will be blogging for us while we’re gone next week, so be sure to check in for what’s new with the toddler set and for travel updates!

*Akama in The Idiot (1951)

4 Comments
March 29, 2022

The hopes of youth fall thick in the blast

by chuckofish

I have not watched the Academy Awards in over ten years and this year was no different. I haven’t seen one movie that was nominated. Not one. Hollywood always had its Sodom and Gomorrah aspects, but now it is truly a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”*

Anyway, I watched a really good movie instead–One Wonderful Sunday (1947), co-written and directed by the great Akira Kurosawa.

One of Kurosawa’s first post-war pictures, it explores the challenges of Japanese society after losing World War II. Two young people spend their Sunday together in Tokyo, pooling their meager spending money and battling the rain. (Kurosawa does love rain.)

Bad things happen and there are many references to the cost of the war with regards to the protagonists, especially Yuzo, the veteran. It reminded me in some ways of Bicycle Thieves (1948)–the loss of hope in the future, but the finding of grace in simple pleasures.

The two main actors–Isao Numasaki and Chieko Nakakita–are excellent and very appealing. It is a simple, human story, told without frills, but it packs quite a punch. I have the Criterion Collection DVD, but you can watch it here.

Speaking of rainy days and dark imagery, here’s a poem from the forgotten Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which though familiar, you might enjoy reading again:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

And this is a good article, sort of on the same subject. We’re living in a broken world. God hasn’t promised freedom from suffering in this life. “[W]e were raised on a steady diet of self-esteem; we’ve been graded on a generous curve; we’ve been told if we pursue our dreams, anything is possible. ‘You are going to change the world.’ And then we become adults and discover life is hard, we’re not all that special, and this world is a vicious place.”

*Obi-Wan-Kenobi

3 Comments
March 15, 2022

The Ides of March are come

by chuckofish

Today is the Ides of March–famous, as you know, for being the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. “Beware the Ides of March” was a line we knew as children, long before reading the play in ninth grade. Well, I doubt if that is the case with kids anymore. But maybe we were just odd children.

Another famous person who died on March 15 is Benjamin McLane Spock (Dr. Spock). Besides being a world-famous pediatrician, Spock won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics with his Yale University rowing team. No kidding.

Speaking of the 1924 Olympics, I watched Chariots of Fire (1981) on TCM the other night and was reminded what a really good movie it is. Here is Siskel and Ebert’s review from back in 1981.

I’m with Ebert on this one.

I also recently watched Captains Courageous (1937) on TCM. I had not seen it in a long time and I was impressed.

I am not a big fan of Spencer Tracy, but he is great in this movie as the Portuguese fisherman who saves spoiled rich kid Freddie Bartholomew’s life and then helps him become a better person. And Freddie gives 100%. The film bears the mark of a great director–Victor Fleming–and the cast is a wonderful mix of Hollywood regulars. The sailing scenes, probably filmed in a backlot tank, are very exciting. The first time I saw this movie was around 1966 when my DP and I went to see it at our local movie theater one Saturday afternoon with our neighbor Nancy and her mother. I loved it, but was very shocked by the ending and the way Spencer Tracy’s character dies–(spoiler alert) cut in half and all stove in and sinking out of sight. It was a lot for little kids to handle.

Today is also the birthday of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh president of the U.S.A. He is out of favor these days, but he was a man of his time. The son of Ulster Presbyterians who emigrated to America in 1765, his father died just weeks before Andrew was born. Then he watched his two older brothers and his mother die–all at the hands of the British. He had strong feelings about a lot of things. It might be time to dust off The Buccaneer (1958) to watch in his honor. (Charlton Heston played Jackson twice: in The Buccaneer and in The President’s Lady (1953).

By the way, I did make some progress in my office…

…luckily I can close the closet door.

And the Christmas cactus keeps on going…

Woohoo!

And I love that Dolly did this:

4 Comments
March 3, 2022

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen

by chuckofish

Well, the world is apparently going to hell in a hand-basket, but the weather has been nothing to complain about here in flyover country. Yesterday the temperature soared to over 80 degrees. In fact, we broke the record high on Wednesday of 79 from 1992. (Temperatures are expected to be about 30 degrees cooler today, but yesterday was beautiful.)

(Don’t you feel better after watching ol’ Gordon MacRae? Truly, I did.)

I felt moved to get out of the house and I walked around the pond at our local park. A breath of fresh air and the sun on your face does wonders for your spirit.

Yes, the ice is gone. The crocus (croci?) are blooming in Don’s yard…

…but they have just barely poked through in mine. However, the Christmas cactus is blooming anew. How about that?

Well, Ash Wednesday has come and gone. There were no pancakes for moi this year. No ashes. I did receive a letter from the Bishop of the diocese of Missouri asking for money. It was addressed to “Dear Siblings in Christ,” because, you know, we don’t have brothers and sisters in this diocese anymore. That would be too gender normative. The bishop needs money to “accomplish positive change.” Good luck with that.

I am very grateful for Anne Kennedy and her blog posts. She reads the New York Times so I don’t have to and she responds to their articles so I don’t have to. Here she is responding to their article about Ash Wednesday and Lent. “I’m so sorry, but I must say it once more with tears—you are not a Christian if you don’t believe in Jesus, and one of the markers of your belief, the fruit, if you will, is that you earnestly desire to be in church with other people who believe. There is no ‘unchurched Christian faithful.’ That is not a thing…” Read the whole post.

I watched a good movie (which I had never seen) on TCM–The Naked City (1948). It is an American film noir directed by Jules Dassin, starring Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor as police detectives in the 10th precinct of New York City. Shot entirely on location in NYC, it depicts the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model.

After years of devotion to NYPD Blue and Law and Order, it was fascinating to watch this movie, which certainly blazed the trail for later TV crime dramas. It won the Academy Award for black and white cinematography and for editing, and rightly so. It was very well done and the final scenes leading up to the denouement on the Williamsburg Bridge are very exciting. For anyone who has spent any time in NYC, it is a fascinating picture. Here’s a blog post that shows all the film locations and what they look like currently. It was also fun to notice several actors in uncredited parts who later came to prominence in movies and on TV: Paul Ford, James Gregory, Arthur O’Connell, David Opatoshu, John Randolph, as well as Yiddish icon Molly Picon.

Well, it’s back to Leviticus for me. Enjoy your Thursday!

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

2 Cor. 1:20
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