movies | dual personalities

July 27, 2016

“[T]hen all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.”

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of George Levick Street, III (July 27, 1913 – February 26, 2000) who was a submariner in the U.S. Navy. He received the Medal of Honor during WWII.

You can read all about him and his illustrious naval career here.

Interesting (to me anyway) is the fact that Street’s Executive Officer on the submarine Tirante on her first patrol was Edward L. Beach, who modeled his first novel, Run Silent, Run Deep (1955), on his wartime experiences. This novel was made into a movie, also titled Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), and I think it is the best of the submarine genre–at least until Das Boot (1981) was made.

Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster are in top form as the dueling Commander and Executive Officer. In fact, Gable was at his very best as the manly Commander who is coming off desk duty after losing his submarine. He is bent on revenge and obsessed with a Japanese destroyer that has sunk three US submarines in the Bungo Straits, including his previous command. Who can forget his order to “Dive! Dive!”? The supporting cast includes Jack Warden, Brad Dexter and a young Don Rickles. The movie is tense and dramatic and filled with details that feel very real–and probably are, considering who wrote the original story.

Anyway, I think I will watch Run Silent, Run Deep tonight and toast George Street on his birthday. And while I’m at it, I’ll toast Edward Latimer Beach, Jr. (April 20, 1918 – December 1, 2002) who participated in the Battle of Midway and 12 combat patrols, earning 10 decorations for gallantry, including the Navy Cross. After the war, he served as the naval aide to the President of the U.S., Dwight D. Eisenhower, and commanded the first submerged circumnavigation. Wow.

*Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

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July 18, 2016

“Let the trees of the forest sing”*

by chuckofish

When I got to church on Sunday I saw that two huge oak trees had been blown down in last Wednesday’s big storm. The branches had been moved out of the driveway, but the huge trunk with its root ball still remained.

During the announcements our rector told us that the pastor of the St. Louis Family Church, a very large evangelical church in west county, had called him the next day and said he would send people out to move the downed trees asap. This is part of their emergency storm relief mission. Our rector said, “Thank you!” The motto of this church is “Honor God. Help people.” I was surprised, impressed and the news made me feel very happy. This must be a very busy week for those volunteers.

I did quite a lot of work in our own yard on Saturday–cleaning up from the storm. I filled five bags with detritus.

The boy came over with some loppers and he and the OM cut up the big branches and filled a bag too. What a storm! I was actually driving home when it hit and it was very scary indeed. I was afraid a tree would fall on my little car and I would be squished. Zut alors! was I glad to get home.

In other news, we celebrated the OM’s birthday with the boy and daughter #3 at a restaurant down in Lafayette Square in the city–We are so adventurous!

I couldn’t be in this picture, because I didn’t get the memo about wearing blue!

Also, the boy got his first penalty in a hockey game and also made his first shot on goal. Onward and upward.

We watched a terrible movie: Hail, Caesar! (2016), the Coen brothers send-up of Hollywood in the 1950’s. Even Channing Tatum couldn’t salvage this mess. Totally not funny.

I finished The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine, the 17th installment of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith. Although I find these books mildly irritating, I am a loyal reader and always ultimately enjoy them. Precious Romotswe is a great character after all.

[Clovis Anderson] wrote: Do not allow the profession of which you are a member to induce you to take a bleak view of humanity. You will encounter all sorts of bad behavior but do not judge everybody by the standards of the lowest. If you did that, he pointed out, you would misjudge humanity in general and that would be fatal to discerning judgement. If everybody is a villain, then nobody is a villain, he wrote. That simple expression had intrigued her, even if it was some time before its full meaning–and the wisdom that lay behind it–became apparent.

Wise words to ponder this week. Discuss among yourselves.

*1 Chronicles 16:33

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July 15, 2016

“You may never be as wise as an owl but you’ll always be a hoot to me! “*

by chuckofish

Ding dong, it’s Friday once again. Sunday is the OM’s birthday, so I am sure we will celebrate the passage of another year in some wild and crazy way (haha). But it won’t be anything cool like this:

John Wayne has been gone for thirty-seven years, but he still has an official Instagram account! And it’s a good one! I also like Gemma Correll’s Instagram–she captures the introvert like no one else.

Speaking of the internet…this is my kind of guy–a commando chaplain! Except for his stance on female priests, he was kind of perfect.

And there is wild scifi stuff going on at my flyover university. It’s a locust and it’s wearing a backpack!

Have a good weekend!

*Susan Cooper in Spy (2015)

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July 8, 2016

Freaky Friday

by chuckofish

It’s Friday and the end to a busy week at work.

This went viral this week and I guess we know why.

Daughter #2 commented on yesterday’s post in a way that made me realize she had never heard the phrase “Go for the gusto, or don’t go at all!” and probably did not know its derivation–unlike us oldsters who remember those old Schlitz Beer ads from the 1970s. Here is one of them to jog your memory:

And here’s a little Freddy B. to start your weekend on a positive note, especially if you are feeling a little bummed.

God created us in joy and created us for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from that joy, because whatever else it means to say that God created us in his image, I think it means that even when we cannot believe in him, even when we feel most spiritually bankrupt and deserted by him, his mark is deep within us. We have God’s joy in our blood.

—Frederick Buechner, “The Great Dance” in Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, 240.

Meanwhile, tonight we can watch some good movies starring Olivia de Havilland (and Errol Flynn) on TCM.

Have fun this weekend and–

(The painting is ‘A Girl by the Table’ by Leon De Smet, 1921)

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July 6, 2016

You don’t say!

by chuckofish

As you know, Olivia de Havilland turned 100 last week.

Of course, you know that she is a two-time Oscar winner, but did you know that she is a devout Episcopalian and a lay reader to boot? Well, she is. Just like me.

She attends the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris (aka the American Cathedral in Paris).

Here is an interesting article about Olivia and how she feels about lay reading–and within it a link to another, longer article.

I completely agree with Olivia, of course. Can you imagine having Olivia de Havilland as a lay reader in your church?

By the way, Olivia de Havilland is the Star of the Month on TCM, so they will be showing her movies every Friday in the month of July. Here’s the schedule.

In other news: TCM is “Presenting Shane and 100 other westerns” this month on Tuesday and Wednesday nights! Check out the schedule here.

SO many good movies!

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June 6, 2016

“People are crazy and times are strange”*

by chuckofish

True to my word, I did very little this weekend. I went to hear Nathaniel Philbrook. He gave a rousing talk about Benedict Arnold and the Saratoga campaign.

He signed his book for me and I am looking forward to reading it. In the meantime I re-read his Why Read Moby-Dick? which I highly recommend.

I watched The Italian Job (2003) which I had bought for $2 at an estate sale because of the Mini Coopers. I really enjoyed it.

It made me want to go out and drive fast, but I restrained myself.

I tore apart my office looking for a particular book and then had to clean it up. (I never found the book.)

I rescued another needlepoint pillow.

I spread a lot of mulch and exhausted myself. Sometimes it is a good feeling to exhaust oneself doing physical labor. Watching a baseball game on the couch afterwards is that much sweeter when it is earned.

I also watched Wonder Boys (2000) directed by Curtis Hanson, who is one of my favorite directors. Bob Dylan won the Oscar for Best Song and “Things Have Changed” is indeed a classic. It is a good movie and I like Michael Douglas as a college professor having a really bad day.

Now it is Monday again–onward and upward!

*Bob Dylan

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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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May 2, 2016

Stir up, O south, the boughs that bloom…”*

by chuckofish

…Till the beloved Master come…”

How was your weekend? Mine was quiet and restorative, but also a little sad, since I was thinking always of the weekend before when so many people were visiting. C’est la vie.

I finished E.L. Doctorow’s The March, which, again I say, is so good and wise and well-written.

I did a little yard work, but it was pretty wet and rainy. It is certainly looking lush in flyover land.

I watched a few movies: Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), which I finally got my hands on…

(This film recreates the famous raising of the flag on Iwo Jima scene, taken on Feb. 23, 1945, by photographer Joe Rosenthal. The three surviving flag raisers make a cameo appearance during this scene . Rene A. Gagnon, Ira H. Hayes and John H. Bradley are seen with John Wayne as he instructs them to hoist the flag (Wayne gives the folded flag to Gagnon). The flag used to recreate the incident is the actual flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi.)

and Learning to Drive (2014), a little film starring Ben Kingsley as a Sikh taxi driver/driving instructor and Patricia Clarkson as a book critic whose marriage is falling apart.

Both supplied an entertaining diversion, but were not super great, if you know what I mean. Sands of Iwo Jima features John Wayne saying “Saddle Up!” continuously, so it wins as far as I’m concerned.

I went to church and was a reader–my passage was from Revelation 21 by John, the Revelator, so that was fun. The first lesson was from the book of Acts where Paul goes to Philippi in Macedonia and goes down to the river to pray and meets Lydia. All this made me want to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) which I did.

It was a good choice. (And the last good movie George Clooney made.)

(This is how my mind works.)

*Gerald Near, Christ Has a Garden Walled Around

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April 29, 2016

“Heroic, is it? Bedad, it’s epic! Ye begin to perceive the breadth and depth of my genius.”*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of author Rafael Sabatini (April 29, 1875 – February 13, 1950). He was born in Italy, the son of an English mother and an Italian father–both opera singers, which explains a lot.

Sabatini wrote in English, and all in all, he produced 31 novels, eight short story collections, six non-fiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. I think I read Scaramouche way back when, but he is best known these days because of two great movies and a bunch of other not-so-great movies, which were inspired by his novels. I’m thinking, of course, of Captain Blood (1935)

and The Sea Hawk (1940)

both starring Errol Flynn and directed by Michael Curtiz.

But we mustn’t forget Scaramouche (1952) which starred Stewart Granger

and The Black Swan (1942) with Tyrone Power–

both not as good despite being filmed in flaming technicolor. (There are also quite a few old silent movies based on his adventure novels.)

Anyway, I suggest we all watch movies this weekend inspired by the stories of Rafael Sabatini. We could do a lot worse. I vote for Captain Blood which is full of action and good dialogue:

Arabella Bishop: Oh, forgive me for not recognizing you, Dr. Blood. You’re so changed… and for the better.

Dr. Peter Blood: The Governor tells me I have you to thank for that.

Arabella Bishop: You don’t sound very grateful, Dr. Blood.

Dr. Peter Blood: Do you suppose I’d be grateful for an easy life, when my friends are treated like animals? Faith, it’s they deserve your favors, not I. They’re all honest rebels. I was snoring in my bed while they were trying to free England from an unclean tyrant [King James].

Arabella Bishop: I believe you’re talking treason.

Dr. Peter Blood: I hope I’m not obscure.

Have a great weekend!

*Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

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April 11, 2016

Consider the lilies of the field

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty busy–at least for me. I went to a few estate sales, but didn’t find anything of note. I went to a funeral and I went to a fundraiser that daughter #3 had organized with the student government of the high school where she teaches. It was a benefit for the Greater St. Louis Honor Flight which sends WWII veterans to Washington to see the WWII memorial there. The boy was a “guardian” on one of these trips a few years ago. Anyway, we enjoyed the event and the movie about how the charity was started.

Afterwards we went out for pizza and beer.

When I got home I tried to watch Straw Dog (1949), the great Akira Kurosawa film about post-war Japan. A very young and handsome Toshiro Mifune plays a rookie detective who has lost his gun and is madly trying to find it. It is a great, great movie, but I fell asleep.

Mea culpa. It had been a long day.

I re-read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons. It was her first book and very good indeed.

On Sunday I did a lot of cleaning in my house, throwing away copious amounts of detritus. This always makes me happy.

Now it is Monday. Daughter #1 starts her new job. She no longer works for The Man, but for a start-up digital network, working with creative types who have man-buns. You go, girl!

P.S. Don’t forget in all the hubbub of your daily life to take a moment and enjoy the scenery.