Peter Seamus Lorcan O’Toole (born 2 August 1932) is an Irish actor of stage and screen. His mother was Scottish.
My dual personality and I became big fans of his after seeing him in the re-release of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) in 1971. We saw it on a very hot day in the summer. During the intermission, following heroic trekking across the desert, our mother bought us sodas at the movie theater for the first time ever. It was a Big Day.
Peter O’Toole has made some good movies, but his career has largely been a disappointment to me. Like his Irish compatriot Richard Harris, he started out strong, but dissipated by drink, his career has been spotty. We can only wonder what might have been.
However, I like him in Lord Jim (1965) and in How to Steal a Million (1966)–he and Audrey Hepburn made a lovely and well-matched pair. And I will always have a soft spot in my heart for his portrayal of the angels in The Bible (1966)–a pretty terrible movie much enlivened by his presence.
This angel reminds me of…Lawrence of Arabia!
So let’s drink a toast to Peter O’Toole (preferably with something with ice) and watch some favorite scenes from Lawrence of Arabia. Hut, hut, huuuuuuuuut!
A new month, a new calendar page and the end of summer in sight. For those of us in this flyover state it has not been a bad summer weather-wise. Indeed, we have had lovely long stretches of Michigan-esque weather. By this time, usually, we are counting the days ’til fall, but not this year. I am in no hurry for school to be back in session full throttle. I plan to enjoy the dog days that are left of summer 2013.
The August TCM star of the month is old Humphrey Bogart, film idol and Episcopalian.
As I’ve mentioned before, my mother had a preference for Warner Brothers stars, such as Bogart and Errol Flynn, because she went to see all those movies at the Lewis J. Warner ’28 Memorial Theater at Worcester Academy (which I blogged about here). Like my mother, I feel that same thrill when the Warner Brothers logo appears and their rousing theme is played at the beginning of all their movies. TCM is not showing anything that I haven’t seen a million times and my favorite Bogart film, The Petrified Forest, is not on the line-up, but oh well. They are all still better than anything you’ll see on network television–reruns and commercials!
Tonight, however, they are showing my second-favorite Bogart film Key Largo, which is also one of my all-time favorite movies. I just saw it again recently and it really is fabulous. John Huston and Bogart were a good team and the star is at his best, ably supported by Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lauren Bacall. So be sure to tune in or (at the very least) set your DVR.
August 1 is also the birthday of Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891), American writer and author, of course, of Moby-Dick.
This would be a great month to read the great book! You know you’ve been meaning to. Here’s a little something to get you in the mood.
“There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:– through infancy’s unconscious spell, boyhood’s thoughtless faith, adolescence’s doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood’s pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men, and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary? Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.”
August 1 is the birthday as well of Jerome Moross (August 1, 1913 – July 25, 1983) who composed works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, soloists, musical theatre, and movies. He also orchestrated motion picture scores for other composers. His best known film score is that for the 1958 movie The Big Country, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score.
The winner that year in that category was The Old Man and the Sea, scored by Dimitri Tiomkin. Hold the phone! Are you kidding me? Jerome Moross was robbed! But why am I never surprised? Anyway, you might want to watch that movie–it’s a good one. It misses being a great western because of the annoying plot and the super annoying character played by Carol Baker. Nevertheless, it has some great people in it: Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, and Burl Ives (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). And the score is probably the best ever.
So here’s to a good August filled with great movies and great books! Let’s all have a good one.
“To know we are not alone, that our identity is not random but has a history and a meaning shared with others–that our existence has its own special kind of beauty–this is the great force of art to people moving against alienation.”
Adrienne Rich, “The Ink-Smudged Diaries of Adrienne Rich”
I bought this little tray table at an estate sale on Saturday and I put it by my reading chair by the window.
Because my husband was given NCIS: Season 1 and Miami Vice: Season 3 for his birthday, we watched a lot of these guys:
And I am not complaining. No siree. Some things just never get old.
I went through a lot of stuff in my office.
The recycling bin was full today!
I tried to work in the yard, but it was just too muggy. They said it was supposed to be rainy all weekend, but it was merely humid. We could use the rain!
I finished My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather–hardly a novella, more like a long short story–but very good as Willa always is. Such a good writer! Now I am reading The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco, which the boy gave to me for my birthday back in April.
I also finished a needlepoint project that I have been working on.
All in all, a pleasant weekend. Life is good! What did you do this weekend?
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.
Yesterday was Bastille Day. Did you remember? While the date is the same as that of the storming of the Bastille, July 14 was chosen to commemorate the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, celebrating the uprising of the short-lived constitutional monarchy in France and what people considered the happy conclusion of the French Revolution.
I am no francophile, despite my French-Canadian great-great grandfather (the mysterious Fabian Blais) and an enduring admiration for Gerard Depardieu,
but I thought we would all enjoy this rousing scene from Casablanca.
Also I have been reading the latest novel by my favorite French mystery writer, Fred Vargas. (Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of the French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau.)
The Ghost Riders of Ordebec is really good! Her mysteries are character driven, not plot driven, which is the way I like them. They are not police procedurals. If you have not read any books by Fred Vargas, I suggest you start with her first Commissaire Adamsberg mystery– L’Homme aux cercles bleus (English title: The Chalk Circle Man). You are in for a treat!
My weekend was a pleasant one. My Episcopal Souffle was a success and dinner on Friday with my compadres was fun per usual.
I went to several estate sales and bought a few embroidered hand towels and a set of fabric napkins, which you can buy for a few dollars and are usually new, having been put away in a drawer somewhere and never used. They are out of fashion, but I love them–and I use them!
I worked in the yard, which was hot work, but satisfying. I always feel close to my mother when I toil in the yard, because she used to do so year after year. She frequently had dirty knees because she always wore skirts!
I watched the movie Quartet, directed by Dustin Hoffman, and starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connelly.
The movie takes place at a home for retired musicians, where the annual concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and the former wife of one of the residents. It was filmed at some beautiful house in Buckinghamshire. I enjoyed it and the setting was lovely. Good music too.
And now it is Monday and it’s back to the salt mines!
Mine was very quiet and I was able to catch up with all the loose ends in my household. Laundry, groceries, dusting, mulch-spreading, etc. I also read in church on Sunday–another good St. Paul finger-shaker: “God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7–16). Good stuff. We also got to sing 2 patriotic hymns:
“America” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”.
The sermon was about the Gospel lesson (Luke 10:1-11, 16–20) and Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs to spread the good news. There were a couple of digs at the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses–of course we would look down on their success! We were encouraged to be friendly etc. Yeah, right.
All in all, however, it was a very satisfying service. How often is it even possible for me to say that? So thank you, Lord, from the bottom of my heart.
The boy and his bride came over for dinner.
They took our lawn mower back over to their new house. And some big clippers. Ah, I remember when we use to do that!
I watched Of Gods and Men, an excellent French film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale.
Based on the true story of seven French Trappist monks from the monastery of Tibhirine, Algeria, who were kidnapped in 1996 and found beheaded. The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed full responsibility for the incident. It won the Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn’t even nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar that year. Amazing.
I also watched The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) with Steve McQueen.
Steve McQueen as a Dartmouth man
Not really one of my favorites–it’s overly and self-consciously “stylish”–but it’s always worth a look at Steve in those famous Persol shades.
There are also some fine glimpses into familiar Boston locales, such as
Copps Hill Cemetery where Increase and Cotton Mather are buried along with other notable Puritans.
Thomas Crown lived in the 2nd Harrison Gray Otis House, built by Charles Bulfinch, located at 85 Mount Vernon Street on Beacon Hill. Very nice.*
I seem to remember that my parents got a kick out of all the Boston locales back when they went to see it in 1968–their old stomping grounds.
*(Please note that the 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan took place in New York City and Crown is no longer a Boston Brahmin and Dartmouth man, but a self-made rich guy. I wonder if this is because movie-makers assume the movie-going public no longer knows/cares what a Boston Brahmin is and what the heck Dartmouth is. Movie goers just wouldn’t “get” it? Phooey.)
Last week we were in Boca Grande, Florida, staying in a luxurious condo generously loaned to us by a good friend.
It was glorious.
Clearly I am an off-season person. One of the joys of the off-season in Florida is, of course, that there are so few people around. It is quiet and relatively peaceful. You have the beach almost to yourself and the pool is peaceful except for a few polite southern children who respect your space.
It is possible to live in the moment and really relax.
Our daughters, the over-worked TV exec and the on-a-budget graduate student, could let their hair down.
Daughter #2 sliced and diced for us while daughter #1 mixed perfect margaritas. Yummo.
All week I never logged on or in to anything. (Unlike this guy.)
To each his own.
I preferred to walk on the beach and collect seashells.
The weather, I might add, was perfect–never warmer than it was at home in our flyover state. And there was always that proverbial tropical breeze blowing. Plus, we spent hours cooling off in the pool which was surrounded by lovely Floridian flora.
Then we would go into town to eat lunch or have ice cream.
Then repeat.
Enjoy a lovely dinner.
Enjoy the sunset.
We got all dressed up once and went to the fabulous (and historic) Gasparilla Inn on our second-to-last night.
I read a lot of Nathaniel Hawthorne–my kind of beach reading! And we watched a lot of Designing Women, Season 2 which daughter #1 brought along, plus various movie favorites of the mindless variety, i.e. Viva Las Vegas, Ghostbusters II, and others too embarrassing to name.
Mix in endless mother/daughter chatter and you have a priceless vacay.
Nevertheless, it’s always nice to come home, isn’t it?
What is Juneteenth, you say? Juneteenth is an annual observance to celebrate the date Union soldiers enforced the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all remaining slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. Texas was the last state in rebellion, following the end of the Civil War, to allow slavery.
Although the rumors of freedom were widespread prior to this, actual emancipation was not announced in Texas until General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on the 19th of June, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the dedication service on April 14, 1876, with President Ulysses S. Grant in attendance.
Although Juneteenth has been informally celebrated each year since 1865, it wasn’t until June 3, 1979, that Texas became the first state to proclaim Emancipation Day (Juneteenth) an official state holiday. “Juneteenth has become a day for African Americans to celebrate their freedom, culture, and achievements…It is a day for all Americans to celebrate African American history and rejoice in their freedom.” (The Library of Congress)
As of June 2012, 42 U.S. states (including my flyover state) and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or special day of observance.
I say, sounds to me like a good reason to have a party.
At the very least, I think I’ll watch a movie with the awesome Woody Strode* in it.
This might be the beginning of a beautiful new tradition.
The Professionals (1966) on Juneteenth. You know how I feel about this movie.
In case you didn’t know, Woodrow “Woody” Strode attended UCLA where he was a world-class decathelete and played football. He served in the US Army during World War II. Strode was also one of the first four black players to integrate professional football in 1946 when he played for the Cleveland Rams. Later he he played a Buffalo soldier in the 1960 John Ford movie Sergeant Rutledge. He appeared in over 80 domestic and foreign films in a career that spanned nearly 55 years, including Spartacus and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Sunday is John Wayne’s birthday–so you know what I’ll be doing to celebrate!
Marion Mitchell Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979) was born in Winterset, Iowa, but his family relocated to California when he was four years old.
A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him “Little Duke” because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier, Duke. He preferred “Duke” to “Marion”, and the name stuck for the rest of his life.
He attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. He played football for the 1924 champion Glendale High School team. I think I read somewhere that he was president of his senior class. Of course he was. According to Wikipedia, he applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted. Well, their loss. Instead he attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities.
He found work at local film studios when he lost his football scholarship to USC as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he mostly appeared in small bit parts. His first leading role came in the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930).
A star is born. Hello, John Wayne.
His career rose to further heights in 1939, with John Ford’s Stagecoach making him an instant superstar.
Wayne would go on to star in 142 pictures.
My “Top Ten”–make that Eleven–Best Films of John Wayne would include:
Stagecoach (1939)
3 Godfathers (1948)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Rio Grande (1950)
The Quiet Man (1952)
The Searchers (1956)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
El Dorado (1966)
True Grit (1969)
Eight of these were directed by John Ford. What a great team! Has there been another like it in film history? I think not.
Three of these would be on my “Ten Best Movies of All Time” List.
There are so many other really good movies which do not make the top eleven, but are eminently entertaining. Consider:
Tall in the Saddle (1944)
Fort Apache (1948)
Red River (1948)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Hondo (1953)
Blood Alley (1955)
Legend of the Lost (1957)
The Comancheros (1961
Hatari (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Donovan’s Reef (1963)
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
The War Wagon (1967)
The Cowboys (1972)
The Shootist (1976)
John Wayne is great at all ages, in all decades of his stardom. I contend that even a bad movie with John Wayne is entertaining and worth watching. And I always feel better after I’ve watched one.
I grew up watching John Wayne Theater on Saturday/Sunday afternoons. My parents were both John Wayne fans so we always went to the movies to see his newest film. The first “new” John Wayne movie I went to see at the movies was El Dorado. My mother was back east visiting her dying mother, so our father took my dual personality and me to see it. I’m sure if my mother had been home, we would have been deemed “too young”, but my father wanted to go, so he took us along. It was the summer after fifth grade (second grade for my sister!). It was so great. When I went home I looked up the poem “El Dorado” by Edgar Allan Poe and memorized it. I still know it by heart. Quelle nerd, I know.
When I was a graduate student at the College of William and Mary, John Wayne came to town to tape an appearance on the Perry Como Christmas Special. It was late in 1978. Completely out of character, I went down to Colonial Williamsburg, armed with my Kodak Instamatic, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Great Man. My guardian angel was with me that day. I ran into my hero coming out of one of the colonial shops. A small crowd was forming but people were respectful. I snapped a picture (where is it?!)–he was standing a few feet away. I started to cry. I could cry now writing about it. It’s silly, but it was just so great. He was very tall. He was kind and patient and smiled at everyone, even though he clearly was not well. He died the following June.
John Wayne’s enduring status as an iconic American was formally recognized by the U.S. government by awarding him the two highest civilian decorations. He was recognized by the United States Congress on May 26, 1979, when he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Hollywood figures and American leaders from across the political spectrum, including Maureen O’Hara, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Mike Frankovich, Katharine Hepburn, General and Mrs. Omar Bradley, Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, James Arness, and Kirk Douglas, testified to Congress of the merit and deservedness of this award.
On June 9, 1980, Wayne was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter, at whose inaugural ball Wayne had appeared “as a member of the loyal opposition,” as Wayne described it in his speech to the gathering.
So I know what I’ll be doing on Sunday–honoring old John Wayne by watching some of his movies. What is your favorite John Wayne movie?
Here’s a nice tribute TCM did with Harry Carey, Jr. (By the way, they are showing a whole slew of John Wayne films on Sunday starting at 6:45 a.m.–all war movies.)
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.
dual personalities 