dual personalities

Tag: movies

April 10, 2024

Things of minor consequence

by chuckofish

This has turned into a busier week than usual. I am actually making to-do lists!

I am finishing up an article for the Kirkwood Historical Review about the renovation of Mudd’s Grove, the 165-year old home which the Historical Society bought in 1992 and made their headquarters. The house had been allowed to fall into wrack and ruin and was in really terrible shape when it was rescued.

It is sad when this happens and I am sympathetic to the poor soul who lived there and for years pretended to be “working” on the house. Ultimately it took hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of volunteer hours to accomplish its renovation.

It is the showplace of our town now and a testament to what volunteers can do.

In my humble opinion, people would do well to give more money to historic preservation and less to already massively-endowed schools and universities that no longer teach much worth learning anyway. Maintaining historic homes and buildings is an ongoing endeavor–money is always needed–and the local, state and federal governments don’t do much to support this kind of thing.

Well, I’ll get off my soapbox.

Speaking of history, a lot of interesting things happened on April 10, among them: Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg was proclaimed emperor of Mexico in 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addressed his troops for the last time in 1865 following his surrender to General Grant the day before, the Titanic set sail in 1912, The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, and in 1939 the A.A. “Big Book” was published. In 1970 Paul McCartney announced he was leaving the Beatles.

We also remember Michael Curtiz, the great Hungarian director, who died on this day in 1962. He came to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years old. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. He himself was nominated five times, and won twice, once for Best Short Subject for Sons of Liberty (1939) and once for Best Director for Casablanca (1942). The secret to his success was his amazing versatility–he could handle any film genre: melodrama, comedy, love story, western, film noir, musical, war story, or historical epic. He cared about the human-interest aspect of every story, stating that the “human and fundamental problems of real people” were the basis of all good drama.

A look at the list of movies he directed shows his range and his amazing success. I’m thinking something with Errol Flynn might be in order tonight.

5 Comments
April 2, 2024

Day by day

by chuckofish

It’s April again! Woowee, I can hardly believe it. It came in like a lion–stormy!

I spent yesterday getting the house back in semi-order after our busy and fun-filled weekend. Laundry, dishes, toys.

Just the usual.

I had DVR’d Godspell (1973) when it was on TCM on Easter and I watched about 20 minutes of it. It is of an era, for sure, but it is pretty unwatchable I’m afraid.

Is that Grant’s Tomb?

I remember in high school the choir from another school came and sang selections of it in chapel and I thought hearing the words to old Anglican hymns sung to sultry tunes was pretty cool. (Turn back, oh man! Forswear thy foolish ways!) The whole thing is really kind of high school quality though. Seriously I wish they had done it at KHS–the boy would have been great in it! I loved the cast album and listened to it a lot in college, but I don’t think I ever saw the whole play performed. Day By Day was a big hit. I had forgotten that DC Talk covered it in 1995.

Now you gotta love that.

It is also interesting to note that in the movie, which takes place in Manhattan, the city looks terrible–dirty, run-down. Central Park is a mess. Thankfully the park was renovated in the following decades. We are so used to seeing NYC photographed to look good, but not so in this movie. The production values are generally very low.

As is often the case, things you thought were great as a teenager do not hit you the same way years later. Thank goodness, right?

And I really liked this about a man who died in the pulpit.

3 Comments
March 25, 2024

Let the rocks cry out!

by chuckofish

How was your Palm Sunday? The little kids from the Covenant School sang in church and it is always a treat to see them expressing the joy, joy, joy, joy down in their hearts. They processed around the sanctuary with palms and we all sang “All Glory, Laud and Honor”.

We finished up our class on the Westminster Confession and I was happy to hear we will be moving forward with more installments (33 chapters!)

God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; He alone is the foundation of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleaseth.

Amen, brother.

We didn’t have brunch or driveway sittin’ time because the wee bud has lacrosse now on Sundays. Our schedule has changed for the duration, but I can’t complain as the twins are still coming to church/Sunday School. C’est la vie.

Lottie plays on Thursdays.

It struck me recently that I must be very weird (and my entire family) because a) we watch old movies and b) we watch them over and over. I guess most people do not. When the subject of leprosy came up in my Bible study group I reminded everyone how it is a theme in Ben Hur and I got a lot of blank looks. I suggested everyone watch it at Easter. Of course, we watched Ben Hur (1959) once again this weekend and it was great! No computer-generated action scenes. All real.

I ask you, what actors nowadays could be trained/would be willing to drive a chariot? And carry off all the dramatic scenes as well?

Well, for me, the redemption of Judah Ben Hur is still quite powerful after multiple viewings: “And I felt his voice take the sword out of my hand.”

I finished cleaning up the Florida room and started getting ready for next weekend when daughter #2 and DN et al will visit. Hopefully everyone will be well (Ida has an ear infection) and we will be all set for egg hunts and family worship.

Have a good week. Watch an old movie, re-read an old book, call an old friend. Thank God for His mercies which are new every day.

4 Comments
March 15, 2024

“Impetuous. Homeric!”

by chuckofish

Happy Friday! My weekend will be quiet as daughter #1 headed off to visit daughter #2, leaving Mr. Smith with us.

The boy is taking the twins on an overnight camping trip, so they will miss Sunday with us. Sigh.

But Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day so we will be watching The Quiet Man (1952) as this is our March 17th tradition. It is a fairy tale, a make-believe wish of what Ireland is like, but I love it–mostly because John Wayne is great and at the height of his powers.

To get you in the mood to watch, here are a few fun facts to know and share about the movie.

As you recall, when daughters #1 and #2 and I were traveling in Ireland in 2011, we made a pilgrimage to Cong where the movie was filmed.

The Quiet Man Museum is around the block from Pat Cohan’s Bar.

The town of Cong, in County Mayo was just getting electricity in 1951 when the actors and crew were there. A few scenes show utility poles, but no wires are clearly visible. The town folk were excited because they thought the electricity wouldn’t cost anything. When they learned otherwise, they insisted they didn’t want or need it – get rid of it. (Later, of course, their attitude changed.)

Charles B. Fitzsimmons (Hugh Forbes, IRA man) and James O’Hara (Father Paul) were the real-life younger brothers of Maureen O’Hara.

The white-haired, frail Dan Tobin, who gets up from his death bed and runs to see the fight, was John Ford’s older brother, Francis Ford. Four of John Wayne’s children appear in the steeplechase scene, which Wayne directed while Ford was sick.

Barry Fitzgerald, who plays the character of Michaleen Oge Flynn, and Arthur Shields, who played the Protestant vicar Cyril ‘Snuffy’ Playfair, were brothers in real life. They were both Protestants born in Dublin, Ireland. Shields was the family name. The Oscar-winner Fitzgerald, who was nearly eight years older than his brother, was born William Joseph Shields.

It is Maureen O’Hara’s favorite of her own films.

John Ford won his fourth Best Director Oscar and the film was in the top ten moneymakers of the year. Winton Hoch won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Stephen Spielberg, a great admirer of John Ford, paid tribute to The Quiet Man in E.T. (1982):

When the film was first screened in Boston, MA, Michaleen Flynn’s line on seeing the broken bed, “Impetuous! Homeric!”, was censored.

Well, watch it or don’t–that’s how I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

And here’s a bonus picture of Ida waving at the fish in the fish pond.

3 Comments
March 13, 2024

Saints and poets

by chuckofish

The other night I watched the old movie Our Town (1940), starring a stellar cast which included William Holden, Martha Scott, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, and Frank Craven as the Stage Manager. He originated the role on Broadway.

I don’t know what it is about this movie but it just destroys me every time I see it. Once again I cried through the whole last act. Part of it is that Aaron Copland score. But most of it is the plain truth of it.

Wilder explained in his preface to the play that “‘Our Town’ is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire village or as a speculation about the condition of life after death. . . .It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our life.” Well, I get that. The movie plays up the romance angle and it changes the ending, but for Hollywood, it does a pretty good job of conveying the message of the play.

I was in the play once–in eighth grade. I played Howie Newsome, the milkman. I saw it performed in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in a production by the Peterborough Players that included James Whitmore as the Stage Manager. (Wilder wrote some of Our Town at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, as well as in Zurich and on Long Island and all over.) And I’ve seen several versions on TV. But I do like the black and white movie, sets and all.

Here’s “The birth and life of an American classic: ‘Our Town’” from the Pulitzer files. Some people just don’t get it and write it off as folksy and sentimental. How wrong they are!

Reading the play is good, but seeing it is better. After all, it’s a play. For convenience sake, I recommend the movie.

5 Comments
March 11, 2024

Take my intellect and use ev’ry pow’r as thou shalt choose*

by chuckofish

It was a quiet weekend, mostly because it was a busy week punctuated by several visits to MoBap for routine appointments. We also spent eight hours there on Thursday while the OM had an ICD–an  implantable cardioverter-defibrillator–implanted. Fun city.

Meanwhile I am through with my semi-annual cancer checks (until September) and an infusion etc. Onward and upward.

In Sunday School we continued with the Westminster Confession and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy this class. The boy is in agreement. Such a smart class!

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

We are almost finished with chapter one!

We had a baptism in church–the fifth child in a family, who did not make a peep through the whole thing. I was impressed. As the elder walked her down the aisle, the congregation sang Jesus Loves Me and the twins chimed in with gusto. Once again they got an A for non-depraved behavior.

After church we went home for quiche and fruit salad and jelly beans, of which they ate plenty.

It was too cold for driveway sittin’ so the twins played with Legos while the grown-ups talked. Lovely. After everyone left, I watched some PGA–Scottie Scheffler won!–and took an unintended nap.

I didn’t watch the Academy Awards last night (of course). Instead I watched True Grit (1969), starring John Wayne in his Oscar-winning performance. It was a very good choice! Here’s his acceptance speech: humble and grateful.

And here is some news we can all use: good advice on how not to be a grumpy old woman. “It is good to give sober thought to the fact that life is short, and if we hope to finish well, we must intend to finish well.”

Have a great week!

*Frances R. Havergal, 1874

4 Comments
March 5, 2024

This leaping combustion of spring*

by chuckofish

In my daily Bible reading I am currently reading Deuteronomy. Moses really has his hands full with those stiff-necked Jews.

And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

–Deuteronomy 8:19

Of course, nothing has changed since then and we are worse than ever. Remember what Calvin said about the human heart being a factory of idols. He had read Deuteronomy!

In other news, today we celebrate the birthday of American illustrator and author Howard Pyle (1853-1911). Pyle was widely respected during his life and continues to be well regarded by illustrators and fine artists. His contemporary Vincent Van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo that Pyle’s work “struck me dumb with admiration.” I had a copy of Otto of the Silver Hand as a child, which deeply effected me. Looking at his art makes me want to watch Captain Blood (1936)–clearly the art director of this film was a fan of Howard Pyle.

Sixty-seven years later Hollywood still looked to Pyle for inspiration…

Today is also the anniversary of the day the great actor William Powell died in 1984. He was in a lot of really good movies throughout his long career, most notably The Thin Man (1934) et al, My Man Godfrey (1936), Life With Father (1947), and Mister Roberts (1961). I recommend watching any of these. Pour yourself a highball first.

This is a good example of sports testimony. “So yes, a missed pop fly did lead to grace — revealed in the instincts of a loving father, the kindness and generosity of a doctor, and a gift that kindled a lifetime of enriching interests. Sometimes the things we fear the most do happen. But that is not the end; there is One who is more. In those panic-stricken and dark moments, grace mysteriously goes to work.”

And speaking of baseball, can you even believe the uniform debacle in the MLB? See-through pants? Mis-matched uniforms? Stupid Nike.

And did you hear that the “British Board of Film Classification has decided to raise the rating on Mary Poppins from U (for Universal) to PG because of racial slurs. At two points in the film the neighbor of the Banks family, Admiral Boom, uses the term “Hottentots,” which some people now consider a derogatory name for one of the indigenous peoples of South Africa. The film has also been criticized for blackface because of the scene in which sooty chimney sweeps dance over rooftops.” (World News Group) The world is a clown show.

Enjoy your Tuesday. Do not forget the Lord.

*D.H. Lawrence, “The Enkindled Spring”

4 Comments
February 26, 2024

A tisket, a tasket

by chuckofish

We had a warm, sunny weekend–quite a contrast with last weekend’s snowstorm. Everyone was out and about.

The Kirkwood Historical Society, on whose board I serve–note the official KHS quarter-zip–had their Trivia Night on Friday. It was a packed house at our old church and very festive. My team only had 5 players (compared to eight) but we managed to tie for first place. But we lost the tie breaker. Quel dommage.

Saturday I got up early to do the flowers at church. I think they turned out all right.

Then daughter #1 and I went to an estate sale and to the antique mall. We exhausted ourselves–well, I did–browsing, so we had a margarita in downtown Kirkwood and shared a quesadilla. Good times.

After watching golf/napping, the OM and I watched Night at the Museum (2006), because, after writing the Pop Quiz on U.S. Presidents in the movies last week, I wanted to see Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt again. He plays it very straight and with dignity.

I enjoyed the movie, mostly because it has no political agenda beyond emphasizing that history is, indeed, interesting. Also Mickey Rooney is truly hilarious. (“Are you crackin’ wise? I oughta punch you in the nose, Hopscotch.”) Of course, it’s ironic that since then they have removed the iconic equestrian statue of T.R. that stood for so long in front of the Museum of Natural History in NYC. I will spare you my thoughts on this.

In Sunday School we are starting a new session on the Westminster Confession of Faith, which I love. In our first class we got through one paragraph of Chapter One. Systematic theology! ❤️❤️❤️ The twins are great in church. They can say the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and most of the Corporate Confession of Sin. They know the Doxology. This makes me very happy and I know the boy is proud of them. Lottie asked if she could bring her bulletin home.

After church we headed over to daughter #1’s house for brunch with Presbyterian Souffle. It was warm enough to frolic in the back yard with Mr. Smith and then walk up to Jackson Park and play on the playground.

Mr. Smith was living his best life.

Later that evening I ventured back to church for the Westminster Christian Academy touring ensemble concert. During spring break they are taking their show on the road–to Eastern Europe!–so this was practice for them. It brought me back to those days of yore when I sang in my high school choir and the boy sang in his high school choir. They sang at daughter #1’s church Sunday morning and she warned me that everyone was reaching for their Kleenex, but, verily, by the end of the concert I was a puddle of tears. What can I say?

And here’s Ida trying to decide which of my vintage Golden Books to read…

I can tell she’s leaning toward Sal Mineo in Tonka, but I know The Brave Little Tailor is a super fun and action-packed read. I read it to Katie when she was here a few weeks ago.

Have a good week! Embrace the simple pleasures in your life and be grateful for them. The blue sky, old movies, smart kids, small dogs, music, and Golden Books.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

–Dallan Forgail (8th Century)
4 Comments
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:

5 Comments
February 20, 2024

Pop quiz

by chuckofish

We haven’t had a pop quiz in a while, so I thought, it being the day after Presidents Day, we would have a quiz about U.S. Presidents in the movies.

  1. Not surprisingly, Abraham Lincoln appears as a character in the most number of movies. Which presidents appear the second and third most times?
  2. Henry Fonda played Abraham Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Which President’s son did he play in The Longest Day (1962)?
  3. What President did Harry Carey, Jr., Tom Selleck and Robin Williams all play?
  4. Character actor Sidney Blackmer played this President five times, most notably in Buffalo Bill (1944).
  5. Who played Andrew Jackson twice?
  6. In how many movies does Shirley Temple sit on President Lincoln’s lap?
  7. Did Ronald Reagan ever “play” a President before he retired from acting and went into politics?
  8. Raymond Massey played President Lincoln twice in the movies and several times on television. The photo at the top shows him in what movie?

How did you do? I’ll post the answers in the Comments section later today.

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom, in thy Name, we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–BCP
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