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Why was I surprised that this was such a fine film? I should have done some research before viewing. It was written by Robert Riskin and Jo Swerling. Riskin had It Happened One Night to his credit and collaborated with Frank Capra on Mr. Deeds Comes to Town. Swerling wrote It's a Wonderful Life and…
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Talk about movie "bad girls"– here's one of the most sordid. In this Our Life is a doppelganger story of two sisters, one good and one evil. Roy (sic) Timberlake, played by Olivia de Havilland, is too good to be true. Stanley (sic) Timberlake, embodied by Bette Davis in an eye-popping, raucous performance, is wicked…
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Everyone has their favorite 1940s "bad girl." Some of mine: Ann Savage in Detour (1945), Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947), Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street (1948), Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross (1949), Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (1947, and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) but…
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The Israeli TV program Shtisel, about an ultra-orthodox, Haredi family, is soap opera, but with a hair fetish. It's all about beards, peyot, and sheitals; one female character cries the whole night through because her wig slipped and an inch of her own natural hair was visible — to men. Sometimes it's taxing to be…
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Even though the universe is only 13.8 billion years old, more or less, the era of star formation is nearly complete. Because our universe expands so rapidly, the effects of gravity continue to lessen and therefore matter will soon cease to clump. Existing stars and galaxies will become more and more isolated. In a hundred…
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Trump has made it clear that he envies and admires the Russian dictator (whom he trusts while scorning American security services, military, and diplomats). So much is common knowledge. But today we learned his admiration for Putin has become more than mancrush. Here's a picture of Putin. Close And here's an…
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It's a play on Hanover Square in London, where, apparently, there were many drinking establishments. It's also still another variety of amnesia. This time the victim knows he's lost his memory, but his friends and relatives don't notice. George Harvey Bone, a composer played by the immense (300 lb) and immensely talented Laird Cregar, experiences…
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When we arrived at Dead Elm Farm in 1968, we were confronted with a derelict silo. It had not been used for many years and displayed a Pisa-like lean. We thought it was a hazard and decided to take it down, which we did by the simple expedient of tying one end of a rope…
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Here's a marvelously instructive tale about culinary practice, custom, superstition, religion and how knowledge passes from generation to generation. We're in the 1940s. My mother was sitting with her childhood friend, Estelle Fendrick, who was preparing a chicken soup. My mother (this is exactly how she told me the story) noticed that Estelle broke the…
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He: "These allergies are getting me down. Every morning I seem to wake up with a liter of mucus in my nose. There's so much I should probably save it and put in the garden. It would be good for the soil." She: "Yes, we could save it one of those nice plastic jars that…