“How to talk like a Samaritan”

I’m planning to listen to every last back episode of Word of Mouth, a podcast from BBC Radio 4. One exceptionally good episode that I heard this week: “How to talk like a Samaritan.”

The episode focuses on how talking and listening can help people in crisis. The discussion references the Samaritans’ campaign Small Talk Saves Lives, which encourages people to strike up a conversation with anyone who seems to be in need of help (or, if a conversation doesn’t seem possible, to alert someone else). Sample starters from the Samaritans website: It’s a warm evening, isn’t it? What train are you going to get? What’s your name? Do you need any help? Are you okay?

So many times, talking with a student after class or in my office, I found myself asking, “Are you okay?” It’s never the wrong question to ask.

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Words of the year Now with justice.

From Diary of a Lost Girl

The closing line of Diary of a Lost Girl (dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929), spoken by the elder Count Osdorff (Arnold Korff):

“Ein wenig mehr Liebe und niemand kann verloren sein auf dieser Welt!” [Just a little more love and no one would be lost in this world!]

Twelve movies

[One to four stars. Three sentences each. No spoilers.]

Pandora’s Box (dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929). Louise Brooks as Lulu, a woman of irresistible sexual allure and cheerfully amoral and destructive promiscuity. Did I mention Louise Brooks? Yes, of course I did, because she’s unforgettable. ★★★★

*

Diary of a Lost Girl (dir. G.W. Pabst, 1929). The flip side of Lulu: Louise Brooks as Thymian Henning, a woman exploited and misused by everyone around her, and who chooses, when she is finally able to make choices, generosity and mercy in return. A film of great pathos, and a much better example of Brooks’s range as an silent actor than Pandora’s Box. With great performances too from Andrews Engelmann and Edith Meinhard, and an appropriate and evocative piano accompaniment (Scriabin, Schumann, silent-film composers), performed by Javier Perez de Azpeitia. ★★★★

*

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (dir. Marielle Heller, 2018). Based on a true story: Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel, a biographer of celebrities who turns to fabricating letters from dead writers. Highly entertaining for a movie founded on misanthropy and deception, of self and others. All set in a highly stylized 1990s Manhattan, with cozy bookstores, booksellers crazy about Fanny Brice and Noël Coward and “Miss Parker” (first name Dorothy), and Blossom Dearie and other singers providing the sophisticated extra-diegetic music. ★★★★

*

I Saw What You Did (dir. William Castle 1965). Home alone, two teenagers make prank telephone calls and just happen to reach the wrong person. Moments of genuine suspense and moments of bizarre comedy make for a movie that seems to meld Psycho, Rear Window, and The World of Henry Orient. Special bonus: Joan Crawford as a bonkers paramour. ★★★

*

Border Incident (dir. Anthony Mann, 1949). Suspense and brutal violence, in the semi-documentary style, as American and Mexican lawmen (George Murphy and Ricardo Montalban) team up to protect Mexican braceros from exploitation and worse at the hands of unscrupulous (and murderous) American ranchers. That Anthony Mann directed was reason enough to put this film in our queue. But also: the cinematography is by John Alton, with the deepest blacks, the brightest whites, and the most mysterious shadows. ★★★★

*

Victim (dir. Basil Dearden, 1961). “Somebody called this law against homosexuals the blackmailer’s charter”: life in an England in which sexual acts between men were still criminalized. Dirk Bogarde stars as Melville Farr, a married man and rising barrister threatened with blackmail. Will he pay, or out himself and fight? ★★★★

*

Marwencol (dir. Jeff Malmberg, 2010). I had this documentary on my Netflix “saved” list for years, and finally it’s available, no doubt because a major motion picture with Steve Carell, Welcome to Marwen, premieres this week. The story of Mark Hogancamp, for whom dolls and storytelling become a way to cope with trauma. Hogancamp’s imaginary town of Marwencol has strong overtones (for me, anyway) of Henry Darger’s Realms of the Unreal: each is the site of a battle between good and evil, with each creator a protagonist in battle. ★★★★

*

Double Lover (dir. François Ozon, 2017). A young woman (Marine Vacth) who suffers from what seem to be psychosomatic stomach pains receives a referral to a therapist (Jérémie Renier). What follows looks like a sometimes preposterous erotic thriller, but is — I think — a hallucinatory story about desire and doubles, with echoes of The Shining and Vertigo. I need to watch again to get a better sense of what’s happening, or isn’t. ★★★

*

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (dir. Matt Tyrnauer, 2017). “It’s not a secret really — it may be a secret to some square that lives in Illinois.” A documentary about Scotty Bowers, who for many years supplied sexual partners (including himself) to closeted men and women in the Hollywood film industry. Astonishing because it seems at times as if everyone was in a closet, depressing because of Scotty’s capacity for self-deception: he was a friend, he insists, not a pimp! ★★★

*

The Monster and the Girl (dir. Stuart Heisler, 1941). A low-budget but exceptionally stylish film that’s insanely awful, or insanely great, or both. Begins as a story of gangsters, prostitution, and a man framed for murder; ends with a dog bereft after the loss of his ape companion. Add the middle and everything makes sense, sort of. ★★★★

*

Riot in Cell Block 11 (dir. Don Siegel, 1954). An often brutal but largely sympathetic depiction of a prison uprising, with both inmates and warden agreeing that conditions are intolerable. And a great chance to see a number of lesser-known actors shine: Whit Bissell, Neville Brand, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, and Emile Meyer, among others. Filmed in Folsom State Prison, with guards and prisoners as extras. ★★★★

*

The Blackboard Jungle (dir. Richard Brooks, 1955). For me it breaks apart into its small memorable bits: the grammar lesson, Morales and the tape recorder, the destruction of a record collection, the students gathered around the piano, New Year’s Eve in the hospital. As a rookie teacher at a vocational high school, Glenn Ford’s Mr. Dadier (or Daddy-O, as his students call him) makes every mistake imaginable — turning his back, picking out an antagonist, trying to curry another student’s favor — and yet he still figures out a way to reach his class (cartoons!). The real star of the film is Sidney Poitier as student Greg Miller, cynical, wary, and sane. ★★★★

 
[Louise Brooks as Lulu. Louise Brooks as Thymian. Click for larger views.]

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All OCA film posts (Pinboard)

[Whatever became of Edith Meinhard? An assidious blogger has tried to find out.]

A Sluggo pillow

[Zippy, December 16, 2018.]

It is “Average American” Day in Dingburg. You can read Zippy every day at Comics Kingdom.

Axolotl is a Mad word. Here’s an example. The axolotl itself is amazing and endangered.

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All OCA Nancy posts : Nancy and Zippy posts: Zippy posts (Pinboard)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Like a good teacher, today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Brad Wilber, is tough but fair. I kvelled at 33-Across, six letters, “‘Nancy Loves __’ (book collection of comics).” Three other clues I especially liked: 42-Across, three letters, “Limits of negotiation.” 43-Across, six letters, “Stays home.” And 54-Down, four letters, “Crawled back and forth, perhaps.”

A clue that taught me something: 28-Across, five letters, “Brad's Drink (1893), today.” And one small complaint: the cross of 50-Across and 51-Down looks like it must be a typo. But it’s not.

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

A Mister Softee mystery

Strange music — it’s coming from that kiosk — must investigate: a Mister Softee mystery solved (WNYC).

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The jingle : Les Waas, its creator

New directions in metaphor

New, at least, to me: “Can I double-click on that later?”

Meaning, “Can I go into detail about that later?” “Can I wait to explain that?”

StackExchange has someone asking about this metaphor in 2015. I doubt that it’s caught on. Has anyone else heard it?

I have a possible answer to “Can I double-click on that later?” “Yes! Keep scrolling!”

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All OCA metaphor posts (Pinboard)

Moving to Elgin Park

“Michael Paul Smith has moved to Elgin Park”: the creator of an imaginary town has died.

[I wish I’d known about Elgin Park years ago.]

Letters for all occasions

Elaine and I are having a grand time reading Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through England and France. Here is an excerpt. The scene: Yorick, our narrator, must reply to a letter from Madame de L***, a young woman he has met in Calais. Now the two are in Amiens, where Madame de L***’s brother, the Count de L***, is on the scene. Madame has written Yorick a letter, delivered by her servant, who (tipsy) brings Yorick’s servant La Fleur back with him to the Count’s apartment. And look, here’s Madame. When she asks for Yorick’s reply, La Fleur says that — oops — he has forgotten to bring it. And now Yorick is stuck figuring out what to say:


Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). Text from the 2001 Penguin edition, ed. Paul Goring.

I have already confessed in a letter to a friend that Yorick and La Fleur remind me of Larry (Larry David) and Leon (J.B. Smoove) in Curb Your Enthusiasm. “What should I say to her, Leon?” “I got this, Larry.” Except Leon wouldn’t apologize or tremble.

Also from this novel
Yorick, distracted

[Translation, from Penguin edition: “I am filled with the deepest sadness and at the same time reduced to despair by this unforeseen return of the Corporal, which renders our meeting tonight the most impossible thing in the world. But let there be joy! And all of my joy will be in thinking of you. Love is nothing without sentiment. And sentiment is even less without love. It is said that one should never despair. It is also said that Monsieur le Corporal will be mounting guard on Wednesday: then it will be my turn. Everyone has his turn. While we wait — Long live love! And long live sweet nothings! I am, Madame, with all the most respectful and tender sentiments, all yours.” Goring points out that the letter echoes one of Sterne’s: “‘l’amour’ (say they) ‘n’est rien sans sentiment.’”]