Amateurs

From Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952). Postant (Nigel Bruce) thinks he’s offering a compliment. Carvelo (Chaplin) sets him straight:

“Tonight you’re gonna make ’em all look like a bunch of amateurs.”

“That’s all any of us are — amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.”

[Limelight is streaming at TCM through July 14.]

Twelve movies

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

Two with Carole Lombard

Virtue (dir. Eddie Buzzell, 1932). Carole Lombard stars as Mae — just Mae — a streetwalker who marries cabdriver Jimmy Doyle (Pat O’Brien) and tries but fails to keep her previous life a secret. Lombard is great, mixing indignation over her husband’s suspicions with shame about her past. O’Brien is little more than mechanical. The surprise of the movie is Mayo Methot, whom I’ve known only as a name (one half of the battling Bogarts with husband Humphrey), turning in a solid performance as Mae’s friend Lil. ★★★

No Man of Her Own (dir. Wesley Ruggles, 1932). Clark Gable is Babe Stewart, a card sharp who’s left New York while trouble blows over. In sleepy Glendale, wherever that is, he meets Connie Randall, a lonely librarian (Carole Lombard), and marries her on the flip of a coin. Babe’s charm is invisible to me (he’s a cad, a cheat, an egomaniac); Connie’s wit and spunk are considerable. But what’ll happen when Connie cottons to the way her new husband makes his living? ★★★★

[As should now be obvious, there’s no relation to the Mitchell Leisen movie of the same name.]

*

A Private War (dir. Matthew Heineman, 2018). Rosamund Pike as Marie Colvin, war correspondent, putting her life on the line in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. A harrowing depiction of the pain of war and a reporter’s compulsion to bear witness. But the dialogue is sometimes wooden (especially in the dreadful scenes with Stanley Tucci), and I was too often reminded of the movie trope of the injured player pleading to get back in the game. Most disturbing scene for me: Colvin looking at a newsroom map with Post-its marking hotspots, wondering what risk to take next. ★★★

*

Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952). It’s 1914: Chaplin is a fading music-hall performer; Claire Bloom is a troubled dancer whom he cares for after she attempts suicide. A sad, beautiful, luminous depiction of theatrical fame, falling and rising, and a sharp commentary on the whims of audiences. Many scenes echo silents, but there’s also a lot of talking, with Chaplin’s Carvelo propounding a philosophy of life that seems to have been Chaplin’s own (a joyful stoicism, I’d call it). With Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Norman Lloyd, and a host of Chaplins. ★★★★

*

Paris Blues (dir. Martin Ritt, 1961). Friends Connie and Lillian (Diahann Carroll, Joanne Woodward) come to Paris for a vacation and meet ex-pat jazz musicians Eddie and Ram (Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman). It’s Route 66 in Paris, with Poitier’s Eddie as the genial Tod Stiles, and Newman’s Ram as the edgier Buz Murdock. Great cinematography by Christian Matras, with moody scenes of Parisian streets (landmarks, appropriately, are peripheral); a good score by Duke Ellington; a wonderful appearance by Louis Armstrong as visiting musician Wild Man Moore; and much hokey dialogue. Look for Aaron Bridgers (Billy Strayhorn’s partner for many years) as a pianist. ★★★

*

Walk a Crooked Mile (dir. Gordon Douglas, 1948). An FBI/Scotland Yard procedural, served in the semi-documentary style (Reed Hadley as narrator), with generous helpings of noir. Indeed: as the story nears its (alas) contrived end, everything seems to take place in the dark. Dennis O’Keefe and Louis Hayward — the one rumpled, the other suave —team up to figure out who’s taking atomic secrets out of a research center and sending them to the Soviets. With invisible inks, undercover laundering, romance between scientists, and secret messages in paintings, there’s something for everyone. ★★★

*

Mikey and Nicky (dir. Elaine May, 1976). Nicky, small-time hoodlum (John Cassavetes), has been marked for a hit and is on the run; Mikey, fellow hoodlum and friend from childhood (Peter Falk), has answered Nicky’s call for help. What follows is one night in Philadelphia, as the two men, one frantic, the other a voice of calm reason, wander the streets and ride buses, sparring with words and fists (improvising, I think, at least sometimes), and visiting bars, exes, a candy store, and a graveyard. And all the while a hit man (the late Ned Beatty) is looking for Nicky. An extraordinary movie about debts to memory and the limits of loyalty. ★★★★

*

Gidget (dir. Paul Wendkos, 1959). Sandra Dee is Francie Lawrence, an almost-seventeen tomboy, down on dating (ick), newly fascinated by surfing, dubbed Gidget (“girl” + “midget”) by the bro surfers who adopt her as a laughable, perky mascot. With the Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson) and Moondoggie (James Darren) as protectors and instructors, she learns to surf, and, more importantly, learns to live the vital lesson imparted by her grandmother’s sampler: “To be a real woman is to bring out the best in a man.” It’s Social Norms 101, as Gidget changes from flat-chested iconoclast to busty, pinned sweetheart. This movie would pair weirdly and well with The Edge of Seventeen (dir. Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016). ★★★

*

The Las Vegas Story (dir. Robert Stevenson, 1952). Watching Victor Mature and Vincent Price vie for Jane Russell in this movie, I feel like Gidget: ick! Russell plays Linda Rollins, who used to perform (with a seedy-looking Hoagy Carmichael) at a Vegas casino (the aptly named Last Chance). Linda’s old flame Dave (Mature) is on the Vegas police force; her husband Lloyd (Price) is in financial trouble. The plot hinges on an expensive necklace, and there’s a hotel named the Fabulous, though fabulous is not a noun. ★★

*

Blackmail (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1929). I’ve been told that even Brits find the quick dialogue in Hitchcock’s early movies difficult to follow, but this one must be an exception: it moves slowly (no surprise that it’s an adaptation of a play). Long story short: Alice (Anny Ondra) kills a man while defending herself against rape; her Scotland Yard boyfriend Frank (John Longden) is placed in charge of the investigation; and there’s a fellow (Donald Calthrop) who has circumstantial evidence of Alice’s guilt. Look for hints of The 39 Steps, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, and North by Northwest. My favorite scenes: the tobacco shop, with its retail density. ★★★

*

Fourteen keys

Seven Keys to Baldpate (dir. Reginald Barker 1929). First it was a novel, by Earl Derr Biggers; then, a play by George M. Cohan; then the stuff of seven movies, two television dramas, and two radio plays. “Adventuress, crooked politicians, safe robbed, and love at first sight: I wanted to get away from melodrama,” says a hack writer. It’s a spoof melodrama, with the writer (Richard Dix) trying to win a bet by writing a 10,000-word story in twenty-four hours in an empty inn. But an adventuress, crooked politicians, &c., make his life difficult. ★★

Seven Keys to Baldpate (dir. Lew Landers, 1947). This version is a considerable improvement, cutting nearly all the exposition and adding a more dweebish mystery writer (Phillip Terry, Ray Milland’s brother in The Lost Weekend ) and a few quick scares. Eduardo Ciannelli (Krug in Foreign Correspondent ) provides genuine menace as a criminal mastermind; Jimmy Conlin (of a zillion movies) adds weirdness as a misogynistic hermit. That this play is still performed might have more to do with its range of parts (X would be perfect as Y ) than with any inherent dramatic goodness. ★★★

Related reading
All OCA movie posts (Pinboard)

[Sources: Criterion Channel, Netflix, TCM, YouTube.]

Bad news, good news

Bad news: In my part of Illinois, with a 32.7% vaccination rate, people are playing bingo at the VFW, indoors, no masks, sitting side by side on both sides of long tables. Social distancing? “I think it's kind of refreshing to be able to gather together and not have to worry about that,” says the caller.

But good news, if it pans out: “A study finds that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could offer protection for years” (New York Times ).

I’ll take any good news I can get.

Now and Then, a podcast

A new podcast, from historians Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman: Now and Then. As the title suggests, their conversation puts past and present together. I just listened to the latest episode, “QAnon, Cults, and Cutlery,” in which Richardson and Freeman consider QAnon, Salem, the Oneida Community, and Jonestown. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended: Richardson’s daily commentary on the news: Letters from an American.

Britney and Brian

An opinion piece by Helaine Olen in The Washington Post: “What Britney Spears has endured would not have happened to a male star.”

A glaring counter-example would be Brian Wilson, whose life was controlled in every particular by psychologist Eugene Landy. Wikipedia has a detailed account of Landy’s treatment of Wilson in 1975–1976 and 1982–1991. Among the details: at one point, Landy was in Wilson’s will for a 70% share of the estate.

Related reading
All OCA Brian Wilson posts (Pinboard)

Money and time

The Washington Post recently offered a series of e-mails devoted to making “A Better Week.” The advice offered therein is fairly obvious: for instance, batch your notifications; schedule recurring activities.

The suggestion that caught my interest: “Buy back your time.” And the example of buying back time that caught my interest is the most upscale of four:

If you can budget $50 a week: You could try a monthly home cleaning service and outsource the deeper cleaning. You could plan to have a few friends over that night, while your place is looking spiffy. If you’re a parent, you could pay for a babysitter and have a few hours to yourself or with your partner.

It so happens that I read this bit of advice not long before reading this item from Inside Higher Ed :

Columbia College in Chicago took down a job ad seeking a housekeeper for the institution’s president after Columbia employees applied for the position.

Members of the United Staff of Columbia College union applied for the housekeeping job at Kwang-Wu Kim’s home, which is owned by the college, amid contract negotiations with the college. The union’s current contract expired in 2018.

“While President Kim is looking for help cleaning his home, those of us who support Columbia students every day are out actively looking for a second or even third income so we can keep our families afloat and pay our bills,” Craig Sigele, president of USCC, said in a statement. “We don’t have the luxury of hiring housekeepers. We are struggling to survive.”

President Kim’s yearly compensation, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education: $635,391.

United Staff of Columbia College has a website.

A related post
Income disparity in higher ed

[I remember as a child of the working-class being astonished that some faculty colleagues paid people to clean their houses. Other Post suggestions: paying $5 to $10 for grocery delivery and $20 a week for a laundry service. The Post’s free way to buy back time: swapping lunch-making with a friend one day a week. Which saves time how exactly?]

The rest is silence, I hope

No sound on C-SPAN for Donald Trump**’s rally in Wellington, Ohio. The sound began cutting out during a recording of Willie Nelson’s “You Were Always on My Mind,” and now, as a tyke would say, “All gone!”

No sound on another channel broadcasting the rally. That channel shall remain nameless here.

*

I jinxed it — the sound is back, in the form of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

Today’s Newsday Saturday

Today’s Newsday  Saturday crossword is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. I found it about as difficult (sixteen minutes) as last week’s puzzle, which was by “Anna Stiga,” the pseudonym that signifies an easier Newman puzzle. YMMV: your minutes may vary.

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

1-D, six letters, “Devices above doors.” I first thought of transom windows and pails of water.

8-D, five letters, “Scheming co-conspirator of ’50s TV.” Not all co-conspirators are criminals.

17-A, eight letters, “It may be a quick hit.” I thought of substances. For all I know, the answer could refer to substances.

36-A, seven letters, “Former Top Chef judge.” A little devious.

36-D, six letters, “Less than sharp.” Clever.

44-A, four letters, “#17 among TV Guide’s greatest cartoon characters.” Keep your eyes open and your mouth closed. And if that’s a spoiler, you already know too much.

44-D, five letters, “Pre-presidential partner of ’51.” Uh, MAMIE? No. Worse.

Best clue today: 35-A, eleven letters, “Rogues on the road.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Comics intertextuality

June 2021: Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes. I made links to eight individual strips, but Facebook turns each into the link I’ve now added.

I can’t claim to know either strip, but I dig intertextuality. Thanks, Kevin.

*

And on a related note, Comic Book Guy turns up in today’s Hi and Lois.

Sentenced

Two hundred and seventy months, or twenty-two and a half years. That’s Derek Chauvin’s sentence.