O pensamento abaixo foi ESCRITO NO ANO DE 1931

(Adrian Rogers)

 ”É impossível levar o pobre à prosperidade através de legislações que punem os ricos pela prosperidade. Por cada pessoa que recebe sem trabalhar, outra pessoa deve trabalhar sem receber. O governo não pode dar para alguém aquilo que não tira de outro alguém. Quando metade da população entende a idéia de que não precisa trabalhar, pois a outra metade da população irá sustentá-la, e quando esta outra metade entende que não vale mais a pena trabalhar para sustentar a primeira metade, então chegamos ao começo do fim de uma nação. É impossível multiplicar riqueza dividindo-a.” Adrian Rogers, 1931

ALAGOAS Jornal nº 02. Direção: Edson Chagas. Companhia produtora: Alagoas Filme. Elenco: Fernandes Lima. Maceió-AL.1931. Documentário, silencioso, PB, 35mm.
Sinopse: Coleção de reportagens dos acontecimentos de Maceió, destacando-se a chegada do governador Fernandes Lima, imagens do Carnaval, o encalhe do vapor Pirineus, vistas de Bebedouro, movimento das casas comerciais e exames da Escola Remington.
Observações:
A Cinemateca Brasileira não possui este filme, mas dispõe informações sobre ele.

UM BRAVO do nordeste. Direção: Edison Chagas. Argumento/roteiro: Ernani Passos, Edison Chagas. Elenco: Ernani Passos, Adalberto Montenegro, Nice Buenos Aires, Elizabeth Montenegro, Francisco Rocha Filho, Walmira Graça. União dos Palmares-AL. 1931. Longa-metragem, silencioso, PB, ficção, 35mm
Sinopse: Um ladrão de gado tenta enganar um rico proprietário, comprando o seu gado. Chegando à fazenda, apaixona-se pela filha do coronel. Vendido o rebanho, o fazendeiro vai ao banco depositar o dinheiro, mas o caixa recusa-se a receber em virtude de ser dinheiro falso.

Observações:
A Cinemateca Brasileira não possui este filme, mas dispõe informações sobre ele.

SAÍDA dos espectadores da matinée do Cine Capitólio. (título atribuído). Direção e imagens: Edson Chagas. Maceió-AL. 1931. Curta-metragem, não ficção, 35mm.

Observações:
A Cinemateca Brasileira não possui este filme, mas dispõe informações sobre ele.

Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” ~~~~

Thomas Jefferson

“The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work & give to those who would not “

Sir Winston Churchill

“The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal distribution of blessings, the inherent vice of Socialism is the equal distribution of misery”

Thomas Jefferson –

“All tyranny needs to gain foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

“The government is best which governs least.”

Ronald Reagan –

“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream — the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order –or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”

Patrick Henry –

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

John Adams –

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Fiske –

‘If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid!) when the people of the different parts of our country shall allow the local affairs to be administered by prefects sent from Washington, and when the self government of the states shall have been so far lost as that of the departments of France, or eve so closely limited as that of the counties of England-on that day the political career of the American people will have been robbed of its most interesting and valuable features, and the usefulness of this nation will be lamentably impaired.’ (John Fiske,The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789)

KARL MARX: “The theory of the communist may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”

JOHN ADAMS: “The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and pubic justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”

 

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Once Upon A Time…‘Those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

Last week I noticed a 1931 penny in my change.  I’m not a serious collector (more like a coin hoarder), but it caught my eye because surprisingly it looked to be in pretty good shape for such an old coin.

When I mentioned it to Larry*, he asked if it was an “S” mint version.  I had not actually noticed, so I went home and checked and then looked online for the significance of the “S”.

It turns out that the “S” version has a pretty good value if it’s real and in good shape, of course.

According to this page: http://www.valuable-coin-stories.com/1931-S.html it’s a commonly faked coin.  I’m curious to know if anyone can tell by looking at the enlargement below.  The “S” looks odd to me, so I’m guessing it has been added on somehow.  Either way, it’s interesting to me.  I’m amazed that anyone would go to the trouble of faking a coin to make a few dollars!  Surely there are other things to do that pay off better!

Note on the photos:  The white areas on parts of the coin are due reflection and overexposure of those areas due to the use of a flash.  The coin really does look like a real copper penny.

* Larry is an expert collector of all things worth collecting (and then some).

BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS

“He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in the woolen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.” Leviticus 13: 52

In 1931, a little-known leper colony in Bexar County, Texas caught fire. The fire was on purpose. Abandoned for several years, the county, the owner of the property, decided to demolish it by flame.

The tiny settlement, tucked away at the county’s poor farm, consisted of a five-room “box” house, a barn, and a hen house –- a self-sufficient community.

The county offered the buildings to anyone who would take them, but people were “afraid to go near them,” thinking they held, deep in their grain, the dreaded disease.

With not takers, the buildings were ripped from their foundations and dragged to a flat area where they were heaped together in a circle.

Doused with gas, a county farm worker set them ablaze, and dashed to his car for cover. Fire did its duty, burning away the flesh-eating scourge.

###

Frankenstein is a 1931 horror film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley as well as the play adapted from it by Peggy Webling. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features Dwight Frye and Edward van Sloan. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell. The make-up artist was Jack Pierce.

Trivia:

• In one scene, the Monster (Boris Karloff) walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because Karloff – objecting to the director’s interpretation of the scene – felt that the monster should have gently put Maria into the lake. This scene is restored in the videocassette reissue.
• Bela Lugosi was offered the role of the monster, but refused on the grounds that his character would not speak (though he eventually played the role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)). Lugosi also insisted on creating his own makeup for the Monster, but his design was rejected. According to film historian Richard J. Anobile, Lugosi was originally offered the role of Dr. Frankenstein by original director Robert Florey, but Carl Laemmle insisted that Lugosi play the monster. Test footage of Lugosi in Monster make-up was filmed by Florey on the set of Dracula (1931). Soon after, Florey was replaced by James Whale as director, and Lugosi was replaced by Karloff.
• Those originally considered for the cast included Leslie Howard as Henry Frankenstein and Bette Davis as Elizabeth. Director James Whale insisted on Colin Clive for the role of Henry.
• John Carradine turned down the part of the Monster because he considered himself too highly trained to be reduced to playing monsters.
• After bringing the monster to life, Dr. Frankenstein uttered the famous line, “Now I know what it’s like to BE God!” The movie was originally released with this line of dialogue, but when it was re-released in the late ’30s, censors demanded it be removed on the grounds that it was blasphemy. A loud clap of thunder was substituted on the soundtrack. The dialogue was partially restored on the video release, but since no decent recording of the dialogue could be found, it still appears garbled and indistinct. The censored dialog was partially returned to the soundtrack in the initial “restored version” releases. Further restoration has now completely brought back this line of missing dialog. A clean recording of the missing dialog was reportedly found on a Vitaphone disc (similar to a large phonograph record). Modern audio technology had to be used to insert the dialog back into the film without any detectable change in the audio quality.
• According to the TLC network program “Hunt for Amazing Treasures”, a unique six-sheet poster for the original 1931 release, showing Karloff as The Monster menacing Mae Clarke, is worth at least $600,000 US and is possibly the most valuable movie poster in the world. The only known (original) copy is owned by a private collector.
• Boris Karloff offered to remove his partial bridgework as part of the monster make-up process to create the sunken cheek look.
• Ken Strickfaden, who created all the electrical effects for the movie, also doubled for Boris Karloff during the sequences that showed the million volt sparks playing over his body. The same machines were later used in the comedy Young Frankenstein (1974).
• Child actress Marilyn Harris had done several takes of the drowning scene, none of which turned out quite right. Although wet and tired, she agreed to do one last take of the scene, the one that appears in the finished film, after director James Whale promised her anything she wanted if she would do so. She asked for a dozen hard-boiled eggs, her favorite snack. Whale gave her two dozen. The DVD commentary for the film suggests that Harris wasn’t actually a good swimmer, quoting Harris as saying that she had only a couple of swimming lessons before filming and had never dived under water before.
• John Huston wrote an early version of the warning speech given at the start of the film.
• The method of animating the creature is never discussed in Mary Shelley’s novel. In the book, Frankenstein, narrating, refuses to divulge how he did it so no one can re-create his actions. However, the use of lightning to resurrect the monster has become the accepted methodology and appears in virtually every Frankenstein movie since.
• According to The People’s Almanac, at one point the movie was to have included a line of dialogue giving the Monster the name, Adam. The Almanac indicates that an early print of this film may have indeed been released with just such a scene, but that it was cut when audiences began referring to the Monster by the name Frankenstein.
• John Carradine, who later played Dracula in the Universal horror films, once claimed he was considered for the role of the Monster.
• The Monster in this film does not physically resemble Mary Shelley’s character. It was make-up artist Jack P. Pierce who came up with innovations such as the Monster’s flat head, the bolts through the neck, the droopy eyelids, and the poorly-fitted suit. Any future Frankenstein film that features any of these physical abnormalities is taking its inspiration from Pierce’s make-up work.
• The popular image of Frankenstein’s monster as green-skinned was sourced in this film. Actually, Jack P. Pierce’s monster make-up gave the monster yellow skin, one of the few consistencies from Mary Shelley’s original description of the monster.
• Some of the sets had originally been constructed for Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary (1927) which Universal had produced four years earlier.
• What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.
• The film was banned in Kansas upon its original release on the grounds that it exhibited “cruelty and tended to debase morals”.
• A 20-minute test reel, starring Bela Lugosi as the monster and directed by Robert Florey, was filmed on the Dracula (1931) sets. This footage has not been seen since 1931 and is now considered lost. Only a poster, featuring the vague likeness of Bela Lugosi as a 30 feet colossus, remains.
• The set design of the windmill sequence was inspired by a building in Los Angeles that housed a local bakery, Van de Kamp, which displayed a large windmill as its corporate logo.
• Actor Edward Van Sloan, who played Dr. Waldman in the film, appeared in the now-lost test reel with Bela Lugosi as the Monster. In an interview conducted shortly before his death, Van Sloan remembered that Lugosi’s makeup resembled The Golem, with a large broad wig and “a polished clay-like skin.” Unfortunately, no footage of the test or any photographs of Lugosi in this makeup are known to exist.
• The movie’s line “It’s alive! It’s alive!” was voted as the #49 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
• Carl Laemmle Jr. offered James Whale a list of 30+ film adaptations he could direct and Whale picked this one. Whale said he did so because he wanted to get away from the war pictures with which he had so far been associated. Ironically, Whale is now, by far, best-remembered for his four horror films.
• The casting of the monster was the most difficult aspect of the casting process. James Whale happened to spot Boris Karloff in the Universal commissary and passed him a note offering a screen-test, which Karloff jumped at. Karloff later joked that he was offended by being viewing as such an ugly character, since on the day that Whale spotted him, he was wearing his most elegant suit and thought he was looking handsome.
• Edward Van Sloan (Dr Waldman) also makes an uncredited appearance as himself in the film’s prologue, in order to warn audiences of what follows.
• The monster make-up design by Jack P. Pierce is under copyright to Universal through the year 2026, and licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc.
• By the time the ending of the film was changed, allowing Henry Frankenstein to live, Colin Clive was no longer available for additional scenes. For the shot of Henry in long shot in the bedroom behind his father, he was played by another actor; tradition has long held that it was future cowboy star Robert Livingston filling in for him.
• Dr. Frankenstein’s first name is Henry, while his best friend’s name is Victor Moritz. In the novel, the doctor’s name is Victor Frankenstein, while his best friend is Henry Clerval.
• Boris Karloff is considered a late bloomer in Hollywood. Frankenstein (1931) premiered when he was 44 years old.
• During production there was some concern that seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who played Maria, the little girl thrown into the lake by the creature, would be overly frightened by the sight of Boris Karloff in costume and make-up when it came time to shoot the scene. When the cast was assembled to travel to the location, Marilyn ran from her car directly up to Karloff, who was in full make-up and costume, took his hand and asked “May I drive with you?” Delighted, and in typical Karloff fashion, he responded, “Would you, darling?” She then rode to the location with “The Monster.”.

.

My Top 10:

Paul Muni as Tony, the crazed gangster and Ann Dvorak as his sister in Scarface

1. Scarface
2. Vampyr
3. Frankenstein
4. A Nous la Liberte
5. Horse Feathers
6. Freaks
7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
8. Wooden Crosses
9. What Price Hollywood
10. Grand Hotel

• Academy Awards:
• Best Picture:  Grand Hotel
• Best Director:  Frank Borzage  (Bad Girl)
• Best Actor:  Frederic March  (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) / Wallace Beery  (The Champ)
• Best Actress:  Helen Hayes  (The Sin of Madelon Claudet)
• Best Adaptation:  Bad Girl (from the novel by Viña Delmar)
• Best Original Story:  The Champ

TSPDT Consensus Top 5 Films:

• Vampyr – #183
• Freaks – #207
• Frankenstein – #365
• Scarface – #490
• A Nous La Liberte – #506

Top 5 Awards Points:

1. The Champ – 245
2. Bad Girl – 220
3. Shanghai Express – 145
4. Arrowsmith – 135
5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 135

AFI Top 100 Films:

• Frankenstein – #87  (1998 poll – not on 2007 poll)

Nighthawk Awards:

Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily in Shanghai Express

• Best Picture:  Scarface
• Best Director:  Howard Hawks  (Scarface)
• Best Actor:  Paul Muni  (Scarface)
• Best Actress:  Marlene Dietrich  (Shanghai Express)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Boris Karloff  (Frankenstein)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Miriam Hopkins  (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:  Vampyr
• Best Original Screenplay:  Horse Feathers
• Best Foreign Film:  Vampyr (from the novel In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu)

Nighthawk Notables:

• Best Film to Watch over and over:  Horse Feathers
• Best Scene:  the creation scene in Frankenstein
• Best Line:  “I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived.”  (Horse Feathers – Groucho Marx)
• See the Movie – Don’t Read the Book:  Vampyr

The ignored genre finally gets some respect.  Not only do Horror films account for 4 of my top 7, but they actually take all of the top 3 spots from TSPDT.  Yet, those same three films were ignored at the Oscars and the one that did get some attention (Jekyll) wasn’t actually nominated for Best Picture, in spite of being better than any of the actual nominees.  Scarface, the best film of the year, is ignored by the Oscars and savaged by the authorities for not giving gangster Tony Camonte an ending befitting his crimes.  Like City Lights, the NBR places it in the Top 10.  Battles with the Hays Office and local censors delayed the film’s release for close to a year.

Film History: While Irving Thalberg has a heart attack, reducing his power at MGM, Harry Cohn becomes president of Columbia.  Under Cohn’s reign, Columbia would win Best Picture 6 times, but he was more hated than anyone in Hollywood and at his funeral, in response to the crowds, Red Skeleton noted “Give the people what they want to see and they’ll show up.”  Johnny Weismuller debuts as Tarzan (side note: in the early 50’s, my uncle would break his hand punching Weismuller’s son in the back).  Thomas Edison, the inventor of the cinematograph dies in late 1930 and George Eastman, the inventor of flexible film dies in early 31.  D.W. Griffith release his final film, The Struggle.

Academy Awards: This was an Oscar year unlike any other.  Grand Hotel is still the only film to win Best Picture while having no other nominations.  It would be another 57 years before another film won without a Best Director nomination.  It would be 19 years before a BP wasn’t in the top two in Oscar points and only one other film (The Greatest Show on Earth) would fail to finish in the top 3 (and it finished fourth while Grand Hotel finished sixth).  Frank Borzage would win his second Oscar (the first to do so) and would fail to win Best Picture again (a mark matched only by John Ford and George Stevens).  Academy rules (not actually in effect, but from the year before) would allow Wallace Beery to claim an Oscar when he finished one vote behind Frederic March.  March and Helen Hayes would eventually both win second Oscars after long gaps (14 years for March, 38 for Hayes).  March would be the last Best Actor winner from a film not nominated for BP until 1947.  All the Best Director nominees would be from BP nominees (easy to do with 3 Directors and 8 films), a trend that would continue, with 2 exceptions until 1943 (My Man Godfrey in 1936 and Angels with Dirty Faces in 1938).  Surprisingly enough, I actually agree with the award for Grand Hotel among the nominations.  While Shanghai Express is fairly good, Grand Hotel is really the only one of the 8 that deserved even a nomination (***.5 or better).

• Worst Oscar:  Best Original Story for The Champ
• Worst Oscar Nomination:  Best Picture for The Champ
• Worst Oscar Omission:  Best Director for Scarface
• Worst Oscar Category:  Best Picture – only Grand Hotel was worthy, The Champ was an embarrassing choice and One Hour With You is weak Cukor and weak Lubitsch
• Best Oscar Nomination:  Best Art Direction for A Nous La Liberte – the first Foreign nominee, and completely worthy

Groucho Marx as Professor Wagstaff in the under-appreciated Horse Feathers (1932)

Overlooked film of 1932:

Horse Feathers (dir. Norman Z. McLeod)

Duck Soup, in spite of its lack of financial success when it was originally released is now revered as a classic.  Ebert hailed it, the Top 1000 ranks it high and it’s been on both AFI lists.  It’s the best of Marx Brothers by the consensus of pretty much everyone.  So what about Horse Feathers?  It’s the second best of the Marx Brothers, has hilarious lines, great interplay back and forth between the brothers, wonderful songs and is almost completely ignored.

You could make a few arguments against the inclusion of Horse Feathers as a great film and all of them have counter-arguments.  First, it has only a flimsy plot.  On the other hand, all Marx Brothers films have flimsy plots and it is not more flimsy than the plot of any big action film.  Second, the way Groucho throws his lines out at times seem to befuddle everybody and bring things to a halt.  But that was the way Groucho was.  As he said, poor Margaret Dumont never got any of his jokes.  It doesn’t like any cast members ever get his jokes except his brothers.  But the lines are always worth it.  Third, the film only remains today in a cut version.  Even in the newest DVD releases, there are jumps in editing and obviously parts that are missing.  This is due to the re-editing after the enforcement of the Production Code so that it could get a re-release and this is the best we have.

Then we have the greatness of the film.  We have the brilliant lines that Groucho keeps throwing at us (“You’re a disgrace to the name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is even possible.”  “You know, this is the first time I’ve been out in a canoe since I saw ‘The American Tragedy.’ “  “I think you know what the trustees can do with their suggestions.”).  We have the great scene at the speak-easy where Groucho tries to figure out the password (reminiscent of this classic Sesame Street scene).  We have the craziness that ensues whenever Chico is asked to do something (this pretty much happens in every Marx Brothers film).

Then there are the songs.  Sometimes early Hollywood songs get forgotten because there was no Academy Award for Best Song until 1934.  But this film has two of the best early ones.  First we have Professor Wagstaff’s earnest disapproval of any idea that has already been presented (“I’m Against It”).  But then we have the Marx Brothers most beautiful song, one which would give Woody Allen the title of his own musical: “Everyone Says I Love You.”  What makes the song even more enchanting is how, during the course of the film, all four brothers sing it to Thelma Todd.  What could be a little throwaway verse becomes a classic song as it helps tie the parts of the film together into a cohesive whole.

My Top 10:

1. City Lights
   

   Charlie Chaplin in the final, touching scene in City Lights

2. Dracula
3. The Three Penny Opera
4. Le Million
5. Earth
6. The Public Enemy
7. Waterloo Bridge
8. The Front Page
9. Little Caesar
10. Woman in the Moon

Academy Awards:

• Best Picture:  Cimarron
• Best Director:  Norman Taurog  (Skippy)
• Best Actor:  Lionel Barrymore  (A Free Soul)
• Best Actress:  Marie Dressler  (Min and Bill)
• Best Writing Adaptation:  Cimarron (from the novel by Edna Ferber)
• Best Original Story:  The Dawn Patrol

TSPDT Consensus Top 5 Films:

• City Lights – #23
• Earth – #134
• Tabu – #216
• The Blue Angel – #255
• Le Million – #275

Top 5 Awards Points:

1. Cimarron – 360
2. Skippy – 215
3. A Free Soul – 150
4. The Front Page – 130
5. Morocco – 125

AFI Top 100 Films:

• City Lights – #76  (1998 poll) / #11  (2007 poll)

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture:  City Lights

   

  

  Norma Shearer in the film she should have won the Oscar for: A Free Soul

• Best Director:  Charlie Chaplin  (City Lights)
• Best Actor:  Charlie Chaplin  (City Lights)
• Best Actress:  Norma Shearer  (A Free Soul)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Leslie Howard  (A Free Soul)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Lotte Lenya  (The Three Penny Opera)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:  Dracula (from the novel by Bram Stoker)
• Best Original Screenplay:  City Lights
• Best Foreign Film:  M

Nighthawk Notables:

• Best Film to watch over and over:  Dracula
• Best Scene:  the final scene of City Lights
• Best Lines:  “What do you fellas get an hour?”
• “For playing we get ten dollars an hour.”
• “What do you get for not playing?”
• “Twelve dollars an hour.  Now for rehearsing, we have special deal.  Fifteen dollars an hour.”
• “That’s for rehearsing?”
• “That’s for rehearsing.”
• “What do you get for not rehearsing?”
• “You couldn’t afford it.”  (Animal Crackers – Groucho and Chico Marx)

Ebert Great Films:

• City Lights
• Dracula

Films started to move forward as an art form in 1930 and 31, even as the Academy regressed.  While there had been Horror and Gangster films before, they suddenly became a vital part of the industry.  Universal, minus the star power of Lon Chaney (who sadly died in August of 1930 robbing the film world of an amazing talent) went forward with Dracula and cemented their hold on Horror films.  Warner Brothers, on the other hand, made their first two Gangster films, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, marking them as a powerful box office force and defining the kind of films they would be known for during the next decade.  We also have City Lights.  Completely ignored by the Academy (though mentioned by the National Board of Review as one of their Top 10), it is pretty much universally acknowledged as the best film of the year these days.  It moved way up on the second AFI poll, was one of the first Ebert Great Movies and is the third highest ranking film of the entire decade in the Top 1000.  It also not only wins 7 Nighthawk Awards (the four mentioned above plus Editing, Cinematography and Score), but an incredible 6 of those awards went to Chaplin himself.  The only comparable mastery of all aspects of film is also Chaplin, when he wins the same 6 awards in 1936 for Modern Times.

Film History: The stars of the Studio Era began to emerge.  Clark Gable took on his first credited role.  Bette Davis signed her first contract with Warner Bros.  Helen Hayes made her film debut.  Marlene Dietrich first teamed with Josef von Sternberg.  The silent stars were on their way out with the death of Lon Chaney and the marriage (and soon after, retirement) of Clara Bow, though Chaplin remained strong with yet another silent film.  Unfortunately, Chaney wasn’t the only loss to the industry, as F.W. Murnau was killed in a car crash at the age of 42.

Academy Awards: They get it right one year, then badly screw it up the next.  It seems to be a general consensus that Cimarron was a terrible Best Picture winner (I rank it the second worst behind Broadway Melody).  It was one of 7 Best Picture winners dropped by AFI for its second poll and has by a large margin the lowest user rating on the IMDb of any BP.  But then, it was pretty slim pickings.  They nominated East Lynne, which is only available to view at UCLA (and thus one of three BP nominees I have never seen).  Skippy is extremely difficult to find and is not worth watching, and certainly didn’t deserve its Best Director Oscar.  Trader Horn is easier to see, but not necessarily worth it.  That really leaves The Front Page as the top of the nominees and even that pales in comparison to its remake His Girl Friday.  Three of my top 5 were foreign films, but the other two, City Lights and Dracula, both hits, went completely un-nominated.  But in spite of being relentlessly mediocre, Cimarron was a trend-setter, the first film to get 7 nominations and the first BP to win a Screenplay award.  Cimarron (along with A Free Soul) was the first film to get nominated for both Best Actor and Best Actress and Cimarron was the first to get the big 5 nominations (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay).

• Worst Oscar:  Best Writing Adaptation for Cimarron
• Worst Oscar Nomination:  Best Picture for Skippy
• Worst Oscar Omission:  Best Picture for City Lights
• Worst Oscar Category:  Best Picture – None of the films deserved nominations, but Cimarron and Skippy are particularly bad choices.
• Best Oscar Category:  Best Actress – All of them worthy – my top 5 is different only because I nominate Dietrich twice (also for Blue Angel)

Bela Lugosi in the original Dracula (1931)

Under-appreciated Film of 1931:

Dracula (dir. Tod Browning)

How can this be?  The film that truly sparked the Golden Age of Horror?  The film that made Lugosi a star and Universal a box office power?  The first authorized use of the character who has appeared on film more than any character except Sherlock Holmes?  Under-appreciated?

Well, in a word, yes.  In spite of great direction, a great script, amazing art direction and first rate cinematography, Dracula failed to receive even a single Oscar nomination.  Sadly this started a trend, as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the only Horror film in this era to get any decent appreciation from the Academy.  Even given the few categories at the time, Dracula should have gotten 6 nominations and 2 Oscars (Adapted Screenplay and Art Direction), and the only film better for Best Picture, Director and Cinematography was City Lights, which also went unrecognized.

But put the Academy aside.  That was the past.  What about the present?  Well, Roger Ebert did place it in his Great Movies fairly early on.  But it barely makes it on the IMDb’s top 50 Horror films (at #50), doesn’t make the TSPDT Top 1000 and wasn’t included as one of the 400 initial films for either AFI poll.  This is one of those things that happens when you exist in a genre that doesn’t get any respect.  Hell, the AFI didn’t even bother to include Horror when they did their Top 10 Genre lists.  AFI obviously has little use for the genre given the omissions in its 400 lists (no Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the original Frankenstein was one of the films that was dropped from the top 100 in the 2007 poll).

So what do we have here?  We have, 78 years after it was filmed, a film that still stands as the best English Language Vampire film ever made (the only better Foreign films are Nosferatu and Vampyr).  In the era of Twilight and “True Blood” and the flourishing Vampire Romance concept, the king of them all still stands un-appreciated.  It is not just the film that goes over-looked these days either.  Why would people buy Twilight and The Historian and the new crappy version written by Stoker’s descendant when you can read the original?  And why would you waste time with the dozens of new, crappy vampire films (Let the Right One In is a notable exception), when you can rent the original?  There are great versions out on DVD and it’s easy as hell to find.  Your local library probably has copies.  Copies of the book too.

What new Vampire films do wrong is focus on effects.  The original Dracula had terrible effects.  It had the bat, which looks ridiculous now and probably looked ridiculous then.  It doesn’t try to establish any kind of visual flair.  Dracula doesn’t change form.  He disappears off the balcony and then we hear about a wolf (without seeing it).  What it has it atmosphere.  It has mood and setting, much like the novel did.  It has the brilliant fog, the castle, the magnificent steps in Cairfax Abbey.  We have the great tracking shot, the first time we move inside the castle.  It starts with Renfield alone at the Pass, is followed by a cut to the castle, then a cut inside the castle, then moving slowly along the floor to the coffin, which opens slowly and a hand appears.

Yes, this is not quite Stoker’s Dracula.  It is based more on the play, economizing with its characters and settings, never leaving England.  But Dwight Frye is a properly deranged Renfield (look at the shot of him when he is discovered on the ship), Helen Chandler is a lovely Mina, and Bela is so perfect, approaching the role as if he really was the Count, living centuries in his castle and only now venturing out into society.  He fits the atmosphere perfectly and while later versions would perfect the gore and the sex, they still don’t compare to the original.

JESUS DIED AT EXACTLY 12 NOON

ARISTEO CANLAS FERNANDO
Peace Crusader and Echo

Tradition has it that Jesus Christ died at about 3pm.  The Holy Bible, King James Version, gives the following accounts:

Matthew 27:45-54
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elijah.
48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
49 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.
50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Mark 15:33-39
33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
35 And some of them that by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elijah.
36 And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Luke 23:44-47
44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.

The Holy Spirit revealed that Jesus died at exactly 12 noon.  This is in http://aristean.org/e03a-pah5.mp3 which is in the Pilipino language.  If you don’t understand the language, you may ask a Filipino to translate it for you.  Basically, the Holy Spirit said that it was not about 3pm when Jesus died but at exactly 12 noon.  At exactly at 12 noon!  I found this out on 2009-10-31 while playing the tapes of our sessions with the Holy Spirit.  This must be the reason why He told us before that if anyone dies at 12 noon, He goes straight to Heaven.

The sixth hour is equivalent to 12 noon, and the ninth hour, 3pm in the afternoon.  Logically, a 12 noon death of Jesus is more believable than about 3pm death because would darkness precede His death, or darkness succeed after He died?  Also, if Jesus died at 3pm, would three hours (3pm to 6pm) be enough for Joseph of Arimathea to beg Pontius Pilate to give him the body of Jesus, Pilate inquiring from the centurion if He was already dead, the breaking of bones of the crucified people, the removal of Jesus from the cross, the taking of the body of Jesus to the sepulcher?

Jesus was crucified on preparation day of the high day sabbath (John 19:31).  His body should not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, especially, the next day sabbath day was a high day.  Hence, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pontius Pilate and begged him to give to him the body of Jesus.

Not only did the sky darken when Jesus died.  The earth quaked, the veil of the temple was split into two from the top to the bottom, rocks split apart, and graves were opened, as related in the Holy Bible.

The Holy Bible that we are using now was not directly written by the disciples but by their descendants.  These descendants pieced together the notes of the disciples and came up with the stories.  The descendants were not eyewitnesses to the crucifixion that is why there are inaccuracies in the accounts.  Hence, the Holy Spirit is here with us now correcting these errors.  He recommended that we use the King James Version because He said that it is nearer the truth.

File:  041-12noon.htm                                                  First uploaded:  2009-11-10    
URL:  http://aristean.org/041-12noon.htm         Last updated:  2009-11-10        Rev. No. 0

Copyright © 2009 Aristeo Canlas Fernando
All rights reserved.

Despite my love of sports, I’ve never been an athlete. But thirty-nine years ago today, I wore a jersey as a member of a team for the only time in my life.

It was the last week of the football season at St. Cloud Tech. I was a manager, and I think we were all glad the season was coming to a close. It hadn’t been a good year: We were 2-6 heading into our final game. That was quite a come-down from 1969, when we were 6-3 and ended up ranked No. 9 in the state. (A three-loss team in the Top Ten? That was because we played a tough independent schedule, and our losses were to the top three teams in the state.)

There was a good reason that we’d not had a good season, though. That fall, St. Cloud had opened its second high school, Apollo High School, over on the north side. And when the kids from the north side went off to become the Eagles, about half of the underclassmen from the previous year’s team were among them. There was no way we were going to be as good as we had been or as good as we could have been, had we stayed one school. Things were no better across town at Apollo; the Eagles were 2-5 as the end of the season approached.

The Eagles’ difficulties, though, weren’t our concern. As the season had progressed, we’d kept up with our former teammates and their performances, and I assume that they kept an eye on how we were doing. We weren’t happy with their poor season, but we were pleased that they were doing no better than we were. And during that final week, we cared not one bit about their difficulties because our final game was against those same Eagles. It would be the first football game ever between St. Cloud’s two public high schools.

(One of the oddities of the split between the two high schools was where the boundary line between the two schools was drawn. On the East Side, the line was drawn at the north end of Kilian Boulevard, a block away from our house. It happened to fall right in the middle of the attendance area for Lincoln Elementary, and that mean that a number of kids I’d been in school with since first grade went to Apollo. Had the line been drawn only a little further south, I’d have gone to Apollo; I was relieved to stay at Tech.)

One of the long-standing traditions at Tech was that, on the day of a game or a meet, varsity athletes wore dress shirts, ties and sport coats to school. As a manager of the football team for two years and the wrestling team for three years, I did the same. But as our final week of practice came to a close and we gathered for a meeting Thursday afternoon, the captains had a question for the coaches: Since it’s our last game, and the first ever against Apollo, can we wear our jerseys during the school day on Friday instead of coats and ties?

The coaches looked at each other and thought for a second, then nodded. We left the meeting room,  and as we headed for the locker room, I wondered how out of place I was going to look in school the next day. I didn’t have a jersey.

I pondered that as I went over our supplies in the training room, making sure everything was packed into the kits we’d haul to Clark Field, a block away, the next evening:  Bandages, various sprays, a couple of cleat cleaners and cleat wrenches, lots of tape and all the other things that we managers were responsible for. Well, I thought, as I packed the tape, I’ll just wear a coat and tie.

As I finished packing and was about to head out of the training room, certain that Dad was already waiting in the parking lot, one of the other seniors on the team, Scott, poked his head into the room. “So what are you gonna wear tomorrow?”

I shrugged. “A coat and tie, I guess.”

He shook his head. “C’mon,” he said, motioning with his hand as he walked through the locker room. I followed him to the equipment room, where Scott addressed the equipment manager, Mr. Kerr. “We need a jersey here,” Scott told him. “What can you do?”

Mr. Kerr pulled a jersey from the shelf and tossed it to me. Number 14. I pulled it on. I was of slight build, and the jersey was cut for shoulder pads, of course, so it hung on me like a large orange, black and white curtain. But it was, right then, my jersey. “There you go,” Scott said, as we walked back toward the training room.

I wore the jersey to school the next day, of course, and on the sidelines during the game that Friday evening. We beat Apollo fairly handily (a score of 26-14 pops into my memory, but I’m not certain) and crowded back into our locker room, happy to have ended the season with a victory. The next Monday, I handed the jersey to Mr. Kerr. I learned later that many of my fellow seniors had neglected to return their jerseys, eventually paying something like $25 for their “lost” jerseys. I wish I’d done the same.

A Six-Pack From Late Autumn 1970
“Let’s Work Together” by Canned Heat from Future Blues
“When You Get Right Down To It” by the Delfonics, Philly Groove 163
“Easy Rider (Let The Wind Pay The Way)” by Iron Butterfly from Metamorphosis
“Games” by Redeye from Redeye
“Too Many People” by Cold Blood from Sisyphus
“Who Needs Ya” by Steppenwolf from Seven
Bonus Track
“St. Cloud Tech School Song” by the Tech High School Band

During the week that we kicked off the Tech-Apollo football rivalry, six of the titles above were listed in the Billboard Hot 100. (See the note below regarding singles vs. album tracks.) There was one nice slice of Philly soul, one light rocker with some nice vocal harmony (Redeye’s “Games”) and four bits of fairly tough bluesy rock. I recall hearing “Let’s Get Together” once or twice and being intrigued, but I doubt that I heard the other five. Why not?

Well, only two of these six titles made it into the Top 40, which was guiding my listening: “Let’s Get Together” went to No. 26, and “Games” reached No. 27. During the week in question, the one that ended Saturday, November 7, 1970, these titles were strewn mostly in the lower levels of the Hot 100:

“Let’s Work Together” was already in the Top 40, sitting at No. 33. The Delfonics tune was at No. 56 after peaking at No. 53 two weeks earlier. Iron Butterfly’s “Easy Rider (Let The Wind Pay The Way)” would peak at No. 66 two weeks later. (I never paid much attention to Iron Butterfly after buying and quickly selling the group’s live album way back when, but I have to note that “Easy Rider” is a better and more interesting record than I expected it to be; it had been languishing, ignored, in my files with the rest of the Metamorphosis album for a while.) Redeye’s “Games,” on its way to its peak of No. 27, was in the Hot 100 for the first time and was sitting at No. 90.

Cold Blood’s “Too Many People” was in the “Bubbling Under the Top 100” section and had moved up one slot from No. 108 to No. 107. It would be gone when the next chart came out a week later. And Steppenwolf’s “Who Needs Ya” – a typical but fun Steppenwolf boogiefest – was in its first week in the “Bubbling Under” section, sitting at No. 119.  It would peak at No. 54 five weeks later.

As I was planning this post – I do plan sometimes – I called Gary Zwack, the current band director at St. Cloud Tech, and asked about a copy of the school song. He emailed it to me, and as I heard the song for the first time in what must be thirty-five years, I remembered all the words:

March straight on, Old Tech High
To fame and honor great.
The glory of our colors
We’ll never let abate.
We’re with you!
March straight on, Old Tech High!
Be loyal to her name.
Fight gallantly for dear old Tech
And all her worthy fame.

Gary added a note, telling me that the music for the song was written in 1931 by Erwin Hertz, who was Tech’s band director at the time. I wrote back, telling Gary that in 1964, I took my first lessons on cornet from Erwin Hertz, who was very close to retiring. Thanks for the help, Gary.

Note:
In five of the six cases, I’ve tagged the mp3s as coming from the various albums, as I’m uncertain whether the mp3 offered here is the single version. The only one I am sure of is the Delfonics’ tune.

I am nearly certain that the single that Cold Blood released was edited significantly, as the running times – 4:05 on the album version I have and 2:52 on photos I’ve seen of the single (San Francisco 62) – are so far apart. Redeye’s “Games” is the same length on the single (Pentagram 204) as it is on the album [This is decidedly not so; I misread my notes badly. See Yah Shure's comment.] , and Iron Butterfly’s 45 (Atco 6782) is timed at 3:05 while the mp3 runs 3:06, so I think those were the same, but I’m not sure.

As to the Steppenwolf and Canned Heat tracks: The running times I’ve seen on photos of those singles – Dunhill 4261 and Liberty 56151, respectively – are relatively close to those of these album tracks. That leaves me wondering if the singles and the album tracks were the same but the times were listed differently, as was often the case. But I don’t know.

Die Springbokke het 79 jaar gelede in Leicester teen ‘n span wat saamgestel was tussen spelers van Leicester en die Oostelike Middelande 21-30 vas geval. Dit was die Springbokke van Bennie Osler (losskakel en kaptein) se enigste nederlaag op die toer van 1931/32 wat die vier toetswedstryde teen Wallis, Ierland, Engeland en Skotland insluit. Sewe spelers van Leicester was in die span wat die Bokke geklop het.

Die Bokke kom more vir die eerste keer weer teen Leicester te staan, wanneer die twee spanne om 21:30 (Suid-Afrikaanse tyd)  mekaar die stryd aanse. Op 14 November 1931 kon nie eers ‘n vierkuns aan driee deur die vleuel Maurice Zimmerman die Springbokke van ‘n nederlaag red nie. Die Bokke het die sterk skrumwerker, Fanie Louw, in die wedstryd weens ‘n besering verloor. Die 30 punte wat die Springbokke afgestaan het was vir lank die meeste wat ‘n span nog teen hulle aangeteken het. Dit sluit toetswedstryde in.

By Hannes Nienaber

Sin demasiado tiempo para escribir, os adjunto esta pequeña perla que estima como sería Facebook en 1931. La verdad es que es muy gracioso, os lo recomiendo.

1931 Daimler Drophead HR Classic 1024×768 wallpaper wallpaper of 1931 Daimler Drophead HR Classic 1024×768
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1931 CG Classic 980×1244 picture picture of 1931 CG Classic 980×1244
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