A few weeks ago I watched a movie, the kind I usually love to watch on any given day, called The Valley of Decision. It has the type of twists and turns that I didn’t expect for it to have, but I find that the classic movies, the movies in black and white that people usually are scared away from for their lack of color, are the best and most original.

I won’t tell you what it’s about, but instead, I’ll spoil it in another way – by writing down my favorite lines from it. Which are most lines that the main couple had to say, lol. It is a romance, so be forewarned, those of you who may think it is too sweet to be true. And, I can’t possibly leave out that it plays with my favorite actor and person of all time: Gregory Peck. In my opinion, he is not only the best actor and good-looking man of his time, but I think he is the most gorgeous man who has ever lived. (By the way, if you end up watching it, you’ll see that he’s way hotter when he’s actually moving than on a picture. Too bad he would’ve been 80 something years older than me!) Ok, enough about that, let’s get on with the lines!

(Paul kisses Mary before she leaves.)
Paul: I’m not going to apologize because I’m not sorry.
Mary: Can we just forget all about it, Mr. Paul?
Paul: I don’t know, Miss Rafferty…can we?

Paul comes home after a long day working, he’s tired and discouraged because his idea (you have to watch the movie to know what his idea is!) isn’t working very well, and Mary sent someone to tell him to come back home because it’s late. She doesn’t want him to know it was her, but he realizes it.

Paul: You sent for me tonight, didn’t you?
Mary: I was that worried. Your father said he was afraid you were gettin’ discouraged.
Paul: And that’s all he said?
Mary: That’s all.
Paul: The rest was all your idea?
Mary: Yes.
Paul: Well, I won’t quit, Mary. I promise.
Mary: I know that.
Paul: Mary, I’m gonna tell you something. If I do make it as big as a mountain, unless I can come home and find you and talk to you about it, it won’t mean very much.
(Mary tries to escape his grasp).
Paul: Mary, there isn’t anything in this world as big as the way I feel about you. I see you flipping through the house, taking care of it…always at a distance. (He pulls her close.) And here is where you belong, right here.
Mary: I do not, Paul Scott, I do not!
Paul: You love me, Mary. You know you do.
Mary: And if I loved the ground you walked on, there’s nothing can come of it.
Paul: Marry me, darling. Marry me.

Mary: Charles, do you remember that time in Paris [...] that the two foreigners would pour their wine and then afterwards each of them tipped his glass and spilled a little on the ground?
Charles: Yes, I remember.
Mary: And you remember we wondered why? And the waiter told us that it was a custom in their country to return to the earth a little of what they took from it. The idea being that – that, if you took everything and gave back nothing, then pretty soon, the whole earth would become barren.

This isn’t a movie review, I just don’t have anything meaningful to say tonight. Well, that’s not true, I’m just lazy and tired. So I decided to post movie poster pics from Spellbound starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. I love Gregory Peck! He was even hot as an elderly man! Not to be ageist, but I’m not usually into geriatric dudes but seriously I’ve seen pics of Gregory Peck from 1999 when he won a Golden Globe, and damn, he was remarkably sexy at 83 years old!

Twenty years ago today, at a press conference aboard the Russian cruise ship Maxim Gorky, the end of the Cold War was officially declared.  And yet the fear accompanying nuclear weaponry remains, as evidenced by President Obama’s explanation of the stakes in Afghanistan on Tuesday night: “We know that al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them.”

It is in this context that we recall a film that captures the deepest anxieties at the height of Cold War tensions.  Stanley Kramer’s “On the Beach” premiered 50 years ago this month in both Washington D.C. and Moscow, and it’s as terrifyingly real today as it’s ever been.  Based on Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel of the same name, the film stars Gregory Peck as the captain of the USS Sawfish, a naval submarine searching for signs of human life following catastrophic nuclear warfare in a third world war.

In this scene, a scientist played by Fred Astaire (in his first non-musical role) explains the reckless thinking that led to so much destruction.

The film’s release on both sides of the Iron Curtain didn’t prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis a few years later.  But it did exist as a powerful warning to the two superpowers that playing with fire can burn the whole block.

- Jordan Sayle

eu sou o REI da mentira e não me importo em assumir, minto na cara dura, sem medo ou rancor, eu olho bem na sua cara, no seu olho e “VOILÁ”, vc sai acreditando em algo ficticio e eu rindo da minha cara de pau, mas compreendo que é  dificil não acreditar na minha ladainha quando estou inspirado, é tiro certo. começei mentido a idade, já passava dos trinta e falava que tinha vinte, depois foi sobre “PROJETOS PROFISSIONAIS”…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, essa fase era a melhor, falava de peças, de propostas, de diretores que queriam trabalhar comigo, tudo farsa, tudo invenção, mas quer saber, nem ai pra isso, quem perguntou foi vc, não? a ultima do meu extenso repertório é sobre meu filho, filho? é o seguinte, eu tenho um certo fetiche em lojas de brinquedo e sempre tenho vergonha de entrar, imagina um cara de 40 anos encantado com o bonequinho do WALL-E, – tem a EVA tambem?  não tenho coragem…por isso inventei um filho para facilitar minha vida, funciona assim, eu entro na loja e antes da vendedora falar oi eu solto: — tenho um filho de 6 anos que adora bonecos, a vendedora confiante: — algum tipo especifico? ai começa…falo tudo sobe meu guri, do gosto peculiar, a cor preferida (preto e vermelho), o que mais gosta de comer  e por ai vai, teve um dia que até da minha ex mulher eu falei para a pobre Kimberly:– ele quer 2 mil de pensão, pode? HAHAHAHAHAH

Meu filhote com amiguinhos de escola, não é a CARA do pai?

PS- será que vou para o inferno? prefiro o hot hot, ok? HAHAHAHAHA

Gregory Peck is an outlaw. His reputation is legendary. 13 recognised kills to his name. The fastest hand in the West. So why not stay an outlaw? Because the chance of salvation from the love of a good woman and a small boy is too big an opportunity to let go.

Gregory Peck was a manly man

Seth McFarlane is a funny man

And Transformers are robots that make manly noises

This is what happenes when you put those three things together.

Seth MacFarlane does Gregory Peck doing Transformers video

Yours, while having an existenial moment, and it’s a buttock clencher

Righteous

p.s no, that’s not water you can hear coming through the hull, no, no, that’s applause, coming from the crowd on shore. No, they’re not panicking, they are waving at my magnificent barge. Sail on, you beautiful thing – will someone get those fish out of my eyes?

Eu era assim…

… e fiquei assim!

Sereno Compares Dogcroc with Supercroc

Alligators and Crocodiles strike fear in people.  Can you imagine a 40 foot “SuperCroc?”    The Supercroc still holds the title as the largest known crocodile to roam the earth but who knows if there was a bigger one?   After all, University of Chicago palaeontologist Paul Sereno announced the discovery of the fossil remains of 5 ”new” species of crocodile that measure anywhere from 3 feet to 20 feet.  Today, crocodiles can reach as large as 20 feet but that still is but half of the size of the supercroc.  Some of these species are thought to have been able to eat other dinosaurs.    Another example of how mankind does not know everything and has a lot to learn and discover.  Remember that next time you hear of some scientific report that says something is “settled science” or there is a “consensus.”  That does not make it true.  One thing that is true is that at 9pm on Saturday November 21 the National Geographic Channel will be airing When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs as part of their Expedition Week.

A White Humpback Whale

Dano In The Right Stuff

The photo above is of course from the famous 1956 movie with Gregory Peck starring as Captain Ahab. It also has Richard Basehart and a cameo by Orson Welles as Father Maple. Another guy who shows up is Royal Dano who plays “Elijah” who was a drifter kinda guy who is pretty scary and prophesies to Basehart the the ship would be doomed by a great white whale. Later, Dano in the early 1980’s is the preacher in The Right Stuff who seems to represent death as he shows up at all of the funerals, test flights and space shots. One other interesting aspect of the movie: the screen play was written by Ray Bradbury and John Huston. Huston also directed.

Greenpeace in Battle

On a related note…on this day at this very moment, a small fleet of ships in a Japanese whaling expedition is on its way to the Arctic regions to hunt whales. They want to get 90 sperm whales among other specimens. I say specimens because whaling is banned world wide under an international treaty. But they can be hunted for research. The official mission of the fleet is for research. Yet, when they left port they left to great fanfare and people of small villages in northern Japan claiming they need to whaling so that they may carry on their thousands of years old culture. Greenpeace isn’t buying the scientific aspect and will attempt to thwart the harpooning of the great mammals. Perhaps Moby Dick will resurface and get a bit of revenge.

Tom Horn

On This Date in History: Tom Horn had worked as a US Army scout, deputy sherrif, and Pinkerton

Horn Looks A Little Heavier and Younger Here

Detective in the 19th Century. When General Nelson Miles had need of a “super-scout” to help track down Geronimo, he called on Tom Horn. It has been suggested that Horn even arranged for Geronimo’s surrender. Horn was no shrinking violet. While working for the Pinkerton Agency, he reported killed 17 men. His reputation was such that on one occasion he reportedly simply walked up to an accused robber and killer and announced that he had come for him. The man quietly surrendered rather than face Tom Horn. But, the detective business wasn’t exciting enough and Horn quit, saying, “It was too tame for me.”

In 1894 he was hired by the cattleman’s association in Wyoming to supposedly combat cattle rustlers but in reality was used as an enforcer against small ranchers and homesteaders who got in the way of the cattle barons. In effect, he was the law for the big shots and served as judge, jury and executioner receiving $300 to $600 for each man he took down. See, Horn didn’t see himself as murderer but instead believed that when men in authority, or even the law, hired him, he would be protected. It usually worked out that way. Horn said, “Killing is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition and I think I have a corner on the market.” He usually lay in wait for his victim and then made his mark by placing a rock under the victim’s head.

Horn Making The Rope For His Own Gallows

But, the law caught up with Horn who was arrested in 1902 for the killing of a 14-year-old son of a settler the year before. In Cheyenne, the cattle barons paid for his defense and a sensational trial ensued with everyone thinking that he would be found not guilty. That was not to be the case. The prosecution had a legal reporter along with federal officer Joe LeFors and a deputy sheriff got a drunken Horn to supposedly confess to the killing. The “confession” was allowed in court and heard by a jury that was stacked with opponents of the cattlemen. Horn was convicted and on this date in 1903, Tom Horn went to the gallows after making the rope that was used in the hanging.

Steve McQueen’s 2nd to last movie was a biopic called Tom Horn with

McQueen Was a Great Tom Horn

Linda Evans, Slim Pickens and Richard Farnsworth. I guess the moral to the story is that no one is above the law and even if you get convicted of something you didn’t do, perhaps it is a justice of nature for all of the things that you did do but for which you were never caught. You may think that this held true for a certain Heismann Trophy, NFL Hall of Famer who is now in prison in Nevada.

A long bio of Horn. A shorter bio of Horn.

Weather Bottom Line:  Weekend looks great, but seasonably cool.

After the repairs that Mr. Scott effected to the navigation system of the Doghouse of Justice, I had hoped to be able to navigate it as expertly as I did the original version which was, sadly, destroyed by dinosaurs last year.  However, it appears that something in the circuitry still is not working properly.  It has returned me to the correct place, but nowhere near the correct time …

Detecting some activity in a nearby building, I sneak inside, hoping to find someone who can tell me when I am; but I inadvertently crash some sort of royal gala, drawing the ire of one individual and the admiration of another.

Later, the Princess invites me to tea, where I innocently suggest we go for walkies, not realizing that the Princess has never been out on her own before.

In the plaza, we meet a friendly gentleman who buys the Princess her first ice cream cone. Sadly, I do not get any.

Afterwards, the gentleman suggests we go scooting. I never knew that humans engaged in this behavior — this will make a fascinating addition to the anthropology course I teach at the university!

Unfortunately I soon realize that i misinterpreted the type of scooting that was intended, once again illustrating the difficulties inherent in trying to understand an alien culture. This is a completely different activity from what I expected, less fun and, once the Princess takes the handlebars, much more dangerous.

We soon arrive at a local attraction, a large wall engraving that is evidently worshiped by the locals as some sort of greedy and vengeful god.

Unfortunately, like Cassandra, my predictions go unheeded.

After dropping our friend off at the local emergency room, the Princess and I return to the piazza for more ice cream, where we say our goodbyes.

Then, suddenly, from out of nowhere, a bizarre visitor appears!

Who is this strange character? How does he know my name? And where did he find a DeLorean? I will find the answer to these questions — because I am Dennis the Vizsla, and I never give up.

Cape Fear is a 1991 thriller film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name and tells the story of a family man, a former public defender, whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist who wants vengeance for having been imprisoned for 14 years because of the lawyer’s purposefully faulty defense tactics, prejudicing the accused. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis). The two were also nominated for Golden Globe Awards.

Trivia: 

• Robert De Niro paid a dentist $5,000 to make his teeth look suitably bad for the role of Max Cady. After filming, he paid $20,000 to have them fixed.
• De Niro was tattooed with vegetable dyes, which fade after a few months.
• Gregory Peck, who starred in Cape Fear (1962), appears as Cady’s lawyer. Robert Mitchum played Max Cady in the 1962 version, and appears as Lieutenant Elgart. Martin Balsam played Mark Dutton in the 1962 version and the judge in this version.
• De Niro researched sexual predator crimes for the part and suggested the scene where his character bites the victim.
• The scene in the high school auditorium was totally ad-libbed by Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis, and done on the first take.
• Director Trademark: [Martin Scorsese] [mother] fruit stand customer.
• For the first time in Scorsese’s career, he allowed the screenwriter, Wesley Strick, on the set during filming.
• Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct. He later recommended Martin Scorsese for the job and personally called the director, letting him know that this was a commercial film that had potential to be a hit, which would exercise more power for Scorcese to make his films.
• De Niro did a lot of working out several months before the movie and during the shoot to make him the
  

  Robert DeNiro

  muscular Max Cady, reportedly taking his body fat down to only 3%.

• The auditorium scene was originally scripted as a chase scene, but Scorsese wanted it to be a seduction.
• The climactic scene out in the swamp was filmed in John U. Lloyd State Park, in the middle of a mangrove swamp. A tropical depression set over the set for four days, so the film crew had to wait for the storm to stop, so that they could make their own rain.
• Director Martin Scorsese’s first choice for the role of Bowden was Harrison Ford. He had Robert De Niro call Ford to try convincing him to take the part.
• Robert Redford was also considered for the role of Sam Bowden.
• This was Gregory Peck’s final appearance in a theatrical film release.
• This was Scorsese’s first picture to be shot in 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio.
• Amblin Entertainment’s first “R” rated motion picture.
• Drew Barrymore tested for the role of Danielle Bowden but failed the audition. She later said she had “acted all over the place and it was just the biggest disaster of my life”.
• Reese Witherspoon auditioned for the role of Danielle Bowden.
• Both Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte had to alter their physiques for the film because the 6′1″, bulky, Nolte is clearly larger than the 5′10″, slimmer De Niro. Nolte lost a good deal of weight while shooting the film and De Niro bulked up his muscles considerably until De Niro was clearly Nolte’s physical superior. Interestingly the original Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) was also slightly taller than the original Max Cady (Robert Mitchum).
• When Steven Spielberg was attached to direct he had plans on casting Bill Murray as Max Cady.
• This is the first film that Martin Scorsese uses optical FX.
• The ice cream parlor scene was shot in the first week of production where the owners complained for the first three days that they were losing business.
• The scene where Robert De Niro sits on the brick wall, he actually sits behind a blue screen where the fireworks were added later in production.
• Robert De Niro helped costume designer Rita Ryack chose Cady’s clothing.
• Robert Mitchum feared in comparing his character of Max Cady to Robert De Niro’s portrayal in the film. He had never seen either movies.
• The script went through 24 drafts.
• Director Martin Scorsese read the original script three times while making GoodFellas (1990) and hated it each time because of how the Bowdens were a happy family and wanted them to be miserable.
• Juliette Lewis developed a crush on Robert De Niro during the scene in the drama class.
  

  Juliette Lewis

• It took a year to convince Martin Scorsese to make this movie.
• The scene between Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis in the school was shot in three takes, but the first one was used in final productions.
• George C. Scott was originally supposed to play the Lieutenant role. But because of health problems he dropped out a few days before filming and Robert Mitchum was brought in.
• The score by Elmer Bernstein is not only an arrangement of ‘Bernard Herrmann’’s original “Cape Fear” score, but also includes parts of Herrmann’s unused score for Torn Curtain (1966).
• A picture of James Dean is shown when Danielle (Juliette Lewis) slams the door while her parents argue.
• Gregory Peck completed filming his cameo scenes in one day.
• De Niro played scenes with Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates in the Sam and Danielle roles for Martin Scorsese when De Niro was trying to interest him in directing the film.
• Robert De Niro’s thick Max Cady accent reportedly gave Scorsese the creeps, and as a joke, De Niro would call the director’s house, leaving messages as Cady.
• De Niro’s Cady accent came from an earlier role where he played a southerner. To prepare for the role, De Niro took excerpts of the script and a tape recorder into southern towns and would ask locals to read the lines into the tape.
• Robert Richardson auditioned for the position of cinematographer but lost out to Britain’s Freddie Francis. Martin Scorsese, a staunch admirer of Richardson’s work with his former NYU student Oliver Stone, remembered Richardson when he was preparing to direct Casino (1995).
• Illeana Douglas based her performance as Lori Davis on Jennifer Levin, who was murdered in 1986 in Central Park by Robert Chambers (whom the press dubbed the “Preppy Murderer”).
• Jennifer Connelly reportedly turned down the role of Danielle.
• Christina Applegate did an audition for the role of Danielle, but had to turn down the part due to conflicts from “Married with Children” (1987) producer Ron Leavitt.
• Winona Ryder turned down the role of Danielle.
• Alyssa Milano was offered the role of Danielle but had to turn down the role, due to pressure from fellow “Who’s the Boss?” (1984) cast member Tony Danza.
• Nicole Eggert auditioned for the role of Danielle but turned it down.
• Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast as Danielle.
• Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demi Moore, Jodie Foster, Helen Hunt, Bridget Fonda, Diane Lane, Brooke Shields, Nicole Kidman, Molly Ringwald and Shannen Doherty all were considered for the role of Danielle.
• Tiffani Thiessen was offered the role of Danielle, but turned down the choice to play the part, in order to stay with “Saved by the Bell” (1989).
• The music video Danielle watches to avoid her parent’s argument is Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing.”

Amazon Specials!

Marooned is a 1969 American science-fiction film directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman.

The film was released less than four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing and was tied to the public fascination with the event. It won an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

It was based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Martin Caidin; however, while the original novel was based on the single-pilot Mercury program, the film depicted a space station program resembling Skylab (the space station seen in the film was based on an early proposal of the OWS based on several sketches during the Apollo Applications Program). Caidin rewrote the novel, incorporating appropriate material from the original version and updating it to follow the film.

Caidin acted as technical adviser.

Plot Summary
After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to earth only to find their rockets wont fire. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a Hurricane headed towards the launch site and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts capsule.

Taglines

–Three marooned astronauts. Only 55 minutes left to rescue them. While the whole world watches and waits…

–The Saga of Ironman One

Directed by
  John Sturges

Writers
  Martin Caidin - Novel
  Mayo Simon  – Writer

Producers
  Frank Capra Jr. … associate producer
  M.J. Frankovich … producer

Cast
  Gregory Peck … Charles Keith
  Richard Crenna … Jim Pruett
  David Janssen … Ted Dougherty
  James Franciscus … Clayton Stone
  Gene Hackman … Buzz Lloyd
  Lee Grant … Celia Pruett
  Nancy Kovack … Teresa Stone
  Mariette Hartley … Betty Lloyd
  Scott Brady … Public Affairs Officer
  Craig Huebing … Flight Director
  Frank Marth … Air Force System Director
  John Carter … Flight Surgeon

Special Effects Department
  Chuck Gaspar … special effects coordinator (uncredited)

Visual Effects Department
  Lawrence W. Butler … special visual effects
  Donald C. Glouner … special visual effects
  Robie Robinson … special visual effects

Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman

Trivia
Based on a novel by Martin Caidin, who would later write “Cyborg”, the basis for the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

Was the impetus behind the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project where American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts docked in space.

Frank Capra began work on the film. Inspired by his work on the Martin-Marietta Corp.-commissioned faux documentary, “Rendezvous in Space” for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, Capra (a chemical engineer by education) worked to make the picture for Columbia, but finally abandoned the project in preproduction in May 1966 when he couldn’t bring the budget down to the $3-million required by Columbia worldwide production chief M.J. Frankovich. The eventual budget for the finished film (directed by John Sturges) was $8 million. Capra never made another film.

There is no musical score for this film. Instead, each spacecraft has its own ambient soundtrack when it is shown in space. The Apollo shots feature a low hum; the XRV, a hollow ringing; the Nimbus Weather Satellite, a rapid series of beeps ascending in pitch; and the Russian Voshkhod, a constant pitch series of beeps. The only exceptions to this is are a very slight, muted bit of music played under the Apollo ambient soundtrack during Pruett’s final EVA, and a single tone (with some ambient effects that could be called music) during the opening credits.

Average Shot Length (ASL) = 8 seconds

The Film Ventures International re-edit of this film (retitled “Space Travelers”) was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. This was also the only film featured on the show to have won an Academy Award.

The film’s release (prior to the launch of Apollo 13) about a space disaster led to a real-life crisis aboard Skylab 3 (c. July -September 1973) where a thruster leak developed on board the Apollo CSM. The depiction of a rescue vehicle (the lifting body in the film) was the basis of the Skylab Rescue space vehicle, based on a Block II Apollo Command Module (CSM #119) which was modified by North American Rockwell. Memos dating back to December 1970 (from NASA facilities at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, TX and Kennedy Space Center) confirm that a rescue spacecraft will be the next in line if the main Apollo CSM fails during flight. By November 1971, the modified CSM was phased in with evaluation and testing (prior to the final moon mission, Apollo 17, which launched in December 1972). The real-life thruster leak aboard Skylab 3 was neutralized and fixed where the rescue launch vehicle (piloted by NASA astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind) was pulled from flight duty; the vehicle was on standby for Skylab 4 and the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Brand would fly on the Apollo-Soyuz mission and Lind on STS-51B in 1985. Since the final Apollo flight in 1975 (with Apollo-Soyuz), the modified command module, CSM #119, has been on display @ the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitors Complex. NASA engineers have studied the modified Skylab Rescue CSM for the Orion Spacecraft (part of Project Constellation), which will replace the Space Shuttle after its final flight in 2010.

In the film, the astronauts are seen using what appears to be the early concept of the Manned Maneuvering Unit – during the real-life Skylab missions, the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (the AMU) was tested inside the space station and never tested in the vacuum of space. The first use of the MMU was during STS-41-B (the fourth flight of the Challenger) on February 7, 1984.

The space station using a spent Saturn S-IVB stage was based on early proposals during the Apollo Applications Program; at the time of filming, what came to fruition as Skylab was still under development. The only differences between the orbital workshop depicted in the film (which has a rocket motor attached) and the real Skylab was the incorporation of the Apollo Telescope Mount and two docking ports on the docking module, not to mention the absence of a rocket motor. The real Skylab was launched as a ‘dry’ workshop using a surplus Saturn V #SA-513 (originally earmarked for the canceled Apollo 18 mission). The three-man crew in the film spend 5 months living in space; the longest duration in the real Skylab was 84 days during the final mission, Skylab 4.

AMazon Specials!

Reality

Rather than ruminate on how long it’s been since I last posted on this forum (17 days – I’ve been spending my “writing block” on translation projects, my dissertation and a filmography for a book), I will elaborate on a few of the major events that have marked the last two weeks.

Our film AOP, a mockumentary about a secret West German fetish, debuted at the HFF “Konrad Wolf” as part of the end of orientation festivities on Friday October 23rd.  It went over lukewarm compared with the other “Knaller” made by the other nine groups (at least 3 of which took place in a bathroom), but director Maurice M. Mohn swore to me that the film “wasn’t unsuccessful” at the party afterwards.  Speaking of THAT party:  it was held after 11:00 p.m. at a sketchy, illegal club in Kreuzkölln with no fire exits, no windows, a sketchy fridge full of bottled beer and nothing but techno beats (the latter being a plus against the other factors).  I sort of plowed my way through the packed bathroom line to reach the exit around 2:30 after quaffing a few cheap beers and yelling my way through several conversations in the smoky darkness.  An experience, to be sure.

I went to a wonderful Fulbright brunch on Sunday October 25^th held by the generous Luisa Greenfield and Ming Tsao in Kreuzberg, where I met Jacob Comenetz, a former Fulbrighter now working at the Bundespresseagentur (more on him to come) and got a pile of great book recommendations from Ming about writing about the electronic music aesthetic (you want that list? Send a comment my way!).  Later that day, I picked up Kat at the Berlin Tegel airport, who successfully got her very heavy baggage out of the terminal without a cart (or my help, since that’s how European airports work) and we ate out at Tuk-Tuk, the Indonesian restaurant down the street from us.

Having Kat around has been great for many reasons.  Here are a few:

* Cessation of married-man-long-distance loneliness;

* More satisfying sleep;

* The apartment is now warmer;

* Increased intake of generally nutritious food that tastes good;

* New impulse to plan social events and outings, and I can show her all the old stuff I’ve gotten to know;

* Celebrating birthdays and holidays is much more meaningful again!

In the first week (Oct. 26 – Nov. 1st), I purposefully overscheduled us with many social events, including coffee with Kira and Beverly and dinner with the same, carving pumpkins with Katie Weeks and Hilary Bown, Luisa’s film screening on Friday night, and a Fulbright alumni Halloween party at Joe’s Bar in Prenzlauer Berg on Saturday night with Jacob.  I did so to make Kat feel at home and connected here, which also conversely made me feel more at home and connected here as well.  Speaking of Luisa’s screening, we had a great turn-out for the two shorter, more experimental films (Light and Bridegroom… see below) but, since we started over an hour late, over half the audience missed the wonderful mess that was John Ford’s Seven Women (1966).  We hope that everybody returns for our continuing Ford/Straub pairings, as well as other assorted film gems we manage to procure.  As for the Halloween party, Kat and I went as a vampire-zombie duo who hated each other through our expressions on our T-shirts:  “Vampires Bite” and “Zombies Need Brains.”  Ha ha.

This last week has presented us with opportunities to walk around and shop (such as in Kreuzberg’s famous Bergmannstrasse), watch movies together (many reviewed below) and get our visas (by waking up at 3 a.m. and surmounting the evil LABO).  All in all a good time, and I anticipate more to come.

Professionally speaking, I’ve had some ups and downs the last two weeks.  Ups:  I spent four hours with Herr Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale, and two hours with Dr. Gottfried Langenstein, director of ARTE; I’ve found hundreds of newspaper articles with revealing insights on the reception of the Indianerfilme in East Germany; I’ve met up with Reinhild Steingröver of the University of Rochester and established contact with several other scholars working on parallel topics to my dissertation.  Downs: I lost my first month’s worth of book/film notes due to a faulty data back-up attempt, so I’ve got another 10 hours of work to do in reconstructing it.  This is the way it goes.

And one final note:  if you’re ever on Akazienstrasse in Schöneberg, DO NOT eat at the South Indian restaurant called Chennai Dosai, not only because their food is not particularly good, but because they played the opening track from the Hrithik Roshan sci-fi Bollywood film Koi Mil Gya (2003) on a loop THE ENTIRE TIME WE SAT THERE.  It was a unique form of tourist torture, though I’m sure they weren’t expecting a customer who knew the film.

Fantasy

Posse (dir. Mario van Peebles, USA 1993)

Woody Strode, Big Daddy Kane, and many other prominent African-Americans star in this somewhat violent, misogynist and cliché Western.  Its primary contradiction lies in its seeming original mission – to re-insert African-Americans into a Western film tradition absolutely dominated by actors coded as “white” -  and its aesthetic outcome – a cheap Leone treasure/revenge plot with a lot of melodramatic cheese and macho strutting from Van Peebles.  The fact that I couldn’t really read the blocky explanatory text at the end didn’t really detract from the palpably saccharine coating that Van Peebles put on this piece of macho-masculine self-glorification.

The Treasure of Silver Lake (dir. Harald Reinl, FRG/France/Yugoslavia 1963)

The film that started the whole Euro-Western trend, and a completely necessary entry in the cinema books next to adventure films such as Errol Flynn’s Captain Blood (1935)or Lucas’ and Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).  The superhuman duo of Winnetou (Pierre Brice) and Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker) stumble upon an injustice committed (the murder of Götz George’s German immigrant father) and a treasure to discover.  Let’s just say that, on a superficial level, the film absolutely delivers:  colorful landscapes, bold action sequences, and plot twists that still convince the 8 year-old inside of you.  You only think about the crazy exoticism of the whole charade afterwards…

The Sons of Great Bear (dir. Josef Mach, GDR 1966)

The East German response to Reinl and Wendlandt’s Winnetou films, The Sons of Great Bear is the most “historically accurate” of all the DEFA Indianerfilme and also one of the most visually compelling.  That being said, Mach had little idea how to direct an action sequence, so the ending fight scene is confusing and frustrating to say the least, not to mention more-or-less tacked on to Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich’s original source material.  The press reviews made sure to note how much actor Gojko Mitic’s physique looked like the “real-life” Shoshone, though their basis on which to judge that comes from other Westerns’ portrayal of Native Americans.  Hmmm….

Little Big Man (dir. Arthur Penn, USA 1970)

Thomas Berger’s picaresque about the only white survivor of Little Bighorn, a man brought up by the Cheyenne (a.k.a. the human beings) named Jack, is expertly executed by Penn, if awkwardly assembled as a whole.  General Custer’s portrayal in the film is nothing short of brilliant – an arrogant prick more than a proper villain – and the Cheyenne are given a lot of positive screen-time.  Of course, Dustin Hoffman’s Jack dominates the majority of the film, with mixed results.

Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, Russia 1925)

Restored 35mm print containing all the original scenes?  Check.
Live accompaniment by an adept pianist?  Check.
Kat’s first time seeing a leftist modernist classic?  Check.
I really can’t say anything more, other than that the Kino Arsenal has a special place in my heart.

Trick ‘r Treat (dir. Michael Dougherty, USA 2008)

A kind of Four Rooms treatment of Halloween, Trick ‘r Treat is a very smooth movie with regard to horror clichés, playing on one’s expectations, and the usual twists and turns one expects of even the slasher genre nowadays.  One should watch this with one’s tongue firmly in cheek, even through all the horrifying bits.  I say no more.

The Omen (dir. Richard Donner, UK/USA 1976)

Um… Gregory Peck’s character is kind of dumb?  This is at least what the film suggests, after one is led through a constant barrage of corroborating evidence that demonstrates his son is the antichrist, and he still doesn’t seem to get it.  Oh well:  there are many other films with evil children that work with the formula that The Omen put forth, so I suppose it’s influential.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (dir. Stephen Norrington, USA 2003)

This was the second time I’ve seen the film, and the second time I’ve seen it in Berlin (the last time was with Mary Brandel in 2003 – and I hated it then too.)  Alan Moore’s excellent graphic novel was to be transformed into a grand piece of pulp, and instead turned into a nightmarish gobbledy-gook of lame special FX (including the atrocious Venice sequence), too many characters running around (including “Tom Sawyer,” their worst revision), and sequel-baiting (the *ahem* “ending”).  Stuart Townsend is about the only redeeming feature of this feature, and that’s because he’s so damn charming in any case.

V for Vendetta (dir. James McTeigue, UK/Germany 2006)

Another slightly second-rate “good” film from the Wachowski Brothers, V for Vendetta continuously bills itself as a smart action thriller which raises bits of moral ambiguity for the postmodern cinema-goer, but is ultimately far too utopian about the power of the masses to stomach.  Alan Moore wasn’t nearly as idealistic as this, and far more critical of the respective places within society that Evie, V and the masses inhabit.  You can tell through the exquisite detail of the sets that the Babelsberg people worked on this one, though.

Genau Gleich (dir. Burkhart Wunderlich, Germany 2009)

A film that I’m currently subtitling for Burkhart about an incestuous relationship between German-Polish twins and an old woman on a bench waiting for Elvis.  An absolutely brilliant concluding shot is likely to give this one high marks at the Berlinale if, indeed, we manage to get the film into competition.

Light (dir. Marie Menken, USA 1964)

Dizzying Christmas lights, spinning motion, elliptical editing.  The lost American avant-garde.  Shall we see it again?

The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp (dir. Jean-Marie Straub, Daniele Huillet, FRG 1968)

I must’ve seen this film something like eight or nine times since I’ve come to UMass.  Nevertheless, the mixture of prostitutes against an industrial backdrop, Ferdinand Bruckner’s “The Pains of Youth” by Fassbinder’s antitheater group, and the intense chase/marriage sequence at the end never fail to incite thoughts of alternatives to mainstream cinema and new spatial configurations of narrative.

Seven Women (dir. John Ford, USA 1966)

Ford’s last film is an outright laugh riot starring Anne Bancroft as a self-confident doctor who winds up in a doomed community of American missionaries in Mongolia.  Oh wait – this wasn’t supposed to be funny?  Then perhaps there’s too much Sirkian irony in this overstuffed, full-color studio epic, which is probably why the film was buried after its creation:  Ford’s film is trapped between gender and a hard place.   Oh yeah, and there’s actually eight women, but one of them happens to be Chinese…

Coraline (dir. Henry Selick, USA 2009)

Coraline is a well-executed animated feature in glorious 3D that was screened at the HFF as part of our overall 3D research project.  Many of the fantastic landscapes, both interiors and exteriors, are enhanced by the 3D effects, but these effects don’t overwhelm the adaptation from the original text.  What does overwhelm the adaptation is the inclusion of a male character who has to save Coraline’s butt in the end, classifying it as yet another film with a strong female character who needs a man to both tame and save her.  Why can’t Hollywood ever be done with its male heroes?

G-Force (dir. Hoyt Yeatman, USA 2009)

Most 3D films rely on re-vamped spatial relations that make tighter spaces seem even tighter and wide open spaces seem glorious.  So what better means of exploring tight spaces and big vistas than making a supremely small cast, through whose eyes we must view the world?  Such is the visual premise of G-Force, which has guinea pig commandos saving the world from a silly plot in a classic Jerry Bruckheimer fashion.  Nevertheless, the effects are convincing and most of the side-plots are not particularly annoying.  I would say:  Mr. Yeatman’s background in visual FX for advertising and trailers paid off in a big way for the film, though its effects scenes are so pronounced as to make all of the dialog sequences seem drawn-out and dull.  Definitely a movie that attempts to satiate a hyper-active age group.  Critics who don’t fully “get” 3D films and who are thoroughly in Pixar’s camp are liable to hate it,  but I can root for it from the sidelines.

…I packed into a ‘93 Infiniti and moved from a beautiful Russian Hill apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco into The Oakwood corporate housing—which featured a mirrored murphy bed and was teeming with child talent rehearsing songs from Annie in the common walkways—to take a job as a style editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Things were different then. For starters, there was a Los Angeles Times Magazine. And like many of us raised in the Bay Area, I had preconceived notions about L.A., almost all of which, I’m happy to say, were wrong. I never imagined I’d still be here a decade later, nor that after 10 years I couldn’t imagine myself living anywhere else (despite occasional fantasies of a swank pad in Belgravia or a modest casa on Lake Como; a girl can dream). Here is a short list of reasons why you’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming from the City of Angels:

1. Langer’s. The #19 sandwich and a celery soda. Enough said.

Langer's #19

2. The Beverly Hills Hotel. If you need a reason to fall in love with The Pink Palace all over again, rent one of my all-time favorite movies, California Suite. It is every bit as relevant 31 years later, from driving to the Valley for the best sushi to capturing LA at its elegant if absurd best. If you need another reason, rent either Designing Woman with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall or Robert Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture for awesome scenes at the city’s best hotel pool. I used to go there on Monday nights for a drink and to listen to my former neighbor play piano in the Polo Lounge. More recently, it’s where I got my husband’s wedding band in the little Asprey shop tucked downstairs.

3. Lonnie Bishop / Neiman Marcus Shoe Salon, Beverly Hills. Lonnie has a preternatural ability to catalog one’s entire shoe collection, and never suggests a shoe resembling anything you already own.

4. Loteria. The best Mexican restaurant in LA prides itself on not offering a combo plate. Sidle up to the taco bar on a Friday night at the Farmer’s Market location and try any of number of tempting tacos and sauces , or head into the newer Hollywood location where you can order a first-rate margarita and my very favorite spicy Tacos de Camaron with avocado and crema. Amazing. The Chicarron de Queso (griddle-toasted cheese) is pretty epic, too.

5. The neighborhood farmers markets. Pretty much every neighborhood has a weekly, year-round farmer’s market that reflects the distinct personality of the neighborhood. You can’t beat the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, and when I’m training with my running group on Saturday mornings out at the beach, I always stop by after before hitting Santa Monica Seafood. But most weekends, you’ll find us at our neighborhood Larchmont Farmer’s Market (where a gent plays reggae for the kids) unless we need something a little harder to find, in which case Hollywood Farmer’s Market is the bomb.

Multi-hued cauliflower at the Larchmont Farmer's Market

6. The Original Farmer’s Market. The Farmer’s Market has stood at Third and Fairfax for 75 years. It is also where my father, that rare breed of native born-and-bred Angeleno, went as a kid. In addition to the tacos at Loteria, I am crazy about the buttery hamburger buns at Thee’s Bakery and the alpha and omega of hamburger meat, Nancy’s Blend at Huntington Meats.

7. Rodeo Drive Chandeliers. During December, a million dollars worth of chandeliers light up Rodeo Drive. Pure magic.

8. Chris Burden’s “Urban Lights.” I think there is little more beautiful than the dramatic installation of 200 vintage Southern California street lamps in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Day or night, they’re spectacular. I make a point of driving home via Wilshire at night just to see them.

Urban Lights © Museum Associates / LACMA

9. Yang Chow. I don’t pretend that this is the best Chinese food in LA, but it is my favorite. Every year we get tickets to several Lakers games with our friends Booth and Adam, and before each game we all meet at Yang Chow for Slippery Shrimp and Green Beans with Minced Pork. We try to sit in William’s station. He is a huge Laker’s fan, and is often wearing a team tie. In fact, guess where we’re going tonight? Let’s go, Lakers!

10. The Hollywood Bowl. My father took his dates to the Hollywood Bowl in the 60s and really, is there anywhere more romantic? Grab a picnic and a bottle of wine, and head for the ‘Bowl. Fireworks may ensue.

But of course the very best thing about LA, and the most unexpected part of living here, are the incredible friends and colleagues and colleagues who are friends whom I’ve come to know over the past ten years. So here’s to you, you know who you are! And thank you for making LA a place I am proud to call home.

Honorable mention: Mikawaya mochi and Daikoku Ramen in Little Tokyo, omakase at Sushi Ike, Surfas, The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, hiking or hitting golf balls in Griffith Park, the steamed red curry with seafood at Yai Thai, Book Soup, Harry Winston, reserved seating at Arclight Cinema, sandwiches from John’s Garden and eating them across the PCH under an umbrella at Malibu Lagoon Beach, the view from the gardens at The Getty, Disney Hall, OK Store on Third, running with the LA Leggers at the beach before dawn on Saturday mornings, Dodger dogs, the clam pizza at Mozza, the Triumvirate (Barneys, Saks, Neimans on Wilshire), KPCC, and margaritas after work across the street with my neighbors Alyssa and Martha are RIGHT up there.

Addendum: Cannot believe I forgot to initially include: the Lakers, of course! I’ll be the one in the Pau Gasol Sunday whites jersey at tonight’s game…let’s go, Lakers!

I have chosen to study Gregory Peck and his stardom’s meaning to American society in my paper.  Peck came to be a star in the early 1940s and maintained this status through World War II, doing his most noteworthy work between this period and the 1960s.  As demonstrated by one of his most widely known roles, Atticus Finch in the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, Peck usually played sympathetic characters that developed through some sort of selfless sense of responsibility. However, Peck played characters that were also worthy of audience sympathy, as is the case in the film On the Beach in which Peck plays a post-World War III submarine captain that refuses to believe that his wife and child in the U.S. are dead even though it obvious that is the case. This film not only garners sympathy for Peck’s character, but it also touches on the widespread fear of nuclear warfare established by the end of World War II.  I believe that it is this recurring presence of sympathy (whether provided by Peck’s roles or given to Peck’s characters by the audience) coupled with the questionable societal morality birthed by World War II that transformed Peck into what audiences would come to love him for: portraying characters that undoubtedly held onto a sense of dignity and decency regardless of their circumstances.

I plan to watch both To Kill a Mockingbird and On the Beach, as well as a few other of Peck’s more well-known films of that era. I also plan to analyze the conclusions drawn by Dave Kehr’s New York Times article Everyman, Tempted in which Kehr studies and compares the star characteristics of Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, and John Wayne. In reference to Peck’s role as Atticus Finch, I will consult Tim Dare’s article concerning Finch’s moral obligations as a person versus his legal obligations as a lawyer.

Yes, I was going to do Humphrey Bogart, but then I saw Gregory Peck’s name on the list and decided I couldn’t pass him up.  So that’s where we are.   I’m going to look into his image and career during the 1950s, even though he won his Acadamy Award for To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan 1962).  This is due to the fact that I am most interested in his earlier career, seeing as his first film, Days of Glory (Tourneur 1944) in 1944.  Also, during the 1950s Peck did a little-known movie called…Roman Holiday (Wyler 1953), which will definately be one of my screenings.  The second one will be a drama called Night People (Johnson 1954), so that I will have two different genres to compare to.  I am very interested to learn how he was able to construct his image so strongly; he actuallywas divorced in 1955 and remarried the day after it was finalized, yet this scandal failed to affect him, according to Wikipedia, anyway.  His image seemed to be one of a quiet gentleman, for he often wears suits in his films.  This is an interesting bit when mixed with the fact that he did not get along with Marlon Brando, who just the other day we were discussing in class about being a rebel-figure in his jeans.  Two sources I’ll use will be Gregory Peck:  A Charmed Life, a book by Lynn Haney, and Gregory Peck:  A Biography  by Michael Freedland.

This picture just made our blog about 23 times prettier.

University students can’t always buy crazy expensive clothing for obvious reasons.  We can, however, take iconic looks from classic movies and incorporate them into our own look and style.  I have compiled a short list of movies that I think show great style in them. If you haven’t seen them, now would be a great time to check them out; if you have, maybe you’d want to revisit them and look at them in a new way.  Feel free to comment with your own favourite fashion movies by clicking the “leave a comment” link above! 

1. Sixteen Candles

2. The Breakfast Club

3. Roman Holiday

4. My Fair Lady

5. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

6. Funny Face

7. Singing in the Rain

8. High Society

Last night, I watched the HBO Documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.  (Schmatta is a Yiddish word for rag).  It was about the garment district in New York City.  It told the story of the vibrant role played by the garment industry in New York City for so much of the last century, and included the good, the tough, the unbelievably ugly.  (Read a review here).

For example, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 killed 148 of the sweatshop workers, many of whom jumped to their death because the exit doors were locked to keep the workers in,and thus spurred the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. I think I might have joined a union for better working conditions after that.

Sadly, that tragedy was practically duplicated in Bangladesh in 2000, where young girls were working in sweatshop conditions, and were also looked in, and died in a fire.  (Death toll – 48).  And, yes, they were making clothing for consumers in the United States.

But the documentary was primarily about the loss of jobs in the garment district.  Here are the astonishing statistics:

In 1965, 95% of the clothing Americans wore was made in this country.
In 1975, it went down to 80%.
It was just 70%, in 1985,
50% in 1995,
and currently only 5% of our clothing is manufactured in this country.

And the documentary clearly argues that the loss of jobs in the garment industry is the “canary in the coal mine,” representing the loss of so many other manufacturing jobs in this country.

I, and many others, have wondered, just what jobs will be available in this country,  especially for the non-college-educated among us.  (Of which there are so very many).

The documentary reminded me of the premise in the 1991 movie Other People’s Money.  Andrew Jorgenson (Gregory Peck) gives a speech in a losing effort to save his company.  Here’s an excerpt:

God save us if we vote to take his paltry few dollars and run. God save this country if that is truly the wave of the future. We will then have become a nation that makes nothing but hamburgers, creates nothing but lawyers, and sells nothing but tax shelters. And if we are at that point in this country, where we kill something because at the moment it’s worth more dead than alive — well, take a look around. Look at your neighbor. Look at your neighbor. You won’t kill him, will you? No. It’s called murder and it’s illegal.
Well, this too is murder — on a mass scale. Only on Wall Street, they call it “maximizing share-holder value” and they call it “legal.” And they substitute dollar bills where a conscience should be. Dammit! A business is worth more than the price of its stock. It’s the place where we earn our living, where we meet our friends, dream our dreams. It is, in every sense, the very fabric that binds our society together.

You can hear and read his speech here at the wonderful American Rhetoric site, and you can watch the “winning” speech delivered by Lawrence Garfield (Danny Devito) here.

I’ve watched that movie, paid careful attention to those speeches, and have to admit – I would vote to close the company.  But in doing so, would I participate in the destruction of American industry, and would thus be a participant in a long, long painful reality of unintended consequences?  That is the question raised not just in the fictional company of Other People’s Money, but in the very real world of actual workers  in the garment district.

I think this is a really, really big question in and for this country.  I encourage you to find a way to watch the documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.  It will make you think.  Will it help us act – and, how do we so act?

Here’s a brief clip:

    Max Cady is one of the cinema’s most terrifying villains and no one personifies evil more than Robert Mitchum in this 1962 work. I am a big fan of Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro however,  the 1992 remake while a fine film in of itself is not in the same class as the original film. “Cape Fear” was adapted by screenwriter James R. Webb from John D. MacDonald’s 1958 novel, “The Executioners” and was directed by J. Lee Thompson.

    After serving eight years in prison, Max Cady is released and comes to a small North Carolina town to find Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), a lawyer he holds responsible for his guilty verdict and incarnation. From the first moment Cady appears on screen, he unleashes an assault of vicious menace that flows throughout the entire film. He quickly confronts Sam in his car letting him know he is back in town and out for revenge. He begins to follow Sam, making veiled threats against Sam’s wife and daughter and soon poison’s the Bowden’s dog. Sam attempts to  diffuse the situation when he asks police chief Mark Dutton( Martin Balsam) to intercede and find any excuse to arrest and or run Cady out of town.  However, Cady knows his rights, they cannot arrest him for vagrancy; he has money in the bank.  When that fails Sam hires three thugs to beat Cady up, then he hires a private detective (Telly Savalas). All attempts to convince Cady to leave are in vain. Cady’s one mistake may have been when he seduces and physically assaults a young woman (Barrie Chase) he picks up. However, his sheer terror frightened the girl to such an extent she is too scared to press charges and just wants to get out of town.

    Cady is brazen, face to face with Bowden he insinuates how he will ravish his wife nad daughter. One of the most terrifying scenes occurs when Cady confronts Peggy Bowden (Polly Bergen), Sam’s wife, in the family boat where he cracks a raw egg in his hands and rubs it all over Peggy’s chest. The scene fades leaving you with the impression he is about to rape her. Bergen’s horrified look during the egg smearing is one of total shock and apparently real. The egg cracking and rubbing it across her neck and chest was not in the script and fully unexpected. Director Thompson and Mitchum planned the situation without letting Bergen in on the change in plans. From what I have read, Bergen was a bundle of nerves for a couple of days after filming this scene. The final confrontation is a brutal excruciating confrontation between the two men in the murky waters of Cape Fear.

    The film oozes violent sexual tension right from the beginning. When we first meet Cady, he eyes every woman that walks by like a lion in heat. Mitchum’s sleepy eyes and slow matter just reek with innuendo. Every threat he makes against Bowden’s wife and daughter are overflowing with sexual intimidation. When he eyes the young woman up in the bar, he informs her she got one hour to dump the guy she’s with.  For 1962, this film spill over with sexual tension.

    “Cape Fear” is filled with great performances but it is Robert Mitchum who walks away with the honors. He is just plain scary, and unlike DeNiro’s Max Cady, comes across as a real person and thus his menace is particularly terrifying.  It is a masterful performance, made to look so easy by Mitchum’s “I don’t give a damn” style. Gregory Peck is dogged as the protector of his family, though here he is not quite as righteous as Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, another lawyer he portrayed that same year.  Director Thompson and Gregory Peck, who owned the rights to the book, had to convince Mitchum to accept the role, which he originally turned down. Interestingly, Haley Mills was considered for the role of Nancy, the daughter, but was still under contract to Disney who refused to let her do it. 

    An enormous part of the films success is Bernard Herrmann’s excitingly tense score, which contributes so much to the on edge atmosphere of the film, along with Sam Leavitt’s graphic black and white cinematography. Thompson’s direction is quickly paced with no wasted time moving the film along at an ever nerve wracking pace. 

    In 1992, when Martin Scorsese remade “Cape Fear” he stated that in the original film the Bowden family was too one note, too good and Cady pure evil. In his remake, Scorsese made the Bowden’s victims of martial infidelity and the daughter was no longer the sweet little girl but a rebellious sexy adventuress who is seduced and attracted to the disturbed Cady. He also turned Cady into a bible-frenzied fanatic of doomsday proportions.  The two films make interesting bookends.

  Princess Anne longs to be free from the place walls. After suffering a breakdown, she rebels and runs away. Sleeping on a bench, she meets an upbeat and bewildered newspaper reporter, who pretends to ignore Princess Anne’s true identity. Along with a carefree cameraman, the two set off on an adventure of a lifetime. At the crossroads, the two lovers must part and go their separate ways.

   Roman Holiday stars Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck as two star-crossed lovers who take an adventure in the by-gone days of 1950’s Rome. A heartfelt and touching romantic comedy, the film deals with sensitive and personal issues, such as self-discovery, duty, and letting go.

   Roman Holiday is a movie that adults and children can watch and discuss together. This film is sure to warm your heart and put a smile on your face for years to come.

My rating: A

Stay Tuned!

Amazingly, I made my way over to the Vatican this morning without getting lost once. Not bad considering it’s the complete opposite side of my map and I encountered several one way streets where I wanted to turn.

I need to reiterate what I said last night though, these roads are chaos! The riding style for 2 wheels is completely different. In the UK you are taught to dominate your area, so act like a car and drive in the centre of the road to discourage cars from over/undertaking you in the same lane. Here sccoters and motorbikes just fill any channel or gap instantly and filter at mental speeds, you just have to go with it. The thing is you can ride like that but from personal experience I know you won’t get away with it forever.

Don’t get me started on roundabouts. I think my new tactic for them might just to be close my eyes, it can’t be any more deadly surely?

Is there any point in mentioning that I’ve been blitzed by mosquitoes once more? Probably not.

St. Peter’s Basilica is ruddy massive. It’s also very grand and beautifully built. I was going to go into la cupola (upstairs!) too but the queues were huge.

Next on my list was the Vatican Museums and thanks to my trusty ISIC I got in for €8 rather than the normal €14. A lot of people do this on a guided tour and it does make sense to do it that way but I think that would have been around €40 (that’s what someone told me they paid) and it doesn’t make that much sense.

I still got a lot out of it just going round by myself, I was in there for a good 2 hours. All I can say is crikey, there’s some amount of money gone into the Catholic church over the centuries, the collection they have is most extensive and impressive.

The Sistine Chapel (which is part of the Vatican Museums) is pretty amazing but I can’t say I was blown away by it. I think it’s because a lot of churches I’ve been to in the last few months have had similar frescos but not quite on the same scale. Still, there’s no getting away from the fact that it is very impressive.

After that I nipped over to the Pantheon again to see the inside, very nice too.

My guide-book reckons The Colosseum closes at sun-down. Nope, is actually 15:30, which is round about when I got there. It was still worth the trip though as I found thr view from the day better than in the evening.

Then I still had 2 or 3 hours to kill before I had to hand in the Vespa so I just cruised around randomly. It’s quite liberating to ride about in Rome as there don’t really seem to be any rules and people just do what they want, but because everyone does it there’s no need for road rage or anything. I got right in to it and was darting in an out with the best of them and giving out the occasional toot on the horn (though that’s more of a Neopolitan thing to do). I felt like stopping for a cappuccino, I don’t even like cappuccino. Like I said though, if you ride like this all the time your chances of coming a cropper rise significantly. There are a lot of Vespas with dented side panels knocking about.

It then occured to me to go back to the Vatican to try and see the upstairs of St. Peters, so I did. I queued and got in but by the law of St. Sod it was the only part of the basilica that had already closed.

I’ve made another travel plan decision, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to go to Cuba now. As much as I’d like to the money would be better used to set myself up in New Zealand. I’ve no idea how long it will take me to get a job so if I still have a few quid in the bank it will take some of the pressure off me. So I plan to be back in England for all of December and will then look to get a flight to Auckland in early January.

Not going to Cuba should also mean I can get a new camera, that Samsung thing I got in Vienna is a waste of space and the Sony one I broke in Bratislava wasn’t much better. I’ll be looking to get something maybe not quite at SLR levels but at least capable of taking a bloody picture at night!

Hiring the Vespa was definitely the best way to cram everything into a day. The only thing I really wanted to see that I’ve missed was the interior of The Colosseum so that’s not bad.

I’ve now ridden 2-strokes in places as far apart as the Orkney Isles, Boston in The States, The Isle of Wight and now Rome. I hope to add to this on a large scale in the future.

I think today’s efforts have warranted a great big dirty pizza so TTFN.

One last thing, the pizza I had was the best value meal I’ve had in Rome so if you come this way yourself lonely pilgrims, you may want to drop in at Taverna Pretoriana. They give you a 10% off card if you speak to them and there’s no service, cover or ‘linen fee’. €10 for a massive pizza, a beer and some bread.