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[NotYourAverageSockPuppet]

Eh, never mind.

[Holly Martins]

Will get back to the question of who wrote the Shaw monologue, but we found what appears to be a human tibia in our yard, so may be a bit busy today.  Am sending pics to a paleontologist friend, and hoping it's not what it looks like.

Re-viewed Ninotchka last night - spouse, who had not seen it, loved it, as did I.  It is nearly perfect, as others noted.  And amazingly fresh. 

[Holly Martins]

OK, looks like a wait on that bone analysis, will report back on that.  Where's Tempe Brennan when you need her? 

I tried to find the interview where someone was saying it was really Robert Shaw (a successful novelist and playwright, as well as actor) who had written most of the Indianapolis monologue, fleshing out material from Howard Sackler and Milius.  But I will take Spielberg's statement as definitive, that it was Milius who produced the longer version, which Shaw then edited down and read/performed for the team who were then "my god, that's what we want to shoot."

Anyway, sorry for the digression, which is a spillover from a shark-based digression over in the National News/Biden thread. 

[Holly Martins]

The last mass trials have been a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.

[NotYourAverageSockPuppet]

...but we found what appears to be a human tibia in our yard, so may be a bit busy today. 

Anyone we know? 

Were you maybe thinking of this with regard to the Indianapolis speech?   Carl Gottlieb gives a lot of credit to Shaw for the final product and recalls that Spielberg passed the original work by Sackler around to a lot of associates looking for opinions. Gottlieb maintains that Spielberg's friendship with Milius colors his recollection; so even assuming Spielberg as director has the final word, it's an interesting thought. 

Then again, consider Gottlieb is a writer -- he could either have a more even-handed view of the process, having been a part of it, or he could have an axe to grind if, for example, he personally disliked Milius or something.  Love a good debate. 


The world was blessed with one Shirley Schrift 102 years ago yesterday, and TCM made her Star of the Day.  One of the films offered was Meet Danny Wilson, a fairly rare find starring Frank Sinatra as a young singer whose career takes off once he makes a deal with a mobster.  Like that ever really happens! /s   Good thing I recorded it, as my close personal friend insomnia let me down.   But looking forward to checking it out.  Ms Schrift dished a bit on Sinatra in one of her books -- she considered him a bit of a jerk. 

[NotYourAverageSockPuppet]

Meet Danny Wilson is unintentionally funny in places and wraps up in a very corny way, but it is not a total throwaway.  Made and released while Sinatra's career was slumping, this film mirrors his situation in that a mobster backs Danny Wilson (Sinatra) and his partner Mike (Alex Nicol) for a hefty percentage of their income, to be collected at an undetermined future date.

I think it's not even speculated any more that the Johnny Fontane storyline in The Godfather is based on how Sinatra got his part in From Here to Eternity (minus the horse head, thank whomever) and there's the legend of Tommy Dorsey releasing Sinatra from a contract immediately after a gun barrel was removed from his mouth.  So I found it interesting that art imitated life imitated life imitated art -- chicken, egg, I dunno, it all kind of folds together.

Also in the works:  Danny (Sinatra) loves Joy (Shelley Winters). Joy loves Mike.  Mobster guy (Raymond Burr) wants Joy.  Good guy Mike dutifully fends off Joy. Love stinks!

Burr tries playing the mobster with quiet menace, and he gets the quiet part down but not so much the menace. The movie's climax is one of the least suspenseful chase sequences ever filmed and ends ridiculously; and the denouement, in which Joy and Mike get together with Danny's blessing, is admittedly hokey.

That being said, Meet Danny Wilson wasn't a complete waste of time.  Performances by Sinatra and Winters were solid, and Winters can carry a tune surprisingly well (as does Sinatra).  In addition to the performances, i enjoyed if for the "holy crap, Frank Sinatra is playing Frank Sinatra in The Frank Sinatra story" factor -- right down to his singing to swooning bobbysoxers --  plus some laughs at the film's expense. I enjoy schlock so just laughed at a few things rather than get pissed at the direction that was sometimes taken.

Fun fact:  A hospital scene was scrapped when Sinatra angered Winters to the point she bonked him on the head with a bedpan. If I didn't already love her, that would have sealed the deal.

[Holly Martins]

As my post in National explained...

Haven't been able to access this website.  Finally turned off a bunch of security settings and it let me in, but I dont want to leave my tablet open to hacks and malware for long, so am hoping Liquidsilver can fix this.  Work computer doesnt seem to have a problem as much, so it may be a thing where Android devices and EfElba arent handshaking.
 

I have to be brief, so: yes, Shelley Winters nee Schrift is great, and the world is a poorer place if the bedpan bonk take has been lost on a cutting room floor.  And what a pity that Raymond Burr couldn't bring his Rear Window quiet menace to his role in Meet Dennis Wilson.  Er, Danny Wilson.  Dennis Wilson, gosh, that would have been quite a different movie especially when Wilson was in his Charles Manson buddy phase.

[Holly Martins]

Still no news on the backyard bone.  The fact that I didn't get a quick email fired back with "it's a soup bone, dummy" is increasing my apprehension a little. 

[Holly Martins]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/30/tomatoes-highway-chaos-california-truck-crash

We've all seen the movie, right?

[LarryBnDC]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/30/tomatoes-highway-chaos-california-truck-crash

We've all seen the movie, right?

[Hairy Lime]

To circle back to last week, I rewatched Witness for the Prosecution for the first time in probably 30 years. Mysteries usually do not bear re-watching for their story, of course. But damn I would watch it again for Charles Laughton.

[NotYourAverageSockPuppet]

I'd watch just about anything again for Laughton -- he was freakin' amazing in front of and behind the camera (having seen half of his directorial efforts, I must be an authority). 

[Holly Martins]

I became fan as a teen, watching The Private Life of King Henry VIII, and the dining scene where he laments the decline of good manners while his mouth is crammed with chicken, slurping, belching, and tossing the bones over his shoulder.  Wit for the Pros is also a favorite.  More a favorite than either Hunchback or Mutiny on the B.  Jamaica Inn seemed like kind of a misfire, for all concerned.  IIRC, Hitchcock said he didnt direct it so much as referee it.  It is fairly ridiculous, plotwise, and Laughton cannot save it. 

[NotYourAverageSockPuppet]

The very interesting Marsha Hunt has passed at 104.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/marsha-hunt-dead-blacklisted-actress-1235216286/

I was aware of her for being on the "oldest movie stars still alive" types of lists and did know of her anti-HUAC activities and subsequent blacklisting, but wasn't aware of her humanitarian work nor how many different times and ways she took on the Hollywood system.  Thank you and RIP, Ms. Hunt.

[Hairy Lime]

Glass Onion is getting good reviews. I was worried that it would fall way short of Knives Out, but early word is it is at least in the ball park. I am getting a Last of Sheila vibe from the plot. Which makes this as good a time.as any to mention that I laughed harder at a scene in TLoS than I have at any mystery movie outside of KO. Spoiler - the killer, alone with the person who has figured out the mystery, dons a pair of absurdly elaborate hand puppets, purchased earlier in the movie, preparing to strangle the other person, who looks at the puppets quizzically.  The killer shrugs and says, I forgot to bring gloves.

Anyway , I assume the success of KO is what gives us See How They Run, and perhaps Amsterdam.