March 15th - The Ides of March

The Death of Caesar by Jean Leon Gerome (1824 - 1904)

Caesar, beware the Ides of March!

Well, we know that Julius Caesar didn't 'beware', didn't heed the old soothsayer. The Roman Emperor went forward to meet his death seemingly unconscious of the fact that the men around him all had daggers up their sleeves.

Maybe if the old man had been more specific in his warning.

But then, Shakespeare wouldn't have had fodder for a play and wouldn't have written the speech that Marc Anthony delivers - with the opening line that we all remember from school, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..."

Here's a link to Marlon Brando's stirring rendition of the speech from the 1953, Joseph L Mankiewicz film. Perhaps not done as in classic Shakespearean precedent, but I've always found it very effective.

Brando puts heart and soul into the words, something occasionally left out in the quest to get the words across rather than their meaning. Link.

Marlon Brando as Marc Anthony

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Mustaches We Have Seen and Loved (or not, as the case may be). Or - everything you might have always wanted to know about mustaches, but were afraid to ask.

 by Travis Louie

Recently ran across a delightful post on 19th century mustaches which appeared online a couple of years ago and still has the power to make me shake my head and laugh outright. Here's the link.

(The name of the blog is: Mustaches of the 19th Century - Your One Stop Blog Spot for Your 19th Century Mustache Needs.)

I'm telling you, you can find just about ANYTHING on online - even when you're not looking. In fact, I forgot what I was originally looking for after I spotted this post. Isn't that always the way?

Then, of course, I immediately ran into another wonderful mustache post over at Grand Old Movies: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; or, Movie Mustache Musings.

Anyway, these posts reminded me that I haven't written about one of my favorite manly accoutrement in quite a while - well, ever since my infamous Ode to A Pencil Thin Mustache.

Time for another - don't you think? Ready to talk facial hair?

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The truth is, there's very little I could say about mustaches that the extraordinary artist Travis Louie doesn't already know and understand, so I'm going to let his paintings enlighten us. The language of the mustache is writ clear in this incredible phantasmagoria of facial hair.

Louie has the gift of making the fantastic look a bit 'matter of fact' - it's as if the Victorian era had suddenly revealed a secret stash of portraits - characters who'd actually lived but remained hidden from view until Travis Louie set them free.

Take a look, see what you think:

See what can happen when facial hair ia allowed to run amok?

To view more ofTravis Louie's amazing creations, please link to his blog.

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Tuesday's Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film: THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939) starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard.

Tuesday is Overlooked (or Forgotten) Films day, a weekly meme hosted by Todd Mason at his blog, SWEET FREEDOM. Check in with Todd to see what other overlooked movies other bloggers are talking about today.Now, here's my entry:

Watched THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939) for the first time the other night. Yes, strange as it may seem I've never seen this film before. Though I am very familiar with the 'companion' film to this one (at least in people's memories) THE GHOSTBREAKERS, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in the second of three pictures, they made together.

I wrote about THE GHOSTBREAKERS on the blog sometime ago - it's one of my all time favorite movies - the perfect combo of comedy, mystery, murder and voo-doo. There's even a haunted castle and a zombie. What more could you want?

For years now I've been wondering if I'd ever get a chance to see THE CAT AND THE CANARY which everyone told me was better than THE GHOSTBREAKERS - being that they have similar plots. But for whatever reason, C&C has never been shown on television - at least not when I've been around, plus Netflix doesn't have it and neither does Amazon rentals. So I finally decided enough was enough, and bought the dvd.

Now after having watched both, I'd say the THE GHOSTBREAKERS is still the better picture but THE CAT AND THE CANARY has the creepy quotient down pat. There were a couple of moments in the film when I was actually frightened.When was the last time anyone was frightened by a Bob Hope movie? Frightened in the regular way, I mean.  C&C is also a lot of fun, maybe not as much fun as I expected, but still quite good enough.

The plot:

Which, by the way, is based on an earlier silent version (1927) of the film which is based on the play by John Willard. Obviously, this is a pretty popular plot, variations of which have been used again and again in books and films. It never loses its strange allure.

Old man Norman has died in his creepy-crawly, shadowy, mysterious house deep in the Bayou outside New Orleans. The house is only approachable by boat (sound familiar?) though the lawyer (George Zucco) arrives by dug-out canoe, or at least, that's what it looks like. You'd think a motor boat would have been more convenient and/or comfortable. But I digress.

An aside: you really do have to wonder how the house-keeping, cooking, food purchasing and general up-keep of the mansion is handled, since there are no servants and only a housekeeper. I'm sorry but these are the sorts of things that distract me.

Okay, back to the story. Old man Norman was a rich, cantankerous old coot who is already dead and buried ten years by the time the heirs gather at the house for the reading of the will. (I know, it made no sense to me either.) Why the ten year wait? Who knows? Maybe old man Norman wanted to make good and sure that he was truly dead before the will was read. PLOT DEVICE! An old man's whim must be strictly followed. Is it legal? Probably not, but that's the movies for you. (In the earlier movie, they had to wait 20 years which made even less sense.)

So, are we to assume that the housekeeper has been living all alone in the house for ten years? Why?
In hopes of inheriting something? Well, if so, she's in for a bit of a disappointment.

The housekeeper is played by the wonderfully sinister Gale Sondergaard - she of the perpetually snarling lip. Even when there's no mystery, she makes sure there's a mystery. Her very presence makes mystery. That's just the way of it. Oh, and she claims that the strange noises we hear in the house are ghosts telling her when someone will die. Why not? It makes as much sense as anything else that goes on.

Okay, so the heirs (all of them cousins, near and far) show up by means of various boats on this dark and spooky night to find out if they're any richer than they were that morning.

There's Aunt Susan, an elderly woman with snippy delusions of grandeur though it's obvious she's seen better days. She is played perfectly by Elizabeth Patterson, a familiar actress who played this same part in about a hundred movies over the years. Her ditzy companion Cicily (a cousin, I believe)  is played by the wonderful Nydia Westman.

Then there are two men who, for vague reasons, are at odds with each other from the getgo. Something to do with one of them getting and then losing the girl (he cheated on her) and the other wanting the girl for himself. Result: the other behaves like a boorish ass for the entire movie and you wish someone would kick him down the flight of stairs into the dark dungeon of a basement. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Charles Wilder (Douglass Montgomery) is the unreliable swain who is supposed to be something of a playboy and n'er do well. He has the kind of glossy looks that give me the creeps, but maybe that's just me. The boorish ass is Fred Blythe played in the most annoying way by the perpetually scowling
John Beal.

But wait, there's yet another man who shows up hoping for his share of the loot, Wally Campbell (Bob Hope), who appears never to have met any of the other heirs except...wait for it, wait for it, Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) who is the last to arrive.

Yes, Joyce and Wally were childhood pals though they haven't seen each other in years. And yes, she's the 'girl' that Wilder is wild about though they broke up some time back. She's also the 'girl' who makes Fred behave like a truculent fool.

Will you be my housekeeper too, Miss Lu?

Okay, so long story short, once the will is read, it turns out that Joyce is the only heir. But the will has a very strange proviso. If Joyce dies or goes mad within the next 30 days, then a second person becomes the heir which is practically an invitation for that second heir to commit murder.

However, no one except the lawyer is supposed to know who that second heir is. Wanna' bet?

As if things aren't interesting enough, there's a loud knock on the door at midnight and who should it be but a guard (carrying a shotgun) from the local insane asylum (I know, I know, what can you do - it's the way of these things) who tells them that a homicidal maniac has escaped and been spotted near the house. Turns out the man is called 'the cat' because of his claw-like hands and his strange habit of creeping about on all fours like a....well, like a cat - just before he pounces on his victim. (I'm not making this up, I promise.)

The large house, of course, is loaded with secret passageways and panels that swing open when, for instance, one is trying to get some sleep in a dark and gloomy bedroom. Yikes!

Before too much time passes there is murder most foul and we realize the escaped lunatic must be hiding out in the house, using the secret passageways to get around. One of reasons we know this is that the large portrait (of old man Norman) in the library has cut-outs for eyes and when Joyce is in the room, the eyes are watching her. Yes, the old hackneyed real eyes behind the fake eyes routine. When I saw it I let out a laugh. It's just such a deliciously fiendish joke. Works every time.

But there are a couple of truly spooky scenes and you can't beat the setting, an isolated old house full of dark comings and goings, not to mention clanging clocks and strange music. Paulette Goddard and Bob Hope work together to solve the mystery like a pair of old relaxed hands who are fond of each other.

Some say that this is Bob Hope's best picture, but I give the nod to THE GHOSTBUSTERS. Still, he's pretty damn good in this and what's more, he's not encumbered by a lot of the annoying silliness which make some of his films almost unwatchable.

Now if only the plot and the denouement made a bit more sense, but maybe that's expecting too much. I'm happy enough with what I got, glad finally to have had the chance to see a movie which had eluded me for so many years.

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200,000 Hits and Counting!

Art by the incomparable J.C. Leyendecker.

(Jeez, I feel like a hitman keeping score.)

I checked my blog stats today and was amazed to see that in so many words... has amassed over 200,000 page views. Now this seems incredible to me since I've only been blogging for a little under two years. I began mid-2010. (Though the google overseer thinks I began in Jan. Not so.)

I'm thinking maybe google blogger is counting my own views, the fussing I do every day on my blog. I pressed the button on the stats page to stop my views being counted, but, you never know. I can hardly believe that 200,000 people across the world are that interested in anything I have to say about anything. I mean, really.

But they count the mistaken hits too, so the crop of them are probably people on google searching for who knows what and stumbling across me by accident. Hopefully those who do, look around and stay awhile.

Be that as it may, I am very pleased.

And who am I to thank for all this?

Why you, of course. It is a verifiable truth that I could not have done it without you. A goopy cliche but that doesn't make it not true. It's your encouragement that keeps me going even on days when I feel like the hangiest dog that ever hanged. Even when I'm down in the dumps or feeling out of sorts with the universe, you guys cheer me up.

Your comments, emails and just general neighborly-ness make me feel there's a reason to keep going on with this blogging thing. Here's the secret: blogging can be a lot of fun - if you don't let it take over your life. When I start feeling the pressure, I take a step back and slow down. I always said that when blogging stopped being fun, I'd stop. Well, it hasn't, so I haven't.

You guys make me keep on keeping on. So for that and for many other things, I thank you today with all my heart.

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Saturday Salon: A Favorite Painting...or Two.....or Three!

This is the one that made me gasp out loud.

I don't usually feature contemporary artists on Saturday Salon, but today I'm making an exception. Christine Lafuente's paintings bowled me over at first glance. I mean, I gasped. That's the way certain art affects me sometimes. I love when that happens.

 Lafuente's technique is astonishingly good. How she manages to control it, I can't guess. But the mystery of it is part of the charm. The way she handles her brush strokes, paint so thickly applied and vivacious. It looks random but I know it can't be. The depth and intensity of her color choices dazzle me. There's nothing about her still life work I don't like.

If I could I would collect the originals. Yes, I am definitely smitten. This is contemporary art that speaks to me.

Christine Lafuente is an American painter who studied at Bryn Mawr College, The Bradford Foundation and the Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts. To learn more about this talented artist, please use this link which, in turn, will lead you to other links.

Christine Lafuente

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Friday's Foreign Film Poster

The Lady From Shanghai (1947). The French poster.

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Friday's Forgotten Book: RAVISHED (1992) by Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz

If it's Friday, then it's Forgotten Books Day - the weekly meme hosted by Patti Abbott at her blog, PATTINASE Check in to pick up today's links to other bloggers talking about other forgotten books.

Today I'm talking about romance of the historical kind. Years ago, Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz wrote some wonderful romance novels, each with a one word title. I have them all and occasionally indulge in a re-read. Yes, I admit it.

But in truth I stopped reading Quick's books when she went into serial novel mode and moved away from what she'd been doing (heaven knows why) - but I know I'm in the minority because she's still selling up a storm with every new book.

The same holds true for Jayne Ann Krentz's contemporary output, too. I stopped years ago at DEEP WATERS because everything after that just didn't appeal to me. Something changed in her story arcs and even in her characterizations.

Unfortunately, that happens sometimes with prolific long-term writers and the widening readership they're trying to please.

Either I moved on or Krentz did - one of us was no longer in sync with the other. But those early books sure were terrific.

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RAVISHED, set during the Regency era, has elements of Beauty and the Beast, but only just. The story is filled with Quick's usual humor, suspense and romantic entanglements. No one really gets ravished (well, maybe a little), but it's an eye catching title, nonetheless.

Our heroine, Miss Harriet Pomeroy is a single-minded blue-stocking (before the term was coined) intent on keeping an anthropological discovery from being ruined. She dotes on fossils and bones and has basically turned her cottage into Skeleton Central.

In the caves near her home on the English coast, Harriet has discovered a prehistoric skeleton. Harriet's enthusiasm for this discovery has led her to write a letter to Viscount St. Justin, the owner of  Blackthorne Hall and the surrounding lands, which include the caves. She summons St. Justin (a man she's never met) to visit his property (he tends to avoid Blackthorn Hall, the setting of tragic memories) and take care of the thieves which have begun storing their own loot in the caves at low tide. Her prehistoric skeleton is at risk!

Here's the story synopsis from the back cover in all it's romantic heart-fluttery exuberance:

There was no doubt about it. What Miss Harriet Pomeroy needed was a man. Someone powerful and clever who could help her rout the unscrupulous thieves who were using her beloved caves to hide their loot. But when Harried summoned Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to her aid, she could not know that she was summoning the devil himself.

Well, hardly, but that's the way of these back blurb writers - to continue:

Dubbed The Beast of Blackthorne Hall for h s scarred face and lecherous past, Gideon was strong and fierce and notoriously menacing. Yet Harriet could not find it in her heart to fear him. For in his tawny gaze she sensed a savage pain she longed to soothe....and a searing passion she yearned to answer.

Now, caught up in the beast's clutches, Harriet must find a way to win his heart - and evade the deadly trap of a scheming villain who would see them parted for all time.

Phew! Harriet and Gideon have a lot on their plate.

Turns out that Gideon is one of Amanda Quick's best creations. His local reputation (when the housekeeper sees him for the first time, she screeches and faints) is based on deception and lies not of his doing. The Beast of Blackthorne Hall turns out to be one honorable dude.

The scenes between Gideon and his father are especially touching and convincing.

The writing, as usual is top notch. Amanda Quick in her prime was writing these tales in a way that made them very hard to put down. She had a knack for romance and 'what happens next' which very few of her contemporaries could match. She also was a genius at pointed, humorous dialogue in keeping with the tone of the times. While reading these books you can almost hear the clipped British accents whirling about in your head.

Regency folk obviously spent a lot of time bandying wit back and forth. This is my favorite part of all the Quick books. The main reason I'm recommending one today.

To see a complete list of Amanda Quick's books, please use this link.

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