Happy Birthday, Basil Rathbone!

Basil Rathbone (1892 - 1967) One of my favorite actors of all time! Gosh, I love this man. Not only as Sherlock Holmes, but even as the scurrilous villain in ABOVE SUSPICION and the odious Sir Guy of Gisbourne in ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and the snarling, sneering French pirate in CAPTAIN BLOOD and so on and so on...The man was such a strong screen presence. As I said, I love him. Always will. He can do no wrong.

Happy Birthday, Basil, you lovely man.

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Don't miss: HOT IN CLEVELAND

An otherwise run-of-the-mill sit/com (debuted in 2010) which is saved by the incandescent and downright hilarious inclusion of the amazingly wonderful Betty White. She MAKES the show.

Do you get the idea that I love Betty White? I hope so. Because I do.

Typically, the show makes little sense. It features three slightly over the hill (but fabulous) women, Wendy Malick (whom I adore) Valerie Bertinelli (whom I like very much) and Jane Leeves (whom I like well enough) who play best friends. The casting is really not far behind Betty in talent and likability. The premise is that while women of a 'certain age' go under appreciated and overlooked in Hollywood, land of the young, in Cleveland, these women are still considered 'babes'.

Okay. 

Wendy Malick, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Betty White.

In the first few episodes I saw, the writing was not especially great and the plots seem a bit forced, but all I have to say is: Betty White, Betty White, Betty White. She steals everything that isn't nailed down.

She plays a salty landlord, whose house the three Hollywood 'babes' are renting while in Cleveland. They've landed there by misadventure when their plane to Paris has an unexpected mishap.

All three women are bowled over by the attention the local males lavish on them, so they decide to stay in Cleveland for awhile. I mean, wouldn't you?

Anyway, of course they wind up with a charming house, fully furnished, and Betty White (who lives in the caretaker's cottage on the property) as the adorable landlord who is always around, ready with a quip or a stinger guaranteed to make you laugh.

At 90, Betty White is just as funny as she's ever been, her line delivery is perfection. The woman is unstoppable, not to mention, irresistible. As I said, she makes the show for me, though I do like the rest of the cast which also includes the wonderful Carl Reiner as Betty's occasional boyfriend.

Betty White's perp pix when she is arrested for...well, you'll have to see the show. I howled with laughter as she poses for her mug shots.

I've watched a few of the episodes one after the other (which is perhaps not the best way to watch comedy) on Netflix, and intend to watch more. Though recently I realized that the shows on Netflix appear to be out of order. No wonder I had trouble following the concept.

The series was created by Suzanne Martin (Frasier, Ellen) and has been renewed for a fourth season on TV Land. So, there's plenty left for me to watch.

To get the full low-down on HOT IN CLEVELAND, please use this link to the show's website.

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Tuesday's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film: MOUSE HUNT (1997) Starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans

Today is Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Todd Mason at his blog, SWEET FREEDOM. So don't forget to check in over there and see what other forgotten or overlooked films and assorted audio/visuals other boggers are talking about today. It's always a fun mix.

It's hard to believe my movie entry for today is already 15 years old. The 90's seem like yesterday - well, they were yesterday, but fifteen years? Time flies.

At any rate, I'm a big fan of Nathan Lane so already I was inclined to like today's movie before I saw it and while MOUSE HUNT wasn't as terrific as it could have been, it was quite terrific enough for me. (Most of the funny scenes involved the mouse, I admit.) There were a few things in the film I could have done without, including the ugliest cockroach in the history of cockroaches appearing on the dinner table at a fancy restaurant where Nathan Lane's character, Ernie Smuntz, is the head chef and owner.

Enter cockroach, exit patrons and goodbye restaurant.

But let's back up a bit to the beginning. The very elderly Mr. Smuntz (William Hickey at his wizened, cranky best), owner of a string factory - you know, a place that makes string - why not - somebody's gotta' make it.  Anyway, the film begins as the old man's  funeral is ongoing.

When out on the steps in the rain, the coffin slips from its perch...well, you can imagine the rest. It's to be expected but it IS funny and how wrong can it be to begin a comedy with a good, disrespectful laugh?

Ernie Smuntz (Nathan Lane) and his hapless brother Lars (Lee Evans) inherit the ancient string factory which is debt-ridden and practically worthless and an empty mansion out in the countryside. When Ernie's restaurant is done in by the giant cockroach - the shock of which kills the town's mayor who is the night's honored guest - Ernie is forced to close. The only asset he and Lars have left is the aforementioned empty, run-down mansion which they decide to renovate and sell and make a ton of money. (And maybe then, Lars' wife won't leave him.)

The house is in bad shape since it's been unoccupied for years, but the mystery is why it's sat empty for so long and why the old man never mentioned it. Rumors abound that the last family that tried to live in the house fled from the place in terror.

Ernie and Lars are about to find out why. It seems the house has an occupant who doesn't like being annoyed, doesn't like to share, and most especially doesn't like it when attempts are made on his life.

That's it. That's the basic plot:

Two idiot humans pitting their 'wits' against a mouse who at times appears to have super-human intelligence. At least, he's able to outwit Ernie and Lars at every turn (which isn't saying a whole hell of a lot when you come right down to it). Of course, you will soon be rooting for the mouse.

Especially once you check out his tiny little room within the bowels of the house where apparently he lives alone and always has. He even has a little bed (a sardine can, I think - stuffed with cotton) and little bits and pieces of mousey 'furniture' - oh, so cute you can't help going 'awwww!' Which everyone in the theater did. (I saw the film when it first came out.)

As Ernie and Lars attempt to gut and renovate, they come up against the machiavellian resistance of this little rodent who doesn't suffer fools gladly - he thwarts the two humans at every turn.

The best scenes are those where we see what is going on from the mouse's point of view. Most everything is telegraphed so the human antics aren't quite as funny as they should be, but the mouse makes the movie. He is pitiless in protecting his turf and the fact that it appears mostly to be a real mouse adds a certain charm to its machinations. Hey, the little guy is just trying to stay alive.

Ernie Smuntz bent on revenge!

Christopher Walken as the exterminator from hell

There is one very unfunny sequence in which a fiendish exterminator (Christopher Walken, of all people) is hired to get rid of the mouse - a few laughs, but not as many as there should have been. Walken is so 'over-the-top' that his few minutes on film bring the whole thing to an absolute screeching stop. He almost appears to have stumbled in from another movie.

Lee Evans as Lars also suffers from 'over-the-top' syndrome, but not as deadly as Walken. The movie's director, Gore Verbinski could have toned things down, but maybe those things that needed 'toning' seemed funnier in real life than on film. Who knows?

Still, there is more than enough fun left in the movie to make up for the skits that fail.

I recommend this film for three reasons. (The fact that my mother loved it doesn't really count, I suppose.)

So what are the reasons, you ask?

1) The mouse. 

The mouse scenes are brilliantly done. At certain points you even imagine you can see the little critter thinking. This is where the term 'movie magic' comes in. See this movie for the mouse, you will be rewarded. Nathan Lane up-staged by a mouse? Yes.


2) Production design by Linda Descenna and Art Direction by Jim Nedza.

The film's setting (a small city or town and its outskirts) is never identified, but it looks like a Middle European town might have looked in the 1950's. (Or at least how I imagine it might have looked.) I don't know why I say that, you'll have to see the film to understand what I mean.

The look of the movie is VERY quirky. Most everything is done is shades of gray, brown and sepia-tone and reminded me of the sort of place Papa Gepetto and Pinocchio might have lived once upon a time. But it's supposed to be modern day. Even quirkier is the string factory. The ancient interior and string-making machinery appear to be of the clunky 'rube goldberg' variety. I mean, it is awe-inspiring in its pre-historic, other-worldly ingeniousness. The moment I saw it I knew I was in the presence of design genius. It's like 1902 but not.


3) Last but never least: The final shot of the two brothers and the mouse is worth the price of admission. How the whole fiasco is finally resolved is wonderfully inventive and makes perfect sense, considering what went on before.

Two nitwits in search of a mouse.

Watch one of several trailers here. 

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The Incomparable Kaffe Fassett

As a 'thank you' for all your good wishes, I'm sharing one of my favorite contemporary artists witb you today. Kaffe Fassett (1937 - ) is a prolific, incredibly talented, American artist primarily known for his festive fabric, quilting, knitting and needlepoint designs.

This chair is a work of art in itself.

But if I had to choose, I'd say it is his paintings I love most, though that chair covered in his needlepoint design does take my breath away.

Gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabric design.

Kaffe Fassett scalloped shells fabric design.

Only one of many books devoted to Fassett's designs. To learn more about Kaffe Fassett's life and work, please use this link to his website.

I've culled these examples of Kaffe Fassett's work from various online sources for our educational enlightenment. 

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Another Birthday. Another Decade.

'In the Restaurant' 1907 by Charles Hoffbauer

Just a brief glimpse of how I'm spending my birthday today. Same/old. Same/old. Glamour, glamour, glamour...it does get boring after awhile. But I'm bearing up. Ha!

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

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Adriaen van de Venne (1580 - 1662) was a unique Dutch Golden Age painter of allegories, genre subjects and portraits.... He was also a miniaturist, designer and illustrator.

I'd never seen his work until very recently I stumbled over it online. (Isn't that always the way?) At first, I was a little stand-offish, after all - except for Rembrandt, Franz Hals and the flower painters, what do I know about early Dutch painting? Not much it turns out, since I'd never seen Van de Venne's work before.

But once I did, I was totally smitten.

I'll tell you what was apparent to me from the first moment: this 16th century man painted with a very modern (modern to today) sensibility. Skillfully fashioned and filled with wit, his work is very much like illustration - note the expressions on the figures, the attitude, the sway of the clothing. (I don't think I've ever seen illustration from the 16th century) These people (or animals) are not paralyzed in the moment. They are still alive and kicking. Of course, the best paintings have always had that, but I think it's Van deVenne's faces that make me think: modern! There is a kind of indulgent humor that speaks to me across the centuries.

Apparently there are very few details about Van de Venne's life and only one contemporary source. He was born in Delft in 1580, the son of wealthy middle-class parents. Early on he was taught drawing and illumination by a Lieden-based goldsmith named Simon de Valck and later went on to study with a well-esteemed painter of black and white images. Van de Venne had a rather successful career divided between Middelburg and The Hague, painting, illustrating poems and propaganda tracts and even writing his own verse.

Van de Venne not only painted the gentle images I've posted today, but also various deeper, darker subjects, often ribald and occasionally patronizing. I ran across a painting of a 16th century man pooping in public which made me cringe then laugh out loud. But I won't be showing that one here.

To learn more about Van de Venne's life, please use this link.

To really appreciate this work you have to get up close and personal. If you press on an individual painting, you'll get a larger view.

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Forgotten Book Friday: AS DOG IS MY WITNESS by Jeffrey Cohen

It's Forgotten Book Friday, a weekly meme hosted by Patti Abbott at her blog, PATTINASE. So don't forget to link over there and check out what other Forgotten Books, other bloggers will be talking about today. 

My entry for this week is a book I am particularly fond of, AS DOG IS MY WITNESS by Jeffrey Cohen, a New Jersey writer of humorous mysteries who definitely deserves to be better known and appreciated. It is the third book in the series.

Aaron Tucker is a freelance magazine writer(and author of various and sundry screenplays) and stay at home dad. He is short and insecure. His wife Abby is a lawyer with a successful career, they are the parents of Ethan and Leah and the owners of a dog named Warren. Aaron's son has Asperger Syndrome ( a form of autism) and his daughter doesn't. In many ways they are a typical New.Jersey family and in other ways they are not. For instance, it isn't every freelance writer who gets asked to investigate a murder.

In this case, it's Lori Shery, doing the asking, a friend Aaron can't deny, Lori's the president and founder of Aspen, a local Asperger Syndrome organization. A 22 year old named Justin Fowler has been arrested for murder and the fact that he has Asperger's isn't helping his defense any. Neither is the fact that he has confessed and that the murder weapon was found in his room.

Another fact hindering efforts to help Justin is the week long visit of Aaron's obnoxious in-laws. But since Aaron adores his wife, he puts up with the inconvenience of her relatives.

...Abby flung the door open, and allowed the Angel of Death - pardon me, her brother Howard - into our home.

I'm pretty sure it was a complete coincidence that a gust of wind blew into the house and the lights in the living room flickered.

I stood slowly, since I was deep into comfort food at the time, and put on my most diplomatic face to confront my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew-in-law. Dylan, who had clearly signed a pact with Satan, was tall and thin, handsome like his father...and bore the confident smile of someone who always, aways got what he wanted. I offered a hand to Howard, who is the least Jewish Jew I've ever met, and he took it. He smiled, exposing exactly the right number of teeth. I considered knocking some of them out, but was unsure whether I could reach the uppers without a step-stool.

"How's it going, Howard?" See how diplomatic I was being? Keep that in mind if I call you as a witness.

Despite the temporary day-to-day drama at home, Aaron has a job to do. He begins his murder investigation in a hit or miss fashion, his usual style and of course, murder usually brings unintended consequences. The investigation takes all sorts of unexpected detours.

Some of my favorite scenes in the book are the incidents at night while Aaron is out walking Warren, his little dog. Thinking he (and Warren) are about to be mugged by three (very) huge guys, Aaron stands his ground. Turns out Big, Bigger and Biggest (as Aaron comes to know them) are working for the local godfather, Mr. Shapiro, and have been sent to act as ex-officio bodyguards. That's all they know, at least, that's all they tell a discomfited Aaron who doesn't quite believe he isn't in danger from B.B. & B. Not to mention, his boss.

...Appropriately braced for the cold, Warren (who was, after all, wearing fur) and I headed outside. 

It was something of a surprise to see Big, Bigger and Biggest at strategic positions outside the house, in identical parkas and sunglasses. They looked like the Yukon secret service. 

"What's up, boys?" I said, "Mensa meeting just break up?"

"Mr. Shapiro wants us to watch you," Big said.

"Watch me do what? I'm walking the dog."

I walked down the front steps to the sidewalk as Bigger said, "He wants us to protect you."

"Protect me? Protect me from what? I thought the only person I had to be worried about was him."

Big shook his head slightly. "Need-to-know basis," he said.

That startled me. "Don't I need to know?" I said.

"No," Bigger said. Apparently, they were trading off the speaking parts today.

"Who needs to know more than me?"

"Mr. Shapiro," Big said. "And us, so we can protect you."

I figured it was better to have guys like this on your side than against you, so I shrugged. "Okay, then," I said. "Let's go. Warren's not going to wait all day."

.....The Supersized Trio created a perimeter, with Biggest in front, then Big and Bigger behind me and he dog. 

....My wife's going to start asking if you'll be outside whenever I open the door," I said. "She got through law school, you know. She might be able to figure out you're not three Christmas trees."

"You'll never even know we're there," Big said.

"I don't like to destroy your illusions," I told him," but when I walked out the door and the three of you were standing there with your hands in your pockets and your car in my driveway, I knew you were there."

"We wanted you to know we were there today," Bigger explained. "From now on, you won't know."

"From now on? How long are you guys going to be following me around?"

Warren stopped to take care of his business, and we stood for a while, four grown men trying not to look at a dog's butt. "Until Mr. Shapiro tells us to stop," Big said.

'There are some writers who get so little attention there ought to be a law against it. Despite the preposterous doings and [Jeffrey] Cohen's wicked talent for laugh-out-loud dialogue, the heart of the book is a gentle one. Aaron Tucker and his family and friends are characters you will want to visit with again and again.'

Mystery Ink (Actually, I'm quoting myself since I wrote about this book a few years ago for Mystery Ink.)

P.S. Why is there a dalmatian on the cover? Well, it's the murder victim's dalmatian.
To see a complete list of Jeffrey Cohen's books, please use this link.

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