"Better ten times a victim than let one man go hungry."

The Woman from Tangier (1948)

Nylon is the name of the woman (Adele Jergens). The man is Stephen Dunne (one of the actors who portrayed Sam Spade on radio). She has been on a ship journey, trying to get to Gibraltar. The purser reports to the captain (Denis Green) that 50,000 pounds sterling is missing. They are in a jeep, and the captain hints that they can help themselves. The purser will have none of it and they struggle, after which the captain shoots the purser, then accuses the purser to the local prefect, saying that he shot him in self-defense. An insurance agent (Dunne) is there, and insists that the ship be impounded until the mystery can be solved.

Next Ian MacDonald bails out of a plain over Tangier, but not before shooting his partner, the pilot. Dunne figures out immediately what happened. MacDonald runs into Nylon, whom he has known before. He tries to get her involved in his current escapade. She agrees, but lets him know she wants nothing that is shady. Dunne and Nylon bump into each other on the street, and he comments on how much money she seems to have. He escorts her back to the hotel after some sarcastic dialogue, but they part on cordial, if not chummy, terms. Later Dunne and MacDonald get into a shootout and a fistfight. MacDonald wins, and Dunne wakes in the hotel lobby with Nylon soothing his brow. She quips, "Maybe this will teach you to join a lending library and stay home nights."

The prefect and Dunne now pin down who MacDonald is, and that he is here to rendezvous with whomever stole the money. Nylon brings supplies to MacDonald, but warns him again that she wants no part of his deal. Still, she delivers a note to Green for him, and Dunne meets her coming out of Green's room. He makes a date for dinner. She is late, and obviously troubled. He quizzes her, but she puts him off. Meanwhile Green goes to MacDonald's room and we learn that they are partners, although Green's enthusiasm for the relationship is waning. MacDonald goes to Nylon's room to kill her, but she screams, and the prefect and Dunne come running. As he leaves, Green shoots him.

Green still cannot understand why the prefect will not release his ship, but he is reminded that they still have not recovered the money. Then suddenly the prefect walks to announce that the box that was stolen and says the ship will be released.  Green, assuming something has gone wrong, goes back to check where the box had been buried, and is arrested. Dunne tells her that she will be getting a reward - and then proposes to her.



 
Dunne


Green

Demarest and Frawley

Old movies just would not have been the same without these two crusty stalwarts. Both became better known on the TV shows My Three Sons and I Love Lucy, but before that they were household faces in movies. Each appeared in over 100 films.


Frawley


Demarest

Laugh It Off (1939)

This is an example of the short musical of the period - several musical numbers sandwiched inside a fairly transparent plot. Still, the numbers are nice and the plot is satisfying if you do not ask too much.

Johnny Downs is a bandleader who wants to become a lawyer. Havenhurst Home for Ladies of the Stage is bankrupt, and the bank is shutting it down. The girls go to the racetrack and bet their last $40 on a horse that bucks off its jockey at the starting gate. The go to find Downs to help them out. He is in the courtroom of Edgar Kennedy. (Fans of The Falcon series of movies will remember him as the puppeteer in The Falcon Strikes Back.) He agrees to take their case, but admits, "As a lawyer, I'm a good musician."

Miss Spencer (Constance Moore) is the family member in charge of the case, but she admits there is no money to keep the home open. However, she invites them to stay for supper. However, the girls don't want to sponge off them. So they go to make a touch on an "ex" of Elizabeth (Hedda Hopper). The ex turns out to be William Demarest. He greets them joyfully and treats them to dinner. Then they go to the crap table in the back of the casino and win a bunch, but the joint gets raided. (In the meantime, Johnny and Constance are falling in love as they sing to each other.) Johnny represents the ladies at court - Kennedy's, naturally. He tells them that unless they can find support they go to the workhouse. Demarest lets them move in with him in his penthouse, but he is broke and owes a gambler thousands of dollars. The performers at the nightclub are in bad shape financially.

The old girls come up with the idea of re-opening the club. This is the excuse for a bunch of musical numbers as the rehearsals and grand opening transpire. Naturally, it is a huge success and everyone lives happily every after.




Edgar Kennedy


Downs and Moore

I know women who sound like that

"McCorkadale gave that sniffing snort of hers. It was partly like an escape of steam and partly like two or three cats unexpectedly encountering two or three dogs, with just a suggestion of a cobra waking up cross in the morning." (from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, by Sir P. G. Wodehouse)

Lum pays Abner a compliment

"That's a right good picture of you, Abner. It don't look much like you at all."


Link is here

A sad tale

One of the saddest tales you will ever hear told is when a man admits that he was good at his career, but was a poor father.

Ben Wright, a versatile voice

You will remember the Chinese character Hey Boy on the Have Gun, Will Travel series. He was portrayed by actor Ben Wright. He also was Inspector Peter Black (with a British accent) on the program Pursuit. You will also recognize his face as a guest star on Hogan's Heroes on television.



LINK to more about Ben Wright.

Whig Presidents

Who were the U. S. Presidents who were members of the now-defunct Whig Party? See below. Only two of the four were elected as President, Tyler and Fillmore becoming President upon the deaths of Harrison and Taylor.


William Henry Harrison


John Tyler


Zachary Taylor


Millard Fillmore

Calm down

People who allow themselves to become emotionally exhausted from little crises often do not have the energy to handle the larger crises they face.

Hickock and Jingles

U. S. Marshall Wild Bill Hickock and his deputy, Jingles - from the radio show. Guy Madison and Andy Devine.

Dobie Gillis - The Sweet Singer of Central High

Dobie tries to get into the high school octet to impress money-grubbing girlfriend Thalia, even though Milton Armitage (Warren Beatty) can sing better than he can. However, it turns out that he does a pretty fair Elvis imitation, which impresses the girls no end, of course. Thalia (always with an eye for the profit) becomes his manager, selling buttons and scarfs. Even his eternally-skeptical father becomes a fan, and his mother (Florida Friebus) is almost a groupie. At the Octet concert, Thalia brings a recording scout, and he is swamped by girls. Thalia becomes jealous, but Dobie explains that he cannot have romantic attachments, because every girl has to think he is singing to her. For the final number on the concert, he flops, and his public disappears instantly.


Florida Friebus
Link is here

Undervalued Boris Karloff

Karloff made his fame as an actor in horror movies. However, those who have seen him in the series of Mr. Wong detective movies, and also as Colonel March of Scotland Yard (British TV series) will have a much better appreciation for his ability. These show him as very distinguished and suave, and able to portray an entirely different personna than just a monster.


As Mr. Wong


As Colonel March

Boris Karloff had a wonderful voice to listen to

Go to Youtube and get a few examples. Not at all a frightening voice, but very refined.

Precedence in the nobility in the United Kingdom

It is a very strict system. For instance, the Daughters of Vicounts outrank the Wives of the younger Sons of Earls. Wives of the Eldest Sons of Baronets outrank Daughters of Baronets. And so on.

The practical effect of judicial activism

A republic functions through laws made by elected representatives of the people. A democracy (strictly speaking) functions through the direct will of the people. They are two distinctly different types of government. When judges, whose job it is to “interpret” laws, stray from anything other than determining the intend of the lawmakers when they made the law, they take us a large step away from being a republic to being a democracy. This is because men under that philosophy men can change the effect of laws without legislation.

Electoral college

The same logic that says to do away with the electoral college would do away with the Senate, also, because votes for Senators are not equal. A vote by a person from Wyoming for a candidate for the Senate counts a lot more than the vote of a person from California.

So what is new about that?

"During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data."

An old story. Been going on for centuries. "Them that's got shall get; them that's not shall lose."
Link is here

Fine line between faith and laziness

"Consider the lilies." They do not toil, and yet they are clothed. This is a command to trust in God.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard." This is a command to be busy about our business so that we have enough.

What to do? Well, it would seem we are to be up and about our responsibilities with all our might, but realizing that many things might happen that could derail our hopes, and trusting in God to care for us notwithstanding those things.

Dobie Gillis and The Thinker

A common situation for Dobie, trying to think through his perpetual problems.