Tuesday, April 23, 2013
A very picky bride-to-be
"England is strewn with ex-fiances whom she bounced because they didn't come up to her specifications. Dozens of them. I believe they form clubs and societies." (from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, by Sir P. G. Wodehouse)
"It's me, Sweetheart"
The phone would ring, faithful secretary Effie Perrine would pick it up, and "the greatest detective of them all," Sam Spade (presented by Wildroot Creme Oil) would tell her that he would soon be to the office to dictate his report. Howard Duff and Steven Dunne starred in the title role, and capable actress Lurene Tuttle was Effie. Tuttle was a very busy and versatile actress whom you may remember as the owner of the boarding house on The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
Tuttle and Duff
Tuttle and Duff
Spy Hunt (1950)
This is a very good action spy thriller. The first thing old movie fans will notice about this movie is that it opens with the theme music from the Basil Rathbone "Sherlock Holmes" series. The second thing you will notice is that it stars Howard Duff, one of the Sam Spade actors from the radio series.
Duff is in Europe to take care of two zoo-bound black panthers, to earn money to get back to America. Marta Toren is an agent (posing as a reporter) who puts something into the collar of one of the panthers. She makes a date with him to get him out of the panthers' box car, but does not keep it. Enemy agents are all over the place, however, and quickly pick up on the ruse. The train is sabotaged, and the panthers escape. Duff wakes up in a Swiss hotel, run by Walter Slezak, who is also a physician. A local military office has been assigned to kill the panthers on sight. This doesn't help Duff, who doesn't get paid if he doesn't get the panthers back.
Duff meets Philip Friend at the hotel. He is a foreign correspondent. Next to arrive if Philip Dorn, who is a professional big game hunter with his large hounds. A black panther is the only large animal he has not killed. Next is Robert Douglas, who is an artist wanting to sketch the panthers. (He sounds remarkably like Vincent Price.) Obviously, the list of "suspects" is growing.
Duff packs to go to Paris, but suddenly, who should come into his room but Toren. He chews her out for breaking the date, but she tells him about the film in the collar. He is unimpressed, until he passes a shady-looking character headed upstairs. He is threatening Toren, and Duff (it is hard not to call him Spade) knocks him out.
One panther kills a soldier, and the hunt for them intensifies. One of the hounds is killed. Then suddenly Duff and Toren spot a cat go into an abandoned hut. They trap him, but it is not the one with the film. Dorn heads out on a night hunt - very dangerous because of the cat's vision. The hunt scenes are beautifully filmed, with the panther running across snowy moonlit landscape. While they are gone, Douglas knocks out the guard and kills the captured panther.
Finally Duff kills the other panther and get the film, but as he does, he is fired upon. It turns out to be Friend. Duff throws him the collar, then charges Friend, and is shot. Toren shoots Friend. Duff tells here where the film is, and passes out. He wakes up back at the hotel, but Douglas is listening outside the door. And, oh yes, by this time Toren is calling Duff "darling." (You expected something different?) Douglas pretends to go to his room, but sneaks back to Duff's room and takes out a switchblade. Duff apparently is asleep, and he searches the room. He knocks over a bottle, and Slezak and Toren hear it and rush to investigate. When Douglas puts a knife to Duff's throat, Toren tells him it is in one of the bullets in the rifle. In a very tense scene, she begins taking apart the bullets. She lights the powder with a cigarette and Douglas is temporarily blinded.
Duff and Toren take a train to Paris. He asks her to marry him, she says he is cute, and they all live happily ever after.
Toren and Duff
Douglas
Duff is in Europe to take care of two zoo-bound black panthers, to earn money to get back to America. Marta Toren is an agent (posing as a reporter) who puts something into the collar of one of the panthers. She makes a date with him to get him out of the panthers' box car, but does not keep it. Enemy agents are all over the place, however, and quickly pick up on the ruse. The train is sabotaged, and the panthers escape. Duff wakes up in a Swiss hotel, run by Walter Slezak, who is also a physician. A local military office has been assigned to kill the panthers on sight. This doesn't help Duff, who doesn't get paid if he doesn't get the panthers back.
Duff meets Philip Friend at the hotel. He is a foreign correspondent. Next to arrive if Philip Dorn, who is a professional big game hunter with his large hounds. A black panther is the only large animal he has not killed. Next is Robert Douglas, who is an artist wanting to sketch the panthers. (He sounds remarkably like Vincent Price.) Obviously, the list of "suspects" is growing.
Duff packs to go to Paris, but suddenly, who should come into his room but Toren. He chews her out for breaking the date, but she tells him about the film in the collar. He is unimpressed, until he passes a shady-looking character headed upstairs. He is threatening Toren, and Duff (it is hard not to call him Spade) knocks him out.
One panther kills a soldier, and the hunt for them intensifies. One of the hounds is killed. Then suddenly Duff and Toren spot a cat go into an abandoned hut. They trap him, but it is not the one with the film. Dorn heads out on a night hunt - very dangerous because of the cat's vision. The hunt scenes are beautifully filmed, with the panther running across snowy moonlit landscape. While they are gone, Douglas knocks out the guard and kills the captured panther.
Finally Duff kills the other panther and get the film, but as he does, he is fired upon. It turns out to be Friend. Duff throws him the collar, then charges Friend, and is shot. Toren shoots Friend. Duff tells here where the film is, and passes out. He wakes up back at the hotel, but Douglas is listening outside the door. And, oh yes, by this time Toren is calling Duff "darling." (You expected something different?) Douglas pretends to go to his room, but sneaks back to Duff's room and takes out a switchblade. Duff apparently is asleep, and he searches the room. He knocks over a bottle, and Slezak and Toren hear it and rush to investigate. When Douglas puts a knife to Duff's throat, Toren tells him it is in one of the bullets in the rifle. In a very tense scene, she begins taking apart the bullets. She lights the powder with a cigarette and Douglas is temporarily blinded.
Duff and Toren take a train to Paris. He asks her to marry him, she says he is cute, and they all live happily ever after.
Toren and Duff
Douglas
The Challenge of the Yukon
This was a well-done radio program that featured Sgt. Preston of the Mounties and his dog, King. It was about the Klondike gold rush - a period from 1896 to 1899 when 30-40,000 prospectors moved into the Klondike region of Alaska to search for gold.
The radio show ran from 1938-1951, with three different actors playing the lead role, Jay Michael being the first of them. He was followed by Paul Sutton, and briefly Brace Beemer, who had played the Lone Ranger.
Travel in the Klondike
Link is here
Brace Beemer
Link is here
The radio show ran from 1938-1951, with three different actors playing the lead role, Jay Michael being the first of them. He was followed by Paul Sutton, and briefly Brace Beemer, who had played the Lone Ranger.
Travel in the Klondike
Link is here
Brace Beemer
Link is here
Jason Sacran - remember that name
And if you happen to have one of his paintings, hang onto it. If you do not have one, get one.
Here is link
Here is link
Laid back
The ability to roll with the punches and not get too upset about things is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn in life.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Dobie Gillis - Caper at the Bijou
Dobie has a problem. He loves girls. And he can't get a girl without money. His father (Frank Faylen), of course, points out that he can get it - through W-O-R-K. Mom, of course, is a much softer touch. His goofy, jazz-loving buddy is beatnik Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver, later Gilligan). The love of his life (at least at the moment) is Tuesday Weld, who is much more interested in his money (which he has not) than in him. Dobie and Maynard concoct a scheme to get the money in the bank night drawing at the theater. But Dobie cannot go through with it, and Weld reluctantly gives him the boot.
Link is here
Frank Faylen
Here is link
Link is here
Frank Faylen
Here is link
A real sparkler
She had a beaky nose, tight, thin lips, and her eye could have been used for splitting logs in the teak forests of Borneo.
(from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, by Sir P. G. Wodehouse)
See link here
(from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, by Sir P. G. Wodehouse)
See link here
I have known a few women like that
"Is Mr. McCorkadale still alive?"
"Died years ago. He got run over by a municipal tram."
"I don't blame him. I'd have done the same myself in his place. It's the only course to pursue when you're married to a woman like that."
(from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds)
See link here
"Died years ago. He got run over by a municipal tram."
"I don't blame him. I'd have done the same myself in his place. It's the only course to pursue when you're married to a woman like that."
(from Jeeves and the Tie That Binds)
See link here
Mistakes
It is best not to make them, but being able to learn from one's mistakes is not the least of human abilities.
Plein air
My son-in-law, Jason Sacran, is a very fine plein air painter. That is "plein," not "plain."
"But what does that mean," you ask.
Here is a link to get you started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_plein_air
"But what does that mean," you ask.
Here is a link to get you started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_plein_air
Moving from old radio shows to old movies
Two of the old radio programs that really got us started into also collecting old movies were Lux Radio and Screen Director’s Playhouse. The former was in an hour format, which worked pretty well, and the latter in a half-hour, which made them condense pretty drastically. Still, they managed to make the shows interesting enough for us to enjoy them.
Familiarity can be a danger
One of the dangers of driving is familiarity with the route. If you drive it day after day, you generally fail to pay close attention, and that is always dangerous. Don't get that "glazed" look.
See link here
See link here
Sunday, April 21, 2013
How can you treat a man as an enemy combatant
if you have not declared war? Answer me that. Easy way out. Washington wants to be able to have its cake and eat it, too. A criminal is a criminal, even if he is an international criminal. If Congress wants to namby-pamby around it responsibility of holding the President's feet to the fire on military actions, then they cannot claim the benefits of a state of war, namely, to suspend the normal legal procedures.
If all we have to do to set aside the due process of law is to SAY that someone is an "enemy combatant" without a state of war having been legally declared by Congress, then not one of us is safe.
If all we have to do to set aside the due process of law is to SAY that someone is an "enemy combatant" without a state of war having been legally declared by Congress, then not one of us is safe.
Illegal Entry (1949)
This stars Howard Duff of Sam Spade radio fame. He is an undercover agent for the Department of Immigration. An immigrant calls the department just before he is murdered, gasping out the name of the Blue Danube Cafe. The head agent is looking for a man who has been in the army. Duff is the man they come up with, a decorated flyer from the war, who knew the husband of a woman (Marta Toren) who runs the cafe and who is a member of the gang. He goes to the cafe to see her, and mentions that he is out of a job. The boss of the alien smuggling gang comes to see here to ask about Duff, and it is then revealed that her brother is in the country illegally, and that that is being held over her head by the gang.
Duff finally is approached by a member of the gang to fly for them. Toren has not become very cold toward him and tells him she does not want to see him again. Duff is assigned to fly her to Mexico to see the head of the organization. On the return trip Duff discovers that the smugglers dump their "cargo" out of the plane. Duff is supposed to be assassinated, but she delays him just enough that another of the gang is mistakenly killed. Then her brother hangs himself, evidently because he was afraid he was getting her into trouble.
The gang finally figures out that Duff is an agent while he is flying the boss and his lieutenants to the states. The immigration officials have the gang on the ground under control. The boss has his gun on Duff in the cockpit, however. He deliberately lands roughly, and is able to slip away from the gang. Toren, because of her help, was not charged.
Image from here
Toren and Duff
Image from here
Duff finally is approached by a member of the gang to fly for them. Toren has not become very cold toward him and tells him she does not want to see him again. Duff is assigned to fly her to Mexico to see the head of the organization. On the return trip Duff discovers that the smugglers dump their "cargo" out of the plane. Duff is supposed to be assassinated, but she delays him just enough that another of the gang is mistakenly killed. Then her brother hangs himself, evidently because he was afraid he was getting her into trouble.
The gang finally figures out that Duff is an agent while he is flying the boss and his lieutenants to the states. The immigration officials have the gang on the ground under control. The boss has his gun on Duff in the cockpit, however. He deliberately lands roughly, and is able to slip away from the gang. Toren, because of her help, was not charged.
Image from here
Toren and Duff
Image from here
Paul Henreid
Actor Paul Henreid of Casablanca fame was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernried Ritter von Wassel-Waldingau.
The Conspirators (1944)
This movie brings together two of the primary Maltese Falcon cast (Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre) plus one more from Casablanca (Paul Henreid). Throw in Hedy Lamarr as the female lead, and you have a promising film.
Henreid is in his old role as a saboteur, this time in Holland. He is known, however, and escapes to Portugal, with the Germans hot on his tail. He accidentally runs into Lamarr in a restaurant as she is fleeing the police, but later she appears to be aligned with the Germans. Then he goes to a fishing village where he hides out until he meets Lorre in town. During some confusion they manage to evade a passport check, and he meets Greenstreet in a pawn shop, which is his headquarters and hideout. Greenstreet tells him that one of his helpers is a traitor. There Lamarr sends him a note asking him to meet her a though they had not met before, which request he ignores, climbing into her car as she comes out of her house. They take a long drive and eat at a small cafe, and fall in love (you can tell because the violins start playing). The problem is that she is married to an older man (Victor Francen) who helped rescue her from a concentration camp (very reminiscent of Casablanca).
Henreid returns to the fray. He finds a man dead and through the betrayal of the turncoat, is arrested. Lamarr alibis him to the Germans, but will not testify in his behalf. She visits him in prison, but he lashes out angrily at her verbally. He makes a daring escape from prison. Later she finds him and he learns that she is in the underground. She takes him to Greenstreet. They are skeptical about him and give him the third degree, but he is vindicated. He meets Francen, and bids goodbye to Lamarr. He goes to the casino and watches Lamarr and Francen, but the police catch up with him because of the man who was killed in his room. He buys time by telling the police that they have set a trap for the murderer. It turns out to be Francen. He flees the casino and is killed in the ensuing gun fight.
Henreid and Lamarr go to the fishing village where they say goodbye, but promise to meet again when he is through with his mission.
This is an excellent movie, really worthy to be up with the likes of Casablanca.
Image from here
Victor Francen
Image from here
Image from here
Henreid is in his old role as a saboteur, this time in Holland. He is known, however, and escapes to Portugal, with the Germans hot on his tail. He accidentally runs into Lamarr in a restaurant as she is fleeing the police, but later she appears to be aligned with the Germans. Then he goes to a fishing village where he hides out until he meets Lorre in town. During some confusion they manage to evade a passport check, and he meets Greenstreet in a pawn shop, which is his headquarters and hideout. Greenstreet tells him that one of his helpers is a traitor. There Lamarr sends him a note asking him to meet her a though they had not met before, which request he ignores, climbing into her car as she comes out of her house. They take a long drive and eat at a small cafe, and fall in love (you can tell because the violins start playing). The problem is that she is married to an older man (Victor Francen) who helped rescue her from a concentration camp (very reminiscent of Casablanca).
Henreid returns to the fray. He finds a man dead and through the betrayal of the turncoat, is arrested. Lamarr alibis him to the Germans, but will not testify in his behalf. She visits him in prison, but he lashes out angrily at her verbally. He makes a daring escape from prison. Later she finds him and he learns that she is in the underground. She takes him to Greenstreet. They are skeptical about him and give him the third degree, but he is vindicated. He meets Francen, and bids goodbye to Lamarr. He goes to the casino and watches Lamarr and Francen, but the police catch up with him because of the man who was killed in his room. He buys time by telling the police that they have set a trap for the murderer. It turns out to be Francen. He flees the casino and is killed in the ensuing gun fight.
Henreid and Lamarr go to the fishing village where they say goodbye, but promise to meet again when he is through with his mission.
This is an excellent movie, really worthy to be up with the likes of Casablanca.
Image from here
Victor Francen
Image from here
Image from here
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