(1730) Evening all.
22. Wheels within wheels
21. In one
20. Neutrality
19. What are the odds?
18. Contrived and arranged theatre, all of it
17. Save the Pallets
16. Steve at 1138
“Worth listening to the whole episode. Begins with Professor Betz and the Telegraph’s Tim Stanley and ends with two Greeks talking about the end of democracy in the birthplace of democracy.
War Room Battleground EP 835: UK academic says US and “all the major countries of Europe” face civil war over mass migration.”
The cunning plan … run a Thunderbirds, then the evening politics starts.
Spoilt for choice today with films plus TV episodes and what do I do? Go back to a re-run of what we’ve already seen … but why not, when they’re this good, these two?
Just a reminder:
“You know that jockey, Gomez,” says Lieutenant Abrams (Sam Levene) to Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) as the two arrive at the racetrack for a little betting, “the one who was caught throwing the fourth race yesterday? He was shot.”
“My,” says Nora, “they’re strict at this track.”
And we’re off on the fourth of the Nick and Nora Charles Thin Man series. The mystery isn’t bad. The Powell-Loy chemistry is just as fine as always, and the characters…well, Nick remains the suave, gentleman private detective, fond of martinis and double-breasted suits, clever at putting puzzles together, and a man who seems to know everyone from distinguished officials to Rainbow Benny, a racetrack tout.
Nora, his wealthy, socialite wife, remains most of the time a skeptical, affectionate, funny helpmate who can match her husband’s martini intake whenever she chooses. However, slowly the series is turning Nora into a more conventional wife and mother. In Shadow of the Thin Man, the writers have Nora sometimes just being a ditzy, adoring wife. Myrna Loy makes it work, but some of Nora’s smartness and wit have been dumbed down.
Nick agrees to look into the death of the jockey, but then another shooting takes place, this time of Whitey Barrow, a corrupt reporter who is in cahoots with a ring of racketeers who are making a fortune on racetrack gambling. When the dignified Major Jason Scully, hired by the track commission to clean up the situation, and Paul Clark, a young, crusading reporter, visit Nick and try to enlist his services, he turns them down. He’s got too much on his hands already with Nora and their three-year-old son, Nick, Jr.
That second murder makes him change his mind. Before long he’s up to his waist in suspects. There’s Link Stephens, the tough smoothie who runs the syndicate and who is weak around the edges; Fred Main, his wise-guy enforcer; Claire Porter, Stephen’s upper-class girl friend; and Baku, her chauffeur. There is even a ticket seller to be suspicious of.
Plus, just maybe Paul Clark (Barry Nelson) isn’t as honest as he seems, especially since his girlfriend, Molly (Donna Reed), works for Stephens. It all comes together, of course, with a big meeting of all the suspects, with Nick taking apart the case clue by clue until the murderer is unmasked. This time, Nora does a bit of heroics that ends with a loving smooch by our favorite couple, with Asta the dog covering its eyes with a paw.
The movie features three genuinely funny set pieces. First up is Nick and Nora at a crowded wrestling match. It’s reassuring to see that professional wrestling hasn’t advanced an inch in more than 65 years when it comes to the need for great acting ability. Next is the merry-go- round where Nick has to prove that he’s not a scaredy-cat to a group of sneering tykes. And finally is a classic that should be revived, where the waiter at Mario’s Grotto is determined Nick and Nora and their two guests will all order the sea bass. He will not take broiled lobster as an answer.
And let’s spend a moment with Stella Adler, who plays Claire Porter. She was 40 when she made this movie. She was born into one of the leading Yiddish theater families in New York, and became a star in Yiddish theater in the Twenties. In the Thirties she joined the Group Theater, became a star on Broadway, went to the Soviet Union to study under Stanislavsky himself, and returned to become one of America’s great drama teachers, as well as an actor and director.
Adler never made much of an impression in Hollywood; she spent most of her life in New York.She taught and mentored Marlon Brando and was the single most important influence on his acting career. She died, honored and full of years, in 1992. Just watch her as Porter, a lush, well-bred blonde with a voice as cultured as clotted cream.
Except that Claire had been a professional woman, as in the oldest profession. When Claire loses her temper, she loses her culture, her class and her accent. Nick finds this out. Adler handles the role with aplomb, and her instant transformation from cultured to common is something to see.
……
My only question, concern, is if they dumbed Myrna down as the review said … made her more conventional. While that makes sense as a mother … more responsible etc. … not so sure it’s what viewers are looking for … they’re looking for male-female chemistry here at a difficult time in the world, as I’m forever boring you about.
(1141)(1158)
15. Saturday postbox toppers
14. Similar type of thing around the west
13. So many Reform hopefuls simply can’t see through him
12. Indeed
11. Petitions
It’s an extension, the idea of petitioning the puppets, of the same idea of voting for parachuted in puppets, as if this i somehow democratic choice … when the real decisonmakers are elsewhere.
Many decades ago, I sailed a catamaran called a Quest B2, a super functional sailboat, shaped like a long machete, designed to handle choppy seas and big waves … she was based on the winning Little America’s Cup boat Quest … in fact I bought it from that Denmark series winner.
How did she sail? Phenomenally, pedigree, as you’d expect. However, sheer classical beauty was not one of the design criteria. The old J Boats though … Thomas Lipton and so on … now they were sheer beauties. The old tall ships too, clippers, schooners … dreams to look at, like women at their best.
So the question is … can function have beautiful form? And my answer is … yes, in the hands of the old aesthetes … but never in the hands of the “modern” designers and practitioners. And this flows over into the subtheme of my blog, my X account, anything I’ve ever tried.
The girl in the YT below is speaking more of function versus form, another question … and yet a valid question. It can be argued that she scores on both counts … function plus form.
You might recall Friday 17 on the topic of Cracker Barrel. Plus today’s Saturday 10. Plus Lord of the Rings last book, last chapters, when Sharkey had tried to replace homes with barracks, had cut down the town’s big, beautiful tree. It’s also those using Helvetica typeface over, say, Bookman Old Style.
I too have succumbed to a point … this is Arial you are reading now. The simplicity is the idea here … calligraphy, though beautiful, is difficult reading after a while.
Some comments:
The ugliness of those three Cracker Barrel women, esp. inside … imagine you could photograph their souls … also comes through in this ugliness Julia calls out:
(0707) A long time completing this post today, mainly because I’ve been scouring X, replying, saving, redacting, brekking etc. (0921)
10. The next post is about aesthetics
… even before getting to it, an online friend from the Wolds is posting this … combination of nature’s aesthetics and the tech ability to capture it. Q.E.D.
9. Horror in the Netherlands
8. Isilme busy right now
… will this suffice for the interim?
7. IYE, following on from Sat 4
Four. Are they trying to rehabilitate Grisly in the eyes of the public? Look how ‘umble she’s appearing after one of her previous testimonies where she tried to take control of the hearing. Uriah Heap springs to mind.
I am of the opinion Andrew Lownie is on to something (see 2 YT interviews I dropped on Thurs). He opines that she will be moved to a less severe facility, if she hasn’t already, and no one will hear a peep out of her again. Could be a faked un-alived event?
Meanwhile after abit of tweaking to her physog she’ll be sunning herself on a beach near Tel-aviv. Might even be where Island man is now….? Didn’t that episode of the drama happen on Donny’s watch? Not what you know but who you know.
6. In Lord Toby’s TDS today (see Brolls)
… in a teaser to get you to part with money:
In Episode 47 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:
(0547) Morning all. Bleah out there, poisoned skies. (0702)
5. Farmers on Clarkson
4. IYE’s late night flurry
… late night in my terms.
Maxwell Interview [from the Dept of Justice]
“Redactions of victim names and other identifying information have been applied.”
https://www.justice.gov/maxwell-interview
“In the interest of transparency.”
I went through it, as did many, and yes, names of offenders were blacked out.
The problem for us with Maxwell was she was doing this whole “I don’t fully recall that” stunt, which reminds me very much of Amanda Knox and her “my best truth is”. Reaction of all back then who were not defence counsel was as Mike Engleman’s was just now.
On the other hand, I’ve a Miss Anne Elk theory about both, also PM Johnson during covid when they put him in hospital for days. The difference is it’s not a theory and it’s not all mine. From GH Estabrooks to Ewen Cameron to Selwyn Leeks to MK Ultra in 1973, plus fictional references in detail in both Bourne and the Manchurian … messing with the mind is what is done.
The more ggl post learn-ed discourses about the “myth” of DID at the top of their rankings, and only “myth-debunking” articles … well let’s just say it’s in the same basket as the current state of evidence that net zero is bollox, the jab is toxic and that we have an invader problem. That is … copious evidence, rendering ggl wrong and disingenuous, as is the MSM.
There were three ways to go on Knox’s lies … first, that they were little girl lies, second that they were drug-addled lies and thirdly that they were brain-messing induced. Evidence for the latter was the close personal interest of Berlusconi, plus his closeness to the boy’s father. Then the manner in which the two States got her out of the clutch of prosecutions and courts, against judicial procedure … released, not exonerated.
3. Shorts … no, not Sydney Sweeney’s
2. Via Redacted at 1137
… which is via The Feral Irishman
1. DAD at 1137
a) According to Rennes Infos Autrement, on the night of August 20-21, individuals dressed in black launched a hail of packages over the walls of the solitary confinement section of the Rennes-Vezin-le-Coquet prison
b) In France, the image of teenagers strolling through squares and boulevards on summer evenings is becoming a thing of the past.
c) The French left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) has refused accreditation for journalists Olivier Pérou and Sandrine Cassini from Le Monde for its annual summer camp.
d) Video interview [28 minutes] with French political analyst Nicolas Monti explains how immigration has transformed France.