Author Archives: James Higham

Sun Mat

 

It’s interesting how the YT algorithm works in lockstep with searches and selections … quite quickly really. There I was last evening, checking out Carole Lombard’s plane crash death and Clark Gable’s reaction … after her divorce rom William Powell … and there this morning was a Lombard movie called Virtue.

As precode, it was obviously not going to be about virtue but about vice … and yet:

This one has a prostitute trying to go straight, a tough-talking cab driver whose harsh words hide a heart of gold, and there is even a murder tucked away in the plot.

The story opens on prostitute Mae(Carole Lombard) being escorted to a train that will take her out of New York City – a condition of her not serving jail time for street walking is that she leave town. As soon as the police are gone she gets right off the train. Having no money, she has to ditch Jimmy Doyle (Pat O’Brien), the cabby that takes her back into the city, without paying him. However, Mae is a woman without options, not a woman who is basically dishonest, so as soon as she has the money she pays Jimmy the fare, although at the worst possible time – watch the film to see what I’m talking about.

Jimmy and Mae hit it off and even get married, but they’re basically two people looking for love that have two big problems. Mae can’t take back her past, and Jimmy can’t – with dignity – take back the words he has said about him being all-knowing when it comes to “dames”, especially after he learns of his wife’s past occupation at a most inopportune time. From that point forward the two have a good relationship on the surface, but underneath Jimmy always has his doubts as to whether Mae’s past is really behind her, and Mae feels like she’s on probation. Then something comes up that brings all of these feelings to the surface. 

Mayo Methot plays Lil Blair, an aging woman of the streets and friend to Mae whose boyfriend Toots is more than happy to have Lil support him and more than unhappy when she can’t come up with quite enough money to keep him in race track forms. Lil winds up playing a bigger part in the whole story than her small amount of screen time would make you believe.

This fast moving little precode with heart is everything that the best precodes of the early 30’s should be. Many of the precodes that came out of Columbia in the early 30’s had a paint-by-numbers feel about them, like they were just going through the motions. This one has very good performances by the entire cast and a storyline that draws you into the everyday lives of these not so everyday people.

One difficulty is that she’s too glam to be a streetwalker, too savvy but never mind … the others aren’t. It’s not so much this film which is an issue but the aim of Hollywood Babylon and East Coast USA … maybe it was just plain communism and its promoter shaitan … therefore all sorts of social breakup is on the agenda, as it is now … anything twisted made to appear compassionately as natural human foibles, let alone hard luck tales.

The bigger problem to me is the puritanical Colonel Harrumph or hellfire preacher reaction, quite OTT, which to my mind is counterproductive. There’s a good case, imho, to not promote human degradation as tolerable or even funny … these were called screwball comedies but they were more “undermine families, values, in line with the communist and illumined agenda” and make light of it all comedies.

Now I just made a case against such screwball comedies in the previous paragraph … did I start ranting about you’re all going to burn, you miserable sinners? A la Ian Paisley? Because I find all that offputting … evangelism of the Calvinist type just drives people away.

In short, there are less fanatical ways to state the case.

Sunday [11 to 15]

(0851)(1040)

15. Moosh corner


14. Gentle reminder


13. Teheran


12. Redacted puts the apocalyptic perspective

… in comments. Can’t be screengrabbed, too dark, low contrast but accessible url for most. Essentially, I’m donning my eschatalogical hat for now and dropping into endtimes scenarios … Third Temple, red heifer, Rothschilds, Ashkenazi, Khazar, Zionism for non-Jews (see Revelation), the antiChrist’s characteristics, the closing of Al Aqba … and so on.

Those into the Annunaki, not just the Nephilim, have that angle about it all. Both groups tacitly at least accept that our ruling class are not entirely human … either spiritually, anatomically, or a mix.

In here and now terms, the Saudi-Trump nexus is interesting, also the Egyptian line.

11. Over at OoL

https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-difficulty-in-iran-rising-up.html

Sunday [6 to 10]

(0638)(0719)

 

10. Reform … wake up, chaps and chapesses


9. The strikes, home defences

… plus personal defences, esp. that of Sassafrass’s last sentence.


8. “Not protecting the star player”

Why the hell not? What possible excuse could the WNBA have in colluding with the black women and other white players? What the hell is going on?

Also, juss sayin’ but she took down another white girl from an opposing team, not one of the instigating blacks … no wonder the latter have zero respect, zero grace.

7. Boundary changes

… changes in stance by Reform, changes in stance by influential voters:


6. Karoline announces

Sunday [1 to 5]

(0551) Morning all … another straight through till morning sleep here. (0629)

 

5. “Baby”


4. Steve at 1083

  • Anti-ICE Activists in Colorado Help Criminal Alien and Child Rapist Escape Arrest
  • Government of Pakistan Formally Recommends Trump for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize
  • New Poll Shows Reform UK on Track To Win Majority in Next British Elections
  • US Officials Confirm Bunker Buster-Capable B-2 Stealth Bombers En Route to Guam as President Trump Weighs Iran Strike Decision
  • American Christian Leaders Back Israel: “Christians are Imprisoned, Tortured, and Executed in Iran”
  • Border Czar Tom Homan Responds to Democrats Making ICE’s Job “Much More Dangerous”
  • Russian Geran Drones Strike Ukrainian Targets In Donetsk, Luhansk & Sumy
  • Massive American Military Deployment Spotted At Key Saudi Air Base
  • Alberta ends free COVID-19 vaccines, angering province’s liberal politicians
  • AstraZeneca’s deadly deception: Heart drug Brilinta exposed as ineffective
  • Much more.

3. Back in Blighty


2. DAD at 1083

I am sorry for the long comments, but these are translations needed to explain the news from [the] France.

a) A ludicrous affair at Disneyland Paris. A British man was arrested this Saturday after renting the theme park, located in Seine-et-Marne, for a wedding. The bride-to-be turned out to be…

b) The French won’t be the only ones rocking the streets for the Fête de la Musique this year…

c) According to Le Figaro, a report by the Immigration and Demography Observatory, written by Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti, directly contradicts the recent conclusions of the progressive think tank Terra Nova…

d) Following an investigation by the Mornant gendarmerie brigade (Rhône, population 6,300), 59 weapons, including 13 undeclared weapons, were seized…

1. Australia and the US

This might seem an unusual opener for Sunday but there it was on X, first item, and I’d crashed last night with tabs open (good thing we’re all online and grown up about such matters).

So there’s this gal, Alexandra Marshall, downunder, ex-Spectator on TV, was Mark Steyned by the supposed conservative organ for views too hot to handle … in short, our kinda gal, given the majority of “our” views at unherdables. No lightweight, politically, quite perspicacious … this is her latest:

The anti-American movement in Australia must be very, very careful. America is Australia’s defence pact. They are the unspoken wall that keeps our country safe.

America’s involvement in Iran is not just about Iran and Israel – which many people seem to think. It’s not about ‘protecting Jews’ as I see a lot of conservatives claim.

It’s not even about ‘regime change’ for Iran. Iran is a major arms dealer for Russia. Iran is a major supplier of oil for China’s southern operations. Disempowering Iran weakens Russia’s ability to maintain conflict in Europe.

And it suffocates supply lines for China, making it less likely that they move on Taiwan or even other Pacific nations.

War is strategy. But so is maintaining global peace. Disempowering the largest geopolitical entities which seek to flip the world order from a capitalist democracy to a marriage between Communism and Islamic Theocracy is about keeping all of us away from a global war.

I am sure that’s why America pre-emptively bought Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar with trillions of dollars. Containing China and Russia to their established borders, while dismantling the Iranian-funded terror network in the Middle East is something that had to be done – and everyone knew it had to be done.

Not to mention Putin and Xi Jinping now knowing that America negotiates from a position of genuine red lines – something that was not at all obvious before. Let’s just hope it was done early enough.

The Oz perspective was of sufficient interest to LBJ back in the PM Harold Holt days (before he disappeared one morning), for America to maintain bases, just as the British had used it as a nuclear testing zone. There was an infamous White House lawn speech given by Holt in which he acted like a whore: “All the way with LBJ.”

Did not go down well in Oz, on either side of the aisle. From our perspective here in Blighty and from our American readers’ perspectives, that take by Alexandra above might be quite clise to the truth … she’s seeing it from the persoective of a nation which followed LBJ into Vietnam, following Korea earlier of course, Singapore before that.

Saturday [11 till close of play]

(1739) Evening all. About to surface again.

 

18. A film series from 1934 to 1947

In a forlorn effort to keep tavern patrons supplied with movies and jazz (the news takes care of itself), I had a glance at the story of the last Thin Man movie from 1947 which, predictably, was not up to scratch by their standards but a reasonable “B” by audience standards.

The years and ages are important in this tale of two stars, the historicity is where the interest is for us. It started in 1934, actually precode. Now, if he’s 55 in RL in 1947 and she 42, a 13 year difference (give or take one year), then he was 42 and she 29. Not real life partners, they certainly grabbed audiences of the era, which spanned the war years.

“The last film for Myrna Loy at MGM, where she had made the majority of her films since the 1930s. In her autobiography she stated this picture was a “lackluster finish to a great series”, and that she “hated” it.”

Well yes … he’d put on lbs around the neck and waist, she was a tad too mature now for the brightspark wife-ette. Word is the chemistry was still there but the years had, sadly, caught up. The studio felt it was all ending with both that and the stifling 50s values creeping in … e.g. horror at a brat child corporally smacked but by the same token, the parents had not brought him up well (in the story arc) … plus the setting was no longer charming but almost 50s beatnik and jive talk, which a man from 1892 could not be expected to be part of.

It was already awkward by 1947 and I’d not even been thought about until quite a few years after that. Interesting glimpse into an era, what people were doing, how it all looked.

17. Chanel

16. DAD

My Dad [b.1896] left school at 12 years and worked in the stables of the Carter Patterson company. They had the contract to collect parcels and deliver them to the local train station. The parcels were sent by rail to the nearest station for delivery by CP. Summer was very busy as most Middle Class people sent their suitcases to the hotel and back home on either end of the holiday.


At age 15 Dad had his horses and cart and worked for CP until 1914, when he was 18, and joined the army for The Great War. After 18 months in the trenches the army discovered that he was a horseman and gave him two horses and an old farm cart. He delivered food, medical things and small ammunition to the front line until the end of the war.

15. The egregious C of E


14. The Milligoon


13. Another lady with firm views … Rachel Wilson


12. Quiet lady with strong opinions

… rarely posts:


11. Steve

5. We can either remain asleep – bit too warm to sleep so I waited outside for the sun to come up on my birthday, then went back to bed. Quick trip to Dorchester for a lunchtime pint with a mate who is not doing so well, sadly. He mentioned the Israel-Iran conflict and the possible attack on the Fordow Enrichment Plant – his Dad worked in Iran for six months before the Mullahs took over, so late-70’s. Anyway Bannon met with Trump to tell him what his base thinks..

also:

Options for Targeting Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Facility | https://www.csis.org/analysis/options-targeting-irans-fordow-nuclear-facility

And at 1083 … war room:

  • Democrat Panic: David Drucker Reports On Working-Class Hispanic Men Turning Away From Party
  • Jones On Iran: “Regime Change Would Spiral Into A Quagmire Russia And China Are Ready To Exploit.”
  • “We’re An Active Combatant In This Conflict” Bannon Calls On Israel To Finish What They Started
  • Appeals Court Victory: Trump Can Keep Troops In LA, Mike Davis Reports

Pub rock

Back to politics around 1800, birthday boy Steve.

 

Was watching some Chuck Berry and a few other mega-artists … you know what? The egos killed it … everyone playing so straight, terrified to eclipse The Great Man … nah, not for me. I’m speaking here to those who can appreciate 50s to 70s popular. I find Elvis a bore, Stones, Beatles … I’d much prefer a “B” band, just as with a surprisingly good B film …

In fact, this first one call themselves a “wedding band”, you get the idea … everyone could actually play and were enjoying it:

The next we’ve had before … clearly older musos needing a good singer and they found one … enough variation in the music to be listenable for a few sets:

Wedding band, pub rock, whatever … lack of ego, just a good time, get up and shake the legs a bit.

Sat Mat

 

Admittedly, this is up for Toodles and for those liking Myrna Loy … which in those days were quite a few people across America … there’s a definite screen chemistry, maybe in real life as well … they made a few pictures together, the Thin Man series being the most popular, especially the first two.

Sadly … natch … those first two can’t be found on YT as restored whole films. This below was at the second last, her only outing during the war itself and some rate it lower, many quite high … I quite like it. Review below the filum.

“This entry in the “Thin Man” series is enjoyable in itself, and it also works well as a change-of-pace from the rest of the series, in placing the familiar Nick and Nora characters in a new setting, when Nick returns to his old home town. It makes for a much different atmosphere, since Nick is received quite differently at home than he is in the big city where his crime-solving skills are so renowned.

Some things, of course, are still the same. William Powell is as witty and elegant as always, Myrna Loy is as engaging and as charming as ever, and the mystery that crops up is interesting and enjoyable. The screenplay does a nice job of keeping the best elements of the series while placing Nick in some new situations. The Powell/Loy characterizations of Nick and Nora are so good that when you see them in a somewhat new setting like this, you take an interest in them as you would old friends.

Harry Davenport heads up a very good supporting cast, and he gives one of his many fine character performances as Nick’s father. The relationship is quite believable, and it’s easy to empathize with Nick in his inability to please his father.

For all that this is a lesser-known movie in the “Thin Man” collection, it is quite good. The mystery itself is set up cleverly and efficiently, and it has the same combination of the offbeat and the logical that you hope for in these features. It’s well worth seeking out for anyone who enjoys the “Thin Man” films.”

Saturday [6 to 10]

(1239) Afternoon all, after not getting back in time to say morning all.

 

10. Moosh corner


9. Gen Zee


8. In one


7. You might have felt Annunziata was a strange choice for UHC

… but I always felt she’d come good when the chips were down:


6. Pesticides