Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wed Mat

 

“I had my hopes up for this movie for three reasons. First, it was pre-code (though only in American years–this is a British movie). That always adds hope. Second, it had a young Ida Lupino. Third, it was about photography, or at least hinted at it, and I’m a photographer. All of this is to say, I assumed the movie would be nothing much, and was watching just for kicks.

I was pleasantly surprised in several ways. It is a cute story with some simple twists that only go so far, but it is told really well–the camera-work and the editing are adventurous and loose and downright inventive. You can’t miss it. The cameraman Ernest Palmer I’ve never heard of (and looking at his movies, there’s nothing that jumps out there). But the editor?

You won’t believe it–none other than David Lean. Makes me want to watch it again. Lean was in fact an editor before becoming a star director. 

“The Ghost Camera” is a thoroughly British movie, even though Palmer is American and in fact so is the director here, not the very British Lean but Bernard Vorhaus, who made his reputation in England. And the two leading characters are both British. Yes, Ida Lupino for all her hard luck urbane American reputation was born and raised in England.

Here she’s plays a common type well, a girl with a heart who’s in a little trouble. The other lead, Harry Kendall, is a kind of British Harold Lloyd, and he takes some getting used to but in the end he’s really rather funny and fun. He’s famous at home for his work on stage, and was always dismissive of his movie career, but the movies are all we have now, so the irony of that must irk him in the grave.

The story? A classic idea not far off from Antonioni’s “Blow Up”–a camera accidentally gets in the hands of a pair of goofy innocent types who develop the film in it and discover a crime. Using clues in the negatives, Kendall bumbles his way into a comic and silly mess, filled with great camera-work and that fast, creative editing.

There is subjective camera (from Lupino’s eyes) and wobbly hand-held camera, and a series of wipes following a series of opening doors that will blow your mind. Or your eyes. It’s genius, even if it’s low budget stuff. It even has the elements of a screwball comedy, where two unlikely leads are destined to fall in love after all.

You can find a free stream or free download of this non-copyrighted movie on line easily. The quality is passable on a computer screen, but little else. But it’s worth it!”

Wednesday [16 to 20]

(1338) Afternoon all. No Moo just at this moment. (1347)

 

20. Those disappearing scientists


19. Birth of a new riding


18. Arch criminals


17. Never let them out of your sight


16. DAD from 1354:2

JH: Always good, that one.

Wednesday [11 to 15]

(0925)(1022)

 

15. Turned into a right bad’un, this one


14. Moo corner


13. Just adore Naomi’s new moniker


12. The crooked Catholic Church

… plus Meloni in with the wrong side on so many issues:


11. Unconstitutional blue states pact

… to bypass the Electoral College, plus another scam:

Wednesday [6 to 10]

(0543) Still a bit dark but so far looks gloomy out there. Morning all.

 

10. The Catholic Church money racket

… and other rackets they have going. Maybe first look at Chaucer and the Indulgences racket.

Maybe look at this Perry Mason episode.

Also this:

“The Vatican Bank scandal primarily refers to the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, where the Vatican Bank (IOR) was the main shareholder and implicated in laundering over $1 billion for the Mafia and illegal organizations. Known as “God’s Banker,” Banco Ambrosiano head Roberto Calvi was found hanged in London in 1982. The Vatican denied wrongdoing but paid $244 million to creditors” (www.worldfinance.com)

That’s before even looking at the Chicago crook who followed Bergoglio.

9. Moo corner


8. Steve corner

7. Bolshevik twofer


6. IYE corner

a. China’s not happy:

https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/china-fires-don-t-interfere-warning-to-us-over-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-2026-04-14-1037427

b. JH: sometimes I need to “bury”. If I tell you where it’s buried, it involves no work on your part, which is against our philosophy here, nor could it be called “buried” … it’s instead a waste of time on my part.

What we’d expect is that if you see it in the sidebar, that gives you about two days to bookmark it for yourself. There are regular places I archive it to, known-known, but also this new set of pages from time to time. There’s another place … remember what date N.O. was stolen by ggl blgr? I was there a few days back at NOWP … yes, it does require you to use the sidebar archive.

c. JH posts IYE on bugs and plandemics:

“Just remember not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth until you get chance to wash your hands first.”

d. This:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation

Wednesday [1 to 5]

(0506)(0532)

 

5. Jeanne is one of the constant Xers in our sphere


Great idea, yes, in a high trust society. Do the western nations have one any more? Why not?

4. Martin Sellner

… is Identitarian movement Austria leader, here on Hungary:


3. Steve at 1353

  • EU’s Epic Hypocrisy on Full Display: Demands the World Keep Oil Flowing While Cementing Its Own Wells and Flooding Coal Mines – Straight Out of the Cultural Marxist Playbook
  • Trump Calls British Labour Government ‘Crazy’ for Banning North Sea Oil Exploration
  • Trump Torches Italy’s Meloni for Her Defense of Pope Leo XIV and Stance on Iran War
  • Nicaragua Bans Several Christian Groups As Persecution Worsens
  • USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Is Travelling Around Africa To Avoid Attack By Houthis
  • Too little too late! (Irish) Government faces new level of scrutiny despite throwing a few crumbs to fuel protesters
  • Trump and the US MIL Setting Sights on Strait of Malacca
  • Much more.

2. The reference to Noelia Castello below

… is it already too late for her to be remembered?


1. DAD at 1353

a) The Baron and Jombo agree. Adequate vetting a chronic weakness of the Trump Administration.

b) That’s the way the money goes: Pop goes my Bentley. Kiev has become one of the strongest Bentley markets in Europe, according to Richard Leopold, Bentley regional director for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.

c) The new frontage for Angers Cathedral – [I hate it].

d) France is finished? And the EU?

Tuesday [16 till close of play]

(1615) Almost evening, folks.

 

23. On and on, back Jack, do it again

(2033) Anna Paulina:


22. Just had a bizarre hour

… with so many things happening … not sure how to even write it (unusual for me) and all of them were good, after a very good day, all up … on top of one’s tasks is as much as one can ask … abode good, food good, training was good, MMutR and I chewed the fat, as did Toods and I, came back to the blog and there were Steve, Andy, IYE … uh huh, checked X and was hit by something I wonder if X itself or coincidence.

If X, then kudos, because my timeline was flooded by “good” people, some with six or seven posts, even photos of themselves, whilst at the same time, there was a really hard “groove” going on where we were all hitting the things in Hungary, Ireland (colleens were flooding the timeline), plus old friends, e.g. Wolfie who used to host N.O., people were coming from everywhere … Russia, Canada, US, UK, antipodes, Greece … on and on and on.

One lady from Alberta was picking up on it and was rapid firing comments, while another lady I know from France was rapid fire posting photos. Went to youtube for a break from too much choc and there was the reaction vid below. Why not just play the bleedin’ song and be done? Well, I don’t like the album cover but I do like her for two reasons … her voice is in a lower register (mature), plus she’s a classical musician listening to a 1972 prog rock song …

… which, sadly, will lose most of you with your tastes. We have run it before but I don’t think with her analysis, plus she paused the song (a compulsory youtube imperative) at the right places, with sympathy. And right from the get-go was illustrated the importance of a great rhythm section who can play, plus an excellent writer and arranger, plus something else … an overlaid almost mania over the pulsing rhythm and she commented on what I was thinking.

Song finished 13 mins into 25, back to HQ … there’s IYE and “island matters”. Tell you what, chaps and chapesses … I’m cream-crackered … but in a good way.

21. They’ve rolled out the April flu it seems


20. We really MUST do due diligence on sources, supposed supporters


19. Moo corner


18. IYE

Ah, seems there’s a lawsuit pending – probably in the next couple of weeks. Michael Wolffe is suing Melania. Using Anti- SLAPP Legislation. Not sure of the basis of his case but one thing he is claiming is Melania and Trump do not live together. Apparently she spends most of her time in NYC and her business interests are there too. She is contracted to be seen with Donny when required. 🤷

Melania has tried to SLAPP Wolffe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation

17. Steve at 1353

a. Hearts of Oak: Jamie Glazov – United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas

b. Blockade Sitrep:

The first oil tanker has been refused passage through the Strait – did a 180 back to Kharg Island oil depot. The United States Navy had interdicted the Chinese tanker ‘Rich Starry’ and threatened to board it. With no crude oil leaving three weeks from now the depot on Kharg Island will be filled to capacity. Job done.

16. TPA rich council bosses stats

“Our 20th annual Town Hall Rich List has revealed a record number of local council bosses receiving over £100k a year – 4,733, in fact. 320 even had salaries bigger than the Prime Minister!”

Tue Mat

 

There’s just that something about the 30s and early 40s in film, think you not? After 85-95 years, unless the film is heavily restored, making it either unembeddable or costing an arm or a leg, it’s pot luck if we find a good one.

“In 1935 Leslie Howard made one of his finest films in the historic romance, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. He played the hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, who was a society leader but also a society twit, who spent time staring through an eyeglass criticizing the way a man’s cravat was tied, or a sleeve was cut, or how Romney was painting his wife.

But when alone with his intimates he was “The Scarlet Pimpernel” who planned the rescue of French aristocrats from the guillotine. He and his gang are fighting a war to the death against Citizen Chauvin (Raymond Massey), the Jacobin agent/minister to Britain, who is seeking to end the rescues. In between is his beloved, but seemingly tarnished wife (Merle Oberon) who is trying to save her captured brother, and unknowingly reveals her husband’s secret to Chauvin. The conclusion of this adventure film was very exciting and surprising. 

But there was and is a problem with THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. Despite Baroness Orczy’s marvelous writing ability (try her detective tales of THE OLD MAN IN THE CORNER as a good follow-up), she was deeply impressed with the old order of aristocracy. Only once, in the film, did a sense of balance come through – and oddly enough out of the mouth of the villain.

Merle Oberon had testified for the French Revolutionary Court against some aristocrats, dooming them (by her testimony) to death. She has never forgiven herself (and it has blackened her reputation). In bemoaning this, Massey gets disgusted and spits out, “Why is it that everyone is always condemning what happened to the poor aristocrats and never think of what they did to us?!”

It’s a good point, but because we dislike Massey and his boss (Robespierre, of course) we never stop to consider it for long. 

Howard was able to repeat and improve on the original film in 1941 with PIMPERNEL SMITH, where as Professor Horatio Smith he uses his archaeological digs in Germany (for proof of an Aryan civilization before Greece or Rome) to rescue intellectuals and victims of the Nazi Reich. Here his opponent is General Von Graum (Francis L. Sullivan) who is like Chauvin in his sharpness and pomposity.

He is an obvious knock at Hermann Goering (who was obese like Sullivan) and has Goering’s sham bonhomie and his totally vicious streak. The writer of the screenplay must have had some discussion with German refugees in the know (notice the bits about Von Graum throwing a tantrum and then turning about and offering German chocolate to someone who has come through for him). 

The film also uses Howard to brilliant advantage in one sequence, disguised as a bureaucrat, whom he himself states was the most disagreeable person he ever thought up. The ultimately efficient German bureaucrat is totally inhuman – a talking machine of bossy efficiency. Percy Blakeney was disguised several times, as an old crone and a soldier, but never someone so disagreeable.

And that is the difference. THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL deals with the 1790s and the Reign of Terror. It was a century and a half in the past, and really could not annoy the French too much (though one wonders what it’s box office was like in France).

Britain and Germany were at war in 1942, and the film could not present even one moment where Von Graum could make a comment like Chauvin’s outburst. As a matter of historic record, Chauvin had some point about the sins of the Ancien Regime as opposed to the Revolutionaries. Knowing what we know now about Von Graum’s buddies, he would not have been able to say much.

The closing of the movie has a memorable speech by Howard, about how Germany’s entrance into war was not the start of its road to glory but to its destruction. True enough in 1945 – 1950 or so.

And when he manages to take advantage of Von Graum’s brief distraction to vanish into the night, the Nazi fires his gun into the empty space. “I’ll be back,” we hear Howard repeat twice.

It is haunting, because of his real fate in being shot down in the war by a Nazi plane. Howard physically did not return, but spiritually he did with the men at D-Day all the way to V.E.Day.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Howard