The Picture of Dorian Gray

I know it's a shame, but although I knew the basic content, I had never actually read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and I had never seen an adaptation of it, either.
So I welcomed the movie from 1945 being part of Lisa's Summer of Angela on Boondock Ramblings. Maybe I'll even try to read the book - Oscar Wilde's only novel - eventually.

Fair use via
Wikimedia Commons

The plot ((partial) spoiler alerts for some, but probably not for all).

Lord Henry Wotton visits his friend Basil Hallward, a painter. There he meets the young, handsome aristocrat Dorian Gray who poses for Hallward. He convinces him that only youth is worth having and Dorian makes a wish in presence of an ancient cat statue, the wish that his portrait should age instead of himself.
Inspired by Wotton's words to enjoy his youth, Dorian turns to the half-world where he meets the tavern singer Sibyl whom he falls in love with and even wants to marry although her brother James, a sailor, isn't happy about it at all.
Wotton recommends to put her to the test, when she doesn't react to Dorian's liking, he breaks off the engagement.
The next day he regrets it, but it's too late, Sibyl has killed herself. Hallward is shocked at Dorian's callousness when he brings him the news.
Afterwards, Dorian notices for the first time that the painting has changed and he hides it away from others.

For years, Dorian is leading a life full of vanity, pleasure and sin, but he never changes which makes people suspect and avoid him. The painting, however, is showing a hideous creature by now.
One day he shows Hallward the painting, but then murders him to keep the secret, and blackmails his friend Campbell into disposing of the body for him. Campbell can't bear the guilt and kills himself.
Then Dorian asks Hallward's niece Gladys to marry him.
Sibyl's brother comes home after many years in which he has tried to find the man who is to blame for his sister's death. Following him to his country estate, he gets accidentally shot during a hunting party.

Dorian realizes he can only save Gladys from similar misfortune by leaving her. He breaks off the engagement by letter and seeing a small change for the better in the painting he hopes to overcome the spell by stabbing it.
When the blade hits the painting, however, he screams terribly and falls over. His friends find him dead in front of the painting, turned into the hideous creature while the painting once again shows the young handsome Dorian.

Painting by Henrique Medina,
now believed to be in a private collection

First of all, let me say that I don't know what exactly I did expect Dorian to look like (I didn't know he was described as blond with blue eyes and very emotional in the book, for example). Maybe I thought of someone classically handsome (whatever that means), someone more angelic exuding innocence, someone "shining", whatever, but not Hurd Hatfield. It nagged me just a tiny bit all the way through the movie.
It also made me wonder how I would have imagined Dorian if I had read the book first.

Dorian didn't show much emotion throughout the movie and that was what Albert Lewin wanted. It can't have been easy for Hatfield to keep that up, but Lewin wanted his face to be like a mask. He even shot closeups in the morning, so Hatfield wouldn't look tired (you should see me in the morning, that would definitely not work) and stopped filming with him at 4 p.m.
So the transformation of Dorian from an innocent young man to a man with a rotten soul has to be shown merely through his sins - of which we only get a few to see, however, so we can let our fantasy run wild - and his eyes, and I think Hatfield did that really well which also helped me mostly getting over his looks, actually before I knew this was Levin's intention.

George Sanders made a great Henry. He's elegant, witty, and utterly unlikeable. Yet it's not hard to understand how someone like he would be able to corrupt a young man like Dorian although even Henry seems to be surprised at how quickly and deeply Dorian's transformation is going.
I don't understand that well why Basil is friends with him, but I've seen it in books before, a villain having a good friend, good in every sense of the word, probably hoping for the villain to mend their ways eventually.
What annoyed me about Basil was that he didn't really seem to try to counter Henry's bad influence with anything but telling Dorian not to listen to him. From someone who was obviously in love with Dorian, may it be for himself or for his art, I would have expected a bit more effort. It might have saved his life, but of course we'd also have a very different book and movie ...
Talking about being in love, Gladys didn't convince me at all, either. In what kind of dream world was she living?
Actually, in what kind of dream world were they all living regarding Dorian's everylasting youth? How did no one grab a pitchfork and torch and try to get him?

I loved Angela Lansbury's performance for which she got an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe.
In the book Sibyl is an actress, not a singer, but of course the change worked perfectly for Lansbury.



Often when a young man falls for an actress or singer from the half-world, they are described as women hardened from their experiences, calculating their chances with a rich man, gold-diggers, blood suckers.
Sibyl is nothing like this although she has such a woman for a mother. You can tell when she takes the money from her mother and gives it back to Dorian.
She's innocent, trusting, romantic, and sweet. She loves him so much that she gives in to his demand to stay overnight just so she won't lose him (still sounds all too familiar today).

All of that makes Dorian's behavior towards her even more cruel, it's his first step into the abyss. To top that, he regrets it the next day, but then rather quickly shows indifference when he hears of her suicide, a sure sign he has chosen his path now.

The film is beautifully shot in black and white which gained it an Academy Award for "Best Cinematography, Black-and-white" (Harry Stradling), only the portrait is shown in Technicolor four times, both in its beautiful and in its ugly state which emphasizes its importance.

Painting by
Ivan Le Lorraine Albright,
now at the Art Institute of Chicago

The sets are very Victorian and there's a good contrast between the two different worlds, but as pointed out rightfully in one blog, the men's costumes don't exactly scream Victorian.
Levin seems to have been so keen on capturing the mood right and even sticking to the novel's text closely in parts that I don't understand why he would be okay with that.

I enjoyed the movie a lot although the only persons I actually liked were poor Sibyl and her brother James (although he shouldn't have trusted their mother to take care of her, but I doubt he could have done much being off to Australia when he had just found out).
I even enjoyed it so much that I went straight onto YouTube to look for another version for comparing, and I did watch another one.

This one is a television play from 1976 (someone complained about a novel by a playwright being turned into a play on television) with Peter Firth as Dorian, Jeremy Brett as Basil, and John Gielgud as Lord Henry.
It's an episode of the BBC series "Play of the Month".

I have known Peter Firth for a while, but had never seen him that young before. Except for his blond locks being a tad too luscious for my taste, he definitely matched my image of Dorian better, but - intended or not - he overdid the camp a bit too much sometimes.
The scene in which he left Sibyl - a very young actress in this case - was really good. She was completely broken and he didn't give a fig and was so mean to her.
Oh, and the scene in which he asked his friend Campbell to get rid of Basil's body was a lot more emotional.
I really liked him, but much to my surprise I liked Hatfield even more. So much for looks, huh?
I definitely preferred George Sanders to John Gielgud which probably had to do more with age than his play. Somehow I didn't see Dorian and Henry that far apart in years.
Not to my surprise I liked Jeremy Brett although the death scene was over the top.

Obviously the sets were limited to a few interiors, a television play isn't a feature film, but I enjoyed it nevertheless, also that there was a narrator introducing some of the scenes.

I don't think I feel like watching another version anytime soon, I already couldn't finish another one that didn't work for me at all.
So the next stop was the novel instead.


Sources:

1. Jay Jacobson: 151. The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945. An unforgettable and thought provoking supernatural thriller. On: Jay's Classic Movie Blog, April 30, 2024
2. Trystan L. Bass: TBT: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). On: Frock Flicks, October 5, 2017
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) - A Timeless Reflection of Vanity and Corruption. On: Surgeons of Horror,  March 2, 2025
4. "hurdhatfieldluv": Hurt Hatfield in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945) ... Is he really a good actor?. On Tumblr

Silent movies - Skinner's Dress Suit

The notion that "clothes make the man" has been around for much longer than you might think and many famous people have talked about it.
It's also what today's movie, "Skinner's Dress Suit" from 1926, is about.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (spoiler alert): 

Mr. and Mrs. (Honey) Skinner, a perfectly ordinary couple living in the suburbs of New York.
Honey thinks there's nothing her husband can't do and she also thinks he deserves a raise and should ask for one.
The boss refuses. Skinner, however, doesn't have the heart to tell Honey who has already prepared a feast with a cake saying "success". She starts spending the money right away, on a dress suit for her husband and a dress for herself, so they can attend an important party.
Not knowing anyone, they feel very awkward at the party at first, but Skinner has been taught the "Savannah Shuffle" at work and passed it on to Honey by phone, so the Skinners quickly have everyone's attention by teaching them the dance.

Encouraged by his gain in social status, Skinner asks for a raise again. Unfortunately, a renewal for the firm's biggest contract with a Samuel Jackson has just fallen through. Not only is the raise denied, no, this time Skinner even gets fired by the senior and junior partner.
Just then he gets notified about his overdraft, the tailor comes to his house to take the dress suit back, and the furniture shop wants to pick up the furniture the Skinners bought.
Nevertheless, Honey and he go to the Ames affair at the Hotel Ritz, but Skinner can't forget about his problem.
Also at the Ritz but not invited are Jackson and his wife who wants nothing more than join in. Seeing Skinner, she thinks he must have a high social status and urges her husband to go and meet him.

After they enter the ballroom again, Jackson dances with Honey and Skinner with Mrs. Jackson. Jackson is so impressed that he offers Skinner a half million dollar contract which leads to the partners turning up at his house the next day and offering him a partnership in the firm.

This isn't a slapstick thigh-slapper. The most physical comedy are the dancing scenes and they are really very funny, especially the one in which Skinner teaches Honey over the phone and then gets caught by his boss, but also the part when he's dancing with Jackson's wife after hearing about the contract. I feel with her, that could be me hanging in his arms like a sack of flour. Unfortunately that particular scene was much blurrier than most of the others, but I think you get the idea.

Reginald Denny and Laura La Plante had a wonderful chemistry as the Skinners.
Skinner loves his wife and wants to do everything to make her happy and she idolizes him, so she honestly thinks he's such an asset to the firm that the bosses can't do anything but give him a raise.
Denny liked to be involved in the movies he made, in fact he was credited for several storylines and he had recommended La Plante for this movie after working with her before.
He was also responsible for the steps of the "Savannah Shuffle", a mix of "Charleston, the Gaby Glide (named after the famous dancer Gaby Deslys), and a duck waddle".

It wasn't just them who made this such a sweet and fun film.
My favorite of the supporting cast was Lucille Ward as Mrs. Jackson for the way she looked at her husband, but also the subtle flirting with Skinner.

There were not that many intertitles except a few ones that were absolutely needed or witty, yet it was not a problem at all to follow thanks to the visual quality of the scenes and the acting.
I really had fun with this one and I'm glad I found it on the same channel as "The Patsy", also with a score of jazz tunes from the time.

The film is an adaptation of the 1916 novel by Henry Irving Dodge (there is also a movie from 1917, but I couldn't find that one). "Skinner" was such a successful figure that there were several stories around him and also several films which I couldn't find, however.
I read the book and there are some differences.
Skinner doesn't get a raise, but he never gets fired. His bosses absolutely recognize the value of his work, but keep quiet about that for different reasons.
For example, Perkins, the junior partner, doesn't like his clothes. Unlike others in their neighborhood, the Skinners save as much money as they can and skimp on expenses like clothing. Honey can make over her own clothes, but Skinner's are downright shabby and it just doesn't make a good impression.
When McLaughlin and Perkins first see him in the dress suit and shortly after in a new business suit, they are afraid that the "worm will turn", and if they give Skinner a raise, won't everyone else want one, too?
They also wonder how Skinner suddenly can afford all that and why would he want to? They think it's a sign that he's speculating thanks to tips from his new friends (who might even want to lure him away from the firm!) - he's even paying more for the Pullman wagon now on his commute - and we all know where that leads ... first losses and next embezzlement!
So they come up with a cunning plan. They send Skinner to the Midwest, so they can have his accounts checked without him being around. Although they know it's hopeless because everyone else has already tried, they tell him to do his best to get Willard Jackson's account back for them.
What they don't anticipate is that Skinner actually doesn't just have new clothes now, he also has a very sharp mind and a cunning plan of his own which gets him the account and the partnership in the firm.
There's also no Jewish tailor in the book (who - not unusual for the time - is portrayed as a bit of a caricature, but we have seen worse), no note from the bank, no furniture people.
So the book is not that funny, but it allows Skinner more to grow beyond clothes and social status on his own merit's. It was a good read and I already put the other three Skinner books on my reading list.


Sources:

1. Jeffrey Vance: Skinner's Dress Suit. Essay. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2022
2. Skinner's Dress Suit (1926). On: Silentfilmcalendar.org
3. Fritzi Kramer: Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) - A silent film review. On: Movies Silently, November 5, 2017
4. Laura ?: Tonight's Movie: Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review, On: Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, October 18, 2020

Broccoli Cat Art

Let me introduce you to Broccoli Cat Art today.
(This is no ad, I'm not getting anything for it, but am sharing something I love, and of course I have asked for permission to write this post, and I'm using a picture of my own on purpose instead of the better original one).

Broccoli Cat Art is Bikky from Melbourne, according to her website an artist with a "mixed cultural background" who is "combining her love of ukiyo-e aesthetics" to "pursue and communicate mental freedom, healing and simple happiness".
Read the full introduction directly on her website to find out more about her inspiration.

All of Bikky's paintings feature a white cat with tabby markings who's "modeled after her own rescue cat named Broccoli" (what a great name, you know I love unusual pet names).

I had seen her art shared before some years ago and then started following her Instagram page when it turned up in my feed there.
Not only do I love her digital paintings (more on that on her website) and the ukiyo-e feel they have to them, I also love the feelings I get from looking at them.
There hasn't been one painting so far that has not made me smile. I know that may sound sentimental (which I readily admit I can be), but the paintings really do give me a moment of that simple happiness that Bikky mentions. They feel the same as if I hug Gundel or have den Dekan sleeping in my arm, only shorter, they are glimmers in my day.

More than once I had been tempted to get a print of hers wishing that postage, tax, and custom and handling fees hadn't increased that much over the last few years. I can't even say how often I went to her print shop and hesitatingly left it again.
I guess I just had to wait for the perfect print - and when I saw it, there was no holding back.
Can you see why?

 Cat, teddy, book ... could it have been better and any more "me" than this??
I chose a light frame for it to pick up on the background and to make the cat take center stage.

If you like cats and ukiyo-e, take a look at Bikky's work.
Maybe it will make you smile, too.

My July books

I have never done a roundup before of the books I read or even counted them. Maybe I'll be keeping this up, maybe not. Mostly it's interesting to me how many books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and how many I read to the cats which of course takes longer, those are marked with 😸
I might add a little hint here and there why I chose a book, but I'm not going to rate the books because I don't like ratings without an explanation, and I admit I don't have the patience for that right now. The cats also refused to give ratings 😉

1. "Der Champagner-Mord" = "Vintage murder" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1937
(Roderick Alleyn 5)

Marsh is dipping into her extensive theater experiences with this one.
Her protagonist, Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn, is on vacation in New Zealand (one of Marsh's few novels set there) when he meets a theater troupe from England on the train and gets invited to the theater.
At the leading lady's birthday celebration, her husband, the owner of the company, gets killed by a jeroboam of champagne which was supposed to be a surprise for his wife.
The local police ask Alleyn for help in solving this murder.

This is part of my vintage crime project for which I got a whole pile of books by Marsh and Allingham.

2. "Gefährliches Landleben" = "Mystery Mile" by Margery Allingham, first published in 1930
(Albert Campion 2)

Crowdy Lobbett, a retired American judge, and his two grown children flee to England from the threats of the Simister gang. Albert Campion, the mysterious private detective, manages to save his life on the way over and takes the family to a hideout in the countryside.
Lobbett has evidence on Simister, the boss of the gang, who has never been seen by anyone.
Campion has to do his best to keep everyone safe and at the same time find out who Simister is.

This is part of my vintage crime project for which I got a whole pile of books by Marsh and Allingham.

3. "Travels with Zenobia - Paris to Albania by Model T Ford." A journal by Rose Wilder Lane and Helen Dore Boylston, edited by William Holtz, first published in 1983 😸

In 1926, reporter Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder) and writer/nurse Helen Dore Boylston (she wrote the "Sue Barton" books), who had originally met on a train, studied different languages in Paris to prepare for a drive from Paris to Albania in a Model T they lovingly called Zenobia.
The book is based on their journal and letters and tells the story of their travels through France, Monaco, and Italy to Albania (where they lived for about a year before returning to the USA).

I stumbled upon the story when I did some research for my post about the "Sue Barton" books. 

4. "Firma Zaubermeister & Co." = "Mr. Mysterious & Company" by Sid Fleischman, first published in 1962 😸

Fleischman wrote his first children's book for his own children who wondered what his job was because of him working at home. The book tells the story of a travelling magician and his family in the Old West.

I re-read this one for a blog post.

5. "The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Green Ghost" by Robert Arthur, Jr. (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1964 😸
(The Three Investigators 4) 
 

When an old mansion is supposed to be torn down, a green ghost appears, a coffin is found in a secret room, precious ghost pearls are discovered and then stolen.
The Three Investigators Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews have to find out how all of this is connected and what is really going on.

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the fourth in the series.

6. "Tochter der Innuit" = "Life Among the Qallunaat" by Minnie Freeman-Aodla, first published in 1978

Minnie Freeman-Aodla (Mini Aodla Freeman in the English version) who was born in 1936 describes her experiences growing up in Inuit communities in Canada, having to go to residential schools, working in a hospital, as a nanny, and as a translator, and living among Qallunaat - those living south of the Arctic.

This was a recommendation by Liz from "Adventures in reading, running, and working from home".

7. "Die göttliche Molli : Ein Studentenroman" (translated "The divine Molli: A student novel") by Wilhelm Poeck, first published in 1920
(Engelhorns allgemeine Romanbibliothek ; 35, 6/7)

The novel tells the story of three students new to the university town Göttingen (written before the First World War) and the people they meet there.
It's about student fraternities, such as a student corps, and their traditions, but also about philosophy, politics, antisemitism, academic studies, decisions, and love.

This is another book I stumbled upon, this time after writing about the "Engelhörnchen". Most interesting for me as someone who has been working around students since the 80s was the old student lingo 😉 It made me wonder if they still use some of those terms in today's fraternities here.

8. "Inspektor Jury sucht den Kennington-Smaragd" = "The Anodyne Necklace" by Martha Grimes, first published in 1983
(Richard Jury Mysteries 3)

A girl is mugged, a finger is found, anonymous letters are sent, emeralds are stolen, there is a murder - what does a rundown pub in London called "The Anodyne Necklace" have to do with a little village? It's for Jury to find out.

I hadn't read a Jury novel for probably 20 years if not longer (my ex-MIL had a bunch), so when I had to wait for my bus, but had forgotten to bring ma book, I was glad I found something in the public book cabinet nearby. No idea if I had read it before, but I had to finish it to find out about the murderer, then it went back to the book cabinet.

9. "Zwischen Sarg und Grube" = "Grave Mistake" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1978
(Roderick Alleyn 30)

What should have been relaxing stay at a spa in a small English village, ends with the death of wealthy widow.
Was it really suicide? Roderick Alleyn investigates among the many suspects.

This is part of my vintage crime project for which I got a whole pile of books by Marsh and Allingham.

10. "Breaking the Chain - The Guard Dog Story" (Mutts) by Patrick McDonnell, first published in 2024

The story of the love between a chained dog and a girl.

I got this book with the Guard Dog story from the cartoon "Mutts" for Christmas and it had been waiting on my dinner table for over half a year although it's not a long read mostly being cartoons, an introduction, and some rescue stories at the end.
I had seen "Mutts" cartoons here and there before, but only started following it regularly online about two years ago.
So I knew what was going to happen when I would read this, in fact it happened when I was just thinking about it. I bawled my eyes out and couldn't stop even after I was through.
What got to me most - if there can even be a "most" here - was when the people moved away and left Guard Dog behind. My first cat was left behind by people living in a house before my friend moved there, and who knows what would have happened to him without her. To tether a dog and leave it behind, I can't even find words for that. Actually I can, but not on this blog.
Even rescue stories make me cry, it's a mix of my heart breaking with the thought a rescue is even necessary and rejoicing that there are people helping.
Then I look at my very pampered cats - one of them a former street cat - and wish all of the animals could be as lucky to find the right people.
I know I said I wouldn't rate the books and maybe some of you even believe cartoons don't count as books, but I have already said so much, so there you are - 5 stars, hands down and an absolute recommendation for me. Just keep tissues around.

11. "Friday's Child" by Georgette Heyer, first published in 1944

Young Viscount Sheringham, called "Sherry" by his friends, proposes to childhood friend Isabella believing he's in love with her, but she rejects him thinking he has only asked her because he won't be able to lay hands on his money before his 25th birthday unless he gets married.
After a row with his mother and uncle about his wild lifestyle, Sherry storms out vowing to marry the first girl he meets. That happens to be another childhood friend, young Hero, an orphan living with relatives who want her to become a governess.
They agree on a marriage of convenience - although "Kitten" how he calls her has obviously always been in love with Sherry - and from there begins their adventure in having to mature.

This book is a re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-I honestly don't know how many re-read. I don't even love it so much for the romance or the way to maturity with a fake to real marriage - although I do love the happy ending of course - but mostly because it never fails to make me snicker and laugh. 
Whenever I need something to pick me up, this is the right book for it 🙂 

12. "Craft Psychology" by Dr. Anne Kirketerp, first published in English in 2024 😸

This book is about "how crafting promotes health".
I plan to write a post about this eventually, so I'm not going to say more now.

13. "Süße Gefahr" = "Sweet Danger" (also as "Kingdom of Death" or "The Fear Sign") by Margery Allingham, first published in 1933
(Albert Campion 5)

Averna is a tiny country on the Adriatic Sea with a strange history. When an earthquake shapes part of it into a natural port which would allow direct access to the oil found there, Campion doesn't just have to prove the ownership of a young aristocratic family living in Suffolk and their rightful claim to the title, but he also has to protect them from a greedy financier and his men.

This is part of my vintage crime project for which I got a whole pile of books by Marsh and Allingham.

14. "Ein Schuss im Theater" = "Enter a Murderer" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1935
(Roderick Alleyn 2)

This is the first of Marsh's novels set in theatrical circles.
Chief Inspector Alleyn happens to be in the audience when an unpopular actor is murdered on stage, shot with a gun whose dummy bullets have been replaced with real ones.

This is part of my vintage crime project for which I got a whole pile of books by Marsh and Allingham.

15. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1890

This is the story of an aristocrat making a Faustian bargain to remain young and beautiful while the portrait an artist friend has painted of him changes in his stead. Little does he know what this bargain will mean for his future and his soul.

I had never read the book, but after watching two of the movie adaptations for the Summer of Angela (Lansbury) - post coming up next week - I thought it was about time.

16. "Skinner's Dress Suit" by Henry Irving Dodge, first published in 1916

"Clothes make the man" - how the lie about a raise and a dress suit improve a clerk's and his wife's life, both social as subsequently in business, as he gets the chance to show what he's capable of.

The adaptation of 1926 was part of my silent movie project (post coming up), so I read the book as well.

17. The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure" by Robert Arthur, Jr. (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1968 😸
(The Three Investigators 5)

What are the chances that the priceless Golden Belt is stolen from a museum just when The Three Investigators visit the exhibition?
How is it possible that an old friend of Mr. Hitchcock's thinks there are real gnomes in her garden at night?
And how are these things connected to each other?
Will Jupiter, Pete, and Bob find out?

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the fifth in the series.
My personal pet peeve with it is that the author mentions more than once that gnomes are a legend from the Black Forest in Bavaria. There are gnome legends, not just in Germany (even if our garden gnomes - which originated in Thuringia - are famous) but also other countries. Also the Black Forest is not in Bavaria! It made me cringe every time he repeated that.

18. - 22. "Der kleine Nick", "Der kleine Nick und die Ferien", "Der kleine Nick und seine Bande", "Der kleine Nick und die Schule", "Der kleine Nick und die Mädchen" by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé, first published 1960 to 1965
(English translations possibly (meaning I'm not sure it's the exact same stories): "Nicholas and the Gang at School", "Nicholas and the Gang Again", "Nicholas on Holiday", "Nicholas and the Gang", "Nicholas at Large")

"Le Petit Nicolas" is a French classic for children, set in a childhood in the 50s.

This is another re-re-re-re----read for a future blog post.

23. "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886 😸

The Gothic horror novella follows the lawyer Utterson who investigates the strange connection between his old friend Dr Henry Jekyll and an evil murderer named Edward Hyde.

When I decided to watch two of the silent movie adaptations (and also put two talkies on my list), I felt it was finally about time to read the novella, too.

24. "Schwarzer See" = "The Last Time I Lied" by Riley Sager, first published in 2018

15 years ago, three girls disappeared from a summer camp. Now the camp re-opens and their former roommate, now hired as an art teacher, attempts to find out what happened.

Sager was recommended to me and this was the only ebook by him in my local library.



DNF:

1. "Search the Shadows" by Barbara Michaels, first published in 1987

Haskell Maloney lost her mother when she was only three months old. Now she has found out her mother's husband, who died in the Vietnam War, wasn't her father. She goes to Chicago to find out the truth.

I know books by Barbara Mertz that she wrote under the pen name Elizabeth Peters, but none she wrote as Barbara Michaels, so I just started the first one I found available online.
I struggled my way through for a while although I got bored by the story pretty early. After a third - 100 pages - I simply couldn't go on and skipped to the ending which didn't convince me either, though.

2. "Schockensee, Hohenstaufenhalle, EWS-Arena" by Erwin Singer, first published in 2009
(Veröffentlichungen des Stadtarchivs Göppingen 50)

 
This book published by our City Archives is about an area in my town which is practically just around the corner from me. It tells the history of the artificial lake that used to be there way before my time - it was drained in 1953 - and the multi-purpose hall that was built in that spot afterwards.
I was really interested in the story of the lake which my father sometimes mentioned when reminiscing, but not that detailed of course.
Handball is a big topic in town and the author was not only the brother of one of our handball heroes, but played and coached handball himself as well. I'm not interested in sports at all, so when it began to be all about the hall and its handball history, the author lost me.

The Court Jester

"The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!"
"The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!"

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings is doing the Summer of Angela (Lansbury), this time with one of my all time favorite movies, "The Court Jester" from 1955 with Danny Kaye, Glynis Jones, Basil Rathbone, and of course Angela Lansbury. Here is her post.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (with spoilers). I'm already apologizing because there's a lot of plot with a lot of twists and reading it can be quite confusing. I could have made this really, really short or, well, the way I did.

Hubert Hawkins is a carnival entertainer in the Black Fox's band of rebels protecting the infant King of England after Roderick the Tyrant has had the Royal Family killed and taken the throne. He'd like to join the fight and offers a group of acrobatic little people to provide entertainment instead of him, but the Black Fox refuses.
Instead he and Maid Jean, the Black Fox's captain, are to disguise themselves to take the baby to the safe Abbey of Dover. When they seek shelter during the stormy night, they show their affection for each other, but first the usurper must be defeated.
Then they meet the King's new jester, Giacomo. Jean seizes the opportunity to gain access to the castle by knocking Giacomo out and telling Hawkins to take over for him while she will take the heir to Dover. There's a secret passage from the castle to the forest, so if Hawkins manages to get the key, the rebels can take the castle over. There's already a man in the castle who can't get the key himself, but can help Hawkins.

Unfortunately, they do not know that Giacomo is also an assassin hired by the King's right hand, Lord Ravenhurst, to murder three of the Lords in court and thus prevent the King seeking alliance with Sir Griswold in exchange for his daughter Gwendolyn's hand.
Also Jean gets held up by the King's men who gather the most beautiful women in the country to bring to the court. Luckily, their man in the castle, Fergus, can hide the baby.

Gwendolyn refuses to marry such a brute because her maid, the castle's witch Griselda, has promised her a dashing man. Desperate because Gwendolyn threatens to die and take her to death with her if she has to marry Griswold, Griselda tells the Princess that Hawkins, who has just arrived, will be her love.

From there, about anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Of course Ravenhurst thinks Hawkins is Giacomo, and due to a misunderstanding, Hawkins thinks Ravenhurst is the rebel instead of Fergus.
Then Griselda casts a hypnotic spell to make him the dashing lover, a snap of the fingers will turn the spell on and off. On his way to the Princess, he meets Jean who has managed to steal the key. He doesn't recognize her, but she slips him the key. The King, who had asked Hawkins to pick one of the ladies for him, thinks he has chosen Jean.
Hawkins woos Gwendolyn who takes the key from him for their escape together, but then the King finds and takes it from her. Hawkins also receives orders from Ravenhurst. He forgets everything, though, after being released from the spell.

At Jean's command, Fergus takes the basket with the baby to Hawkins shortly before he is supposed to perform for the King. With his performance he manages to distract the audience from the basket and Jean can take the baby to safety again.
Griselda poisons the three lords which makes Ravenhurst think Hawkins carried out his orders.
When Griswold arrives, though, Gwendolyn says she loves the jester and Hawkins is arrested. Also Ravenhurst's agent tells him that he's not the real Giacomo.
Ravenhurst's conclusion is that Hawkins must be the Black Fox, so he suggests to the King to have him knighted quickly to allow Griswold to challenge him to mortal combat, presumably so that the Princess will have to marry Griswold, but really to have the Black Fox kill him.

Jean steals back the key and gives it to Fergus who manages to send it to the rebels by pigeon before he gets killed.
Hawkins is knighted in a rushed ceremony (one of my favorite scenes, I still say "yea verily yea" to myself a lot when I do something!). Jean tells him to accept the duel because the Black Fox will come and fight in his stead. That plan fails when part of the secret passage caves in and no one can get through - no one?



Anyhow, Hawkins has to fight the duel himself, but Griselda, threatened by Gwendolyn again, says she has poisoned Griswold's toast and gives him the instruction for telling which cup is poisoned. Just when he has memorized the verse, one of the cups gets broken and the verse changes.
They get overheard by one of Griswold's men, though, so now both duelists try to get the safe drink. The King gets tired of it and orders the mortal combat to begin immediately.



Due to Hawkins's armor having been struck by lightning, it is magnetic and thus Griswold is pulled off his horse as his flail sticks to Hawkins's shield.
Ravenhurst then calls him out as the Black Fox and Jean and he are taken before the King as traitors and the basket with the baby brought in.
The Black Fox, however, has called on Hawkins's acrobatic friends, the little people who have managed to come through the secret passage while the rebels, who have come via the coastal road, enter the castle disguised as monks.
Hawkins and Ravenhurst start a sword fight that Hawkins is about to lose when Griselda hypnotizes him again. In the end, he and Jean manage to catapult Ravenhurst into the sea with the help of two of the acrobats.

When Griswold arrives to demand the King's release from the rebels, Hawkins shows him and the court the birthmark on the true heir, the purple pimpernel on the baby's bottom.
The fight is won and Hawkins and Jean get their happy ending, too.

I have loved this movie as long as I can think back.
Usually I'm not much of a fan of non-musicals having songs, but these ones I like.

It's not hard to tell that this is a parody, but also a bit of a homage to the popular swashbucklers. Of course, the Black Fox and his rebels make you think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men right away. The difference is that this story is told from the point of view of Hawkins, an unlikely hero with an unlikely love story.
I never liked the Black Fox because I thought he was condescending to Hawkins. Granted, Hawkins is not trained in the art of fighting, he's an entertainer, but he proves that he can be brave for the cause and in the end that mix - and some magic and a lot of luck - is what helps win back the throne for the rightful heir.

Were this a Robin Hood movie, Hawkins would be Alan-A-Dale, but who would be Maid Marian?
Depending on the version, Maid Marian was either at the court - that would be Princess Gwendolyn - or she lived with the Merry Men - that would be Maid Jean. 
Gwendolyn, however, is no Marian. She's the usurper's daughter and a spoilt and selfish young lady. I think Angela Lansbury played that role beautifully the way she ignored the wishes of her father without batting an eye or threatening a Griselda, the witch, without hesitation to make her do her bidding (she's also smart enough not to look her in the eyes). Makes you wonder what would have happened to Gwendolyn under the new King.
Actually, I wondered every time who would have taken over until the baby was old enough. That's just the way my brain works. I'm digressing, sorry.
Maid Jean is not really Marian, either. She's a captain in the band of rebels and wants to see the true King on the throne willing to put her personal feelings last until the goal is reached. She's also smart and courageous. Her love story is not with the rebel leader, though. Instead she loves Hawkins although he hasn't even shown yet how brave he really is which is very sweet.

Well, and Basil Rathbone is a wonderful villain as Ravenhurst and practically making fun of his swashbuckler roles before this one, such as King John's Guy of Gisbourne, for example.

There's no denying that this is Danny Kaye's movie, tailored to some of his many talents (I say some because they went way beyond acting, singing, and dancing!) one of which was his skill of wordplay and delivery of high-speed tongue twisters, but also of slapstick and pantomime.
I loved the idea of the hypnotic spell which gave Kaye the opportunity to change character within seconds and that shows nowhere better than in the sword fight between Hawkins and Ravenhurst.
Basil Rathbone who was the best fencer in Hollywood was amazed at Danny Kaye's fencing skills after training for only a few weeks (nevertheless there was a stunt double for Rathbone in some parts of the fight, the probable reason is explained in this interesting video).
As Hawkins is under the spell through some of the fight which gets turned on and off, however, there is a mix of skilled swordplay and wildly flailing around to stay alive - absolutely hilarious!

I have always been a big fan of the Robin Hood legend through a book we had, but also my first TV encounter with it which was "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Richard Greene (thinking about it, there might be a re-watch in order) and of course "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn. Often being a fan of the underdog in a movie, I found "The Court Jester" to be the perfect combination for me.
I loved the sets, the bright colors, the beautiful costumes for both women and men, the fun, and even the songs.
Actually I loved the film so much that I ordered it from the USA almost 20 years ago because it wasn't available in Germany then. Weirdly, that DVD disappeared eventually, but luckily it had also come out in Germany by then (I love the movie in English and German).

Not everyone was as enthusiastic as I had been from the start.
"The Court Jester" got good enough critical reviews, but it was a box office fail. The film had been the most expensive comedy movie produced up to that time (due to the sets and costumes), but only made about half of the money back.
Over the years, however, it has become one of those cult classics a lot of people like to watch over and over - me, me! - and love to quote from.

So if you really don't know this movie yet, give it a try. You might well be positively surprised how much fun a 70 year old movie can be! It's much less confusing when you watch it, too.
I will never tire of watching it myself.

Silent movies - The Patsy

Last week was very dramatic, so it's time for a bit of fun again this week, but not as short as the last one.
Interestingly enough, I stumbled upon this movie thanks to a review of last week's movie, but we'll come to that later.
I present "The Patsy" from 1928.

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

First the plot (with spoilers):

Meet the Harringtons. We have the father who has a hard time standing up to the imperious mother, and we have two daughters, Grace, the older one, and Pat(ricia), the younger one.
Grace is always favored by the mother and although the father is on Pat's side and sometimes tries to help her, Pat never wins. To make things even worse, she's hopelessly in love with Grace's suitor Tony which is obvious to anyone but him.
At a dinner held at the Yacht Club, Grace is noticed by local playboy Billy. He charms her until she leaves the dinner with him in his speed boat. Pat sees her chance to get Tony's attention. She asks him for suggestions regarding a man she's in love with. Tony, who still doesn't understand that he's said man, advises her to develop a personality and thus attract him.
With the help of books, Pat practices witticisms which convinces her mother and sister that she's gone mad, but her father tells her to keep going on like that.
Tony is annoyed about Grace and Billy and turns his attention to Pat which makes Grace decide she wants Tony after all.
So Pat and her father hatch a plan in which Pat goes to Billy's house faking an attack to make Tony come and rescue her. Billy, however, is so hung over that he doesn't even notice her no matter what she tries.
Pat arranges the place to look as if there was a fight, locks herself up in Billy's bedroom and calls Tony. The plan backfires when Tony picks her up and scolds her for even going to the house of a man like Billy by herself. Let's be honest, it was a stupid plan and not fair towards Billy.
Seeing her so down, her father finally takes heart and tells the mother and Grace off for the way they are behaving towards Pat and himself. To scare them, he announces he'll be leaving and goes to hide outside in the bushes for a while until Ma is ready to promise him to be good.
In the end, Tony comes back demanding to know of Pat if Billy is the man she had been talking about and she admits that it is not Billy, but he. They kiss.

"The Patsy" was adapted from a successful Broadway comedy by Barry Conners which got 245 performances between 1925 and 1926.

The plot itself isn't really that important here, though.
I just enjoyed the performance of Marion Davies so much. I had never heard of her before (no surprise there, there are of course so many people from the silent film era I don't know) and didn't know that she moved between drama and comedy.
There was a reason for that. Davies was the mistress of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst - for 35 years until his death - and Hearst wanted to see her in big dramatic and epic films (although I read reviews saying Davies would have become a star without having been promoted by Hearst).
Director King Vidor said that he had experienced Davies as a very funny person in private who, for example, entertained friends with impersonations of colleagues. He wasn't keen on working with her on one of her usual films.

It was the right decision. Davies was indeed very funny in this movie, supported very well by the rest of the cast.
For Marie Dressler and Dell Henderson who played Ma and Pa Harrington, "The Patsy" was a comeback after years off-screen. It was amazing how I actually seemed to be able to hear especially Ma in some scenes 🤣

Although I laughed throughout the movie, the following scene was the funniest to me.
When Pat is at Billy's house (a terrible plan, by the way, and not very fair towards him), she looks at the pictures of his favorite actresses standing around. To make him notice her in his hung over state, she impersonates all three of them and it's absolutely hilarious.

The first one is Mae Murray who was also called "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" for the way she wore her lipstick. 

The second one is Lillian Gish from last week's movie.
In one blog, this "mockery" is mentioned and that's how I found "The Patsy".
Even having seen just one of Gish's films so far, it looked really good to me.

The last one is Pola Negri.

The ending of the movie seemed a bit rushed to me, however. It's nice that the father got his chance, but there's not much going on between Pat and Tony anymore. Despite the kiss, that was a bit of an anticlimax.

This was probably my film with the most intertitles so far. There were a lot and sometimes that disturbed the flow of the movie a bit, but a lot of the intertitles were quite funny, so I think they were probably taken from the play and they didn't just wanted to drop that.
The witticisms really made me laugh, not because they were extremely witty, but because they could be right off Facebook or other social media.
"Don't cry over spilt milk - there's enough water in it already." "What is a hot dog? A hamburger in tights." "If it wasn't for the rain there wouldn't be any hay to make when the sun shines."
Oh, how far we have come in almost 100 years.

I watched the movie on YouTube. The channel owner wrote this: "Another lovable silent uploaded to YouTube with a great catalogue of amazing jazz tunes prior 1929 ..." and I have to say that they worked really well and added to the fun of the movie.
This is definitely going on my re-watch list!


Sources:

1. Fritzi Kramer: The Patsy (1928) - A silent film review. On: Movies Silently, April 30, 2015
2. The Patsy (1928). On: Obscure Hollywood
3. Thomas Gladysz: The Patsy. Essay. On: Silent San Francisco Film Festival 2013
4. David Kiehn: The Patsy. Essay. On: Silent San Francisco Film Festival 2008

From my children's book cabinet - Mr. Mysterious & Company

I don't know if it was the same in your family, but some books seemed to be around forever.
The book I want to talk about today was one of those which was a surprise for me when I pulled out my copy because it's definitely not the family copy, and not just because there's a sticker with a stranger's name in it. I seem to remember that ours looked much more battered, probably no surprise in a big family.

It's Sid Fleischman's first children's book, "Mr. Mysterious & Company", about a travelling magician and his family, and only as a grown-up when I found one of his other books, I became aware how much more he had written, not just children's books, but also screenplays, novels for adults such as detective or adventure stories, and books about magic.

I know I loved this book as a child, but I haven't read it forever, so who knows if the magic is still there (pun intended!). Let's find out together.

Mr. Mysterious & Company - that is the Hackett family with father Andrew Perkins Hackett, Mama, uhm, whose name is never mentioned, and the children Jane, Paul, and Anne.
With them are Hocus and Pocus, the horses pulling their wagon, and Madam Sweetpea, the cow who determines their travelling speed, and some rabbits.
Set in 1884, the book tells the story of the Hacketts travelling through the country with the destination of San Diego where they finally want to settle down.

On their travels from city to city, they entertain people with their magic show in which each of them has their own role, the father as Mr. Mysterious who makes a chicken give milk, pulls rabbits out of hats and shows slides with the magic lantern, Mama on the piano, Jane as the Sleeping Princess floating in the air, Paul as the all knowing Great Sphinx, and Anne is the living doll in the enchanted dollhouse.

There's more to their life, though. Mama, who used to be a teacher, gives them school lessons, but they also have adventures.
They have an encounter with grumpy Jeb Grimes whose dog they have found for whom Pa gives up his golden watch. He's so smart they re-name him "Professor" and he even gets his own part in the show because he loves rope jumping.
They help a sheriff catch the thief called the Badlands Kid who stole Grimes's gold.
They get to ride a high-wheel bicycle when they meet a wandering newspaperman and his family who are on their way to found a new town.
They use the magic lantern to chase off horse thieves (more on that later).
Pa tricks some farmhands who have locked up a judge who has sentenced one of their friends to jail for stealing cattle.

And then there is of course Abracadabra Day.
It's the family's secret holiday. As the children don't have much chance to misbehave, they each get one day they are allowed to be bad or pull pranks without being punished for it, but you can't announce it beforehand.
Paul uses his feet to untie the knot of the rope holding Madam Sweetpea to the wagon.
Jane pins up her hair during one of the shows although Mama says she's too young for that.
Anne catches ten frogs she lets loose during a show.

In the end, they make it to California. The thought of never putting on a magic show again makes them all sad, but on the other hand they are also happy to settle down. Jane will be able to have friends for longer than a day, Paul will help Pa on the farm, and Anne might be able to take the ballet lessons she has been dreaming of.
Then they meet Big Jim Norton. He plans to open a theater and asks them to put up a show once a month and Pa says yes.
"By gosh and by golly ... It's a bargain. Why, we could declare it a kind of Abracadabra Day. Once a month - magic for everyone."

This book is from 1962 and of course it feels aged in parts.
There is a "cigar store Indian" in one town which unfortunately hasn't been unusual for much longer than that, and the horse thieves mentioned above are Native Americans.
One Goodreads review, for example, said there are other books that don't "perpetuate and normalize racism". To be honest, I think that's taking it too far. It is said that Mama has met good and bad Indians, there are no derogatory names ("Indians" was still used at the time), and they are not the only ones who pose a threat in this story.
What I personally disliked most about this part of the chapter was the illustration going with it.
I think if you read the book to a child, you could either skip that part or use it for a little history lesson.

It probably really depends on the child, though, if this is a fun story telling it a bit about the olden days - like the newspaperman explaining how you can make a city by setting up a newspaper first and attracting people that way - or if it thinks it's a boring story.
I think it's still a bit of fun.

Los Angeles Times,
CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fleischman wrote the book for his own children Jane, Paul (who also became a writer), and Anne, by the way, and dedicated it to them.
In fifth grade, he decided to become a magician. After the war he finished college and first worked as a reporter, then went into writing fiction which led to him becoming a Hollywood screenwriter.
Writing "Mr. Mysterious & Company" for his children made him get into children's books, but he also never gave up magic completely.
"They didn't understand what I did for a living. Other fathers left home in the morning and returned at the end of the day. I was always around the house. I decided to clear up the mystery and wrote a book just for them."

Fleischman liked to incorporate history, folklore, and of course magic in his books but also humor.
The Sid Fleischman Humor Award, whose first recipient he was (among many other awards including the Newbery Medal), is given each year in his honor by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.


Sources:

1. Sid Fleischman website
2. Mr. Mysterious & Company on Goodreads