Silent movies - Long Pants

One of the silent movie blogs I'm following made me (once again) aware of Harry Langdon. There are people who put him in one group with Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd as one of the big four comedians of that time.
I hadn't watched anything with Langdon yet, so I very randomly picked a movie called "Long Pants" (also known as "Johnny Newcomer") from 1927.

Here's the plot (with spoilers as you know).

Despite being a grown-up, Harry Shelby still isn't allowed by his mother to wear long pants. His only romantic experiences are from library books and dreams.
Then his father gives him his first pair of long pants and Harry's life changes completely.
While his parents expect him to marry his childhood friend Priscilla, Harry spots femme fatale Bebe Blair whose car has broken down. Bebe kisses him jokingly and after she's gone, Harry finds a note - obviously not meant for him - saying "I'll be back to marry you".

As Bebe doesn't come back, Harry's and Priscilla's wedding day has come instead. That day, Harry reads in the newspaper that "snow smuggler" Bebe is in the city jail and he makes the quick decision to help her escape. First he needs to get rid of Priscilla, though, and takes her to the woods to shoot her.

The plan goes utterly wrong and when Priscilla finds the gun and takes a few practice shots at a target she has pinned on a tree, Harry gets scared and runs off to the city.
Bebe has already managed to escape and Harry helps her to hide in a packing crate which he carries off.
After a few adventures with a policeman and an alligator, Bebe asks him to share her life of crime.
When they go to a club so Bebe can settle scores with the singer and dancer who took her husband, though, things go very wrong. Bebe and her husband shoot each other and Harry gets trampled in the stampede of curious people, so he goes back home and is happily welcomed back by Priscilla and his parents.

Well, people. You may wonder now, but this really is supposed to be a comedy. I mean I have nothing against black humor at all, but this one left me a bit speechless. My first thought was that I shouldn't have picked a random Langdon movie, but should have checked for beginner's choices first.
According to a film historian, even Buster Keaton, who was a fan of Langdon's, thought the scene in the woods was going too far.
And it seems that there was also a fallout between Langdon and Frank Capra who directed the film because it was too dark. I say "seems" because I'm still completely clueless about the different angles and point of views about that. In a quick browse I found different opinions, so I'm not going to touch that topic (yet?).

All I got so far is that some see Langdon as a comedic genius albeit an acquired taste and others say they simply "can't get into him".
If I were quick to judge from just one movie, I would be part of the second group. There were some funny scenes, for example when Harry thinks Bebe is nudging him through the hole in the packing crate although it's the alligator.

All in all, however, I thought that almost an hour was quite long for something that - may Langdon fans forgive me - didn't impress me much as a comedy.

Nevertheless, I can't judge from this movie alone, so the next time I'll check for recommendations first, and who knows, maybe he'll become an acquired taste for me, too.

Freddie

Gundel and I started a new book last week, a children's book whose film adaptation had been mentioned in another book I had just finished (the titles are not important in this context).

Maybe you remember my post about the rose in a book I read on The Internet Archive.
I still enjoy looking at library stamps or notes in books I read there, but this time I found something that's a puzzle to me.

Well, Freddie, congratulations from me as well!
Once again, I have questions, though.
I guess this note has been glued into the book because otherwise it might have fallen out during the scan unless someone positioned it like that on purpose. So my second guess is that the book was a gift on occasion of Freddie's successful year.

This is a printed note in which you can fill in the name. Is this something children - as it's a children's or middle grade book - are regularly congratulated on and if so, for how long has this been going on? That particular edition of the book is from 2010. Had I not known that, however, the font with the swirls would have reminded me of the 1970s, but of course you can find all kinds of retro fonts today and I doubt someone had a stacks of 70s notes around 🙃

Now to the really important point, and by important I mean for my weird brain at about 10 p.m. on an ordinary day.
What was Freddie successful at? What exactly are "the Threes" and how can you spend a year in them?
A quick online search might be doing the trick. The first page I came across was a cricket blog called "In the Threes". Huh.
"Why "in the threes"? Well, it's where I've spent most of my amateur cricket career."
That was about all I understood on that blog. The words looked English, but actually it was "Cricketish". But hey, so it probably had to do with cricket, that was a start. The book was British, I assumed Freddie is as well (I hope his ears are not ringing too much), so it made sense.
Freddie had a successful cricket year ... although this might have not been more than one of those participation prizes. Hey Freddie, you made it through the whole year, well done you, old chap. Good man.

I still didn't know what exactly "the Threes" are, though. Probably the third team in some way. Maybe a youth team?
As I have no life but can get obsessed about totally random stuff like that - you may have noticed before - I started going through cricket pages and understood less and less.
Then, however, I noticed the term "the 1st XI" (a cricket team has eleven players and I have no idea why the number is Roman) and so on ... could the 3rd XI be "the Threes"? It sure sounded plausible, especially after reading about "first XI players who say 'they won't play for the twos'".

What I still don't get is if a club only has the first to the fourth XI, if it depends merely on skill, and if there are separate "threes" etc. for grown-ups and children.
Maybe a British reader or someone from another Cricket playing nation wants to chime in on that and enlighten me?

Until then my weird brain will just imagine Freddie to look like this 😉

Francis Cotes: The Young
Cricketer (1768),
public domain via Wikimedia
Commons

10 on the 10th - Would you rather ...

First of all, yes, I know it's not the 10th. I'm just weird about not having two posts on the same day.
So, without further ado, here are my 10 on the, well, 11th.
These are the questions Marsha gave us.

Would you rather rock a mullet or a perm?

Perm although I've tried it twice without convincing results many years ago. I have always dreamed of soft waves, but I only had those when my hair was wet, no matter how much I kneaded. It's funny that years ago I suddenly got some waves in my very long hair, but weirdly it's only some strands and not necessarily the ones on top.

Would you rather have a magic carpet or a crystal ball?

Easy. Definitely a crystal ball. Even as a kid I had problems to think about Detective Teffan Tiegelmann flying on his magic carpet. Look at the picture, doesn't that make you nervous? I mean, is it like a wooden board or does it sag during the flight? What about turbulences? Can you really put a barrel on it? No no, I'll have the crystal ball, please. I'm not saying I'd use it, though. It can look pretty on a table in the corner.

Would you rather be able to teleport anywhere instantly or read minds?

Another easy one. Teleport of course! If a mere finger snap could do it, that would be great. No machines, it makes me think of "The Fly" or a very creepy story I once read.
Being someone who's not very mobile, teleporting sounds great. First thing I'd do would be visiting some online friends.
Reading minds - no. Seeing minds being dumped on the internet all the time, that's actually a terrible thought. Unless you could turn it off and on. Nah, not even then.

Would you rather eat chocolate-flavored broccoli or broccoli-flavored chocolate?

I read that as chocolate-covered broccoli first, but of course broccoli-covered chocolate might be a tad difficult to achieve (and it sounds disgusting).
Where's the choice here? I could always close my eyes to forget that I'm eating broccoli for the perfect chocolate flavor, couldn't I, but I don't think it would work the other way round.

Would you rather have a talking toilet or a talking fridge?

I'm no fan of my appliances talking at all. I yell at my washing machine when it beeps at me from the bathroom (yes, many Germans have their washing machine in the bathroom) telling it to shut up, I will be there when I'm ready. If my fridge beeps to let me know the door has been open for too long while I try to shove the last items from the grocery delivery in, I yell "I know, I know, I'm hurrying up!"
I talk to inanimate objects, I really don't need them to talk back, but if I have to choose, it'll be the fridge. I just wonder if we will have philosophical conversations or if it will keep reminding me of the dying vegetables or the living cheese.

Would you rather sneeze glitter or cry jelly?

Have you ever seen a slow-motion video of a sneeze? And have you ever seen me do a surprise sneeze? I don't want to live in a world of glitter. I like the look of glitter, but I have given up on it a long time ago for good reason.
Now I can't imagine how difficult it would be to cry jelly, but given the body temperature it probably wouldn't be too terrible?

Would you rather make a snowman or build a sandcastle?

Picture via pxhere

From experience, I'd say I'm pretty terrible at both. I'm not a big fan of the beach as in lying in the sun, but you - looking at you, Marsha - know I hate snow, so the ugly sandcastle it'll be.

Would you rather have a pet unicorn or a pet dragon?

I'm not going to choose. I'm ... I'm going to have both. Yes, and they are going to be best friends ... and we are going to have the best adventures and ... and I'm going to call them Amalthea and Puff ... and they are going to sleep in my room ...

Pictures via pxhere

Sorry, but with such a question I can't help turning into a child again. I hope you heard my excited breathing and I may have had a finger in my mouth in order to think better (and still couldn't came up with less stereotypical names).
But yeah, I'm definitely going to have both.

Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the smartest person in the room?

Well, that depends on the circumstances, does it? If I'm about to deliver a stand-up routine, I'd prefer to be the funniest, at a work meeting I'd prefer to be the smartest.
Generally speaking, though, I'd always choose to be the smartest and hopefully not in an annoying way.

Would you rather have a conversation with your past self or your future self?

I'm terrible with that time-travelling stuff. I could give my past self a lot of advice, but what would that do to my present self? I don't want to use the crystal ball, so why would I want to talk to my future self?
I'd rather talk to my fridge about fuzzy cheese.

How would you have answered these questions?

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 151

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

If you have known me for a while, you know the obligatory spring picture.
Little hearts in the garden ... I'm looking forward to seeing them in full bloom. It's just one plant, but it always makes me so happy (if you want to know why -> here).

Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on For Family Caregivers.

Charlene and Justin from For Family Caregivers say: "We are a mother son duo who cared for our loved one for five years after he was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia due to Frontal Temporal Degeneration. It was a disease no one had heard of until Bruce Willis was also diagnosed. We learned to advocate for a disease about which little was known, adapt to rapid changes that left him unable to speak, to feed himself and become totally dependent. We learned on the fly - guessing, researching, asking questions and, sometimes, giving up in tears and frustration.
It was a challenge. Heart breaking. And a privilege.
We are not the only family to travel this unexpected road. We want to share our hard won knowledge so others could benefit from our struggles and give them meaning. It can only take 5-10 minutes because that's all the "spare" time a caregiver has! Short and sweet bites: time saving tips to implement, food for thought, a new way of doing things, a break in the routine, a bit of self care, useful knowledge ... We've gone through the struggle and we want to make it easier for others."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Melody thinks you should read Kristin Hannah's "The Great Alone". Here's why.

Amy's post reminded me that I still haven't tried roasted radishes and they look so good!

I'm not a DIYer myself, so I'm always impressed if someone fixes something like Gina did with her attic opening.

Oh, the hunt for clothes in a certain color. Gail found just what she wanted.


Let's link up!

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Silent Movies - One Week

How good are you at putting together furniture? I have two small identical chests. One looks just fine, the other keeps coming a bit apart in one spot - until I knock it together again with a perfectly aimed slap. I have absolutely no idea what I did differently on the second one. This is just one example. Sometimes I'm fine, sometimes not so much.
Could I put together a whole house, though?
Let's see how good Buster Keaton is at it, shall we? Today I have the two-reeler "One Week" from 1920 for you.

As usual the plot (spoilers!). My intro probably gave you a bit of an idea already ...

For their wedding, Uncle Mike gives a happy couple a house and lot No. 99 Apple Street.

The driver is Handy Hank, the guy the
bride had turned down.

When they come to the lot, though, there's no house but a truck delivering boxes from the Portable House Co. The instructions tell them to put their home together according to the numbers on the boxes "to give this house a snappy appearance".

Buster starts right away, but jealous Hank secretly alters some numbers on the boxes.

So when Buster has finished, it's no surprise that the house looks like this.

And like this.

Aaand like this.

One of the times when Buster actually hurt
himself during a stunt - I don't recommend walking out
of a door that high up and falling on your back!

Friday 13th is the day of the house-warming. Everyone has a look into all the rooms when a storm comes up. First it is raining through the roof - anyone surprised? - then the house starts revolving practically turning into a fairground ride.
The next day it looks like this.

Then they are informed that they are on the wrong lot, the sign had got turned around, and it's not No. 99, but 66. Their lot is across the railroad track (yes, you know what's coming next).
They use barrels for wheels and start pulling the house away with the car, but it gets stuck on the tracks (does this make anyone else think of "Houseboat"?) and a train is nearing.
Just when they are relieved to see that the train has missed the house ...

... no comment.

Buster puts up a "For Sale" sign and leaves the directions, and they walk off hand in hand.

I know that's a weird association, but I had to think of Shirley Jackson in whose books houses often play an important role and can be an entity of their own.
This "Portable House" product certainly looks like one of those to me because there's no way a few altered numbers would have been able to change it like that ... 

The plot seems to have been inspired by a Ford Motor Company documentary. Ford had produced educational movies from 1914 to 1925 and one called "Home Made" from 1919 showed the construction of a prefabricated house.
I don't have to see it to know that it wasn't as hilarious as "One Week".
"One Week" wasn't the first short Keaton made alone (after working with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle before), but it was the first one to get released in September 1920.
What makes it so amazing is that no model was used. This was an actual house built on a turntable. In combination with the stunts and the gags that was extremely effective - and there were a lot some of which I didn't even notice when I watched the film the second (and surely not last) time.
These are just a few of the stunts. Both Keaton and Sybil Seely did them themselves - like the rotating house panel which lifted Sybil up then came down on Buster (a stunt he used in other films as well).

What made this short even better for me was the chemistry between Keaton and Sybil. I liked them in "The Scarecrow", but here they are together from the start and run into one problem after the other, and still they don't give up. A quick kiss and on they go. They make such a cute couple. It's a pity that Seely gave up filming very early after getting married and having a child. 

Beside the stunts, there's also a very charming scene with Sybil sitting in the tub and losing the soap.
I love the way they did this and even more the smug little smile Sybil is giving the viewer after the "censoring" hand is gone.

Tremendous fun and definitely also a good choice for a first silent movie! 😉

By the way, the movie shows a calendar leaf torn off from day to day.
If we go by the weekdays in the year 1920, the house would have been built either in February or in August. No, I don't know either why I felt compelled to look that up! I'm just weird that way! 😂


Sources:

1. Lea Stans: Thoughts on Keaton's "One Week". On: Silent-ology, March 23, 2014
2. Virginie Pronovost: My First Time with Buster Keaton: One Week. On: The Wonderful World of Cinema, February 22, 2017
3. Daniel Eagan: One Week. Excerpt on: National Film Preservation Board - Documents

I just live here ...

... and have been informed once again that I have nothing to say and nothing belongs to me (although I'm the one with the opposable thumbs).
Duly noted, mylady 😑

Lilies of the Field

The story goes that I was five years old when I watched my first complete movie. My mother told the story, and you know how it is, my mind started building an actual scene around it. I can see myself sitting on the floor before the TV set in our wall unit, in my typical position, knees in front, feet at my sides - I was lot more flexible then - simply because that's how I used to do it later.
Anyhow, as a kid I loved to hear my mother tell me the story of my first "real" film and how I was glued to the screen.
The film was "Lilies of the Field" from 1963 which after watching it at least dozens of times is still one of my favorites.

Of course I chose a picture from
"Lilies of the Field" to make a beaded
portrait of Sidney Poitier for my fan wall.

Let's start with the movie (there will be spoilers for both the movie and the book it's based on).

Homer Smith stops at a small rundown farm because he needs water for his car. There are five women there, and when one of them, who introduces herself as Mother Maria, sees Homer she thanks God for sending her a strong man.
Homer, however, doesn't intend to stay. As there's not much in his wallet right now, he agrees to repair the roof - one man for hire for one day. At the end of the day he hands Mother Maria the bill and she just takes it and says she'll let him know about dinner.
Homer is surprised to see that the women are in fact nuns. They come from Germany, Austria, and Hungary and try to learn English, so he gives them a lesson after the very meager meal.

The next morning Homer is ready to move on, but instead Mother Maria takes him to a construction site where she wants him to build a chapel. Once again ignores the bill.
After cleaning up the site, Homer tries again in the evening, this time by quoting from the Bible, but the Mother quotes from the Sermon on the Mount - hence the title of the film - and informs him that he will drive them to Mass the next day.
Being a Baptist himself, Homer doesn't attend Mass. He goes to a diner for breakfast where Juan, the owner, tells him about the nuns coming from an East German order which inherited the farm and that they escaped over the Berlin Wall.

My favorite scene - Homer orders "a real breakfast" after
having to endure the "Catholic" meals. His passion
about wheatcakes with maple syrup, coffee, and fresh
orange juice makes me hungry every time I watch it.

Despite himself, Homer gets drawn in more and more. When he decides to leave for good, the Mother has him take her and one of the sisters to town to ask Mr. Ashton, the owner of a construction company, for donations. They tell him that Homer is their contractor, and not wanting to give Ashton the satisfaction of confirming his doubts, Homer says that he is indeed.
He starts working on the chapel, but also for Ashton two days a week and uses the money to buy groceries for the nuns.
Mother Maria has no luck getting more money and bricks, though, and one evening emotions rise so high that Homer leaves.

He does come back eventually, though, even if a little the worse for wear.
That impresses the people in the Hispanic community so much that they finally decide to help, both with supplies and their labor. At first, Homer refuses to let them help and admits to the nuns that he always wanted to build something by himself, but then he realizes how much it means that everyone wants to help with this special project as he tells Mr. Ashton who donates bricks after all.

When the chapel is finished, Homer signs his work. He knows that it's time for him to leave now although Mother Maria already has new plans for a school and more.

No matter how often I watch the movie,
I wonder every time why the h is lowercase.

On the evening before the dedication of the chapel, Homer and the nuns sing together once more.
Then he gets up, still singing, packs his things and drives off into the night.

Now what could it have been about the movie that attracted a five year old so much that it became one of her all time favorites? I never tried to dissect my feelings before, I just know the film makes me feel good.

One point is easy to find - I love "Amen", the Baptist spiritual Homer is singing with the nuns, and I'm afraid I might have turned it into a bit of an earworm at home back then, just the "Amen" part of course. I still sing along today.
Actually, I like the whole score.



Poitier didn't sing himself, by the way. "Amen" was written and sung by Jester Hairston (if you would like to know more about him, check the sources).

But obviously I was drawn to Poitier himself and the humor he's bringing to the film. I adore his smile and laugh and I love that the humor is warm and gentle, especially in the scenes with him and strict Mother Maria. 
The role was offered to Harry Belafonte first, but Belafonte thought it was demeaning and missed the social justice topic and Homer was too plain a character, so he turned it down. He even discussed that with Poitier who defended his reasons for not doing so.
Indeed the movie doesn't dwell much on racism except the one time Ashton calls Homer "boy" to which Homer reacts by calling him "boy" back. Instead it shows how people from different circles - the black handyman, European nuns, a Hispanic community, an Irish priest, and even a white businessman - can work together to accomplish something no one thought possible, despite the differences in race, wealth, and faith.
Although the spark for the plot was Mother Maria's unbroken faith in God, to me this was never a religious film (once I was old enough to think about it) although I'm aware others might not see it like that. For me, it's about community, communication, cooperation, understanding, and tenacity. Have I used the word gentle yet (I know I did)?

Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award for Best Actor (the first African-American to win that one), a Golden Globe, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for other awards as well.
Lilia Skala as Mother Maria Marthe was nominated for several awards as Best Supporting Actress.
Not that I cared much about that as a five year old (as if I even knew! 😉)

It wasn't easy for Ralph Nelson to get financial backing for the movie. It was even suggested to add a love interest, a nun who hadn't taken her vows yet. Another studio wanted Steve McQueen as Homer.
Ralph Nelson finally found a studio who offered a budget of $250,000 but demanded a collateral. Nelson offered his own home. At the time, Poitier had already been a respected actor and earned about twice that budget per film. Poitier accepted a deal of $50,000 and ten percent of the gross earnings. And as the budget was so low, he actually had to do the heavy work in the movie himself. Both of them really believed in this movie which only took 14 days to shoot, by the way.
Well, and it did become a success making $2.5 million in the first six months.

Now to the book.

My German copy.

William Barrett was a writer of novels three of which got adapted into movies including "The Lilies of the Field". He was Catholic and also wrote essays, reviews, and biographies, one of them about Pope Paul VI.

The story of the nuns is actually based on the true story of the Abbey of St. Walburga in Colorado. In 1935, three sisters  were sent from the Bavarian motherhouse Abtei St. Walburg to Colorado where they bought land cheaply from monks who said it was "un-farmable". Originally, it was meant to be one potential place of refuge from the Nazi regime if needed, but eventually the farm turned into a priory taking in novices and then became an abbey.
The book of course changed the time to that of the Cold War and the nuns fled East Germany as mentioned above.

It also explains a bit more about Homer.
He's 24 (that's younger than Poitier was when he made the movie), he "lives his life one day at a time, there is laughter in him". He has a bit of money after leaving the Army and wants to go see the West (while the film is set in Arizona). And he cherishes his freedom, being able to go where he wants when he wants, only working if he needs to. "A man was free when he could say 'yes' or say 'no'." And still he feels he can't just say no to Mother Maria Marthe.

There are also some small differences which aren't really important, though. The priest isn't Irish but Hispanic, and he doesn't have to hold the service from the back of a car, there is a little church. There's no Mr. Ashton, he's called Livingston in the book.
The book also explains what Homer does when he leaves for the first time. He gets himself a job with a wrecking company in the big city, but although his days with the nuns feels like a dream, he thinks of them when they tear down a row of houses. He goes through the salvage thinking that the nuns need a bath tub. So he buys one and takes it back as a present.
In the movie he just returns with a black eye, but the book doesn't say anything about him getting into trouble nor what made him come back.

The biggest difference, however, is the ending.
Homer drives into the night alright, but the book doesn't end here.
A legend is evolving around Homer and his chapel. Tourists start visiting. Thanks to contributions, the nuns can build a school and take in boys from broken families to help them make their way in life. And in the chapel there's a painting of Saint Benedict the Moor by Sister Albertine which looks like Homer.
To be honest, I'm glad the movie left that part out.

Now excuse me, I think I'm going to watch the movie one more time.


Sources and further information:

1. Brian Bergen-Aurand: Lilies of the Field (1963). On: Foreign Influence, February 3, 2017
2. Ron Olesko: "Amen" and Jester Hairston. On: Sing Out!, March 22, 2008
3. Abbey of St. Walburga History
4. David A. King: The heart of Barrett's 'The Lilies of the Field'. In: The Georgia Bulletin, March 20, 2014
5. "Lilies of the Field: The Story Behind the Film" on YouTube