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

Death on the Nile

Surprise!
As I said yesterday, Lisa changed movies for this week. I had already written my post on "The Mirror Crack'd", but why not add at least a quick one for "Death on the Nile"?
Let me say first that like Margaret Rutherford isn't the Miss Marple of the books, Peter Ustinov doesn't fit the description of Hercule Poirot of the books in my opinion. But what can I say? I love Peter Ustinov (and am still sad about missing the chance to see him live once)!
So I actually watch "Death on the Nile" every time I catch it on TV, for him and some of the others in the star-studded cast.

I'll try to keep the plot short (still with spoilers, though) because most of you probably know it, anyway.

Jackie and Simon are engaged. As Simon needs a job, Jackie asks her friend Linnet, an heiress, to hire him. Linnet does, Simon and she fall in love and get married. Jackie follows them on their honeymoon to Egypt and joins the cruise on the Nile. One evening she gets drunk and shoots Simon in the leg.
The next morning, Linnet is found dead in her cabin.
Of course, Poirot is asked to investigate among the many suspects all of who have their reasons to fear or hate Linnet. The only ones with an alibi are Simon who was in bed due to his injury and Jackie who had been sedated by a doctor on board after the shooting incident.
Two more people get killed, Linnet's maid Louise who had probably tried to blackmail the perpetrator and Mrs. Otterbourne who announces to have seen Louise's killer, but gets shot before she can say the name.
In the end, Poirot gathers everyone how he likes to do and reveals that everything has been Jackie's brilliant plan. She and Simon had always been lovers and just wanted Linnet's money.
Jackie had pretended to shoot Simon and ensured he was left alone long enough to kill Linnet and then shoot his own leg for his alibi. Jackie killed Louise and then Mrs. Otterbourne.
Jackie confesses everything and embraces Simon. Poirot notices too late that she has grabbed the pistol to shoot Simon and herself.

I admit that I don't think the plan was that brilliant. It depended too much on luck and coincidence for my taste, and if I hatched a murder plan, I wouldn't want to rely on luck.
Nevertheless, I enjoy the movie, with all the weak spots.
Let me present the passengers, their motives, and my opinion on them.

David Niven is Colonel Race who's helping Poirot with the investigation. He's on board because of ...

... George Kennedy as Andrew Pennington, Linnet's US trustee who's trying to hide having embezzled money.

Jane Birkin as the maid not treated well by Linnet.

Bette Davis as Mrs. Van Schuyler who is very keen on Linnet's gorgeous pearl necklace (which is missing, but is brought back) ...

... and Maggie Smith as her companion Miss Bowers whose family was ruined by Linnet's father.

Angela Lansbury as the novelist Salome Otterbourne who has been sued by Linnet for a book she has written about her, and Olivia Hussey as her daughter Rosalee.

Jack Warden as Dr. Bessner who is afraid of being called out as a quack.

Jon Finch as James Fergusson who despises all rich people (definitely the weakest motive to kill Linnet).

I enjoy this movie not so much only as a whodunit, but for the sets, the costumes, the acting, and the comedy.
The production design was lavish, the scenery beautiful, that often helps to distract from a movie starting a bit slow, in this case with the backstory and the introduction of all the suspects.
The acting is wonderful.
Ustinov may not be completely the image of Poirot I have in my head (especially knowing Suchet), but I still love how he portrays him.
Niven was very English and charming.
Warden's accent was terrible, but you get that a lot with German accents in English productions.
Finch and Hussey are quite forgettable, but that has more to do with the roles than the acting. So was Kennedy.
Davis and Smith were fantastic together - not a surprise - and they had some of the best lines. I loved it.
And no one tell me Lansbury didn't have loads of fun with her role, the drunk writer of steamy "romance" novels! You get the first idea of that when she's introduced and dances tango with poor Colonel Race.

I said I was going to make this one short, so this is it from me. If you want more, go check out Lisa's post!

The Mirror Crack'd

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings is doing the Summer of Angela (Lansbury) on her blog which I participate in if I can.
For today she had chosen "The Mirror Crack'd" named after the shortened US title of Agatha Christie's book "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side", but she then switched to "Death on the Nile", still Christie, but of course with Hercule Poirot.

Here's the plot (with spoilers).
St Mary Mead, 1953. 
A Hollywood production team arrives to make a film about Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth I., played by two rival actresses, Marina Rudd whose husband is the director Jason Rudd, and Lola Brewster whose husband is the producer, Marty N. Fenn.
The Rudds have arranged a village fête. Miss Marple is there as well, but an unlucky incident ends up in her twisting her ankle.
Some of the fête helpers are invited to the house, among them Heather Babcock. She tells Marina the story how she had seen her on stage during the war despite being sick and that she even got to kiss Marina on the cheek. Marina offers her a cocktail which gets spilled, so Marina gives her her own drink which kills Heather. Everyone thinks Marina was the intended victim, even more so when she presents some threatening letters.

Inspector Craddock, Miss Marple's nephew, tries to find out who the murderer was, of course discussing the case with his aunt as well whose injury confines her to her house.
Then Rudd's secretary Ella is killed as well.

In the end, Miss Marple goes to the Rudds' house to find that Marina is dead. Jason confesses to having killed her with poison in the hot chocolate which has not been touched, however. So it seems Marina has committed suicide.
The reason is that she had contracted rubella through Heather's kiss, a disease that is quite harmless - except in a pregnancy. Marina had born a child with brain damage as a consequence.

You may notice that my description of the plot is shorter than usual.
I'll make the rest short as well ... I don't like the movie. I had seen it before and I didn't like it then, either. It had been a while, though, and I could change my mind, couldn't I?
No, I couldn't.

We have a star cast. Beside Liz Taylor and Kim Novak as the rivaling actresses, there are Rock Hudson as Jason, Tony Curtis as Marty, Geraldine Chaplin as Ella, and of course Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple.
I didn't feel the story was worth of them, however, even if this movie wasn't made at the peak of their careers.
There are a few funny scenes between Liz Taylor and Kim Novak. Tony Curtis seemed to have a lot of fun with his scenes, too. My first idea of a Miss Marple story is not watching it for the fun, though, even if it can be a nice extra.
Rock Hudson was quite subdued and didn't make much of an impression.

All in all, the story dragged and I kept thinking "Get on with it already!".
It was like floating through beautiful settings - around the village, in Miss Marple's huge (!) garden to the lovely rooms in the big house where the Rudds live - with the appropriate music, but wasn't there something else? Oh right, there were two murders.
There wasn't any suspense or much development. Hadn't Miss Marple injured her ankle, I'm sure she would have solved this case in three minutes instead of having to wait for her nephew to bring her up-to-date on the interviews with the people involved.
She could even have prevented the second murder, who knows? Not that that seemed to be very important because Ella's murder wasn't even mentioned anymore at the end. I guess it wasn't that interesting if you could see the dead Marina instead, beautifully draped on a chaiselongue with a yellow rose in her hand.

What really annoyed me, though, was Miss Marple herself.
According to Wikipedia (I found the article, but didn't have access), the director Guy Hamilton said that Margaret Rutherford, Miss Marple in four movies, "was a divine clown but she was no more Miss Marple than ... fly to the moon (I have absolutely no idea what's that supposed to mean). We are doing Miss Christie's Miss Marple, a more serious person, a gossip, a bit of a snob. And she doesn't fall off her bicycle into the village duckpond".
Granted, Rutherford's Marple was nothing like in the books and Christie was not a fan of the adaptations, but nevertheless she admired Rutherford's professionalism and even dedicated this particular novel to her.
I love Rutherford, maybe I'll write a post about her sometime.

The problem is that Lansbury wasn't a good Miss Marple, in my opinion.
Part of it was definitely that she wasn't even around as much because the big stars took center stage (again, without having the story for it).
Also Lansbury didn't come close to some of the other Miss Marples (I'm in the Joan Hickson team although I don't enjoy all the episodes), both in looks as in behavior.
The way they aged her was terrible. I kept looking at her wondering what they had done with her eyebrows and why.
And then there was this ... who thought this was a good idea?

I can't say anything about the differences between the movie and the book because I have never read it. I know that Marina didn't take her husband's name in the novel, her name was Gregg, and what's really funny is that the German dubbing (I couldn't watch the film in English) actually used that name.

My conclusion is that if you want to see two stars exchanging "niceties", go for those few scenes and have fun with them, but if you want to see a Miss Marple movie, I'd say just skip this one.
Excuse me now while I retreat to be annoyed a little longer 😂

Silent movies - The Wind

I don't know if you ever look at the sources at the end of my movie posts. If you do, you may have noticed that I often list Fritzi Kramer's blog "Movies Silently". I like how she writes, so if she has a review for a movie I'm watching, I'll read it.
She also has a ranking of silent movies on her blog, so for today I went straight to her five star films and picked "The Wind" from 1928.
I did not read her review before watching the film and making up my own opinion, all I knew was that she loves "The Wind". Let's see if I do, too.
It's rather fitting that it's windy outside right now and my flimsy little shades are rattling. It's nothing compared to "The Wind", though.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

As usual, I'll start with the plot (spoilers ahead!).

Letty Mason travels from Virginia to Texas to live with her cousin Beverly and his family on their farm. Even on the train she already notices the wind blowing constantly.
She catches the eye of fellow passenger Wirt Roddy who starts a conversation and tells her the wind makes people crazy, especially women.

At the train station, Letty is picked up not by her cousin, but his neighbors Lige Hightower and Mr. Sourdough. Letty is so shocked by that and the heavy wind that she runs back to Wirt who assures her he will look in on her every, now and then.
On the way, Lige tells her about the wind, especially the "norther" which the Native Americans think is a ghost horse in the clouds and which is so bad that it makes the wild horses run down from the mountains - an image that will be haunting Letty from now on.

While Beverly is most pleased to see and welcome the cousin he has grown up with like a sibling, his jealous wife Cora is not that happy about the newcomer. When they all eat together, you can tell that Lige and Sourdough have been immediately smitten with the beautiful Letty who seems very out of place.
At a fest, both Lige and Sourdough tell Cora they plan to propose to Letty. Cora is delighted at the thought of having her out of the house.
Then Wirt also drops in, and when a cyclone interrupts the fest, they have to take shelter in the basement where he asks Letty to go away with him.

Lige and Sourdough propose to Letty who thinks they are joking and laughs at them. Cora is disappointed and demands Letty leave her house, so she goes to see Wirt who tells her he already has a wife, but wants to take her for a mistress. She goes back to Cora saying she has nowhere to go and no money, so Cora tells her she will have to marry Lige or Sourdough then.
Letty marries Lige who's over the moon thinking she loves him, but gets quickly disappointed with her reaction to his kiss.

When he tries to kiss her more vehemently, she fights him and tells him that he made her hate him although she didn't want to hate him.
Shocked over this turn, Lige says he will never touch her again and promises to make enough money to send her back to Virginia.
That's easier said than done because times are hard, cattle is dying, and the ranchers have to come up with a solution so they won't starve. When Lige wants to go to the meeting, Letty, who is more and more driven mad by the constant wind, asks him to take her with him, so she doesn't have to be alone.
When she can't control her horse in the wind and also falls from Lige's horse despite clinging on to him, Lige tells Sourdough to take her home.
When the cattlemen return from the meeting where they have decided to round up the wild horses running from the "norther" for money from the goverment, they bring an injured man with them - it is Wirt. Obviously, Letty is not happy to have him in the house.
After Wirt has recovered, Lige insists that he take part in the round-up, but he sneaks back to Letty right away who, already driven crazy by the wind, faints. Wirt takes her to the bed.
The next morning, he tries to persuade Letty to go with him, but she refuses. When he says that Lige will kill them both, she coldly replies that she hopes he will. Wirt gets pushy and Letty threatens him with his own gun that he has left on the table. He doesn't take her seriously and grabs the gun which goes off and kills him.
Not knowing what else to do, Letty buries him outside.
The wind gets stronger and stronger and Letty is out of her mind.

 
She sees the wind uncovering Wirt's body.
When someone tries to open the door she has secured with a shovel, she breaks down, but it is Lige who has come back which makes her so happy she kisses him.
Then she confesses the killing. Lige looks outside, but can't see a body, so he tells her if someone is killed in justice, the wind takes care of them.
He also tells Letty that he has enough money now to send her back to Virginia, but to his joy Letty declares that she's not afraid of the wind anymore and that she loves him and wants to stay with him.

This was my first silent film with Lillian Gish, the "First Lady of the Silent Screen" - and her last one (her career went on for a long time after that, not that successful, though).
I had heard of her, but hadn't known what to expect. 

The movie had no dialog, but sound effects (remember "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" which also had those?). Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear those or the score by Carl Davis that was recommended because I couldn't find it. The score I had was improvised music and screeching and I had to turn it off because I couldn't stand it. The ensemble may have "embraced the unknowable and the uncomfortable", but watching Letty go crazy was uncomfortable enough for me without the screeching, thank you very much.
As you know, the music often makes or breaks a silent movie for me, and having to watch this one completely silently was a bit difficult, but also made me concentrate on the acting more. 

I know people who have a serious problem with wind, they get nervous and irritated by it.
While winds have been become more frequent and stronger here, we are talking nothing like the constant blowing in the movie, so I can easily imagine Letty being haunted by that feeling its force and hearing it all the time. As someone who can go crazy over bits of litter all over the place, I also understand very well if someone is driven nuts by sand being everywhere. Just looking at it made me nervous.

Letty is a sweet and dainty young woman forced into an environment where she, as already mentioned, seems utterly out of place. To be honest, I doubt she has thought very much about what it would be like, she tells Wirt about her cousin's "beautiful farm" - which it definitely isn't.
So she clings on to the only person that seems civilized to her, Wirt, and then he's the one betraying her trust which also makes her stronger in the end, though.
Gish goes through a whole lot of emotions in that movie and expresses them with eyes, hands and her whole body.

Then there is Cora on the other side, a woman working hard for her family. It's no wonder she doesn't want a pretty little thing in the house around whom the men and her family flutter like moths around a light and who gets blisters from ironing on her delicate hands while Cora has to gut a whole steer at the same time (not my scene, I can tell you).
Maybe Cora wouldn't be so jealous if Letty tried a little more to fit in.

Lige and Sourdough are so smitten from the first moment they meet Letty that they don't give it any thought that Letty might not take them seriously. Lige in particular is like a puppy with a new ball - Sourdough seems more like the comic relief - and the awakening after the marriage which has made him so happy doesn't go the way he hoped for is really rough. It also changes him, though, and makes him more responsible and caring.
I get why Letty doesn't fall for Lige right away, but I don't understand why she would prefer Wirt. Okay, Lige is a diamond in the rough which she has to find out first, but the way Wirt is creeping up on her on the train, ew. Also I'm superficial enough to say that Lige was some goodlooking man.

There are theories about Wirt's body being real or not. Did he even come back or was all of it a hallucination of Letty's? Why couldn't Lige see the body?
I haven't read the book (yet), but from what I read the rape is very real in it - and the ending is different, too.
Gish herself had come up with the idea for the adaptation, she also picked the director Victor Sjoström (also known as Seastrom in the USA) and the actor Lars Hansen (Lige) both of whom she had worked with on another film before.
According to her, it was planned to use the ending of the book as she and Sjoström wanted. In the book, Letty waits for Lige to come home after she killed Wirt. When he doesn't come, she goes to die in the desert. The claim is that MGM thought a happy ending would work better with the audience after all.
Several people, however, say that the tragic ending was never filmed.
Besides my loving a happy ending, I think it actually works rather well. Having Letty go into the desert would have been dramatic and probably have satisfied the need of some people to see some kind of punishment for the killing, but I liked the idea of Letty and Lige having grown and getting a new start.

Will this become my favorite silent movie ever?
I don't think so (all that wind and sand), but it's definitely a movie I would recommend for watching.


Selected sources:

1. Fritzi Kramer: The Wind (1928) - A Silent Review. On: Movies Silently, February 3, 2013
2. Fritzi Kramer: Silent Movie Myth: "The Wind" had a happy ending slapped on and is too ... windy. On: Movies Silently, April 29, 2014
3. Benjamin Schrom: The Wind. Essay. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival. 2009
4. Adrian Danks: Open to the Elements: Surveying the Terrain of Victor Sjoström's The Wind. On: Senses of Cinema. May 2006

Nostalgia - My Stacey

It's not the first time I have told part of this story which began on Christmas, but within another post and with a terrible picture.
This story led to my collection many years later, so I think it's worth telling it right.

Christmas Eve 1970 - you know we give gifts on the 24th here - an excited little girl waiting for the living room door to open.
A brand new doll's pram awaited me and hand sewn clothes for my chubby doll.

Little Cat was an ingrate, though, I'm afraid to say. Her older sisters got Mattel dolls, and since little Cat has always been a sucker for miniatures (which hasn't changed to this day), she was fascinated. The small shoes, the tiny buttons and zippers ... Cat started nagging like only a five year old can. She annoyed her sisters wanting to look at their dolls.
And when she had nagged long enough and had probably driven everyone nuts, she was finally promised that she would get her own Mattel doll as soon as the stores were open again - on the 27th.
That can't have been fun for my family. I can't really remember, but I'm sure all I could think of was when it would be the 27th at last, and I probably wanted to go first thing in the morning.

When I was able to really reflect this years later, I felt kind of bad about it.
Yes, only kind of because I'm still really happy I got my doll, but 1. we didn't exactly swim in money and 2. my mother must have been so very disappointed at my reaction after sewing those doll clothes herself. How could she not have thought what a rotten little brat I was? I would have in her place.

Nevertheless, she took me to the store on the 27th and I got my first Mattel doll.
I have a very vague recollection of the floor of the toy store we went to - the "Fässler" - (name changed after my sister's memories 😉), but I wouldn't be able to tell you if I picked the doll and the two outfits myself or if my mother did. I couldn't even say if my sisters were with us and gave their expert advice on the matter (there will be another post eventually on how to become an expert at the time).
Anyhow, my doll was - I should say is because she's still part of my collection of course - a Stacey with platinum blond hair.
My sister also had a Stacey, but with red hair, and I hope she'll forgive me for telling you that she poked me by saying that my Stacey was old because she had grey hair. Siblings, huh?
I loved my Stacey and I played with her. This poor girl had to go through a lot. A five year old doesn't have the dexterity to dress and undress her fashion doll without irreversible damage. I guess that's why I had got a pram.

Stacey's head turned yellow over the years and she has a sweaty face. That's not my fault, it's something that happened to a lot of vinyl dolls from that time. I could try to have her restored (or try it myself), for example with new skin paint, but I figure that she just aged together with me.
She was the first one in my collection - which I didn't know I would have -, she was bought as a toy, not a collector's item, and amazingly, she survived. It feels wrong to think about changing her, almost as if I had plastic surgery (and I don't "paint" my skin, either).

Oh the stories this poor little lady could tell ...

Her sickly face color is not her only problem. Even washed her hair has never been like new again.
As someone *whistling innocently* made her walk to the library (which I had set up in an armchair, completely with handmade call number tags) a lot by banging her feet on the ground a little too hard, she eventually lost half a foot.
Many years ago, my sister (the other one who got an (ash blond) Summer Sand TNT Barbie that Christmas) sewed an evening dress for her, but she can't wear heels with that because of her foot. Instead she's wearing a pair of vintage white lace-up boots.
 
She's also missing a finger, it broke off from putting bracelets on her wrist too often.
Do you remember that the two parts on ballpoint pens didn't necessarily screw together directly in the olden days? Often there was a little metal ring in between, in silver or gold. There were really thin ones and the wider ones. The thin ones were easy to put over her hand because you could bend them easily and then you would just bend them back on her wrist.
It was not that easy with the wider ones and bending Stacey's pinky often enough led to it breaking off eventually.

Another very typical problem for dolls that were played with are neck splits. Imagine a little girl constantly ripping the head off to put clothes or handmade necklaces on her doll (now I know how to make small necklaces with hooks) and pushing it back on the neck, it's a miracle the splits aren't worse. You can glue those neck splits, but you know my fragile relationship with glue.

Stacey was a so-called TNT doll - Twist'n'Turn - meaning she could not only turn her head from sideways, but also her waist. She also had bendable legs.
Stacey was introduced in 1968 as Barbie's British friend,  part of the "British Invasion". She brought the spirit of Mary Quant and London's Carnaby Street with her - a true "mod" doll.
She came in two versions, both manufactured only until 1971 which is a real pity.
There was the Talking Stacey who spoke in a British accent and came with a side ponytail and bangs in platinum blond and red (also called "Copper Penny").
The TNT dolls also had blond or red hair. The 1968 TNT had a side part and little curls at the forehead and sides, her ponytail was in the back.

A beautiful 1968 platinum TNT Stacey - no yellow face! - with open hair wearing
the "Suburban Shopper" dress (#969, 1959 - 1964) without accessories 
and with blue closed toe heels instead of white open toe heels.

The 1969 to 1971 TNT had short hair with a side part and flipped up ends, but if they are played with and have been combed, and depending on the amount of hair (which wasn't always the same), that could turn into quite the hairstyle.

"Copper penny" Stacey - also with a yellow, but not a sweaty face - wearing
"Sleeping Pretty" (#1636, 1965) without the accessories, one open toe heel is
missing its pompom which is not unusual, but a pity.

All of them smile showing their teeth, they have rooted eyelashes and blush on their cheeks.
They are popular with collectors not only for their beauty, but also because they weren't on the market very long.

There were two Sears Exclusive gift sets for Stacey, "Stripes Are Happening" (#1545, 1968) and "Stacey Nite Lightning (#1591, 1969). These are the only outfits with a "Stacey" tag inside. Sears Exclusives are beautiful, but were unfortunately not on option for little German girls.
Stacey also appeared on several cases, either alone or together with Barbie, and once with Barbie and Francie.


Sources:

1. Sibyl DeWein and Joan Ashabraner: The Collector's Encyclopedia of Barbie Dolls and Collectibles. Paducah, KY, Collector Books, 1994
2. Sarah Sink Eames: Barbie Doll Fashion, Vol. I, 1959 - 1967. Paducah, KY, Collector Books, 1994
3. Vintage Stacey Dolls 1968 - 1971. On: Fashion Doll Guide


Stacey/Barbie/Francie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel in any way.

P.S. If you worry about my baby doll, there's no need to. She was taken for walks outside in her new pram and she wore her new clothes, too. When she finally broke (she kept losing her limbs because the plastic wore out), my teddy bear, who has about the same size, inherited her more unisex kind of clothing.
Ok, so that's no reason for behaving like a spoilt brat, but I apologized for it often enough over the years 😂

Random Saturday - The new flatmate

Warning: Spider pictures and more!

Years ago, we visited relatives of the ex. His young cousin (actually we were young as well then) had all kinds of animals - it used to be a farm in a village - mostly fowl, such as ducks in a pond, chicken, pheasants, but also rabbits. When we went looking at them, he suddenly put a white mouse on my shoulder. Of course, he had hoped for me to freak out and scream, but even if had felt the urge which wasn't the case, I wouldn't have done him the favor.
Instead I petted the mouse and told it how cute it was. It was, you know. I think I gained his respect that day, not that that had been what I was after.

I'll be honest, though, I'm not as cool around all animals, at least at first sight. If a spider jumps at me, I will probably jump as well, not because it's a spider, but because I'm startled. I daresay it would happen with any other animal (der Dekan has one or four stories to tell about that).

If I just have a visitor looking at me, however, I can react accordingly. Sometimes, a single stink bug makes its way in through the open window and it will get evicted gently but firmly.
Spiders are allowed to live with me, not having a phobia I do not see any need to burn the house down with them in it.

I think she was
really pretty.

Flying specimen are guided outside as gently as possible although things can get hectic if they are of the stinging kind and a not so little cat is getting excited about them.
Clothes moths and carpet bugs are an exception. Seeing them, I don't even think about my karma and let go of all mercy (although moths have become hard to catch without a trap).

If I don't let the shade down on the window behind my bed all the way - so that I can look at the moon for example - I sometimes get late night visitors, moths and grasshoppers. Ponder was utterly fascinated with them and would keep touching the glass very softly. It was a good thing that there was glass because Ponder may have seemed very friendly, but I've seen him squash and eat more than one spider.

Those stripey bumps - der Dekan.

Der Dekan, too, is interested, but he's more the kind to lurk for a long time and then pounce with feet going in all directions. I have seen him trap visitors in here, but he usually lets them go again, looking after them with eyes as big as those of a child in front of a Christmas tree. He could at least knock them out gently to give me the chance to put them outside, but to put it less nicely, he's absolutely useless in these matters.

Yesterday, however, we had a visitor that surprised me because I had never seen one around here before.
Let me start with this page from one of my favorite books, "Daddy Long Legs" by Jean Webster.
Judy, the protagonist, is in college and writes to her mentor.

That describes it pretty well except this isn't a college.
I was woken up by somecat demanding breakfast at 5 a.m. I had only slept about four hours at that point and wasn't quite my alert and energetic self yet - stop laughing! -, but I noticed something big and black hanging on the ceiling which very clearly wasn't a spider. At closer look, it was a centipede which baffled me, about 2 inch long and way out of my reach.
I would say he had fewer legs than in the drawing, but was fatter.
The next moment, however ... plump! I honestly was amazed how loud that sound was when the centipede fell down right next to me. No cups, no tea table, no hair brush (although there is one on my nightstand). Instead I ran back to my bed for my tissue box for lack of a bowl in my bedroom (note: always keep a bowl and a flat piece of cardboard in your bedroom), but too late, he was already gone. I think he went under the wardrobe and I probed around a bit with a broom, to no avail.
What really bugs me is that I was sure he was just trying to hide from me interviewing him about what he could bring to the household and how he expected to pay his rent. I swear if he throws his shoes all over the place, I'm going to get mad.

While writing this, I'm still completely clueless where he is. He could be anywhere, so I guess we will have to live with him for now. Der Dekan hadn't even noticed him, but if he's to stay, there may be an encounter of the many-legged kind. Oh dear, I hope he's not a tap dancer!

I'm not overly concerned about him, but I don't like the idea of stepping of him, in the middle of the night, for example. I also don't like the idea of the brat trying to chase/kill/eat him and I'm not keen on finding him in my bed (that would be the jump thing all over again).
Is it weird that I wish I had been able to take a picture of him?

Please Murder Me!

For today's Summer of Angela (Lansbury) movie Lisa from Boondock Ramblings chose "Please Murder Me!" from 1956.
Here is Lisa's post.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (with spoilers).

Defense lawyer Craig Carlson buys a pistol at a pawn shop leaving it in his office desk with a file. Then he records a message saying that he will be dead in exactly 55 minutes and telling a story ...

It starts with Craig telling his best friend Joe that his wife Myra wants a divorce. The man she's in love with is Craig. Joe says he will need some time to think.
A few days later, Joe gives his business partner Lou a letter to mail, then calls Myra to tell her he wants to discuss something with her at home.
When he comes home, he confronts Myra, closes the door, and there's a gunshot.
Myra claims Joe attacked her and she shot him in self-defense.

In court, prosecution argues Myra killed Joe in cold blood because she wanted his life insurance, not because he attacked her for her wanting a divorce.
In his closing argument, Craig reveals that he's the man Myra is in love with, and the jury finds her not guilty.

Lou arrives at their celebration party and gives Craig the letter he forgot to mail. In the letter, Joe tells him that Myra had married him for the money and that she had been in love with artist Carl Holt all the time.

Craig, seeing everything in ruins for him anyway, decides to save Carl from Myra and make her pay for it all by having her murder him.
He sets up an appointment with her at his office. He keeps the tape running and hides the microphone before letting her in. Then he shows her the file and puts the gun on the desk. When he threatens to call Carl, she shoots him and tries to make it look like a suicide.
Craig had also made an appointment with Willis, the district attorney, though, shortly after the one with Myra. Myra tells Willis that Craig shot himself, but Willis plays the recording and she knows the game is over.

It's not hard to categorize this as a B movie.
Everything is quite simple including the sets, but the film is still pretty easy to watch, especially since the runtime is only about 75 minutes.

Practically every review I browsed mentioned this movie obviously being a test run for Raymond Burr's role as Perry Mason, and that's no surprise if you look at the court scene.
Mason's closing arguments usually convince me more, though.
The plot really has its moments, but I just can't believe a jury or court would go for a sudden "oh, by the way, I'm the new man, so the prosecution's money argument doesn't count"  - in the closing argument! I couldn't help but finding that very weak.

While I found the plot twist rather interesting, I thought Craig's decision to sacrifice himself in order to save Carl from the "disease" that Myra was (according to Joe's letter) was a little over the top. Okay, a lot over the top.
So his heart was broken over the loss of the woman he loved - that should heal quickly knowing what kind of woman she was - and broken over the loss of his friend - I get that, but he didn't plot to kill him - but he was certainly not the first lawyer who got duped into believing in a client's innocence. Not good for the career maybe, but definitely not its death penalty.
Burr played it with conviction, though.

I think Lansbury could have put a bit more passion in her femme fatale and I wonder if that was a decision of hers or the director, but it was nice to see her in such a different kind of role than probably most of us are used to.

The plot idea was intriguing, but with some more money I think they could have made more out of it, for example come up with a better reason for Craig to give up his life.
Nevertheless, it was fascinating to see Burr and Lansbury in this film noir.

Silent movies - The Race for the Sausage

Today I present to you a very short short, not even five minutes long.
Eventually, I will be telling you more about Alice Guy-Blaché, the world's first female film director, who has been said to make this film (which can be true or not, I'm going to stay out of that discussion).

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

The title of "The Race for the Sausage" from 1907 is very fitting.
A dog steals a long sausage chain and chaos ensues when more and more people are racing after him to get the sausage.

If you have five minutes, take a look and just have a bit of laugh with this early chase comedy.

Reading to cats

My little brother (not so little anymore) is almost nine years younger than I. Not just I, but also others in the family read all kinds of books and stories to him when he was small ... and a little bigger ... he'll admit himself that he was not an avid reader as a child because he just enjoyed being read to.
And although I would never have admitted that at the time, I now think I rather enjoyed reading to him except for the few times when I really had had other plans like watching a movie for example.

Have you ever read a sentence five times and still didn't know what you've read because your brain seemed to keep wandering off elsewhere - what do I still have to do today, what will I wear tomorrow, why do flies fly so erratically, where did I know the actress in the movie yesterday from or simply why are the people around me so loud ...
Reading something aloud can help us with our attention span and with processing what we read.
It activates our brain in different ways which can enhance comprehending and memorizing a text.

I have always been talking to myself on and off since I was a kid. To make the walk home from my friend's house less boring for example, I either read a book while walking or I made up little stories that I told myself whispering (I stopped if someone dared to walk close to me).
There are things at home I have to comment on while doing them. Sometimes I read an email out loud during drafting it to see if it makes sense and if I have covered everything.
When studying, I read something out loud if I had a problem to grasp it.
Eventually I started reading from books to myself every, now and then, a paragraph or even a chapter, but never a whole book.
Also, whenever one of my pets was sick and I held them in my arm, I read to them to comfort them. That began with Wurstel, my rabbit. I remember it like today, the only book that was in reach that day was Rübezahl, tales about a mountain spirit.

Then, about one and a half years ago, I started reading to my cats just for fun. I had sometimes done that before as well, little snippets here and there - because yes, I do talk to my cats and no, I have not started that since living on my own - but now I was doing it regularly.
Our first book was "At Christmas we feast : festive food through the ages" by British food historian Annie Gray. At first it was like "would you calm down now, come on, I'll read something to you", but I noticed I actually enjoyed doing it, and believe it or not, I felt the cats enjoyed listening. Okay, of course they did fall asleep eventually and I still read on until the chapter was finished, but yeah, it had something relaxing. 

You think that's ridiculous? A friend I told about it when we were talking about books laughed and asked me why I would think the cats enjoyed that.
Of course I would like to say now that they love my exquisite choice of literature and my talents as a reader, but that would truly be humoring myself. Our reading can only be called eclectic and my reading talents would definitely not qualify me for audiobooks.
Depending on the day I had, the temperatures, my level of tiredness or restlessness, and some other factors, I can be quite a good reader or a terrible one whose tongue gets twisted every few words.

You may wonder why I don't just participate in a reading program for children at the local library or find a group for shared reading if I like reading out loud.

There are several reasons.
Gundel and der Dekan are extremely understanding on my tongue twisting days. They don't complain if I skip a word, say a wrong one or if I struggle with the pronunciation for a second. You must know I usually read English books to them. For some reason it has always been more relaxing to me to read English out loud and German silently even before I read to the cats.
It's like a bedtime story meaning I do it before we go to sleep for the night. We don't read during the day. Well, I do, but silently. By now it feels like a good way to wind down, calm down and sometimes even sleep better (until one of the brats wakes me up for "breakfast" at 3 a.m.) or quicker. We usually do a chapter, sometimes more, rarely less, but there are no rules. The other day Gundel was lying in my arm purring while I petted her and read aloud. I think they pick up on my relaxation and they like that.

Excuse the bad pictures, but it's very hard to take one holding a camera up over your head and aiming blindly at something behind you.
When lying on the bed, I like to throw my hair back over the pillow to get it out of the way. Gundel settled in for our reading session - on my hair. Until der Dekan decided he wanted the spot, chased her off and it took a bit before we could go on reading.

They don't judge my reading choices. We've read about eating habits during Queen Victoria's time, we've read The Three Investigators books, we've read children's books, vintage crime, at the moment we alternate between a book about craft psychology and a biography about a crime author, we might add another volume from the Three Investigators.
I can choose time, duration, and book. Granted, there isn't much verbal feedback or discussion 😋, but that's fine by me. Is it slower, too? Of course it is, but we pick books accordingly.

Reading to animals isn't unusual, by the way. Shelters have discovered the benefits of reading to animals to help them deal with stress in the shelter environment.
There are loads of programs for children reading to mostly dogs, but also cats. These programs also help children to improve their reading - again, pets are very forgiving about mistakes - and concentration.
You have probably seen some of those heartwarming of about children at home reading to their pets, too.
Why should that only be useful for children, though? Isn't it more that adults are embarrassed about doing something like this? And even talking about it?

People also read out loud to one another and feel a bit embarrassed about it. I would definitely want to be the reader in something like that because I'm not a fan of audiobooks and don't know if I would like having someone else reading to me even if I knew them well.

Are you a silent reader or do you like to read aloud, too?


Selected sources:

1. Do Pets Like Being Read To? The Surprising Benefits of Reading to Your Furry Friends. On: Doggie Dude Ranch and the O'Cat Corral
2. Sarah Manavis: Read me a story: why reading out loud is a joy for adults as well as kids. In: The Guardian (archive of The Observer), May 5, 2024
3. Regina Mennig: Shared Reading - Literature for All. On the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung website, July 2018