Close Listening to Old Songs.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to some tunes on the way home from work. One of the songs I heard was my favorite Motown record, This Old Heart of Mine” by the Isley Brothers.

I have loved the song ever since it came out forty-five years ago, but – other than the chorus when they pretty much echo the lead singer – I have never understood a single word the background singers were singing. That day I was not cranking it, nor did I have it playing softly in the background.

All of a sudden the words jumped right out and bit me in the eardrums. “Darling I’m weak for you. Darling I’m mad about you.”

Jogging Memories Through Film

In the summer of 1968, my brother and I would stay up and watch TV at night. Channel 11 out of Tacoma would show the TV series “Twelve O’clock High” and “Secret Agent” from 11 PM to 1 PM (I forget which was first). After that we would often find some old movie. I don’t remember many of them. But there is one film from the late ‘40’s that I thought about from time to time. I didn’t remember what it was, but I remember that the bad guy was a writer of some kind. He tricked a young woman, a relative, into writing a suicide note. And I remember a pickup truck speeding down the road.

Now, I often will scroll through the cable TV grid and see what is playing on TCM, and I will record a movie if it looks interesting. A couple of weeks ago, TCM played a film called The Unsuspected with Claude Raines as a host/writer of a radio program that talked about real murder cases. He had a ward who had, mistakenly, been thought to have been killed in a fire on a ship. She returned, much to the chagrin of her relatives who were looking forward to the large inheritance from her estate. I thought it looked interesting, so I recorded it. As I watched the film, I thought that it looked like it might be the film I had seen in 1968. It was.

Was it an enjoyable film? Yes. Was it the greatest film I had ever seen? No. But to see a film that I somewhat remembered after all of these years was a joy.

One of the things with old films is to see things that your recognize. I think I have told of seeing American Graffiti for the first time. There is a scene where Richard Dryfus tries to open his old locker. Not only did I recognize that locker as being in “C” wing of Petaluma High School right across from Mrs. Stonitch’s room, his “old locker” was two to the right of my real life locker when I was a senior.

Sometimes and old film shows you something you only know from movies or TV. This week I was watching a Joan Crawford/John Wayne film on TCM called Reunion in France. Early in the film, Joan Crawford is at a party. At a party she is introduced to a couple of wives of Nazi officers in Paris. One of them is a blond. I recognized her voice and her mannerism of holding her hands in front of her chest as she spoke. It’s Mrs. Thurston Howell III! I looked it up, and it was Natalie Schafer.

I like old films. Maybe because they are so familiar – even if I had never seen them before.

Timmy Page, lost musical genius

YouTube is a bad idea. Sometimes I just want to listen to an old tune on that site before going to bed. An hour and a half later, and that much closer to the alarm going off in the morning, I tear myself away from the computer.

In one such night of musical abandon, I was looking for one of my favorite Yardbird songs: Shapes of Things. The original single from 1966 was made during Jeff Beck's stint with the group. A bit later, after Beck left and Jimmy Page joined the group, the Yardbirds appeared on German television (although the host sounds no more German than I do). I guess Jimmy could not make the trip, so his twin brother Timmy appeared in his place. At least he was introduced as Timmy Page. By the sound of the solo, I don't think the guitar was Timmy's forte'. I should be fair, though, and point out that the comments on YouTube for the video blame the heat from the TV lights for causing the guitar to go out of tune, saying that Timmy was not used to playing on TV.



The comment could not have been referring to Jimmy, because he was an old hand at the TV game.

Some Film Glimpses of World War II

World War II has been the subject of many films over the years. It would take months to write extensively on the subject, so I thought I would just jot down some thoughts on some films that you may have missed.

Hollywood got into the fray even before the United States did, starting with “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” in 1939.



The film tells of a disgruntled ne’er-do-well who offers to spy for Germany in order to make an easy buck. Eventually FBI Agent Edward G. Robinson gets on the case. Robinson is effective in the roll, somewhat downplaying the part. While the Germans are shown to be wicked, they are not shown as over-the-top evil.
Of course, I believe the Nazi leaders were evil. And I believe that the German people were gullible in falling for the Nazi message. However, I do feel it is neither realistic nor meaningful for a film to show that an entire nation willingly went for a person who all along and publically said, “Hello, I am the Devil incarnate. I will enslave you and kill millions of innocent people.” Sure, you could see that was their intent if you looked closely, but the message was carefully disguised. We must learn that that evil can be insidious.

Skipping ahead to 2004, the German film “Downfall” shows this lesson very well.

You know the film: a scene where Hitler is in conference with his generals has become a mainstay for parody on the blogosphere. The film shows that Hitler can be a very disarming individual, but by no means is the film a fluff piece. It shows how such a maniacal person can come to great power by using his charm. In the end of the film, the main character – Hitler’s secretary – is horrified to discover how evil the man was. That is the message of the film. Don’t fall for the man because of his charm. You must find out what he truly stands for.

Some films made during the war reflected the Home Front. MGM was very good at this type of film. One of my favorites is the Mickey Rooney film, The Human Comedy.”



Is this film an accurate portrayal of life in the United States during the war? Probably not, but sometimes dramatic license can be allowed if it is used to drive home a strong message of human caring and decency. Watch this film, but buy an extra box of Kleenex before you do.

Another MGM film, this one from later in the war is Judy Garland’s, “The Clock.”



This is a war-time romance that will melt even the coldest of hearts. You just know that they were long divorced by 1965, but what the hey. Again, it may not be very accurate, but you can’t help but feel that it is a telescope through which to see a now-distant time.

You know how films today portray Republicans as selfish people who will use their influence and power to protect their own while not caring about others? Well, MGM had one of those in a 1942 pile of manure called “The War Against Mrs. Hadley.”



While the film did have that MGM charm about it, I kept watching it just to see if it was going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was.

World War II is probably my favorite subject in film. Drama can not be any more powerful that a story of ordinary people facing up to terrible circumstances. Message of hope and messages of warning are message to be heard.

The Actors' Art

In one film, a group of Samurai defends a poor farming village. The warriors are led by a strong man-among-men leader whose strength and intelligence make him stand out among others. For the most part he leads with quiet dignity, but can be loud and forceful when he needs to be.



In another film, a doctor works in a slum, dealing with the human innocence and human scum. He is not the man he dreamed of being; the bottle became too important in his life. That is how he deals with the social decay he sees every day. While he can be kind, he is generally loud, vulgar, and often abusive.



A third film is the story of a man who lets life defeat him. To look at him, you know he is a broken man. Despite his position as a manager in a government bureaucracy, he is afraid of his own shadow. He stoops and shuffles through his day. To add another indignity to his meaningless existence, he finds that he is dying of cancer. At first he takes to drinking – something he has never done before. That does not help. After further searching, he finds meaning in his life: cleaning up the land and building a playground on what used to be a polluted swamp. People who know him are at a loss to explain the changes they see. The man dies half-way through the film – found dead at the newly completed playground. The second half of the film is filled with flashbacks from people at his funeral. The final flashback is from a policeman who stops by and tells that earlier in the man’s last evening that the man was sitting happily on a swing in the playground and softly singing an old song.



Three completely different roles. Each one would take a great actor to bring the part to life. But these roles were all played by one actor: Takashi Shimura.

After Matt posted about Joe Friday he was wondering if there was a way to not have the whole post show up on the front page. So we did a bit of digging and found the code. So if you want your long post to only show a paragraph or so and then have the reader click on "read more" to find the rest of the post...

Joe Friday Would Have Been 90 Today

Jack Webb was a sickly boy who grew up in poverty. His father left before the boy was born on April 2, 1920. Raised by his mother and grandmother, Webb gained a lifelong appreciation for jazz music from musicians who rented rooms in his mother’s house. Webb also developed an intense acceptance of people from all races.