Best of Enemies

 On Netflix right now, there is a film called Best of Enemies.  It is a documentary made in 2015, about the debate between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal at the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago.

(Was it one debate?  Or was it a series of debates? - I'm not sure, still playing it, listening to it.)

        (If you go to look for this on Netflix, be aware there's another movie on there titled The Best Of Enemies.  Same title, except with the word "the" in front of it.

        These are two entirely different films, so - here, we're talking about "Best of Enemies" without the "The.")

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William Buckley introduces the word "hobgoblinization" while trying to make a point.

There's a scene from the "Playboy After Dark" TV show hosted by Hugh Hefner, with Gore Vidal as a guest.

        The first time I listened to some of this, I thought, "Are both of these guys trying to speak with an English accent?"

                One narrator says, "They spoke with these patrician, languid accents, they'd both been to boarding schools...."

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the word "languid" - moving or speaking slowly with little energy, often in an attractive way.

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I know the ending and I still watch

 

Otto Preminger, the director of the 1944 film, Laura

viewer comments on Laura --

*  Absolute gem!! A must see.  Clifton Webb is outstanding!

*  A perfect film from start to finish, from the settings to the actors.  It doesn't get better than this.

*  I love this film so much, the chemistry is so great.

*  I wish they still made movies like this.  What a movie and cast.

*  What a movie!  Loved it!  Had everything a movie should have!  Decors, good acting, beautiful actors, beautiful dresses, good plot twist, suspense!

*  Using a typewriter while having a bath is such a mood.

*  This is such a good movie with really good actors.

* ...Timeless, elegant, and brilliantly suspenseful.

*  I know the ending and I still watch!

*  The dialogue is amazing !

*  ..."no, dear, I didn't.  But I thought of it"  WOW!!!!!  punchy script and well delivered lines throughout!

*  It's been 50-plus years since I've seen it, looking forward to watching it again, thanks!

*  Always good every time I watch it.

*  Absolute banger.

*  Magnifica no se la pierdan!!!

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the hottest Sunday in his recollection

 

Oh, man!  Now the good video of Laura, with all the sound consistent throughout, has got sound cutting out, just like the other one!!

If that wouldn't tick you off....

Just go on Amazon Prime and rent it or buy it.  That way, you get to see the opening credits and hear the music they have over them.  I guess it's a superior viewing experience anyway.

        But somehow I just get excited when I find one of these gems on You Tube.

[opening Voice-Over narration of Laura] --

I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.  

A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass.

It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection.

I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York.

For with Laura's horrible death, I was alone.

I, Waldo Lydecker, was the only one who really knew her, and I had just begun to write Laura's story when... another of those detectives came to see me.

I had him wait.

I could watch him through the half-open door.

I noted that his attention was fixed upon my clock.

There was only one other in existence, and that was in Laura's apartment, in the very room where she was murdered.

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the only human being left in New York

 

When one of the really good movies shows up on You Tube, I always want to inform readers about it so that they can watch it if they so choose.

        Not that we can't all rent or buy the classic films on Amazon Prime and watch, but there's something wild and fun about finding one on You Tube for free.

        If you can't stand the ads that some You Tube uploaders pepper their videos with, you can run it through Free Ad Block and you will have no ads.  Aaahhh!  Relief! - And the pleasure of a fantastic film!

And - you want to catch the movies we recommend ASAP, because after they get put up on You Tube, they get taken down by - I don't know who - some "Wet Blanket"....

I think it was a couple of years ago, we featured the information that Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949) was on You Tube - two different ones, the same movie, but one in the original black-and-white, and one in color.  (How do they "colorize" movies?)  And pretty soon - a few days or weeks - I went back and checked, and both of them were gone.

        And then just recently, a few weeks ago, I think, I promoted All About Eve which was on You Tube - it's gone, now.

So the one I want to inform you of, now, is Laura, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews.  The excellent stage actor Clifton Webb also has a central role.

The movie is permeated with personal style and atmosphere.

It has "dissolves" - where the scene you see on the screen sort of melts away and you see a different scene in its place.

        I love that - it makes the film flow more smoothly and dreamily, instead of the jerky, disjointed "cutting" from one scene to another.  

        You need cutting, sometimes, but in later movies, they use it all the time, with never any dissolves, someone decided that was better, & I don't think it is.

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There are two videos on You Tube with this movie, both from the same channel / uploader, named Kovboy Filmleri

The one to watch has the title "Laura I Mystery Movie" - and it says under the title "12 days ago" - meaning it was put on you tube 12 days ago, or by the time you get to it, it might say 14 or 15 days - recently.

        The other one from Kovboy Filmleri has a different title and was put up 7 months ago.  The sound cuts out on that one.

The good one starts without the opening credits or music or title of the film - I think the uploaders sometimes cut off the opening to try to have it go undetected on you Tube for a longer time before they take it down.

So it starts with the voice over:  "get the weekend..."

What he said was "I shall never forget the weekend..."

Vincent Price, Clifton Webb in Laura - 1944

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"the fundamental things apply..."

 And thinking about that short trip to Hollywood in the '90s, I remembered also, when I went looking for the restaurant at the hotel, one had to walk through a piano bar to get to the dining area, so I stopped in the piano part, and sat and listened for a few minutes, & when the song ended, I asked the man if he could play "As Time Goes By" from the movie Casablanca.

        He didn't say anything, he just started playing it.

        It sounded great.

        It was a sparkling moment.

                You can experience that scene from the film on You Tube - a video titled:

Play it, Sam

uploader / channel:  BlauweBarry

You must remember this

A kiss is still a kiss

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply

As time goes by...

"Play it once, Sam.  For old time's sake."

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at the Hollywood Roosevelt

 

When I watch that Sopranos episode where "Christopher Moltisanti" goes to Hollywood to try to make a movie deal, sometimes I recall a trip I made to Hollywood in the early 1990s, for a couple of days.

        I signed up for a seminar in screenwriting taught by somebody who had done some TV and movie scripts.  I bought his book and was reading it, when I arrived at LAX.  I had reserved an affordable room at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, which was the location of the one-day seminar.

        In the evening I went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant - after ordering, I was reading the seminar guy's book.  Glancing around the room, I noticed a man who looked like the book's author.  (His picture was on the back cover.)

I thought, "Hey! I bet that's him!  I mean, I stayed at this hotel because the seminar is downstairs tomorrow morning, probably he did, too!"

        I was kind of thrilled at the idea of meeting a published author personally, so I was thinking, Yeah, I'll go over there and say Hi.

So I walk over - there's another guy at the table, with him.  I had the book in my hand - and I just asked him - "excuse me..." - asked him, "Is this you?  Did you write this book?"

And he says, "No."

(lol)

        He and the other guy just seemed kind of surprised, and - not - upset with me, or anything.  Just sort of like - "Hmmm, this woman thinks you're the author of - that book in her hand..."

        I said, "Oh - well, sorry to interrupt you. - I just thought you looked like the author's picture, here..."

The other guy said, "...But better-looking, right?"

me:  "That's what I meant."

They laughed.

I think maybe I laughed, too - sort of - a little bit - to go along with their laughing.  

I went back to my table.

        My dinner arrived; I was eating, and reading... the waiter brought over a glass of white wine that I hadn't ordered, and pointed at the two guys who were leaving; they waved to me on their way out.

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"Luxury Lounge"

 

In the Sopranos episode titled "Luxury Lounge," in Season 6, Christopher goes to Los Angeles with Little Carmine to try to make a movie deal.

To say that Christopher gets distracted from his  main purpose would be an understatement.  Partying, and free luxury goods kind of lead him astray from his goal, and pretty soon the trip is over, with no deal made.

Lauren Bacall, iconic actress from Hollywood's Golden Age, is a guest in this episode, as is Ben Kingsley.  Bacall would have been about 80 years old at the time this was filmed.

        Little Carmine and Christopher meet informally with Ben Kingsley and "pitch" him a movie idea for him to start in.  Kingsley says, "As ever, it would be script-dependent."

        He has an appointment, so they walk with him, continuing their pitch, and the destination is the Luxury Lounge, where there is all this "swag" - expensive items being offered for free, to the stars.

Christopher starts getting really envious, as it dawns on him that all these expensive, prestigious things are being given free to movie stars who can well afford to buy it if they want it.

        The "unfairness" and irony of this situation just starts driving Christopher a bit crazy - partly because he is so in love with the luxury items - watches, sunglasses, weird underwear...  it just kills him that rich people are getting it for free.

He is driven to intimidate Ben Kingsley in an elevator, and to actually "mug" Lauren Bacall as she is carrying her big gift basket outside after dark.

        (Surely they had a stunt double for that scene....)

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Classic films with Lauren Bacall, which you might want to catch:

Key Largo

To Have And Have Not

The Big Sleep

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