This blog is dedicated to the memory of David Weintraub, who took on insidious astroturfers and won.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Richie Cunningham Presented Lies In Order To Sell A Picture


Richie Cunningham Loses It

If there was ever an actor who epitomised good American apple pie values, it was Ron Howard. No kid served as a better role model than Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. No one, not even Mrs. C, could take the credit for transforming The Fonz from thug to good citizen other than Richie Cunningham.


Opie Goes to School

It then came as utter disillusionment to find out that Ron Howard in real life couldn't hold a candle to those goodie two-shoes he portrayed on television. In order to sell Cinderella Man as an epic portrayal of James Braddock's unlikely rise to winning the heavyweight belt, the producers figured there needed to be a villian. That person became Max Baer.

The problem is Cinderella Man was based on a true story. There's no place for poetic license in such a situation. It was morally wrong to rewrite that history. It's unfortunate this happened, because it was unnecessary. One can appreciate Braddock without being fed lies about Max Baer. The bottom line is actually that Braddock was a mere footnote compared to the impact Max Baer had. Baer should have been featured and not the other way around. By twisting and lying about Baer's past, Howard basically became a sellout hack.

I'm shocked that no Hollywood movie has ever been done on Max Baer. Maybe I missed it, but I don't see that there has been even one attempt.

Cinderella Man spinned Max as being proud of murdering a man in the ring. It is fair to argue that the 1930 death of Frankie Campbell was the reason Max Baer never became one of the all time greats of the sweet science. That event devastated him. He humbly offered his goodwill to the Campbell family and helped put Frankie's kids through college. Campbell's tragic death was the equivalent of Samson getting his hair cut off by Delilah, or Popeye having his spinach taken away. From then on, Max Baer needed all sorts of psychological motivation to perform well in the ring.

He got some of that mojo back when he fought Max Schmeling of Germany. Baer had Jewish blood. Although he wasn't a practising Jew, for that fight and from then on he wore boxing shorts with a large Jewish Star embroidered on it. That was downplayed by Cinderella Man. It was decided that Braddock versus Baer as good versus evil schtick wouldn't work so well, if folks knew Baer had been a thorn in Nazi Germany's Aryan supremacy schlock. We know of Joe Louis smacking down Hitler's favourite boxer. We know Jesse Owens did a good thing smacking down Nazi morale with his efforts in the 1936 Olympics. Max Baer deserves to be in that grouping. Unfortunately because of Ron Howard's mythology, he isn't.


James J Braddock Max Baer 1

I watched a chunk of the Braddock-Baer fight. It was a snooze fest except for Baer's entertaining nature. Braddock won by decision. He didn't exactly beat on Max. As reported in a 1935 Time Magazine article, "Over Braddock [Max Baer] had the advantages of weight (18 lb.), reach (3 in.) and a fabulous right-hand punch which had once killed a man. In all earnestness he had told reporters:
I'm scared stiff I'll kill Braddock. I dreamed last night I hurt the boy. I woke up in a cold sweat.
The real irony is that it's not an outrageous opinion to think Max Baer was a better actor than Ron Howard. He was in a number of quality flicks. Ron Howard never was.

Max Baer made his acting debut in 1933 in The Prizefighter and the Lady. It is fair to say he stole the movie from two of the greatest actors of all time, Myrna Loy and Walter Huston.


The "Thin Man" witty lines


WALTER HUSTON TRIBUTE

There is a very interesting side tangent that emerged from this movie. Mussolini's boxer Primo Carnera played himself under the condition that he wouldn't lose to Baer's character. That guy was huge, but he had a soft chin and word was most of his wins had been rigged. Max crushed Carnera the next year to win the heavyweight belt, after having knocked him down eleven times.

Max Baer would later co-star with Humphrey Bogart in the 1956 film The Harder They Fall. It was Bogart's last movie. The script was a fictionalised version based on the Primo Carnera story. Baer played a character somewhat based on himself, but in which he was portrayed just like Cinderella Man did, as a monster proud of his ability to kill people in the ring. Maybe Baer wouldn't have played the part, if he knew decades later he would be unethically pinned as being so in real life. But that takes us into a Twilight Zone styled time travel schlick-schlock.

Max Baer had major skills beyond fisticuffs. He was perhaps the original Muhammad Ali or perhaps that honour goes to Gentleman Jim Corbett. Baer was a natural born entertainer who just so happened to also be adept at applying fists to faces. He was the real life version of Golden Boy by Clifford Odets. That play first hit Broadway in 1937. Perhaps Odets had been influenced by Baer's story? A similar death in the ring occurs. A similar anguish is felt by the character Joe Bonaparte that Max Baer experienced. This was a theme, one of regret of one's hands leading to another's death, that Ron Howard and the makers of Cinderella Man didn't bother including in their movie. To make matters worse, Cinderella Man falsified such truth.

The Prizefighter and the Lady wasn't a musical, but about halfway through it, Max Baer showed up in a Broadway-like schtick. Since Cinderella Man decided to fictionalise real history, I am going to go out on a limb and argue that Rocky was the much better picture, precisely because it never made itself to be anything than it really was. Richie Cunningham messed up bad. He should apologise and atone for distorting history into fiction without a disclaimer.

Max Baer in "Prizefighter and the Lady"



Related Reading:

Fight Snub
How Cinderella Man sucker punches the Jewish boxer Max Baer.


The Real Max Baer Is Missing From 'Cinderella Man'
Ron Howard's latest movie proves that Hollywood still has a real problem portraying American Jews as anything but stereotypes.

17 comments:

Tokyo Shemp said...

Donkeytale, I found that movie you wanted to see. Here it is. The second part can be found on the right if you scroll down.You never know how long these will last before being yanked. So watch it asap. Then we can have a mini-movie club. Perhaps moderation could be turned off for some live blogging. Yeah, I saw you wrote up a satire called live blogging. You made a funny. Good one, lad.

donkeytale said...

If its still up I'll try watching it tomorrow night since I'll be holed up in another lonely hotel room.

I'm of two minds regarding the fictionalization of true stories for dramatic effect in movies. Most all do it. Movies require a tidiness of plotline and story that real life seldom provides. The Hurricane, the Rubin Carter biopic starring Denzel Washington, is also fictionalized in parts, but a strong movie nonetheless, and wearing leftist values on its bleeding heart sleeves, to boot.

I didn't see Cinderella Man, nor have I seen any Ron Howard movies for that matter. I think I may have tried to watch one once and found it so dismal that I never went back. He seems to be the epitome of middle brow, and his acting career, such as it was depended entirely on the character actors who popularized the shows he was fortunate enough to be involved with.

Andy Griffith of course had the incomparable Don Knotts, not to mention a plethora of other great roles, including Gomer, Goober, Otis the Town Drunk, Howard Sprague, and my own personal favourite, Floyd the Barber.

For a time they even had the magnificent Elinor Donahue as Andy's (unlikely) love interest. Donahue was also the oldest daughter on "Father Knows Best" and a personal favourite of me and my left hand at that stage of my. uhh, development.

I remember there was also a hillbilly who used to bring his family to town to cause trouble, too. The one who tried to marry off his hot daughter to Andy. Can't remember the name, tho.

Max Baer was definitely Hollywood royalty, something of a precursor to Oscar De la Hoya. And you forgot to mention that Baer's son, Max Jr., was the featured co-star and shining light of another classic comedy from the early 60s, The Beverly Hillbillies.

The GREAT Jethro Bodine. Baer was so good in that role that he was hopelessly typecast and turned to making B pictures, some of which were quite successful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Baer,_Jr.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I don't think I ever presented this entry as being some type of scoop or exclusive. An anonymous showed up to imply that. He or she was very rude for no apparent reason.

Most everything on the internet is a form of regurgitation. The key is to not copy anything. That's why God invented paraphrasing.

What that person was asking me to post was an ad hominem adding nothing to the entry. You, on the other hand, have come back strong staying on topic and adding quite more than two cents. I thank you for that.

I did hesitate posting the Max Baer video. That's quite the catchy tune and tough to get out of one's head.

There have been a number of versions on the Titanic. One of them was a close depiction. I guess the recent one completely made things up. Now if they disclosed that perspective, then fine.

The domonisation of Max Baer crossed the line, period. I kind of like my grouping of him in with Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. Now most of that might have been showmanship by Baer, more of a schtick than something bestowing great integrity. He first used it because he was fighting the Nazi boxer.

But the key is Baer kept on wearing those shorts. In a way, he was the Field Negro of Jews. Field Negro was born Black, just like Baer was born Jewish. Why should anyone be put down for who they were born as?

I missed the Ron Howard movie too. I did see Cinderella Women or Million Dollar Babe or whatever it was called, the one Eastwood did. Now that one definitely took poetic license. I'm not even sure it was based on a real story. I think it was total fiction to begin with. But anyone watching it could tell it was fiction. It was one of those where one could go to the net and Ask Mr. Jeeves whether it was based on a true story.

The Braddock story was completely based on truth just like any movie like the Titanic. In that respect, the makers have a responsibility to either stick as close to reality as possible or admit they are making stuff up.

Andy Griffith was a great show, for many of the reasons you mentioned. Of course once Knotts left and the thing was produced in colour, and Opie was no longer cute, akin to Beaver Cleaver growing up, the show was a dead man walking.

Another problem with Mayberry did revolve mostly around Andy and his relationships with women. They were either too hot (Donahue) or cold (Miss. Krump Cheese). And why on earth was it never explained what happened to his wife? Aunt Bee showed up and that was that. No explanation. Nothing.

I remember that hot hillbilly girl going after Andy. I always avoided that show growing up. I thought it looked stupid. As a Yank, I am not into watching dumbass southerners.

But then I gave it a chance a number of years back and saw what all the hullabonanza was about. To any of the youngins out there, here's some advice. If the show is in black and white watch it. If it's in colour, go outside for a walk.

I didn't mention Jethro. I didn't think it necessary. He reminds me of Ted Williams' son, just someone who made a name for himself because of one of his relative's coattails.

I found one link on him. It seems he was originally pissed off at Ron Howard but then backed off. He also seems to be into guns and right wing, Fox News, type talk.

That banker lady was actually a leftier than thou. I guess she would be considered a handsome woman. I forget her name. She ran for office and I think lost, but I can't remember. I saw Granny in an old movie. She was kind of cute. The cool thing abouyt the old movie fetish is you can see some of these people when they were kids, and it can be mind-blowing. Barbara Stanwyck for example. I used to think she was some overrated whench. But then I saw her in those early 30's flicks, and I swear, she was fricken out of sight cute and sassy.

Tokyo Shemp said...

The recent comment gadget doesn't work properly. I tried. Sorry.

donkeytale said...

I think you miss the historical cultural significance of the Beverly Hillbillies.

That show was top ten for years, maybe even number 1 and quite controversial at the time for the way it portrayed hicks for laughs.

OK heres the wikipedia scoop on TBH:

"The series is about a poor backwoods family transplanted to Beverly Hills California after striking oil on their land. A Filmways production, it is the first in a genre of "fish out of water" themed television shows, and was followed in 1963 by country-cousin series Petticoat Junction and in 1965 by another country cousin, Green Acres.[citation needed]. The concept paved the way for later culture-conflict shows such as McCloud, The Nanny, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Doc. Panned by many entertainment critics of its time, it quickly became a huge ratings success for most of its nine-year run on CBS.

The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top twelve most watched series on television for seven of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the number one series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most-watched television episodes of all time.[1]"

And if you really watch it, you begin to understand that its the banker (his wife) and Miss Jane, AKA "yuppies and necons" who are being satirised and ridiculed.

Not to mention, the show successfully spun off two more hits: Petticoat Junction and my pick for the funniest sitcom of all time, the Ionescoesque comedy of the absurd Green Acres.

I know nothing about Baer, Jrs. politics. All I know is Jethro was funny stuff. The 20 something six grader who stomped his foot on the ground like a horse to do his "ciphering." In fact the horse was better at math than Jethro was...

RIOTOUS!

Yes, this was a very good entry you did on Max Baer. I was being somewhat tongue in cheek (excepting my affection for Elinor Donahue).

The Harder they Fall was a great fight movie, one Bogies last roles, maybe his last. A great, sad film.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Thanks. It took me a night of sleep to work it out. What sealed it for me was finding the quote by Baer saying he was scared he'd kill Braddock. The Jewish star being downplayed was point #2. Number three is the fact that Baer did become somewhat of a success as an actor.

This is not to belittle Braddock's accomplishment. To repeat myself, it just seemed totally unnecessary to distort Max Baer. If he hadn't had those other things on his resume, then perhaps fine.

Thanks for that historical perspective on the Hillbillies. I can respect it from that viewpoint. I still don't like the show from a n admittedly subjective bias. I don't like olives either.

I think we get along blog-wise because we both get a kick out of the American Studies aspect of life. The Kossacks and their off-shoots actually think they are making a political difference. Or maybe they don't, and for the most part they are simply drier than sawdust. Yawn City.

The troll gave out to me for repeating a story that has already been covered. He or she called me Jethro Bodine or Bovine whatever.

I'll give Baer Jr. some credit for lasting that long on a series. There's another topic and it relates to the Richie Cunninghams and Fonzies of the world. They get penalised for performing one role too well. Now with Cunningham/Opie, I don't think he ever had enough charm, charisma, or range to become a good actor anyway. Winkler seems to have gotten ripped off.

Cary Grant is another one. He rarely got to be in a real movie, if you know what I mean. He became Cary Grant. The best thing about him is that he was able to run with that for fifty years. I believe he could have been one of the greatest actors of all time. He was just too good with the Cary Grant schtick.

The Harder They Fall was Bogart's last movie. I could only find clips of it. You could tell he was in rough shape. He died close to after it was produced.

Maybe boxing used to be the #1 sport in America. There seems to have been more boxing movies made during the old fetish zone than any other sport.

I just thought of another situation where a movie based on real people had a similar negative effect. I finally got to see Frances Farmer a few months back. I usually then get a kick out of checking out imdb.com for background info. It looks like she was never given a lobotomy, that the claim was made up to sell a book.

I was young and impressionable when I first heard of her. For a very long time, I had thought of her once in a while and what I thought had been done to her. To recently find out it wasn't true made me mad. Maybe we are back to our F is for Fake discussion again.

There's something about lying that very much pisses me off. These things are akin to little white lies to save someone some grief. These are whoppers told in the pursuit of profit.

We are taught as youth about George Washington and how he couldn't lie about chopping down the cherry tree. That too was a lie. Now my head is spinning into nihilism. Or maybe back then when that story was originally told, it was obviously a fable. Fables are good. These other things are not.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Oops. I meant to say these things are not akin to white lies.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I just found this link, Washington’s Cherry Tree- Legend or Fact? I'll have to save it for after the Patriot's game. I've got to now observe another fake called Brett Favre. Maybe fake is not the right word for him. Yet, there's something about Brett and guys like LeBron James that rubs most people the wrong way.

donkeytale said...

RIOTOUS!

Good juan dude. One of my main schticks has always been stealing er I mean appropriating the schtic of others.

Bet on it.

'Mispellicism' is mine however.

Francis greatest is 'MAMZ' which I immediately started using with the regularity of an ex-lax junkie. I'm more of a zeitgeist promoter as opposed to creator. FLH was and is pure gold as a blogger. To think MLW banned him at the height of his schtick is still one of the most appalling acts of group stupidity ever promulgated within the Whiteysphere. And that is saying a lot, given the sheer amount of extant group stupidity.

As you well know, Joseph KKK is also a clever play on the name of the protagonist from 'The Trial' a book that ruined me forever as a writer.

Well, OK that and my relative lack of talent.

Also an Orson Welles movie if I recall. Never saw it tho.

Read the book several times but for some reason never finished it
(Canned laughter)

I came to see why Kafka never did either. It just goes on and on relentlessly and ordinarily in its dreary day to day sense of dread and ennui for the mundane and commonplace perversity of the rotten human social disorder also known as 'Western Civilization'

My "KKK" useage was of course a parody of the silly online trend to identifying all ideogical opponents as white southern sheet shirts.

Or WTF.

donkeytale said...

Never read Kafka?

Here, it is in the public domain, you can download it for free:

http://www.holybooks.com/the-trial-by-franz-kafka/

Very worthwhile. Franz was onto the whiteysphere a friggen century ago...

Tokyo Shemp said...

Cool potatoes au gratin. I'll have to check that out. Ta, lad. I was just thinking. You remember how it used to be cool to wear earrings, and then it wasn't? We could be approaching that same point with the use of the word schtick. By the way, speaking of Yiddish, there's a 1932 James Cagney movie called Taxi. An old school Jew is giving an Irish cop some difficulties. Then Cagney pops his head out of the cab and starts to speak fluent Yiddish and then translates for the bacon product. That's either amazing or you had to be there. (And for any cops in the audience, just remember, if you're an honest one, then take the pig jokes on the chin like a good copper and start weeding out the rat finks you know exist in every department.)

Tokyo Shemp said...

Fairleft is writing some crazy shite over at Pffugee. He's calling a Move On person who got deliberately stepped on by Rand workers an agent provocateur. He's sounding very much like Blues or any other right woos left dumbass.

Unfortunately it's the equally compromised Lord Byron putting him in his place. Byron's busy praising Stalinism in between discussing some lady's bush on another thread.


I don't know what's up with those guys. If I had to guess, fairleft is paid to post and Byron is just a thinker with deep flaws. He's sexist and calls for the end of Israel. He praises Stalin.

Fairleft though comes across much worse and as a redneck, racist, conspiracy whackjob.

Does Commmentman go after him and Blues? I wonder why the ex-Kos Kop blogmaids went after myself and Lord, yet these others seemed to get immunity. I don't remember them ever going after fakeleft. Yet, people like me, you, Byron, and Francis are driven off.

When Francis was getting unfairly treated by MLW, it was fairleft who gave him some cowardly rabbit punches at the end. I think he hates black people, or Black people, as Francis wants it capitalised. I would, but I would never capitalise white people. I can give up the word spook. I don't know about this other request. Nonetheless, Francis is a good guy, a regular guy. I hope he's happy in Brazil or wherever he is. He's in love. He's out of the rat race. Good for him.

Tokyo Shemp said...

They also went after Dave, which eventually is what probably got MattyJack to ban me. I put up too many screenshots proving it. Your lack of putting up such images probably spared you a similar fate.

donkeytale said...

For some reason I havent watched the Sunset Blvd movie yet. I probably will, but hope you were joking about the coffee kitsch clatch.

I'd gladly listen to your Schpiel on it. Generally, I think it was Holden's best movie, except for Sabrina which was really more a Hepburn/Bogart vehicle anyway.

I really like the Holden voice-over narrative in SB. I love voice-overs. And I love the spoken word bridge in country songs, too. Probably the best being the incomparable George Jones in "He Stopped Loving her Today."

Best. Country. Song. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R2F9f2Cl6Y

I know, I know. Provincial NE'er thinks all southerners are retards.

Au contraire. Southerners form the bulk of creative talent ever produced by this almost great country, music of course, without any doubt, but also actors, writers and hot chicks.

The bonus is that hot Southern chicks are also approachable to a greater degree than hotties from other parts, and by uhh, average looking dudes. I wish I had a a dolla everytime I've seen some drop dead gorgeous chick with some fat, ugly doofus here in Texass. On rare occassion, that lucky doofus has even been me.

Midwest farmers daughters also tend to be very approachable (especially when drunk in bars which is about 95% of life in the MW) but alas, these sheilas tend to be well down the hotness scale from the outstanding Southern specimen.

Am I making any bigottedly sexist sense here?

Didnt think so.

Sunset Blvd. is of course a great flick, but one thats been analyzed to death. What more needs to be added, even from the obvious brilliance of us two eminences grise?

I read some of the Trial, and its just not the same experience as can be garnered when a teenager rifling through a dog-eared, moulding paperback copy and going WTF? every few pages.

For some reason, I also today stumbled on SI's 1978 swimsuit issue featuring a young Christie Brinkley and a not-so-young Cheryl Tiegs.

Is it just me or was Tiegs the homeliest, un-hotestt super model of all time?

WTF did anyone see in her, anyway?

Personally, I remember spanking it much more convincingly along with the likeness of Maria Joao than either Brinkley or Tiegs.

Who knows? I may take another whack at Maria tonight, 32 f'ing years later, just for nostalgia's sake.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/edb/reader.html?magID=SI&issueDate=19780116&mode=reader_vault

Tokyo Shemp said...

Yeah, I was kidding about having a coffee kibatchka get-together over a book or movie.

I went looking for Sabrina once, couldn't find nothing but clips or a version in a different language. From what I could see, Bogart was too old for the part.

Sunset Blvd. was solid gold without the dancers. It might be the only movie in history which survived giving away the ending in the opening scene.

I think it's one of those flicks where the more background info you have on the history of movies the better, like Dinner at Eight. Now that's another must see movie. I've been very fortunate to find some of the best. I got to see Public Enemy, one Lord Byron would have loved for just the one scene where because of Cagney's character, a dame's face famously became well-acquainted with a grapefruit.

Speaking of Pffugee, what a joke. MattyJack showed up. He's trying to rewrite history, saying he did nothing wrong. Vox Humana is doing his standard, "I may be slow on the uptake, could you do my homework for me?" MattyJack was the last dagger for any hope of a decent offshoot forming off of Daily Kos. Someone should post an entry in the urban dictionary for MattyJack. A nice definition would be a ratfink, someone who hypocritically professes himself as a protector of free speech only to later squash it; A double crossing rat who threw Dave From Queens under the bus; The dumbass who came up with some of the strangest convolution in internet history to throw people off the scent of himself being a truly twisted fraud.

I never got the fascination with Christie Brinkley.

Another one who I never thought was that pretty was Brooke Shields.

Yes, we are now getting into a bit of sexist territory and areas of supplying more information than needed.

Your Maria Joao was kinda cute, though I think she could have turned down that smile meter a tad. I'm more of a pouty lip lover.

I'd say the biggest debate ever on whether a woman was hot or not was with Jean Harlow. Folks seem to either say yes or no.

Of course with my old movie fetish, I have a lot of old dames on my mind most of the youngins will have no clue who I'm talking about. Young Bette Davis was the perfect blend of sweet and sour. Loretta Young, hey now. I never thought Gloria Swanson was that good looking. Though she always took good care of her body, which was in fine form even into her old age.

I found some old school dame named Marian Marsh. Very cute. Vivien Leigh was also wicked awesome looking in her twenties.

The problem with the old-school movie fetish and chatting about ladies from that era is the history was skewed just like baseball with its own segregation.

There was one African-American lady I swooned for from the 1933 flick Baby Face. Her name was Theresa Harris. Stanwyk was also easy on the eyes.
Baby Face and Chico
Vintage Vamp: Theresa Harris

donkeytale said...

I tried to watch the movies but it kept stalling on me, which irritates me no end so I stopped. It really is a great flick. also found Nick Ray's In a Lonely Place. It ran more smoothly but then stopped on me too. So fuck it. Didint finish either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GExAB2meHE

So I didnt finish. Both film noirs from 1950. Both about failed screenwriters. SB is more obviously about Hollywood, while the Ray flick concerns the nature of the artistic temperament and creative struggle, violence, love, longing and the inability of creative types to find lasting romance.

Bogart at his late career finest in an indie that his company produced.

Ray is simply a great filmmaker. And Gloria Grahame as the masochistic love interest always moves me a little. She divorced Ray during the filming. Great chemistry between she and Bogie.

A postmodern sensibility well before its time. I believe all or part of the Bogart character in this movie has been replicated by virtually every "serious" dramatic male actor since Nicholson.

Nicholson on multiple occasions.

I'm in a crappy hotel room in Brownsville, TX tonite. Tomorrow heading up to New Braunfels near San Antonio for Wurst Fest, which is the local version of Oktoberfest. Lots of Bier drinking and sausage eating, a very gay scene.

NB is an excellent hill country party town on the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers. I took my son tubing on the Guadalupe this past summer and we had a blast. Tubing is a quintessential Texas experience, fairly rough whitewater rapids mixed with long stretches of calm floating thru the bucolic hill country, its just a great time, but very hard on 60 yr old bodies. I was injured for weeks afterwards from fighting the currents, smashing into rocks in the river.

And of course, copious amounts of teh Shiner Bohemian Black. You get an extra tube to tie down your cooler. You have to tie it tight and hope not to lose the cargo.

Its a five hour trip, surrounded by hundreds of mostly college age kids, really fun. By the end there are so many biers floating along with you in the river that you can reach in and grab a cold one practically at every moment.

My son of course had cokes. And I didn't molest him either, in case your accusatory mind is wondering...

Tokyo Shemp said...

I know what you mean how youtube can be tough to watch at times. Emptying caches and rebooting may help.

I think I saw In a Lonely Place. Is that the one where Bogart is a tough sob screenplay writer? It must be. That was excellent. Ha, I responded before seeing you explain this is true. That's how I sometimes respond to posts. I just start cranking out my response before reading the whole thing.

The best thing about watching these movies on the internet, when they load fast and play smooth, is if they are good, then it feels great to not have to paid one cent to watch them. Like getting free tickets to a game. I've seen some incredible films this way.... A Streetcar Named Desire, Dinner at Eight, Grand Hotel, and many more. I think the smartest people using youtube are figuring out to put up great movies for a time and then delete them before they get their account scrubbed.

And if the movie is bad or say it's bad, but you'd still like to know how it ends, you can fast forward through the muck parts.

I have seen a bit of Gloria Grahame Cracker. I heard she was so self-concious about her bottom lip, she used to pack het mouth with cotton. It amazes me how many of Hollywood ended up with severe emotional problems. The IMDB website is actually what makes it so much easier to follow movies. You can read bios and check out various cast members. What I've definitely learned, and it must be true because it's such a well-known cliche, is that they don't make them like they used to. Or you can check out imdb first before investing too much time in a bad flick.

Here's a bit of trivia. I forget the name of the movie, but it was one written by Dalton Trumbo. Ginger Rogers felt some of it was very anti-American. So the producers gave the "speeches" to other characters.

I was thinking of a new entry contradistincting that with some cool dude named John Garfield. He was a great actor who got blacklisted. But it was just an idea, and maybe I've taken care of that itch through this one paragraph.

You gotta be careful on your old man body. Clark Gable apparently did his own stunts for The Misfits, an underrated movie. He died soon there after. Well, I guess somewhere in Heaven he's hanging out with Jean Harlow. Maybe Clark ended up with a reputation for bad breath after Harlow died at such a young age. Maybe Gable just didn't give a frockler about his hygiene henceforth.

You shouldn't allow your son to drink coke. I heard you could put a carcass in a bathtub, apply the cola, and the thing will disintegrate. Though that could be an investigative topic for what is it, Snopes, or that Stright Dope dude?

There's nothing like nature. It's the only thing that can keep us sane, imho, or according to Mr. and Mrs. Tao from Enlightenment City.