Frank’s Fax Facts and Reviews

Vol.. XIV , 21

Sunday, August 18. 2013

Driving to mass at 6:45 in a downpour, is for me, far preferable to driving directly into the sun’s unyielding glare! Sun glasses only make it worse, so I usually have to utilize  pillows stacked one on top of the other, and drive more or less standing up to avoid driving blind as a bad into the great Sunshine mountain!

CAT FAX

“If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.”

Alfred North Whitehead

Old Movie Review

Watch on the Rhine (WB; 1943)

This WW2 drama about Bette Davis (who is married to Paul Lucas and has been living in Germany since their marriage), Paul Lucas (who played the kind man who marries Jo in the David O/ Selznick 1930’s version of Little Women won an Academy Award for this performance.

Bette and Paul have brought their three well mannered children (two boy and a girl) where they run into a man who is trying to take half of a stack of money amounting to $20000 for taking back to Germany where they will do all that they can to help the allied causes. Paul ends up having to shoot this interloper, even though Bette Davis’ mother has aggreed to give him half of the amount out of her pocket.

The tension in the house relaxes and Paul joins the fighting, leaving his wife and children with their mother, at her mother’s home.

It has just enough WW2 discussion to make it breath taking, and Bette does some of her usual wonderful acting!

 

Draft Dodging No More

I was tired and hot when I arrived at the door to Marcus’s apartment there in the heart if Cincinnati, but the minute I saw that great big smiling face, my spirits lifted heavenward! Marcus was one of those happy people who are so satisfied with their lives that they are usually in a terrific mood, “Come in this house!” he almost cried. I walked across the threshold and stood admiring the new additions he had made since my last visit.

I was between terms at Michigan State, where I was almost through with my education. And we all agreed it was about time!

There was a delicious odor coming from the gas range, and I did not recognize it. “What’s the heavenly smell?” I asked.

He smiled broadly as he said, “We’re having curried beef for supper!

I thought back to my last visit (the past fall) when Marcus had taken me to yet another of Cincinnati’s  Five Star restaurants (any one of which I rated higher than any restaurant n New Orleans) and we had almost had it that evening, but he decided he wanted me to have something else. I sniffed the air hungrily! What is that heavenly aroma?’ I asked.

“That’s the curry powder! That’s what makes if so special!”

I had to agree that its odor was different and certainly smelled delicious!

I admit to being so hungry I almost passed out, what with the delicious aroma I was having to endure. When we finally sat down to eat, almost two hours later, it was almost like when we used to slop our hogs, back in Richton! I refer to the uncouth manner in which we both attacked the meal, and then so thoroughly enjoyed down to the last drop! I’m sure he had salad, vegetables and dessert: but I’d be lying if I said I remembered anything except that curried beef!

Incidentally, about thirty years after this introduction to curry powder, Janet, my bridge partner, brought us Deviled Eggs for lunch. They smelled so wonderful that I had to ask what they had that her others had not had, and she told me she had experimented with some curry powder! I have used it ever since!

        The next morning, Marcus asked if I would have any interest in seeing Cincinnati’s outstanding zoo. I gave him a strong answer in the affirmative, and by the time the day was over. I was filled with more lovely memories! First of all, we were transported by an over-sized Toy Train, and before that, I had seen zoos  in places like Jackson, MS. and Southern Miss. University. But here was a real zoo! (I later was taken to even more spectacular zoos in Seattle, Washington and Portlamd, Oregon, with Beth as my tour guide (and it was here that I fell in love with water critters!)

        I knew how eager Mama and Daddy were to see me, so I tore myself away, and continued driving due South.

Bette Davis Old Movie Quiz

1.      Did Davis or Hepburn win the most Oscars?

_2. In which film does Bette wear a red evening dress to a huge party?

_3. with whose dying body does she travel to the cemetery in New Orleans?

_4. What is the famous Bette Davis quote spoken by Eliz. Taylor in the beginning of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?

_5. Which film ends with Bette going blind? Extra credit if you can name the Oscar winning friend who is with her to the bitter end?

_6. In which WW2 studio musical did Bette lament, They’re Either too Young or too old!?

_7. With whom did she share top billing in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

_8. Who was her similar friend in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte?

_9. Who was the younger actress who was Eve, to Bette Davis?

_10.      Can  you name any of her husbands?

Answers to Quiz

1. Rosalind Russell was in the Eugene O’Neal drama. Mourning Becomes Electra

2.    In My Sister Eileen, Leonard Bernstein  wrote the movie score

3.    In Aunty Mama, Peggy Cass created the character Agnes Gooch

4.    Carol Brown was Mame’s vaudeville partner (Mame always got it wrong)

5.    It Happened in Bombay, which paired MGM super star Clark Gable with Rosalind Russell.

6.    Roger Smith *Lend Me Your Comb played the adored nephew grown up/ Think about combs!

7.    His Girl Friday paired Roz with Cary Grant,

8.    No Time for Comedy had her with James Stewart.

9.    She played stage mother to Natalie Wood in Gypsy..

10.               How many Oscars did she receive in her career? None, to my knowledge. She certainly deserved at least two!