Well, dear readers, you won’t believe it – I barely believe it myself and yet, by gum and by golly, it is true. We finally have our very own haineshisway.com Unseemly Chat Room. Great Caeser’s ghost, isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that just too too? So, tonight, this very night, we will premiere it with a lively and sparkling live chat at six p.m. Pacific Mean Time. This means that all those who didn’t want to have to deal with AIM names don’t. Here’s how it works – it is simple as pie. Simple as pie. Aren’t some pies complex? Oh, well, this is simple as certain pies. All you do is come to this here site. At the top of the home page you will see a link to “Live Chat” – simply click on it and you will be whisked away in a spritely fashion (mini-skirt and go-go boots) to a log-in page where, get this, you will log in. All you need do is type in a username (and please use something we’re familiar with) – no password is necessary even though there is a place for one. We’re going to try this for a while without passwords and hopefully it will be fine, but again please use a moniker we’re familiar with. Once you’ve typed in your moniker just click on “Let’s chat” and you will be whisked away in a thrice to the actual chat. Once there, you chat away to your heart’s content. Simple as certain pies. Simple, simple as ABC, simple as 123 – oh, a Sondheim reference. There are also links to the chat on a variety of other pages on the site. We hope to see a full room of Hainsies/Kimlets this very evening. However, we must not shirk our posts – we must be shirkless, post-wise.
Last night I watched a brand spanking new DVD of a brand spanking old film entitled Trouble in Paradise, starring Miss Miriam Hopkins, Miss Kay Francis and Mr. Herbert Marshall. You might remember that when I wrote about seeing The Shop Around the Corner that I said for some reason I’m almost totally unfamiliar with the oeuvre of Mr. Ernst Lubitsch. Aside from Shop, the only other Lubitsch picture I know is Ninotchka, which is wonderful. Well, all I can tell you is that Trouble in Paradise, made in 1932, is one of the greats, a four-star masterpiece of such comic invention and sparkling banter that it actually takes your breath away. It takes a lot to get me to laugh out loud while sitting alone in my den, but from the beginning I was bursting with laughter and it never stopped throughout the entire film. The supporting cast is divine as well, especially Edward Everett Horton and Charlie Ruggles as Kay Francis’ suitors. Miss Hopkins (who kept reminding me of Kristin Chenoweth, at least in looks) and Mr. Marshall are wonderful, but for me the film is a love-letter to Miss Francis who, I’m rather shocked to say, I’d never even heard of. How beautiful she is, and what a wonderful natural comedienne she is – her performance is very real, especially given the acting conventions of the time. The script by Samson Raphaelson is brilliantly written – people who make “comedies” today should be locked in a room and made to learn from this film. The DVD is from Criterion, and the transfer, I suppose, is as good as we’re going to get, although at times it seemed a bit dark and a bit soft. There are quite a few extras – a commentary track, a lovely and long introduction from Peter Bogdanovich, tribute quotes from a variety of filmmakers, and a Lubitsch silent film, which actually looks sharper than the main attraction. It’s a must-have, and I kept thinking, why didn’t Cole Porter ever do a musical of this. Someone should do a musical of this, although I don’t know who would have the sophistication.
I also saw the new Criterion DVD of Mr. Jean Luc Godard’s marvelous Bande a Part (Band of Outsiders) which I’d also never seen. It’s worlds away from Mr. Lubitsch, but it has a lovely loopy charm about it, and a wonderful performance from Miss Anna Karina. Also, the usual terrific score from Mr. Michel Legrand. To see the photography by Raoul Coutard is worth the price of the DVD.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? After all, this is Sunday, who’s even reading these here notes. Perhaps we’d all better click on the Unseemly Button below before I use up all my words in this fershluganah section.
You know, I just looked at yesterday’s notes, and despite my saying they were going to be short, they were huge, they were long, they went on and on like so much fish. Well, I shall keep this section brief because I was supposed to yesterday and I got carried away, carried away, I get carried away – oh, a Comden and Green reference.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write like the wind and I must wind like the write, and then I must come to this very site at six p.m. Pacific Mean Time and open our chat room for its world premiere chat. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell the man in the street and the woman at the deli, tell everyone, this is where it’s at, baby, this is where it’s happening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, discuss any and everything. I’ll check back in often so I can partake of your excellent topics of which I know there will be many. So, post away, dear readers, post away.