Well, dear readers, here we are, celebrating our third Thanksgiving here at hainehisway.com. Today it is absolutely fine to be a turkey, and an overblown stuffed one at that, because today is turkey lurkey time or, for those who don’t post, turkey lurker time. I’m already hungry for the Thanksgiving feast and yet I must wait until this afternoon. As difficult as life can be sometimes, there is always much to be thankful for. Three Thanksgivings here at haineshisway.com – that is something. We’ve been around longer than certain businesses, haven’t we? Others may cadge from us, but we are the original, the one, the only soon-to-be most popular site on all the Internet. Today we shall dance the Mashed Potato in honor of Thanksgiving. We shall dance the Yam. We shall nibble on cranberries and we shall partake of the light meat and the dark meat, not necessarily in that order. We will thanks for what we have been given, and I will say thanks for giving me you dear readers out there in the dark. So, without further ado annie, I say today is a day to get stuffed. Yes, Virginia, today is a day to get stuffed and let the devil take the hindmost, whatever the hell that means. In fact, the devil with the devil, let’s all take the hindmost. It’s been a ‘coon’s age since I’ve taken the hindmost and frankly I’m ready to take it again. You know, if anyone has a clew as to what the hell I’m talking about, tell it to the turkey.
I have seen three DVDs recently and shall now tell you of them. First I saw a motion picture entitled L’Appartement, made by a first-time director named Gilles Minoumi in France back in 1996. I’d read about it on a DVD website and it sounded interesting, so I took a chance and am I glad I did. Mr. Minoumi’s debut feature is a winner. Beautifully shot and scored, Mr. Minoumi delivers a fascinatingly plotted film and also an homage to his obvious film hero, Mr. Hitchcock. But, it’s not smarmy like Mr. De Palma, it’s just there for people who recognize it, and it’s always in service of his story and not to show off. The three leading actors are excellent, especially the film’s leading lady duo. Naturally, some jerk at some studio saw it and bought it for an American redo, which escaped pretty much unseen a few months ago – Wicker Park, starring Josh Hartnett. From what I’ve read, they did the usual tarting it up and changing the ending routine and made a routine film. Why don’t they just stop that sort of thing and import the original, which has never had even a video release in the US. If you have an all-region player (the DVD is available in the UK and France, although I gather the French DVD looks better (both have English subtitles), I recommend this film highly. It’s really well-done and really keeps your interest throughout with its endless little twists and turns (not blatant like they do in the US). I then watched a new release from MGM/UA, an ABC Movie of the Week from the Golden Age entitled Pursuit, starring Mr. Ben Gazzara and Mr. E.G. Marshall. Very cheaply done but edge of your seat viewing. Pursuit was the directorial debut of novelist Michael Crichton. It was adapted from the novel, Binary, by John Lange (Mr. Crichton). I loved almost all the old ABC Movie of the Weeks, and I hope they get around to doing A Cold Night’s Death and Isn’t it Shocking. I’m sure the original elements are lost or in hiding, but this looks like it was taken from a video master of a 16mm print – it’s passable, but barely, but I still recommend it because it’s really good, and features a fun Jerry Goldsmith score. I then watched a motion picture entertainment entitled The Cameraman, starring Mr. Buster Keaton. I’d never seen any of the MGM Keatons – I gather this is the best of them, but I look forward to the other two anyway. The Cameraman is a wonderful movie – endlessly inventive and funny and breathtaking, and I fell head-over-heels in love with Mr. Keaton’s leading lady, Miss Marceline Day. The only downside to the presentation, other than the film looking a bit rough (and why wouldn’t it) is the “new” musical score by Arthur Barrow, which manages the mean feat of actually defeating the humor at times because of its bombastic and wholly inappropriate nature. Mr. Barrow tends to take a popular song like If I Only Had a Brain and just change the notes within that harmonic structure – it’s embarrassing. He also uses an inversion of Syncopated Clock and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and it just drove me crazy and detracted from the visual genius that is Mr. Keaton. It’s especially galling after just having viewed The General, with a new score by Joe Hisaishi – a composer who actually knows how to score a film and not just accompany it with music that doesn’t work. If it were me, I would have brought in a proper film composer and let them run with it. It doesn’t ruin the film by any means, but it certainly doesn’t help it, either. I also looked at the Kevin Brownlow documentary – very sad to watch, but not up to Mr. Browlow’s usual high standards.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t we have to get stuffed and dance the Mashed Potato and The Yam and the Turkey Trot? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so we can do just that?
You know, I can’t find the hindmost. I’ve looked everywhere – perhaps the devil took it as soon as I mentioned the fershluganah hindmost. Oh, well, I suppose we shall have to be sans hindmost. Damn them, damn them all to hell.
I’m beginning to get very excited about my upcoming signings – especially the party in New York, New York. I’ll have complete signing information in Monday’s notes, and I do hope all you hainsies/kimlets on both coasts will come and join me at one or another of them.
I smell turkey but there’s nothing there
I smell gravy coming from somewhere
Mashed potatoes permeate the air
I wonder why, I wonder why
Yes, it’s Thanksgiving Day here at haineshisway.com and let us celebrate all the livelong day and night with tales of our Thanksgiving meal and other ephemera and effluvia.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must relax, I must watch DVDs, I must have a Thanksgiving Feast to beat the band, and I must then plotz on my couch like so much fish. Today’s topic of discussion: Discuss all the events and food of the day, and also tell us your favorite obscure show tunes – the kind I put on the Unsung Musicals albums. Let’s have loads of lovely postings on this lovely Thanksgiving Day, shall we? And don’t forget – it’s turkey lurkey time.