Well, dear readers, here we are, in the thick of the weekend. Not in the thin of the weekend, mind you, no, we are in the thick of the weekend. I feel this shall be a frolicsome weekend. I feel that people will behave with gay abandon and flit about like a gazelle on a bi-plane. I, for example, will be behaving with gay abandon, not to mention flitting about like a gazelle on a bi-plane. What fun we shall all have this weekend, and the place to have fun is right here at haineshisway.com. I hereby proclaim today Pie Day. Everyone who visits the site today, must eat a piece of pie and tell us all about it. You can still come to the site and post if you don’t eat a piece of pie but you will be bitch-slapped from here to eternity and hell and back. We’ve never had a Pie Day before, and I, for one, am very excited about it. I have already jumped the gun, for I had a piece of pie last night, just to get a head start on things. Not a foot start on things, mind you, no, a head start on things. I had a lusciously luscious piece of cherry pie from our very own Du-Par’s. I just marched right in and said, “Give me a slice of that there cherry pie, thank you kindly.” I took it home with me and ate the whole thing up. I do love the occasional slice of cherry pie and this particular slice of cherry pie was yummilicious. I only wish I’d had a little vanilla ice cream to go with it. So, today is our very first Pie Day. Let’s make the most of it, shall we? Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night, whilst eating my piece of cherry pie without vanilla ice cream, I watched a motion picture entertainment on DVD entitled The Roaring Twenties, which is included in the new Warner Bros. Gangster Box Set. It’s another fine Raoul Walsh film, although it did take a bit of getting used to. It’s a bit more than the standard gangster film – there’s a lot of songs, there’s a little World War I, there’s some romance, and there are some very touching scenes. Once again, James Cagney turns in a brilliant performance – this guy really had it. In fact, there is one brief scene which contains some of the finest screen acting I’ve ever seen. There is so much going on in his face and in his body language, it’s actually breathtaking to watch. And it’s not grandstanding, it’s an incredibly subtle scene. He’s found out that the girl he loves has never loved him, and that she has, in fact, run off with his former bookkeeper. They’re totally on the up and up about it and are coming to tell him. He sees them walking towards them. He goes up to them, all tough, rough-handles the girl and then knocks the bookkeeper to the ground. The bookkeeper gets up and says something like “What are you trying to do?” and the emotions that suddenly play across Cagney’s face, the remorse, the sadness, the loss, the pain – well, it doesn’t get better than that. The rest of the cast is wonderful, too – Bogart as a tough bad guy, Frank McHugh as the lovable sidekick, Paul Kelly as a nasty gangster, Priscilla Lane as the girl Cagney pines for – but the person who almost single-handedly walks away with the film is Gladys George as Panama. What a performance. The transfer is fine and this whole set is a total winner, with the exception of the uniformly awful “featurettes”.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Aren’t we supposed to be talking about pie? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so we can behave with gay abandon whilst flitting about like a gazelle on a bi-plane eating a piece of pie.
Has anybody noticed that today is our very first Pie Day? You must not shirk your pie responsibility, dear readers. At some point in the day or the evening, you must go somewhere and eat a piece of pie – you can bring it home, eat it out, or get it from the supermarket. I’m quite excited to read all about our various pies.
Speaking of pies, I’m going to try and watch at least three DVDs over the weekend. That is my goal. My goal is that. Speaking of goals, I had quite a lovely day yesterday – I did all the things I set out to do and even had a nice swim in the very late afternoon.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, wrap up these here notes for I am fairly written out right about now, I must figure out what type of pie I shall be having, I must do some handy-dandy errands, I must drive about in my motor car, and I must watch some motion pictures on DVD. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite films starring Mr. James Cagney, Mr. Humphrey Bogart, and Mr. Edward G. Robinson. For Cagney, I’ll say his swan song – One, Two, Three (not his greatest, but it’s such a bravura performance), for Bogie I’ll say The Big Sleep, and for Eddie G. I’ll say Double Indemnity. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all go out and celebrate our very first Pie Day. I cannot wait to hear all about it.