Well, dear readers, ye olde voice box is definitely on the mend. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence? Nowhere, that’s where. Tomorrow I shall have another shot in another butt cheek. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence? And that will hopefully put ye olde voice box completely back to normal. Then I shall take it easy until our vocal sessions on Monday. Hopefully, Mr. Haines will do the same. Yesterday proved to be quite an interesting day. It started off interestingly and ended interestingly and was interesting in between. I don’t really remember why, but I’m quite sure it was interesting straight down the line. I did a bit of writing, a bit of plotting, answered many interesting e-mails, wrote a Li’l Abner review for Scarlet Street, lunched with Pardner Pogue (always a sparklingly sparkling affair – we talked of many things and we laughed and laughed and just when we thought we could laugh no more we laughed again), and I had some interesting phone calls throughout the rest of the day. Foodwise, I was a very good boy until the early evening, at which time I had a bad old chocolate Danish, which was quite yummilicious. After that, I settled down to a nice evening of DVD watching, lying on the couch like so much fish. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Anna and the King of Siam, starring Mr. Rex Harrison and Miss Irene Dunne. I’d never seen it before and it was fascinating viewing. I much prefer the Rodgers and Hammerstein version, I must say. Of course, Hammerstein cannily used whole sections of dialogue from the book and this adaptation, but he wisely omitted many of the weird elements the screenwriters imposed upon the material. For me, it was a rather turgid affair, with good bits. First off, John Cromwell has never been one of my favorite directors, and his pace here is quite slack and lifeless, despite the colorful settings and interesting characters. Where the film succeeds is in the playing. Miss Dunne is lovely as Anna, and Rex Harrison does a good turn as the King (although once you’ve seen Brynner, there is simply no way of watching Harrison without thinking of him). Lee J. Cobb gives one of his most subtle and best performances as the character that became the Kralahome in the R&H version. The stunning photography is by Arthur Miller and the score is by Bernard Herrmann. Tuptim is played by Miss Linda Darnell, who seems to have been in every movie ever made by Twentieth Century Fox. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD entitled The Thomas Crown Affair. This is a new transfer, presented properly at 1:66 and anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. The DVD is from MGM/UA, whose party line for releasing inept non-enhanced versions of classic films in that ratio has been that they don’t enhance for widescreen anything in 1:66, has some ‘splainin’ to do. Or are they now going to reissue everything properly so people have to buy everything again? It’s shameful and shameless and it’s a shame they can’t be hung out to dry, really. The Thomas Crown Affair remains an entertaining trifle, with real star performances from Mr. Steve McQueen and Miss Faye Dunaway. It’s shocking to see how beautiful and natural Miss Dunaway was before submitting herself before the knife. Vanity has not been kind to Miss Dunaway. She no longer resembles herself and it is painful to look at her. I wish I could say that this new transfer was brilliant, but it isn’t. First off, any transfer will be problematic because of the multiple opticals used on the multiple split-screen sequences. But everything else also is on the muddy side. Some scenes look fine, while others border on out of focus. Since the camerawork is by Haskell Wexler, I don’t think it really looked like that on its initial release. Since I saw it three or four times back then, I can assure you it didn’t. It’s an inexpensive DVD, though, so it won’t set anyone back very much, if they love the film and want the new transfer. The only extra is a commentary track by Mr. Jewison. I can’t remember if that was part of the previous release or not.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I once again ask you all to take a moment and imagine what it’s like having a video snake up your nose and all the way down into your throat. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence?
I am expecting many DVDs in ye olde mail today and I shall have a full report on what’s arrived when it arrives. Furthermore, I may be lucky enough to lunch with Miss Tammy Minoff today – if we do, I’m going to suggest Casa Vega, because I’ve got a hankerin’ for Mexican food because of our lovely topic yesterday.
If ye olde voice box is stronger today, I’m going to try some more vocalizing, including some of the higher keys. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence?
I had a very interesting e-mail yesterday from far off Switzerland. It seems some people there would like to do some sort of late-night production of The First Nudie Musical. I’ve asked them for more information.
Can you believe we’re almost done with April? I mean, then comes May, and then half the year is already gone. That is just shocking to me. It has flown by like a gazelle in red underpants. Happily, I’ve accomplished quite a bit already, so that makes me happy. One novel, three short stories (and counting), the beginning of one play, the Guy Haines album, and several other smaller things.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must do errands, I must perhaps lunch with Miss Tammy Minoff, I must write up a little proposal that I should have written up yesterday, and I must attend to a few other things that need attending to. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any other dear reader anything you like, and we get to answer however we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions, and loads of lovely answers, shall we? We shall.