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May 29, 2007:

TO THE VICTOR GO THE SPOILS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, the long, long weekend is over and now the week has truly begun, hence even though it’s Tuesday it seems like Monday. Funnily, Monday felt like Sunday and Sunday felt like Sunday and the whole thing just gives me a headache, frankly. In any case, the week has truly begun and will hopefully be truly scrumptious. That’s what we need, by gum and by golly and buy bonds – a truly scrumptious week. We don’t need any annoyances this week, do we? No, we don’t. To HELL with annoyances, that’s what I say. Frankly, I find annoyances annoying and if there are annoying annoyances then I get annoyed. Have you ever been annoyed? For that matter, have you ever been a noid? Where was I? Oh, yes, a truly scrumptious week and to the victor go the spoils. Why does Victor get all the spoils? Can’t Henry or George have some spoils every now and then? Noooo, Victor has to hog all the spoils and the rest of the people can just be sans spoils. And what are the spoils anyway? Spoiled milk? Spoiled cheese? Spoiled children? Frankly, Victor can have the fershluganah spoils as far as I’m concerned. Speaking of spoils, yesterday was a perfectly pleasant day from start to finish and also from finish to start. For example, I woke up. That was perfectly pleasant. I then went to Aroma and met my friend Jon Burlingame, and we had a lovelier than lovely time catching up. After that, I came home and continued the organization of the book room, and I must say, got most of it done to my satisfaction. There’s still a little to go, but it will be easy. I then toddled over to Staples to get a couple of things, and whilst there I took notice of Carney’s, a hot dog place inside an old train car. It’s been there for many years, and yet I’ve only eaten there once, and that was at least two decades ago. Since I live exactly two minutes from the place, it is curious that I’ve never gone in there. I think it’s because I didn’t care for it all those years ago. So, I decided to go in and have a couple of hot dogs. Well, imagine my surprise to find that the hot dogs were really tasty – I had a red cabbage dog, and a mustard and onions dog, along with some chili cheese fries, and the latter were the best I’ve ever eaten anywhere. I suppose I shall now become a regular there. After that, I did my little DVD trade and got a plethora of upcoming DVDs. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled The Third Secret, which stars Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Diane Cilento, and Pamela Franklin. I saw The Third Secret at a sneak preview some months before its release and I absolutely loved it. I then saw it several times during its release and still loved it, especially Miss Franklin. I haven’t seen it since then, which was back in 1963, I believe. So, I was thrilled to see that it had come to DVD, as it’s a pretty obscure film these days. And I’m happy to report that I still love it. It’s a wonderful little thriller, not that long on thrills, but always interesting. I can’t imagine today’s ADD audiences sitting still for it, but it’s the kind of film I like. It’s directed very well by Charles Chrichton, and has wonderful, moody black-and-white (more gray-and-white, actually) Cinemascope photography by Douglas Slocombe. The cast is very good, but the film belongs to the then-fourteen year old Pamela Franklin, who, in a word, is superb. The plot concerns an analyst (back in the days when therapy was barely spoken of) who kills himself. His young daughter (Franklin) doesn’t believe it was suicide and thinks it was one of his four patients. She becomes friendly with Mr. Boyd, who plays a news commentator and who was one of the patients. Mr. Boyd seems to have some real emotional problems, but he, too, is determined to find the truth. But what is the truth? Miss Franklin gets him the names of the three other patients and he speaks to each of them, and they all have their own major problems. Interestingly, if you watch Miss Franklin’s mouth when she’s speaking of the four patients, here lips are clearly saying five while her looped voice is saying four. That is because there was apparently another patient that was left on the editing room floor – and from what I’ve been able to ascertain, the patient was played by Patricia Neal. I’d love to know more about why her scenes were excised. The transfer is great. After that, I watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled The Sand Pebbles, the new two-disc special edition, which includes the original uncut roadshow version of the film as well as the slightly shorter general release version (the difference between them is only thirteen minutes). Well, it was fascinating to see the uncut roadshow version, which I haven’t seen since it opened (I happened to be in Cleveland on business, and saw it there at an amazing theater on Euclid Avenue). I like the movie very much, although some of it has always seemed confusing to me. As I compared the two versions, about ten of the thirteen minutes are cut from the film’s first forty-five minutes. I think part of the dinner scene with Larry Gates, Candy Bergen, McQueen and others is shorter, about four minutes from the engine room sequence after Chin gets injured are gone, and there are three or four incidental scenes (like McQueen’s being measured for uniforms) that are gone, but that don’t add anything at all, just color. Speaking of color, there isn’t any on the transfer of the roadshow version, which is taken from a 70mm print. It’s a shame – they could have easily added in some color in the telecine room, but they probably didn’t want that expense. A little blue would have done wonders. Funnily, even though the film was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm, the 70mm transfer is a bit sharper than the 35mm transfer, which, given the fading, is odd to me. I prefer the framing and look of the blowup, actually. The transfer of the theatrical version is an improvement on the previous DVD, but not by much, which I also found odd. It’s not sharp enough. But where the DVD is a clear winner is the sound – the new 5.1 track is unbelievably great as regards the score by Jerry Goldsmith (some of the dialogue is very distorted, strangely) – it now has incredible punch and a great low end and the score, of course, is a masterpiece. The isolated track sounds great, and features a commentary by our very own Mr. Nick Redmen, Mr. Jon Burlingame, and Mr. Lem Dobbs.

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because, after all, to the Victor go the spoils.

Today, I must buckle down Winsocki and really learn my music for the reading. We go into rehearsal on Saturday and I must be prepared. The new director left me a message asking if I could be available for an additional music rehearsal either tomorrow night or Friday morning. I certainly can be, but strangely, he asked if we could do it here at my house. I don’t know if I’m jiggy with that or not, so I haven’t called him back yet. Tonight, I may be going to Mr. Grant Geissman’s house to do a little further work on the book cover. Other than that, I do have some errands and whatnot to attend to, and even though one of the errands is annoying I hope it will not be TOO annoying.

I have lots of DVD viewing ahead of me, too, including the new special editions of Fantastic Voyage, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Twelve O’Clock High, The Hustler, The Verdict, The Neptune Factor, the Sergio Leone box, and Martin and Lewis volume two. I’ve already checked out the transfers on the latter, and will have much to say. Only one of them looks better than okay, and one of them is almost a complete disaster, one of the worst transfers I’ve ever seen. In any case, of the five films, four are acceptable, one is better than acceptable, and one will make you want to vomit on the ground.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do errands and whatnot, perhaps go to Mr. Geissman’s house, and, most importantly, learn my music. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies that have yet to appear on DVD are your most wanted and desired? The ones you hope to own but that you don’t think will appear any time soon. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and do remember to the Victor go the spoils, so you’d better not get snippy with Victor or there will be no spoils coming your way.

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