Frank’s Fax Facts and Reviews
Vol.. XIV , 22
Sunday, August 25. 2013
I am working this Sunday under very unusual circumstances: Last week, my computer guru took this ancient Dell out and installed a used computer that I should find much easier to get satisfactory results with. Of course, I can hardly wait to have the newer computer; so imagine my frustration, with what I am trying to do with the same old junk pile that I have used to death. But the Guru ran into a problem night before last, while installing the newer machine and then had to re-install this (just so I could get some kind of Fax Facts to my beloved subscribers).
So what I plan to do is (once more) send a quick version of the old tried and true weekly mess!
I ask each of you to try to remember, as I am trying to convince myself, that patience (of which I have NONE) really IS a virtue!
CAT FAX
“A cat will sit washing hid face within two inches of a dog in the most frantic state of barking rage, if the dog be chained.”
Carl van Vechfin
Old Movie Review
Giant (WB, 1956)
This overly long cinema made all the wrong impressions on my first watching of the film when it was brand new. After all these years, I recorded and managed to watch most of it (I found the likes of Sal Mineo just too much to be endured) I never understood what he had to do with the entire flick. I had read Edna Ferber’s endless saga at a time when I was reading every book from which a movie had been made. She was definitely never one of my favorite authors.
There were far too many pages to the novel; too many characters to keep separated in my brain, (almost as bad as War and Peace!) and just not enough interest in a rancher in Texas, who is a billionaire, etc. All of my attention as I wactched scene after scene, was riveted upon Elizabeth Taylor and her usual flawless performance. Now, here was an actress that I never cared for as long as she was marrying and divorcing every male star in Hollywood: I could never forgive her for taking Debby Reynold’s husband away from her and then dumping him. But from the moment I saw that opening scene of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff (with the Bette Davis quote) I have found her acting to be absolutely spell binding! Coupled with her astounding beauty, there is a lot to be admired
This was no exception. Not only was she the biggest asset the film had, she totally was able to make the plot possible, and even logical! I actually cried as she tells Rock Hudson, finally why she loves him so much’ The scene is beautifully written and I just found it perfect in every way, For the first time ever, I found even “Brick Bat” Hudson tolerable.
Draft Dodging No More
One of the places on this earth that I always enjoyed the most is Chicago! The first time I went there was when Mama and I came back home from Lansing, from whence we had traveled after my graduation the day before. However, rather than enjoying it (as I certainly would have done any time later) I was hell bent on getting home to Ellisville and George so that we could begin to share the magic of the tape recorder I had bought with Daddy’s graduation gift, which was sufficient to buy something George and I had been searching for all those years when we longed to record the “Broadcasts” he was always coming up with! I had managed to get Ramona (Mrs. Gregg’s) to talk into the microphone, and was well aware of the effect this would have on him.
` As I look back on this stupid behavior of mine back then, I am aghast! My cousins had bought tickets for the Broadway Musical, ,Pal Joey which was in town that week, and I can just imagine how they had counted on our enjoying it with them!
However, our Chicago cousins gave us both quite a sight seeing view of the city: We visited the art museum (which later became one of my favorite things to do in Chicago) and were able to see lots of things that were introduced for the World’s Fair that had been there a few years earlier. How well I remember the room with the fantastic property (or so it seemed to me, at that time) of being able to whisper (almost inaudibly) from the corner of one side of the huge building, and hear it clearly from the opposite corner! The oldest of Aunt Grace’s flock (Sam) was then a student at the Art Institute, and he made me feel really good about myself when he casually asked me which of the works of art I found the most interesting. I had been captivated by a strange and somber oil painting that was of an austere black door that was locked and through a keyhole a candle’s dim light could barely be seen. There were flowers in what we could see of the background, and when I asked what the work was called, Sam said, “That which I should have done, but left undone.” For me that seemed to sum it up perfectly
Looking at the World”s Fair's rides and other things that made me ache all over just to see them, was well worth our stopping overnight. But if anything, I was even more stubborn then than I am now. So after spending just one night there, I insisted that we head for home! I rationalized later by saying that Mama probably would have hated the Broadway Musical! But I knew this was not true: Mama always loved a good movie or play, as well as television.
Bette Davis Old Movie Quiz
1. Did Davis or Hepburn win the most Oscars? Hepburn was the most award winning star, and still is
2. In which film does Bette wear a red evening dress to a huge party? Jezebel
3. with whose dying body does she travel to the cemetery in New Orleans? Henry Fonda
4. What is the famous Bette Davis quote spoken by Eliz. Taylor in the beginning of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff? “What a DUMP!” as she enters the front door.
5. Which film ends with Bette going blind? Extra credit if you can name the Oscar winning friend who is with her to the bitter end? Dark Victory. Geraldine Fitzgerald was the loyal friend.
6. In which WW2 studio musical did Bette lament, They’re Either too Young or too old!? Thank Your Lucky Stars
7. With whom did she share top billing in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Joan Crawford.
8. Who was her similar friend in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte? Olivia deHavilland
9. Who was the younger actress who was Eve, to Bette Davis? Anne Baxter
10. Can you name any of her husbands? Gary Merrill,
Old Movie Trivia Quiz
- What Warner Bros. star played Brother Orchid?
- Who was the original Man in the Iron Mask?
- Who played Gilbert Grape in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
4. Who was in the remake of The Man in the Iron Mask?
5. In which film did Mary Astor play a concert pianist with the Schakowsky Piano Concerto in B flat; always those first few pages?
6. Can you name the Republic star of I’ve Always Loved You?
7. To what famous pianist did Republic pay a million dollars for the sound track?
8. Which Republic film gave us the Warsaw Concerto?
9. Who was Britain’s Georgie Girl?
10. Whom did she finally marry?
