Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/30/20 -- Vol. 39, No. 18, Whole Number 2143
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in November (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Changes to Mark's Turner Classic Movies Picks (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Raymond Chandler (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
FROM HELL IT CAME (letters of comment by Kip Williams,
John Purcell, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
Musical Accompaniments to Silent Films (letters of comment
by Kip Williams and John Purcell)
Arthur Conan Doyle and Offensive Attitudes (letter of comment
by Fred Lerner)
This Week's Reading (A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Needless to say, everything here is tentative. Both the Old Bridge
and Middletown groups have (temporarily, we hope) switched to Zoom
meetings.
November 5, 2020: THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James and THE
INNOCENTS, Zoom, 7:30 PM (participants need to watch the film
on their own ahead of time)
The book:
*https://tinyurl.com/TurnScrew-hoopla
https://tinyurl.com/TurnScrew-hoopla*
*https://tinyurl.com/TurnScrew-guten https://tinyurl.com/TurnScrew-guten*
The movie:
*https://vimeo.com/463479717 https://vimeo.com/463479717*
November 19, 2020: Rudyard Kipling:
"A Matter of Fact" (1892)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16578
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16578*
"The Ship That Found Herself" (1895)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569*
".007" (1897)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569*
"Wireless" (1902)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9790
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9790*
"With the Night Mail [Aerial Board of Control 1]" (1905)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29135
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29135*
"As Easy as A.B.C. [Aerial Board of Control 2]" (1912)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085*
"In the Same Boat" (1911)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085*
Zoom, 7PM
January 28, 2021: I, ROBOT by Isaac Asimov,
Old Bridge Public Library (or Zoom), 7PM
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in November (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
My pick for November is THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, running
(suitably enough) on Veterans Day. Shortly after the end of World
War II three soldiers are returning home to their families and to
their careers if they still exist. Two are played by Fredric March
and Dana Andrews. The third soldier (sailor, actually) is Homer
Parrish (played by Harold Russell), who has lost his hands in
battle and wants to escape the pity of his family and neighbors.
The film covers the lives of these three veterans after they return
to civilian life and they try to rebuild their lives. March plays
a returning banking executive who considers that he should be using
his position to do good in the community, conflicting with the
soulless policies of his bank. Andrews returns to find his wife
has a surprise or two for him. Parrish won the Best Actor Academy
Award for his role.
In this small group we see several contrasts. It is not just
military ranks but also age values. (Interestingly, the characters
played by March and Andrews have their civilian status the reverse
of their military ranks; March was a sergeant in the Army but a
successful banker in civilian life, while Andrews was a captain but
returns to be a soda jerk.) This is one of the best dramas of the
1940s.
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES became the highest-grossing film in
both the United States and UK since the release of GONE WITH THE
WIND. It remains the sixth most-attended film of the 1940s in the
UK, with over 20 million tickets sold.
[THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, Wednesday, November 11, @ 5:00 PM]
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Changes to Mark's Turner Classic Movies Picks (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
For many years, Mark has been provided a *monthly* Turner Classic
Movies recommendation, the column for which runs on the last Friday
of the month. This was possible because TCM would provide their
monthly schedule a month or even two in advance. Now, however, TCM
has changed their website and only provides a four-week window.
(Boo! Hiss!)
We are not dropping the recommendations, but the new process will
be different. Each week Mark will check the listings for the week
three weeks later, and if he has a film he particularly wants to
recommend, he will recommend that in a column that will run a week
or two before the film. Some months there may be more than one
film, but other months (yes, February, I'm looking at you) there
may be nothing new to recommend.
This new schedule will start at the end of December, since we got
the listings for the rest of the year before they disappeared.
So for now continue to look for recommendations, only less
calendar-bound. The good news is there probably will always be a
couple of weeks' advance notice of a film. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Raymond Chandler (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
I recently found that the BBC did a series in which they adapted
all of Chandler's novels for radio, and they're not bad. My two
gripes are the occasional slip of an otherwise okay American accent
or two, and an ignorance of the time period that led their sound
effects people to have a just-hung-up phone immediately to go dial
tone (and it's our post-1969 dial tone at that--the two-note
chord). Some of the novels have been done by them twice now, and
it's interesting to compare the versions. BBC have also done a
series of Hitchcock movie adaptations (more accurately, new radio
versions of properties Hitchcock adapted), the best of which
feature Alan Rickman in "Rope", and Hugh Grant in "The Blind Man"
(based on a movie Hitch ended up not making). [-kw]
Evelyn responds:
I kept all the Ed Bishop Raymond Chandler ones when they were
podcast from the BBC several years ago, and have listened to them
dozens of times. The only problem is that whenever I hear Ed
Bishop in anything else, I immediately think, "What is Philip
Marlowe doing in this?" For example, he voiced Lije Bailey in the
BBC "The Caves of Steel"; at least there he is a detective as well.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: FROM HELL IT CAME (letters of comment by Kip Williams, John
Purcell, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
In response to Mark's comments on FROM HELL IT CAME in the 10/23/20
issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:
I saw a cartoon called "The Angry Beavers" once, and keep intending
to look in on the series again because the one episode I saw was
dead-on. This kid wants to watch a horror movie on late-night TV,
and is scaring the poo out of himself with it, and keeps doing
things to un-scare himself (think of young Bill Cosby spreading
Jello on the floor and setting fire to the couch to avoid Arch
Oboler's Chicken Heart). And what of the movie? Each time we see
it, it consists of insipid black and white images in which one man
is explaining the plot to another man. GAZE UPON THE ESSENCE OF
HORROR, KIDDIES! [-kw]
Dorothy J. Heydt writes:
[Mark wrote,] "The New York Times, which likes to give one-line
reviews for movies scheduled for TV has a quick phrase for this
film: 'FROM HELL IT CAME? BACK SEND IT.'" [-mrl]
My, my. A reviewer after the model of Dorothy Parker, who reviewed
plays for (IIRD) "The New Yorker") and made remarks such as "THE
HOUSE BEAUTIFUL I the play lousy." [-djh]
[Mark continued,] "Do you want to see what an angry tree stump
looks like? Well, it sort of looks like a cross between an angry
Orthodox rabbi and a cinnamon sticky bun." [-mrl]
Now, that's a good phrase. [-djh]
John Purcell writes:
Your comments about FROM HELL IT CAME (1957) are well taken, but
personally, I adore grossly incompetent skiffy movies. The science
fiction, fantasy, and horror genres abound with these cinematic bon
mots, especially those produced in the fifties and sixties. They
are so much fun to heckle both while watching and reviewing them.
Now just think that when these flicks first appeared people loved
them for what they were: mindless entertainment. That has not
changed. I grant you that there are some good concepts and plot
ideas in many of these films--as you note in your write-up on FROM
HELL IT CAME--that are destroyed beyond recognition by the sheer
ineptitude of screenplay writers, actors, cinematographers, et al,
with the end result being brilliant stupidity preserved forever on
film. Admit it: you love this trash just as much as I do. [-jp]
Mark replies:
No, I really do not. I have no "guilty pleasures; I love film too
much. If I like a film my pleasure is not guilty, your honor.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Musical Accompaniments to Silent Films (letters of comment
by Kip Williams and John Purcell)
In response to various comments on musical accompaniments to silent
films in the last issues, Kip writes:
Anyone who lives close enough to Norfolk, VA, should watch the Naro
schedule. As far as I know, Chris Kypros still accompanies silent
comedies there once a year, and it's a treat. He weaves a tapestry
of reaction, and once in a while throws in a hilarious audio
reference (Harold Lloyd thinks he hears a ghost, and Chris tosses
in the 'Etranger' theme from "The Twilight Zone"). One time in
Houston, the River Oaks had a special showing of Laurel & Hardy
silent comedies with a theater organ wheeled in. I snuck up to the
instrument during intermission because I saw a piece of paper on
the stand, and it turned out to be a simple notation of the "March
of the Cuckoos", which is indispensable for L&H. [-kw]
John Purcell writes:
The comments about Musical Accompaniment to Silent Films reminded
me of the one time I saw BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) at Northrop
Auditorium on the University of Minnesota main campus with Steve
Glennon and Ted Meulhapt, two good friends of mine at that time.
We were all juniors (this was in early 1975) and big fans of old
movies, and definitely of the irrepressible bent in our attitudes,
and we really enjoyed the organ accompaniment that was played live
during this showing. It was very well done, effectively blended
into the rise and fall of the action on screen. Unfortunately, the
three of us didn't see the last half hour because we were given the
heave-ho by a couple ushers since our incessant snarky movie
commentary was pissing off many attendees surrounding us. Oh,
well. That was still an entertaining evening, quite possibly the
best three bucks we ever spent that semester.
Mark replies:
I would side with the complainers. I would hate to miss a movie
because audience members stole the experience from me. Yes, even
over a film like FROM HELL IT CAME. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Arthur Conan Doyle and Offensive Attitudes (letter of
comment by Fred Lerner)
In response to Evelyn's comments on Arthur Conan Doyle in the
10/23/20 issue of the MT VOID, Fred Lerner writes:
Evelyn wrote, "When I discussed offensive attitudes last week, and
talked about Arthur Conan Doyle, I didn't mention the most
egregious: his treatment of the Mormons in A STUDY IN SCARLET."
[-ecl]
Remember that the events in Utah that formed the background to A
STUDY IN SCARLET occurred at around the time of the Mountain Meadow
massacre. [-fl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by Arkady Martine (Tor, ISBN 978-1-250-
18643-0) won the Hugo this year and is described as a classic space
opera. It certainly reminded me of one--I kept feeling that it was
heavily inspired by Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION(*). Not the whole
series, but the first book and in particular the first part, "The
Psychohistorians", in which Gael Dornick arrives at Trantor and
finds himself immersed in all sorts of politics he does not
understand, and the third part, "The Mayors", which deals with a
succession crisis. And there's a soupcon of China Mieville's
EMBASSYTOWN, with some very linguistic stuff.
(*) One wonders if the author's name being "Arkady" is somehow
connected to this. :-)
One big difference is that the main character, Mahit Dzmare, and
about half the main supporting characters are female. (One need
not add that Martine's portrayals of female characters is far more
accurate and less condescending than Asimov's.) Needless to say,
this passes the Bechdel test.
Unfortunately, the book also has the bane of many science fiction
readers' existences: a glossary (nine pages) of characters, titles,
and other terms, along with two pages explaining the alphabet and
pronunciation. It's a lose-lose situation: without a glossary, it
is too difficult to follow everyone and everything, but who wants
to keep flipping back to the glossary to figure out what's
happening?
In spite of this, however, I do recommend this book for fans of
classic space opera--its positives definitely outweigh its
negatives. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said,
"Never take candy from strangers." And then they
dressed me up and said, "Go beg for it." I didn't know
what to do! I'd knock on people's doors and go, "Trick
or treat." "No thank you."
--Rita Rudner