I wash up on the beach at three a.m.

[sovay]

For reasons compounded chiefly of scheduling and health, I have barely slept all week. This evening I fell asleep for about three minutes on my parents' couch and dreamed I was home in my own bed. That was different.

Earlier in the afternoon while it was still sort of pathetically raining, a box of gifts from ladymondegreen and household landed on our porch. I have two new tweed vests, a sticker sheet of starry cats, and the BFI Blu-Ray of Roddy McDowall's Tam Lin (1970) among other largesse. I am counting it all as housewarming and much welcome.

I was not necessarily indifferent to Ray Milland, but he had never been an actor I watched for as opposed to an actor I enjoyed whenever they happened to turn up, but at the start of this week spatch and I decided to check out The Safecracker (1958) on TCM and now after a near-straight run of Night into Morning (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954), and It Happens Every Spring (1949), it seems that I watch for Ray Milland. He doesn't even have a face I have many intrinsic feelings about. Fortunately, he does interesting things with it.

I found and read to Rob H.D.'s "R.A.F." (1941), whose last stanza haunts me.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, sorry about the week and lack of sleep - but yay for nice things! Those sound like lovely gifts and a new actor to follow is always fun. <3

[sovay]

but yay for nice things! Those sound like lovely gifts and a new actor to follow is always fun.

Thank you!

There even seem to be a considerable number of movies starring Ray Milland readily available to me, which is not unprecedented, but still not usually how this works.

[asakiyume]

He doesn't even have a face I have many intrinsic feelings about. Fortunately, he does interesting things with it. --This is a line that would be good in some of the noir films you review so engagingly. I imagine the actor's friends coming across this comment and getting low-grade offended on his behalf while meanwhile the guy himself--let's imagine him a fan of your film reviews--feels a secret internal glow and gets an anime blush across the bridge of his nose. (I realize the actor is probably dead or Very Old--but I'm imagining an alternate reality)

[sovay]

--This is a line that would be good in some of the noir films you review so engagingly. I imagine the actor's friends coming across this comment and getting low-grade offended on his behalf while meanwhile the guy himself--let's imagine him a fan of your film reviews--feels a secret internal glow and gets an anime blush across the bridge of his nose.

Aw! Thank you.

(Ray Milland has not been alive since 1986, but that has never stopped me hoping that artists don't mind how I feel about their work.)

[troisoiseaux]

I found and read to Rob H.D.'s "R.A.F." (1941), whose last stanza haunts me.

Oh man. Thank you for sharing this.

[sovay]

Oh man. Thank you for sharing this.

You're welcome.

[pameladean]

I had no idea Roddy McDowell had done a movie of "Tam Lin." I burst out laughing when I saw the IMDB "Writers" section listed Robert Burns as one of them, although uncredited by the film itself.

P.

[sovay]

I had no idea Roddy McDowell had done a movie of "Tam Lin."

It's great. I watched it off YouTube in 2020 and failed to write about it because I was so impressed. It does incredibly clever, modern things with the ballad, including some things I have never seen in another retelling and some things that look prescient to later versions. I am hoping to rewatch and write about it soon, although I no longer feel I can promise anything to anyone.

I burst out laughing when I saw the IMDB "Writers" section listed Robert Burns as one of them, although uncredited by the film itself.

That's fair!

[gwynnega]

I have meant to watch Tam Lin for years! I really must.

I am trying to remember whether I first saw Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder or The Thing With Two Heads. (I really hope it was Dial M for Murder.)

[sovay]

I have meant to watch Tam Lin for years! I really must.

You should! I loved it and I need to write about it and I wish it had not been Roddy McDowall's only film as director; he knew what he was doing.

I am trying to remember whether I first saw Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder or The Thing With Two Heads. (I really hope it was Dial M for Murder.)

Hee. I believe it was last night that spatch described The Thing with Two Heads to me. Good luck.

I almost certainly saw Milland first in It Happens Every Spring, which I had last watched in seventh grade, but I had completely forgotten it was him: if asked five minutes prior to rediscovering the movie, I would probably have said it was Fred MacMurray. He got on my radar by name with Ministry of Fear (1944) and The Uninvited (1944), but for whatever reason it took seeing him as a middle-aged locksmith turned cracksman turned reluctant asset to the Allies in WWII for me to care. (He was directing himself, speaking of, and I don't think he was bad at it.)

[selkie]

VESTS, YOU SAY.

[sovay]

VESTS, YOU SAY.

It's true, I did.

[choco_frosh]

I am so sorry that no sleep does not happen. I'm only a couple of hours behind myself, and I'm barely coherent.

Does anyone but me want to hear R.A.F. set to music by John Darnielle?

[sovay]

I am so sorry that no sleep does not happen. I'm only a couple of hours behind myself, and I'm barely coherent.

Thank you. I hope you sleep, too!

Does anyone but me want to hear R.A.F. set to music by John Darnielle?

It hadn't occurred to me, but I'd totally listen to it.