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I'm blunter than a bull's-eye
After failing to sleep for three nights in a row, I conked out last night well before two in the morning and remained that way for nine or ten hours, which was just as well because this afternoon I had to go to the dentist's. I consoled myself with high-rises on Bowdoin Street.
Reading just now that Edgar Wallace's The Calendar (1930) was novelized from the author's successful stage play of the previous year makes a lot of sense of its talkative, minimally descriptive style, but I nonetheless enjoyed its mix of romance and crime which often reads like proto-Dick Francis, not only because of its detailed setting in the world of British horse racing—even the premise of an owner trying to clear his name after being warned off the turf for a piece of cheating he'll need help proving he changed his mind about at the last minute—but because the plot revolves entirely around the rules and regulations of the Jockey Club. The bookmaker who is one of the protagonist's best friends may be my favorite character, although I really appreciate that the reader can see the protagonist's feelings changing toward the love interest before he can. I am intrigued that the original play was adapted for film twice, both times by Gainsborough. The 1948 version seems readily available on the internet. The problem is that the 1931 version is the one which stars Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Nigel Bruce etc. I hope it hasn't been lost. Trying to trace it under its American title of Bachelor's Folly, I found a 1932 profile of Marshall which attributes his romantic appeal essentially to hurt/comfort. "Show me the woman who can resist the appeal of a handsome, injured man . . ."
I hope it would please Stephen Sondheim that when I encounter an article about the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth, the first phrase to my mind is "C'mere and kill a president!"
Reading just now that Edgar Wallace's The Calendar (1930) was novelized from the author's successful stage play of the previous year makes a lot of sense of its talkative, minimally descriptive style, but I nonetheless enjoyed its mix of romance and crime which often reads like proto-Dick Francis, not only because of its detailed setting in the world of British horse racing—even the premise of an owner trying to clear his name after being warned off the turf for a piece of cheating he'll need help proving he changed his mind about at the last minute—but because the plot revolves entirely around the rules and regulations of the Jockey Club. The bookmaker who is one of the protagonist's best friends may be my favorite character, although I really appreciate that the reader can see the protagonist's feelings changing toward the love interest before he can. I am intrigued that the original play was adapted for film twice, both times by Gainsborough. The 1948 version seems readily available on the internet. The problem is that the 1931 version is the one which stars Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Nigel Bruce etc. I hope it hasn't been lost. Trying to trace it under its American title of Bachelor's Folly, I found a 1932 profile of Marshall which attributes his romantic appeal essentially to hurt/comfort. "Show me the woman who can resist the appeal of a handsome, injured man . . ."
I hope it would please Stephen Sondheim that when I encounter an article about the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth, the first phrase to my mind is "C'mere and kill a president!"
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Thank you!
P.S. As I suddenly realized you are the person on my friendlist most likely to have this experience: if the 1931 film of The Calendar ever surfaces on Talking Pictures, would you drop me a line?
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Appreciated nonetheless! I'm sorry to hear they've run out of James Maxwell, though.
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In the meantime, I managed (after not entirely winning the fight with technology) to gif some of Martin Jarvis's guest turn in Arthur of the Britons in 1973. This was a half-hour action film series made by HTV on about tuppence in s1; s2 seemed to have a budget. Anyway, I didn't expect it to be an especially interesting role, but a swordfight seemed guaranteed, and I was not disappointed. (Although he did spend most of the episode doing more harm to apples than anything else.)
https://www.tumblr.com/thisbluespirit/745413835368906752/martin-jarvis-as-karn-in-arthur-of-the-britons-21?source=share
My efforts to gif the fight were going quite well until suddenly my computer decided cut and pasting images into folders somehow should be translated as "permanently kill the selected images while pasting and refuse to undo the damage". *shakes fist at everything involved with multi-media on pcs* (idk why it is all so much the worst, but it is. Writing, you just TYPE and it DOES WORDS and it's ALL OKAY, just like that. Images and even worse clips and everything you use to obtain them and edit them are the very DEVIL INCARNATE and hate me.)
I'm going away to TYPE WORDS, which I should have been doing before I idly thought, "Oh, i will make gifs of those screencaps, it won't take long." ha.
ETA: Sorry, should have waited till I was less cross with the c+p image murder to link this! Anyway, what I meant to say was, I did get a decent swordfight and it was worth it. I then also got two Tom Bakers in one episode and they let him on a horse with a sword, a truly terrifying prospect to a person who has read many interviews with Tom. lol
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Your sacrifice is appreciated! Martin Jarvis looks very fine having a swordfight. I don't suppose you could give Governor Delver one?
Anyway, what I meant to say was, I did get a decent swordfight and it was worth it. I then also got two Tom Bakers in one episode and they let him on a horse with a sword, a truly terrifying prospect to a person who has read many interviews with Tom.
I can't even imagine.
Good luck with your words!
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LOL, these two paired comments made me laugh a lot, especially since the posting of the gifs and fic were entirely incidental. (I wrote the fic at the same time as its companion piece and typed up half of it a month ago, before I even watched the episode.)
ETA: Also, he was a soldier before, so he had a sword. Idk if I'll ever let him do anything much with it, though. XD
Btw, I was looking for an interview with PJ Hammond I knew I'd seen online, failed to find it, but found an article with quotes from him, including: "I've always been interested in time, particularly the ideas of JB Priestley," reflected series creator PJ Hammond. Indeed, Priestley's plays, An Inspector Calls and Time And The Conways, are perfect templates
!!!!! It wasn't just coincidence at all; it is literally part of the origins of the series.
From this: http://www.davidmccallumfansonline.com/sfx.htm
(I was looking because Marie-Clare on YT finished S&S and was asking for links to interviews & I knew of some, and then couldn't find any of them, but stumbled over that instead. Her reaction to the ending included that she'd have loved a Silver spin-off. And. well. what a nice thought, lol.)
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I did not actually think they were causation rather than correlation, but the correlation entertained me! (The latter is also a particularly strong installment in the story, in terms of character and cultural work.)
It wasn't just coincidence at all; it is literally part of the origins of the series.
What a wonderful thing to be able to prove. I like the idea of considering Sapphire and Steel themselves in descent from the titular Inspector of An Inspector Calls. I am now of course wondering what kind of Element Ralph Richardson, whose original casting as Inspector Goole was an ideal match for his air of the commonplace numinous, would have been.
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Aw, thank you! It turned into a good opportunity to offload some background that I had been waiting to get in, so I'm glad it worked.
What a wonderful thing to be able to prove. I like the idea of considering Sapphire and Steel themselves in descent from the titular Inspector of An Inspector Calls.
It is! And Time and the Conways, like I said. I am even more determined to get through the rest of the Time plays now!
Btw, in today's edition of I was supposed to be typing but somehow I had to gif a thing, I managed to not kill images by c+p and produced 2 Wish Me Luck gifs, which I meant to do ages ago. You no doubt will not recall at this point but in the fic I wrote for it, which you kindly read, they talked about Colin, Jeremy Northam's character, having to shoot a French Milicienne and then going to pieces, and this is the end bit from that episode, where he manages to shoot her first, but she reaches out to him and he can't leave her, so he winds up going to pieces while she dies in his arms LIKE THIS:
Anyway, even less words got written today, but I had to check how screwed up my screencapping abilities were and not too badly at all.