I stay under glass

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! I saw a small pink-flowering tree when I left the house this afternoon to run my errands. I will return for it on a less overcast day.

It seems unfair that treating the infection which has been blurring the vision in one of my eyes should require repeated applications of glop which makes my vision even blurrier. I blame Rosemary Sutcliff and Mary Stewart for the persistent feeling that if I am going to put a medicinal salve in my eye, it should have been prescribed by a traveling oculist and an initiate of Mithras ideally.

Despite hearing their cover before the original—I brought a secondhand CD of Through the Looking Glass (1987) home from the Book Trader Café in New Haven and incidentally discovered Television and Sparks—I had never seen the video for Siouxsie and the Banshees' "The Passenger" (1987). It registers as '80's beyond belief and I seem to love it. It's something about the mix of sfnal images which give me vague vibes of Tanith Lee with the band goofing around. Not to be confused with the version filmed in Portmeirion for The Laughing Prisoner (1987).

Again I had to find out from an obituary, but I love that Christopher Hobbs whose contributions as sculptor, illustrator, and costume and production designer were essential to the films of Derek Jarman from Sebastiane (1976) through Edward II (1991) started his career with Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and finished it with the BBC Gormenghast (2000). Criterion did a Top 10 with him in 2014. He wrote as wonderfully about movies as he dressed them.

Being particularly biased toward a couple of examples from 1949, I may not agree with the conceit of the Criterion Channel's 1950: Peak Noir, but I am delighted to see that the collection includes The File on Thelma Jordon (1950), which I loved so much when it came around last year on TCM's Noir Alley. Maybe it's experiencing a rediscovery. I have meant to write about Caged (1950) for something like six years now.

The hero of Appointment with Danger (1950) is a hard-edged postal inspector who defines a love affair as "what goes on between a man and a .45 pistol that won't jam." The heroine is a nun who trusts serenely in her "guardian angel" and has the street smarts not to confuse a drunk and a corpse. The action ends with road flares and machine guns and starts when a hitman is too polite not to open a nun's stuck umbrella in the rain. I had no idea Phyllis Calvert had ever made a movie in America, much less a film noir in which she was teamed non-romantically with Alan Ladd. I don't know if Paramount had some kind of bet on with RKO as to who could come up with the pulpiest, most lurid set pieces, but I have now watched Jack Webb beat Harry Morgan to death with a pair of bronzed baby booties, for God's sake. I am incapable of evaluating whether this film should be considered good or just extant, but the whacky-smacky levels its investigation against the clock of a heist ramped up to were not predictable from its opening civic paean to the United States Post Office. By the end, it's more "You can rob Fort Knox and live. But steal a dime and kill a post office man and they'll spend a million and a lifetime looking for you." Next thing you know, you'll be answering to the Coca-Cola Company. The location shooting of various urban vistas of Illinois and Indiana is impossible to reproach.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

it should have been prescribed by a traveling oculist and an initiate of Mithras ideally.

So hard to find one of those these days! Sorry about that, though. Counter-intuitive treatment and persisting through it is very tiresome and I hope you get to the bit with unimpeded vision again soon. <3

Btw, talking of music videos, this seems like so much the sort of thing you will have seen (and probably indeed, already logged somewhere), but I have to mention it in case not - YT randomly threw a Florence + the Machine video that somehow contains a stray Bill Nighy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui8kUKuLBaU

beat Harry Morgan to death with a pair of bronzed baby booties, for God's sake. I am incapable of evaluating whether this film should be considered good or just extant

I mean, all baby booties I have ever seen have been knitted or fabric, so, er, what? idk seems a reasonable conclusion, although excellent old time location work is indeed always a big compensation.

Being particularly biased toward a couple of examples from 1949, I may not agree with the conceit of the Criterion Channel's 1950: Peak Noir

Fair, I mean, liadt and I have decided categorically that the peak year of quintessential 1970sishness is 1974 and we will not be gainsayed! 1949 it is. (My knowledge of Noir, as you know, is so lacking I can absolutely agree with you! :-D)

[lauradi7dw]

I have not seen it, but the phrase "beaten to death with bronzed baby booties" sounds familiar. I have no idea what I was reading (I'd have said that you are the only person whose writing about noir I've read), but it's the kind of thing that might stick.

[minoanmiss]

i wonder if we saw the same tree?

[konstantya]

Appointment With Danger got on my radar when I was in my Alan Ladd phase, and while I never did get around to watching it, I remain curious about it because: noir with nuns??? Whether it's good or not, SIGN ME UP, if only for the sheer novelty factor. (Also, Dragnet nostalgia with Webb and Morgan, even if they're playing very different characters here.)

Counterintuitive though the goopy treatment may feel, I hope your eye is getting better!

[asakiyume]

--and if it was an initiate of Mithras, I think it would be much more fast acting. And possibly semi-hallucinogenic. ... I want some, now, and my eyes are more or less fine.

"The Passenger" is SO 1980s I'm overcome with nostalgia! The lead-in riff, the eye makeup! The costumes! Just awesome. Thanks for that.

Ooh, Appointment with Danger is free to watch--excellent. I did not know that hard-edged postal inspectors were a Thing, but maybe they are? Because we watched the entertaining (though B-grade) Queenpins (2021) on Netflix recently, and it featured a hard-edged postal inspector! (You might enjoy that some night when you can't brain much and aren't feeling super critical...)

[aurumcalendula]

I hope your eye recovers quickly!

Appointment With Danger sounds fun!

[davidgillon]

a small pink-flowering tree

The first blossom has just appeared on my cherry, I'm annoyed I'm going to miss most of it. I saw at least one cherry already in full bloom while driving around town, another on the next road over, but most don't seem to be out yet. Several different species of white-blossomed trees are currently in full bloom.

[regshoe]

It may amuse you to hear that I only recently learnt that saying 'Rabbit, rabbit!' on the first day of the month is A Thing People Do; for years I had just been thinking, oh yeah, sovay sometimes randomly begins a post with 'Rabbit, rabbit!', just one of those things, and had never noticed the dates. *facepalm*

Medicinal salve in the eye is a very mythically-significant sort of treatment... I hope it works well and quickly and you are freed from all the blurred vision!

[choco_frosh]

I blame Rosemary Sutcliff and Mary Stewart for the persistent feeling that if I am going to put a medicinal salve in my eye, it should have been prescribed by a traveling oculist and an initiate of Mithras ideally.

Would an Anglo-Saxon recipe made from Cropleek and bull's gall work?

[gwynnega]

but I have now watched Jack Webb beat Harry Morgan to death with a pair of bronzed baby booties, for God's sake.

Wow, that is an Elisha Cook Jr.-level death.

I am incapable of evaluating whether this film should be considered good or just extant

This made me laugh.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

"1950: Peak Noir" is a nice selection! I approve of it including one of Hugo Fregonese's movies!

[movingfinger]

Eye ointment is karmic payback from a cat, maybe!