Counts the waves that somehow didn't hit her

[sovay]

Not only is 42 °N a lousy latitude for radio astronomy, it does jack most of the year for the photosynthesis of vitamin D, but I was inspired by the summerlike spike in temperatures to walk out for groceries in a T-shirt and whatever it may or may not have done for my metabolism, it was worth the pitching over onto the couch when I got home.



No introduction to an actor may be as misleading as discovering Peter Lorre with Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), but spending much of last night sacked out in front of my longtime comfort movie of Robert Aldrich's The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) reminded me that I should probably count Richard Attenborough in a similar vein, all those weak links and bad influences his panicking debut in In Which We Serve (1942) and his nihilistic breakout in Brighton Rock (1947) set him up for. Never mind that I saw him first as the briskly competent ringleader of The Great Escape (1963), he looks much more in his ambivalent element as Lew Moran, the middle-aged navigator who may have his moral compass screwed on straightest of the sun-blistered survivors of what will become the Phoenix but little authority between his uneasy position as peacemaker and his diffidence as a drying-out drunk, even if his stammer doesn't after all stop him from going off like a firecracker on some blatantly bullheaded display of stupidity on the part of one or more of his co-leads. It would have been the second way I saw him, after which the time-shock of Jurassic Park (1993), jovial and grandfatherly and scientifically short-sighted. I'd give a lot for a record of his Sergeant Trotter in the original run of The Mousetrap. The time machine bureau is going to cut me off.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

The color of the water is so lovely at that angle.

[sovay]

The color of the water is so lovely at that angle.

It looks like an autumn sky in spring.

[gwynnega]

I certainly saw Attenborough in other films first, but I first paid attention to him in 10 Rillington Place, because he's completely terrifying in it.

[sovay]

I certainly saw Attenborough in other films first, but I first paid attention to him in 10 Rillington Place, because he's completely terrifying in it.

That is very much on my list of films to see for him. I have also been warily circling Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), which I do understand one sees more for Kim Stanley.

[gullyfoyle]

10RP is on my list too. But Great Escape was also my intro to him.

[sovay]

10RP is on my list too. But Great Escape was also my intro to him.

I am incapable of estimating how many times I have seen that movie. I didn't even watch that many movies as a child and it always seemed to be playing somewhere.

[asakiyume]

Are Richard Attenborough and David Attenborough related? ... I ask before remembering that I, too, am capable of Googling. [two minutes later...]

They are! This train of thought brought to you by confusing Richard with David while I read this post and thinking, "But when will she mention the nature documentaries?"

Good luck wheedling your way back into the good graces of the time machine bureau. They are such sticklers!

[sovay]

Are Richard Attenborough and David Attenborough related? ... I ask before remembering that I, too, am capable of Googling. [two minutes later...]

If it helps, I always forget there was a third brother who went off and messed around with cars! And the two foster-sisters who came as part of the Kindertransport.

(Richard falls into the weird bucket of actors I have known since childhood and almost never written about. I should make the effort. I want my brain back.)

Good luck wheedling your way back into the good graces of the time machine bureau. They are such sticklers!

If I can just get back to before they get sick of me . . .

[gullyfoyle]

A memory I'm quite fond of is of driving in the Scottish countryside in 1995 and having the "Great Escape" theme come on the radio. I never felt more Anglo-Saxon.