Sunday, October 23, 2005

Elegant Syncopation

Here's a shot from the 1962 movie of The Music Man. The guy at right is, of course, Robert Preston. The man at left is Charles Lane. If you don't know who Charles Lane is, go read this posting and then read this one and then, once you know who Charles Lane is, come back here and read the rest of this posting. We'll wait for you.

Now then. One of the eight million movies in which Charles Lane played a mean old man was, obviously, The Music Man. This afternoon, the American Cinematheque group ran it out at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. The guest of honor, interviewed on stage before the film began, was Charles Lane.

The place was packed with film buffs, all of whom chuckled at the marquee which along with the name of the movie included big letters that said CHARLES LANE LIVE. If I were closing in on my 101st birthday, I think I'd enjoy seeing that in lights. Mr. Lane's appearance was preceded by a fifteen minute sampler of a documentary on his life and career that's currently being produced. (In fact, cameras at the event were getting footage to be included in it.) Much of the fifteen minutes consisted of clips from different films and TV shows in which he appeared and it was staggering. We all know how much he'd done but still, we sat there, amazed to see scenes in rapid-fire. There's Charles Lane with Groucho. There's Charles Lane with Barrymore. There's Charles Lane with Lucy. There's Charles Lane in It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union and 42nd Street and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and before long, we were all going, "My God, this man's been in everything!" The funny part is that he was playing an old man seventy years ago.

The interview was delightful. Mr. Lane can't recall much of his fabulous career but he's still rather sharp. Asked about the secret of his longevity, he said he had no idea and that for fifty years, he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. (His friend, actor Robert Donner, was in the audience and he corrected Lane. Apparently, it was three packs a day.) He loved everyone he ever worked with but singled out Lucy and Desi, as well as director Frank Capra, and seemed very moved at the several standing ovations he received. He also managed to spit out a few lines in perfect keeping with this grouchy screen character. It was a very touching presentation.

So was the movie that followed. I keep forgetting how much I enjoy a certain kind of movie when it's on a big screen and I'm watching it in the dark with other people. There is much that is sappy in The Music Man and the plot has more holes than an old colander but I don't care. It always gets to me, especially at the end when Professor Harold Hill says, "I always think there's a band" — for me, one of the great moments in cinema history. Robert Preston is wonderful, Shirley Jones is wonderful, Paul Ford and Hermione Gingold are wonderful, the whole thing is wonderful. I'd be very happy if the American Cinematheque people would show this every year or two. Especially if they can get Charles Lane to show up each time.

• Posted at 11:16 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

All of those New York Times columns for which I'm paying fifty bucks a year to read are now turning up for free on the website of a group called Truthout. I don't know why the Times hasn't shut it down but maybe the folks there have more important things to worry about these days.

Since it's there, you might want to read this weekend's Frank Rich column, which lays out a timeline for why certain "stories" seem to have spread by the White House. I'd also suggest a glance at a piece by Nicholas P. Kristof, which is about how a Bush administration decision is causing people in Niger to die, many of them pregnant women. One of the problems I have with the "pro-life" movement is how arbitrary and selective it seems to be about which lives are sacred and must be protected at all costs.

• Posted at 1:36 PM · LINK

Sunday Afternoon

It was kind of peaceful this morning...to wake up and not have to race to the computer to see if there had been any indictments of anyone. Nobody indicts on Sunday.

The official-sounding sources seem to suggest that we won't see indictments from Patrick Fitzgerald before Wednesday...if then. But I'm to the point where I'll take indictments from anyone about anything. I may even start indicting people myself before the week is out.

On the Sunday morn newschat programs today, several prominent Republicans were making the following case: You know, just because you can find some technical contradiction of fact in someone's sworn testimony, that doesn't mean it's proper to charge them with perjury. Uh-huh. Right. But of course.

That would ordinarily make me think they know that some high official in the Bush administration is about to be slapped with a perjury rap. But if you look over everything that's being said about this case by folks who might be in a position to know, you realize that at least 80% of it has to be faulty. So believe it at your own risk.

• Posted at 12:51 PM · LINK