Movie Night: ***^ O'Henry's Full House

This is a movie which present five short stories of O'Henry and is narrated by John Steinbeck.  Some of the stories were familiar to me.  The first is "The Cop and the Anthem."  This is the basis for a Red Skelton sketch.  Briefly, the story is of a "bum" who is down on his luck.  Winter is coming on, so he determines three months in jail would be nice and warm.  However he finds it difficult to get arrested.  He throws a rock through a window, and they chase someone else; he eats a fine meal with no means to pay, and gets thrown out.  Nothing seems to work.  He finds himself in a church, and his heart is pricked and he decides he should get a job and start a new life.  However he is arrested for vagrancy, and thrown in jail for three months, he gets what he wants, the second he doesn't want it.

The Clarion Call is a police story which pits a detective against his old friend he grew up with.  His friend turned out to be a criminal, who has just killed a man in a burglary.  However he holds a mark over the detective, a $1000 mark of money he loaned the detective.  He knows the detective cannot repay, and cannot turn him in as long as he is in his debt.  The detective gets out of the bind by getting the reward money offered by a paper for his arrest, and giving this to the criminal.

The third is "The Last Leaf,"  I recently reviewed the BYU version of this movie.  This version is more a period piece.  It does not have such a close relationship between the painter and the girls, but mostly one of acquaintance.  However the sacrifice of the painter is just as real as he paints his masterpiece.

The Ransom of Red Chief is well done and very funny.  It is about a kidnapping.  The con men have an old car which is humorous all to itself.  I am pretty sure there is a Don Knots movie of the same theme (No Deposit No Return.)  This movie is very funny, as the family enjoys a couple days without their terror of a son, and the kidnappers are forced ts pay him parents to take him back. 

The last movie is "The Gift of the Magi."  There is a similar movie with Marie Osmond.  This version is very well done as well.  It does not show what their pride and joys are, but shows the anguish at getting money to but Christmas.  There is no bonus this year, but she has the barber cut her hair for a wig, and she is able to but a chain for his watch.  He sells his watch so as to get combs for her hair.  They know they love each other after they have given their most priced possession for the other.

This movie is worthy of watching.  I got it through Netflix DVD.  The first they sent was broken and they had to send another copy.

Book Review: John Steinbeck's Cannery Row: A Time to Remember

This is a photographic look at Cannery Row in Monterrey which was the background for two John Steinbeck books.  "Cannery Row" was set before WWII, and Sweet Thursday after WWII.  The sardines were fished out during the war, and never came back, and the cannery business was doomed.  The fishing boats had to seek other ways to make money, and slowly the cannery fell into decay.

This book is a photographic essay of this decay.  It is written by Tom Weber and published in 1983, meaning after almost 40 years of decay.  There have been thirty more years since these pictures were taken.  This book has few words, but the author wrote a poem.  These are a few lines:



I run to hold these images
before they left no trace at all.
But you can't grab much from running time....

...Here then, are these images
from the time of other men
who came and built and fished the waters
and thought their dream would be "forever".

Here is their "forever" now:
The rotting planks and doorless doors
and window sashes with glassless holes
that sucked in torrents of winter rain
and called each fog like a reckless lover.

And in the bay, the concrete piers
that once held up a stage of life,
now are marker shrines
where canneries stood.

This book makes one realize that change is part of our journey.  Part of that change is decay, but then part of it is rebuilding.  The Monterrey Aquarium is now in this area, and it is more a tourist region than anything else.

Movie night: ****Of Mice and Men

After reading the book, I decided to watch the movie.  To see some of this acted out, can be a bit disconcerting, so it has a PG-13 rating.  For the most part it doesn't show a lot of blood, but it does show violence.  This movie is available on Netflix Instant.  It stars Gary Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lenny.
It is very true to the story, but it starts with the later flashback.  Lenny gets in trouble touching a woman's soft dress, and being accused of attempted rape.  A posse goes after George and Lenny, but they escape in a ditch.  They then show up close to a farm by Soledad, and are hired to help with the barley harvest. 
Soledad, loneliness, and that is what John Steinbeck portrays, is lonely, insecure people.  It shows us the boss' son Curley who is lonely, wishes he were bigger, is over jealous his new wife might  not be faithful, and is controlling and abuses her.  We see his wife, who is also lonely, not allowed to talk with anyone because of her husband's loneliness, the boss who gives the Black farm hand "hell" when anything goes wrong.  Candy, who has his old mutt for company.  However his mutt is blind, and stinks, and the other bunk mates don't like it and convince him to have the dog put down.  Carlson uses his pistol.  Slim, the foreman, who really doesn't have anyone, and the other ranch hands are all working to get their $50 so they can take it into town on blow it on beer and whores.  The saddest case is Crooks, the stable hand.  His back is crooked from having been kicked in the back by a horse.  He is African American, and has his own room, but is not allowed with the other men, and only has books to read.  He is lonely too, books aren't enough when you are aching for company.  We never see the boss' wife, or Curly's wife might have had a friend.  As such she wanders among the farm hands looking for companionship.
In this mess of people, Lenny, George and Candy make a plan to get away.  It just might work.  Candy has some money from his losing his hand, and saving up.  With the pay at the end of the month, they could swing getting their own place, where they could live and support each other.  If they could just make it to the end of the month.  This movie lacks some of the lines I liked from the movie.  It does have a similar ending; except George isn't met by the farm hands at the end, but sneaks off in a cargo train.

Movie Night: ***East of Eden

I watched this movie through Netflix DVD.  My interest in the movie stems form my interest in most things John Steinbeck.  This is his classic novel of a family with two sons, and a mother who is supposedly dead; but in the end is not dead but a woman of the world.  The sons realizing this story has different effects on them.

The younger son considers himself bad, and does everything for his father's love.  The other son, who is considered good, has his father's love and approbation.  However, int he end, it is the younger son who cares for his father after his stroke, and the other son goes to war.  James Dean stars as the younger son, and this movie helps with his reputation of being a rebel.  I would mildly recommend this movie.  It does show two contrasting worlds, that of Monterrey and Salinas, at the time when the country was preparing to go to war.  It also shows racism at it ugliest, as the local deal with a citizen of German descent.  Finally this movie also confronts the theme of what is right--how do we let others be themselves, while living a good life.