Tonight's Movie: Four's a Crowd (1938)

1938 saw the release of one of the great movies of the Golden Era, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. Later that same year, ROBIN HOOD stars Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, and Patric Knowles reunited with director Michael Curtiz to make FOUR'S A CROWD.

FOUR'S A CROWD is a confusing mishmash regarding a public relations man (Flynn), a giggly heiress (DeHavilland), a newspaper owner (Knowles), and a reporter (Rosalind Russell). DeHavilland's rich grandfather, who is preoccupied with model trains, is played by Walter Connolly, with ROBIN HOOD's Melville Cooper as his butler.

The film is an attempt at screwball comedy which is unfortunately a little more screwball than comedy, despite the excellent cast. The plot is initially rather difficult to follow, and it doesn't get much easier as it goes on, with the four leads constantly changing their minds about who each of them loves. The confusion kept up right till the ending, which didn't turn out exactly the way I expected a Flynn-DeHavilland romantic comedy would end.

I love the actors and the genre, but this wasn't one of the better efforts of anyone in the cast.

Cast trivia: Carole Landis has a bit part as Flynn's secretary; she would later appear in some wonderful movies at 20th Century-Fox, such as MOON OVER MIAMI and ORCHESTRA WIVES, both reviewed here in July 2006.

Lana Turner is also listed as having a bit part, but I didn't pick her out.

FOUR'S A CROWD is part of the Turner Classic Movies library. It doesn't appear to be available on either video or DVD. The film runs 91 or 92 minutes, depending on the reference source, and was filmed in black and white. (Update: This film is now available on DVD from the Warner Archive.)

The Clock's Ticking for Mike Nifong

The North Carolina State Bar will be meeting again January 18th and at that point is expected to address District Attorney Mike Nifong's suppression of exculpatory evidence.

Time Magazine reports that speculation is growing as to "when and under what circumstances will Nifong leave office." It is possible that North Carolina Governor Mike Easley could ask Nifong to step down.

I don't think 2007 will be a very good year for Mike Nifong. Nor should it be. He needs to publicly acknowledge the unethical steps he has taken in an attempt to railroad innocent men -- and assure his own election.

USC law professor Susan Estrich: "Maybe all Mike Nifong ever cared about was getting elected, no matter how many victims he created."

Update: I note that Time says that the governor's office appointed Nifong. Wasn't Nifong elected D.A.?

Wednesday Update: An email correspondent kindly cleared up that while Nifong was elected and just sworn in as D.A. Tuesday, he was originally appointed to be D.A. There was a vacancy when his predecessor became a judge.

Remembering President Ford

President Ford's family returned to the Capitol Rotunda today, where some of his children greeted those who had waited in line to pay their respects. They also handed out cards of appreciation to some of those in line.

The Ford family's classy gesture in handing out the cards called to mind a memory of President Ford: When I attained the rank of First Class Cadette in Girl Scouts, I received a printed card of congratulations from President Ford. The card was framed and hung in my bedroom for years. I very much appreciated President Ford's support of Scouting. Links about President Ford and Scouting can be found at Free Republic.

During the tribute to President Ford preceding the Rose Bowl game, I suddenly remembered that the one and only time I went to see the Rose Parade in person, President Ford was the Grand Marshal. I have photos somewhere...

Our homeschool year resumes tomorrow, but we will be taking time out to watch President Ford's funeral service which will be held in Washington's National Cathedral. I am so glad we have the option to put aside lessons and watch "history in the making."

USC Rose Bowl Champions!

Congratulations to the University of Southern California, the 2007 Rose Bowl Champions! USC beat Michigan 32-18.

If you're a USC fan, click over to Brendan Loy's Irish Trojan site (subject link) and you can celebrate by playing the Conquest march. :)

The L.A. Times has posted a photo gallery.

Congratulations to the University of Redlands

My alma mater, the University of Redlands, is celebrating its centennial.

The school has a beautiful float in the Rose Parade this morning, depicting the campus chapel and the university's bulldog mascot.

The UofR is a special place and the float was lovely to see.

As for today's Rose Bowl, Fight On, USC Trojans!!

Frank Mickadeit Interviews Stephanie Edwards

With the Rose Parade having started, everyone wants to know where Stephanie Edwards is today, if the traffic for my Friday post about Stephanie is any indication.

Stephanie told the Orange County Register's Frank Mickadeit "Nothing is permanent in television and I have gotten over the shock" of being let go by KTLA Ch. 5 after over a quarter century.

Mickadeit suggests that if there is any justice in the world, Stephanie will be next year's Rose Parade Grand Marshal.

I think much of the country would be mystified by that selection, but as a Californian who has watched Stephanie on New Year's Day for years, I heartily second the motion. :)

The column provides contact info for both KTLA and Stephanie, if you'd like to drop either the station or Stephanie a line.

As for our family, we're not watching KTLA's Rose Parade coverage for the first time in memory. We are instead tuning in to HGTV today.

Happy New Year, Stephanie!

Update: John Mark Reynolds of Biola University weighs in: "Stephanie Edwards is Disneyland...Michaela [Pereira] is Magic Mountain trying to be California Adventure.

"The new host-ette combined a dollop of condescension at being forced into the whole ridiculous thing with a dullard’s sparkling rejoinders giving the watcher the weird feeling that he was being laughed at by his inferior...in short she managed to rain on our parade.

"KTLA should bring back Stephanie Edwards and lose the idea of a hip Rose Parade. Michaela is not cool, doesn’t like parades, and is hard to endure for hours."

Happy New Year!!

Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy 2007.

Tonight's Movie: Twister (1996)

We spent New Year's Eve watching a fairly mindless thrill ride of a movie, TWISTER, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as "tornado chasers."

The movie consists of Hunt and Paxton madly driving from one tornado to the next, as they attempt to deploy a new tornado measuring machine into the center of a tornado. The viewer thus careens from one exciting tornado set piece to another, all in the space of a single day. Before the movie is done our hero and heroine have close encounters with everything from flying cows to flying tanker trucks, as the viewer repeatedly exclaims "Are they nuts?!"

Hunt and Paxton's characters are on the brink of a divorce, and Paxton improbably drags his fiancee (Jami Gertz) along for a couple of close encounters with the tornados, until she's had her fill of near-death experiences. (She might have been the only sane character in the movie...) Mick Martin and Marsha Porter suggest in their DVD & VIDEO GUIDE that TWISTER is a reworking of HIS GIRL FRIDAY, which upon reflection is a fairly apt comparison.

The film is shallow in terms of characters and relationships, but entertaining enough -- thanks to the tornado sequences -- to sustain viewer interest.

TWISTER is 113 minutes long and is available on DVD.

NC DA's Call on Nifong to Step Down from Case

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys has called on District Attorney Mike Nifong to recuse himself from the Duke lacrosse case.

Meanwhile the Washington Post today called on Nifong to drop all charges.

This has been too long in coming, given the state of the "evidence" in the case, but Nifong colluding with the lab to suppress exculpatory DNA evidence may have been the straw which broke the camel's back. Hopefully Nifong will be off the case -- and even better, out of a job -- before too much more time has passed.

As Ed Morrissey wrote yesterday: "...we only know about this one case, and that's because of the high profile of the defendants. Think about what Nifong may have done that flew under the national or even regional media's radar."

Indeed.

For more, see Durham-in-Wonderland's summary of recent developments.

Tonight's Movie: The Christmas Card (2006)

THE CHRISTMAS CARD is a cozy, feel-good original TV movie production by the Hallmark Channel.

Soldier Cody Cullen (John Newton) receives a Christmas card "to any soldier" while serving in Afghanistan, and when he has leave he visits Nevada City, California, the home of the woman, Faith (Alice Evans), who sent the card. Cody soon finds himself drawing close to Faith and her family and takes a job working in their family lumber business. Only Faith's father (Ed Asner) knows that the card brought Cody to their town.

Cody falls in love with Faith, but she's about to become engaged to another man. The other man is obviously completely wrong for Faith, and Cody is completely right. Will true love win? One guess. :)

It's a simple and somewhat predictable story, charmingly told. Faith's family and the town of Nevada City are warm and welcoming. It's a film that the entire family can enjoy together.

This article has an interview with leading man John Newton and interesting info about the locations in Nevada City. Another article on Nevada City can be read here.

According to The Union, it's the highest-rated Hallmark Channel original movie ever aired.

Update: THE CHRISTMAS CARD is available on DVD.

Tonight's Movie: Superman (1978)

My family thoroughly enjoyed watching SUPERMAN together this evening. It was the first viewing for all but one of my children. My eight-year-old son has recently developed a fascination with Superman, thanks to some books containing the old comic strips, so he watched it wide-eyed.

Viewing the movie caused me to do some thinking back to the film's original release. It's hard to convey to my children here in 2006 just how exciting SUPERMAN was. Growing up in the late '60s and '70s, there were few new films appropriate for the entire family. In that Vietnam-Watergate era the popular movies were titles like THE GODFATHER and THE EXORCIST. Entertainment choices in general were far fewer in that era -- no cable, no video, just cut-up old movies on TV, riddled with commercials.

Things started to turn around in 1976 with the release of the positive, optimistic ROCKY. The next year, of course, marked the beginning of the STAR WARS franchise, followed by SUPERMAN in 1978. I remember exiting the theater dazzled by the new actor, Christopher Reeve. :) After that, it seems there was a great movie nearly every summer, including THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, E.T., and RETURN OF THE JEDI.

It was so exciting to have good movies we could go see. And my friends and I certainly did see them...again and again and again. And the great music! 1977 and 1978 saw the start of my extensive collection of John Williams soundtracks -- LP's purchased at the late, lamented Tower Records.

Enough of memory lane, and back to SUPERMAN. It holds up quite well. It's always been a bit overlong, weighed down on the front end by Superman's backstory and on the closing end by the unpleasant earthquake sequence. And the special effects are occasionally somewhat clunky by today's standards. But on the whole, it's engrossing filmmaking with every actor, especially Reeve, playing his cartoon role with conviction. That scene where Clark almost tells Lois the truth, after their flight together, is magical.

I've seen the movie a half-dozen times or so over the last 28 years, yet as I watched the DVD a couple scenes here and there were jarringingly unfamiliar, such as Martha Kent uncovering a bird cage the morning teenaged Clark tells her he has to leave and go "north." Thanks to Leonard Maltin I realized that while the original movie ran 143 minutes, our 2001 DVD release has a running time listed of 154 minutes. (IMDb lists it as 151 minutes.)

The 2001 edition is a two-sided disc with a number of extras, including screen tests, which were fascinating. A skinny Christopher Reeve is seen reading two scenes with Holly Palance playing the role of Lois. Then Reeve (looking bulked-up in a couple of the later tests) reads opposite several actresses testing for Lois, including Anne Archer, Lesley Ann Warren, and Stockard Channing. Margot Kidder overcame a dreadful hairstyle and '70s granny dress in one of her tests to ultimately, of course, win the part.

SUPERMAN was reissued last month in a 2006 4-Disc Special Edition.

As I wrote last month, two different versions of SUPERMAN II have also been released on DVD. I hope to watch those in the near future.

Finally, back to those great movies of the late '70s and early '80s for a moment. Who would have thought, when RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released in 1981, that a fourth film in the series would be scheduled to film in 2007?!

May 2018 Update: Meeting Jack O'Halloran, who played the villain Non.

Alert: No Mail Service Tuesday

There will be no mail service next week on Monday or Tuesday.

Monday, of course, is the New Year's Day holiday.

Federal agencies, including the post office, will also be closed next Tuesday to honor former President Gerald Ford, whose funeral service will be held Tuesday morning in Washington's National Cathedral.

Anyone who has bills due next week may want to recalculate mailing dates to be sure payments arrive on time.

Stephanie Edwards Sitting Out Rose Parade

Last year my comments on a local news story, the demotion of KTLA's longtime Rose Parade co-anchor Stephanie Edwards, brought some of this blog's biggest-ever traffic. Stephanie must have a lot of fans out there, as those posts have continued to draw regular hits over the course of 2006.

As reported by the L.A. Times (subject link), Frank Mickadeit of the Orange County Register, and L.A. Observed, this year Stephanie won't be "singin' in the rain" or anywhere else in Pasadena on New Year's Day.

As Stephanie half-jestingly told the Times, this year "I'll watch the parade with my family, in my jammies, weeping softly into my hot cocoa."

We'll miss you, Stephanie. I think I may give up my longtime loyalty to commercial-free KTLA and opt for the coverage on HGTV instead.

New Year's Day Update: This has been a record-setting traffic day here at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, and I welcome all new readers stopping by for news of Stephanie Edwards. Be sure to check out today's post linking to an interview with Stephanie published in today's Orange County Register.

Please visit again! Best Wishes and Happy New Year to all. :)

January 1, 2008 Update: Welcome to new readers seeking information on Stephanie Edwards. My January 1, 2008 post on Stephanie is here.

On the Duke Case and the Value of Bloggers

The North Carolina State Bar today filed ethics charges against District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has been conducting what can only be called a sham prosecution against three Duke lacrosse players.

The ethics charges are welcome news indeed. As Power Line notes, the Bar's complaint concerned some of Nifong's less egregious actions. They haven't yet addressed his suppression of exculpatory DNA evidence which cleared the players. More charges against Nifong may be coming.

Stewart Taylor and KC Johnson (see subject link) concisely lay out the case against Nifong, as well as his "enablers," which include the media and many professors at Duke University.

Johnson's site, Durham-in-Wonderland, is the "go to" site for the latest news and analysis on the Duke case. (Also recommended: John in Carolina and Betsy's Page.) Johnson is a history professor. He and Taylor are co-writing a book on the Duke case.

Johnson's work on the case, tenaciously digging into what many in the mainstream media ignored for far too long, ties in well with another story currently circulating in the blogosphere. Joe Rago of Opinion Journal recently wrote an unfortunate harangue against bloggers, claiming blogs are "written by fools to be read by imbeciles."

Dean Barnett dissects Rago's piece, noting:

"With the creation of the blogosphere, the entry barriers to being a writer came down. Anyone who wanted to be a commentator or even practice a little freelance journalism was free to do so. Some of the people who chose to adopt this avocation met with huge success. The Powerline guys, for example, are probably read by more than any op-ed columnist in the country...

"It has to be frustrating for journalists that hordes of bankers, lawyers, professors and other anonymous shlubs can so easily crash their gate."

Johnson, who took it upon himself to "practice a little freelance journalism," is a fine example of a blogger who has "crashed the gate" and made a difference.

"Journalists" such as Rago disdain Johnson and bloggers at their own peril.

John Kerry: Snubbed in Iraq

John Kerry is in Iraq this week, and it appears he was not made particularly welcome by the troops who are, in Kerry's words, "stuck in Iraq." And is it any wonder?

Check out the photo of Kerry eating surrounded by empty chairs, posted by Michelle Malkin (above) and at Power Line.

These sites also contain anecdotal reports of the troops' lack of interest in Mr. Kerry.

Bryan Preston of Hot Air: "I've never seen a snubbing so richly deserved."

Friday Update: More on the photo from Power Line and Michelle Malkin. Some on the left have challenged the authenticity of the photo. Between them, Power Line and Malkin conclusively make the case for the picture being the real deal.

A Classless Act

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can't be bothered to attend the funeral of former President Gerald Ford.

It seems Reid would rather go on a South American junket. He left today, the day after Ford's death.

One would think that a certain level of maturity, common sense, and bipartisan good manners would be found in someone holding Reid's position. Those qualities are sadly absent here.

President Gerald R. Ford Dies at 93

Breaking news this evening...I link above to the Google News page on this story, which will be constantly updated.

Little House Music Lives On

A Vanderbilt University music professor is in the process of producing 10 CDs which will contain recordings of all 126 songs mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE books.

Among the musicians helping on the project are the Grammy-winning Western group Riders in the Sky.

As Wilder fans know, music is an integral part of the books. Pa's fiddle and later Mary's organ hold great significance in the stories. (That said, I'm not sure what the linked article refers to when it says that a young Laura accompanied Pa while he played the fiddle...that appears to be a factual error in the article.)

THE LAURA INGALLS WILDER SONGBOOK, first published in 1968, is one of the treasures on my Wilder shelf. I enjoyed playing songs like "Highland Mary" on my flute when I was younger. How wonderful that someone is making recordings of the music that everyone can enjoy.

Tonight's Movie: Bachelor Mother (1939)

Though it's not precisely a "Christmas" movie, BACHELOR MOTHER's story takes place between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, which makes it perfect seasonal viewing.

BACHELOR MOTHER is one of my all-time favorite comedies. Ginger Rogers was never more beautiful or charming than she appeared in this picture. She plays Polly Parrish, a department store clerk who through a strange series of events finds herself caring for an abandoned baby, which is assumed by everyone to be hers. David Niven is the kind department store owner's son who falls in love with Polly and the baby, and the wonderful Charles Coburn plays Niven's father.

The plot is slightly risque for its day, with the incorrect assumptions made throughout the picture about the baby's parentage, but it's delightfully told. The baby is adorable, and there are few movie scenes funnier than Niven and Rogers pretending she can only speak Swedish when they meet his friends at a New Year's Eve dance. Rogers is chiefly known for her musical talents, but she was also one of the funniest women ever to grace the movies, and that scene in particular makes me laugh every time I see it.

BACHELOR MOTHER was filmed in black and white and runs 81 or 83 minutes, depending on the reference source. I should have timed it myself! :) It's available on VHS. It's also part of the Turner Classic Movies library.

Hopefully there will be a DVD release soon; the film certainly deserves it.

November 2010 Update: BACHELOR MOTHER is now available on DVD-R from the Warner Archive.

NORAD Santa Tracking

Merry Christmas to the wonderful folks at North American Aerospace Defense Command!

For over 50 years, NORAD has followed Santa's annual travel across the night skies. Even a blizzard can't keep the folks at NORAD from their important mission.

Click on the subject link to find out the latest news on Santa's journey.