Growing up in Australia in the Sixties

The announcement of President Barack Obama’s visit to these shores has caused me to indulge in a wave of rosy nostalgia. Mainly concerning such things as  Australia’s relationship with America, and long hot summers spent frolicking aimlessly  on the beach. These two pre-occupations may not  have much in common but they are connected forever in my memory of growing up during the conflagration of the Vietnam war.

 Looking back, it seems a time when Australia was  tied to the coat-tails of America through a combination of realpolitik and what today we may think of as some kind of bizarre racial necessity. But am I falsifying my own memories?    News of what was going on in Vietnam at the height of the conflict, acted as a sober backdrop to my innocent summer holiday breaks whilst growing up and enjoying my  very conventional childhood summer holidays in Sydney.

 

Everyone listened to the radio in those days. I spent a lot of time with  relatives in a southern beachside suburb, every summer holiday for three years running,  where the Vietnam conflict could not have been further away. But the radio was always on, and in between the ad breaks and the Top 40 countdown of hits,  the Vietnam war  was the unofficial narrative of almost every Sydney radio station. In turn, the radio was something like the communal fire of olden times that members of the tribe crowded around, for comfort and a sense of belonging.  I also can remember a few of my favourite songs that were playing on the radio. Among them was ‘In the Year 2525’ by Zager and Evans; ‘Classical Gas’ by Mason Williams; ‘The Real Thing’ by Russell Morris;  ‘Arkansas Grass’ and “A Little Ray of Sunshine’ by Axiom, and the double A sided single of ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles which got played to death on all the major AM radio stations. For better or  worse, these songs made me what I am today.  By the end of this post, I will probably reach by circularity, the conclusion that it’s pointless to indulge in nostalgia in the first place, but  since I’ve barely started, this is a pointless observation to make. Then again, I am the master of pointless observation.

Ever since the British decline of influence in Asia, it has been assumed that the relationship between Australia and America has been, well, a good one. There’s no denying it. Americans and Australians  have the same background, the same language, the same political heritage of democracy and so on and so forth. Australian Prime Minister during the Second World War, John Curtin made it clear that, with the Japanese incursions so close to our shores, it was a  necessity to  forge closer ties with the United States. Ever since then, I believe that Australia has unfortunately been backed into a corner of appearing to be   junior partner to a more vocal and  powerful nation.  


 Yet also, if I allow myself, I recall a brief, shining moment when many Australians found it necessary to speak out against what they considered to be an unjust and unnecessary war.  See here.  It was as if we were acknowledging  something wrong with the relationship we had with America. It was somehow…one-sided. Dare I say…perhaps a little dysfunctional? (Not that we knew what that word meant in those days.)  I feel sorry for the young people who will grow up having no recollection  of any  opposition movement to injustice, and I am reluctant to point out the lack of such a thing to the war against terror, but there it is, and I would prefer not to dwell on it. 

Sojourning with my mother into the central business district by bus, we would pass the University of Sydney campus, and usually, during the Vietnam war, there were quite a few students sitting out in the local park either on strike, or protesting against the war. My older brother grew his hair long and was listening to a lot of loud music, a little scared that he may be drafted and picked out of a death lottery, after the Australian (Liberal Party) government opted to send more troops as reinforcement against a possible North Vietnamese victory. With the fateful transformation of Australian society there also came disappointment and disillusion, as the Liberal Party was swept from power in 1972 after 23 years to be replaced by a relatively young and forward looking government that within its first weeks recognised the People’s Republic of China. Symbolic perhaps, but unthinkable just a few years before. Unfortunately the Whitlam Labor  government was felled by many mistakes of its own making, (as well as appointing a man as  Governor General who had his own agenda,) but its achievements remained as an example to younger Australians like myself of the possibility of reform and change, and how it may  not be such a dangerous thing after all.

 At the risk of showing my age and lecturing people younger than myself, I think now, looking back on it, that the late sixties and early seventies was our own Australian spring, or ‘renaissance’, as many of us like to refer to those heady years. Maybe these days, outsiders can consider Australia as less of a partner in America’s wars, and more as an independent nation with its own interests and a desire to be thought of as more than just a junior partner to the world’s major power. 

100 Of My Favourite Movies in 30 words or less

I’m experimenting with this idea of short one-line reviews without the babbling on and spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet. This list is just a sample of some of my favourite films, some I’ve known all my life and others I’ve discovered on disc. They are in purely random order, and I do not use any ratings system, so if I tell you I think that it’s great and you don’t think so, you can’t blame me for it.  There aren’t too many that have been released in the last five years or so, so if you’re looking for new releases, this list will be of no use to you whatsoever. I don’t believe in preaching to the converted, so if you know what I’m talking about, then you’ll just know it. If you don’t know, then watch the movie and find out.

 Repulsion Catherine Deneuve goes crazy in front of Roman Polanski. Excellent film to watch again.

In a Lonely Place Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame are  two star-crossed lovers who could never make it last. Film noir with a bit of heart.

Night of the Hunter Robert Mitchum plays a suspect  preacher, after the  money that’s been left to two children in  a toy doll. Not for the faint hearted.

Duck Soup Supreme political satire of dictators, government and pomposity. No wonder  everyone loves it.

The Driver Ryan O’Neal the strong and silent type with  great stunt driving at the beginning, but not a very hopeful film.

Get Carter  Grimy, depressing, crass and totally engrossing. A great crime  film and totally unrelenting in its violence.

Species Improving with age, witty take on the alien genre. Sexy girl alien after a mate, and chased down before she decimates humanity.

Strangers on a Train Sly  undertones as Robert Walker plays a nutjob trying to lord it over Farley Granger. A pair of hopeless romantics.

Chinatown A chinese puzzle, for the audience and Jack Nicholson, with Faye Dunaway’s flawed iris thrown in.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir  A beauty from the classic era, haunting Herrmann score, beautiful photography and appealing Gene Tierney.

Escape from New York You can’t beat the original, why this worked is because Carpenter loves what he’s doing. He’s  a good storyteller who provides audience with interesting characters. In any genre.

Days of Wine and Roses Glum and downbeat, played to the hilt by Lemmon and Remick, but somewhat empty at its core, as if director had no other ideas.

Gaslight Old fashioned melodrama as Ingrid Bergman is driven to distraction by her shady husband in his pursuit of her dead Aunty’s jewels. Creepy and effective.

The Relic  Interesting combination of voodoo and body horror, but derivative and not very well cast in the lead roles.

The Unforgiven (1960) A  Freudian melodrama about miscegenation in the wild west. John Huston goes moody and it kind of works on its own modest level.

The Conversation Classic 70s cinema about politics, paranoia and the main character’s obsession with privacy. Innovative sound and a thrilling plot keeps us on our toes.

A Heart in Winter A thwarted love affair between a violinist and her violin maker. Sexy yet not provocative; haunting yet commonplace; contemplative yet interesting.

A number of shocking moments 

Dressed to Kill One of de Palma’s better films, owes a lot to Psycho but steals in style, and the story is better than critics would have you believe.

East of Eden I have always found this a bit stilted, and not at all the classic a lot of people claim it to be. But it grows on you I guess and James Dean has great presence.

Possession  A travesty of the 900 page book, but what do you want anyway? The 19^th century lovers go at it hammer and tongs and make Paltrow and Eckhart look anaemic.

French Connection Classic 70s cinema, great car chase, so good you forget how good it is. Hope to see again.

Near Dark A vampire western, sans the gothic clichés. Lance Henricksen looks like he needs a good feed. (Which he gets.)

Sid and Nancy Excellent examination of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen’s life together before their deaths.

Hombre A great cast do justice to interesting Western, with beautiful backdrops and racial sub-text.

Mississippi Burning Racial prejudice in the south; beautifully angry and hasn’t dated one iota.

Eye of the Needle Spy film set on a windswept island with romance and suspense. Old fashioned but fun to watch.

Lone Star  A soap opera set in Texas with a complicated plot and a very hot love scene later on.

Andersonville  Quasi documentary about prisoners in Andersonville who endured more than was their lot as the Civil War was ending. Harrowing.

California Suite  Filmed Neil Simon play about life in a hotel in Los Angeles. Three stories cobbled together but amusing and observant with good perfs.

Darren MacGavin in his funny hat

The Stepfather Excellent horror entry written by Donald Westlake. A serial killer marries women and kills them and their children  for not doing well at school. A scary guy.

The Verdict One of Paul Newman’s great performances in his mature years as an alcoholic lawyer with one last case left to redeem himself. Strangely religious and gratifying.

The Exorcist III  Effectively hammy, but loyal to the original material, with George C Scott in top form telling Ed Flanders about a carp in his bathtub.

The Seventh Sign A good apocalyptic entry, about a woman who believes her unborn child will be the last child before the end of the world. Who will believe her? Me.

Funny Face Classic Audrey Hepburn as a plain bookstore clerk is swept away to Paris to become a model. Every girl’s dream! Beautiful Gershwin songs make this special.

Drugstore Cowboy Gus van Sant directs. Quirky, funny, about life on the edge with  four prescription drug thieves trying to survive onto their next high. Gets religious by the end.

The Godfather Canonised 70s entry, violent, family oriented, Italians out of the mainstream, mafia hitmen buying canoli for their wives and lots of mayhem. A good show.

Blackadder Great Brit comedy series about a cunning public servant surviving the Elizabethan and Regency periods by sucking up to the upper classes. Hilarious and droll.

Ronald Reagan liked this film

Equus A great play is transformed seemingly intact about a disturbed adolescent with a religious obsession for horses. He must conform or sink. Richard Burton helps out.

Carrington  A tragic relationship ensues between a woman artist and English writer Lytton Strachey. A wonderful sense of period, this is excellent.

Wolf  This is less tedious than it deserves to be. Nicholson gets bitten by wolf and transforms from a beast of a man into a decent law abiding wolf. Pfeiffer goes along for ride.

Reversal of Fortune Plenty of  flashbacks but  a good examination of guilt and innocence as audience ponders whether Claus Von Bulow fluffed murdering his wife not once, but twice.

Reds A hagiography of American communist John Reed as interpreted by Warren Beatty. Not bad, but too much emphasis on romance at the expense of politics. Good anyway.

Barry Lyndon  Seventh heaven cinema.  Redmond Barry’s trials and tribulations will keep you on the edge of your seat for its extended running time.

Little Big Man A thinking man’s Forest Gump in the wild west told from the Indian’s point of view. Classic 70s cinema.

The 39 Steps  Another early Hitchcock with Robert Donat caught up in a deadly spy ring. Great ride.

Whatever is is, I'm against it

The Third Man Rainy streets, grimy sewers, Vienna was a bad place to be in 1947. A zither  and Orson Welles round it off.

Don’t Look Now Some of us can’t look but you should look at this. Things are not as they seem. Or maybe they are.

Frankenstein (1931) Karloff’s outstanding performance is a good selling point for this classic horror entry. Still disturbing.

Altered States Mad scientist experiments with brain, changes into  monkey,  almost loses his wife. Not as dumb as it sounds.

King Kong (1976) A remake dumber than the original but beautiful scenery and the romantic point is made obvious by end

Elephant Man A mainstream David Lynch film based on true story of civilised circus freak and his desire for acceptance.

Bridge on the River Kwai If war isn’t mad, then at least it’s silly. Guiness an obsessed martinet and a sweaty Holden. Great. 

The Invisible Man  HG Wells allegory about a scientist taking over the world so he can give it to his girlfriend. Hmm.

Taxi Driver Brilliant, disturbing, but is it also pointless. De Niro goes on rampage and we all go ‘hurrah’. Don’t know anymore.

He's doing it for Flora. True.

Jacob’s Ladder If anyone ever reads this, one cannot say ANYTHING about this film without giving the plot away. So I won’t say anything except that it’s kind of …scary…

Naked Lunch Respectable rendering of classic novel, plenty of gory effects but true to Burroughs vision. Writer’s block is not a pleasant experience, so just keep on writing.

Lifeboat  Unsung Hitchcock, terrific character study, if a bit talky. Some get to stay on board, others get tossed over. See if you can guess which ones.

Pretty Poison This sweet young girl hates her mother and finagles her impressionable boyfriend to get rid of her. Funny but not in the right way, which makes it interesting.

The Bedford Incident Another apocalyptic scenario as a mad naval captain plays cat and mouse with a Russian submarine in the Artic. Scary but somehow seems inevitable.

Rebel Without a Cause James Dean’s moment of glory, garish in wide screen, larger than life but somehow touching amidst the conventional melodrama.

Day of the Locust West’s novel gets the treatment and the riot at the end makes sense of the work in its totality. Otherwise, why would it be there. The other Homer Simpson.

American Graffiti Ensemble cast of nobodies who became somebodies is a good enough reason to watch this. Although it’s engaging with plenty of the great  songs that were recorded before the Beatles hit.

White Heat James Cagney goes crazy in the clink. Breaks out and causes more mayhem. His ma’s been murdered and all hell breaks loose. Classic noir and vintage Cagney.

Ordinary People Redford beat Scorcese for Best Director Oscar with this. Tyler Moore is a terrible mother. Hutton a neglected child. Sutherland a neglected husband. Bring on therapy.

The Hit Terence Stamp pleads for his life as a pair of henchmen make their way through the Spanish desert and attempt to assassinate him. Existential and essential gangster fare.

Pulp Another one of those ‘is it fiction or real life’ scenarios. By the time it’s over you won’t care, as long as everyone gets out alive. A Michael Caine triumph.

James Dean looking hurt in 'East of Eden'

1984 Don’t’ worry about this being a bore. It isn’t. John Hurt shines as Winston Smith, the last man in Europe with the temerity to use his brains. A definite prophecy of our brainless times.

Lust for Life A biography of Van Gogh. Douglas is neurotic, misunderstood and plain grumpy. The paintings look beautiful but as biography…well.. you decide.

Bride of Frankenstein Iconic gay horror directed by James Whale. Perhaps a little over-rated by the Hollywood boys but nonetheless compelling with a female monster and no Igor.

Lady Caroline Lamb The love affair between Byron and said Lamb. Melodramatic, beautiful to look at, a wonderful evocation of 19^th century Europe. But that’s all.

The Night Strangler/Stalker When TV shows had a reason for being. McGavin as indefatigable journalist investigating the paranormal and in trouble with his superiors. Fun and subversive.

Memento Have to watch it backwards to make any sense, compelling nonetheless. Loss of memory causes problems, but does that make audience delusional?

The Man Who Knew Too Much Is such a thing possible. Apparently, yes.

The best zombie movie ever.

The Wolfman A rueful examination of Nazi persecution of Jews in the Welsh countryside. Siodmak’s journey to Hollywood as a persecuted minority is extolled by the Left as life affirming.

Night of the Living Dead   We  aren’t dead yet but we deserve to be. The Vietnam war is blamed for practically everything including the zombiefication of Americans. Pity they can’t hit back.

White Zombie  Lugosi carries on as a magician in Caribbean who helps a man possess a woman he can neve have. Moody and atmospheric.

The Time Machine  George Pal without the puppets as Rod Taylor attempts to socially engineer a group of helpless natives into believing they’re British. What else is new

The Great Gatsby A deluded millionaire attempts to salvage an affair that died long ago. Money is blamed and everyone gets hurt. Lots of Charleston dancing.

Eyes Without a Face Mad French scientist experiments on his daughter. Crazy but easy to take. Like strychnine.

The Damned  A rich German family coping with the Nazi’s rise to power. Not very enlightening. Nice uniforms.

On the Beach  Melbourne as the last civilized place on earth. Great cast, dour but appropriately so for a movie about the end of the world.

The Lady from Shanghai  Misanthropic noir as Welles tries to get a handle on his Irish accent. Hayworth looks gorgeous and has a horrible husband.

Nixon Hopkins is miscast in title role but there are many other actors playing real-life characters who are stupendous. Stone’s somewhat personal vision of his bete noir, but arresting nonetheless.

Cassandra Crossing An all star cast liven up this disaster movie about an infectious disease breakout on a train for rich people. Harris and Loren make proceedings interesting.

A pensive Bogart pondering the infinite

Valley of the Dolls  A pulp novel becomes a pulp movie. This is so bad one can feel affection for it. Sharon Tate’s bust exercises a stand out. (No pun intended)

Jagged Edge Jeff Bridges is creepy as a man suspected of killing his wife, and has the good fortune to have his defence lawyer fall in love with him. Ludicrous but somehow believable.

Still of the Night  A great role for Meryl Streep as a strange girl who may know more than what she thinks she does. Psychiatrist Scheider investigates.

Dead Zone Walken is haunted as a medium who believes he can change the course of history. A cautionary handbook for all those people out there who think they can predict the future.

Midnight Express Life in a Turkish prison. Lots of hurla burla and a real life story replaced by a load of bunkum that never actually happened. Good Mroder score and potent.

Mary Reilly  Julia Roberts is very good in title role, as the maid of  Dr Jekyll who falls for her, as does his alter ego, Mr. Hyde. She is won by neither.

JFK This is exciting stuff with great cast, terrific detective work, terrifically edited and photographed. Except for the melodramatic and unnecessary family scenes this gets the highest recommendation.

Yes, Minister Jim Hacker is a hapless minister utterly dependent on his head public servant Humphrey Appleby, even though he doesn’t know it. Hilarious and droll and still prescient.

Whicha one is winnin', preacher?

African Queen Classic John Huston adventure about a religious spinster and a sea captain’s attempt to sink a German battleship in Africa c1914. Excellent entertainment.

Phantom of the Opera Lon Chaney pleads with Mary Philbin not to tear off his mask. But what does she do? Oh dear….Massive makeup job done by Chaney himself. Very tasty.

Absence of Malice A silly young slip of a girl thinks she’s a journalist and gets Paul Newman into all kinds of trouble. When will these feminists ever learn?

The Way We Were Streisand is great and sings the title song; Redford is a good actor and keeps up. Lots of politics surprisingly enough but the romance is paramount and verrry sad.

True Confessions This is a great unsung title. Duvall and de Niro work great together playing brothers up to their armpits in the death of the Black Dahlia. They learn to stick together.

Dr Strangelove  Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the war room! Sellers has a least three roles, George C Scott has only one. I think that’s unfair.

The Stand  A very long television movie in four chapters but an excellent version by King himself. Gary Sinise is handsome and heroic. Molly Ringwald adequate.

The War Lover Little known Steve McQueen title with Robert Wagner as his sidekick. They play pilots in the 2^nd world war who seem to be enjoying themselves. Unusual but profound.

The Romantic Fate of Authority Figures in the films of Alfred Hitchcock

Grant, Bergman and that kiss from 'Notorious'

Men, more often than not,  are normally cast as authority figures in Hitchcock movies. (The glaring exception to this ‘rule’ could certainly be ‘Strangers on a Train’ where no authority figure actually exists within the story. There are two dim possibilities: Bruno’s father is plotted against by his son,  as a way of punishing him for his inadequacy as a reliable authority figure. Hitch perennial Leo G Carroll as Ruth Roman’s father is an authority figure, but elderly, and a totally unthreatening one.)  Usually, but not always, the male authority figures in  Hitchcock films are  police officers or government agents finding themselves in an emotional conundrum, or rather a state of emotional ambiguity, in that they tend to fall in love with women who may be either perpetrators of a crime, or conversely, the victims of wrongdoing. 


The mens’ dilemma takes up a large part of the sub-text of a number of Hitchcock films. These sub-texts  unfold  as the plot reveals the leading (or supporting character’s) feelings of guilt  toward the female object(s) of their desire. The male characters are left with no other choice  than  to take responsibility for their own neuroses, ascertaining (for example), the harshness to which they have exposed the woman to danger, when they originally wanted to protect her from such. Equilibrium between the sexes is eventually restored by the end, with the woman taming the man and the man accepting with resignation,  that  his single status has been curtailed by the woman. Often,  the struggle between the sexes is solved by the woman dying, rarely the man,  or sometimes but rarely, both.

Grant and Saint. The audience excused Cary lots of things

SABOTAGE (1936):  How Sylvia Sidney and her police officer friend/lover  escape  justice by a hairsbreadth, because he interprets her plight as circumstantial, and not of her own making

NOTORIOUS (1945): How agent Cary Grant is at first solicitious toward Ingrid Bergman, then becomes hostile towards her as she accepts an offer to spy on her father’s friends who are Nazis, whom she hates for being un-American

VERTIGO (1958): How ex-policeman James Stewart falls in love with the mysterious Kim Novak, with no knowledge of her true identity or the extent to which he is hurting his loyal girlfriend Midge

NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1958): How advertising executive Cary Grant is mistaken for a secret agent and is helped by Eva Marie Saint, who is actually attempting to get him to help her out of a sticky situation with the sinister James Mason. He does not realise this and consequently is always (inadvertently) placing her in danger when in fact he is falling in love with her and wants to help her.

PSYCHO (1969): Where the audience is led to believe that there is the possibility of Arbogast the private detective falling in love with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) before he even finds out that she’s been killed

MARNIE (1964): How Sean Connery is wise to the ways of Tippy Hedren who is a thief and a liar, but falls madly in love with her anyway

I would argue that as far as Hitchcock is concerned, the guys appear to be losers, at least when it comes to romance. The least of these is Cary Grant. Grant  avoids  being arrested for murder in ‘Suspicion’; escapes to the hospital and presumably lives  happily ever after with Ingrid Bergman at the end of ‘Notorious’ and then travels happily into the tunnel of love with Eva Marie Saint in his arms at the conclusion of ‘North by Northwest’. But as far as romance is concerned, most of Hitchcock’s male characters are living in chumpsville.

How  James Stewart is an authority figure in ‘Rope’, but  doesn’t have a love interest at all,  and he loses the love of his life when Kim Novak falls out of a church window at the conclusion of ‘Vertigo’.

How Laurence Olivier spends an inordinate amount of time wringing his hands and feeling guilty and miserable in ‘Rebecca’, concerning a woman who doesn’t even appear on-screen, when he is married to the young, attractive and willing Joan Fontaine.

Milland, Kelly and Cummings in 'Dial M'

In ‘Dial M for Murder’  how Ray Milland botches murdering his wife, (Grace Kelly) and ends up being found out, even when the audience is given every indication that he’s going to get away with it

How Robert Donat supposedly hates being literally manacled to  Madeleine Carroll in ‘The 39 Steps’, when she is gorgeous, classy, intelligent and single

How Margaret Lockwood brushes off Michael Redgrave constantly in ‘the Lady Vanishes’ when he refuses to believe her preposterous stories

The Freudian manner in which Jessica Tandy punishes Rod Taylor for being her son instead of her husband in ‘The Birds’ and his cavalier treatment  of  love interests Tippy Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette as a result

None of these guys have what you would call a satisfying love life. So, how do Hitchcock’s characters rate (both male and female) when it comes to marriage and family? Hitchcock condescends to  look the happy American family up-and-down like a frustrated  monk as it turns out to be distinctly wanting. He is more interested in the neuroses and dysfunction within the family unit but appears totally  disinterested glorifying the concept of ‘the family’  for any kind of ideological purpose.

How Vera Miles goes quietly insane by the  mere suspicion of whether  husband Henry Fonda is guilty (or not) of armed robbery in ‘The Wrong Man’. The family here is portrayed as positive and nurturing, but extremely vulnerable to circumstances outside its control.

Handcuffed to the girl who double crossed him!

In ‘Marnie’, Marnie’s problematic relationship with her mother is explained as a difficulty in being brought up within a one parent family. Her relationship with male authority figure Sean Connery is difficult and painful. Her fear of the colour red; her inability to have a connected relationship with a man; her inability to lead an ‘honest’ life. All of this is blamed upon her dysfunctional relationship with her mother and her inability to find the ideal man. Sean Connery has a difficult part to play. He is portrayed as the bad guy who wants to constrain Marnie for no discernible reason. He says he loves her but constantly violates  her freedom and her person in contradiction to his pronouncements.

John Gavin’s difficult private life in ‘Psycho’, as well as Janet Leigh’s unspoken dissatisfaction with her sister and other unnamed family members. Gavin and Leigh’s relationship is largely explained by the similarity of their emotional backgrounds.

The parents of Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ are portrayed in such a way that they are to blame for her not being married and for her being supposedly ‘unattractive’. Fontaine’s parents  are cold, aloof and remote without the slightest concern for her well-being as she falls into the arms of Cary Grant and an uncertain future.

Turbulent relationship

Hitchcock’s ultimate blonde, Grace Kelly appeared in three of his movies. In ‘Rear Window’ and ‘Dial M for Murder’ her parents are never mentioned. In ‘To Catch a Thief’ she has a mother. Perhaps  portraying a glamour girl with parents was not thought of as good box office, and  even off-putting to male members of the audience.  Kelly is redeemed as being too good to be a murderess in ‘Dial M for Murder;  and then rewarded for being a good sport  by nabbing James Stewart for a husband in ‘Rear Window’.  She is punished for having a boyfriend whilst married in ‘Dial M’ and lectured by James Stewart for being too bossy and possessive in ‘Rear Window’. But she remains an unimpeachable object of unreachable desire throughout her Hitchcock period, whether married or single and is never held responsible for any of the mishaps of her male co-stars in any of the films mentioned.

Sylvia Sidney worked for Lang as well. What a woman

In many of Hitchcock’s films, family members are either remote or completely absent. Cary Grant has a mother in ‘North by Northwest’ but no parents in ‘Suspicion’ and ‘Notorious’. In a number of Hitchcock’s early British films, such as ‘Blackmail’, ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Secret Agent’, family life is portrayed in a somewhat positive light, but emotional support is bound to be withdrawn from a family member who may do the wrong thing, or get into some kind of trouble. Sylvia Sidney in ‘Sabotage’ is placed in an untenable position after losing her younger brother and wreaking revenge on her husband. She has no one else to turn to except a police officer who is sympathetic to her plight. In ‘Blackmail’, a young woman defends herself from being raped but does not begin to imagine that the authorities or her family will help her; in ‘Secret Agent’ the concept of the family unit is gently satirised, as John Gielgud poses as Madeleine Carroll’s husband when they are actually not connected in any way at all.

Despite acknowledging that women can have difficult and compromised lives, it would appear that if you’re as beautiful and glamorous as Grace Kelly or Madeleine Carroll, this can tide you over the other gigantic waves of a demanding life. Today, such an attitude may seem a tad, well... ludicrous, but it could be argued, what else is there? A woman should have her family to fall back on, whilst men only have women, whilst both men and women  seem to do nothing but misunderstand, and mistreat each other.  Thus men's fate is the struggle in attempting to ascertain the woman's veracity, and being routed in the attempt. Thus is the sad  lot of of male authority figures in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. 

This day 50 years ago. Mexican stand-off with the Russians. Who blinked first?

On this day in 1961, the Soviets and United States forces endured a stand-off that lasted for at least twelve hours, as a result of the building of the Berlin wall and subsequent restrictions of western diplomats and others  from travelling from one end of the city to the other, according to a blog published in the Washington Post today and available to read here.  I came across this link on Twitter, and read with interest how the newly elected President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was thrown into the deep end of high-stakes European diplomacy with little or no experience, and how ably he acquitted himself, whether it was by good luck or management. Relations between the Soviet Union and the west were practically threadbare, and this picture below  is as good an example as any hyperbole from me as to what the 'relationship', if you could call it that, had been reduced to:

Soviet and western tanks playing a game of cat and mouse along Friedrichstrasse was not a particularly edifying sight, as the rest of the world held its breath in anticipation of which side would give in first to relieve the tension which must have been a pretty unsettling experience for all concerned. I find it difficult to imagine what it must have been like to have lived through this period of history, when nuclear war seemed an ever-present 'given'. That is, that nuclear war was  probably more likely to happen than not, which, when you think about it, is an extremely difficult, not to say, unacceptable state of affairs to have to contemplate.


The blog published in the Washington Post today concerns the de-classification of hundreds of documents concerning this period in European history, when it seemed likely that another world war would break out, given the fractious nature of the cold war, and the bellicosity of Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev, alongside the green and untried John F Kennedy in his first year of office as President of the United States. Reading this blog coincides with a recent purchase I made of a book which I once owned and decided to buy again, called 'A Question of Character: A Life of John F Kennedy, by Thomas C. Reeves. Published in 1992, the book was a bestseller, but it did its best, if not to debunk the Camelot myth completely, then at least to put it into a bit of perspective. I've never had much time for the slavering coffee table book mentality of many books that have been written about the President, and I found Reeves' approach as a respected historian, to be  free of any kind of glossing over of the truth of events, or embellishing behaviour that could not have been acceptable when it occurred, much less acceptable now. Today,  the conduct of politicians is virtually held to ransom by committee, the media and other structural entities which have existed since the Watergate debacle that saw the political system of the United States crash to its lowest point in 1972-74, and that subject is in itself ripe for a separate post, but not right now.

Children play along a section of the wall.

I'm far too young to remember John F Kennedy, and I went on to study history at university having a neutral stance about his legacy out of sheer ignorance, and I admit this. I wrote an essay on the Cuban Missile Crisis and came away with the belief that with a mixture of luck and perceptive decision-making on the part of the Americans, a nuclear war with Cuba and the Soviet Union was probably avoided. I gained a respect for the President from researching this subject, and also came away with a better understanding of why he was so loved and revered as a great leader. When you study history its very easy to do one of two things. Either you can look back and say 'I told you so', or you can conversely, (or should I say contrarily), embellish on something you find embarrassing and try to hide it or twist it around into something that simply is not true. Not having any kind of stake in the Kennedy 'myth' one way or another, I do think that after re-reading Reeves book, there were many areas in Kennedy's personal life in which he behaved irresponsibly and with conduct unbecoming a head of state. That the person concerned indulged in bad behaviour in his personal life does not however, limit his decision-making abilities, or his right of mandate over the people who elected him.


 It's a shame that we don't have  leaders of Kennedy's calibre today, as the world unfortunately, is as unsafe and insecure now, as it was then. We should let our leaders do the leading. We should elect them in good faith and let them do their job. We should not pat nut-jobs on the back for assassinating them, (or even attempting to) but instead elect them out of office if we decide we don't like them anymore or are dissatisfied with their performance. There are many things that change, but also a lot of things that stay the same. Things have in the past been bad. Do we really want to go back to the way they were? Let's hope not.

The On-Going Republican and Democratic Meat Parade

And so it goes on.

Is Thomas Jefferson turning in his grave?

2012 will be upon us sooner or later. Whether you're an American citizen or not, the twelve months of boredom known as the election year will again be lumbered out into the unforgiving gaze of the public arena. Presumably to comfort the locals  in their delusion that they still are living in the greatest democracy the world has ever seen. Or is likely to see.


For outsiders like me, the entire process is of dubious value, save only for the politicians who seem to enjoy  making as much publicity and mileage for themselves out of the event as they possibly can. Recent developments, such as the sudden emergence of the Occupy movement serves to highlight the paucity of policy on both sides of the House, and how bereft America has become when, at a time of economic crisis, the same tired, old wise saws are trotted out as gospel: the country is still a great power; we can fight back our enemies; don't let the terrorists win; -- and so it goes on, ad nauseum.


As the supposed opposition to this kind of nonsense that is apparently trotted out because it's the only way  the Republicans can get re- elected, the Democrats fashion themselves as the spokespeople for the underdogs: the unemployed, working people, African Americans, minorities, trade unions, that is anyone who isn't a millionaire and cannot hope to profit from the brutal austerity measures and giant corporate funding policies of the Republican party. The Democrats remind me of a peashooter thinking he can down the elephant, and upon discovering that he can't, proceeds to join the elephant.


The Democrats are ideologically off-balance. Loathe to be murdered by the Republicans by acknowledging that American society is as riddled with class bias and inequality as any other country in the world, the Hill has the unhappy knack of stabbing its mainstream supporters in the back whenever it suits them, with the threat that if Republicans win back office, things for them will be  far worse than they are now.


We had the unedifying spectacle of that bastion of fearless journalism 'Mother Jones' not only attempting to smear Julian Assange as he was emerging as a hero for his exposure of state secrets through the Wikileaks website. Recently, (and surprisingly ) they were one of the first to put the boot into the Occupy movement in an article which was not only negative but downright hostile, from a magazine that supposedly encourages dissent and is some kind of 21st century version of the counter-culture movement magazines like 'Ramparts' and 'Rolling Stone' which genuinely encouraged free expression and political involvement of groups and individuals in such issues as Vietnam and the Watergate scandal.


To put it bluntly, 'Mother Jones' is no 'Ramparts', and is doing its readers a disservice if it thinks that it is.  Attacking movements and individuals who have a sincere agenda for change, rather than attempting to correct their own ideological pratfalls, will not win 'Mother Jones' a wider readership. If they would only stop hitting their supporters over the head with a lot of meaningless noise about how profoundly wonderful Barack Obama is, and  concentrate on  the issues without giving the opposition all  the free publicity, they would get a fairer hearing from those of us who believe in honest journalism, even if it has to come from the mainstream-liberal-establishment media.  


I guess that after all is said and done, it's going to be the public who loses out. The media of the left as well as the right, only think of the 'public' in the crudest of all possible terms, that is, how much money is to be made out of us, and how stupid they seem to think we are. In that respect, I cannot imagine the 2012 Presidential race as anything more than a protracted and corrupt piece of political theatre, merely designed for the lowest common denominator and utilised for the business of keeping the public in the dark, and severely ill-informed of any concrete or meaningful political agenda.

edison lighthouse - Love grows where my rosemary goes

TrendsMap Proves Scary Twitter Censorship Of #OccupyWallStreet From Trending Topics

TrendsMap Proves Scary Twitter Censorship Of #OccupyWallStreet From Trending Topics