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December 31, 2007
Top Ten Movies of 2007
This is the time of year when people roll out their Ten Best Movie Lists. I have to tell you, the best movies I saw in 2007 were made in the 1930's. But just for the record, my very favorite movie of 2007 was 3:10 to Yuma. It's a classic western, beautifully constructed with three acts, there's great drama, non-stop action, and wonderful performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. For me, this was easily the best film of '07. No other film even comes close.
Now, for the movies you probably never saw, never even heard of, but should definitely screen—and thank G-d for Turner Classic Movies.
10. Purchase Price, 1932, Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Directed by William Wellman. Wonderful tale of a, er, showgirl who pretends to be a rural mail-order bride in order to escape a nasty gangster boyfriend. Stanwyck is amazing. And you can see that she actually does her own fire stunts in the very last shots of the film. No wonder directors just adored this actress.
9. Virtue 1931, with Carole Lombard and George Brent, great script by Robert Riskin. Pre-code film about a prostitute with a heart of gold and her relationship with a cynical New York cabbie. Lombard is just luminous. This film is gonna make many of you cry. Not that I cried. Oh, no, not moi.
8. Frisco Jenny, 1933, Ruth Chatterton as, what else, a fallen woman who ends up being prosecuted by her long lost son for murder. Directed by William Wellman. Chatterton is amazing. And the ending, well, let's just say it's somewhat unexpected.
7. Man Wanted, 1932, Kay Francis stars with David Manners. Directed by William Dieterle. The script is a clever take on the ambitious career woman and her male secretary. This film is really charming. Kay Francis was a huge star for a fleeting moment. This is one of her best roles. She had a slight speech impediment so her r's came out as w's. So adorable. And what a great clothes horse. You should definitely catch Francis in the Marx Bros. film The Cocoanuts, and her very best film and finest performance is in the Ernst Lubitch classic with script by the great Samson Raphaelson Trouble in Paradise.
6. Lilly Turner, 1933, starring Ruth Chatterton, and George Brent, directed by William Wellman. Another amazing pre-code film about, you guessed it, a noble but fallen woman. Chatterton had great technique and lovely upper-class tones. Here she plays a lowly side show carnival worker. It's a stretch, but hey, that's Hollywood.
5. Ladies They Talk About, 1933, Barbara Stanwyck, and Preston Foster. Babes in prison. Stanwyck has such acting chops. Lillian Roth is in this film and she even gets to sing. The prison cells are decorated just beautifully. The glamorous femme prisoners are always fixing their makeup, rolling up silk stockings, and gabbing away about the lousy men they love. Prison looks just swell. Why would any of them want to leave? Oh yeah, there's a neat plot that's just spinning away.
4. Prisoner of Shark Island, 1936, Directed by John Ford. Great script by Nunnally Johnson. Starring Warner Baxter, and Gloria Stuart, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, unjustly accused of conspiring to murder President Lincoln, suffers on an American Devi’s Island. Powerful film that nobody knows about. Gloria Stewart is radiant. Her most recent role is as the old Rose in Titanic.
3. Midnight Mary, 1933, starring the 20-year-old Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, and Franco Tone, from a story by Anita Loos, Script by Gene Markey, directed by William Wellman. An MGM pre-code film about an underworld girl on trial for murder. Great use of flashbacks. Brilliant structure. One great transition after another. Loretta Young is radiant.
2. Cimarron, 1931, Irene Dunne and Richard Dix. This is pretty remarkable film, the only western I’ve even seen that has an identifiably Jewish character in a strong supporting role. From the novel by Edna Ferber. The story of a gun-toting newspaper editor in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife as the westward expansion continues with one great final burst.
1. Pilgrimage, 1933, Henrietta Crosman, Heather Angel, directed by John Ford. A backwoods matriarch sends her son off to World War I rather than allow him to marry the woman he loves. This film is brilliant. It concerns one of the most difficult characters I have ever encountered in a feature film. A woman who is proud, selfish, obstinate, and vain. But wait, the film kicks into moral gear in the second act and just when you think that all is lost, redemption shines through. Henrietta Crosman was a well known stage actress already in her 70's when she starred in this film. She's all but forgotten now, but her performance in this film is fearless and one of the best I have ever seen. I love this film. It's about family war, love, memory and reconciliation. It's a masterpiece.
My choices for the Best Film Books of 2007 are Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture by Peter Kobel and Kevin Brownlow, Preface by Martin Scorsese.
From Publishers Weekly:
For decades, silent films have been disintegrating in warehouses or lost to indifference. Director Martin Scorsese, who wrote the foreword to this book, has spearheaded the preservation movement, warning with every foot of film that is lost, we lose a link to our culture. Kobel, longtime writer about movies, demonstrates the power of silent movies in this spectacular compilation of stills, promo materials and breathtaking posters from the Library of Congress's memorabilia collection. The visual artistry is stunning. Kobel uses these evocative images as a foundation to examine the international film industry from 1893 to 1927. Instead of a chronological treatment, he examines genres such as horror, westerns and comedy, while paying homage to the superb work of art directors, cinematographers and directors. Understandably, a significant section is devoted to actors. As Norma Desmond neatly observes in Sunset Boulevard, We had faces then. Although early producers were loath to highlight specific actors, fearing their popularity would translate into higher salaries, fans were hungry for information about them. In this treasure trove for film buffs, Kobel details the press campaigns that created stars like Theda Bara and Rudolph Valentino, while fan magazines and newspapers deemed them American royalty.
And for a lucid and invaluable look at the Hollywood studio system The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger.
Amazon Book Description:
Jeanine Basinger gives us an immensely entertaining look into the “star machine,” examining how, at the height of the studio system, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the studios worked to manufacture star actors and actresses. With revelatory insights and delightful asides, she shows us how the machine worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn’t, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be. She gives us the “human factor,” case studies focusing on big stars groomed into the system: the “awesomely beautiful” (and disillusioned) Tyrone Power; the seductive, disobedient Lana Turner; and a dazzling cast of others—Loretta Young, Errol Flynn, Irene Dunne, Deanna Durbin. She anatomizes their careers, showing how their fame happened, and what happened to them as a result. (Both Lana Turner and Errol Flynn, for instance, were involved in notorious court cases.) In her trenchantly observed conclusion, she explains what has become of the star machine and why the studios’ practice of “making” stars is no longer relevant.
My buddy Dirty Harry lists the Ten Films He Hated in 2007 over at Libertas. I'm just amazed that Dirt Harry was able to get the list down to ten. That's discipline.
Enjoy and a Happy New Year to all our Seraphic Friends.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:18 PM | Comments (27)
Sugar From the EU
Proving once again that the so-called Palestinians are far more interested in killing Jews than in building a state, the IDF discovered 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate at one of those humiliating check-points, in sacks that were disguised as sugar. The sacks were labeled humanitarian aid from the EU.
Potassium nitrate is the chemical that was used in the first World Trade Center bombing and in the Oklahoma City bombing. It's the active ingredient in Kassam rockets.
It's worth noting that the IDF siezed the potassium nitrate at a check-point in Judea and Samaria, the area nominally under the control of the "moderate" Fatah. No doubt the moderate terrorists were shocked, just shocked to discover the chemicals right under their moderate noses.
Need we mention that the potassium nitrate was headed for the Judenrein state of Gaza?
Need we mention that is is illegal to bring potassium nitrate into Judea and Samaria and Gaza? Why? Because the chemical is used to murder Jews. We realize this is a hardship for the poor Arabs and no doubt, Peace Now, and B'tselem, finds this ban an outrageous human rights violation, but there you go, it just goes to show how fanatical some people feel about protecting Jewish lives.
And the EU. What do they say? Well, nothing. They're like totally: no comment. They can't be bothered even thinking about something so insignificant. But really, what can they say? They have been enabling Jew-killing for over 60 years. Yup, we're counting World War II.
Now, we understand that the Europeans feel guilty about their reprehensible behavior during World War II when they willingly participated in genocide, or just turned a blind eye to the slaughter of Jews. And so in order to erase that shameful, bloody stain Europeans self-righteously cast the Jewish state as modern day Nazis and the Arabs as the Jewish victims.
It's moral inversion of the worst sort.
But you know what, we don't buy it. No one does. No one who's sane and honest.
The Arab/Muslim world is awash in virulent Jew-hatred. Their plans for Israel and for world Jewry are frankly genocidal.
Europeans should admit the truth. They favor the Arabs because of oil. And because Europeans are still habitually anti-Semitic.
And European countries are drowning in scary, hostile Muslim immigrants. The demographic time bomb is ticking away; tragically, the appeasers and cowards have gained the political upper-hand.
So the EU have chosen sides. And once again, the Jews are expendable.
We're shocked.
So, EU, definitely keep sending tons and tons of, ahem, aid to your peace loving Arab buddies.
Keep trying to salve your bloody conscience, at the expense of the Jewish people.
Here's my guarantee:
Sooner or later the Arabs will send a nice big sack of sugar back to Europe—in deepest gratitude.
Oh yeah: How about turning off the power to Gaza? Really, Seraphic Secret has been suggesting this tactic for, oh gee, a long time. This shipment of potassium nitrate is practically a declaration of war from Gaza. It's really time to stop supplying the terrorist entity in Gaza with the power and fuel with which to make war on the Israel. It's time for the Israeli government to get serious about Gazastan.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:16 AM | Comments (6)
December 30, 2007
Baby Jake Arrives!
Mazal Tov to Seraphic Friends Jake and Adar Novak, proud parents to Yael Amira, which means to rise with strength. This beautiful name lovingly compliments her sister, Jordan Ahava, which means flowing with love. Baby Yael Amira weighs 7 lbs. and is 20 inches. Mother and child are doing just fine. Dad is floating in the stratosphere, no doubt working on Jake's Ten Top Reasons Why It's Better to Have Daughters.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:41 PM | Comments (9)
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #147
If you want to get a sense of what the Jewish blogosphere is thinking and feeling about Israel, politics, culture, history, Torah, anti-Semitism, Judaism, and some adorable personal shmoozings, well, this is the place to go.
Seraphic Secret has two posts this week: First, our appreciation for the great choreographer Michael Kidd, Baruch Dayan Emet. In this memorial we invoke a useful golden rule: Everyone in Hollywood is Jewish until proven otherwise.
Seraphic Secret's Pavlovian post: Karen's Free Lunch at Yeshiva of Flatbush has also been included in this week's round-up. Thanks so much, Soccer Dad.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:53 AM | Comments (6)
December 28, 2007
Hey Kids, Let's Put on a Jihad Show
We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -
but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.
We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -
but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.
Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.
Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.
We, who know no fear, are the lions of the jungle.
Look how beautiful our Gaza is. We crowned it with a laurel wreath.
We have proven that with our will, we can defeat the colonialist army.
Look how beautiful our Gaza is. We crowned it with a laurel wreath.
We have proven that with our will, we can defeat the colonialist army.
We have regained our freedom through bloodshed and the wrath of fire.
We came out on the day of liberations to celebrate our pride – hurrah!
We came out on the day of liberations to celebrate our pride – hurrah!
Gotta love Palestinian TV for children. Hey, we have Sesame Street and Sponge Bob and they have this, um, child abuse. But by all means, let's reward such worthy people with a state.
For the complete transcript of this charming children's song which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 20, 2007, please go to MEMRI.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:59 PM | Comments (2)
Terror at Telem Springs
The IDF have seriously compromised Islamic Jihad's terrorist structure. This is evident from the near perfect targeted killings the IAF have pulled off in coordination with Shin Bet, Israeli intelligence. We suspect a mole deep inside Islamic Jihad-Hamas has been feeding Israel intelligence for quite some time, which has allowed them to eliminate a super hit parade of terrorist leaders over the past month. Electronic surveillance alone cannot yield such high quality intelligence.
Islamic Jihad are, no doubt, in disarray. This is why they have been begging Israel for a cease-fire. Here's a rule of Middle Eastern warfare. When Arabs propose a ceasefire, that means they are hurting. Badly. That's the time to ruthlessly press forward the offensive, kill the terrorists while they are on their knees.
Islamic Jihad are on the run, never knowing when an Israeli laser guided missile will send them to Allah. At the same time they must try and figure out who among them is the traitor. There are so many possibilities, so many surly cousins who bear grudges, so many sisters forced to marry idiots, so many young men who feel they do not get the respect they deserve, so many loser uncles badly in debt who might be tempted by Shin Bet payoffs.
In this poisonous atmosphere it's impossible to trust anyone, impossible to mount decent operations that have any tactical value, impossible to get a good night's sleep.
Hence, we should not be surprised that the terrorists have resorted to this low-level gangland style attack at Telem Springs. It has no tactical significance, it's just another horrible and bloody reminder that the so-called Pali Arabs are thugs with no honor, and no ability to fight like real men. As one intelligence analyst privately confided to me, “The Palestinians are like the Sopranos, except the Sopranos weren't living off welfare checks; at least they supported their own families. The Palestinians can't even do that. And they've received more foreign aide than any other country on planet earth. They're just corrupt welfare trash with AK-47's.”
And so: the Olmert government should reinstate the roadblocks they lifted. No terror, no roadblocks. It's not a complex equation.
The Olmert government is also considering swapping 200 terrorists for Gilad Shalit. This would be a terrible mistake for it would mark every single Israeli soldier as a target for kidnap and ransom, and by extension, every Jew on the face of the earth.
The Israeli response to this terrorist attack should be swift and overwhelming. More targeted killings.
Let me repeat: turn off the power in Gaza, turn off the power in that Jew-hating entity. Deny fuel and power to Hamas who have vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. It is in their official charter. The people of Gaza voted overwhelmingly for Hamas, thus they are complicit in the crimes of that odious regime.
And Israel should never release a single terrorist from jail as a confidence building gesture, or as a prisoner exchange.
In fact, the only person who should be swapped for our soldiers is Ehud Olmert.
Two Jewish hikers in their 20's were murdered in a terror attack at Telem Spring, near Adora, south of Jerusalem.
Two Jewish boys and a girl departed on a hike from Kiryat Arba to the spring, a secluded nature spot.
An all-terrain vehicle drove up next to them, and two terrorists inside opened fire. The two youths were armed and returned fire killing one terrorist and wounding the second. The youth died from their wounds.
The girl managed to hide and phone Kiryat Arba's Magen David Adom emergency services at about 12:00 noon Friday. Despite her traumatized state, she guided the emergency crews and IDF forces to the location of the attack. Since she was unable to give the precise location on the trail, it took the forces a long while to locate her.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.
Links:
Arafat behind Munich Massacre & Other Terrorist Acts Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend Dr. Carol.
Shocking, just shocking! Remember when we Conservatives insisted that Arafat was not a moderate, that he was just another terrorist? No, insisted the liberals and the left, Arafat is a moderate. And then the dolts in Sweden gave him the Nobel Peace Prize. Which goes to show what that's worth. Well, of course we have the exact same situation with Mahmoud Abbas. Once again we're being told that he's a moderate, a man of peace. This is more fantastic nonsense. He's a former financier for Arafat's terrorist activities; he was the bagman for the Munich massacre. He's a terrorist—in bespoke suits.
Hamas Suspects Collaborators No kidding. Let the fratricide begin.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2007
World War IV
Victor Davis Hanson reviews World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism by Norman Podhoretz (Doubleday 2007, 240 pp.)
World War IV is an indispensable book for these times. The war in Iraq has occasioned some of the most shameful partisan behavior since Vietnam, as well as generating in the mainstream media a narrative filled with what Podhoretz accurately calls “misconceptions, distortions, and outright falsifications.” To correct this partisan spin, Podhoretz economically and clearly surveys both the facts and the distortions, providing readers with all the ammunition they need to counter the “Bush lied” and “illegal war” master narrative relentlessly peddled by the Democrats and their shills in the media. Even more important, World War IV sets out the case for sticking with the Bush Doctrine, whatever its drawbacks, as the best policy for countering the threat of Islamic jihad. All serious voters this coming year should not pull the lever until they have read this book and understood what is at stake for America’s security in the coming decades.
To read Victor Davis Hanson's complete article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, A. Mark David, Q.C
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:06 PM | Comments (4)
Silent Nightmare of Iranian Jews
Another patch of Muslim soil has become uninhabitable for Jews.
In Iran, Jews are tolerated as dhimmis, but conditions are deteriorating at a pretty steady rate. State sanctioned anti-Jewish policies make an authentic Torah life almost impossible. A trickle of Persian Jews are making their way to Israel. It's vital that we get every Jew out of Iran as quickly as possible, before disaster strikes.
Why Iranian Jews, and why now?
“Because their lives are at stake,” answered Jankelovitz simply. “They are in a unique situation because of the regime. There are increased cases of discrimination. Learning the Hebrew language has been banned. Jewish day schools have been closed down—all of them. There are no more Jewish day schools in Iran,” he said.
Jewish children have to go to school on Shabbat, and on all Jewish holidays including Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
“They come with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a small suitcase with almost no money at all,” said Jankelovitch. “Their money is worthless because of the exchange rate. People live in a beautiful house which they sell and it is not even worth $10,000.”
To read the complete article, please click here.
Let me also add a personal note. I live in Los Angeles. There is a large emigre Persian Jewish community here. Many are my friends and they tell me that they are in contact with relatives who remain in Persia where conditions are gradually becoming worse for the Jewish community.
The Persian Jews are caught between a rock and a hard place. They are forced to take part in government demonstrations where they must chant "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." If they refuse they will be arrested as Zionist spies. They must also tell journalists that life under Islamic rule is just wonderful. In short, they must lie or be arrested as, you guessed it, Zionist spies.
If the Persian Jews make applications to emigrate from Iran their wealth and property are stripped by the Islamic Republic. The Mullahs divide the spoils among their relatives and henchmen.
The 25,000 Jews of Iran are the last Jews of any sizable number still living under Muslim rule.
All other Muslim states are Judenrein.
In about 5 years, the Shia state of Iran will also be Judenrein and for the first time since the 7th century Islam will have succeeded in making life so intolerable for their Jewish citizens that all 23 Muslim states on planet earth—I'm including Gaza as the Pali state—will be rendered Judenrein.
Oh, the Christians in Gaza are not doing very well, their days are quite clearly numbered.
Okay, there are about 2,000 Jews hanging on by a thread in Morocco. They will be gone in one generation. Who knows what the next king's policies will usher in. There have already been terrorist attacks against the Moroccan Jewish community. The writing is on the wall.
No Jews in Jordan. No Jews in Algeria. No Jews in Tunisia. Saudi Arabia officially bars Jews from setting foot on Saudi soil. Charming local custom. Yemen, maybe 100 old and dying Jews. Syria, the same. Egypt, the same. Libya, none. Iraq, done. Afghanistan, one crazy old Jew who lives in the Kabul synagogue all by himself. Pakistan? You've got to be kidding. No Jews in the UAE.
That's quite a track record for the religion of peace.
Is it any wonder the Muslim world is a swamp of ignorance, disease, and an economic basket case. In fact, the only growth industry in the Muslim world is transnational terrorism.
Today's Links:
Soccer Dad also posts about the Persian Jews.
From Counterterrorism Blog: Analysis of the Bhutto Assassination.
Mark Steyn reflects on the terrible inevitability of Benazir Bhutto's fate.
Beyond the Veil: Israel-Pakistan Relations As Seraphic Friend Jake Novak notes: “Good overview of Bhutto's history vis a vis Israel. Her father was putrid, she had her moments.”
From Augean Stables: Editor of Haaretz, a Leftist naturally, asks Condi to “Rape” Israel. Nothing that the Israeli left says or does surprises me any longer. Peace Now has been exposed as a tool of hostile foreign governments. Some have said that Haaretz is Israel's version of The New York Times. This is not true. Haaretz and her writers are far too crude. Haaretz is Israel's Al Jazeera.
IAF Kills Another Islamic Jihad Terrorist Leader . It appears that Shin Bet has compromised the inner circle of Islamic Jihad. The Israeli security services have knocked off close to a dozen high value targets in an incredibly short time, with negligible collateral damage. This indicates that Israel has eyes and ears close to the inner circle of the upper ranks in the terrorist networks. It could be a surly cousin. Or a sister who was denied a marriage she desperately wanted. In the shame/honor Muslim society there is no shortage of blood enemies in your very own family. No doubt, trust is in very short supply in Gaza these days. Look for the terrorists to start bumping each other off at the slightest provocation.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:31 AM | Comments (12)
December 26, 2007
Girls' Night out
Here's a business model I did not see coming.
Listen, the motion picture business is in such turmoil, this revolutionary idea might actually work. I hope it does.
Imagine a Hollywood premiere with all the glitz: red carpet, beautiful cast, photographers’ flashing lights, exhilarating buzz. Now, picture that same event with just one difference — only women may attend.
To read the complete story, please click here—even if you are, um, male.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friends: Kishke, Toronto Pearl
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:00 PM | Comments (17)
December 25, 2007
Michael Kidd: Baruch Dayan Ha-Emet
Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd, 92, one of Hollywood's great choreographers died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.
Kidd was born, naturally, in Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrant parents.
Rule of thumb: everybody in Hollywood is Jewish until proven otherwise.
Kidd's father, Abraham Greenwald, was a barber, and his wife Lillian a wife and a mother. Michael attended New Utrecht High School, where he became hooked on dance.
Michael received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. Later, touring as a member of the Lincoln Kirstein Ballet Caravan, young Michael Greenwald danced in Billy the Kid.
Hence, Michael Kidd.
Michael Kidd's contributions to the Hollywood musical are long and distinguished, included among his numerous credits are: Guys and Dolls, The Band Wagon, and Finian's Rainbow. Choosing a favorite among so much fine work is difficult, but my favorite film would have to be Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, (1954).
Kidd took a huge chance casting and then pairing several ballet-trained dancers alongside traditional Broadway hoofers. The unusual combination works and Kidd's brew makes for a wonderful and surprising synthesis for this delightful musical Western based on The Rape of the Sabine Women.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Barn Dance
The barn dance sequence Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is riveting, a musical masterpiece as good as anything Ginger and Fred ever kicked up. It starts out as a barn raising, a community endeavor.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Barn Raising
Soon we realize it's really about courtship, male-female rituals, the eternal mating dance. Tension is in the air. The whiff of violence is a distinct possibility. But the charming if not quite house-broken brothers have vowed to behave themselves. Naturally, things heat up as provocations by their rivals are heaped one upon the next. The choreography becomes frenzied, a tit for tat affair, a dance of desire, the swooping, diving expressions of bottomless love.
If you pay close attention to the barn dance you'll notice that in the first few formal steps Kidd is slyly referencing numerous John Ford square dance sequences where adorably self conscious couples pair off opposite one another in rigid lines. Whereas Ford's characters adhered to a civilized, geometric choreography, Kidd's dancers explode and implode from the austere boundaries of frontier dance into a series of wonderfully gymnastic and ballet like set-pieces that push the conventions of their community, and at the same time cleverly but most gently extend the established rules of the Hollywood musical.
Kidd was, ahem, kidding us with a nudge and a wink.
It's exuberant choreography; sublime, wonderfully reckless and perfectly harmonizes Kidd's signature mix of hard-boiled movement and heart breaking lyricism. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of the great Hollywood musicals whose time has sadly passed.
If you've never seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, well, what are you waiting for? If you have already seen it, don't you think it's time to screen it again?
Years ago, with Offsprings #2, & #3 we used to laze around on Sunday afternoons and watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Sometimes we'd just fast forward right to the barn dance sequence. My girlses were just hypnotized by the swirling gingham, the layers of lace petticoats, the cinching of corsets, the blushing, girlish images would elicit grins—for hours afterwards.
Digression: Three Musicals
There were three other musicals that my girlses delighted in watching over and over again: West Side Story, You Tube: I Feel Pretty, Singin' in the Rain, You Tube: Gene Kelly Singin' in the Rain, and Ingmar Bergman's The Magic Flute—not quite a Hollywood musical, but oh what fun is Mozart, especially the Queen of the Night's solo. Random You Tube: Queen of the Night Aria.
End Digression
Michael Kidd in Smile, 1975
An obscure, but wonderful little film where Kidd has a featured role is Smile (1975) with a glowing teen age Melanie Griffith in a supporting lead. Kidd plays a faded choreographer trying to rescue a second rate beauty pageant. Jerry Belson wrote the gentle and perceptive script and Michael Ritchie directed with a firm but light hand. This film is a gem. Kidd's performance is pitch perfect and unforgettable. Kidds' best line: No, dear, if you kick and bend at the same time, you're going to knock yourself out. Rent it first chance you get.
Hollywood has lost a giant talent.
Baruch Dayan Ha-Emet
G-d is the Righteous Judge
New York Times Obituary
IMDB for Michael Kidd
You Tube: Seven Brides Barn Dance
You Tube: Lonesome Polecat. An axe, a saw, and a lovely song that's all Kidd needed to create a classic movie moment.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:27 PM | Comments (18)
Merry Christmas, 2007
Karen and I wish all our Christian friends a very Merry Christmas. We thank you for your friendship and for your support.
And here's a wonderful blog post about why Jews should all be saying Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays.
I have come to see quite clearly that even if there are politically correct, multi-cultural, morally relativistic, post modern progressive busybodies who would like us to believe that our Christian friends’ and Neighbors’ spontaneous Christmas wishes are somehow injurious to us and our culture, they are nothing of the kind. A sincere “Merry Christmas is better for you than the blandest, most guarded “Happy Holidays”
To read the complete post, go to Breath of the Beast
Today's Links:
Soccer Dad tells us about the incredible shrinking Christian population under Muslim rule. Religious intolerance is state policy in Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, Tunisia, and Algeria there are virtually no indigenous Christian communities left. The Christian presence in the Palestinian territories may hold out for no more than 15 years due to Muslim persecution in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Bethlehem is now less than 20 percent Christian, after centuries in which Christians were the majority. The exodus of Christians from Bethlehem started a decade ago, after the Oslo accords, when Bethlehem fell under the control of the PA. In Gaza, 3,000 Greek Orthodox Christians have been under siege by the hostile and aggressive Muslims who refer to the Christians as "Crusaders."
IDF Dogs Hunting Terrorist Dogs Hat Tip: Seraphic Bensonhurst Friend, Ari Kinsberg
Want to know why Israeli soldiers don't rape Arab women. Do you think it might have something to do with being a Jewish army, with Torah, ethics, with the doctrine of the purity of arms? Well, think again. According to a, sigh, Israeli academic, the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences—just as organized military rape would have done. Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Shayne Zucker.
So: if IDF soldiers should, G-d, forbid rape, they dehumanize the women. When they do not rape they also dehumanize the women.
Got it.
We have a question. If you punish a rapist for the crime of rape, do you now punish a non-rapist for the non-crime of non-rape?
Another question: Does this bizarre logic only apply to Israeli Jews? What about, say, Chinese? What happens if you discover that they do not rape Tibetan women?
It seems to us this paper has all the earmarks of modern day Nuremberg logic. Mazal Tov to Hebrew University for supporting such morally corrupt nonsense.
Finally: Al Jazeera would run this as a useful sound byte save for one problem: The Arab media is saturated with false stories of IDF soldiers raping Arab woman.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:23 AM | Comments (15)
December 24, 2007
Louis B. Mayer Goes to Shul & Haveil Havalim #146
There was no one like him.
And in Hollywood, there will never, ever be any one man who consolidated so much power in such a short amount of time, and changed the face of a single industry—and thus the world.
For sheer ambition coupled with incredible foresight, Louis B. Mayer was the most powerful movie mogul this town has ever seen.
Mogul is not the right word.
Visionary.
That feels better.
But he was also a petty tyrant.
In the early days at his Hollywood studio, when bills were overdue, L.B. used to fake heart attacks when his creditors showed up in his office to collect. Yes, L.B. was quite an actor.
When scandal threatened one of MGM's most valuable leading men, a homosexual, Mayer quietly, but forcefully arranged for Eve Lynn Abbott, Mrs. Keenan Wynn to divorce her husband and marry Van Johnson. Mayer reasoned that all Van Johnson needed to straighten himself out sexually was the love of a good woman.
It didn't quite work out.
L.B. Mayer was a complicated man.
An impoverished Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia, Mayer first made a living in the junk business in Canada, but was drawn to the newly born film business as an exhibitor. He soon realized that the power was in production in Hollywood.
In An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood Neal Gabler explains the appeal of the motion picture business to the poor, immigrant Jews:
“There were no social barriers in a business as new and faintly disreputable as the movies were in the early years of the century… Having come primarily from fashion and retail, they understood public tastes and were masters at gauging market swings, at merchandising, at pirating away customers and beating the competition. As immigrants themselves, they had a peculiar sensitivity to the dreams and aspirations of other immigrants and working-class families that made up a significant portion of the early moviegoing audience.”
Mayer transformed his struggling motion picture studio into MGM, the most powerful and profitable studio in Hollywood, where he discovered and made great stars: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Greer Garson and dozens of others.
Mayer loved America and purveyed family values in MGM films. Lacking a formal education, Mayer instinctively distrusted intellectuals and movies "with a message." He wanted good, clean entertainment. He knew that Americans went to the movies to escape their ordinary lives. Hence, he built his dream factory around stars. He disliked most writers and directors, thought them interchangeable and disposable.
Mayer worked hard to discover actors who had that certain star quality. And Mayer almost always found it in their eyes.
Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer with L.B. Mayer
Mayer put the actors under contract. He had their teeth fixed and capped, their noses made lovely. Studio dieticians pummeled the stunned thespians with grapefruit diets, bruising massages, and pitiless exercise routines. Actors were slabs of raw marble. Mayer and the MGM system he devised with Irving Thalberg were the sculptors who tirelessly molded and polished the final masterpiece. The moral clauses in an actor's standard contract would send ACLU types running to the Supreme Court. Exhaustive screen tests determined which lighting best flattered their faces. Mayer demanded the best and he often reshot entire movies when the original results were not up to his high standards.
Case in point: Greer Garson. Mayer discovered the lovely but struggling actress on a trip to England. He attended the St. James Theater expecting to see a musical. He was disappointed to discover that the play was a melodrama. But Mayer was knocked out by the luminous, patrician redhead actress. At intermission Mayer offered Garson $500.00 a week at MGM. Garson, divorced and supporting her mother, demanded $1,000. After storming away in fury, Mayer returned and relented. Greer Garson had that intangible something Mayer was seeking. It transcended beauty which tends to become tedious. No doubt Mayer glimpsed it in Greer Garson's extraordinary gaze.
MGM Star Greer Garson
In America, Garson's screen tests revealed that her face was difficult to photograph, her particular radiance elusive to the camera. Mayer was persistent. He assigned top notch director Sidney Franklin to shoot elaborate screen tests. Franklin shot several reels and finally discovered how best to light, and which lenses and diffusion to use on the new actress. Mayer put her on a strict diet—she lost over 15 lbs.—and a series of make-up tests finally perfected her cinematic image. Greer Garson's first film for MGM was the classic Goodbye Mr. Chips. Garson was nominated for an Academy Award but lost out to Vivien Leigh for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. For ten years Greer Garson was MGM's leading female star.
The MGM studio taught the up and coming stars how to dress, walk, talk, dance, sing, MGM even had a fencing teacher on staff. Actors were never interviewed on their own by newspapers or magazines. The studio PR people did all the talking. Mayer constructed their careers as carefully as an architect built a skyscraper—understanding the entire time that, ultimately, it was the public who would have the final say on who was and was not, a movie star.
Mayer's father was a Hebrew teacher; Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking, he was quite distant and rigid. Their relationship was strained. But Mayer always honored his father, and never quarreled with him in public. Mayer brought him out to Los Angeles, built him a house and took care of him all the days of his life.
When he was head of MGM, Mayer demanded that his wife Margaret get rid of their second set of dishes, so that “they could be as American as possible.”
And yet, Mayer, in some ways, was still a shivering, shtetl Jew.
Once, Mayer's daughters Irene and Edie were sitting on the porch of their Santa Monica home and MGM actress Joan Crawford came jogging past in shorts and a blouse with no bra. The girls, teenagers, waved and invited Crawford to stop by for lunch. L.B. came home, heard the story and exploded: “How dare you socialize with an actress?”
Mayer would not allow Edith and Irene to go to college. He was afraid they would be negatively influenced. He married them off as soon as he could. Irene married producer David O. Selznick, and Edith married producer William Goetz.
For the most part, Mayer left his ritual Judaism behind. But on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur he always went to shul. But unlike all his Hollywood friends, he declined to attend the elegant Reform synagogue that he helped build on Wilshire Boulevard. No, Mayer would daven downtown at a small Orthodox shul where his father felt comfortable. Even after his father passed away, Mayer—the immigrant who was desperate to be authentically American—continued to avoid the Reform synagogue on the Days of Awe and davened at the cramped but traditional Orthodox shul.
Mayer said: “There I put on a tallis, I stand with other Jews as my people have done for thousands of years—and I feel closer to G-d.”
To read about Mayer, I suggest Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman. To my mind, the best volume about a fascinating and complex man. I relied on material from Eyman's book for this essay.
Haveil Havalim #146 is finally here.
A day late, but Soccer Dad was probably huddling with David Beckham, giving the sports icon some soccer advice.
Meanwhile, we'd like to offer some advice—to Mrs. Beckham AKA Posh Spice: Lady, why don't you try and smile every once in a while? Really, when on the red carpet, Mrs. B. invariably plasters a fierce expression on her face that announces: Hey, I'm pretty and I'm bi-polar and I'm Lizzie Borden's long lost sister.
We also strongly suggest that Victoria Beckham get some calories in her body—fast. Really, somebody feed that lady before she disappears.
Anywhoo.
We'd like to thank Soccer Dad for including Seraphic Secret's Ninotchka and I in this fine overview of the best of the Jewish blogosphere.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:20 AM | Comments (25)
December 21, 2007
Karen's Free Lunch at Yeshiva of Flatbush
“I dunno, even when I was younger, in college, and I'd go out with my friends to regular restaurants, I had no interest, no desire to taste non-kosher food.”
Karen says: “What about pizza? Pizza never tempted you?”
“Pizza, lemme tell you about pizza. You know what pizza tempted me, you know what pizza absolutely killed me, the one pizza that I was not allowed to eat was actually kosher pizza. You know what pizza that was?”
Karen screams: “Yeshiva of Flatbush pizza. I know exactly what day they served it: Friday.”
I nod my head.
It's over forty years ago, but the memories of my, er, Yeshiva of Flatbush education are still fresh, in perfect focus. Karen and I attended grade school together, so we have a world of memories in common. It makes for a strong bond. It also helps that I've been in love with Karen since I first laid eyes on her in 4th grade.
Karen, my personal GPS, reminds me to stay in the right lane, I have to merge into another freeway soon.
“I'm telling you, I was so jealous of the rich kids in Yeshiva of Flatbush who ate the school cafeteria hot lunches. And we, the peasants, sat all segregated with our greasy brown bag home lunches. Do you remember how the fragrance of the pizza would start filling up the school by mid-morning?”
“We could smell it in the annex.”
“It was like a narcotic, opium or something. I would salivate like a dog.”
“My mother gave me gefilte fish sandwiches.”
“I got peanut butter and jelly. By the time I unwrapped it the bread was limp, soggy. I was like: hey, maybe starvation isn't so bad.”
Karen goes: “And to add insult to injury the rich mothers used to come to school and serve the pizza to the kids.”
“Right, right. With their hair all sprayed and done up.”
“And jewelry. The rich mothers were wearing fancy pearls in the middle of the day. Whoever heard of such a thing?”
“Right, I remember the sparkling jewelry as they served the pizza. I remember thinking: what universe is this?”
“Here's the merge to the freeway.”
“Okey-doke.” I ease into the right lane.
Black clouds are gathering overhead. It's like a Hollywood shot. There will be rain as Karen and I attend the levaya, the funeral, for the father of one of our best friends.
I say: “I wanted a slice so badly. I'm telling you, I'd happily shell out a hundred dollars today for a slice of that pizza.”
Karen goes: “I ate the pizza.”
I almost lose control of the car.
“What?”
“Yup, I was appointed the lunch monitor and got to eat with the kids just for watching them.
I'm thinking: Traitor.
“Y'see, sometimes it pays to be a good girl,” Karen teases.
Mata Hari.
"Not to mention the best good looking girl in school, ” I add.
“Here's the exit. Watch out for the truck.”
“I cannot believe you got to eat the pizza.”
Karen chuckles, looks out the window, points to the cemetery entrance gates.
Karen says: “Hey, there is such a thing as a free lunch.”
“It was good, huh?”
“You cannot imagine. It tasted better than it smelled.”
Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.
Today's Links: From Dirty Harry at Libertas, Reagan Officials Angry at "Charlie Wilson's War" — on history and truth.
My good friend, Dirty Harry has his own site, where he discusses things other than Hollywood, check it out.
Finally, my buddy Treppenwitz on, sigh, Israel, The Jewish State. Honestly, I can't believe this even a topic up for debate. Listen, once you deny the character of Israel as a Jewish State, you have officially joined the ranks of Fatah, Hamas, and every Jew-hating transnational terrorist organization on planet earth.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:49 AM | Comments (53)
December 20, 2007
The Trojan Horse Called Hudna
Hamas is offering Israel a Hudna.
This is no surprise.
Their upper ranks have been decimated in the past few days through targeted killings. The terrorists are in disarray, on the run, mounting poorly coordinated operations and dying in great numbers.
A Hudna, let's be clear, is an opportunity for the terrorists to rebuild their networks, replenish their ranks, and prepare the next round of attacks. Hamas will find a pretext to break the hudna when it suits them. A hudna serves no one but the terrorists.
Under no circumstances should Israel accept this offer.
As we explained yesterday:
The IDF should continue with the targeted killings. In the past few days they have knocked off an impressive list of terrorists, eleven senior Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in Gaza, including Majd al Harazin, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing and Karim Dahlul, director of their Qassam missile production.
This indicates that human intelligence in Gaza has improved along with electronic surveillance via drones and other cool Hollywood SFX methods. The terrorists are thugs, clever thugs, but they are stuck a few generations behind the super smart Jews in the technology field and this puts them at a severe disadvantage. The IDF should keep offing the terrorist, and stay on the offensive. This keeps the terrorists awake at night, has them scrambling from safe house to safe house; their cell phones are useless—Israeli surveillance are listening. And best of all, the terrorists are wary of every loser cousin who might bear a mysterious grudge and flip for Shin Bet.
This constant pressure reduces the terrorist network to a profoundly constricted circle, unable to better their military resources, or mount effective terrorist attacks. Inevitably, the cells stagnate, members turn on one another due to personality conflicts, mutual suspicion and creeping paranoia. The terrorists become disoriented, hunted things, nice fat targets for Israeli smart bombs.
As I correctly analyzed, the terrorists are grievously wounded, and their networks, large and small, are so seriously degraded that they are now begging, through Israeli journalists, for a Hudna.
Now is the time for Israel to ratchet up the pressure to even higher levels. When you have the enemy on the run, it is your military obligation to pursue and destroy them. If not, they will return and sow terror on the civilian population of Israel.
Now is the time for another round of targeted killings.
Now is the time to unleash the dogs of war.
If the government of Israel accepts this Trojan horse called Hudna, they will have missed a golden opportunity to cripple Hamas to the point of impotence.
Links: Mere Rhetoric also comments on Hamas begging for a hudna.
Soccer Dad presents a fascinating report on how Israel should play the world-wide PR game. Hint: Pull out your map of the Mideast.
Very happy to bring you this story about our friend Lisa Ramaci.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:48 AM | Comments (8)
December 19, 2007
Israel's Intelligence Estimate, Seraphic's Estimate, Plus Fashion Advice for Tzipi Livni
By now we've all heard about the NIE, which has been wrongly misinterpreted to indicate that America should not be worried about the Persian Nuclear program, when in fact, the NIE states the exact opposite.
Now comes, the Israeli Intelligence Estimate.
It's good news slash bad news time.
Let me just state for the record that I lived in Israel before, during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hence, my faith in the soundness of intelligence reports is somewhat jaded. Even as the Egyptians and Syrians were massing on Israel's borders there were those in the intelligence community who insisted to PM Golda Meir that the Arabs were engaged in saber rattling or, y'know, war games.
Intelligence estimates are an art form, not a science. You do the best you can with the information you have; and good analysts should isolate politics from their memos like bad viruses.
This separation of politics from analysis is wholly absent from the most recent American NIE and it is a deeply regrettable. It does no credit to our national security, nor does it serve the good names of our sixteen security services.
Deep pessimism alongside cautious optimism—those are the two key principles that emerge from this year's Annual Israeli Intelligence Estimate. The report will be presented to the security cabinet in several days time by IDF Intelligence Chief Major-General Amos Yadlin, but the highlights are here for you now in a Ynet exclusive report.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Seraphic Secret would like to make its own recommendations to the Israeli Security establishment. We make no pretense of being politically impartial, we freely admit that we are on the right wing of the spectrum, but we believe that our ideas are common sense and backed up by historical precedent and sound military doctrine.
1. The Persian nuclear threat is not just an existential threat to Israel but a huge regional headache to the Sunni Arab states. Just as Israel eliminated the Syrian/North-Korean nuclear threat, Israel will have to take out the Persian facilities. The plan is in place. Training takes place round the clock. Everyone will heave a huge sigh of relief, especially the Saudis and the Jordanians.
2. Gaza. Do not invade. Quick, turn out the lights. I have to admit, I'm getting frustrated. I keep giving level-headed advice and yet Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni pay no attention.
Snarky Digression: Tzipi, hey, at least listen to me when it comes to fashion advice. I work in Hollywood. I know something about image making.
Ready?
For the love of G-d, lose the pant suits! Who do you think you are, Hillary? I'm sorry to break the news to you, but you do not look like the Foreign Minister of the Jewish State. Nope, you look like an ill-tempered drag queen from New Jersey whose hair has been glazed in Canola oil.
Are you allergic to shampoo and conditioner? How about a nice trumpet skirt that's absolutely flattering to your figure, and a rich silk blouse with a strand of simple pearls. No need to teeter on killer heels, three inch classic Chanels will do just fine. And top off the look with a buttery leather handbag, something deeply colored that will really pop. Come on, girl, you rep the Jewish people. Even Golda looked more lady-like and cute than poor dowdy you.
Anywhoo. Why, pray tell, does Israel supply Gaza with the fuel and power that enables Israel's sworn enemies to rain rockets and mortars on Israel every three minutes since Gaza became Judenrein in June 2006? H/T link to graph, Soccer Dad
People say: you can't punish the entire population for the crimes of a few terrorists. I go: the population of Gaza elected these genocidal terrorists. The Gazans are adults, they made a free electoral choice that was certified by none other than Jimmy Carter. They hide and even celebrate these terrorists. This makes Gaza a hostile entity.
You know how the allies won World War II? By punishing the German and Japanese citizens who supported their genocidal regimes. The Arabs deserve no less. In fact, they deserve quite a bit more.
3. The IDF should continue with the targeted killings. In the past few days they have knocked off an impressive list of terrorists, eleven senior Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in Gaza, including Majd al Harazin, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing and Karim Dahlul, director of their Qassam missile production.
This indicates that human intelligence in Gaza has improved along with electronic surveillance via drones and other cool Hollywood SFX methods. The terrorists are thugs, clever thugs, but they are stuck a few generations behind the super smart Jews in the technology field and this puts them at a severe disadvantage. The IDF should keep offing the terrorist, and stay on the offensive. This keeps the terrorists awake at night, has them scrambling from safe house to safe house; their cell phones are useless—Israeli surveillance are listening. And best of all, the terrorists are wary of every loser cousin who might bear a mysterious grudge and flip for Shin Bet.
This constant pressure reduces the terrorist network to a profoundly constricted circle, unable to better their military resources, or mount effective terrorist attacks. Inevitably, the cells stagnate, members turn on one another due to personality conflicts, mutual suspicion and creeping paranoia. The terrorists become disoriented, hunted things, nice fat targets for Israeli smart bombs.
4. For goodness sake, more roadblocks. As you can see, they work in thwarting horrendous terrorist plots.
5. Lebanon. Hellooo! Do not invade. Once Syria takes over, and that's pretty much inevitable the way things are playing out, and Hizbullah/Iran hollow out the country so that it's just a geographical entity for competing transnational terrorist gangs, there's going to be a lull. And then something bad will happen. Hizbullah will unleash from the Land Once Known as Lebanon against Israel—and what should Israel do?
Simple: The Israeli Air Force should fly to Syria and reduce Puppy Assad's palace to rubble. Destroy the electrical grid to Damascus and while the IAF is at it, remind the Syrian air force what a bunch of grapes they are.
Believe me, Lebanon will go very quiet, very quickly.
6. President Mahmoud Abbas. Let's be honest, this is the guy who has made a career of denial. He wrote his Ph.D at the, ahem, prestigious Moscow Friendship University on the charming topic of Holocaust denial. He financed the Munich massacre. Oh, come on, let's call him what he was, the bag-man. But he denied knowing what was going to happen. And now as President of the so-called PalAbs, whenever one of his terrorist "policemen" murders a Jew, he denies knowledge or responsibility. Yup, the perfect President for the so-called Palestinian National movement.
Ignore him. His own people do, why do we pay him any deference?
7. The government of Israel should announce that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel. There's nothing to talk about. The Temple Mount? Israel runs the show. Again, nothing to talk about.
8. Israel must never, ever retreat from one inch of land; this includes all of Judea and Samaria. It is intolerable that any territory be declared Judenrein. If Arabs whine that the presence of Jews is intolerable to their delicate sensibilities, well then, the world should recognize their sensibilities for what they are: warped Jew-hatred.
9. Oh man, I just ran out of gas. It's the Fast of the 10th of Teveth and my vision just went: wow, my office is spinning.
And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth (day) of the month, that Nebuchadnetzar, King of Babylon came, he and all his hosts, upon Yerushalayim, and he encamped upon it and built forts around it. And the city came under siege till the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu. On the ninth of the month famine was intense in the city, the people had no bread, and the city was breached.
—Kings II: 25, 1-4
10. Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a meaningful fast.
Links: Seraphic Friend Shrink Wrapped has two very fine post that touch on many of the same areas we discuss.
And from Ocean Guy, Simple graphics that prove the more financial aid to the so-called PaliArabs, the more murdered Jews. Okaaay, so 7.4 billion dollars should buy a lot of dead Jews.
Finally, on this holy day, are we surprised to discover that Arabs have desecrated the grave of biblical Joshua?
No, we are not.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:57 AM | Comments (16)
December 18, 2007
Utmost Savagery, But Who Cares, They Don't Kill Jews
Some sobering numbers:
Over a million starving refugees. Real refugees, not welfare witches.
Four million people dead from disease, starvation, and savage warfare since 1996.
U.N. Peacekeepers who cannot keep the peace.
This is the Congo, a mineral rich country which is once again devolving into primal savagery.
But hey, let's keep talking about the Pali Arabs and while we're at it let's give them an additional 7.4 billion dollars to squander.
Why?
Because their enemies are Jews and the Europeans desperately need to wipe away the ghastly, self-incriminating memories of World War II from their blood-stained hands.
Regarding that 7.4 billion in aid, let us be clear: none of the monies will be spent on infrastructure to improve the lives of the ordinary Arab. Much will be swallowed in the black hole of Pali corruption. The balance will be used to purchase weaponry and pay the salaries of terrorists in order to wage war against Israel.
And as always, when that happens, Israel will be blamed for the genocidal violence directed at her because Israel does not cheerfully cooperate with her murderers by dismantling more road blocks, or making even more, er, "painful concessions." Like: national suicide.
P.S. Hey, where's Jimmy Carter? Not in the Congo. You know why? No Jews to blame.
Yet.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)
December 17, 2007
Ninotchka and I
“Can you tell me the origin of your name?”
I'm in a box and shipping store, sending a Chanukah gift to Offspring #2 and her husband, a large framed photo that needs to be carefully wrapped and boxed.
So: I've just filled out the paperwork and the lady behind me—Russian by her accent—has glanced at my name and posed the question.
Anya is a middle-aged lady with a pretty grim expression that seems permanently fixed to her face.
She fires questions at me, one after the other. Her hair is pulled back into a severe bun and there's not a trace of mascara, lipstick or blush on her face. Need I mention that she's wearing the most sensible shoes I have ever seen on a woman who does not live and work on a snow-bound farm in North Dakota.
“It's from the Torah: when Joseph is made a minister in Egypt he is carried through the streets and it says in Parsha Mekaytz: And they called before him: Avrech. The great medieval commentator, Rashi explains: a father in wisdom, but tender in years. ”
“Does that describe you?”
“Um...”
We continue to chat as the photo is cushioned in multiple layers of bubble wrap.
My inquisitive and quite humorless Russian friend has been in America since the late 70's.
“It was hard in the Soviet Union, huh?”
Notice my hard-hitting analysis of cold war politics. Anya looks at me the way Lenin looked at the Mensheviks. She waves her hand in the air as if brushing aside an annoying fly.
“First Hitler killed the Jews, then Stalin. If it was not one, it was the other. But you want to know when it was the best for us?”
“Tell me.”
“After the Six Day War.”
“Really, I thought things were really hard for Jews in the Soviet Union at that time.”
“Do not believe it. After Israel won the war the Russians, our enemies, looked at us with new-found respect. Goyim would come up to Jews in the streets of Moscow and congratulate us on our great victory. Let me tell you, we want the world to fear and respect the Jews, not to love us.”
“You should have a talk with Prime Minister Olmert.”
Anya growls: “Fool.”
I go: “You sound just like Greta Garbo.”
Anya tells me that she's never seen any Greta Garbo's movies. Anya tells me that she reads books. Movies are, in her opinion, a waste of time. I tell her she has to see Ninotchka and I give her a brief plot synopsis, then quote one of Garbo's great lines from the movie:
The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.
Anya stares at me for a long moment, then bursts into the most delightful laughter I have ever heard.
“That's what Garbo does in Ninotchka.”
“What?”
“Garbo laughs.”
“Maybe I make an exception and see this one movie.”
“Good move.”
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:57 AM | Comments (17)
December 16, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #145 Plus Linda Darnell
We'd like to thank Soccer Dad for including Seraphic Secret's The Murder of Lebanon in this week's fine roundup.
My Darling Clementine is one of John Ford's best Westerns. Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp is mythic. But Linda Darnell as the, ahem, dance hall girl, Chihuahua, is just fire, she spits and claws and howls; she's unforgettable. Bad girl Darnell just blows good girl Kathy Downs as Clementine off the screen.
Darnell was a beauty, but like so may Hollywood beauties she was so beautiful that her talent was often overlooked. She was stunning in Forever Amber, spectacular in the Preston Sturges comedy Unfaithfully Yours. In fact, she was a solid actress in drama and comedy. She was even expected to win an Oscar for her performance in A Letter to Three Wives, but when that didn't happen, her career stumbled.
Maybe she lost confidence. It's hard to tell exactly what happened. Propelled by a monstrous stage mother, Darnell's childhood was wretched. She had very little formal education. It was an unstable show-biz life from morning 'til night. There were marriages and divorces. Eventually, this all takes a tragic personal toll. Darnell was drinking, and she gained weight. Film work dried up. The shelf life for beautiful women in Hollywood is severely limited.
In 1965, Darnell was staying with friends in Chicago while preparing for a stage role. A fire broke out in the house. Darnell ran into the house trying to save her friend's child, not knowing that the child had already escaped. Darnell was burned over 80% of her body. She died the next day. Linda Darnell was 41 years old.
Linda Darnell: Glamor Girls of the Silver Screen
Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:59 PM | Comments (10)
December 14, 2007
Syriantoxication
Yesterday, we wrote about the assassination of Lebanese General Francois al-Hajj, which we dubbed, the Murder of Lebanon. Barry Rubin, an eminent analyst of the Syrian dictatorship, weighs in on the delusions of the west when it comes to diplomacy and the murderers in Damascus.
A strange malady has apparently descended on part of Israel's, much of America's, and most of Europe's elite. Let's call it Syriantoxication, the belief that there is a real chance to make peace with Syria and—in its extreme version—that Lebanon should be sacrificed for that goal.
To call this wishful thinking is understatement. Why is this happening?
To read Barry Rubin's complete article, please click here.
Meanwhile, Soccer Dad, has done a superb job of collecting and analyzing the best reporting on the assassination of General al-Hajj and the devolving political situation as Syria extends her bloody imperial reign—with Iran's aid—over Lebanon.
Seraphic Secret once again warns: the gravest short-term threat to Israel's security lies to the North. If Syria and Iran rein over Lebanon, Israel will be trapped in a Gaza-like terrorist vise. And once again, Israel will be faced with the option of invading Lebanon. But Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon, it will be an extremely dangerous Syrian/Iranian proxy with Hizbullah as a nominal figurehead.
This is what comes from years of incremental appeasement. You turn around one day and your genocidal enemies are in your backyard, smiling; for now they control entire countries, lands that have been hollowed out and been made into compliant shells for transnational terrorist gangs. This is Sudan. Huge swaths of Pakistan are no-go zones for the central government, and are controlled by terrorist warlords. It is Gaza after it was made Judenrein. And it is Syria's strategy for Lebanon.
Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
Rational National Suicide
As mortars and rockets rain down on southern Israel every day, two distinct world views have come into sharp focus. IDF Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazy states, that to put an end to this intolerable situation Israel must control the territory from where the terrorists operate. As an example, he points to the presence of the IDF in Judea and Samaria. No mortars or rockets are launched from those areas. Connect the dots, he challenges.
But the Israeli left, typified by Foreign Secretary Tzipi Livni, argues that the so-called peace process will be destroyed if the IDF invades Gaza. Plus the Americans and the invaluable Europeans will get, y'know, really angry. And they might actually segregate Jews at international peace conferences, force Israelis to use Jews-only service doorways. And, gasp, the Arabs might not shake our hands. Can't let that happen.
Thus explains Caroline Glick, we have rationalizers versus rationalists.
FBI agents undergo Islamic "sensitivity training" by people who are themselves the subjects of their counter-terror investigations. US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay are forced to wear gloves when they touch copies of the Koran belonging to their jihadist prisoners.
More disturbingly, in their rush to placate this irrelevant tiny minority of jihadists, Israeli, US and European officials willingly trounce their core values of the rule of law and freedom of expression. In Israel, Israeli Jews who build homes without permits are prosecuted to the full limit of the law and ejected from their homes. Israeli Arabs who have built entire towns illegally are ignored by authorities in the interest avoiding diplomatic consequences or stirring up passions.
In the US, one can stand outside the White House and burn the American flag without fear of criminal charge. But if a person draws a pig on a copy of the Koran in a public library, he is liable to find himself under arrest for committing a hate crime. And in Europe, you can participate in a demonstration invoking Islam as you call for the destruction of Britain or Holland or Demark without fear of legal action, but if you publish a caricature of Muhammad in your newspaper, you may find yourself the subject of a criminal probe and forced into hiding for promoting racism.
To read Caroline Glick's complete column, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Joel Weisz
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2007
The Murder of Lebanon
The December 12th assassination of Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj, 54, his bodyguard and five innocent bystanders, was a professional job. The blast was caused by a 77-pound bomb that was hidden beneath a car parked on the street. This has all the earmarks of a Syrian hit, most certainly in coordination with Hizbullah and the Ahmad Jibril Palestinian Group.
This murder has the same MO as the 2005 assassination of ex-Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, most certainly carried out by Syrian intelligence in association with Pasdaran.
This operation demanded the coordination of several lethal players and structures: safe-houses; financing—lots of cash was needed to make this operation function at all levels; a high degree of security had to be maintained; human intel was gathered and disseminated through various networks; there was betrayal—most certainly at high levels inside the Lebanese army; and expert bomb-makers were at work.
No rag-tag terrorist group could have pulled off this assassination so smoothly. This was a professional operation run by state-trained pros, men who have by now most certainly fled Lebanon for the safety of Gaza, Damascus and Tehran. Lower echelon operatives will melt into the Bekaa valley and the teeming northern Palestinian towns that are despised by the general Lebanese population.
No murder charges will ever be filed against anyone. And of course, in the Arab world, the Mossad will be blamed, which is insane for this was the last thing Israel needed. But insane and quite stupid conspiracy theories are the honey of the Arab world. The reality of their dysfunctional societies are simply too shameful to confront. It's far easier to blame the Jews, for, well, everything.
General Hajj was expected to succeed General Michel Suleiman, the army chief of staff, who was to become Lebanon's next President.
The murder serves two purposes:
1. Revenge: General al-Hajj was a Christian, born in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish. His village has a history of resistance against Muslim terrorists since the late 60's. Numerous young men from his town are officers in the Lebanese army and have, over the years, fought Syrian occupation and Hizbullah. Most recently General al-Hajj led the Lebanese army against the Fatah Islam Terror group in the Nahr al Bared Palestinian camp in norther Lebanon this past summer. General al-Hajj was hostile to Hizbullah, and had plans to chase them out of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.
2. Message: From Syria to the Lebanese Army. To avoid confronting terror groups, especially Hizbullah. Syria will not rest until Lebanon is once again under Syria's domination, through her proxy, Hizbullah. The Lebanese army, traditionally neutral in politics, has now been warned. If they seek confrontation another ruinous civil war will most certainly erupt.
What can we expect? Resolutions from the U.N. Syria and Iran look most favorably on these multi-paragraph resolutions; in their eyes, the more time the bureaucrats at the U.N spend pushing paper, the better. Time is always on the side of totalitarians. Democracies are notoriously impatient, a grievous weakness in geo-politics especially when confronting the threat of radical Islam, a patient and lethal beast.
The butchers in Damascus understand that even as they murder the opposition, western liberals invite them to peace conferences, and Israeli leftists yearn to hand back the Golan from which the Syrians would control the strategic high ground, an invaluable asset, not to mention the only bargaining chip the Israelis hold. For the Syrians it's a win-win-win situation. They kill, and kill and kill and they suffer not a single negative geo-political consequence.
INTERPOLATION:
In truth, the Syrians don't want the Golan back. They desperately need the status quo. It strengthens their shaky regime, props up their belligerent posture as the true confrontation state against the Zionist entity in the Arab world. A status they thoroughly enjoy and publicly celebrate.
END INTERPOLATION:
Israel is now being surrounded and strangled in a terrorist vice: Gaza, Lebanon; now the Israeli government talks of dividing Jerusalem and turning Judea and Samaria over to the Arabs, which means a deadly encirclement by short-range weapons—snipers and mortars.
This is a recipe for national suicide. Jerusalem and a host of other Israeli cities will turn into S'derots, under constant terror attack; and if Israel responds properly, she will be accused of a “disproportionate response”—which is the only sane response when civilian populations support and celebrate terrorist infrastructures.
Lebanon is falling under a Syrian/Hizbullah/Iran axis—merciless terrorist entities—and the world yawns.
Here at Seraphic Secret we like to report good news. In New York, a bunch of thugs attacked three Jews who dared say: “Happy Chanukah” on the subway. To their aid came a young Muslim student from Bangladesh. Hat Tip, Seraphic Friend, David Paulin
Update: Muslim Hero is Honored H/T Seraphic Chaver, Kishke
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2007
My Word
Okay, we haven't done this for a while. We've been sidetracked by world events: Annapolis, Gaza, Syrian Nukes, Iranian Nukes, the NIE Report. Gee-willikers, the sheer weight of world events is just exhausting. But you know what? We should never stray too far from our core passion: language and its awesome power.
That's why we never tire of this verse:
Death and life lie in the power of the tongue.
—Mishlei, Proverbs 18:21.
Anyhoo.
If you're new to our little contest, here's the drill: we've listed three really obscure English words. Your job—if you choose to risk the assignment—is to compose one single coherent and witty sentence using all three words.
Send the sentence to our comments section.
And the best Seraphic Sentence is the winner.
Good luck.
apodyopsis
n. the act of imagining a person naked
dyscallignia
n. the dislike of beautiful women
snoutband
n. one who constantly contradicts his companions
Hat Tip: Futility Closet. And to Soccer Dad for reminding me to put up this post.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:04 AM | Comments (14)
December 11, 2007
One Good Woman With a Gun
He is filled with rage. It is all-consuming, a burning core at his center. There are grievances. There are insults. There are letters filled with his hate-filled scrawl.
Now he loads his rifle.
He has no fear for he knows that his targets—they are not human, just things to be shot down—will be unarmed.
He says to himself: They will be defenseless. It will be easy. And I will be ultra-famous.
He fills his pockets with clips; over a thousand rounds of ammunition. It will be a lovely slaughter. Two pistols make up the rest of his arsenal.
I will be famous. Television, radio, internet and newspapers will say my name over and over again.
Just a few days ago, in Omaha, a spiritual brother in slaughter, stepped into a mall, a gun-free zone, and massacred nine innocents.
And he is famous. So famous. All you have to do is kill. And kill. And kill without mercy. Kill innocent people. That's the key. And the talking heads can't stop talking about you.
There was a man who knew what he was doing. Find a gun-free zone, in a state that allows concealed carry permits no less, and let loose with some serious rounds. Of course they never saw it coming. How could they? Good, law-abiding citizens don't carry weapons in gun-free zones.
But evil people pay no attention to such laws.
First Attack: Youth With a Mission training center in Arvada, just outside Denver. He pulls a handgun and kills Tiffany Johnson, 26, the Center's hospitality director, and Philip Crouse, 24 who was training to be a missionary. Two more people are wounded.
There is chaos. Madness. People are screaming. Running in all directions.
The killer is overwhelmed by all the confusion.
He withdraws.
He drives, rethinks his plan. And he remembers his long list of grievances. A new plan blossoms in his fevered imagination.
Another easy target floats in his mind's eye.
Second Attack: It is twelve hours later, he drives into the parking lot of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. These are the people who rejected him. People who humiliated him. They deserve to die. All of them. He pulls the pin, tosses the smoke grenade at the north entrance of the church, this will drive them in panic out of the opposite entrance where he will be waiting, an avenging angel.
In the east entrance parking lot, he raises the rifle, aims and fires, people fall like slaughtered lambs: sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16. Their father, David Works, 51, is seriously wounded. But his deepest wound is witnessing the murder of his beloved daughters.
Judy Purcell, 40, is shot in the right shoulder. Larry Bourbannais, 59 is shot in the forearm.
The killer is feeling it, the blood-lust rising. He moves to the east entrance of the church where his enemies are cowering. Easy targets.
Defenseless things.
There is chaos as he enters, firing. The gunshots are so loud in the corridors of the church.
Abruptly, a woman yells, identifies herself as an armed guard.
Wait, this isn't the way it's supposed to happen—
The woman is pointing a gun.
Wait, they were supposed to be defenseless—
The woman has steel in her eyes.
Wait, only I'm supposed to have a gun—
Her finger turns white on the trigger.
Wait, it's not fair—
Fire spits from the barrel of her pistol.
Wait—
Jeanne Assam says: “I did not think for a minute to run away... G-d guided and protected me... I wasn't going to wait for him to do further damage... I saw him coming through the doors... I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.”
Jeanne Assam worked as a police officer in downtown Minneapolis during the 1990's and is licensed to carry a weapon. She volunteers as a guard at her church.
Previous entries that will be of interest:
Stalked
My Hollywood Gun: Part I, The Burning
My Hollywood Gun: Part II, The Get-a-Way
My Hollywood Gun: Part III, The Gauntlet
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:11 AM | Comments (14)
December 10, 2007
Eyes in the Sky
UAV. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. It's the new frontier. And in case you're keeping score Israeli intelligence have been knocking off terrorists at a pretty steady rate for the past few years. The reasons are manifold: The security wall, intelligence assets on the ground, and UAV's flying 24/7 with lenses so powerful they can pinpoint the individual hairs on the beards of the terrorists.
It's true that missiles still rain down on southern Israel, an unacceptable situation, but Israel is killing more and more of the terrorists who are launching these terror weapons. And the individual homicide bombers and terrorists who try and enter Israel, well, the IDF makes toast of them at the check-points that Peace Now and other liberals find so objectionable.
Note: Seraphic Secret still believes that the best tactic in dealing with the hostile entity in Gaza is to deny the population power and fuel. We do not believe that an IDF ground operation is wise. Hizbullah are busy building complex networks of bunkers, and storing vast supplies of weapons, in short preparing for a Lebanese-style war, including setting up units who wear IDF uniforms. It's imperative for Israel to deny Gaza the very power that makes this build-up possible, rather than march into a hornet's nest of urban warfare.
Here's a nice report by an American UAV geek as he surveys UAV technology in Israel. Good stuff, and we can only expect the technology to improve, which means even more dead terrorists.
For UAV geeks, Israel really is the promised land. No country is more advanced in the use of UAVs, small and large, and the second Lebanon war was a state-of-the-art example of ubiquitous eye-in-the-sky presence. I'm in Tel Aviv today, and I took the opportunity to hang out with the best of the bunch. Here's a brief report:
To read the complete report and see a neat UAV video in flight, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:44 AM | Comments (3)
The Fallacy of Islam Equivalency
Some common sense is always nice:
How many times have you heard this from your leftist friends when speaking about the barbarism of radical Islam?
Oh yeah, what about the Inquisition? What about the Ku Klux Klan. What about Timothy McVeigh? What about radical Christians who blow up abortion clinics? Huh? What about them? Huh?
So how do you respond to such moral equivalency pap as that? Respond with this:
More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined. ( source)
More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. (source)
Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years. (source)
19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals executed in the last 65 years. (source)
For the original post go to: The Gathering Storm
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:51 AM | Comments (3)
The Abandonment of the Jews
Caroline Glick on the NIE report and the geo-political implications for American-Israeli relations.
The Israeli strike in Syria also demonstrated the superiority of Israel's intelligence on weapons of mass destruction programs over America's. And the NIE takes revenge on Israel for its comparative advantage.
Given the NIE's assertion that Iran is not a threat, the report is a direct assault on the credibility of Israel's intelligence services. Moreover, since Israel's intelligence services insist that Iran's nuclear program is the greatest threat to global security, the NIE serves to paint Israel's intelligence community not merely as unreliable, but as hostile to American interests.
So not only does the NIE make it impossible for the US to take action against Iran, it also sets a dangerous trap for Israel. If Israel doesn't take action against Iran's nuclear installations it risks annihilation. And if it does take action, it can expect to be subject to international and American condemnation far worse than what it suffered after bombing Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
To read Caroline Glick's complete article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Chaver, Kishke
Even our British cousins believe we have been hoodwinked by the the Iranians. H/T Seraphic Friend from the Great North, A. Mark David, Q.C.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:54 AM | Comments (4)
December 09, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #144
Haveil Havalim #144 The Too Many Latkes Edition. Yasher Koach to Jack's Shack for a heroic job.
We'd like to thank Jack for including Seraphic Secret's Chanukah in Iraq and Pearl Harbor Day.
Happy Chanukah to all our Seraphic Friends.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
The Greatest Movie Star: Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
The most successful star of the silent era was not Charlie Chaplin, but Mary Pickford. Pickford was a huge box office draw, an international star, and a strong woman who took control of her own career.
Mary Pickford said it best: “My career was planned. There was never anything accidental about it. It was planned, it was painful, it was purposeful.”
Charles Rosher, the great pioneering cameraman said: “She knew everything there was to know about motion pictures.”
She was born in Canada, Gladys Smith in 1892. Her family endured poverty and her father died when she was six-years-old. Charlotte, her mother, took in sewing to make ends meet for Gladys and her sister Lottie and brother Jack.
Things changed in 1898 when Gladys, age six, made her debut on stage in Toronto. Within three years she was a well known theater actor.
Gladys went to New York and talked her way into theater impresario David Belasco's office. She wouldn't leave until he hired her. She was only 14-years old. Already she was tough and determined and wouldn't take no for an answer. Belasco didn't like her name. Gladys Smith. Too plain. He renamed her Mary Pickford.
She was a tiny, fragile creature with a mountain of corn-silk curls. She was also talented. Things went well with Belasco. But soon enough Pickford and her mother heard that the The Pictures were paying five dollars a day. Pickford and her mother took the trolley downtown to the Biograph Studios, and demanded ten dollars a day because she was a "Belasco actress."
D.W. Griffith hired her and paid her price.
Mary quickly became an audience favorite. She became known as the Biograph Girl. There was one Biograph Girl before Pickford; Florence Lawrence, was the first movie star, but she committed suicide by eating ant paste after a series of tragic professional and personal setbacks, and is now all but forgotten.
Mary quit the theater as she grasped the enormous artistic and financial possibilities of the new motion picture industry. She appeared in dozens of films, switching easily between comedy and drama, westerns and melodrama. She was learning her trade; how to play to the motion picture camera—very different than theater acting.
Mary didn't like the thick pasty makeup they were using at Biograph. She claimed it made her "look like Pancho Villa." So Mary went out and bought her own high quality materials and blended her own makeup especially for the camera—and demanded reimbursement from Biograph.
Working with Griffith was not easy for Mary. She didn't fit his vision of a helpless Southern maiden. She wasn't a pliant actress like Lillian Gish. Director and star fought on and off set. She once bit Griffith. He shoved her.
Pickford signed with Famous Players Lasky. The company set up Artcraft Pictures to release the films of Mary Pickford. She was the first actress to have her own production company. She was paid $10,000 a week plus half the profits in her films, or half a million dollars, whichever was greater. Such was Mary's popularity with the public that she now had complete creative control over her films; from script to final cut.
Poor Little Rich Girl, 1917, was a huge hit. Here she plays a lonely little girl whose wealthy parents neglect her. In this film Pickford also dresses up as a boy, a motif that will appear over and over again in her work, something her fans simply adored.
In Stella Maris, 1918, Pickford plays two roles, Stella, a wealthy, bed-ridden young woman, overprotected by her family, and her deformed servant, Unity Blake. It's a remarkable performance and the double exposures are first rate as Pickford acts with herself.
Mary Pickford in Stella Maris, she's playing both roles
By the end of 1918 Pickford's image was that of a feisty young American girl, no longer a child, not yet a woman. It set the pattern for the rest of her career, and some would say, locked her into a formula she could never escape, "America's Sweetheart."
Mary behind the camera
By now she was at the peak of her career on the screen making such films as The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) Stella Maris (1918) "Daddy Long Legs" (1919) and Heart O' the Hills (1919) Mary had been married in name only to Owen Moore for years and around the time of the bond tour began an affair with Douglas Fairbanks, both thought that this might damage their career's, they married in 1920 and rather than damage them,they became even more popular as a couple. in 1919, together with Chaplin and Griffith, Mary and Doug formed United Artists which gave the four most important people in the movie industry complete license over their own productions. Mary and Doug were now treated like Hollywood royalty and drew famous names from home and abroad to their house named "Pickfair"by the press.
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
Throughout the twenties Mary slowed down her film production to one quality big budget production per year. Films like Tess of the Storm Country (1922) Sparrows (1926) and My Best Girl (1927) maintained her success but by the end of the decade Mary's screen persona was starting to look dated in the wake of the flapper culture.
Armed with a microphone and a new short haircut Mary embarked on her talkie debut in 1929 called Coquette and she won the Academy Award for best actress. However Mary became another casualty of talking pictures, together with the public failing to accept her in adult roles, her movie career was over by 1933. By 1936 Mary's marriage to Doug was also over, probably due to the loss of his film career and his constant globe trotting. In 1937 Mary married her "My Best Girl" co-star Charles"Buddy" Rogers , a marriage that was to last forty three years. Over the next years she engaged herself in some film production work and promoted several charities.
In 1976 Mary received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Academy Awards. Later in her life she became dependent on alcohol and a virtual recluse behind the walls of "Pickfair." On 29th May 1979 Mary died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Santa Monica, California. She was 87 years old.
From the Mary Pickford Homepage.
Mary Pickford played little girls but she never had a childhood. As a young woman, her life was absorbed with hard work and business. She was the first great motion picture celebrity. When she was in Europe with Douglas Fairbanks, they were mobbed by crowds so vast that Fairbanks had to carry her on his shoulders lest she be consumed by the adoring fans. There is a picture of Fairbanks reaching out to get hold of his tiny wife and she looks absolutely terrified.
Pickford married young to an alcoholic actor, and it was rumored that because of a messy abortion she was never able to have children of her own. (She and her third husband Buddy Rogers adopted two children.) Mary lived through her brother Jack's messy life, and his marriage to the troubled actress Olive Thomas, and Jack's early death at age 36. Mary's closest companion was her mother Charlotte, who endured a terrible and painful cancer and died at age 55 in 1928. Her sister Lottie died at age 41.
Mary Pickford was not sentimental about her life: “I've worked and fought my way through since I was twelve.”
Film historian Kevin Brownlow correctly said of Pickford: “The ideal American girls is still the Mary Pickford character: extremely attractive, warm-hearted, generous, funny—but independent and fiery-tempered when the occasion demands. She had legions of imitators, but no rivals.”
Also highly recommended is Kevin Brownlow and John Kobal's Hollywood: The Pioneers. The essay and photos are simply breathtaking. Brownlow is the major historian of the silent era and the world owes him a debt of gratitude for his work in preserving valuable films and precious memories which otherwise would have been lost.
The Mary Pickford Photo Gallery. From the Mary Pickford Library. Beautiful.
Mary Pickford Photo Gallery, studio photos, posters, one-sheets, stills from her films, and behind the scenes shots.
Mary Pickford Rediscovered by Kevin Brownlow. I haven't read it yet. My bad. It's on order.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:01 AM | Comments (6)
December 07, 2007
Torah Dedicated to U.S. Military
We're on a roll. Here's a wonderful item about a Torah, handwrittten according to halacha, Jewish law, and dedicated to our troops, past and present.
Gee willikers, if this keeps up, I might actually turn on the TV, look at Hillary and not scream: "Bolshevik She-Devil."
That's how good I'm feeling.
A Jewish scribe, using a feather quill, wrote the final words in a torah Sunday, fulfilling a mother's dream.
The Liberty Torah, handwritten in tiny letters on a scroll, honors members of the U.S. military, present and past.
About 200 people, including veterans and Holocaust survivors, attended the ceremony where the torah was dedicated at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard.
“This is the least that we feel we could do in the beautiful tradition that we're in the current of,” said Rabbi Dov Muchnik, director of the Chabad of Oxnard, who led the ceremony. “This is a moment of togetherness we hope we have embodied here.”
The Torah was inspired by Edi Boxstein, whose son, Cpl. Jonathan Boxstein, served in Iraq and is scheduled to return in about two months.
To read the complete article and view pictures, please click here.
Karen and I wish all our friends a beautiful and profound miracle in Shabbat. And a powerful Chanukah experience.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:48 PM | Comments (4)
Chanukah in Iraq
This is lovely, and just what we need as we head into Shabbos and the fourth night of Chanukah.
It’s not just the cultural and religious sensitivities that make celebrating Hanukkah “downrange” in a predominantly Muslim land a bit of a challenge.
It’s the little things, too — like finding out that the base dining facility does not have kosher sour cream, seemingly a must for any potato latkes worth the name.
While the ceremonies do not come close to reaching the fever pitch associated with Christmas on bases downrange, servicemembers at several bases in Iraq paused Tuesday night to mark the first of Hanukkah’s eight nights.
To read the entire article from Stars and Stripes, please click here.
Hat tip: Republican Jewish Coalition
Here's a nice history of Chanukah by Joshuapundit.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)
Not According to Script
Today is Dec 7, a day that will live in infamy.
Before, during, and after World War II, Hollywood supported America and her allies in the battle against genocidal enemies. Make no mistake about it, the value of Hollywood films during war is incalculable. Our images shape opinion and memory. In fact, America has never lost a war