
—Patricia Neal

Saul and David (1655-1660)
oil on canvas: 130 × 164 cm



“My retribution is greater. With all my heart, I still love the man I killed.”
-W. Somerset Maugham, The Letter (1925)

Model next to an Imperial ‘LeBaron’ sedan, Vogue 1960

—Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020)

Saul invokes the Ghost of Samuel, c. 1652
oil on copper: 62 × 87 cm


Vogue, 1942



—Mia Farrow

Elohim Creating Adam (installation views)
1795 – c. 1805
Color print, ink and watercolor on paper

To film a scene in which Williams battles a tarantula, Arnold filmed a real Panamanian tarantula. He put the film of the tarantula in the ground glass of the camera, moved Williams into a matching position on oversize sets, and then had him count to the beat of a metronome to match his movements to those of the tarantula.

Honda Indy, Toronto, 2013.

From the Book “Paradise Street”, Balham, London, ca. 1961

Patricia Neal had quite a life. Her death was prematurely reported in 1965 when she had her strokes. I’ll have to see if I can find any medical account of that.
https://www.patneal.org/patricia-neal-a-biography/
We watched “My man Godfrey” last night. Might go see the remake of “Call of the Wild” this weekend. I’m leery of remakes, especially recently.
Apparently it was an aneurysm that bled and was successfully treated with surgery. Those are rare.
Apparently her husband was well known, as well.
Nasty guy. He cheated on her for years. Was an outspoken anti-Semite as well.
When I was a kid, I really liked his books. My parents did NOT. When I was old enough to understand, his nastiness ruined those books for me.
When my kids wanted to read the BFG, I told them I first needed to remove several pages, which I did. They were just so gross. I knew the kids could read the full book elsewhere, but I wanted to make a point to them about standards.
“Grand Hotel” always makes me cry. But I never cared for Garbo’s performance in it; there’s just something off, though I can’t put my finger on it. I had the pleasure of seeing the Boston tryout of the musical version in 1989.
There was a biography of Maila Nurrmi, “Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror” which came out in 2014. An interesting read, but one gets the sense that she was always an unhappy, isolated woman.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Christoper:
Garbo’s performance is confusing. You don’t know if she’s playing her character as a sincere melodramatic narcissist, or if her character is spoofing such a character out of her older silent films. No matter her intention, the result does not work. I think the only film in which Garbo gives a solid, timeless performance is Ninotchka.
Good grief prophet Joe. There least two insomniacs who read Robert.
Wise words from kirk Douglas
Gotten some wonderful pictures out of that book Paradise Street.
Nice picture Rick. Was that intentional showing the poster of Ron Howard’s movie Rush, about the rivalry of Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the background?
How to try and sleep again. I know how this works. I get to sleep about an hour before sunrise.
Very much so. They took out a big corner of the Indy track that year with banners so I tried to stake that corner out as much as I could to get at least one decent shot with that in the background.
Great juxtaposition.
Sorry, Bill, no insomnia here, just a 2 hour time difference. I get up at 5:00-5:30 before going to work at 7:00. On Fridays I always read Robert’s post with my coffee. I have to head for the shower at 6:00 so any comments are usually around that time (4:00 Pacific time).
Nicely done, Robert.
The watch is cool and, I’m confident, out of my financial reach.
It’s a lovely picture of Mia Farrow, Her eyes are stunning. I applaud her charitable works and adoptions, but her choice of men is highly questionable. Frank Sinatra was 29 years older than the 21 year old Farrow when they married. I don’t know if people would say found her “big man” or that she had “daddy issues”, They were married less than 18 months when Frank served her with divorce papers… I thought that unusual. Later, she got pregnant by a married Andre Previn who divorced his wife to marry Farrow. After their divorce (9 years later) she started dating Woody Allen. That lasted 12-13 years until it was revealed he was having an affair with her 22 year old daughter, Soon-Yi. Like I said… questionable choices in men.
I like the Gene Tierney photo. I don’t think you see celebs carrying their own suitcase much anymore… and few look as beautiful as Gene.
I love the Art Deco “Grand Hotel” and Rio Bravo is one of my favorite movies!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!