New Years Resolution Week Three: City Lights

Welcome to week three of my New Years resolution!  This week I get to watch Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.  I've never been a huge Chaplin fan.  I've seen quite a lot of his work, so be assured, I'm not basing my opinion on just one or two films.  They're good.  They're really good, just not my cup of tea.  I like The Kid.  But who doesn't like The Kid?  You need professional help if you don't, cause there is something wrong with you.  I don't think I'm sensitive enough for Chaplin.  He's a little too subtle and gentle for me.  I do appreciate him though.  So this was a film that I really didn't mind having to watch.

I was left on my own again for the menu for this one.  I couldn't find a thing in Movie Night Menus.  Since I'd never seen City Lights, I was at a bit of a loss for inspiration.  I did look up the cast and saw one of the characters is an eccentric millionaire, and I know that Chaplin is British.  Put those two together, and what do you have?  High Tea!  Hey, it makes sense to me!  My resolution, my rules!  And I'm a total anglophile, so this was gonna be fun!

High tea usually involves finger sandwiches, crumpets and scones with clotted cream and fancy jam/preserves, froufrou pastries(FROUFROU isn't used enough!!), champagne, and of course tea.  I have beautiful flowering tea and a teapot to go with it and tea cups and saucers that I never get to use, so I couldn't wait to get on this one!  So pinkies up people!  Let's do this!

I decided to serve two different kinds of finger sandwiches, egg salad and cucumber.  I make fantastic egg salad.  Really light and refreshing.  It has hard boiled eggs, peppers(any kind but green, I used orange cause this is what I had), green onions, celery, olive oil mayo, little bit of dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.  All the veggies in it just make it to die for.  It's all crunchy and good.  Sometimes I even serve it with crackers and have guests use it as dip.  I cut the crusts off of some thin bakery white bread, cause that's what you do, and loaded up the sandwiches with deliciousness.  The I made some really simple cucumber sandwiches.  I managed to score a mini loaf of rye bread.  It was adorable, and I thought it might make the sandwiches a little tastier.  All I did was smear(I love this word) whipped cream cheese on each side of the bread, sprinkle it with dried dill weed(I couldn't find fresh ::::sigh:::), and put a slice of cucumber in between.  I mostly wanted the cream cheese to be honest.

I wasn't in the mood for scones.  I thought they would be just too heavy.  Scones are like a meal onto themselves.  I do love them though and I make some killer scones.  So I decided on crumpets!  Now I have never had crumpets, but they looked much lighter than scones.  I found them on Amazon of all places and had them delivered!  Convenience!  Love it!  I had clotted cream on hand(anglophile), but had to buy some fancy preserves.  I choose cherry preserves because I love cherry.  I just popped the crumpets in the toaster.  Easy!

I bought a couple of different kinds of pastries.  Not as froufrou as I wanted, but they were what I could get. I wanted petit fours, but didn't have time to go to a real bakery, so grocery store pastries were it.  I got a chocolate eclair and a red velvet creamy thingy.  Good enough.  The eclair got a little smashied though.

As for the champagne, since I can't drink, I got some sparkling white grape juice.  Close enough for me.  Plus I got to use my depression glass champagne glasses!  Never got to use them before.  Makes the sadness of no real booze a little easier.  Kinda.

High Tea with my fancy flowering tea and mismatched depression glass!

That's a lot of food!

Now on to the movie!  Like most Chaplin, this movie was very very sweet and very touching.  To me it was the supporting cast that really stood out.  First Harry Myers who played the Eccentric Millionaire was hysterical.  He reminded me a bit of John Barrymore in Grand Hotel.  He had great comic timing and wonderful expressions.  Chaplin played off of him, not the other way around.  He really made me laugh.  He was a wonderful balance to the main kinda sickly sweet story line.  Added a bit of salt.  

Even Chaplin thinks Harry Myers is awesome!

Then, of course, there is Virginia Cherrill. The absolutely lovely Virginia Cherrill.  She was exquisite.  Chaplin had spotted her at a boxing match of all places and noticed her gaze.  He said, "She could look blind without being offensive."  And he was absolutely right.  I can't even describe it.  She was staring but not staring.  Weird, perfect.  And when her sight is restored, well, she looked like a sighted person.  Dunno how she did it.  She was so elegant and gentle, you just fell in love with her.  You could see why The Tramp just adored her from beginning.  I wanted to buy all of her flowers too!

Lookit that, Virginia Cherrill does everything just right.  

One scene that stands out for everyone is the boxing scene.  The choreography is amazing!  Watch the film just for this part.  Really.  It's funny and skillful and really impressive.  If I saw more of this in Chaplin's films, I would love him more.

This really is genius!

                       
But lets face it, Chaplin's movies were all Chaplin.  He controlled every single aspect, so I give him real credit for what he got out of his actors.  He also choose the actors perfectly for this film.  So I give that to him too.  However, the ending to this film left much to be desired for me.  It seemed to just kind of end.  Like the last episode of The Sopranos.  I was like, wait, what?  Everyone raves about the ending.  And I agree the acting was great here, but what happened?  The girl just realizes he's her savior, but then what?  Nothing.  The End.  Hmmmm.  I didn't like it.

Virginia is just as confused as I am about the ending.

That and Chaplin's smile kinda creeps me out.  It ain't right.

Just a little creepy....

I really enjoyed this evening.  The meal hit the spot, and movie was much better than I thought.  I don't think it is the sheer perfection that everyone says it is, but I have some pretty strong opinions about Chaplin.  Maybe it's unfair and just because everyone raves about him.  I will totally watch this movie again though.  It's really good and I got a lot out of it.  It made me appreciate Chaplin more.

Love,
Ollie
PS:  I highly recommend crumpets!  They're like chewy spongy english muffins.  When they're warm they just soak up anything you put on them.  Gonna try them with butter next.  Cause butter.....  ::::drool::::
             

New Years Resolution Week Two: All Quiet On The Western Front

Welcome to week two of my New Years Resolution!  I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this one.  I have been avoiding this book and movie since my high school days.  I managed to dodge it several times.  Now here it is in my lap.  No more avoiding.  So here we go!

Again I couldn't find a suitable recipe in Movie Night Menus, so I was on my own again.  I decided to research what soldiers ate in the trenches.  Turns out that the staple was a stew.  It was comprised of beef, turnips, onions, potatoes, beans, and carrots in a thin gravy.  It was produced in tins by a company named Maconochie.  So the stew was just called Maconochie.  They also had hard biscuits and an allowance for alcohol.  I can do this!  I have to make it vegetarian and non-alcoholic, but this is totally doable.    

So I found these wonderful vegan dehydrated beef strips.  I'm not a vegan only a vegetarian, but that's what I could find.  Perfect for the stew!  I boiled them in vegetable stock seasoned with garlic and onion powder.  Then I added red potatoes, onions, turnips, great northern beans, and carrots.  I added a lot of salt and pepper.  Then some flour to thicken the gravy.  Easy!  For biscuits, I just made some canned flaky biscuits.  And to drink, sparkling grape juice.  Closest I could come to wine.  I know they didn't have wine as a staple, but it was periodically available.  Maconochie, in reality, was actually really gross and eaten cold out of the can because lighting a fire to heat it would draw enemy gunfire.  The biscuits that they ate were old and hard and full of bugs.  I'm not going that far.  My troops are going to be better fed!

                               Vegetarian Maconochie and Non-Alcoholic wine(Sparkling Grape Juice)

I've never made stew before, so I was really nervous about how this would turn out.  Come to think of it, I don't even think I've ever had stew.  However, it was awesome!  Really simple, comforting, warm.  Filling!!  Even the fake beef was tasty!  And biscuits, well, you just can't go wrong with fresh biscuits.  Same thing with sparkling grape juice.  It's not wine, but whatcha gonna do?  And I served it again on my beautiful mismatched depression glass.  :-)

Now onto the long dreaded movie.  I cannot believe that I avoided this film.  I was so good!  I gotta be honest the acting sometimes was a bit unnatural and overly dramatic, but everything else was so beautifully done that it was just a momentary distraction and you could get right back into the film.  The direction was amazing.  Beautifully shot with great camera angles.  The choreography during the fighting and explosions was particularly impressive.  Not that I've ever been to war before but it seemed really realistic.  The explosions were remarkably close to the actors.  I can't believe that no one was hurt on set.  It was stunning.

                                The action was really incredible.                      

The story was very poignant.  It had appropriate highs and lows.  Not every second was miserable.  It showed the realities of war and comradery between the men.  A very balanced honest film.  I'm not so sure that I would say that it was antiwar, it was just honest.  War is not a pleasure cruise.  When you are in the trenches rules don't apply and what you have is your buddies.  It's horrible.  People, young people, important people, die.  They just exist and go from day to day trying to get the most out of it.  Small pleasures that they have taken for granted and everyday things that were once important become ridiculous.  It also seemed that no one really knew what they were fighting for.  They were just going and doing what they were told.  That made some of the scenes even harder.  The deaths were pointless when you looked at war at a closer level. That's the message that came across to me.

I'm so glad that this movie was on the list!  It was a wonderful film.  And my dinner was really good too!

                               This is my favorite shot.  Still a ghoul!!

Love,
Olive

New Years Resolution Week One: Metropolis

I completed week one of my resolution yesterday!!  My first essential film is Metropolis.  I’ve never seen Metropolis before, so I was very excited to see it.  It’s one of those legendary films that every film buff is supposed to have seen. The version that I watched is not the latest or the most complete version, but I choose the 1984 copy because Freddie Mercury.  Enough said.

For dinner I couldn’t find anything suitable in TCM Movie Night Menus, so I decided to come up with my own.  I choose to make a vegetarian version of ploughman’s lunch.  A ploughman’s lunch typically consists of cheese, bread, fruit, pickles, meat, hard boiled eggs and some veggies.  And served with beer.  It was English farm workers lunch of choice, so I thought it would be appropriate for this film. Workers unite!

   

Vegetarian Non-Alcoholic Ploughman's Lunch! Yum!

I had grape tomatoes, orange peppers, apple slices, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish cheddar cheeses, Tofurky turkey slices, pickles, hardboiled eggs, grapes, and a hunk of bread.  To drink, O’doul’s.  It was perfect!  Even the non alcoholic beer was good!  And yes, I served it on my beautiful mismatched depression glass plates and bowls.  They make everything more delicious.

The movie was beyond amazing.  I knew that it would be good, but I didn’t know it would be *this* good.  I was prepared for the story line because who doesn’t know the story line, but the way it was conveyed was so captivating.  I was just glued to the screen, which is unusual for me, I tend to wander way for a little bit.  It was shot beautifully and the sets were so intricate.  Everything was perfect and the direction really escalated your emotions.  It was all so clever and really delivered Lang’s message.  Hard, cold, mechanical, inhuman, unfeeling.  The special effects were beyond.  I can’t believe how advanced they were.  Part of the reason that I love and treasure old movies is that people really had to do what was filmed.  They really had to figure things out.  You couldn’t just program a computer to do the work for you.  I really admire the directors and actors for that reason.  I know I say this a lot, but it’s true!!

I really enjoyed the modern soundtrack for the film.  Not just because of Freddie Mercury, but that didn’t hurt.  I thought that the music made the film more powerful.  I usually ignore the soundtracks. They fade into the background for me, but this one really added to the film.  Giorgio Moroder did a wonderful job! I really recommend watching this version if you can get your hands on it.

However, the best part of the film was Brigitte Helm.  If you’ve seen this film you will completely agree.  She stole this movie.  Her expressions and her acting were just incredible.  I just couldn’t get over her!

I mean really!!!

Then I found out this was her first role and she was only 18?!?!  I must now watch everything I can with this woman in it!  Everything!

I love her.

I had the best time!  This is going to be a fantastic resolution.  It was so inspiring.  I got to involve all of my favorite things.  I learned stuff, got to see a fabulous movie that I hadn’t made time for, got to be a bit creative with food, got to eat food, and I wrote about it all!  I know it’s only week one, but I have high hopes for this resolution!

Love,

Olive

PS:  I know this blog kinda sucks.  I’m hoping that my writing gets better the more I do it!  I’m telling ya, I used to be good!  I am really proud that I figured out how to add pictures!  Small victories!!

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I’m doing the bestest resolution ever!  I wanted to pick something that would make me stick to it but would also be fun.  I don’t want to fail again this year, but I want something that will inspire me and help me grow.  I tend to be a bit scatty.  I start something, get really really excited about it and then it becomes overwhelming and I quit.  And then proceed to feel terrible about it forever.  This happens even when it is something that I enjoy.  Somehow it starts to feel like pressure.  And that’s no good!  I need better habits and that what this should help with as well.

I love classic movies.  Love love love.  I love learning the stories behind classic movies.  I love seeing patterns and meaning in classic movies.  And I love food.  And cocktails.  

I got a copy of TCM The Essentials 52 Must See Movies and Why They Matter and a copy of TCM Movie Night Menus.  I’m hoping that this will keep me focused.  Kinda like a syllabus.  

I have really high hopes for this and I’m super excited.  I get learn stuff and cook and I’m going to be exposed to movies that I never would have taken the time for before.  I have seen quite a few of these movies, but I think the book will shed new light on them.  And, well, they’re fantastic and I’ll just adore seeing them again regardless!  Especially with a good dinner!

I’m just using the Movie Night Menus as a guideline.  Not all of the movies are in there, not even close, and I have some pretty strict dietary requirements myself.  I’m a vegetarian and I can’t drink.  ​​ ​I​ ​can​ ​replace​ ​most​ ​meat​ ​with fake​ ​meat,​ ​so​ ​that​ ​should​ ​work.​ ​​ ​Maybe.​ ​​ ​As​ ​for​ ​the​ ​cocktails….well​, ​I’ll​ ​see​ ​what​ ​I​ ​can​ ​come​ ​up with. But it will be inspiration!  If that week’s movie isn’t in the book, I can find a movie that’s “like” the one I’m watching that week, or maybe I can match the stars, or I can come up with my own movie inspired dinners.  Doesn’t matter, this is supposed to be fun!

I’m also hoping(and I’m just whispering this, because I might fail at this part) to blog about each of these.  Writing is so important for me.  I gotta do it more, I don’t want my brain turning to jelly!  

So wish me luck!  Happy New Year to everyone!

Love,

Olive

The Elephant In The Room

A few months ago I did the absolute coolest thing!  I've been on a Diana Serra Cary(aka Baby Peggy) binge.  Ever since I saw "Baby Peggy: The Elephant In The Room", I've been fascinated by this lady.  She came with no education and ended up being a published historian.  All on her own.  Fueled by her own interest and drive. No support(even emotional) from her family.  Amazing!  She's so strong.  I just admire her so much.

I've been reading her books and they are some of the best written books I've ever read.  They're honest, thoughtful, and unbiased.  The flow of the writing is just so easy and so unpretentious.  It's hard to conquer such a subject, especially a such a personal subject to the author, without getting pretentious or doing the opposite and being too dry in an attempt to be objective.  Her writing has a wonderful voice.  I've just been enjoying her so much.

So far I've read "What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star", "Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star", and I'm halfway through "Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era".  Even though they're all covering the same subject, they are not repetitive at all!  Each one is fascinating and unique.

We all know that Diana is the last.  In the documentary, I saw that people were still writing to her and how much she appreciated the correspondence.  And really who doesn't appreciate being told that your work has meant something to them?  I decided to write to her and ask for an autograph.  I've never written a fan letter in my life!  So I wrote her a long letter just telling her how much I admired her.  I just can't imagine the strength it has taken her to come so far!  Then I enclosed a check and a SASE and popped it in the mail.  The next week I got three signed pictures!  I'm so thrilled!  I'm so thrilled!  The photos are just beautiful.  As soon as I figure out how to post photos on this thingy, I'll update this blog with them.

Diana is struggling to stay in her house and out of a retirement community that won't meet her needs.  She's being taken care of by her son right now.  She is surrounded by her books so she can still do her research and keep her mind sharp.  She has dietary rules that she believes keeps her in such good shape.  Any support that she can get from us would be wonderful.  She's selling beautiful autographed photos.  You get the autograph of a legend AND you're helping her.  I can't imagine working my whole life, and I mean whole life because I believe she started at 18 months, and not being able to spend my later years comfortable and where I wanted to be.  Doesn't seem right.

So if you can, order an autograph.  It's such a cool thing to have!  I have them all framed in my house and people ask about them all the time.  If you can't afford an autograph, I'm sure Diana would just love some fan mail.  She means something to us, and that's always wonderful to hear!

Here's the website with instructions and contact information:

http://astarforbabypeggy.com/contact/fanmail-for-baby-peggy/

Love,
Olive

“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.” – Charlie Chaplin

It has been too long.  Way too long.  Life gets in the way of fun.  However, as I've found out, life can also give fun a hand!  My whole life is about to change next week.  I hit a fork in the road and chose the fork that will change everything.  It's wonderful and I'm excited.  Nervous too!  I haven't had a big change that didn't come from something horrible in, well, I can't remember.... maybe 16 years(Love you so much My Dearest Darling). That's sad.  It's time.  So this big massive change will allow me to do this blog and get back into the silent/classic film community.  I've missed it.  Terribly.  Not that I haven't been reading about them or watching them whenever I can, I just haven't had time for talking about them or writing about them.  I will now!  And I'm so excited.  I want to get back in there.  I want to learn.  I want to share.  I want to be part of the dialog.  I enjoy it and everyone in it so much!

This is going to be good!  I will post again soon.  Very very soon!  Cause I can!
::::bounce::::  ::::bounce::::  ::::bounce::::

Love,
Olive

Robert Harron For Silent Cinema Sunday!

I've been reading a TON of amazing books lately.  Just devouring them!  They're all on my GoodReads page if you're interested.  I think I'm on too many social media accounts.  I can't seem to keep up with all of them! Been reading about Bessie Love, Mabel, Roscoe, Marilyn Miller....  Just fabulous stuff.  And the books are relatively cheap.  Well, the Bessie Love and Marilyn Miller I paid a pretty penny for, but those two books are pretty rare.  That's the nice thing about this silent/classic film obsession, it's reasonably priced!
The name Robert Harron kept coming up in the books that I've been reading.  There were several tragedies in the twenties that authors bring up whenever they write about that time period.  Rocoe, Mabel, William Desmond Taylor, Wallace Reid, Olive Thomas, Valentino....and sometimes(if they're very good) Bobby Harron.  See, these tragedies were all firsts.  They're actually quite fascinating because people were dealing with emotions for someone they felt close to that they didn't even really know, but felt they did.  Sometimes the reactions were so violent you almost think the public felt like they owned these people.  It still happens now.  Look at the outpouring for Diana. But with these you almost get to watch society develop coping mechanisms to deal with this.  With each one they learn.  Or when they happened all at once, it just added fuel to the fire.  Such passion.
I had heard of Bobby Harron before.  I think my undying love for Lillian Gish lead me to him.  So I knew his story when his name came up in my books.  And y'all know my love of the ghoulish!  So Bobby is kinda perfect for me.  Young, handsome, dead.  Except there's so little out there about him!  I have this theory that unless a woman is involved somehow, well, the men just kinda fade into the background, no matter how big they were or how interesting or tragic their story is, if no woman is involved....yawn.  See ladies, we're friggin riveting!  Stories are boring without us!!
Bobby was a good Irish Catholic Boy.  One of NINE children.  He was a darling of DW Griffith, until he got too old, then Griffith tossed him for Richard Barthelmess.  Griffith was fickle.  Bobby's roles included working with Mae Marsh, Blanche Sweet, the Gish Sisters.  It's even said that he was involved with Dorothy.  Hmmm, for some reason I always thought the Gish Sisters were nuns and never dated.  Gotta look into that one day.  And of course, like everyone else in the whole world, he was in Birth of A Nation.  Heck, even I was in Birth of A Nation!  ;-)
So our darling Bobby was in New York promoting his new film Coincidence and accidentally shot himself in his hotel room. There was a gun in his suitcase and it fell on the floor.  A bullet discharged hitting him in the chest and perforating his lung.  At first he refused to go to the hospital.  Seems like he didn't quite realize how bad his would was.  In fact, he was making jokes about it.  They finally convinced him to go the hospital.  He didn't even want a stretcher!  The wound was much worse than he thought and he died 4 days later.  He was only 27 years old.   
Many people were saying that it was a suicide attempt.  Depression over being thrown over by Griffith.  Friends rushed to dispute this(including Dorothy Gish) because he was a good Irish Catholic Boy.  Mortal sin and all.  Lots of Catholics kill themselves, so I look at the circumstances.  Men don't try and kill themselves my shooting themselves in the chest.  At least not without hitting the heart.  They're violent beings, they shoot themselves in the head.  Second, if he was trying to kill himself, he would have shot himself again when he realized he survived.  Third, he wasn't upset when help came.  He was like, "Boy, I got myself in to a pickle!"  You don't get help when you want to die.  Nor do you maintain your cool.  Especially after losing all that blood.  Not suicide.  Accident.
So in reading all of my wonderful wonderful books and seeing his name a couple of times along with the films that he was in, I realized that I had several of them!  Sooooo, this Silent Cinema Sunday is all for you Bobby!
First I watched A Romance of Happy Valley.  It was only just over an hour.  Short for Griffith!  Very sweet love story, nothing too exceptional.  Very cool twist at the end though.  I do recommend you see it.  You can get it for like 5 bucks.  Well worth it.  Lillian is always always always perfect and amazing.  Even in "A Wedding" where she pretty much just lays there dead for most of the film, she's flawless.  How I love this woman.  And Bobby?  How was Bobby, cause he's what I came here for.  Won-der-ful!  I'd only really paid attention to pictures of him.  And I was like meh.  But moving on the screen?  He's too many things.  Handsome and emotive.  Really kept up with Gish.  And that's hard.  His character is wonderfully sensitive when it came to hers and it really showed.  He was great in this role and I can see why Griffith loved him.

Next I watched Hoodoo Ann.  Mae Marsh plays his leading lady in this one.  She has such a wonderful face. So very very good.  She's so good at conveying the scene without being cheesy.  Not that I don't like cheesy, you kinda have to if you like silents.  It goes with the territory.  But too much cheese can burn me out and I just get bored.  Mae does this.  If you haven't see The White Rose, you GOTTA.  GOTTA!  And again, it's like 5 bucks.  Mae stole this movie.  She was just awesome.  The ending was hysterical.  Bobby was handsome and sweet in this role, but really, the film was about Mae.  His character was just there to hold her up.  Since that seemed to be his character's purpose, he did exactly what he was supposed to do.

I wish I could have fit in more Bobby movies today.  I have several more, I just ran out of time!  I'm glad I got to know him a bit better though.  He really was a marvelous actor.  I think that getting older would have done him good.  He would have grown into his looks and certainly grown as an actor.  That beautiful baby face would have aged so well.  Such potential was there.  Such a loss.

Love,
Olive