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Table of Contents
Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion Group:
Apr 4 WHO? [ROBO MAN] (1974) story (1955) & novel (1958) by Algis Budrys story: https://sciencefiction.loa.org/biographies/budrys_who.php novel: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/who-algis-budrys/11561866
Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies for March (comments by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper): comments on Mark's picks for Turner Classic Movies in October;
In the early days of the 1960s, British filmmakers felt the tight grip on the public's morals loosen just a bit. One place where the new British attitudes could be observed was in the movies. In A TASTE OF HONEY a very ordinary-looking woman (the excellent Rita Tushingham) escapes her lower-middle-class life and goes to live with social outcasts. It was banned in several countries for various reasons; according to Wikipedia, Tushingham said in 2020 that "a lot of the reaction was 'People like that don’t exist'--by which they meant homosexuals, single mothers and people in mixed-race relationships. But they did." It is part of a British social realist movement known as "kitchen sink realism".
[A TASTE OF HONEY (1961), Wednesday, April 17, 12:00 PM]
[-mrl/ecl]
And some comments on some other films:
Other films of interest include:
For Shakespeare's birthday (April 23) we have:
8:00 AM ROMEO AND JULIET (1937) 10:15 AM HAMLET (1948) 1:15 PM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1935) 3:30 PM HENRY V (1944) 6:00 PM THRONE OF BLOOD (1957)
Is TCM having a theme of blackface and racial stereotypes this month? We have:
THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956): A combination of progressiveness (interracial romance) on one hand, and racial stereotypying and yellowface (Marlon Brando as a Japanese) on the other.
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958): Charleton Heston portraying a Mexican police officer.
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939): And speaking of racial stereotyping, ...
On the positive side, there are:
THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1959): A somewhat more nuanced portrayal of race, though it still came in for criticism. (One critic noted that since Mel Ferrer was only slightly lighter than Harry Belafonte, it somewhat soft-pedaled the question of interracial relationships.)
THE UGLY AMERICAN (1963): Brando plays an American in this one, leaving the Asian roles to Asian/Asian-American actors.
Also running are:
BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) and BEN-HUR (1959): In my opinion, the silent film version has a more exciting chariot race scene than the 1959 Charleton Heston remake. (It is followed on April 1 by a half-dozen classic, but lesser seen, silent films.)
CIMARRON (1960): Again, I think the "big scene"--in this case, the Oklahoma land rush--is better in the older, 1931 version, which also shows up occasionally on TCM.
MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982) and THE PRODUCERS (1967): Two "behind-the-scenes" films, one about television, the other about the theater.
THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982) and VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982): Two films that feature--in very different ways--cross-dressing (which probably means there are states which want to ban them).
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Other films of interest include: MONDAY, April 1 6:00 AM Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) 8:30 AM The Big Parade (1925) 11:15 AM The Unholy Three (1925) 1:00 PM The Cameraman (1928) 2:30 PM The Crowd (1928) 4:15 PM The Broadway Melody (1929) 6:00 PM Flesh and the Devil (1926) 8:00 PM Grand Hotel (1932) WEDNESDAY, April 3 8:15 AM The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) 11:30 PM A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) SUNDAY, April 7 6:00 AM Two on a Guillotine (1965) TUESDAY, April 9 4:15 AM Cabin in the Sky (1943) 8:00 PM Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) WEDNESDAY, April 10 1:30 AM The Seventh Victim (1943) 3:00 AM The Vanishing (1988) 8:00 AM Lawrence of Arabia (1962) THURSDAY, April 11 8:00 PM My Favorite Year (1982) FRIDAY, April 12 2:15 AM The Producers (1967) 3:45 AM The Great Dictator (1940) SUNDAY, April 14 8:00 PM Gone With the Wind (1939) TUESDAY, April 16 12:15 AM Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) 2:15 AM Ben-Hur (1959) 6:00 AM A Carol for Another Christmas (1964) 9:00 AM Touch of Evil (1958) THURSDAY, April 18 1:30 AM The Ugly American (1963) FRIDAY, April 19 2:30 AM Simon (1980) SATURDAY, April 20 12:00 PM The Magic Flute (1975) 6:15 PM The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) MONDAY, April 22 6:00 AM Forbidden Planet (1956) 7:45 AM Cimarron (1960) 10:15 AM Doctor Zhivago (1965) 11:00 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) TUESDAY, April 23 3:45 AM Network (1976) TUESDAY, April 23 8:00 AM Romeo and Juliet (1937) 10:15 AM Hamlet (1948) 1:15 PM A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) 3:30 PM Henry V (1944) 6:00 PM Throne of Blood (1957) WEDNESDAY, April 24 11:30 AM Camelot (1967) FRIDAY, April 26 9:45 AM Black Narcissus (1947) MONDAY, April 29 7:45 AM Westworld (1973) 11:45 AM My Favorite Year (1982) 1:30 PM Clash of the Titans (1981) 3:30 PM The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) 10:00 PM Victor/Victoria (1982) WEDNESDAY, May 1 3:15 AM The Apartment (1960)
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I have been reading about the Year of the Four Emperors (69 C.E.). I have previously reviewed Gwyn Morgan's 69 A.D.: THE YEAR OF THE FOUR EMPERORS here (MT VOID, 01/18/2013), and have a couple of more books on the subject down the road.
But I have an interest in the entire Roman period, and I decided I also wanted to read about the lesser-known (or rather, shorter-lived) emperors. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius are covered fairly thoroughly in the books about 69 as well as in Suetonius. I suppose the next would be Nerva, but for some reason I decided to skip to the Year of the Five Emperors (193 C.E., with Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, and Septimus Severus). But first there was Lucius Verus, co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius from 161 to 169. I figured that our 1937 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica would have a decent article on him, so I was quite astonished to discover that there was *no* article on Lucius Verus. The man was a Roman emperor for eight years, and gets no article in the Britannica?!
(I am reminded of mentioning Jose Saramago on a panel at a science fiction convention and discovering that no one else in the room had heard of him. Saramago was a Nobel Prize winner who had written several science fiction and fantasy novels, yet a room full of science fiction fans had never heard of him.)
[-ecl]
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Quote of the Week:
The better I get to know men, the more I find myself
loving dogs.
--Charles de Gaulle
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