"Raiders of the Lost Ark" Soundtrack Post Up

Every now and then, I still find time to write up a guest post for James the Movie Reviewer, showcasing a favorite soundtrack of mine.  And today, I've got a post up here about the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) soundtrack.  Enjoy!

August Blogathon Alert

Next month, there are two cool blogathons I'll be participating in.  They overlap a little, but I'm not fussed.  I'll just have lots of new content here all of a sudden, right?

Up first is the Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon hosted by Eva at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness.  I'll for sure be contributing a list of my favorite ten Hitch films.  If I have time, I'll also contribute a movie review -- we'll see.  Go here to sign up for this event.  Eva only just announced this event two days ago, so there are plenty of titles available!

Beginning one day later, the Film Noir Blogathon will be hosted by The Midnite Drive-In.  I'm signed up to review two Alan Ladd films for that one, The Blue Dahlia (1946) and The Glass Key (1942).  If you want to join that event, you can do so here.

 
I'm very much looking forward to these two events, how about you?

Happy Independence Day!

Happy birthday to the land of the free and the home of the brave!

We're having friends and family over for a cookout this evening, and to shoot some fireworks off (if it stops raining), so Cowboy and I have been busy getting some goodies ready.  Here are my two contributions!  Fruit kabobs and a bluebarb pie :-9

I hope my fellow Americans are all having fun celebrating this weekend too!

"The Proud Rebel" (1958)

It's Olivia de Havilland's 100th birthday today!  And unlike most of the people whose birthdays I celebrate here... Olivia de Havilland is still alive!  Isn't that amazing?  Happy birthday, Ms. de Havilland!

In her honor, Phyllis Loves Classic Movies and In the Good Old Days of Hollywood are hosting a birthday blogathon dedicated to her all weekend long!  You can find links to the other entries here.  For this event, I am reviewing the little-known western The Proud Rebel (1958).  I call it a western, but it takes place in Aberdeen, Illinois, and there aren't really any cowboys in it.  Some sheepherders and farmers, but that's it.  Still, it has the feel of a western to it, and generally is classified as such.

John Chandler (Alan Ladd), his son David (David Ladd), and their dog Lance arrive in Aberdeen looking for Doctor Davis (Cecil Kellaway, who was the doctor in And Now Tomorrow with Alan Ladd too).  They explain that David can't talk.  For a year, since having a shock, he has been mute, communicating through sign language and grunting noises.  The doctor recommends they seek out a man in Minnesota, Dr. Eli Strauss, who has had some success with similar cases.

But before the Chandlers can leave for Minnesota, John has a run-in with some local nasties, Harry Burleigh (Dean Jagger) and his sons Jeb and Tom (Harry Dean Stanton and Tom Pittman).  The Burleighs own a big sheep ranch, and they take a shine to the Chandler's dog, who is wonderful at herding sheep.  So they try to steal him, but when John catches them at it, they beat him up, claim he was drunk, and try to get him thrown in jail.  The meanies!

But a woman farmer named Linnett Moore (Olivia de Havilland) feels sorry for David, so she offers to pay his father's fine if he will work off the debt on her farm.  The judge agrees, and so the Chandlers ride out to Linnett's farm.  It's dry, dusty, run down.  But has good possibilities.  Linnett tells them she didn't get him out of jail as an act of charity.  She has a 200-acre farm she runs all by herself, and she can't really handle it.  Her barn's in bad repair, her fences need mending, she has stock to tend, fields to plow, and so on.  Chandler tells her simply, "I know about farming, ma'am."

So they get to work, chopping wood, repairing the barn, pitching hay, and so on.  David has a rip-roaring good time sliding down haystacks and taking cows to pasture while his father plows.

Linnett dotes on David, but has a harder time connecting to John.  They always seem to end up quarreling, though in a friendly way.  But before you know it, they're all sharing meals in her kitchen.

But guess who Linnett's neighbors are?  Those mean, nasty, low-down Burleighs.  They want her farm, and they'll use any underhanded means necessary to force her off it, including wrecking her fences, driving their sheep into her crops, and even burning down the barn John had just finished repairing.

Still, the Chandlers and Linnett keep right on farming until Dr. Davis arrives with a letter from Dr. Strauss in Minnesota that says he thinks he could help David.  But the Chandlers will need three hundred dollars for the trip up there, and they'll need to leave within a week.  John tries to raise the money by selling his horse and saddle, and Dr. Davis offers to loan him some.  But of course, there's only one way to raise that much cash quick:  he could sell Lance, but would break David's heart in the process.

(The next two paragraphs contain SPOILERS.)

While The Proud Rebel is a relatively simple, straight-forward story, it plumbs some intriguing depths.  Should a father have the right to sell his son's beloved dog just for the chance of restoring the boy's hearing?  I think modern films would say that no!  That boy's feelings for a dog must surely trump his father's desire to help him speak again, right?  But what about when that boy grows up?  The dog won't live forever, but the boy might have to live his whole life mute because his father couldn't raise the money for an operation.  It's such a meaty, difficult problem, and I think the film handles it well.  Particularly because John is a loving, gentle father who only wants the best for his son -- he's not laying down the law and being a peremptory authority figure here.  He does what he believes is the right thing for his son even though it might cause the boy to hate him.  John Chandler understands that doing what is right often means doing what is hard.  And later, when he realizes that he has the opportunity to get David's dog back, he risks his life to do so, walking straight into a trap that he knows is a trap to keep his promise to his son.

And then there's Linnett.  Never married, she's hung onto the farm she loves and worked harder than most of us today can imagine, trying to make a living and keep her land away from the bullies next door.  Her life must look a little hopeless before the Chandlers come.  But when John decides to leave with David to see out the doctor in Minnesota, she supports his decision, even though it will mean losing these two people she has grown to care so much for, who have brought hope and joy to her lonely life.  Even though she argues with John plenty over whether he should sell the dog, she accepts that this is his decision to make and doesn't try any kind of underhanded trickery to stop him.  She's a straight arrow, Linnett Moore, and not a caricature of a strong woman, but a truly sturdy one.

(END of SPOILERS.)

Olivia de Havilland's performance here is charming.  I'm so used to her playing ladylike, genteel characters like Melanie Wilkes or Maid Marian, and seeing her as the rough-edged Linnett Moore is a treat for me.

I love how she moves, walking and sitting as if, under her skirts, she's wearing trousers.  I'm surprised she doesn't wear them, living out on the farm alone like she did before the Chandler's came into her life.  They'd be so much easier to farm in than that big skirt, I would think.  But maybe that's the point -- she's just feminine enough to want the constant reminder that she's a woman doing a man's job, not a man.  She never gave up hoping that someday, somehow, she'd meet a man who would love her, want to marry her.  Who would see her strong heart instead of her work-roughened hands.

When we first meet Linnett, she's nice, but cynical.  Over the course of the film, hers is the biggest character arc, as she learns to like the Chandlers, then to trust them, and finally to love them.  De Havilland plays it beautifully, never letting Linnett lose her strength, but slowly letting her relax and soften little by little, as she learns to hope again.

The first time I watched this, I admit I spent more time mourning how much Alan Ladd had aged in the five years since Shane than paying attention to his performance.  Sure, his character is supposed to look weary and worn down by his troubles, but he looks a decade older than his forty-five years, to me.  In six more years, he'd be dead.  That made me very sad, and I found the whole movie a sad experience as a result.

This time through, I knew what to expect, and could focus on his acting instead.  And I was so impressed by how he balanced dignity and despair, often in the same moment.  This was a man who'd been rich and happy, but who'd lost his home and wife, not to mention his money, during the war, and spent the next year hearing time and again that his son would never speak again.  He's lost almost everything -- his son is all he has left, and his love for that boy is evident in every scene they share.

It helps, of course, that David Chandler is played by David Ladd, who has a sunny smile and pulls off all the sign language nicely.  For me, the best part of casting Alan Ladd's own son David as his son here is how naturally they behave together.  There's something different in how a parent touches their child than how even a good friend of the family or a grandparent does.  A parent is more proprietary, if that makes sense.  A non-parent will always be a little hesitant, touching carefully.  A parent touches them almost unconsciously, as though they have a perfect right to handle their child because, well, they do, and that's practically impossible to imitate.

Watching the two of them here, you can see that Ladd was an affectionate, kind father -- David's acting overall is fine for a child actor, but not nuanced or skilled enough to fake the level of confident love he displays for his father.

And then there's Dean Jagger, playing a lousy, cheating jerk.  Grrrrrrrrr, I despise his character, Harry Burleigh.  Which is hard on me, because I'm so used to loving him as General Waverley in White Christmas.  Hmph.

Happily, I'm not watching this movie for Dean Jagger :-)

You can watch this for free here if you have Amazon Prime or Amazon Video.  Or you can watch it here or here on YouTube.  It's in the public domain, so you can also buy in on DVD very cheaply, though of course, the quality varies.  I have this version, which is what I got my screencaps from.  If you've seen a different edition that has better picture quality, please let me know!

This is my thirteenth and final entry for the Period Drama Challenge as well.  That challenge ends tomorrow, and it has been such fun!  Thank you so much for hosting it again, Miss Laurie!  I look forward to doing one final recap post for it soon.  And look!  I squeaked one last Alan Ladd film in for it :-)  I don't have much to say about the costumes for this film -- they're perfectly fine, but nothing exciting.  Still, here's one of Linnett in her prettiest dress and shawl:

Is this movie family friendly?  Yes, it definitely is.  Nary a cuss word.  Not so much as one kiss, though there's a little innuendo about Linnett having such a handsome man working on her ranch.  But he clearly is occupying a completely different building from her, and of course, David is always there, so the audience knows no one's getting into any hanky-panky.  There's a little violence, including a gunfight at the end that involves some deaths, but almost no blood is shown.  The barn burning might be too scary for young children, though.

Thanks for reading!  Now go check out the Olivia de Havilland Centenary Blogathon for more great posts dedicated to this talented, lovely actress.

Another Movie-Themed Liebster Award

Phyl at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies tagged me with this.  I really liked her questions so even though I just did one last month, I'm doing this again :-)  I'm not going to tag anyone this time around, though, so if you want to play, go ahead and consider yourself tagged!  You can just use these same questions again.


1. Out of the classic movie stars still alive (Olivia de Havilland, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner, Jerry Lewis, Sidney Poitier, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, to name some), who would you most like to meet and what would you talk about?

That's such a hard choice!  Kind of a toss-up between Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds, but Julie Andrews was a huge part of my childhood, and Dick Van Dyke too.  Hmm.  What if I interviewed Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke at the same time and asked them all about making Mary Poppins?

2. That one classic movie you really want to see but can't seem to get your hands on a copy.

One?!?!  Okay, the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Maureen O'Hara as Esmerelda has been on my to-watch list for a loooong time, but it has yet to cross my path.

3. Current movie star crush (and by current I mean the one you're crushing on right now, not necessarily a current celebrity).

Alan Ladd.  "Crushing" is too mild a term at this point, though.  So are "swooning" and "gushing."  "Obsessing" might come close.  As you might be able to tell from a certain Pinterest board...

4. James Stewart or Gary Cooper?

James Stewart!  No contest.

5. You're interning at a studio and you find a box (let's say 23 ft) hidden away that hasn't been touched in decades. What do you find inside?

A treasure trove of "lost" Rudolph Valentino movies!!!!

6. What would you write your thesis on if you got a films studies degree?

Oh, either something to do with John Wayne or the film versions of Raymond Chandler's books.

7. What TV house would you like to live in?

I always thought the Taylor home on The Andy Griffith Show looked comfortable.  Though I really wonder what Andy is pointing to here.

8. A Classic Movie Star asks you to help them write their autobiography, who is it?

Eeeeee!  Um, presumably someone who's still alive, so... Doris Day, maybe?  I do try to always buy pajamas that look like she would wear them.  I'm sure that would help somehow...

9. Do you prefer films with over-the-top costumes that are a feast to the eyes or films where the costumes aren't noticeable and where your main focus is the story?

Either way, my main focus is going to be the characters and story, so it makes little difference to me, I'm afraid.

10. Last year TCM had a free online class on Film Noir. What topic would you like to see a free class on in the future?

They did?  And I missed it?  Bummer!  Well, in the future, one on westerns would be awesome.  Especially if I knew about it and could participate.

11. What Olivia de Havilland film are you most looking forward to seeing in July?

Well, I'm going to be rewatching The Proud Rebel (1958) tonight to put the finishing touches on my review of it for a certain blogathon.  But I think I'll also try to watch The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with my kids this weekend.  Or maybe I'll finally convince them to try Captain Blood (1935), if they're in a piratical mood.

The Quotation Tag -- Day 3

The third and final day!  Once again, here are... The Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you 
Nominate 3 new bloggers every day 
Post a new quotation every day for 3 consecutive days
(Hey, I got them all done in a single week, at least!)

Here are the final three quotations about writing that I want to share:

(It's nice to know he had days like that too.)

(That's my favorite reason for writing.  So I can read the story!)

(Yes!  Time to turn that faucet on.)

Today, I am nominating Eva at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness, Jamie at Through Two Blue Eyes, and Meredith at On Stories and Words.  Play if you want to!

Spindle Chat: Kathryn McConaughy

It's Thursday again, and time for the final chat with one of my fellow Five Magic Spindles authors.  Please welcome Kathryn McConaughy, author of "Guardian of our Beauty."  Set in the Ancient Near East, this story has a far different flavor from any fairy tale retelling I have ever encountered before.  Which isn't surprising, considering Kathryn does things in real life like go on archaeological digs in the Holy Land.

Kathryn started a new blog recently too, called The Language of Writing, which I think you'll especially dig if you're a writer.

Here are her answers to my questions :-)

My favorite book when I was a child:  Brian Jacques' The Long Patrol. I loved his Redwall series, which combined high adventure, riddles, and every accent in the UK. Nowadays, the lack of characterization (especially noticeable in his later books) tends to annoy me.

My favorite book now:  Either George MacDonald's The Princess and the Crone, A Double Story, or George MacDonald's The Curate's Awakening. Whether he's writing fairy tales or realistic novels of nineteenth century life in England and Scotland, George MacDonald has no equal.

A book I never want to read again:  Just to pick one, Boccaccio's Decameron. My mom found this on a Great Books list and assigned it to me in junior high. I was old enough to understand what was going on, but not old enough to realize that my mom had no clue what was in it, and just STOP reading.

The book that made me want to be a writer:  The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Although I had been writing long before I read this book, the first story I actually thought might someday be published was inspired by the Shannara world.

A book people might be surprised to learn that I love:  Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett. Normally, the whole paranormal fiction thing (vampires, zombies, etc.) does nothing for me, but this book, with the socially inept but soft-hearted Death as the main character, and a parasitic Mall organism as the main villain, manages to parody all of paranormal fiction while at the same time creating a convincing and hilarious world.

The book that I want to read next:  The fifth book in Naomi Novik's Her Majesty's Dragon series. The series feels exactly like a set of real Napoleonic-era travel volumes or memoirs--but with dragons! In the earliest books, the presence of dragons makes relatively little difference to the course of events in the war; but as time goes on, the effects begin to snowball... Napoleon makes it to England! (And that's all I'm going to say!)

The first TV show I watched every episode of:  Stargate SG-1. Initially intrigued by the Ancient Near Eastern connections of the premise, I fell in love with the characters and stuck with the series even through seasons 9 and 10 (ugh). I am just too much of a completist!

A TV show I want to try:  Castle, with Nathan Fillion. I am a big fan of humorous cop shows of the less-gory variety.

The song that always cheers me up:  Anything from the new movie version of Annie, even the songs that are supposed to be sad. My favorite for cheer-up power is the helicopter song (possibly called something like "The City's Yours").

A movie that I fell in love with recently:  Zootopia, from Disney. I laughed so hard in the theater... it's a good thing there were only 3 people there! Fuzzy animals + humorous cop action + great characterization + creative world!

A book I've read over and over:  There are a lot of books in this category, but I will go with Janet Kagan's Hellspark. If you like linguistics, anthropology, or perfectly-realized wacky human cultures, plus great humor and characters, this is the scifi book for you.

My literary hero:  Anthony Trollope, who decided to supplement his income as a Royal Post Office worker by writing novels of English life. He was in his forties. He proceeded to write about 50 massive novels in the next 30 years (and learn Latin)!

A movie ending I'd like to change:  The end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. You can't kill Pietro! He was in hundreds of comics, X-Men and Avengers and Inhumans... now you can't bring those stories to the screen! (Oh, wait--the X-Men franchise still has him, but not Wanda... why can't you work out a shared universe, guys?)

Thanks so much for participating, Kathryn!  I've had a lot of fun introducing my new writer friends to my blogging friends, and I hope you've all enjoyed this as well.

If you agree or disagree with Kathryn about any of the cool stuff she brought up, or if you just want to say, "Hey, is going on an archaeological dig in the Holy Land actually fun?" please leave her a comment!