Posts Tagged ‘nostalgia’

Sherlock Holmes a matter of perspective…

Posted: December 26, 2009 by datechguy in oddities
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Take a look at this excerpt from Loder’s review of the new movie:

Ritchie’s pandering to the action audience (an agenda no doubt reinforced by knock-’em-dead producer Joel Silver) strips Holmes’ world of its style. The director and his production designer, Sarah Greenwood, have taken considerable pains to conjure the dark cobbled streets and plush interiors of Victorian London — as shot by Philippe Rousselot, this is often a great-looking movie. But the sense of prickly wit and gracious restraint that was translated to the screen so well by the old Holmes films — with their indelible performances by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson — is buried in the over-amped frenzy of this new picture. The only real mystery here is how anyone involved could have thought that trashing such a classic would be a cool idea.

And now take a look at this quote from Nigel Bruce’s via IMDB concerning the classic Holmes movies he made with Basil Rathbone:

The stories we did were modernised but the characters of the famous detective and his biographer were kept more or less as originally written by Conan Doyle. Watson, however, in the films was made much more of a ‘comic’ character than he ever was in the books. This was with the object of introducing a little light relief. The doctor, as I played him, was a complete stooge for his brilliant friend and one whose intelligence was almost negligible. Many of the lovers of Conan Doyle must have been shocked, not by this caricature of the famous doctor but by seeing the great detective alighting from an aeroplane and the good doctor listening to his radio. To begin with, Basil and I were much opposed to the modernising of these stories but the producer, Howard Benedict, pointed out to us that the majority of youngsters who would see our pictures were accustomed to the fast-moving action of gangster pictures, and that expecting machine guns, police sirens, cars travelling at 80 miles an hour and dialogue such as ‘Put em up bud’, they would be bored with the magnifying glass, the hansom cabs, the cobblestones and the slow tempo of an era they never knew and a way of life with which they were completely unfamiliar.

What a difference a half century or so makes!

Sherlock Holmes vs the Spider Woman: Amazon Review

Posted: December 26, 2009 by datechguy in amazon reviews
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My Review of The Spider Woman the 7th entry in Basil Rathbone’s series of Sherlock Holmes adventures is available at Amazon.com here.

Holmes is always best when facing a foe worthy of him and this picture provides that sort of foe.

Given the choice between the special effects and gay overtones of the current movie or the dull tones of a B movie from the World War 2 era, give me WW2 every time.

A Christmas Memory by Fr. Robert Bruso

Posted: December 25, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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This was the message on our Christmas bulletin distributed at mass today and tomorrow. It is reprinted with Fr. Bruso’s permission:

I remember the day I defeated the forces of darkness single handed. It was, as I recall, pretty easy.

I’m not one of those people who can remember everything that happened in my childhood. In fact, in my family I am notorious for getting the facts wrong when we gather to reminisce about the past, but this day I recall vividly, and everyone seems to agree that in this occasion, I got the facts right.

I was in the second grade at Sacred Heart School in Worcester. We were walking up to Vernon Hill from Cambridge Street, the whole gang of us who lived on “The Hill.” It was nearly Christmas and our sense of anticipation was at its height. Santa Claus would be coming soon to make his deliveries to every good little boy and girl, even Billy Spero, who wasn’t Catholic and went to public school. That was OK, my Nana told me, because even if Billy wasn’t Catholic, he went to the Albanian Church and they believed in Jesus, too.

You see we understood that there was an intimate connection between Santa Claus and Jesus. The real Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas, a bishop who loved Jesus and wanted everyone, even the littlest children, to know that Jesus was God’s greatest gift to the human race. If there was no Jesus, there would have been no Santa Claus.

Of course, St. Nicholas’ feast day was December 6 and in some countries in Europe, he brought presents to boys and girls on that day. In some countries, like (in) South America, he brought the presents on January 6. In the United States and in a lot of other countries , he came on Christmas Eve. That made perfect sense to us. He couldn’t be everywhere on the same night. We weren’t stupid.

Which leads me to Jackie Reidy, who thought maybe we were stupid. Jackie was older than I, perhaps in the fifth or sixth grade that year. He thought he knew everything.

We were on Fairfax Road, at the top of Diamond St. Hill. Almost home. A delivery truck was parked in front of a house. ON the side of the truck was a poster of Santa advertising cigarettes. That wasn’t a good thing to be advertising, I know, but it was over fifty years ago and we didn’t know any better then.

Jackie pointed at the picture on the truck and announced to us all:

“You know that there really is no Santa Claus, right?”

There was a stunned silence. I think Mary Lou Murphy, was only in Kindergarten, started to cry.

Someone had to defend the truth. someone had to stand up to this bully. I thought for a minute and then I stepped into the breach:

“Of course there is a Santa Claus,” I said in the full strength of my convictions. “My father doesn’t make that kind of money!”

A sigh of relief washed over the crowd. More than one voice joined in agreeing with me. All of us, from blue collar families, living in three decker tenements on Vernon Hill, knew that there was no extra money in our houses. Most of our fathers worked two jobs just to pay the bills. Yet every Christmas morning, our living room floors were covered with Santa’s bounty. There wasn’t even enough room under the tree for all that he left us. And there was more fudge than even I could eat.

No Santa Claus? What nonsense!

And that was the day I defeated the forces of darkness single handed.

Whenever we deny hope, whenever we shatter dreams, whenever we choose darkness over light, we deny the eternal Hope who is Jesus Christ. All of our traditions at Christmas should point us more clearly to Jesus Christ the Savior. It is His birth we celebrate. He is the greatest gift the world can ever know.

When Santa leaves us presents, he also leaves us hope: our hope in Jesus Christ, our hope for a better world, our hope which no one can take from us.

Merry Christmas! Buon Natale!

The Shepherds; Joseph’s best friends

Posted: December 24, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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I was watching one of those little 30 minute films on Catholic TV this morning showing the Christmas story (I think it was El Salvador produced by Fr. Patrick Payton’s Family Theatre, he of “The Family that prays’ together stays together” fame.). The narration was Bing Crosby and Frankie Avalon appeared in studio after with Fr Payton talking about it.

While I was watching the show, something hit me right across the face.

If you take a look at Scripture there is a difference between the way Mary and Joseph communicate with the messengers of the Lord.

Gabriel appears to Mary directly, she sees and hears him and immediately obeys, the angel pays her homage and says the words that will become the Hail Mary. Mary being immaculate, obeys “behold I am the handmaiden of the Lord…” even knowing that the law could condemn her to death and at the very least she will be shamed. If you think people can be gossips now, consider how it must have been with no TV, Radio, books (scrolls) and literacy rare, what else was there to do BUT gossip? It must have been nasty.

Meanwhile we have Joseph. How does he he get his information? From Dreams and from what Mary tells her.

The Gospel is not explicit as to what he thought but put yourself in his place. Your betrothed has turned up pregnant and she tells you about the Angel of the Lord etc. If you don’t turn her in then your own sin is suspected. Then you have your dream.

The dream gives you the excuse you want to let things be but deep inside the question turns in your head. You KNOW you didn’t touch her, was it really a dream from God, or are you just fooling yourself. Is it a test of faith? I’m a carpenter not a prophet? Am I another Amos?

You take her to the house, you follow the rules of the census and you end up in a stable in Bethlehem all the while doing your best to be a good husband ignoring the elephant in the room.

The Baby is born, a torrent of emotions are going through your wife and yourself …

…and then the Shepherds appear…

…they come out of nowhere. They give homage, in that moment, they confirm that all you have done was right. Even better they tell their story to everyone (Luke 2: 8-18) what do the Gossips say now?

You are Joseph, how relieved are you at this point? Remember unlike Peter he didn’t have years of miracles in front of his face when he denied Christ, he only had the word of a teenage girl and a dream. There would have been little cost to him if he condemned Mary. Yet he didn’t and this moment was that ultimate reward. He passed the ultimate test of faith with flying colors.

A lot of times we consider St. Joseph an afterthought, he deserves better.

Update: I can’t believe I made that spelling mistake corrected, no wonder Tucker hasn’t called.

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