Watched another episode of "Four Star Playhouse" last night. This time, the episode starred David Niven and was called "The Firing Squad".I know I've only seen two episodes of this little show, but I have to say that so far, I am very impressed. For a 30 min show, they sure pack in a decent story, I'll give them that."The Firing Squad", was, unsurprisingly, about an execution. It takes place in the Australian army (was David Niven an Aussie? Just find it interesting that Boyer's piece was set in France and Niven's was set in North Africa, but within the Australian army) when a group of guys desert the army with a bunch of American guys, they all get in a fight, and someone (IIRC, an MP) is killed. A bunch of the fellows got away, but one fellow was caught - a young Aussie who didn't even have a gun on him.Anyway, he was sorta made into a scapegoat for the whole lot of them and sentenced to death. No one wanted to carry out the execution though, because they knew that he wasn't guilty of the shooting himself. And further, he was a very likable kid who never intended to be any trouble.Numerous times during the episode, it was emphasized that even the court who had sentenced him had expected the sentence to be overturned. But here we were, and someone had to carry it out.The General of the whole area delegated the task to a battalion leader, who was not happy about it at all. The battalion leader, in turn, delegated the thing to a Captain (Niven), who he knew was opposed to the execution. The battalion leader promised the captain that a bit of nastiness on his permanent record would 'go missing', once the job was done, but the captain was still not happy about it.The captain next had to pick a sergeant to head up the actual firing squad, and the sergeant had to pick 10 guys to be the shooters. No one at the lower ranks was happy about the job either and their 'pots had to be sweetened' as well.The night before the execution, the condemned man asked to see the captain. The captain didn't want to go - he was terrified, in fact. But he went and faced the young man anyway. Of course, this made the young man more 'real' to him, and it didn't help either that the young man was very nice and had in fact called him there to tell him that he understood and was not upset with the captain. The captain was even more distressed about having to carry out this job by the end of the meeting, but he had no choice - orders were orders. And one more bad mark on his record and he was through.Next morning, they assembled the firing squad. The young man was brought out. Big drama as everyone who really didn't want to be there looked highly distressed. The captain gave the order to raise weapons. A long pause. And then the captain told the men to lower their weapons. He just couldn't do it. He couldn't give the order.The captain was then arrested and hauled off to his face his own court-martial, disgrace, and punishment. But the young soldier was essentially set free because under the law, they were not allowed to put him through that ordeal twice.Really, a pretty moving little show for 30 minutes.Next week it looks like another one with Charles Boyer. Woohoo! :D

1. Well, had to take the jeep in today. Heard a horrible noise when I put on the breaks without the radio on ( :D ), and decided it is time for new break pads. Took the thing in instead of coming straight to work, and luckily for me, they had a loaner car. So now I'm driving around a little squatty-body regular car. I feel so.....LOW. *lol* Like any moment, a giant is gonna step on this little car I'm driving and squish me like a bug.I'm already suffering from Phlash withdrawal. No XM radio in this little tin-can on wheels.2. I've been thinking how totally pleased I am that the Babylon 5 project in DS9 is going so well. Lots of participation, lots of interest. I only hope it stays like that, since it will take over a year to complete! Hopefully, it will also continue to generate some goodwill between the fans of those two shows. Both of which happen to be fantastic. :DThe forum has always been a pretty tight group of people who get along well for the most part...but this has sorta given the place a spark of new life or something. I mean, everyone who posts in there regularly is passionate about DS9 (well okay, not EVERYONE...but close to everyone :D ), but let's face it, how many times can we talk about the same subjects? I love the show and would never leave that forum and those posters (was only tempted once to even *ask* for a transfer...and that was only cus of a certain sea-creature-who-shall-remain-nameless who would have been my co-mod if I'd transferred)...but it's good to have a new project that we are doing, more or less together as a group.We really need to get that group avatar thing we used to do for movies going again.....maybe I need to get Damir and Kev on that. They are such good sports :D And they haven't run any projects or big threads in there in a long time.3. Finally got Errol Flynn's autobiography in the mail yesterday. I have read it is really excellent, so I was anxious to pick it up. I read the general intro (not written by Flynn, but more *about* him and his sideline writing career, which he was surprisingly good at, given who we are talking about here) and the preface (written by Flynn) last night. And I have to say that if the preface is any indication, the reviews are correct. He is quite an amusing writer - very cynical and holds absolutely NOTHING back. If he thinks it - he says it, and damn the torpedoes. In short, I think his writing sort of reflects the way I guess he lived his life. And if that is the case, I'm quite sure I'll be laughing my way through this book, if for no other reason than his cynical, but quite humorous and entertaining attitude. (Kinda reminds me of my own RL sense of humor, actually!)I happen to think that he was a very talented man. Sadly, he pretty much killed himself with his lifestyle though, and was only 50 when he died.Anyway, looking forward to reading this. Even the title is a very tongue-in-cheek cynical joke that was intended to mock his detractors: "My Wicked, Wicked Ways". *lol*Now who could resist reading a book with a title like that????

Yes, it's the time of year where I can't even walk down the hall to the ladies room without being hit-up for Free Tax Advice.Wouldn't be so bad if they showed just a bit of gratitude and took me to lunch or something to discuss their tax issues large and small. But instead, people seem to think that CPAs went to school for 5 years and studied for the CPA exam for fun or somethin'. And that it is okay for them to not only solicit as much Free Tax Advice from me as possible, but also to put me behind in my OWN work in order to get it.So they get Free Tax Advice. And I get to work late, for no additional pay.Bleh.People can be such grubs.

TeacherYou scored 72 intelligence, 59 diligence, 44 charisma, and 51 compassion!

You are well-rounded and nurturing. The future of the world is in your hands. People will never understand how difficult your job is until they try it. "Don't you spend all day coloring pictures?" Ha. Right.Other jobs you might be good at: pretty much anything you enjoy




My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:







You scored higher than 89% on intelligence






You scored higher than 68% on diligence






You scored higher than 39% on charisma






You scored higher than 72% on compassionLink: The Ideal Job for Your Personality Test written by newbluechampion on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating TestAlthough I have to protest. This quiz was clearly developed by a kid who grew up during the "War On Drugs". When your only choices for who you hung out with are "Jocks", "Populars" and "Nerds", you are missing about half of my high school student body. *lol* Where is the option for me? Dope smokers, partiers and hoods? *lol*Now true, I was a 'good' hood - I made straight A's and graduated at the top of my class, while hanging out with people who made anything but good grades. But nonetheless....

Thanks to TiVo, last night I got a chance to watch an episode of Four Star Playhouse, a TV series that Charles Boyer did in the early 1950's with David Niven, Dick Powell, and Ida Lupino. The episodes are only 30 minutes long each and the 4 actors sort of 'rotated' - one of them is in each episode, but none of them are in all episodes, and rarely with each other. The great thing about this series is that in short bursts, you get a chance to see some really fine film actors in action. Even the guests are top notch.The one that popped up last night was one with Charles Boyer in it, of course, cus he's the one in my TiVo wishlist. But when I had TiVo search for more episodes of the same show, it found some others, no doubt with one of the other three actors starring in those episodes.I think I'm gonna watch them all, cus the one last night was great. It was set in France (surprise!), and it's about a man named Jacques (Boyer) who discovers that one of his oldest friends has passed away. Apparently, he went under while swimming in the sea, and was never seen again - assumed to be a drowning victim. Jacques is very disturbed by this, because 2 weeks before the drowning, he received a letter from his friend, an artist, telling him that his wife was 'killing him' - she was 'gonna be the death of me'. At the time of our story, the drowning had taken place 10 months ago, but Jacques had only put two and two together recently, when he was going through some old papers and came across his friend's letter, received 2 weeks before he died.Jacques decides to go check out the situation for himself and do a bit of investigation to determine if the wife had killed his friend.When he arrives in the town, he first goes to the cafe across from the house, and the waiter there tells him that in the weeks before his death, Jacques' friend had been very agitated and nervous. This revelation makes Jacques more suspicious, and he goes immediately to meet his friend's wife, who is played by Angela Lansbury (guess Boyer liked her work on Gaslight).The wife turns out to be very hospitable, however. She is charming, and gives him the run of the house immediately. She insists that he go through his friends' studio and desk for anything he might like and is very cooperative overall. She even invites him to stay there while he is in town...or for as long as he likes, to pursue his work as a writer. He can use the studio, in fact.He agrees to that, mostly to get a closer look at this woman who might have killed his friend. However, in Jacques' best interest, the wife encourages Jacques to write, and begins setting writing goals for him that he must report on each day - first 1,000 words a day, and then she bumps it to 2,500 when he really gets rolling. The 2,500 sorta stresses him out, but she is so charming about it and so supportive of his work that he can't say no. She eventually tells him that they should be married, and that his writing career is the most important thing for her, as well as for him. She kinda pushes him into it, but he finally agrees. And face it - she IS very nice.Well, the wedding day finally arrives. Jacques is uneasy about it. But then something unexpected happens. His old friend turns up - apparently raised from the dead. The friend sneaks into the studio so that no one would see him but Jacques...and he tells Jacques that he essentially faked his own death and is living on a nearby island. The reason? His wife was driving him nuts in 'support' of his career as an artist - setting goals in paintings per week that he just couldn't accomplish without undue stress. He warns Jacques not to marry her - that she will, "in his best interests", work him to death.His friend disappears and goes back to his island...and Jacques is left with a decision. Cut to a courtyard scene with the wife organizing bits for the wedding. Jacques emerges from the studio with his swimming gear. She asks him why he's not ready for the wedding, and he tells her "We have two hours, my dear! Plenty of time! I'm just going to take a little swim. Just a little swim...."And he walks out the gate.Pretty good little story for 30 minutes, huh?Anyway, TiVo is great about picking up stuff like this - stuff I'd surely miss if I didn't have it. It also turned up an episode of "I Love Lucy" that Boyer is apparently in. That'll come on in a couple of weeks.TiVo has found other stuff for me that way. Sweeping in some interesting stuff that I wasn't necessarily looking for, but that nevertheless, sounded really good. I have some great biographical documentaries on alot of the old stars, not because I was looking for them, but because the star's name was in my wishlist in order to search for their films. Got some good Russian history stuff that way too.In short, TiVo totally rocks.

Watched "Petticoat Fever" (1936) tonight. Cute film.This was another one of the Robert Montgomery films I had stacked up on TiVo, this time with Myrna Loy as his co-star.In this film, he plays a lonely wireless operator in the arctic - supposedly in Labrador...although it looked alot more like the North Slope to me. *lol* Nevermind, however. His boredom and loneliness are interrupted by a woman and her fiance crashing their plane near his station. They come to him to get out the cold, and of course, Robert Montgomery's character falls madly in love with Myrna Loy's character.At first, she resists him, but (of course) ends up falling in love with him too. Although it sure didn't hurt that the character of her fiance was a complete yutz.In the meantime, his OWN former fiance shows up...after he'd not heard from her for 2 years. At first he feels sorry for her and almost breaks it off with his new girlfriend...but when he discovers that the only reason the old girlfriend came was because he had just inherited a bunch of money, he stopped feeling bad for her, and runs to catch the ship that Myrna Loy's character is on.Just catches the boat, she jumps off, and they run off in the snow to live happily ever after in the arctic.Okay...so it's a bit corny. Okay...MORE than a bit.But hey...there are certainly worse ways to spend 90 minutes than watching this film!

Watched this last night, in an effort to blitz through some of these Robert Montgomery films stacked up on my TiVo.Like "Trouble for Two", this film starred Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell. And that, pretty much, is where the similarities end.This film was about a wealthy socialite (Russell) who is sick of the comfortable, plastic world she lives in and ends up marrying a poor starving artist named Bob (Montgomery). At first, they continue to live in his dingy little 4th floor walkup, with his best buddy Oscar also staying with them on a regular basis - most of the time, in a drunken stupor on the sofa. They turn down all offers of assistance from her wealthy relatives, and are perfectly happy living a poor, but very real and bohemian lifestyle.Eventually, Bob gets 'discovered'. And in a way, that is where their troubles start. At first his success seems to be exactly what they hoped for, but the more successful he is, the more the wealthy jet-set want to commission him for portraits of themselves, their animals, etc. But of course, these wealthy folks always insist that the portraits make them look perfect...which at one point in Bob's career, would have been a compromise of his art. Now, he struggles for only a minute with it before selling out his art....and his wife Julie is very distressed about this. Soon, he becomes a greedy rich snob. He moves them into a luxurious, but cold and lifeless apartment, he hangs out with all the phony snobs Julie left behind in her past life. Eventually, Julie decides to leave him after Bob kicks Oscar out of their house and insults her for expressing her concern over what has happened to them.Bob is now left alone...and for a little while, he doesn't care. Indeed, on the night Julie moves out, he is left laughing in his studio with his manager - a snobby, selfish, and cruel woman who Julie grew up with.Then one day, he is at a sauna, and runs into the gallery owner who 'discovered' him. The gallery owner will no longer talk to him, however, and indeed tells him that he has sold out so fully that he will never be able to paint anything 'real' again - he has lost his heart.To prove him wrong, Bob tries painting 'real' stuff again, but is a dismal failure. He realizes he *has* lost his heart.Finally, he goes back to Julie, who is now living in their old walk-up apartment...gets his priorities sorted out, and he, Julie and Oscar live happily ever after.Long story short, this was a pretty cute film. Both the leads to a great job...and the actor who played Oscar was very good as well.Not one of my favorite films of all time or anything, but I'd watch it again as it was quite amusing.

Okay, so even though I'd seen it before (a few times, in fact), I was all over this movie. This is one movie that I'm REALLY annoyed is not on DVD yet, because it is a brilliant film. One that I could easily watch again and again.First off, it's a fantastic story. Reluctant drunken hero meets prissy tea-totter missionary woman and together they go downriver in a dumpy, beat-up boat, intent on ramming a German ship and blowing it up using some home-made 'torpedos'. All sorts of excitement along the way, of course, including rapids they had no business in, being shot at from a fort, thick grass and reeds that they had to pull the boat through, leaches, etc. In the end, their heroic plan doesn't work out...but THEY do. Illustrating once again that love is sometimes found in the most unlikely of places. HA!Secondly, this movie could not have been cast any better. Katharine Hepburn made the PERFECT prim and proper Rosie....and she did an EXCELLENT job with the characters evolution into one who was alot less uptight...and alot more adventuresome and tolerant.And what can I say about Humphrey Bogart in this film? He won an Oscar for his role in "The African Queen", for one thing - his Charlie Allnut was just fantastic. Unshaven, dirty, mannerless, uncouth, drunken, and oftentimes just plain gross. But underneath it all, a good hearted person - a hero, in fact...who was only released by Rosie.This film is probably my third favorite Bogart picture - I like "Casablanca" and "To Have and Have Not" a bit more (although in fairness, I like "To Have and Have Not" mostly because of Lauren Bacall). But in terms of Bogart's particular *roles* in the three films, IMO, "The African Queen's" Charlie Allnut and "Casablanca's" Rick are two of the best characters in all of classic film.An excellent movie, I think. And a great vehicle, IMO, for the uninitiated to get into classic film, if they so desire.And THIS time, I was smart enough to burn the doggone thing to DVD, so I would no longer be at TCM's mercy. :D

TCM's schedule has been updated.Get a load of this:March 7 - The CobwebApril 5 - All This and Heaven TooApril 11 - AlgiersApril 22 - Four Horsemen of the ApocalypseApril 25 - Confidential AgentApril 26 - Red-Headed WomanSeeing any THEME emerging there?Perhaps even a THEME that you might want me to BURN onto DVD for you, so that we can be total squealing fangirls together and annoy everyone?:D

Katharine Hepburn Which Silver Screen Siren are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Okay, so I'm bored and messing around with my "Interests" section.On a whim, I put in "hating Dubya" as an interest, figuring I'd be the only one to have thought up something like that.Well, I'm NOT the only one to have thought up something like that! Turns out there are several people who are very much interested in hating Dubya right along with me.Excellent! *huge grin* Maybe I should start a LJ community devoted to hating Dubya!!!I was thinking of starting one for the XM Radio "Sixties on Six" DJ Phlash Phelps, cus he's such a nice guy and has lots of fans.But I might get alot more satisfaction out of a community that is dedicated totally and completely to hating Dubya.Jon Stewart Fans, which I'm a member of, does some meaningful work in the area of hating Dubya. But a community dedicated completely to that singular purpose is really something that should exist.ROTFL!!If course, I might confuse folks if I start another community called "Colin Powell Love"...or something like that. But alas, that's a topic for another post. :D

Watched these two films over the past couple of days."Inspiration" (1931) was a Greta Garbo/Robert Montgomery film. A romance. Garbo plays this bohemian artist's model who basically uses men, who 'keep her' because she is so utterly enchanting. She can never stay with anyone long before losing interest, however...until she meets Andre (Montgomery), who is a younger man from a very wealthy and conservative background. Their affair is on again/off again a few times during the film as he discovers all the sleezy stuff about her, but then can't stay away.But in the end, she leaves him sleeping in front of the fire and runs off with another man who just got out of prison, because she knows that even though she loves him, she is not right for him.It was an okay flick, I guess. Robert Montgomery in 1931 was very young and cute, and it was sorta fun watching him. Garbo was good, but I wouldn't say this was anywhere near her best film. I felt she was kinda over the top melodramatic with the whole passionate "Andre!" moaning. No one moans better than Garbo...but for some reason in this film, it got old after a while. With these sorts of films, I know it's good if I'm tearing up at the end. But this one? No so much. Decent...but not the best film for either of them, IMO.And now on to "Algiers".I got ahold of "Algiers" (1938) as part of my new hobby. :DAnd I have to say, it was definitely a change of pace from the other Charles Boyer films I've seen. I mean, he played a bad guy in "Gaslight", but pretty much everything else has been nice guys.Well, in this one, he plays what is essentially a gangster (French style), but a gangster that you come to sympathize with - kinda like you sympathize with Tony Soprano.Pepe le Moko is a great character. A smart and successful criminal, handsome, a dashing dresser (not hard for Boyer to pull off at all! *lol* ), and a respected member of the community in which he lives, which is the Casbah in Algiers. He's kinda a local hero to the people of the Casbah - they worship him, pretty much, because he never misses a beat. He's incredibly street smart, can read people like a book, tell if they are lying to him or trying to double-cross him, and is not in the least bit shy about exacting appropriate 'payment' for any betrayal. In other words, he's not the guy in the Casbah you wanna be on the wrong side of. His only problem in the world is that he cannot leave the confines of the Casbah, because right outside it's walls, the police are ever-vigilantly waiting for him.Enter Hedy Lamarr's character, Gaby. An American tourist who comes to the Casbah as basically a tourist stop. Pepe meets her, is enchanted by her, and basically forgets everything else. He is in love. Of course, a local woman who adores him gets jealous, and manipulates him into leaving the Casbah to go to Gaby, who misses their last scheduled meeting in the Casbah because she's been told that Pepe has been killed. When he finds out Gaby has been misinformed, he can't let her leave thinking that he is dead. He leaves the Casbah and heads for the docks. The jealous local girl informs the police about him being outside the Casbah and tells them where Pepe is going. The police swing into action and head for the docks. When they arrive, Pepe is running for the ship Gaby is on, planning to get on board. The police arrest him, but as Gaby's ship sails away, he tries to run ahead of the police to catch it...and is shot and killed by one of the officers. The film ends with his dramatic death on the dock...the ship sailing away and Gaby never even seeing he was there (flashes of Omar Sharif here *lol*)Anyway, the film is good, and Boyer's acting is fantastic - he makes the perfect sympathetic criminal - a French Tony Soprano. But Hedy Lamarr, I have decided, was not the best actress to hit the screen. She is stunningly beautiful - almost breathtaking. Of that there is absolutely no doubt. But it wouldn't surprise me to find out that he had to pull her through the entire filming of this movie. Because there were a number of times where she seemed so...uninspired...and the entire scene was made better only because he was in it.Good film. I'm glad I watched it. "Love Affair" and "All This and Heaven Too" are better, IMO. But this one was alot of fun to watch.