Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

There's no trusting solictors, is there? 

Thanks for the post Motherinlaw. Mind you they do come in handy when the tax department comes calling   lol.

A food related item today: " A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus if you let fruit rot then it turns into Wine; something that Brussel sprouts will never do ." ( by PJ O'Rourke ).

Gotta love P.J. O'Rourke, badenwurtca.  The man is a modern day H.L. Mencken with an acerbic sense of humor and a lot of good sense.  I recently purchased a new release of O'Rourke's writings, namely Thrown Under the Omnibus.  Clever title; looking forward to reading it.

Thanks a lot for the post and the info Fightingbob.

A cute item about driving by Seniors: " You know somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on my windscreen that said: Parking Fine " ( from Tommy Cooper ).

One of the most interesting places on the planet ( for movie lovers ) is Hollywood, however not everyone likes the film studios. Here is a cute quote from John Le Carre: " Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes ". 

That's a good one, badenwurtca.  I wonder how le Carré felt about the 1965 Martin Ritt film, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.  Though exceedingly depressing, I found it a first-rate film.

What a moving performance from Richard Burton.  Just checked for the rest of the cast --I'd forgotten Oscar Werner was in it -- another superb actor.

I agree with you again, Mil.  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold are Richard Burton's two best performances, but I also like him in Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967).  Seems his best performances took place in a period of two to three years.

My favorite Oscar Werner performance is in François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966).  I love that film, particularly the ending with The Book People's symphony of words in a community carrying forth the culture as the gentle snow falls, and all to the melancholy music of the sensitive and supremely talented Bernard Herrmann.  See it here.

Thanks for the posts.

   ---   I do remember seeing that film back about 40 years ago but I need to watch again sometime as I seem to have forgotten most of the plot   lol. I do have the 2 mini-series on DVD that were made of John Le Carre's " Tinker Tailor " & " Smiley's People " which featured the late great Alec Guiness. I like to watch those two shows at least once a year as they were very well made.  

   ---   Yes Oskar Werner was very good too. I mainly remember him from " Voyage Of The Damned " & " In The Shoes Of The Fisherman " ( ITSOTF also featured Anthony Quinn as well as several other great actors ).

I recently heard an old Fresh Air interview with Edward Albee in which Terri Gross asked about his reaction to  the film version of his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  (Tayor won Best Actress, and Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis all got Oscar nominations.)  

Albee was pointedly critical of Nichols for having taken the humor out of his "funny" play -- seemed convinced that Nichols was trying to prove himself as a "serious" director, in order to overcome his "comedIan" image.

Albe also expressed clear disappointment that the studio had gone back on its promise to put Bette Davis and James Mason in the starring roles.  And when I heard him say that, I thought "Damn -- they would have been better!"

We are in complete agreement, badenwurtca.  Both 1980s productions syndicated on independent TV stations (by the 1980s, network TV no longer cared about plays, series or, not to but too fine a point on it, anything where the viewer had to pay attention) were excellent.  I own both DVD boxed set by Acorn Video, one received as a Christmas present and the other purchased outright.

This time I have to take exception, Mil.  A friend of mine followed Mr. Albee's career and said he was the worst interpreter of his own plays when they went from page to stage.  He invariably mucked it up when he was the director.

As I said, I've watched the film version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, more than once, really, and I've seen it performed locally at a well respected theatre, and I still prefer the tension and fluidity of Mike Nichols' film with the exception of such dated material as Martha's (Elizabeth Taylor) gyrations to 1960s music in the bar scene.

Regarding Bette Davis and James Mason, I don't think Dick and Liz could be improved upon, particularly since they were husband and wife and had their own rows -- make that battles -- in real life they could draw upon.  Perhaps I'm prejudiced because I never cared for Betty Davis except in the atypical role of an Irish wife and mother in A Catered Affair (1956), which despite the critical reviews at the time of its release is a fine film.  In too many of her roles she came across the way she did in real life, a flinty, New England Yankee and Puritan.  Admittedly, she was a bit "softer" in the 1942 film, Now, Voyager.

I've seen the movie a bunch of times, and I haven't seen Albee's original play, but I'll bet you're right that Nichols' version improved on it.  

Listening to Albee's assessment of the film and of Nichols' directing, I was hard-pressed to detect any significant hint of a "funny bone" in the playwright.  And Albee's speculation that Nichols was trying to overcome his image as a humorist seemed odd --- Albee's projection of his own anti-humorist bias?  Professional jealosy/envy of Nichols' comedic gifts? 

As for Davis, she certainly gave a lot of mannered performances, but so did Taylor.  The big commonality, I think: when either one was on the screen, you couldn't take your eyes off them.  And thanks for mentionning Now, Voyager, one of my favorite films of that era.  I think of that one as Davis at her best, in a beautifully convincing character transformation, much like her role in Jezebel.

Thanks for the new posts and for the info.

I'm a fan of James Mason and as his name has come up I wanted to mention one of his films. Being a history buff I wanted to say that I quite enjoyed the film " The Blue Max " where Mason played a German General ( a bad guy ). Of course Mason was in quite a large number of films, I wish that I had seen more of his work.  

Odd that you should bring up The Blue Max, badenwurtca.  My closest friend loves the film, and Jerry Goldsmith wrote a magnificent score much as he did for The Sand Pebbles (1966) and Patton (1970).

As far as James Mason, I recommend the British film Odd Man Out (1947) as well as Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), North by Northwest (1959), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and Stanley Kubrick's interpretation of Nabokov's Lolita (1962).  No doubt you've seen many of these.