Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent make holiday sparks fly when they begin a controversial romance in Curtis Bernhardt’s MY REPUTATION (1946). Stanwyck plays a newly widowed woman with two teenage boys who meets a handsome major on a skiing trip, and much to the dismay of her friends and family, falls in love and must choose between her happiness and her reputation. Eve Arden is on hand as her best friend to offer humor and consolation, and Lucile Watson plays her formidable battle-axe mother. Warm and romantic, Stanwyck and Brent make a wonderful team. Beautifully photographed, the film is also lovingly scored by Warner’s favorite Max Steiner. It’s a holiday romance that you won’t want to miss. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
For Joseph and Mary, the circumstances of Jesus's birth - in a stable - were far from ideal, but worse was to come as the family was forced to flee the country. It's no surprise that such a human story still captures our imagination and continues to inspire all of us who are Christians, the world over.
Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ's unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another. Although it is not an easy message to follow, we shouldn't be discouraged; rather, it inspires us to try harder: to be thankful for the people who bring love and happiness into our own lives, and to look for ways of spreading that love to others, whenever and wherever we can.
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| Our little hacienda, all lit up for Christmas. |
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| A Syrian refugee fleeing Isis fighters in Tal Abyad holds onto his daughter as he waits to cross into Turkey at Akcakale border gate, on June 15, 2015. (International Business Times, July 10, 2015) |
If the gun lobby ever spoke honestly, what they would say is that of course we are broadly responsible for these killings, but regular mass killings of innocent people is the price we pay for the liberty to own whatever guns we want, in order to be protected from a phantom threat we cannot name. That is their actual belief, although one sees, on examining it, why they never want to state it quite so clearly. So there will be ever more mass gun murders, some to be accepted blankly as the cost of liberty, others to become the occasion for surrendering liberty to a militarized state. Like the song says, only in America.
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| The New York Daily News front page referred to in Gopnik's article: who is a terrorist, exactly? |
William Powell and Myrna Loy create marital bliss and movie history in their first two teamings as Nick and Nora Charles in W.S. Van Dyke’s The Thin Man (1934) and After The Thin Man (1936). Taken from a novel by Dashiell Hammett and based on his relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman, this off-beat husband and wife detective team round up a bunch of fabulous suspects played by top notch character actors and proceed to solve multiple murders. The results are a perfect combination of suspense, hilarity mixed with a touch of sophistication that simply can’t be beat.
Montserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne in concert singing the duet "Belle Nuit", also known as Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Offenbach. Munich, 1990.
Halloween brings thrills and suspense as debonair Michael Rennie arrives from another planet to warn the Earth of impending doom in Robert Wise’s Sci-Fi classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). With a brilliant supporting cast including Patricia Neal, Billy Grey, and Hugh Beaumont, and a spine-tingling score by legendary composer Bernard Herrmann. It’s just the thing to set the hair on the back of your neck on end. Happy Halloween from Tired Old Queen at the Movies!
