Short and sweet, well, maybe sweet isn’t the right word, but I love it, short and true … great voice, great song.
Watch her full Tiny Desk concert … boy, she’s good.
Movies Watched -- Thieves' Highway (1949)
94 minute running time, so the perfect length … really enjoyed this one, 1940s California, moralizing wasn’t heavy-handed and it was pretty dark, all things considered … even the weird bits that Zanuck tacked on the end couldn’t ruin what came before … and the great Dassin staged an amazing fruit truck crash … this is a green-go, recommended movie. John Farr recommends this one too.
![This ain't no lace pants business … [or lace bra]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/534dec1fe4b007abc0108d36/1582599489371-6G12Z2VAP5UIT49IJPCC/2020-02-24_21-54-3+THIEVES.jpg)
This ain't no lace pants business … [or lace bra]
Movies Watched -- The Big Clock (1948)
96 minute running time … the story was sort of interesting, but not really … all these Americans speaking in fake British accents, high class ya know … Charles Laughton was in Island of Lost Souls (which I liked) and Ray Milland was in Dial M for Murder (which I liked), but I wasn’t thrilled with this and wouldn’t recommend it. Falling down the elevator shaft was a great scene, but one great scene doesn’t a good movie make. John Farr recommended this.
Could I invent a name like Casimir Kowalski?
Movies Watched -- The Naked City (1948)
96 minute running time so the perfect length … I liked this one, gets a coveted green-go rating … Jules Dassin from Middletown, CT … much better than Brute Force, no heavy-handed moralizing here, just a crime story from the Big City … Muldoon the old Irish L.T. … great shots of 1940s New Yawk City, esp. the closing scene with the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance (as seen from the Williamsburg Bridge) … John Farr liked this one too.
Eight million stories….
Movies Watched -- Nightmare Alley (1947)
110 minute running time … weird and wonderful, this movie was a jaw-dropper for being made in 1947, I loved it … truly handsome Tyrone Power plays a con man, a “mentalist” … carnival workers, “carnies” … no idea why it was titled “Nightmare Alley” (I mean the book it was based on was titled that) … green-go for sure … learned afterward that this is a cult movie, “legendary,” and I can understand why. Hard to believe it was made in ‘47, way ahead of its time. John Farr also liked it.
I figured you were trying to make a chump out of me.
Movies Watched -- Call Northside 777 (1948)
111 minute running time … another winner from Henry Hathaway … Jimmy Stewart plays Jimmy Stewart … back when newspapers had money and power … helping to free an innocent man from prison … Hathaway was interested in the role new technology played in criminal investigations … anyway, I enjoyed this, gets a coveted green-go rating. John Farr also liked it.
I scrub floors. Eleven years, I never miss a day's work.
Movies Watched -- Crossfire (1947)
85 minute running time so the right length … I’d seen this before and forgot about it … original story is about some Marines killing a fellow soldier who is gay … censors wouldn’t allow that so they turned it into a pic about anti-Semitism with a soldier killing a civilian Jew … story doesn’t really work, but Robert Ryan plays a great bad guy … once again a heavy-handed morality tale … John Farr recommended, but doesn’t make my top movie list.
… Jewish people living off the fat of the land
Movies Watched -- Brute Force (1947)
98 minute running time, so the perfect length … prison pic … Burt Lancaster plays the big handsome dummy … I wonder if Dassin was gay because there are a lot of half naked men in this … again, heavy-handed moralizing accompanied by the Miklós Rózsa hit-you-with-a-club score … lot of neat prison scenes though, esp. the attempted prison break at the end, but the social justice aspect rankled .. John Farr recommendation … I’m glad that I saw it but I can’t recommend it, not a top one-percent-er.
Munsey knows his job, and he does his job.
Movies Watched -- Key Largo (1948)
96 minute running time, so the perfect length … movie adaptation of a stage play, shot on a Warner Bros. set (not in the Keys) … once again the scrawny weasel Bogart (who’s good in this one) and the beautiful Bacall (her smoker’s voice makes me swoon) … kind of an interesting story, mobsters and good people stuck together in a hotel during a hurricane … heavy-handed moralizing though … Edward G. Robinson can’t really pull off the crime boss thing, he’s too short and fat … other mobster “Ziggy” better, but the forced hilarity among mob guys ruined things … John Farr recommended this … I’m going to hold off from giving it a recommendation until I see more from ‘48.
One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for.
Growing Wise To Your Sugar-coated Lies
This is cut out of the longer, though still tiny, concert … but it’s the best track, so…. she’s stunningly beautiful and can sing to boot, wow.
And a teenage fantasy … can’t see the backup singers here… astonishing performance, just… perfection. Been waiting awhile for someone of Amy Winehouse’s caliber to appear.
One more … Be Honest: