Billby

 On my mad trip through Canada and the Midwest a few weeks ago I was able to see my friend Bill, not once, but twice, which was a tremendous gift. When I dropped down into the States from Ontario, my first stop was in Rolling Prairie, which is where Bill was living when we met oh those many years ago. I can remember visiting him there over forty years ago. Since then, Bill was able to buy back most of the land that his family used to own, and now has his own forty acres (although no mule). He was my best friend in college, and I'm happy to say that we're still dear friends all of these decades later.

ON the morning I left we went for a long drive around his property, and he walked me through all of his projects - which exhausted me just hearing about them.

It's such a lovely spot, and I can definitely see why he's drawn to it. He's one of those folks who I will sincerely miss when we move overseas. I think over the years he and his wife KV have come to visit me more than any of my other friends, and if you're going to track down someone in Vermont they must truly be your friend.

Movies in 2026 201

 

Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015)

This is a film, Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, that I really wanted to like, but absolutely didn't. Herzog is a director I like a lot - and Gertrude Bell is a character who I find fascinating - and it's certainly a period and a part of the world that I love - but this was just a joyless slog to get through. I think you can definitely be too referential  in your handling of a subject (in a much less important way, I think for a long time I fell into the same process with my epics book, with the result that I sucked all the life out of it). Please read books about Gertrude Bell - and by Gertrude Bell - but feel free to duck this movie. 

Movies in 2026 200

 

Le Deuxieme Souffle (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966)

I'm a late discoverer of the film of Jean-Pierre Melville (to my shame, and, again, I blame growing up in the cultural wasteland of Indiana), but I hope to make up for the delay. Last night I watched his 1966 film Le Deuxieme Souffle. I'd always thought of his film Le Samurai as a film noir, which it is, of a fashion, but it's also more than a bit of a procedural - and I'd make the same argument Le Deuxieme Souffle. If you think of a film noir as the regular joe who is drawn into a moral quagmire through one bad decision, hoping to escape poverty or a humdrum life, which leads to a string of bad decisions, then these films really aren't a film noir. However, if you think of a film noir as the study of a conflicted, morally ambivalent character - even if they're already a criminal - then they would fall into the film noir category (and this is why some film critics have argued that film noir isn't even a true genre, or at least one that is easy to define). They're both procedurals in that they give equal weight to the policeman's efforts to capture the crook, even when the police themselves often break the law. Lino Ventura plays Gustave "Gu" Minda, an older gangster who has tried for the big score but failed, but also can't accept that failure. This leads him to one last long-shot chance, even though he has the option to go away with his girlfriend Manouche (Christine Fabrega). He can't simply disappear with her because of his own code, stupid, on one front, because he can't accept living off a woman, but oddly noble on the other because he needs to go out on a high note (and also because he needs money, especially since he can't accept Manouche's). His code is also shown by the fact that when the heist blows up it appears that he had named names, and he goes to extraordinary efforts to prove that he didn't, even though the effort to do so insures that he's killed. Paul Meurisse is very good as Inspector Blot of Paris, who also has his own code of conduct, and a grudging respect for Gu's. Definitely recommended.

Movies in 2026 199

 

Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940

As we've discussed, there are some movies that you can't help but watch (no matter how many times you've seen them) when you get the chance. One of them for me is definitely Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film Foreign Correspondent. It's certainly not the best Hitchcock film, but it just might be my favorite Hitchcock film. I'm not a huge Joel McCrea fan, but he's pretty good as a classically American Johnny Jones (this definitely falls into the propaganda film category - but then, it 2as 1940) who is hired to go to Europe (about which he knows nothing, even suggesting to his boss that "maybe we should talk to this Hitler guy, he probably knows some stuff") to act as a foreign correspondent. Laraine Day (who, I guess, was 19 at the time) plays his love interest, and she sparkles, which is a nice change of pace from the icy blondes that Hitchcock loved. Herbert Marshall is wooden as only Herbert Marshall can be. George Sanders, as was his wont, stole every scene. Edmund Gwen, who I tend to associate with love able characters in Miracle on 34th Street and Them! plays a menacing role. The ending must have really spoke to an American audience not yet in the war. Definitely recommended.

Movies in 2026 198

 

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)

David Lean is another one of those directors that I don't know nearly enough about. I tend to focus on his epics, and forget that he made many smaller, more intimate films. Last night I watched his 1949 film The Passionate Friends, which starred Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, and Claude Rains. Ann Todd played a very Ann Todd-like role: a beautiful, intelligent woman who spreads unhappiness wherever she goes (I think I was engaged to her for six years, but that's another story). She was married to Lean at the time - or soon would be - and that must have been an interesting dynamic. She's married to the much older Claude Rains (who is very good) but having an affair with Trevor Howard. The ending is a little different than I would have thought, and it almost copied Anna Karenina (and it probably would have been better if had). Still, it was pretty solid.

Screened In

 This is what welcomed me when I made it back from my usual Saturday morning run to the dump. Either they could tell that their mom would be coming soon, or they sensed that I was spoiling Willow and Misty, my dog friends at the dump.

Just as I started to snap the picture Mollie turned her head. I called "Mollie" so that I could get them both in the picture, and as soon as she heard her sister's name Cici began bitching at me in her classic way.

Movies in 2026 197

 

Trade Winds (Tay Garnett, 1938)

While I watch many movies several times over - and consider it a blessing that I get to do so - I certainly don't rewatch the vast majority of films that I've seen over the years.  Some I watched, and was quite happy to watch them, but I also know that I'll never see them again. So, for every Grand Illusion there's a Trade Winds (Tay Garnett, 1938). It's sort of a slapstick, although in other ways it's a whodunit (although that's introduced awfully late) and almost a travelogue. Frederic March (who is one of the most unfairly forgotten actors, especially for the common watcher of movies) and Joan Bennett are typically good, and it has some witty banter (Dorothy Parker worked on the script). So, I don't think I'd recommend it per se, but if you stumble across it don't turn off the TV, you'll have an enjoyable hour and a half.