Friday Flashback: List #20: (Some of) The Best of Edward Everett Horton

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

Edward Everett Horton spent most of the 1930s and '40s playing second fiddle in some of the best screwball comedies ever made.

He appeared in eleven films in 1934 alone (!!!), but here is a small sampling of his work:

1. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944): Horton is the head of an insane asylum, which is quite full up with Teddy Roosevelts at the moment, thank you very much.

2. The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and Shall We Dance (1937): Horton is a non-dancing element of these classic Fred & Ginger romps.

3. Design for Living (1933): Horton is thwarted in love by both Gary Cooper and Frederic March.

4. Holiday (both 1930 and the --- superior --- remake in 1938): In both versions, Horton plays Professor Nick Potter, longstanding friend of the leading man. In the second version, Cary Grant is that leading man.

5. Trouble in Paradise (1932): Like Design for Living, above, this was a Pre-Code film. Translation: the characters can have sex.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Additional screwball from the '30s and '40s: The Palm Beach Story (Rec. #17), Midnight (Rec. #194), The Awful Truth (Rec. #219), and Libeled Lady (Rec. #229).

Fun Fact: It might also interest you to know the Horton was the narrator of the Fractured Fairy Tales segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

[Originally posted 8/23/12.]

Rec. #305: The Girls of Slender Means

What: In Kensington immediately after World War II, a highly varied group of young women live at The May of Teck Club. The Girls of Slender Means features anarchists, Jesuits, journalists, a single Schiaparelli gown, and a highly significant lavatory window.

Comparable to: It pairs nicely with Loitering with Intent, another of Muriel Spark's novels.

Opening lines: "Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."

Representative quote: "As they realised themselves in varying degrees, few people alive at that time were more delightful, more ingenious, more movingly lovely, and, as it might happen, more savage, than the girls of slender means."

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Loitering with Intent was Rec. #13. Other books by Muriel Spark include Open to the Public (Rec. #107) and Aiding and Abetting (Rec. #220).

Rec. #304: The Brothers Bloom

What: Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are brothers and con men. One of them wants out of the game, but agrees to one last go-round, this time with heiress Rachel Weisz. Things go badly.

(Also, the wonderfully badass Rinko Kikuchi shows up as the aptly named Bang Bang.)

Comparable to: A little Pushing Daisies, a little Wes Anderson, a little Harold and Maude.

Representative quote: "You don't understand what my brother does. He writes his cons the way dead Russians write novels, with thematic arcs and embedded symbolism and shit."

Bonus representative quote: "Is this the bathroom? Hmm . . . no. This is camels."

Connections to previous Wreckage: I previously featured The Brothers Bloom as part of List #28 (Cons, Capers, and Heists).

Pushing Daisies was Rec. #233, Harold and Maude was Rec. #45, and Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox (also caper-driven) was Rec. #189.

The Brothers Bloom was written and directed by Rian Johnson, who also wrote and directed Brick (Rec. #62).

Friday Flashback: Rec. #174 (abbrev.): The Frequency of Souls

[Yes, I realize it's actually Saturday. Shhh.]

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Mary Kay Zuravleff, debut novel, refrigerator engineers, electrical sound waves of the dead, the Veteran, cryogenics, Dino Park, hearing aids, miracles, control, Niagara Spense, real estate, homemade clothing, music theory, farce, piquant turns of phrase, science fair, Washington, D.C.

Representative quote: "His intentions of telling a simple story had led him out on a personal limb, and he wasn't sure if it could hold his weight until he was finished."

Also: Zuravleff followed this novel with The Bowl Is Already Broken (Rec. #46).

[Originally posted 8/22/11.]

Rec. #303: Welcome to Night Vale

What: Welcome to Night Vale is framed as a community radio show from a fictional town, presumably in the American Southwest. If you listen to podcasts, you've probably already heard of this one. If you haven't, here are a few things that happen in (and to) the town of Night Vale:

• No dogs (or people) are allowed in the dog park. Avoid the dog park.
• A glow cloud attends PTA meetings while dropping dead animals everywhere.
• The hierarchy of the local Boy Scouts includes "Blood Pact Scout."
• Carlos the scientist is perfect and so is his hair, no thanks to Telly.

Comparable to: This is probably how the local news in Sunnydale reported on each Big Bad that crawled out of the Hellmouth. With a twist of Twin Peaks thrown in.

Opening lines: "A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overheard while we all pretend to sleep."

Representative quote: "You shouldn't wear these homemade tinfoil hats because it draws unnecessary attention to yourself. It’s pathetic and paranoid. The Sheriff's Secret Police are embarrassed for you."

You might not like it if: You just don't get the weather report.

How to get it: The twice-monthly episodes are downloadable from the usual sources. You can learn more about the program here and buy stuff about it here. 

And, oh my gosh, the fandom is everywhere and a little rabid and often extremely organized. They also ship Carlos and Cecil like whoa.

Connections to previous Wreckage: If you click on the "buying stuff" link above, you'll see that the creators of Welcome to Night Vale sell their wares through TopatoCo.

Also available from TopatoCo is merch from John Allison (Bad Machinery, Rec. #138), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant, Rec. #95), and Tom Siddell (Gunnerkrigg Court, List #21).

Friday Flashback: Rec. #259: Tropical Brainstorm

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Over her twenty-year career, singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl worked with The Pogues, Billy Bragg, Robert Plant, and The Smiths. She did nouveau-'60s-girl-group-pop ("They Don't Know"), snarky holiday non-cheer ("Fairytale of New York"), and bitter British wistfulness ("A New England").

In Tropical Brainstorm, which landed on several "Best of 2001" lists, MacColl rides some powerful Cuban and Brazilian influences as she sings about escape, strategic footwear, stalking a one-time fan, internet bonking, and football as metaphor.

Representative lyrics:

He'll learn to hunt and I'll teach him to fish,

We'll boil up our rice in a satellite dish,

We'll plant cassava wherever we can,

Us Amazonians always get our man.

--- from "Us Amazonians"

Bonus representative lyrics: 

If you hadn't passed out while I was talking to your friend,

It could have really ended badly 'cause you very nearly had me.

If he hadn't taken pity on my heart full of desire,

I might never have found out you're a serial liar.

--- from "England 2, Colombia 0"

How to get it: I'm going to suggest you buy the whole album, of course, but if you'd just like a taste first, most of these songs are 99-cent downloads on iTunes.

Connection to previous Wreckage: The song "In These Shoes?" tends to pop up all over. As just one example, it's used in the opening credits of The Catherine Tate Show (Rec. #81).

Rec. #302: The PowerBook

What: At the turn between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, author Jeanette Winterson leaped into the cyber future with a prescient novel about online identities and the boundaries of interactivity. It's also about, you know, sex and tulips and stuff.

Opening lines: "To avoid discovery I stay on the run. To discover things for myself I stay on the run."

Representative quote: "I keep telling this story - different people, different places, different times - but always you, always me, always this story, because a story is a tight rope between two worlds."

You might not like it if: You keep getting confused about who this "I" person is.

How to get it: It really makes sense to read this one on a Kindle (or other eReader of your choice).

Connections to previous Wreckage: I first mentioned The PowerBook during Personal Wreck Week (List #4).

Winterson is also the author of The Passion (Rec. #66) and Weight (Rec. #272).

Friday Flashback: Rec. #166 (abbrev.): Strangers on a Train

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Hitchcock, a train, an overbearing father, an inconvenient wife, a murder pact, a senator's daughter, an amusement park, a pair of glasses, a runaway carousel, a cigarette lighter, the most suspenseful tennis match evah

Representative quote: "My theory is that everyone is a potential murderer."

Connections to previous Wreckage: Farley Granger also starred in Rope (Rec. #5). Want even more Hitchcock? Have Shadow of a Doubt (Rec. #78) and Family Plot (Rec. #120).

[Originally posted 8/1/11.]

Rec. #301: Not the End of the World: Stories

What: Much-beloved (by me, anyway) author Kate Atkinson takes a break from sharp, layered, wrenching novels to deliver a collection of sharp, layered, wrenching, loosely connected stories.

Comparable to: Atkinson shares with George Saunders the ability to create wildly inventive dystopias that manage to entertain and depress you at the same time.

Opening lines (almost): "Charlene and Trudi were in a food hall as vast as a small city. It smelled of chocolate and ripe cheese and raw meaty bacon but most of the food was too expensive to buy and some of it didn't look real."

You might not like it if: You believe the title. (Semi-spoiler: It might in fact be the end of the world.)

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Not the End of the World previously appeared during Personal Wreck Week (List #4).

Kate Atkinson has previously appeared many times, for Case Histories (Rec. #3) , One Good Turn (Rec. #69), Human Croquet (Rec. #137), When Will There Be Good News? (Rec. #192), Started Early, Took My Dog (Rec. #270), and Emotionally Weird (Rec. #282).

Rec. #300: Amélie

What: Audrey Tautou glides through Montmartre, trying to save the world while avoiding the problems in her own life. For all of its dreamy atmosphere, Amélie is, at heart, a film about everyday details, where the mundane is saturated to the point of wonder.

Comparable to: As with Pushing Daisies, it's tempting to take one look at the hard-candy-colored appearance, hear five beats of the bright and expansive music (in this case, from Yann Tiersen), and dismiss the whole thing as escapism.

Once you actually pay attention to the content, though, you realize that Amélie's world is filled with people in comas, people with debilitating diseases, people committing suicide, people stalled in their lives, people going to funerals, people living on the street, and people who can't help sabotaging themselves. And that not all of them get happy endings.

Opening lines: 

"On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugène Colère erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born."

How to get it: Buy it, borrow it, stream it on Amazon.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Season one of Pushing Daisies was Rec. #233.

Amélie's writer-director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, also wrote and directed Micmacs (Rec. #74), which is all about a group of misfits getting revenge on weapons manufacturers.