Here in the Universal Tornado

And thanks to Michael Jones for this

A Little Something About "All About Eve"

Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Anne Baxter and George Sanders in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "All About Eve."

Last night’s feature on Matt & Dan Theatre was the classic comedy-drama about backstage theatrical wit, connivance and hypocrisy, “All About Eve.”

The repartee scintillates still, 63 years later. Bette at her best.

Lloyd: “I shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself as a mind. Just when exactly does an actress decide they’re her words she's saying and her thoughts she's expressing?”

Margo: “Usually at the point when she has to rewrite and rethink them to keep the audience from leaving the theater.”

Lloyd: “It’s about time the piano realized it has not written the concerto!”

But even by 1950 standards, the backscreen projection when George Sanders and Anne Baxter are supposedly walking down Broadway was embarrassing. Couldn’t they have just walked down Broadway?

Bette Davis as Margo Channing with the incomparable Thelma Ritter as her maid Birdie

These giddy goings-on were loosely based on reality. The actress Elisabeth Bergner, performing in “The Two Mrs. Carrolls” during the 1940s, hired a young fan as her assistant and made her part of the household, only to regret it when she discovered ”that terrible girl” had betrayed her. Bergner told the tale to writer Mary Orr, who turned it into a short story, “The Wisdom of Eve.”

We'll Always Have Paris

Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, the lone wolf with a broken heart, in 1942's 'Casablanca.'

Paul and I just watched "Casablanca," which he had never seen. I think some of the movie's unexpected power stems from the fact that it shows an American tough guy in an unaccustomed position of vulnerability, having been emotionally devastated by his hopeless love for a woman. Bergman is beautiful as ever, Paul Henreid combines credible idealism with natural suavity and Claude Raines is perfection, an utterly charming rotter who flavors the melodrama with light comedy.

Church Warned Us, But We Didn't Listen

“The National Security Agency’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A. could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back.” — Sen. Frank Church (1975) 

The NRA Had a Dream

And thanks to my friend Michael Jones for this meme.

We Might As Well Call It What It Really Is

Fascism. But everybody still seems afraid to call the mad elephant in the room by its right name.

Okay, I'm Ready for the Students