I've not seen the movie but I read the book many years ago. Great book! I've been meaning to watch the movie for years but I've never gotten around to it. Maybe it's on YouTube!

And speaking of movies I've been meaning to watch for years, I DVRed Serpico a few nights ago. Can you believe I have never seen it? I'll probably watch it tonight or tomorrow night. My nephew and I have plans to watch Megamind, so that might be on the schedule for tonight. 

The Onion Field (1979) John Savage, James Woods, Ted Danson, Franklyn Seales, Christopher Lloyd

Adapted from Joseph Wambaugh's novel of the true-to-life incident in 1963 Los Angeles wherein 2 cops stop a car with 2 armed burglars who disarm the officers and take them out to the outskirts of the city. One cop is executed, the other miraculously escapes. 

Searing indictment on the legal system that, in this particular case, elongated court proceedings for close to a decade and the toll it took on the surviving officer, forced to testify at least 8 different times and causing psychological damage to him in the process. Didn't help that the officer did not get support from police brass as well since they thought he was acted cowardly by surviving the execution

James Woods is chilling as the main villian in the story. Ted Danson as the ill-fated officer makes his film debut. Christopher Lloyd has a small but well-played role as a prisoner on death row.

Best film based on a Wambaugh novel and a captivating crime film

The problem almost always was and still is the "Jelly Doughnut School of Education."

Teacher gives out information to students. (Jelly is injected into each pastry shell.)

Teachers demand to see same information on a test. (Students squeezes jelly out of their heads onto test pages.)

Teacher evaluates tests. (Teacher examines gob of jelly to see how closely it resembles what was injected.)

Teacher gives student an A. (Jelly was regurgitated intact and unchanged.)

My first year of teaching was 1975-76. Of the three schools where I taught , none included poor Silas in the curriculum. It has become the stereotypical whipping book for all poorly chosen literature. 

The same themes that predominate in Silas Marner (turned into the hidden gem A Little Twist of Fate in 1994 by Steve Martin) can certainly be found in many another work that is more accessible to kids. Schools and teachers become set in their ways because it's easier that way. The expense of purchasing new texts can also have something to do with a lack of updating them, too.

And lately, with the "bucket list" approach to education, the bastard child of E.D. Hirsch (http://www.coreknowledge.org/ed-hirsch-jr) and Babbitt, kids are essentially taught to regard subjects, topics, and texts as stepping stones to financial success and making networking connections on their way to going to "good schools" and getting "good jobs." You learn something as if you were preparing to go on jeopardy or cram for a final. Screw following a life that you love and that you discover for yourself.

I love the notion of setting the bar reasonably high for students. But the bar cannot be at the exact same level every day for every kid. Simply "exposing" kids to "culture" isn't enough. Teachers have to love what they teach and also know why they're teaching it, whatever it is: grammar, algebra, Hungarian 1, or chemistry. I found that way too many teachers did not do either. (I'm not judging, simply reporting.)

Teaching should be approached as an art, with a deep and abiding passion for knowledge and desire never to stop learning. Both criteria can help to forge inspiring teachers, but demand not just hard work, but humility. 

When I recall teachers who approached teaching as a job in which they and we had to "cover material" because it was in the curriculum or on the exam or because colleges required it , I can become almost physically ill, because I think of opportunities wasted, imaginations stunted, questions not jsut unanswered, but unasked, and a love for learning destroyed.

I also found that students love to be challenged by what they read. Not intimidated, not overwhelmed, but challenged. The texts they read should help them think for themselves, show them not jsut what others seemingly like themselves feel and think, but what others who don't seem like them, who may be separated from us by thousands of miles and/or thousands of years feel and think.

That's why Antigone and Oedipus and Hamlet and Ophelia and Pip and Oliver Twist resonate with them as powerfully as Pony Boy and Holden and Troy Maxson do.

I loved teaching. I hate what we've done to education. 
 

I love reading your Kurosawa reviews, Hoosier. Still working on whittling down my unwatched DVD pile and still got a long way to go. But by the bristles of my chinny chin chin, I say unto thee, forsooth, I have espied many a Criterion Kurosawa movie available in my library system waiting for me to rent them out. For all I know, I think Criterion has released under their label every film Kurosawa has made. I will get you my little Akiras, I will get you and mentally absorb you

Watch On The Rhine (1943) Paul Lukas, Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald, George Coulouris

It's 1940 and Bette Davis with her German born husband and 3 children arrive as European refugees back to her family's home in America. We quickly learn that they are part of the anti-Nazi underground and have narrowly escaped capture. We also learn that, already at the family home, resides a Nazi sympathizer 

Paul Lukas won the best actor Oscar for this movie and it's the role of his lifetime. Lillian Hellman wrote this play, Dashiell Hammett wrote the screenplay. Even after 70+ years, its a powerful piece against the evil tyranny of Nazism. Bette, who I have the highest regards for, is a bit over the top in her performance but Lucas plays it with such dignity and bravado that I can understand his getting the Oscar over Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca

It's a film that builds slowly and deliberately that concludes to a rousing finale and some tearful farewells. The director , Herman Shumlin, was working on his first movie here. He and Bette Davis fought constantly, he got in trouble with the censor board for filming a toilet in a bathroom scene and was repeatedly admonished by Warner Bros for constant retakes when the war rationing was causing a shortage of film. Shumlin would only direct one more movie afterwards

I watched Tarnished Angel (1938) this morning. It's another one of those rather obscure 1930s movies that really packs a punch and leaves me feeling good all day because of how much fun it was!

First of all, it stars Sally Eilers!



We al know how much I adore some of these obscure actors and actresses from the 1930s and the 1940s. I've been loosely keeping track of some of these people for YEARS! When Frances Drake died in 2000, I knew who she was.

If you're reading this thread, you should probably know who Frances Drake is. She was in Mad Love with Peter Lorre!

Sally Eilers is special! She appeared a lot in the 1930s, she has supporting roles in a few somewhat well-known films and she was the lead in quite a few movies throughout the decade. She's all but forgotten today. I didn't know who she was until 7 or 8 years or go when I saw her in Without Orders, where she plays a stewardess who has to land the plane (via radio instructions) after the co-pilot (Ward Bond) goes nuts, knocks out the pilot and jumps out of the plane with the only parachute! During a snowstorm! (It's highly recommended, by the way!)

But she never passed from the verge of stardom over into actual stardom.

I love her! She's pretty and a really good actress and she gets into the best cinema scrapes! Love her to pieces!

In Tarnished Angel, she's a showgirl/adventuress who has a job at an illegal casino getting rich suckers to blow their dough on roulette. But the bulls raid the place, so she takes it on the lam and eventually resurfaces as a revival-meeting evangelist called Sister Connie!

It's not too hard to guess (from the title alone!) that she's going to have a bit of a change of heart about fleecing the rubes when she actually gets to know the people she's gulling, especially after Mrs. Stockton takes her to see the kids at the children's hospital who need Sister Connie's message of faith and hope!

Ann Miller is her very cheerful dancing sidekick!



Corny? Sure. You know where you're going the second it starts, but it's a delightful 67 minutes getting there. I recommend it for people who have a high tolerance for dopey 1930s movies.

Hoosier, can't believe you saw Tarnished Angel today. I did, too, from a bit before the halfway mark.

I loved Sally Eilers, had never seen her before, but she was excellent, all things considered, as was the movie. Loved the subject matter, was shocked to see 15-year-old Ann Miller in it (especially after I chanced upon a portion of Mulholland Drive last night, with a 90ish-year-old Ann still looking cynical and in shape.)

Interesting topic for a 30s movie, and despite the reactions of the "second cripple" -- as imdb descibes the character -- and the final actions of the cop, the movie toned down the sentimental aspects with the appearance of the little girl and parents at the end. The picture could very easily have gone all in on the spiritual powers bit, but chose not to go quite that far.

Nice work from Alma Kruger as the wealthy widow. She is best known as the cranky old Nurse Molly Bird in the Dr. Kildare series, and her turn here showed a much subtler touch.

For a low-budget picture, there was lots to like here: Carol's costume when she made it big, Ann Miller giving a hint of the cuteness she'd soon show in You Can't take It With You (tuned in too late to see her big dance), and a nice bit of acting from Paul Guilfoyle (Eddie), who came to such an ignominious end in White Heat.

I'll be looking for more Sally Eilers pictures.