Classic Cinema, 1946 - 1976

SPOILER ALERT
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

It all started way back in early November 2022 when Gerry and I were watching The Big Sleep, with all those dark night driving sequences, leading up to an eerie, dreary mansion. Something about the droll way that the butler greets Bogart in the opening scene rang a bell in my brain. What other movie had we watched recently that began with a similar scary driving scene and a wacky butler?

How hard could it be to remember the name of an old black and white movie that begins with a man driving over a rickety wooden bridge to a big old house where he is staying for a house party / dinner party? Sadly my memory was embarrassingly hazy! I could recall neither the stars, nor the crime, nor any further details that might narrow down the possibilities.

All I could come up with were some behind - the - scene subplots involving cooking in the kitchen, or hiding in there, or something like that. Or maybe the host of the party decides to some of the cooking. There is definitely one of those scenes, like in an Agatha Christie, where all the characters are sitting around the dinner table questioning each other."

I called on my movie experts, Steven LaVigne and Victoria Amador, who wrote back with their hunches. Perhaps I was thinking of Crimes at the Dark House (1940) or Dead of Night (1945). These are good movies to know about, and I appreciated Steven's connections:

1. I haven't seen Dead of Night for a long time. I keep mixing it up with Dead of Winter starring Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowell. That's not the movie you're looking for, though; it's in color from 1987.

2. Crimes at the Dark House (1940), starring Tod Slaughter, was originally titled The Woman in White because it was loosely based on the 1860 Wilkie Collins novel The Woman in White, which was later made into a movie of the same name, in 1948.

However, neither one of these titles rang exactly the right bell. The plot summaries didn't quite match up with my memory, despite containing winding roads, dark and stormy nights, haunted houses. Of course, a lot of classic thrillers contain all / most of those elements; so I definitely needed to provide more information. Or better yet, we needed a good coincidence!

A few weeks later, I was flipping through my journal from the year before, and there it was: Murder By Death. I knew right away, that was it! Funny, it was not old, after all, as I had been incorrectly remembering, but a 1976 spoof with guest appearances by Truman Capote and Peter Falk! Mystery solved at last! Now it made sense why each of the other movies seemed similar but not quite right -- because Murder By Death includes motifs from all of them! As Steven sums up, the "problem with Murder by Death was that after the characters are introduced, the script doesn't really go anywhere. Same with Clue. They should both be much cleverer than they are."

Agreed! All the effort is in the elaborate set - up. Yet, you never know what will start you off on a scholarly path. After all the work I did (with a little help from my friends!) to retrace my viewing steps and retrieve Murder By Death from my memory bank, it has become a show that I will not soon forget. Nor will I get it confused with The Big Sleep!

From this wild goose chase, Gerry and I learned that we need to keep a movie list. We've been watching so many cinematic treasures that we've missed over the years, or forgotten about -- old black and whites, film noirs, box - office hits of yore, whodunits, musicals, holiday favorites. It would be a shame to forget the specifics, as we wander nightly from genre to genre.

We also owe our seemingly random but somewhat intentional viewing of American classics to this incredibly informative World War II documentary:

Five Came Back ~ on Netflix
exploring the war-related works
-- and continued popular cinema --
of John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston,
Frank Capra, and George Stevens

and to the Facebook page: The Name is Archer,
a gold mine of legend, lore, references,
connections, and literary allusions.

***************

So, for now -- with a promise of more to come --
here is our once and future film survey,
stretching from 1946 -- the year of The Big Sleep,
to 1976 -- the year of Murder By Death:
1946 May 2
The Postman Always Rings Twice ~ Lana Turner
[and 1981 ~ Jessica Lang & Jack Nicholson]

1946 May 24
Dressed to Kill ~ Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes
[no connection to the 1980 film with Michael Caine & Angie Dickinson;
in fact, the title doesn't really fit either movie]

1946 August 15
Notorious ~ Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains

1946 August 30
The Killers ~ Ava Gardner & Burt Lancaster

1946 August 31
The Big Sleep ~ Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
[& 1976 Murder By Death]

1946 November 1
Stairway to Heaven: A Matter of Life and Death ~ David Niven & Kim Hunter

1946 November 21
Best Years of Our Lives ~ Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright

1946 December 16
Great Expectations ~ John Mills / Anthony Wager, Valerie Hobson / Jean Simmons, Alec Guinness

1946 December 20
It's A Wonderful Life ~ Jimmy Stewart & Donna Reed


Check this very helpful website
for the specific day - month - year of every release:
The Numbers

1947 Out of the Past ~ Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Jane Greer, Virginia Huston [also 1984 Against All Odds ~ Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward]

1947 The Voice of the Turtle ~ Ronald Reagan & Eleanor Parker

1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ~ Gene Tierney & Rex Harrison

1947 Miracle on 34th Street ~ Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn


1948 The Winslow Boy ~ Margaret Leighton & Robert Donat
[also 1999 ~ Rebecca Pidgeon & Jeremy Northam]

1948 The Red Shoes ~ Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring

1948 Sorry, Wrong Number ~ Barbara Stanwyck & Burt Lancaster

1948: Road House ~ Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm, Richard Widmark


1949 Criss Cross ~ Burt Lancaster & Yvonne De Carlo

1949 Twelve O'Clock High ~ Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger, Hugh Marlowe

1949 Shop Around the Corner ~ Jimmy Stewart

1949 The Heiress ~ Olivia de Havilland & Montgomery Clift
[based on Henry James' Washington Square]

1949 The Third Man ~ Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard


1950 In a Lonely Place ~ Humphrey Bogart, Martha Stewart, Gloria Grahame

1950 Sunset Boulevard ~ Gloria Swanson & William Holden

1950 All About Eve ~ Bette Davis, Celeste Holme, Anne Baxter, Marilyn Monroe

1950 Come Back, Little Sheba ~ Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore
[also 1977 ~ Laurence Olivier, Joanne Woodward, Carrie Fisher]

More by William Inge (1913-1973)
1953: Picnic
1955: Bus Stop
1957: The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still ~ Michael Rennie & Patricia Neal

1951 A Place in the Sun ~ Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters

1951 Strangers on a Train ~ Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
[see also The Lady Vanishes 1938, 1979, 2013]


1952 Carrie ~ Jennifer Jones, Laurence Olivier, Eddie Albert
[based on Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie]

1952 Singin' in the Rain ~ Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor

1952 The Thief ~ Ray Milland


1954 Hobson's Choice ~ Charles Laughton, Brenda de Banzie, Prunella Scales, Daphne Anderson, John Mills, [a treatment of King Lear]

1954 Three Coins in the Fountain ~ Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Maggie McNamara,

1954 Rear Window ~ Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr

1954 White Christmas ~ Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger


1955 Daddy Long Legs ~ Leslie Caron & Fred Astaire

1955 All That Heaven Allows ~ Rock Hudson & Jane Wyman

1955 To Catch a Thief ~ Cary Grant, Grace Kelly

1955 Not as a Stranger ~ Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame


1956 Baby Doll ~ Carroll Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach
[based on Tennessee Williams' one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1955).


1957 The Seventh Seal ~ Max von Sydow

1957 An Affair to Remember ~ Deborah Kerr & Cary Grant

1957 Witness for the Prosecution ~ Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton [also 1949, 1982, 2016]

1957 The Three Faces of Eve ~ Joanne Woodward, Lee J. Cobb

1957 Sweet Smell of Success ~ Tony Curtis & Burt Lancaster & Martin Milner

1957 Paths of Glory ~ Kirk Douglas


1958 Marjorie Morningstar ~ Natalie Wood & Gene Kelly & Martin Milner

1958 Touch of Evil ~ Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich

1958 Vertigo ~ Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak

1958 Party Girl ~ Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb


1959 North by Northwest ~ Cary Grant, Eva Maria Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau

1959 Anatomy of a Murder ~ Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick


1960 The Apartment ~ Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Edie Adams, Hope Holiday

1960 BUtterfield 8 ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher

1960 Psycho ~ Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh

1960 Elmer Gantry ~ Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, Patti Page, Dean Jagger, Hugh Marlowe

1960 Inherit the Wind ~ Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly, Dick York,

1960 Where the Boys Are ~ Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, and Frank Gorshin

1960 Breathless Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo
[French New Wave crime: François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard]


1961 The Children's Hour ~ Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner
[also 1936 These Three]

1962 Light in the Piazza ~ Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton,

1962 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ~ Bette Davis & Joan Crawford

1964 Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte ~ Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland


1963 The Birds ~ Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette


1964 The Night of the Iguana ~ Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon

1964 Carol for Another Christmas ~ Eva Marie Saint, Percy Rodriguez, Peter Sellers, Britt Eckland


1965 I Saw What You Did ~ Joan Crawford & John Ireland


1966 Georgy Girl ~ Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, James Mason, and Redgrave's mother Rachel Kemps

1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis


1967 Up the Down Staircase ~ Sandy Dennis, Eileen Heckart, Patrick Bedford, Jean Stapleton

1967 To Sir, with Love ~ Sidney Poitier & Lulu


1968 Targets ~ Boris Karloff


1971 The Last Picture Show ~ Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd

1976 Murder By Death ~ David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith
[Niven played detective Dick Charleston and Smith played his wife Dora Charleston, a little intertextual pun on Nick & Nora from The Thin Man]

1995 Devil in a Blue Dress ~ Denzel Washington, Jennifer Beals
[American neo-noir set in late 1940s]


Next Fortnightly Post
Wednesday, February 14th ~ More Classic Cinema, 1924 - 1945

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Five Kings

STAR OF WONDER, STAR OF NIGHT
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Small (4" x 5") drawing in crayon, with no name or information,
found in my Grandma Rovilla Lindsey's 1964 diary.
I don't know if it was drawn by her, another family member,
a friend, or perhaps a Sunday School student???

"O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light."
from the Christmas carol We Three Kings
by John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1820 – 1891)

Here's a refreshing and lovely
21st Century rendition by Pink Martini

Even though this chorus is so familiar, along with the well-known verses in which each of the three magi describes his gift, I felt there could be more to the story. In observation of Epiphany and MLK Day, I have written some additional verses:

Artaban, Fourth Wiseman am I
Precious jewels procured for the child
Ruby, sapphire, pearl of luster,
Each traded to spare a life

A Fifth King in latter day
comes alone to show us the way
Martin Luther King Junior
Preaching equality

Artaban and Batlthasar,
Caspar and Melchior,
Martin Luther King Junior
Five of the Wisest Kings

O Kings of vision, seeking right
Trav'ling through the darkest night
Westward leading, still proceeding
Toward the way, the truth, the life.

Thoughtful Cartoon Concept
More on Facebook
More on the QK

As conveyed in the lyrics of last month's post -- "three members of an obscure Persian sect" . . . "three of the wisest of men" -- tradition holds that three kings made their way to Bethlehem, but I am not the first to expand the number. You can see Martin Sheen portray The Fourth Wiseman in a dramatization of the story by Henry van Dyke, Jr. (1842 - 1933); and you can hear Jethro Tull's musical rendition of We Five Kings.

Nor does the speculation stop with five. In the droll yet introspective and quasi-historically accurate Cunk on Christmas: Moments of Wonder (2016), comedian Diane Morgan, aka Philomena Cunk, asks Reverend Canon Ann Easter: "How many Three Wiseman were there?" They both agree: "There could have actually been 15 three wise men." Right?!

More Wise Man Humor
[shared on facebook]

In the following song, the quirky Sparks stick with the traditional three wise men, but their edgy tribute to the magi is anything but conventional. In their unusual twist on the carol, "the girl with everything" receives "gifts to aid amnesia . . . a really pretty car . . . a partridge in a pear tree." Among other "imported gimmicks," she is given her own wall and a ball point pen, but has her good fortune improved her understanding of life? Will she be able to read the writing on the wall?

Something for the Girl With Everything
(1974)

Something for the girl with everything
See, the writings on the wall
You bought the girl a wall
Complete with matching ball-point pen
You can breathe another day
Secure in knowing she won't break you (yet)

Something for the girl with everything
Have another sweet my dear
Don't try to talk my dear
Your tiny little mouth is full
Here's a flavour you ain't tried
You shouldn't try to talk, your mouth is full

Something for the girl with everything
Three wise men are here
Three wise men are here
Bearing gifts to aid amnesia
She knows everything
Yes yes everyting
She knew way back when you weren't yourself

Something for the girl with everything
Here's a really pretty car
I hope it takes you far
I hope it takes you fast and far
Wow, the engines really loud
Nobodys gonna hear a thing you say

Something for the girl with everything
Three wise men are here
Three wise men are here
Where should they leave these imported gimmicks
Leave them anywhere
An-an-anywhere
Make sure that there's a clear path to the door

Something for the girl with everything
Something for the girl with everything
Something for the girl with everything
Something for the girl with everything

Three wise men are here
Three wise men are here
Three wise men are here
Three wise men are here

Here's a patridge in a tree,
A gardener for the tree
Complete with ornithologist
Careful, careful with that crate
You wouldn't want to dent Sinatra, no

Something for the girl who has got everything,
Yes, yes, everything
Hey, come out and say hello
Before your friends all go
But say no more than just hello
Ah, the little girl is shy
You see of late she's been quite speechless,
Very speechless
She's got everything

by the Sparks Brothers
Russell and Ron Mael


To conclude on a tender note.
in keeping with a star of wonder and light,
leading the wise men, seekers and seers,
whether three, four, five or fifteen . . .
The Star Carol

Long years ago on a deep winter night
High in the heavens, a star shone bright
While in the manger, a wee baby lay
Sweetly asleep on a bed of hay

Jesus our Lord was that baby so small
Laid down to sleep in a humble stall
Then came the star and it stood overhead
Shedding its light 'round His little head

Dear baby Jesus, how tiny Thou art
I'll make a place for Thee in my heart
And when the stars in the heavens I see
Ever and always I think of Thee

music by Alfred Shaddick Burt (1920 - 1954)
lyrics by Wihla Laverne Hutson (1901–2002)
sung by many, including Peggy Lee
and Simon and Garfunkel

Previous Fortnightly Post ~ Ever Bright Christmas Night
Also about "Three of the wisest of men."

Next Fortnightly Post
Sunday, January 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts ~ We Five Kings www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Ever Bright Christmas Night

DULL PEACE,
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Thanks to Nataliya
for this Christmas illustration

BC – AD

This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future’s
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.

This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.

And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect

Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.

by U. A. Fanthorpe (1929 - 2009)
from Christmas Poems (Enitharmon)
see previous Fanthorpe quotation

Mid - Century Modern ~ Building Block Nativity
A friend writes: "My sister took the family nativity set.
I got the 1950s wagon of blocks."

Earlier this year, along with other songs and poems for the Season of Epiphany, I mentioned the carol Out of the East, long-time favorite of mine. Sometimes designated as lesser - known, but for me, its near - Medieval echoing repetition has been unforgettable, since the first time I heard it (Christmas 1973 ~ 50 years ago!) on the vintage album: Christmas With Colonel Sanders.

Out of the East

Out of the East there came riding, riding,
Three of the wisest of men.
Dust was their enemy blinding, blinding,
Even the wisest of them.

Wandering shepherds heard tell their story,
Told in the flickering firelight,
Tender light,
Ever bright Christmas night.

Far to the West was there shining, shining,
Blazing a star in the dawn;
Reverent wise men beheld it, saying
"This night a savior is born."

Into the West they went riding, riding,
Following after the star,
Over a quiet town shining, shining,
Lighting their way from afar.

Under its glory sat Mother Mary
Tenderly singing a lullaby,
Hush-a-by,
Don't-you-cry lullaby,

Into the stable came riding, riding,
Three of the wisest of men;
Gifts did they bring for that Babe in manger,
Gifts for the savior of men.

Lo! in a manger they found Him, found Him,
Bathed in the light of yon star;
Gold did they bring Him and frankincense,
And myrrh from a land that was far.

Shepherds crept in singing praises, praises;
Angels kept watch to be near to Him,
Dear to Him,
One with Him, praising Him.

Into the East they went riding, riding,
Three of the wisest of men.
Found was the Babe in a lowly manger,
Crowned was the Savior of men.

Words & music
by Harry Noble, Jr. (early 20th Century)
Sung by Charley Pride
Next Fortnightly Post ~ Five Kings
Will be on Monday, January 15th ~ Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

80 Year Old Christmas Presents

GIFTS FROM LONG AGO
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Family Favorite ~ MCMXLII

As my mother's notations explain, these two books -- Christmas Carols (above) and The Night Before Christmas (below) -- were presents to her family, when she was twelve years old. The gifts came from my Grandmother Rovilla Heideman Lindsey's first cousin, Elizabeth Miller Taylor. Rovilla's mother Anna and Elizabeth's father Jacob were siblings.

I recently shared these photos with my third cousins -- Elizabeth's grandchildren -- so they could what their grandmother sent out for Christmas 80 years ago! Not only that, but here's visible evidence that Elizabeth's gifts, chosen with love and care, were immediately beloved by the recipients and have remained so for the better part of a century.

My cousin Cindy wrote back to say that she has the exact same book of carols "but had no idea of the origin." Now she knows that when her Grandmother Elizabeth went Christmas shopping in 1942, she was so pleased with this book that she bought a copy for herself as well as one for Rovilla. Better yet, both copies have been cherished through the decades by a succession of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters.

Here is Cindy's copy, displayed
with her Kurdish tablecloth as backdrop.

A Peek Inside

My Mom's Favorites

The Night Before Christmas

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL,
AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT!
Next Fortnightly Post
Thursday, December 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Going For a Walk

THANKSGIVING DAY WALK
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

My Father's Parents in 1969
Willard Samson Carriker (1898 - 1974)
Melvina Adeline Beavers Carriker (1901 - 1981)

Grandpa Carriker's notations on the back of each photo.
Notice that Grandma is holding Timmy (her little Chihuahua)

2023 ~ 52 Years Later

Ellie & Aidan
on this year's rendition
of the traditional walk!

Happy Times! Of course literature abounds with beautiful descriptions of autumnal holiday walks, joyful, mellow, and long - remembered. However, I want to take a different direction this year -- a road perhaps less traveled -- and look at some unsuccessful literary walking experiences, starting with the utterly gloomy opening line of Jane Eyre:

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day . . .
the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds
so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that
futher out-door exercise was now out of the question."
~ Charlotte Bronte ~
Well, no one can help the weather. But even under perfect conditions--

"There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside; you could feel the cold light going on and off, all the branches filled with invisible snow. He listened to the faint push of his soft shoes through autumn leaves with satisfaction . . . ."

--the walk can still take a bad turn, as happens in Ray Bradbury's story "The Pedestrian," written in 1951 -- 72 years ago, set in 2053 -- 30 years from now!

The main character, Leonard Mead, loves nothing more than to go out for a walk, stepping "into that silence that was the city at eight o'clock of a misty evening in November; peering "down long moonlit avenues of sidewalk" and walking "for hours and miles." Even though the sidewalks are slowly disappearing due to overgrowth and lack of maintenance, he still makes his way, breathing deep, examining a random leaf, and whispering quietly as he passes the dark houses of his neighbors: "Hello, in there." Unfortunately for Leonard, taking a walk has become a suspect activity, and one night he is apprehended and taken into custody by the police, who cannot understand why he is not safely indoors watching television.

Police: What are you doing out?
Leonard: Walking.
Police: Walking!
Leonard: Just walking.
Police: Walking where? For what?
Leonard: Walking for air. Walking to see.
Police: Have you done this often?
Leonard: Every night for years.

Found in the collection Twice 22
(pp 16 - 20)

With no further explanation or justification, Leonard is taken "To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies." Poor Leonard. He is aware that "In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time." But he never realized that it would be held against him. Sadly, in the mid - 21st Century, going out for a walk in the fresh air is deemed "regressive" and perceived as a threat to the normality of the neighborhood.

Apparently, the same suspicion of pedestrians holds true in Canada as well as the United States. In Alice Munro's short story "Simon's Luck" (written in 1978, around 25 years after Bradbury's "Pedestrian"), Rose looks forward to a slower pace and a change of scenery in her life, but her expectations are soon thwarted:

"'Country life,' she said. 'I came here with some ideas about how I would live. I thought I would go for long walks on the deserted country roads. And the first time I did, I heard a car coming tearing along on the gravel behind me. I got well off. Then I heard shots. I was terrfied. I hid in the bushes and a car came roaring past, weaving all over the road -- and they were shooting out of the windows. I cut back through the fields and told the woman at the store I thought we should call the police. She said oh, yes weekends the boys get a case of beer in the card they go out shooting groundhogs. Then she said, what were you doing up that road anyway? I could see she thought going for walks by yourself was a lot more suspicious than shooting groudhogs. There were lots of things like that.'"

Found in the collection Who Do You Think You Are?
(pp 201 - 02, emphasis added)

Contrary to Rose's pastoral vision, sometimes it is safer to take a walk in the city, though -- as Leonard learns -- not always. In the quest for pedestrian - friendliness, the walker must always be wary -- of rules and restrictions, of cars and all manner of anything mechanized, of impatience and intolerance. It should be so easy, to open your door and set out unimpeded by equipment, with the exception of a walking stick, should you so desire. You should not have to drive somewhere to go for a walk, but, alas, that is so often the best way. Despite the various hurdles and speed bumps tossed across the path, we must remain inspired (particularly here in Virginia!) by the words of the late, great (and yes, admittedly flawed) Thomas Jefferson:

"Walking is the best possible exercise.
Habituate yourself to walk very far."
I think it's safe to say that solitary walkers -- Leonard Mead, Rose, Thomas Jefferson -- take to the pavement in search of inner peace and quiet, some time out in the world while simultaneously alone inside their heads. I thought about their troubles as pedestrians when reading Steve Almond's commentary on the "inner life":

"To focus on the inner life today -- to read books, to think deeply, to imagine with no ulterior agenda, to reflect on painful or confusing experiences [to take a walk!] -- is to defy the clamoring edicts of our age, the buy messages, the ingrained habits of passive consumption and complaint. It is not yet a crime, merely an arcane and isolating practice."

Steve Almond From his essay:
William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life
[Recommended by Ned; see also Stoner;
and Victoria Amador]

Walk while you may! Walk very far!
Next Fortnightly Post
Thursday, December 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ "Persimmons"
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST ~ More Alice Munro
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

A Soldier of the Legion

IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Conquest of Algeria, 1830
by Jean Bainville

The French conquest of Algeria took place between 1830 and 1903.
The painting above depicts a battle at the onset;
the poem below, first published in 1867,
describes a battle from half-way through:

Bingen on the Rhine

A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers —
There was lack of woman’s nursing, there was dearth of woman’s tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away,
And bent, with pitying glances, to hear what he might say.
The dying soldier faltered, as he took that comrade’s hand,
And he said: “I never more shall see my own, my native land;
Take a message and a token to some distant friends of mine,
For I was born at Bingen — at Bingen on the Rhine!

“Tell my brothers and companions, when they meet and crowd around
To hear my mournful story, in the pleasant vineyard ground,
That we fought the battle bravely — and, when the day was done,
Full many a corse lay ghastly pale, beneath the setting sun.
And ’midst the dead and dying were some grown old in wars,—
The death-wound on their gallant breasts, the last of many scars;
But some were young,— and suddenly beheld life’s morn decline,—
And one had come from Bingen — fair Bingen on the Rhine!

“Tell my mother that her other sons shall comfort her old age,
And I was aye a truant bird, that thought his home a cage;
For my father was a soldier, and, even as a child,
My heart leaped forth to hear him tell of struggles fierce and wild;
I let them take whate’er they would—but kept my father’s sword;
And when he died, and left us to divide his scanty hoard,
And with boyish love I hung it where the bright light used to shine,
On the cottage wall at Bingen — calm Bingen on the Rhine!

“Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with drooping head,
When the troops are marching home again, with glad and gallant tread;
But to look upon them proudly, with a calm and steadfast eye,
For her brother was a soldier, too — and not afraid to die.
And, if a comrade seek her love, I ask her, in my name,
To listen to him kindly, without regret or shame;
And to hang the old sword in its place (my father’s sword and mine),
For the honour of old Bingen — dear Bingen on the Rhine!

“There’s another — not a sister, — in the happy days gone by,
You’d have known her by the merriment that sparkled in her eye:
Too innocent for coquetry! too fond for idle scorning; —
Oh friend! I fear the lightest heart makes sometimes heaviest mourning!
Tell her, the last night of my life (for, ere this moon be risen,
My body will be out of pain — my soul be out of prison),
I dreamed I stood with her, and saw the yellow sunlight shine
On the vine-clad hills of Bingen — fair Bingen on the Rhine!

“I saw the blue Rhine sweep along—I heard, or seemed to hear,
The German songs we used to sing, in chorus sweet and clear;
And down the pleasant river, and up the slanting hill,
That echoing chorus sounded, through the evening calm and still;
And her glad blue eyes were on me, as we passed with friendly talk,
Down many a path beloved of yore, and well-remembered walk;
And her little hand lay lightly, confidingly in mine …
But we’ll meet no more at Bingen — loved Bingen on the Rhine!”

His voice grew faint and hoarser,— his grasp was childish weak,—
His eyes put on a dying look,— he sighed and ceased to speak:
His comrade bent to lift him, but the spark of life had fled!
The soldier of the Legion, in a foreign land was dead!
And the soft moon rose up slowly, and calmly she looked down
On the red sand of the battle-field, with bloody corpses strown;
Yea, calmly on that dreadful scene her pale light seemed to shine,
As it shone on distant Bingen — fair Bingen on the Rhine!

By Caroline Sheridan Norton (1808–1877)

According to American author Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900) and Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942), this poem almost immediately upon publication -- and for years afterward -- became a hugely popular choice for grade school memorization and declamation. Both authors recall hearing "Bingen on the Rhine" recited by dozens of their peers and repeated so often that the narrative began to bore its audience and nearly lost its tragic impact.

Montgomery's heroine, Anne Shirley (of Green Gables!) declares:

"I can read pretty well and I know ever so many pieces of poetry off by heart—‘The Battle of Hohenlinden’ and ‘Edinburgh after Flodden,’ and ‘Bingen of the Rhine,’ and most of the ‘Lady of the Lake’ and most of ‘The Seasons’ by James Thompson. Don’t you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? There is a piece in the Fifth Reader —‘The Downfall of Poland’— that is just full of thrills. Of course, I wasn’t in the Fifth Reader — I was only in the Fourth — but the big girls used to lend me theirs to read. . . . When Gilbert Blythe recited “Bingen on the Rhine” Anne picked up Rhoda Murray’s library book and read it until he had finished . . . ."

From Anne of Green Gables, Chapters 5 & 19

Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables in 1908 but set the story about thirty years ealier. In keeping with the novel's timeline, Gilbert is reciting the poem "Bingen on the Rhine" in 1877, a decade after its initial publication.

Stephen Crane wrote and published "The Open Boat" in 1897. He was twenty - six at the time, thinking back to the days when he -- like Gilbert and Anne -- had memorized "Bingen on the Rhine" in school:

"To chime the notes of his emotion, a verse mysteriously entered the correspondent's head. He had even forgotten that he had forgotten this verse, but it suddenly was in his mind.

'A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,
There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, and he took that comrade's hand
And he said: I shall never see my own, my native land.'

"In his childhood, the correspondent had been made acquainted with the fact that a soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, but he had never regarded the fact as important. Myriads of his school-fellows had informed him of the soldier's plight, but the dinning had naturally ended by making him perfectly indifferent. He had never considered it his affair that a soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, nor had it appeared to him as a matter for sorrow. It was less to him than breaking of a pencil's point.

"Now, however, it quaintly came to him as a human, living thing. It was no longer merely a picture of a few throes in the breast of a poet, meanwhile drinking tea and warming his feet at the grate; it was an actuality --stern, mournful, and fine.

The correspondent plainly saw the soldier. He lay on the sand with his feet out straight and still. While his pale left hand was upon his chest in an attempt to thwart the going of his life, the blood came between his fingers. In the far Algerian distance, a city of low square forms was set against a sky that was faint with the last sunset hues. The correspondent, plying the oars and dreaming of the slow and slower movements of the lips of the soldier, was moved by a profound and perfectly impersonal comprehension. He was sorry for the soldier of the Legion who lay dying in Algiers."

From "The Open Boat"

When I was a student, in the 20th Century, Caroline Norton was no longer required reading, but Stephen Crane was, and that is how I learned of Norton's poem, not in grade school, but in a graduate seminar on "Style & Audience Interaction." We were given an assignment, by Professor Herman Wilson, to compare Crane's original 1897 New York Press account of surviving a tragic shipwreck with his subsequent literary narrative, "The Open Boat." And -- it goes without saying! -- we were compelled to look up every literary allusions along the way! From that day until now, I have always thought that one of the most memorable lines in all of American fiction is Crane's admission that up until his own near - death experience, the fate of the soldier in Algiers "was less to him than breaking of a pencil's point."

As Gerry so rightly observed, we cannot move on from "Bingen on the Rhine" without also paying our respects to Thomas Hardy's misplaced hero, Drummer Hodge, whose fate was similar to that of the Soldier of the Legion, not in Algiers but in South Africa. The theme is sadly similar -- a young man far from home, unknowing, unknown and unmourned. Hardy's poem was first published as "The Dead Drummer" in November 1899, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Boer War:

Drummer Hodge

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined — just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around:
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Young Hodge the drummer never knew —
Fresh from his Wessex home —
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow up some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.

Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928)

An English Drummer Boy (1902)
by George W. Joy (1844 - 1925)

May they rest in peace,
both Drummer Hodge and The Soldier of the Legion

"Let us remember . . . all those who have served
upon another shore and in a greater light,
that multitude which no one can number . . . ”
Next Fortnightly Post
Tuesday, November 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ "RIP Drummer Hodge"
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www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

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KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
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