"HUNCHBACK" OFFERS CINEMATIC SANCTUARY

     

          It's one of the greatest movies ever made, based on one of the greatest novels ever written.

          Reverently constructed, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) sweeps away viewers to Paris a decade prior to Columbus arriving in America. 

          In keeping with Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, the film contrasts rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless, the beautiful and the monstrous. One of several standout films in a legendary movie year (Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, for example, were also released in '39), The Hunchback of Notre Dame stars the inimitable Charles Laughton in his first picture with RKO, which produced Hunchback on a massive scale. So massive, the studio built replicas in California's San Fernando Valley of not only Notre Dame Cathedral itself, but of surrounding buildings as well. So massive, that in order to keep the dust down from the cast of thousands, the studio covered the entire film set in concrete.

          There had already been an excellent film version of the story, starring Lon Chaney in the title role. Taking nothing away from the Man With a Thousand Faces, the RKO production 16 years later benefitted from movie innovations, including sound.

          Directed by William Dieterle, whose German Expressionist background accounts for the film's excellent visual aesthetic, Hunchback is the story of a beautiful young Gypsy named Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara, perfectly cast, in her first movie) who catches the eye of all who see her--including Chief Justice Frollo (Hardwicke), the brother of Notre Dame's Archdeacon.

          Notably, in the book Frollo is the Archdeacon, and as such has taken a vow of chastity. As the Chief Justice, Frollo is required to take no such vow; his dilemma in the film therefore is entirely undercut, and this is a flaw which must be kindly overlooked. 

          To Frollo's credit, he keeps lots of cats, and is brave enough a man to hold a white cat in his sleek black raiment without benefit of a tape-roller.

          Contrasted with this cold lover of kitties who desires and cannot have Esmeralda, there is Gringoire (O'Brien), the poet, who embodies key truths of the writer's condition. "I am the true King of Fools," he remonstrates Parisians. "I battle for beauty, and the ugly gets crowned!"

          Another of the more interesting characters is Clopin, King of Beggars. Terrifically played by Thomas Mitchell (he's the forgetful Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life), Clopin opines to Gringoire, "True, we're not great thieves like the nobles. Our robberies are petty compared to the wholesale plunder of the nation."

          And then there's the star of the show. When Charles Laughton plays Quasimodo, it's incredible to believe he's the same actor who brought Henry VIII, Dr. Moreau, and Capt. Bligh to life. His Hunchback has the perfect combination of "malice, astonishment, and melancholy" Hugo describes in the novel. He doesn't have many lines, but everything he says counts.

          Raised by Frollo as a foundling abandoned on the Cathedral steps, Quasimodo is almost completely deaf from ringing the huge bells of Notre Dame. Initially, he scares Esmeralda when performing Frollo's nasty bidding. But there comes a point in the story when the beautiful and persecuted Gypsy pays Quasimodo a kindness which earns his undying gratitude. 

          More than any other reason, what makes the story work is that we are the Hunchback. We are the one on the pillory. We are the one who thirsts. We are all outwardly the monster in whose breast beats the heart of a hero.

          Not one jot less true today than it was when first released, the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (in no way to be confused with the Disney cartoon) still stands as a high point in film, still rings plenty loud and satisfyingly clear. 

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

Starring Charles Laughton,

Maureen O'Hara,

Cedric Hardwicke,

Edmond O'Brien,

Thomas Mitchell,

Alan Marshal,

Mina Gombell,

Harry Davenport

Directed by William Dieterle

Written by Sonya Levien

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo

Runtime 117 minutes

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT,

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE,

and

ARIZONA-INDIA TIMES

"ANIMAL HOUSE" EARNS LAURELS

          Cue lofty music:

          Venerating the shining example of that noblest of institutions, the lampoon.

          It's been 40 years since Animal House was cinematically erected, and to this day more students enroll in college specifically because of it than for all other reasons combined.

          The year is 1962, the college is Faber, and the dean is Wormer (John Vernon, perfectly cast). Dean Wormer, when not readily acceding to the mayor's extortion threats, is the kind of fun-hating dean who points and says things like, "You'll get your chance, smart guy!"

          And in so doing exemplifies the poor attitude from higher education toward the heroes of Delta Tao Chi, aka Animal House.

          The star of the movie, John Belushi, was the funniest part of TV's hip hit "Saturday Night Live". He was the draw, in both cases, in a highly ensemble cast. Tom Hulce (frat pledge Pinto) played Mozart a few years later in the smash hit Amadeus, and Karen Allen traded up for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

          Also featuring Donald Sutherland as a Satan-like English prof. In a sense, the students take their education directly from none other than Hawkeye Pierce himself. Animal House resembles M*A*S*H (1970) not just as a lampoon of an institution, but in its adept use of many characters. 

          Everything about the film constantly entertains. Packed with unforgettable characters in hilarious situations, Animal House is a movie with zero down-time. Gleefully raunchy and dead-on in every way, there isn't a funnier film.

          Talk about character delineation, the dichotomy between the privileged frat house, Omega, and the mocking mockeries at Delta could not be more clear: At Delta, there's wine, women, and song. At Omega, they're consecrating the Bond of Obedience by assuming the position and paddling each other. 

          Little known fact: Douglas Kenney, the guy who plays Stork ("Well what the hell we 'sposed to do, ya mo-ron?") not only co-wrote the script, but co-founded National Lampoon magazine (1970 - 1998). A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018), which is about Kenney, who died in an accident at age 33, can be found on Netflix.

          Harold Ramis, who also co-wrote the Animal House script, directed SNL alum Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983).

ANIMAL HOUSE

Starring John Belushi,

Tom Hulce,

Stephen Furst,

Tim Matheson, 

Peter Reigert,

Karen Allen,

Mark Metcalf,

John Vernon,

Mary Louise Weller,

Martha Smith,

Donald Sutherland

Directed by John Landis

Written by Harold Ramis, 

Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller

Runtime 109 minutes

Rated R

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT

and 

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE

THE DEVILKILLERS audios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DoB41h5WU8XinzeS5ObZOUL7ttEjJRrC/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tT6nBH5RPJ3kTHuN-8odAh7aiYoLWBEj/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OS0M3IPnieTkkzMYZPg3TaKH62H5yjwp/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zZbS9myfQDI4N4yPmk2yFcGQQwhYMdJS/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 5
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rBdmWXiqseKz951PkYURp81AWFFCmjPQ/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 6
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wdoScuub7USSbmtmhJKVXN96IwCjx74Y/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 7
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-hiNB9Pt4s2JHom7LhfHWuTl5fkWfc9/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 8
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1amu06aFm_zmHTmplNT1l_nPXB7758j9i/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 9
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wsL1FDi8Zi5M70qS2mqRGxeE-aPbKvJR/view

THE DEVILKILLERS audio 10
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lFVjmlwEGuWHA9rUiuFCP_JXNpe8V0hp/view


I include in this post 2/3 of the story.
Audio posts 11 - 15 finish the story.
To find out how it ends, buy the print version when it appears!
Thanks!


OGICIMBN2CD4U

The above is the special code I use to designate writing potentially hazardous to the easily offended, and to those having never been offended before just dying to ruin their record.

Yes, OGICIMBN2CD4U, the special code I use specifically for THE DEVILKILLERS!

Plus

LINK 

to TEXT:

THE DEVILKILLERS

https://stewartkirby.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-devilkillers.html

Click link to books:
https://www.amazon.com/Stewart-Kirby/e/B00572M8JC

MY BREAKFAST WITH BIGFOOT

          In 1994, TV's A&E launched a new series called "Ancient Mysteries" with its flagship episode investigating Bigfoot. The show ran for four years, narrated mostly by Leonard Nimoy (twenty years after Nimoy narrated "In Search Of..."), but in this first show the narration credit goes to John Swanson. 

          It's an authoritative, well-produced documentary containing neat bits of info, such as the fact that President Theodore Roosevelt was convinced that the creatures we call Sasquatch exist. Unlike the majority of films discussed in this column, this Bigfoot documentary necessitates a rare departure. Ordinarily I never use the word "I" in an article. Yet the additional component to this one is that after watching the episode when first aired, I decided to conduct an interview of my own. 

          This is because the producers of the show sent a film crew to Hoopa. 

          "Here in the Hoopa Valley of Northern California," the narrator says, "Bigfoot sightings are common."

          Whereupon the show presents Hoopa Tribal elder Jimmy Jackson. And the first thing he does is refer to what his mother had always told him. 

          Soon after, we see Byron Nelson Jr. And he says, "I think it's real possible that something like that does exist." 

          At some point subsequent to these Hoopa speakers, we meet anthropology professor Grover Krantz, who points out that we already have a fourteen foot-tall Asian ape on the fossil record called Gigantopithecus. It is therefore reasonable to assume that what we call Bigfoot is a species descended from Gigantos. 

          However, Dr. Krantz wasn't in the telephone book. So I called Jimmy, introduced myself, told him I'd seen the TV show, and asked if I could meet him to ask questions about Bigfoot. We got along fine and Jimmy said yeah.

          I'd also asked if I could bring a friend with a Camcorder to record our interview. Not for a newspaper. Not for college. Just because I was interested.

          So Jimmy and I arranged a time, then my friend Tom and I showed up around ten one morning at Jimmy's place in Hoopa. 

          He was in his mid-eighties. Wore a cowboy hat. Used to be a logger. I noticed a bunch of acorns he had in boxes. He told us about the leeching process required in order to eat them. 

          Jimmy showed us pictures of his mother and told us about the Deer Dance. He said that when he was a kid, he and his friends used to climb cherry trees to pick cherries at school, and the teacher had a nail fixed to the end of a stick to jab up at the children in the tree when they weren't speaking English. 

          Turns out, Jimmy wasn't really an authority on Bigfoot. He didn't know, for example, about plaster casts of footprints found in remote areas with indentations in the casts of dermal ridges, whorls, standing up under professional scrutiny as impossible to fake. In fact, according to Texas Police Department Forensic Examiner Jimmy Chilcutt, the dermal ridges in casts he's seen fall between human and gorilla.

          Nor did Jimmy Jackson know much of anything about the famous Big-footage taken in 1967 by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin at Bluff Creek, near Eureka. 

          In the 952 frames of color film taken is the iconic shot where the Bigfoot is turning mid-stride. "Ancient Mysteries" does a good job presenting the evidence, but falls shy the mark by failing to mention what should be the most compelling and obvious evidence of authenticity available: which I'll get to in a moment.

          I realized during the interview (which I called, for no good reason, "My Breakfast With Bigfoot"), that Jimmy didn't know so much about Bigfoot. And he pointed out as much when the time came for us to go.

          But he also said, on his back porch, pointing toward the Klamath River, that his mother told him when she was young she had seen four of them come out of the forest and splash around in the river. A big hairy male, a big hairy female, and two hairy young ones. Not bears. Not people. What the Hoopa call Oma. Then they saw her. And they left.

          Some years later, I had my copy of that interview copied onto a disk. I contacted Byron Nelson Jr, with whom I had interviewed in the mid-'90s for the editorship of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Newsletter, and mailed him the disk so that Jimmy Jackson's family could have it. 

          To return to the Patterson film, what makes it particularly remarkable are the pendulous breasts. The fact that the movement of the muscles under the hide are impossible to fake is not so clearly evident to the layman as are the pendulous breasts. Interestingly, tellingly, every time this famous footage is referred to in t-shirts, hats, and sculptures, the breasts are automatically removed and the Bigfoot is made to be male. 

          We're supposed to believe that a former rodeo rider could make a suit better than the ones used years later in major motion pictures such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Planet of the Apes", and we're supposed to believe he was the only one to buck the male Bigfoot rule, and that he decided to wear, for one time only and never again, a scientist-foolin' Bigfoot suit...with breasts?

          Gigantos already on the fossil record. 

          As the world's most famous primatologist, Dr. Jane Goodall, says on the subject (go to YouTube and have a listen), "You'll be amazed--I'm sure they exist!"

          By the way, zoom in on the right breast of the Patterson Bigfoot caught mid-stride and you can see areola nipple.

          It was around the time I mailed the disk copy of the interview that I happened to be talking with a Southern Humboldt County resident who wishes to remain anonymous, when he recounted to me something particularly interesting because I had never told him what Jimmy Jackson told me.

          According to the anonymous source, he was on his way to work one morning when he stopped off a mile or two south of Phillipsville at a pullout overlooking the Eel River. It was there that he saw four of them emerge from the forest on the other side of the river. A big hairy male, a big hairy female, and two hairy young ones. The same thing Jimmy's mother said she saw far to the north several decades earlier. 

          Then they saw him.

          And they left.

Check out also:

WHAT THE ASTRONAUTS SAY
https://stewartkirby.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-astronauts-say.html

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT

and

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE