For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.
After Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, the group with guitarist David Gilmour recorded two albums of studio material in 1968. It’s all compiled here except for “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, which features Syd’s guitar, and thus is included on Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Tomorrow’s Morning. Seeing as the group’s second real album, A Saucerful of Secrets, was ripped apart so three of its tracks could go on Morning, it’d seemed novel to marry the remaining four tracks with other tracks not originally on the album, so as to give the album tracks a new home. I won’t necessarily cover the 1969-2014 material. A little over half of the 1968 cuts are instrumental, so one album will just be instrumental and the other will have all the vocals, plus some of the more appropriate instrumentals. The first of these two fan albums features the earlier recorded tracks in the year and the second the later, roughly.
The first album is probably the most direct comparison to Saucerful, compared to the second and Morning. My Beautiful Flying Machine features three ethereal tracks from Saucerful, four singles, and three misc tracks. This works better as an album than Saucerful, because that one feels like there’s three different “concepts”. There’s Syd-songs, one long instrumental, and the three wordy-ethereals. This one focuses on the latter. Two of the tracks have boring titles, so I spiced them up. “Song 1” has been called “Richard’s Rave Up”, that seems more appropriate. “Instrumental Improvisation (from BBC’s The Sound of Change)” is now “Our Rave Up”. This era of the band is not really my thing. There’s a sense of trying to imitate something so uniquely Syd. The official More and Ummagumma are similarly plagued with the diet-Syd sound. The cover is the same as the cover for Saucerful.
Bright Lights is essentially a sequel to the first entirely instrumental “album” constructed by me, Lights. One could imagine that if my fan albums were released at the time, the Lights albums would be considered side steps, made to fool around. People would look at My Beautiful Flying Machine as the main follow-up to Morning and then after it would be either More, Ummagumma, or Atom Heart Mother, depending on how you look at it. The only track here from Saucerful is the song bearing the album’s name. It makes much more sense here. “Interstellar Overdrive” is retitled “Interstellar Lights”. The cover is a concert poster with changed texts.
Thus, now in the fan albumverse you can enjoy all seven tracks from the group’s second official album!
This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!
The Children’s Hour is an entrancing film. The excellent performances by the two lead actors create an experience both riveting and depressing. Shirley MacLaine as Martha Dobie carries an angst in every scene. She wants the best for everyone and feels a sense of distress from the constant influx of forces fighting her. Whenever things go for the worst, she has a drowning look on her face. There’s so much despair and despite her best attempt to keep herself, she knows she must go with the whims of reality. Karen Wright, played by Audrey Hepburn, is dealt many of the same blows as Martha. There’s a great look of confusion on her face which pops up. Both protagonists are portrayed as fairly honest and kindhearted people thrust into a bizarre and unexpected situation. Martha is more likely to boil over in anger while Karen tries harder to maintain composure, though she doesn’t always succeed. You’d think they would know the characters very well, but they weren’t in the play the film is based on. Karen and Martha have a strong bond with many moments of connecting. Their motivation for their actions is often to protect the other.
It’s all too easy to be taken in by the captivating sense of danger and anxiety that MacLaine and Hepburn expertly portray. The side cast, however, are also very good. James Garner is Dr. Joseph “Joe” Cardin. He’s a principled working man. He is cut from an early 60s cloth and is fine with that. He takes a protective role over Martha and Karen as things go badly. His face and tone of voice reveal how confused and sometimes lost he is, though often he’s quick to find solutions and act as if he knows what to do. Karen Balkin is Mary Tilford, a devilish and mischievous little girl who is determined to have her way. She’ll change her mannerisms and act differently as a façade to as strongly as possible get her way. During one scene, she pieces together a lie as she goes, building off of the other character’s reaction to make her tale more believable or disturbing or cruel. There’s several children in the movie. Most get little to do, though even their stray few lines or moment to shine are handled well. They’re kids who gossip, get upset, and have a lack of agency in their lives. The children behave as you’d expect children to. Miriam Hopkins is Lily Mortar, Martha’s egotistical aunt who is often difficult. She has good moments of conflict with her niece. Fay Bainter is Mrs. Tilford, Mary’s grandmother. She is impulsive and difficult, though everything she does she thinks is for the best. While she is in a sense an antagonist, it’s not out of hatefulness. Throughout the film she has great startled or concerned faces.
This film is based on a play from the 1930s. Despite the play being set in the 30s, this adaptation is set in the 60s. This can be gathered from the clothes and hairstyles being very 60s and certain things on the walls not existing in the 30s (such as a poster of Steve Lawrence). Karen and Martha act like reasonably conservative 60s ladies, very unassuming in nature.
The storyline is very enticing throughout. There’s constantly something happening to stress out or at least change the characters. An unfortunate exception is that one entire sequence was cut from the middle of the film, with us going straight from before it to its aftermath. Time jumps are often bad as it’s good to keep up with characters, here is no exception. The characters are now suddenly in a different state of mind. Seeing that change would be really interesting. Clearly someone thought it was important as that missing segment was filmed, but then cut. That, as well as various deleted scenes throughout the film, sound very enticing based on what is known about them. It’d be great for them to be put back in the movie, but they may be lost and/or no one thinks it’s worth the trouble. The score gives a stronger dramatic weight to the events in the film, especially a very strong violin which intensely plays when things get heated. Certain scenes can have an added sense of uncomfortableness due to how unsettling the music queues are.
SPOILERS
When Mary is talking to another girl, she tells Mary that someone said that Martha didn’t want anyone to ever fall in love with Karen and that was “unnatural”. Mary seems disturbed by this. On top of Balkin’s dramatic facial expression, the music gives insight on how she’s taking that information. Another great use of the violin score is used in the scene where Mary tells her grandma of things she has heard about Karen and Martha, piecing together her story based on how her grandma reacts. She whispers the worst bit as Mrs. Tilford begins to believe her. It was probably something too graphic for a 1960s film. Who knows? Mrs. Tilford goes to the school for answers. Martha tells Lily Mortar she has to leave because she’s too much trouble. As she leaves, she runs into Mrs. Tilford and rants about Martha, not knowing what Mrs. Tilford is thinking. “She has no interest in them [dating men], only the school… and Karen Wright.” That excellent score shoots up as the camera shows Tilford’s disturbed face. She is now convinced that the two were together.
We see Karen and Martha panic over all of the parents of the children coming and taking their kids away. The two dissolve over what is making the kids leave. When they find out, they go to Mrs. Tilford and there’s a bit of a showdown between Mrs. Tilford and Karen, Martha, and Joe. The characters go through a lot of states here. Joe is bewildered but still seems confident in the claim being false. The sides argue it out, though Tilford reluctantly. There’s a battle of emotions by people who generally act very proper, making them vulnerable. Eventually, they get Mrs. Tilford to doubt Mary. The film doesn’t want to make Mrs. Tilford a villain. It would be very human for her to be so headstrong that she refuses to entertain that she’s wrong, though she does. Mary is brought into the action and emotionally manipulates a fellow student to corroborate her story. While this scene is very suspenseful, it’s weird how the adults were yelling at/around the children.
The film turns into a constant series of blows against Karen and Martha. They go to trial with Mrs. Tilford and lose, that only being the second big one after the kids leaving. Joe tries to get them to leave for a new life. We see his honest and caring nature here. He just wants the best, emphasized by a heartfelt monologue, “We could sit around the rest of our lives and live on that trouble and we’d get to where we’d have nothing else, because we wanted nothing else.” Joe’s notion of “pushing forward” is challenged when Karen convinces him to ask the question she knows is on his mind and he does, Were Martha and Karen even together? Joe felt like a fool after asking, all his ideas of what he is supposed to be began to disintegrate. Karen didn’t think things could ever be the same and now that he doubts that she wasn’t with Martha, she can’t let their relationship go on. Her ending the relationship has come under some discussion, as to why she really wanted to end it.
DISCUSSION OF THE ENDING (WITH SPOILERS FOR THE FILM AND THE PLAY)
Karen tells Martha about her ending things with Joe. Martha is really upset about her doing that, saying she wanted it for them, despite her seeming to not like the relationship before. Martha is afraid suddenly, causing her and Karen to lose their cool about what to do. Martha asks Karen to go back to Joe and she refuses. Karen says they should go somewhere and Martha says people will know about them. Karen replies that other people accused of being gay weren’t destroyed by it. One of the most defining moments of Martha comes when she says that the difference is that they chose it for themselves, unlike her and Karen. She rambles about how they’ve only loved each other like friends. Karen, likely realizing that this is a weird thing to go on about, asks why she is. Martha looks away and says, “Because I do love you.”
Perhaps the most famous part of the film is when a broken Martha confesses her romantic feelings to Karen. Karen tries to make excuses for why Karen is acting like this, saying she is tired or that Mary made it up, but Martha clarifies that “Maybe I’ve wanted you all these years.” Martha has learned about these feelings more recently than when they met. It can be difficult to describe something when no one ever talks about it. There’s just a feeling of weirdness. Holding it in is incredibly uncomfortable, which is why when Martha comes out to Karen, she can’t really stop herself or be composed. There’s so much pressure just now being released. Karen even tries to leave, but Martha says she has to tell her. There’s foreshadowing to this moment in the film. Whenever the claim of them being lovers is brought up, Karen is always a little more dumbfounded and confused than Martha, because Martha knows of its “hint of truth”. When someone comes in to drop off food, he stares at them and Martha says, “I’ve got eight fingers, see? And two heads! I’m a freak!” sarcastically, though this could be seen as a reflection of her feelings, she feels like a freak. As mentioned, Martha didn’t like that Karen was to marry Joe. Deleted scenes featured little moments like hair brushing and other nuggets specifically made to be foreshadowing.
Mrs. Tilford returns and says that Mary has confessed and she wants to make things right by paying Karen and Martha in addition to a public retraction. Karen says that she wants to pay them so she can “rest her head again” and she shouldn’t, this being the only time Karen is vindictive. In fact, she’s normally the opposite. Mrs. Tilford says she wants help in knowing how to make things right. Martha says, “Help you?” and laughs, probably thinking that she needs help, not Tilford. Martha goes to her bedroom and Karen follows her. The curiosity of how Karen will respond to Martha’s confession is revealed when she says something unexpected, “I’m going away someplace to begin again. Will you come with me?” I expected the line to end with the first sentence, with the implication being that she was not interested in staying with Martha. That second line gives a lot on how she feels, despite how little is said. Martha says they can talk after she’s rested, Karen goes on a walk, Martha looks at Karen through the window with teary eyes, Lily tells Karen that Martha’s door is locked, dramatic music plays as Karen breaks into Martha’s door while screaming her name, and gets in only to discover that she’s hung herself.
There’s a transition to Martha’s funeral. Karen says, “The Lord bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Both now and evermore. Goodbye, Martha. I’ll miss you with all my heart.” and walks off, ignoring all the other characters in the film, who are there. The final shot is her walking off, briefly looking up, then back forward.
Martha’s death was very heart wrenching. She didn’t have the chance to feel comfortable with herself or see things go right for her. Karen is now alone and left to contemplate what to do with her life without her friend but with the knowledge about her. Should she share it? That could make them look bad, but keeping it to herself might also hurt her emotionally. She’ll have most of a lifetime to consider what that knowledge is and means. Martha’s own self-hatred boiled over and now that she can’t go back to how things were before, it would be easier for her to just end it all. This film serves as a time capsule of a time when there was so little discussion of homosexuality that people might either think they’re the only one and/or that it’s an illness and they’re bad for having it, though society could always return to that point. The 2022 Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill should be proof of that, though hopefully one day it will be so far in the past that no one will understand this sentence. There should always be an understanding of what has and could happen even upon the failure of that specific bill.
It’s chilling that in-universe, Martha may never be understood or appreciated, with her chilling revelation being an ever more distant memory in Karen’s mind. While it’s possible the film was punishing Martha for being gay by killing her, she is portrayed as a good person in the story. It can be assumed that none of the characters other than Karen know of her sexuality, so the only character that knows her secret wishes the lord to bless her and will always miss her. Due to Martha being portrayed sympathetic, it seems probable that the film was intended to be pro-gay. It’s a potent irony that due to homosexuality being considered immoral, the solution in many gay books and films was for the gay characters to die for morality to be kept, in a sense saying that gay characters dying is okay as they do something wrong by existing. Martha’s comment about how they “didn’t choose it unlike the other people” suggests that she’s drawing lines in her head to justify her to herself. I might have unnatural feelings, but at least I didn’t act on them. Even that level of trying to hide your feelings isn’t good enough to the “bury your gays” trope. If this film is pro-gay, it still has to conform to a trope that is utilized so much. A gay person, especially a teen or young adult, watching this movie in 1961 might feel like they’re being told that suffering and maybe death are the only options. The film is irresponsible for that, though it still can be appreciated for what it does right. It’s understood that the movie couldn’t get much more pro-gay without getting called out for it.
Some have felt that Karen developed romantic feelings for Martha in the film. On the surface, Karen is shown to be completely straight, possibly to justify her not dying at the end, she wants to be what women of the time were expected to be, married mothers, even to the point of agreeing to marry a man she probably didn’t love. Karen and Joe don’t commit until the beginning of the film. She only agrees to marry him if they can have a kid as soon as possible. Karen is in love with the idea of being a wife and mother. Joe is willing and able to supply that, but Karen doesn’t show an actual interest in him as a person. When he says they’ll have to wait a while to have a kid near the end of the film, she breaks things off, though that isn’t the only reason. This could be a sign of her catching feelings for Martha. If her priority was really to have children as soon as possible, she’d stay with Joe. It would be difficult to find a man that’s interested in her so quickly. Perhaps that was an excuse on her part to get Joe away. She’s baffled at Martha’s confession a little later, but this earlier scene could show unconscious feelings. It at least demonstrates her turning away from the traditional gender roles she initially accepted.
Karen asking Martha to go with her could mean she is willing to explore a romantic relationship with Martha because if not, why would this line be in the film? What point does this scene serve otherwise? Karen would also understand that Martha’s confession would be on her mind, so the next thing she said should be an answer to how she feels about it. Karen’s look on her face as she leaves Martha to sleep is very loving, as if she’s excited to progress forward with this person that’s so special and beautiful to her. When Karen goes on the walk, she takes Martha’s coat, perhaps to symbolize that they’re one in her eyes. It would be too quick to declare that Karen had feelings for Martha, especially before Martha’s coming out, though it would not be hard to believe that she was finding those feelings or something she didn’t understand and was willing to explore them. Karen cares about Martha and wants things to be well for them more than anything else. Their many moments of being together, fighting together, peacefully talking to each other are not too unlike what you might see from a romantic couple in a movie.
Another arguably queer part of Karen is that she hasn’t been shown to love men. Her interest in Joe only extended to him being able to give her children. The sort of things that go against Karen liking Martha are things like her not explicitly saying it or her shocked look when Martha first reveals her feelings, though these can be explained away. There’s also no point where there is no conceivable way to take a platonic reading of their relationship, though that interpretation often isn’t as apparent as a homosexual one.
In the play, Karen asks Martha to leave with her before Martha comes out. When Martha does, Karen is callous about what she was told by her best friend. After the confession, Martha immediately kills herself. Lily is frantic at her death, but Karen doesn’t seem to care. Mrs. Tilford comes by to tell her that she knows the whole thing was a lie. Karen is aggressive to her and mentions Martha’s death only to make her feel bad. There is no funeral scene or scene where Karen shows compassion to her colleague that just committed suicide. This could be a sign that film Karen is supposed to be queer. It would be socially acceptable in 1961 for Karen to be cold to Martha, but things were still added, removed, or moved around to make Karen and the film more sympathetic to Martha.
The scandal almost gave Martha a happy ending. If it wasn’t for the scandal, Martha might not have revealed her feelings to Karen or even figured out she had them. She wouldn’t have been offered money from Mrs. Tilford and Karen would be married. Plenty of fanfiction on the film keeps Martha alive and has her end up with Karen. If the film was released in a time when homosexuality was frowned upon, but not so badly that gays had to die at the end, would Martha have killed herself? What would’ve happened in the ending? If the film ended with Martha and Karen restarting their school or running off together, a lot of people would probably interpret that queerly.
Seeing as Martha’s suicide was right after Karen undoubtedly showed an acceptance of her, it could be taken that Martha’s self hatred was so strong that she didn’t want to confront her homosexual feelings being explored, which maybe she realized could happen with Karen, which just makes the character’s death all the more depressing. My brain couldn’t take that, I wanted things to be made right. Martha spent the duration of the film, months, and possibly longer hating herself and building up a fragile mental support that everything was okay, making justifications like, “We never actually did anything”, and when that was challenged, she disintegrated and couldn’t handle life. This is a very real thing that people go through and it’s not hard to believe that real people might’ve had the same fate.
The film ends with Karen giving a look of contemplation as she walks off. There are several interpretations that could be made, but one that seems likely is that she is going to try to do something about the bigotry she experienced. It resulted in her best friend losing her life. She doesn’t focus on anyone else, ignoring the other characters. She might see entertaining them as getting stuck in the past, which Joe suggested avoiding, and they are best left away from her. A gayer interpretation is that Karen is leaving behind the claustrophobic life that bred hate and is going to find acceptance for others and maybe herself. She’s leaving behind the gender roles she once was going to fall headfirst in and embrace the nuances Martha exposed her to.
It’s good that Martha was made gay, because if she wasn’t then the film would have a veneer of, “Isn’t it so unfortunate when homophobia affects straight people?” Now, the film actually is looking at the horrors of homophobia more directly. There is a vibe of the former takeaway, especially because conservatives might not like that a straight couple was prevented from having children, but the film overall feels more about tackling the latter matter.
It could be considered a biting social critique that such a little lie from Mary would cause so much to disintegrate, that both of the protagonist’s lives would be so thrown into chaos. It’s a message worth being handed to viewers who may very well think homosexuality is sinful, though if the critique is intended, it doesn’t hit hard enough. The film’s generally pro-gay message probably did more good than bad, especially in a more modern time when people can watch this film with other movies with happier endings or deeper discussions. It’s just a shame The Children’s Hour entertains the prejudice view to any extent.
Noted for the sake of novelty is that some websites list this film as a romance. The Karen-Joe romance doesn’t go anywhere, so it’s probably talking about Karen and Martha!
OVERVIEW
Apparently there’s going to be a tv show adaptation. It wouldn’t be surprising if it was just the same story over a few episodes but hopefully the elements tackled in the ending could get a more thorough depiction now that audiences are more tolerant of that being discussed. It’d also be nice to see the story continue after this one ends. The show is very tantalizing. The film is very progressive and valuable. It especially is recommended to young queer people, due to it being a good representation of the times, though it’s important to watch it with other queer movies that are more modern. Even for those not interested in that aspect, the acting and drama are top notch and fans of either would be pleased.
Buried Treasure has an intriguing synopsis. There’s pirates and galleons and treasure. You’d think this would be an adventure film. The focus, however, is on our protagonist Pauline, played by Marion Davies, disapproving of the life her father, played by Anders Randolf, wants for her. At about forty-three minutes in, Pauline reads a pirate book and this is visualized with the cast all portraying a character in the book. One might think this is just a brief detour, but this segment ends at the one hour mark of a seventy minute movie. While the scene does personify how Pauline feels about her father, seeing as Randolf plays a villain in this part, it doesn’t actually add to the plot. That all being said, so little of note occurs in the proper narrative that the pirate excursion is by far more interesting. If you cut all the scenes of superfluous conversations and other elements that don’t add to the story, as well as the pirate scene, you’d end up with a very short film. As a guess, around twenty minutes.
The pirate segment has fun over-the-top performances and silly dialogue with fights and dramatic moments. The acting is bad, which makes the whole thing funny. If one is to be objective, this tangent isn’t great, but it’s fun. The scenes before are slower and less engaging. It seems like the movie was made with the pirate portion in mind as the set piece and a “normal” story was crafted around it. It’s a shame the whole movie wasn’t this. Afterward, the film is close to over. If the filmmakers put much stock in the main plot and not the pirate portion, they probably would’ve made the ending longer so as to be more climactic.
Davies’ performance is more loose and relaxed than in her later works. Here, she plays a rich girl who doesn’t seem to be bothered by things for the most part. She has a casualness to her acting that’s very endearing. One scene that summarizes her well is when she is under threat of her father making her poor and she doesn’t seem to care. Wealth is clearly important to her, so her rejection shows us where her priorities are.
Pauline exchanges playful engages with her brother, Joeffrey, played by Earl Schenck. The two have very little screen time together but what is there is nice. One personal favorite moment is when Pauline whispers something and the two start laughing as their father is being difficult. A big crux of the plot is the relationship between Pauline and her father. When they disagree, you’re supposed to be on the edge of your seat wanting things to be right, however this is essentially just a few scenes stapled to the movie. So much information, mainly on Pauline and her father, is told to us through intertitles, so you never really care. Various other characters, like Pauline’s mother, get so little screen time or anything to do that they feel insignificant.
It’s a little difficult to appreciate the film fully because the final reel is lost. The Blu-ray includes a reconstruction, but it’s not the same as if the reel was present. The movie might’ve been better if the first reel was missing. While it does introduce the characters, the scenes progress so slowly that it’s a very dull experience. We’re just waiting for something to happen. Very little of substance happens in the first thirty minutes. We do get scenes of the characters interacting that aren’t necessary. Starting the plot would tell us information on them more naturally. The most unfortunate of the character moments is when a man we’re supposed to like kisses a woman without her consent. This also happened in another Davies’ film, The Red Mill.
SPOILERS
After close to twenty minutes had passed of superfluous conversations and dancing, Pauline talks to her love interest, John, and they discuss that they’re in love but can’t be together. There should’ve been a scene of Pauline and John showing affection for the other before Pauline tried to get him to marry her at the party. It’s all very sudden. The film has a few laughs. Pauline and John are caught kissing, the catcher leaves to get someone and in that time, John goes away and Pauline gets Joeffrey. When the person comes back, Joeffrey says, “Why the excitement? I was merely kissing my own sister!” Later, Pauline’s father suggests taking John on a trip with the family. Pauline begs he doesn’t, so he does. Pauline reveals to Joeffrey, “I opposed Dr. [John] Grant for I was sure that if I did Dad would take him.”
OVERVIEW
This is decent off of the pirate segment and a few other fun moments, but there’s too much drag and little going on to call Buried Treasure a good film. It’s really only valuable for Marion Davies fans. Her performance has made me more interested in seeing her early movies.
The Who captured the dirty garage rock/proto-punk sound with their first Pete Townshend written single, “I Can’t Explain”. Not to be out done by himself, Townshend got to work on another teenage-expression rocker. “My Generation” followed. It was a big hit that still rings strong today and the band’s first LP followed. Some bands, due to lack of artistic freedom or lack of confidence in their own songs, make albums with a lot of covers. Someone must’ve believed in Townshend, because My Generation consists of eight Pete-written originals, three covers, and one improvised jam essentially written by the band.
Ignoring the few better known tracks and hidden gems, much of the album feels like they’re covers. Tracks like “The Good’s Gone” and “Much Too Much” have a generic feeling to them. Singer Roger Daltrey and to a lesser extent the band don’t seem to have their hearts here. Maybe they didn’t have that long to rehearse? Actual covers like “Please, Please, Please” and “I’m a Man” feature Daltrey going past breaking point in a misguided attempt to capture the magnificent controlled madness of James Brown and Bo Diddley respectively. He wails like he hasn’t done it before. At his worst, Daltrey is a good enough singer, but he is much better when staying in his own lane.
A few tracks seem designed to follow the footsteps of “I Can’t Explain” and “My Generation”, very heavy-for-the-time tracks with a sense of teenage angst. “Out in the Streets”, “It’s Not True”, and “The Kids Are Alright” have tasty guitar solos and a hard rocking rhythm. Drummer Keith Moon isn’t left without anything to do. Soaring backing vocals and up-tempo energy make these tracks a delight, though also expected. Of course they’d do more songs like these ones. “The Kids Are Alright” does step from that formula a bit with a power-pop and somewhat more lighthearted sound. It drops the proto-punk edge for a more chilled vibe to great effect. It’s a comedic romp about teenage experiences. This would be refined more on later tracks, though this style is present in a lesser extent on Explain and Generation.
“A Legal Matter” is the closest thing here to a ballad. It’s a little more cooled and features the less sultry voice of guitarist Pete Townshend on lead vocals. While it feels like filler, it’s still a nice song with a really good guitar riff at the end. “The Ox” is a track named after bassist John Entwistle, though the bass is not very prominent on the track. The song is a jam session between Entwistle, Moon, Townshend, and session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. Townshend and Hopkins get their little moments and solos, though the more in-your-face instrument is the drums. There’s such a high energy and movement here that it’s impossible not to love this cut. It feels like it’s constantly trying to impress you and the quartet does so effortlessly. Hopkins has great interplay with Moon and you’d think he was part of the band if you didn’t know better. Ending an album with an instrumental can sometimes seem overly flashy but here it’s done to great effect. This band wants to prove it can rock and that is demonstrated as the record fades out.
That being said, there is one track that forwards the aggression and high muster of “The Ox” even further than “The Ox”. “My Generation” is one of the quintessential rock songs of all time for good reason. The anger and frustration of being a young person is communicated through the various instruments and lyrics. Moon’s high energy is constantly at work with the thrashing bass and guitar as Daltrey despairs on how “people try to put us down”. The lack of confidence in a teenager comes through with his stutter, adding a cool effect to the performance in the process. Townshend and Entwistle’s backing vocals blend well with Daltrey to make an amusing harmony to such a raucous track. The lyrics are soaked in the internal dread of the singer, typified by lines like, “Things they do look awful cold”, “Why don’t you all fade away”, and the famous, “I hope I die before I get old”. The track reaches a crescendo where the instruments begin bashing as hard as they can before boiling over and the song ends. Those in the 60s might find it hard to believe that this song could be out done. It ultimately was with the punk movement that formed around ten years later. The album should’ve ended with “My Generation” and the others tracks moved up in the line.
OVERVIEW
None of the tracks here are even close to bad. While some of it is filler, they still pack a strong rock spirit and very strong playing from this tribe of misfits. The quaintness can turn off some, but even they can’t turn away from the highlights. My personal favorites are, “The Kids Are Alright”, “It’s Not True”, “The Ox”, and of course, “My Generation”.
One of the most interesting footnotes in rock and rap history is the first solo album by Ramones bassist, Dee Dee Ramone. While he made a positive impression on rock history with both his bass playing and songwriting for the Ramones, he followed the trajectory of many musicians in that he lost his magic overtime. Unlike most musicians, his trajectory fell off a cliff to rarely ventured levels of career rot.
It’s hard to describe the sense of “what is this” when looking at the name of the first track, “Mashed Potato Time”. What kind of rap album has a song called “Mashed Potato Time”? What does that mean? It’s the type of thing a child would come up with for their rap album. These feelings don’t dissipate when you start playing the record and are greeted with the out-of-key, “It’s time to rock, it’s time to rap.” The vocal sounds like a dad trying to impress his son by singing a rap song without any sense of what makes rap, or even singing, good. It’s coarse and tone deaf to the rhythm of the song or any song. Often, a line of the lyrics aren’t long enough to fill a bar, so words are awkwardly stretched or spaced weirdly. Did someone else record the backing track and then Dee Dee improvised over it without having heard it before? The female backing singer is better, though very stock. She has an average voice with no spice… except that’s not true. That singer, Debbie Harry, is an excellent singer for her band, Blondie. Any soulfulness or intrigue you could catch on a Blondie song is missing here. She certainly can sing upbeat and fun songs very well, though here she sounds like she’s in a pop song without any rock edge. Just like Dee Dee and every backing vocalist, she sounds like she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
The next track is a slight improvement. “2 Much 2 Drink” comes from a real place in Dee Dee’s life. He had a pretty bad alcohol addiction, which this track is an expression of. It’s not quite as bombastic as some other tracks, which makes it more competent, though the singing by Dee Dee and the male backing vocal are very rough around the edges in all the wrong ways. The writing and production are directionless and lack any feeling for the subject matter of Dee Dee’s addiction.
“Baby Doll” and “Poor Little Rich Girl” are not rap songs. It’s jarring jumping from rap to rock and afterward back to rap like the non-rap cuts belong here. These feel like they came from a rock project and were stuffed on this album to make it longer. That being said, there are other tracks that aren’t rap or are only kind of rap, thus muddying the whole point. What is this album supposed to be? Just record rap versions of these songs if you want to put them on the album! “Baby Doll” even has a ballad-y, lowkey guitar solo. The miniscule range in Dee Dee’s voice can’t at all carry a ballad, as he tries to on Baby. He is slightly better on the more upbeat songs, because his voice doesn’t need to go as far or have an emotional depth.
The best song of the lot is, “The Crusher”. It still has all the same problems as the rest of the album, but its big-headed rock runaround can manage with the incoherent yelling and annoyingly hooky riffs. The guitar work isn’t too bad. As a side note, Wikipedia calls this one a punk song, but there’s no loving punk spirit here. It’s such a mess. This mostly-rock song does inject a rap twang. If the intention of this album is to be a rock-rap fusion album, this is one of few times that blend is present. “I Want What I Want When I Want It” goes for a bass-baritone vocal that is awfully uninspired. Why change it up on this one song? The backing vocal replicates the rough and sour sound. The song peters out and with that the album. It’s so anticlimactic that I expected more songs afterward.
OVERVIEW
The sheer audacity of this album’s existence is something to behold. Did no one ever think about what they were doing or how it sounded or what impression this would leave on Dee Dee’s career? It seems so obvious that this would go down as one of the most interesting failures from a beloved musician. Other rock pioneers, Brian Wilson and Mike Love can safely call themselves better rappers. Co-songwriter Daniel Rey later said that the boldness of Dee Dee making this and calling himself things like, “the master of hip-hop” is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. While that doesn’t come across, you can at least appreciate the intent to have fun. Some people, such as Dee Dee himself, have a good time with this record and it’s good that they do.
The most mind melting track is “Mash Potato Time”, which sounds like a joke song from Saturday Night Live, only it gets sadder as it continues for nine more tracks.
How can a fair and tender lady like myself not appreciate an Irish-accented Marion Davies yet again carrying a movie, which isn’t trying as hard as her?
Peg o’ My Heart puts its best foot forward for the beginning of the movie. The first act focuses on the comfortable life of Marion Davies as Peggy and J. Farrell MacDonald as Peggy’s father, Patrick O’Connell. There’s a fresh blend of comedic moments for Marion to play in and dramatic moments for Davies and especially MacDonald to run through. MacDonald is given more dramatic moments than Davies, his character has to make more tough decisions. The first act is very good and you get invested in the story because of the solid acting. Even outside of the first act, the two maintain strong performances. One really nice moment comes when Peggy is bonding with someone outside. There’s a playfulness which shows Peggy’s charm. Other than one scene of Davies overacting while talking about love, her performance carries a natural likability and innocence. She’s an honest-natured girl who has to deal with difficult issues.
When Peggy must spend time away from her father and instead with her extended family, the film drags considerably. Most of the extended family is one-note in a way they really shouldn’t be. A handful of scenes are dedicated to their stories, which just takes away from Peggy. The cast aren’t particularly good at their characters, thus leading to a veneer of fakeness. The already brisk runtime is so short and so much of it is wasted. Peggy’s story is not fleshed out very much, possibly due to other characters eating up the screen. Peggy doesn’t always seem believable because moments we should be seeing aren’t here. The worst performance is that of Irene Browne as Mrs. Chichester. She is very much a stock “villainous older woman”. She is very set in her ways and stubborn, not willing to consider how she treats others and thus everyone is afraid of her to some extent. She is very proper and has strong views on how people should act, especially the more liberal female protagonist. Browne was almost the same age as Davies. She comes off as a young woman pretending to be old, because that is what she’s doing. There’s no personality to the character and so little is put into her that Mrs. Chichester is essentially a walking cliché.
SPOILERS
During the setup of the plot, we get some nice moments. Peggy is confused for a boy, presumably because of her wearing men’s clothes when she’s working. In another scene, she thinks a man traveled to Ireland from England just to talk about plum pudding, which she’s never had. We also get to see her do some singing and dancing. While Marion Davies is not the best singer or dancer, she brings with her a charm and enough proficiency that these scenes warrant inclusion. The film avoids the common exposition dump, other than a brief line where Patrick mentions Peggy’s mom being absent for no reason other than for the audience to know.
Patrick is told that Peggy will inherit a fortune on a few conditions. One is that she has to spend three years with her aunt, another is that she can’t see her father again. He initially turns the offer away, but when an accident occurs which costs a few lives, Patrick persuades Peggy to go. Keep in mind that it’s made clear that Peggy wouldn’t want the money if she knew she had to separate from her father. He has to lie to her, first by saying he’ll be with her soon and then telling someone to tell Peggy that he died. We can see what is making Patrick do this. The accident frightens him and then he incorrectly thinks she is happy in a life of wealth. Despite these reasons, his decisions don’t make sense. Their bond is very strong, with Peggy being miserable away from him. While Patrick doesn’t know that, he does know that she cares for him very deeply based on scenes of them in the first act. He seems too keen on her thinking he’s dead and then running away forever, not just from Peggy, but from his life and friends to a different country. The way he acts when he first learns of the condition better reflects how you’d expect him to act, in horror at the thought of them being separated over something as trivial as money. He is willing to destroy so much for Peggy’s potential fortune. You’d think he’d at least ask her what she wants.
Some of the best scenes in the film relate to their separation. Patrick has a good facial expression of horror when the accident occurs, but it also shows his horror that he’s considering an action that will stop him from being with his daughter. The scene of him and Peggy parting is very heartfelt. They both keep talking as they don’t want her to go.
The family are pretty mean to Peggy for no real reason and despite them needing her. They get money from her being there. There are several points where she considers leaving because of how little she likes it with them. You’d think they’d be as nice to her as possible. Mrs. Chichester’s daughter, Ethel, plans to run away from her engagement with Peggy’s love interest, Gerald, for another man. Peggy attempts to stop her, with Ethel’s response being emblematic of her annoyance for Peggy.. When Peggy saves Ethel from a scandal related to the man and shows her the error of her ways, Ethel is much kinder to Peggy.
Davies’ comedic muscles get some use when she delivers a series of funny lines when she is introduced to her extended family. The point of such a scene is to get a taste of all these characters and how they react to Peggy being unladylike. What one would expect next is for scenes of Peggy situating herself in this new environment, being taught various manners and progressively getting better at doing things of that nature. The next scene after Peggy’s first day establishes that she has been there for a while. Her aunt has “treated her like one of her own children”, though the audience hasn’t seen much between them. It feels like scenes were cut where Peggy interacts with everybody on a day-to-day basis. It’s so awkward to hear the characters just refer to things that happened in between the time jump.
The main story of Peg o’ My Heart is, “Peggy goes to England, gets accustomed to her new life, misses how things were, and goes back but with a piece of the new life”. There’s so little time devoted to her going through this journey. We skip from her being very fish out of water to her being reasonably used to things with nothing in between. There aren’t even many scenes of her in her new setting due to the focus on the other characters and the first act. Those elements also aren’t explored very much because this is about Peggy. The audience doesn’t really get accustomed to Peggy in England because we don’t see her do that. Let us feel something like we did for her in Ireland. The Ireland part of the story is setup and yet it is much better developed.
There is a standard sudden happy ending. Peggy returns to Ireland and her father is there. Gerald shows up and says he loves Peggy. His proposal to Ethel is simply no longer a factor. While the two did have some nice moments together, their relationship wasn’t shown far beyond surface level.
OVERVIEW
This could’ve been a great film about being forced to manage with people and scenarios the protagonist doesn’t understand, all for said people’s gain. We could’ve seen Peggy be made into a lady and have these scenes inform her of the characters, the characters of her, or the audience of them. We could’ve seen things characters said or did have more impact. Once the climax happens, there could’ve been some scenes dedicated to dealing with all that happened over the course of the story, yet so much is ignored. Peg o’ My Heart is cute, just listen to Peggy’s Irish accent, but loses steam fast and doesn’t focus on what it should.
One of the more famous Davies flicks is The Red Mill. This is considered by some to be when her films developed a stronger quirky and comedic edge. Davies has always been particularly good at comedy. We are given many moments where Davies gets to be funny and lovable. All these moments feed into her character, who is in turn more lovable because she can handle getting into scrapes and being amusing. She has a crush on a man and friendships with all the neighborhood kids and weird reactions to a stubborn ironing board and a pet mouse named Ignatz. There’s plenty of fun lines and jokes. One favorite line is, “OOo! If Only I could call you in English what I’m thinking in Dutch!” At another point, a man gets a woman’s attention by yelling, “BABY!” This is synchronized to a loud and jazzy note in the score.
The elements of the film played straight are not as well handled. When Tina and a man of her affection, Dennis, meet, their interaction is strange. He seems to initially not like her before changing his tune after a brief conversation, then changes again to disinterest. He is cold to Tina’s awkwardness in a way that’s not endearing. Why should Tina or the audience like Dennis? The titular red mill is considered terrifying by the characters. Initially it’s funny due to how silly it is that they’re scared, but the mill gets more and more focus and some dramatic weight at the end, which suggests the audience is supposed to find it scary. Did the audience find it scary? It’s so ridiculous, how could anyone? There’s a few mistakes that come up in a lot of popcorn movies. The movie tells and doesn’t show when Tina states that Ignatz is her only friend. This isn’t even relevant to the plot. There are many moments where characters make decisions obviously for the reason of progressing the story as opposed to a reason to do so in-narrative. Characters are often in the right place at the right time for plot to happen. These kinds of issues are more common in silent films than other eras of cinema.
The movie probably knows its strength is the comedy, so things get more ridiculous and funny as you go. There’s a few absurdisms and over the top humor that’s delightful. This is benefitted by the cast, which is generally good. Gretchen, played by Louise Fazenda, has a good duoship with Tina. The two play off each other well. Karl Dane plays Jacop, a character who gets a few moments to entertain. His expressive face and mannerisms are very amusing. Most characters very cleanly fit the roles you’d expect. George Siegmann is Tina’s vicious boss Willem; Snitz Edwards is Dennis’ right hand man Caesar, who is more or less a straight man character; and William Orlamond needs to be super creepy and succeeds.
SPOILERS
When Gretchen is asked to elope by her lover, Jacop, she wants to but is nervous. Tina says they should switch clothes, which leads to a strange sequence of Tina removing layers upon layers of Gretchen’s clothing. It’s a joke that drags a little and seems out of left field. Dennis hits on Tina, thinking she’s Gretchen, despite believing she’s going to marry another man. She doesn’t accept his advances, but he goes for her anyway, even kissing her without consent. The film frames this as him being romantic, instead of villainous. Music swells as she lightly pushes him away as he kisses her, only to then embrace him and the kiss. This is not a happy moment! This is assault! We’re supposed to be rooting for these two, but we now hate Dennis. There’s even a shot of Dennis climbing a ladder toward Tina with the camera happening to catch his face at a really creepy and unflattering angle. Is this blatant act of assault intended to be heartwarming? If this is what people were okay with in the 20s, then that’s horrifying.
The movie continues with a little more strangely bad taste humor. After Ignatz crawls inside Tina’s shoe that Gretchen is wearing, she returns to her room for no particular reason. Dennis tells Caesar how beautiful Tina is, so he looks in the room and sees Gretchen. Caesar verbalizes how ugly she is. Why is this movie calling Gretchen ugly with this mean-spirited joke about her? This isn’t plot relevant, which means that either the writer thought this was a funny joke or they thought the audience would think it’s a funny joke.
The comedy will come and go at points. It’s a little jarring but not done too poorly, especially when there’s something to draw you into the drama. Striking imagery and lighting emphasizes the brutality of Tina’s boss when the two fight. Her throwing things at him is both funny, but also displays the power he has over her. He pays her wage and also often makes her feel bad. There’s a sharp irony to Tina throwing dishes of prepared food at him that he probably had her make. He controls her life and resources, even what she uses against him. The dark lighting and Siegmann’s presence make him very frightening.
Tina is thrown in the mill by Willem and for no particular reason, climbs up its stairs. Dennis, running around looking for Tina, enters the mill. Either he somehow knew she was in there or he went in for no reason. Willem also walks in with a gun with no direct explanation. Too much screen time is dedicated to Tina and Dennis startling at slightly scary things and the three of them traversing upwards. The film just walked out of a goofy comedy into this horror. Perhaps it’s supposed to be funny that Tina and Dennis are frequently scared by nothing, but there’s not much to suggest that these moments are meant to be taken as comical. Even if it is, it’d be the same joke over and over; something falls or moves and someone is scared by it. It being intended as comedic also is unlikely as the viewer knows Willem is going after Tina with a gun. That all being said, the rich blues in the mill are gorgeous. The moody and drowned lighting would be better served in an actual horror film.
While it isn’t made clear, it seems that Willem was intending to kill Tina and Dennis. Why? Tina is your employee and Dennis is someone that hasn’t done anything to him. The music and the couple show relief when the windmill turns on while Willem is on it. The fact that the signs show we’re supposed to be happy with what is probably Willem’s death implies that Willem was intending to hurt them. Willem is never shown falling off the windmill or dying, but it’s hard to see how he could safely escape that situation. There’s a happy ending with Tina and Dennis getting together and Gretchen and Jacop running away together. There’s a wondering of how everything will resolve. Is no one going to notice that Willem is dead and Jacop has gone? Everybody’s looking for Gretchen still. What happens next? A little more resolution would have been more satisfying.
To try to make the ending as happy as possible, Dennis says he’s rich and Tina imagines her new life of wealth and luxury. Capitalism has saved another golden age of Hollywood white girl from abusive forces. The forces that make Tina work for a violent-tempered boss and Gretchen marry an old man she doesn’t like for money are still in place. The only difference now is that those two women are saved from it by good happenstances. Maybe some other girl will be forced to marry that man because Gretchen left and the system of oppression will continue turning unaltered. People like Dennis get to keep assaulting women without anything coming to them.
OVERVIEW
The vapid ending and moments of bad taste can make this one a little hard to appreciate. There are more than its share of strange choices that sometimes make you dislike the characters. The comedy moments are frequent and bright enough to make the movie worth watching and overall be considered a good flick. Even though Dennis is never likable, he isn’t around too much for him to sully the experience of the whole movie. At least check out the scene of Tina racing a bunch of other girls and what happens immediately after. Davies gets to shine her bright spark again in another quirky 20s film.
King Vidor strikes again in the last of three Marion Davies films he directed. Not So Dumb is the only one to not be acclaimed. A common criticism is that Marion Davies’ character, Dulcy, is annoying in such a way that she’s unlikable. It can be assured that she is, in fact, hilarious here. Her performance is so good that she makes this film engaging and funny throughout. Her character says common expressions incorrectly with an assertive confidence. A favorite moment is when someone asks if she minds him being early to a gathering. There’s a closeup on Davies as she says, “Well y’know, the early worm always gets the bird!” Dulcy is honest natured and well meaning. It makes sense why some people love her, but her lack of social understanding can make it clear why some don’t. Moments where she annoys aren’t too frequent or severe, especially in comparison to her moments of pure charm.
The character’s quaintness is visualized by numerous moments. So seriously she’ll say something nonsensical with a snooty face and demeanor, as if she really knows her stuff! She’ll change a subject when things get awkward, in order to maintain peace among the other characters who sometimes fret with each other. One character asks for “plain water” and Dulcy keeps asking if he’d like something else for the reason of being polite, but without understanding how frustrating she’s being. When someone tells a suspenseful story, she bites a cloth due to how intrigued she is in a manner comically over the top.
As always, Davies is the brightest star of a solid bunch. Most of the characters fall into the trappings of just being a “straight man” character. The other comic characters are really good, however. A particular favorite is the nervous butler played by George Davis, highlighted when his hand shakes as he gives the “plain water”. The cast can be best exemplified when during the scene of the storytelling, the characters are either very, very invested or asleep from boredom. The storyteller’s hair is messy and Dulcy can’t divide her attention. This bit of madcappery gives a texture to the whole film. The movie is willing to become crazy and ridiculous with odd little jokes.
There’s some trappings Not So Dumb falls into that many movies do. There’s an exposition dump at the beginning which explains some information on the characters. Stop this! Exposition is usually boring and this is just a substitute for actually learning about these characters. More consequentially, it’s pretty easy to guess what will happen based on the setup, especially if you know 30s movies. The concept could be shown and not explained, Dulcy’s fiancé, Gordon, wants William Holden’s character, Mr. Forbes, to invest in his jewelry business. Dulcy feels compelled to help. Let’s have a seen of Gordon wanting to show Mr. Forbes the jewelry.
SPOILERS
The absurdism elements propel the film forward. There are small moments like Donald Ogden Stewart’s character, Skylar Van Dyke, looking under a table for billiard balls despite being able to see under the table just fine without doing that. There are medium moments like Dulcy lightly scolding Mr. Forbes for not looking for his daughter’s necklace she hid as part of a game. She leads him to it only to see that it has been taken. There are big moments like when Skylar says he’ll invest in Gordon’s business, Gordon then tells off Mr. Forbes only for Skylar’s brother to show up and inform him that he is delusional, not an actual millionaire, and has a different name. There’s a well thought out attempt to go all over the place and delight in it all. There’s a sense that anything can happen!
Dulcy often tells people private information about others. After Gordon’s pointless chastising of Mr. Forbes and their knowledge of Skylar’s lack of means, Dulcy upsets Gordon by telling Mr. Forbes about Skylar. You’d think this would be another knife in Gordon’s back, but this makes Mr. Forbes think Dulcy is lying and wants to be put under a false sense of security. Mr. Forbes then invests in Gordon, with more money for Gordon than originally discussed. Dulcy, who wanted Gordon to ask for more money in the first place, is thus demonstrated to be Not So Dumb. Very suddenly, everything went right in the last few minutes. It was probably understood that there’d have to be a happy ending, but the film finds a weird and creative way to do so. It’s like a rollercoaster in how over the place matters get. The effect works as you’re happy to see things turn out well for the cast, who are overall likable.
OVERVIEW
Why’d no one tell me this movie is good? The brisk pace and sharp humor are infectious. They outshine the occasional lot of exposition or formulaic plot point. The strange faces and quirks of Davies seep into every moment of comedy. She compliments Vidor so well that the resulting picture is a satisfying experience.
The Filme Diary 