In The Age Of The Marriage Made In Heaven-Maybe-Carol Lombard And James Stewart's “Made For Each Other” (1939)-A Film Review

In The Age Of The Marriage Made In Heaven-Maybe-Carol Lombard And James Stewart's “Made For Each Other” (1939)-A Film Review

DVD Review

Leslie Dumont

Made For Each Other, starring Carol Lombard, Jimmy Stewart, 1939

This film review of Made For Each Other is one of those “he said, she said” kind of movies. No, not in the way you think about some spat between two lovers, marriage partners or simple bedmates. Rather about how to approach this film, this old time melodrama a genre which got many a movie audience especially during World War II made up of waiting at home or working in the factory women through the tough nights and working days. Not that I have anything against old time melodramas which were the staple of date nights in college in the days when guys paid on the date and if short of money, a chronic problem, always suggested some such film at the second run and retro-theaters around campus. Moreover when I was working at this publication in the days when it came out in hard copy before I saw the writing on the wall about getting my own by-line Josh Breslin, who still works here and who then was my companion, let’s leave it at that, was forever taking me to such retro-theaters to watch some melodrama or other old time film he had been assigned to review.     

No, what has me in a “he said, she said” mood was something that old time film reviewer Sam Lowell told his now longtime companion and fellow writer here Laura Perkins to do when you hadn’t a clue about how to go about “the hook” which every movie review rests on. Sam said when all else fails on an oldie you can always check out the “slice of life” edge and get the job done. That, in any case, is what Laura told me when I asked her what the hell to do with this tear-jerker which you however know deep in your bones is going to work out right in the end. Has to work out right because remember those waiting at home or working in the factories women who needed a boost to get them through those hard nights and boredom days.

While this film is not the worse you could ever find for the slice of mid-20^th century married life movie that it represents it is still hard for me to pick out some points that will enlighten the reader about those times. Here is the play though. John, an up and coming Mayfair swell bred young lawyer in New York City, played by Jimmy Stewart, meets Jane (hey I didn’t make up the character names but John and Jane in a now age of Trevor and Regan do signify a different sensibility), played by Carol Lombard, a young women of unknown means, on a business trip for an important case his big-time Yankee New York law firm is handling. Both smitten they immediately marry on the fly something more likely to happen once the World War comes America’s way a few years later.

This may be, and as already signaled will turn out to be, a marriage made in heaven but the road is long and bumpy. First off John’s high and mighty mother, an endlessly carping type that I was all too familiar with both with my own mother growing up and with my first husband’s mother so I could certainly sympathize with that dilemma, disapproves of his marriage choice preferring the boss’ daughter for her charge and then, a widow, moves in with the young marrieds and drives Jane crazy (that mother moving in different these days when the kids are moving in or staying in the parental home what with rents and housing prices out of reach for many these days). Worse, hard-working steady at the wheel Johnny boy winds up getting passed over for a partnership-the kiss of death in most law firms and time to move on although he does not do so even when Jane steels him to ask for a raise so they can get a little house and put dead-weight mother in the attic or something.         

If all that wasn’t enough John and Jane have a child who before he is a few years old winds up catching pneumonia and things look like he is a goner much to the distress of his loving parents. Nowadays getting the right medicines for childhood illnesses is no big deal but then whatever serums were around were sparse and expensive (as some drugs are today as well). Johnny up against it begs his niggardly boss to give him an advance or loan to get the drugs necessary which have to come all the way from Salt Lake City. So here is where the nail-biter part comes in-the part about getting the drugs to New York from there in a blizzard. Getting through the blizzard in an open cockpit plane for crying out loud. In the end though the child is saved, Johnny gets a raise and due to Jane’s stoic presence during the crisis gains Johnny’s mother’s respect. That will do it.

From Veterans For Peace- Memorial Day and Poor People's Campaign!

Memorial Day and Poor People's Campaign!

Veterans For Peace

5/24/2018 7:49 PM

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	Thursday, May 24th Poor People's Campaign Week 3 to Focus on Militarism On May 29th, VFP chapters will join with the Poor People's Campaign to speak out against militarism and the war economy. We have created some great flyers to help spread the message of Veterans For Peace at the weekly gatherings! Flyers for Poor People's Actions Week 2: Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty Week 3: Militarism, Veterans and the Proliferation of Gun Violence Week 4: Ecological Devastation and Health Week 5: Everybody’s Got a Right to Live Week 6: A New and Unsettling Force You can also check this press release that we sent out nationally for ideas on what you can send out locally! We know that many of you will be in D.C. for the Memorial Day and PPC activities, (and if you are planning on participating in the PPC actions, make sure to notify shawna@ivaw.org)!  However, if not in D.C., we would love to know if your chapter is particpating in the Poor People's Campaign actions on May 29th.  Please fill out this form! Back to Top #WomenPeaceKorea In light of Trump's cancellation of Korean peace summit:  TAKE ACTION: Join us to remind world leaders of commitment to UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security to include women’s movements in international mediation – which includes the Korean peace process. Sign petition here! . Back to Top An Update from the Save Our VA Working Group: A message from Buzz Davis: After a very significant effort by anti-war veterans groups/members, a tremendous effort by AFL-CIO unions and their members, and citizen allies making what I bet was tens of thousands of calls to senate offices -- and the excellent union lobbyists working all hours to help senators understand the VA MISSION bill and to help all of us understand what the hell was happening -- the greatest "deliberative body" in the world voted 92 to 5 to pass the VA MISSION bill. 92 Republican and Democratic senators voted yes.  The bill has now passed Congress and Pres. Trump will sign it into law probably on Memorial Day. The members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chaired by Rep. Raul Grijalva (who our members visted!) and Rep. Mark Pocan including the only senator in the Caucus, founding caucus member Bernie Sanders did the right thing and VOTED NO. Peace and thanks to each of you for all your efforts (which no one understands but each of you)!!!!  We made a dent in the VA MISSION act hoax and we can make more of a dent in the weeks ahead! Stay Tuned! Back to Top Deadline Approaching! Request for Convention Workshop Proposals! One of the most important activities during the Veterans For Peace Annual Conventions are the workshops. Most of them are organized and led by Veteran For Peace members. We greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into creating your workshop. Please remember that there is limited space for workshops and many applicants. As a result, not all workshops will be selected. Workshops that follow the theme of the convention – Reclaim Armistice Day, 1918-2018: End All Wars, and or address these issues : Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Making Peace Possible Decolonization: Expanding our understanding of militarism U.S. Intervention Around the Globe will receive high preference but are not guaranteed acceptance. Find out more details on Workshop proposals and how to submit your great idea Back to Top VFP Announces Winner of Zinn Fund Grant The Howard Zinn Committee is proud to announce that we have awarded VFP Chapter 168 of Louisville, Kentucky, a $500 grant to assist the chapter in creating a weekly VFP Radio Hour. The chapter broadcasts weekly on local radio and their program is available for download as a podcast. The Howard Zinn Fund would like to thank VFP members Carol Trainer, Patrick King, Steven Gardiner, and John Wilborn for their vision in producing this project. You can now listen to a podcast of VFP #168's 1st VFP Radio Hour program, broadcast on FORward radio, 106.5 LP-FM. Their first show was hosted by VFP member Patrick King and is entitled "Veterans For Peace: Who We Are." Make sure to give it a listen! Back to Top VFP Chapter in Albany, NY at State Capital John Amidon from Chapter 10 in Albany, New York sends us a report of the May 21st action at their state capital as part of the Poor People's Campaign. "The Poor People's Campaign, 5/21/18 at the Capital Building in Albany, NY. A tremendous witness against, racism, Islamophobia. discrimination against the poor and the need for prison reform, etc." Read John's whole report and check out his video! Back to Top VFP Members Nominees for U.S. Peace Memorial Prize The U.S. Peace Memorial has just announced their 2018 Nominees for their annual Peace Prize and they include four Veterans For Peace members! Congratulations to Daniel Ellsberg, Nancy Mancias, David Swanson, Sally-Alice Thompson, and S. Brian Willson! The US Peace Memorial Foundation directs a nationwide effort to honor Americans who stand for peace by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding an annual Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial in Washington, DC.  These projects help move the United States toward a culture of peace by recognizing thoughtful and courageous Americans and U.S. organizations that have taken a public stand against one or more U.S. wars or who have devoted their time, energy, and other resources to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts. Back to Top Chapter 10 is Hosting a Peace Writers Contest Veterans For Peace, Chapter 10and the Kateri Tekakwitha Interfaith Peace Conference are sponsoring a writing contest to help celebrate the 20th Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference. The purpose of our contest is to encourage everyone to find their voice for peace and to end war and war preparations.  The imperative for this is the ‘fierce urgency of now”and the literal survival of humanity.  What we would like to see are letters (250 words or less) and op-eds  (500 to 700 words)  which illustrate the connections between poverty, racism, climate change and militarism.  We also encourage connections to the Poor People’s Campaign Read more about how you can enter! Back to Top		In This Issue: Poor People's Campaign Week 3 to Focus on Militarism Memorial Day in Washington D.C. #WomenPeaceKorea Korea Peace Network Advocacy Days An Update from the Save Our VA Working Group Deadline Approaching: Request for Convention Workshop Proposals Chapter 181 Builds their New Chapter Strategically! Swords to Plowshares Belltower Releases New Video Full Disclosure Project Launches Ad Campaign Chapter 27 Joins Walk for Hope and Peace VFP Announces Winner of Zinn Fund Grant VFP Chapter in Albany, NY at State Capital VFP Members Nominated for U.S. Peace Memorial Prize Chapter 10 is Hosting a Peace Writers Contest Golden Rule Visits Deported Veterans Chapter Memorial Day Activities in Washington D.C. In Washington D.C. this Memorial Day weekend, Veterans For Peace will hold their annual "Letters to the Wall"  at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, hold a peace ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and host our own touring memorial, The Swords to Plowshares Belltower.  On Tuesday, May 29th Veterans For Peace will participate in the Poor People's Campaign: National Call for a Moral Revival that will focus on The War Economy: Militarism, Veterans and the Proliferation of Gun Violence. Find out the schedule of the full events and ways you can plug in and how to RSVP! WE NEED YOUR HELP and can even provide free overnight accommodations at the Belltower night-watch tent (if you can stay up for a night shift) or at the historic William Penn House, a Quaker boarding house at the other end of the mall on Capitol Hill. We are also in urgent need of people to help with the noble labor of unloading the Belltower trailer on Friday night at 9 pm, setting up on Saturday morning (beginning at 7 am), night watch at the Belltower security tent through Monday night, and breakdown on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Not in D.C.?  Fill out this form so we know what your chapter is doing this weekend for Memorial Day Back to Top Don't Forget to Sign Up for Advocacy Days! Please plan to join in DC for Korea Peace Network Advocacy Days, June 11 - 12. Monday, June 11 will be an in-person strategy session and legislative briefing/training at the United Methodist Building, 100 Maryland Ave, NE, across the street from the Capitol and Supreme Court. The next day(s) are for meetings with congressional and administrative officials to press for peace and diplomacy. Here is the registration page (and please forward to other interested peace-mongers) Back to Top Chapter 181 Builds their New Chapter Strategically! Rick Staggenborg from Chapter 181 sends in this report of how their new chapter is strategically building relationships and using VFP campaigns, such as Save the VA and Armistice Day, as ways to spread the message of Veterans For Peace! From Rick: Chapter 181 Douglas County continues to introduce itself to our very conservative community by being part of the Save the VA campaign through tabling, leafleting, demonstrating and writing editorials. Find out some of the other creative organizing techniques Rick and the chapter are using, including reading The Good Hike! Back to Top Swords to Plowshares Belltower Releases New Video MUST WATCH: Check out this amazing video of the Swords to Plowshares Belltower! If you contact Roger he may even be able to help your chapter mount a local effort to build a smaller portable Belltower with a real bell of your own, for your own outreach! Back to Top Full Disclosure Project Launches Ad Campaign In the face of the attempted whitewashing of that war by the Pentagon, the Full Disclosure Campaign of Veterans For Peace is attempting to dissuade Hollywood from awarding the Burns/Novick an Emmy.  Veterans For Peace were not silent about speaking out about the Koch Brothers and Bank of America-funded The Vietnam War documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.  Now with Burns and Novick’s misleading and less-than-honest documentary coming up for an Emmy, once more we are compelled to speak out. The Full Disclosure team is raising funds to put THIS FULL PAGE ad in Variety magazine.  Donate Now! Read more about the ad and to see the Full Disclosure Team's full message. Back to Top Scourging Yemen by Kathy Kelly On May 10, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia informed the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Saudi Air Defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles launched from inside Yemeni territory targeting densely populated civilian areas in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. No one was killed, but an earlier attack, on March 26, 2018, killed one Egyptian worker in Riyadh and an April 28 attack killed a Saudi man. Unlike the unnumbered victims of the Saudis’ own ongoing bombardment of Yemen, these two precious, irreplaceable lives are easy to document and count. Death tolls have become notoriously difficult to count accurately in Yemen. Three years of U.S.-supported blockades and bombardments have plunged the country into immiseration and chaos. Read the Full Article Back to Top Golden Rule Visits Deported Veterans Chapter The Golden Rule peace boat visted Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico this week to rendezvous with U.S. military veterans who have been deported to Mexico. The boat departed from San Diego, California early Tuesday morning, May 22, and arrived at Ensenada Cruiseport Village Marina on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday and Thursday, the deported veterans went on the Golden Rule. Read the Full Release Save the Dates: Upcoming Event  May 28 - Memorial Day Actions in Washington D.C. May 29 - Poor People's Campaign: National Call for a Moral Revival (Across the Country) June 2-3 - VFP Peace Teams NonViolence Training in New York.  Applications here June 11-12 - Korea Peace Network Advocacy Days in Washington D.C.  Register Here June 4-15 - 19th Annual International Nonviolence Summer Institute June 22-24 - Global Network Against Weapons in Space, Oxford, UK June 24-July 1 - Action Week Against Air Base Ramstein, Germany July 9-10 - NO to NATO Counter Summit, Brussels, Belgium July 10-18 - International Action Camp Against Nuclear Weapons in Germany, Buchel, Germany Aug 23-26 - 2018 VFP National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota Sept 19-21 - 2nd Annual Conference in Havana, Cuba on "Realities and Challenges of Being a Zone of Peace in Latin America and the Caribbean" Oct 20-21 - Women's March on the Pentagon Nov 11 - Armistice Day Nov 16-18 - 2018 SOA Watch Encuentro Nov 27-29 - International Youth Conference: Reaching High for a Nuclear Weapon Free World, Prague, Czech Republic Back to Top

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Ennui In The Fading Empire-The Film Adaptation Of Elizabeth Von Armin’s “The Enchanting April” (1992)-A Review

Ennui In The Fading Empire-The Film Adaptation Of Elizabeth Von Armin’s “The Enchanting April” (1992)-A Review

DVD Review

By Leslie Dumont

Enchanting April, starring Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, from the novel by Elizabeth von Armin, 1992

Somebody could have made some serious money in an office pool here betting on whether I would be assigned this “women’s movie” (I refuse to say “chick flick”) Enchanting April from the BBC based on Elizabeth von Armin’s novel. Apparently I am these days the “go-to” gal for anything that looks like it will be a romantic theme and with a happy ending. I will hold my fire on this issue for a bit since for a while I was getting juicy reviews to do. But recently it seems that the “good old boys” network has taken up all the good stuff. The good old boys including my long ago companion Josh Breslin who should know better since he both encouraged me to take a by-line at Women Today many years ago when it looked like I would always be a stringer here and recently asking me to come on board with the new management bringing in new ideas.   

But enough of the internal workings in the Internet publishing business and get to the story, not a bad story until near the end when that happy ending business falls from the sky. There was plenty to be sad about in post-World War I England in the 1920s after the blood bath of the war had taken the flower of young faltering British Empire manhood to the white cross graves in places like Flanders fields. Plenty as well to be sad about as well when the eternally rainy and foggy London weather could dampen even the blithest spirts. And plenty to be sad about when you are a woman (or a man but women are the punished here) in an unhappy marriage. Those three ideas come together in this film when two unhappy middle class women have seen the same ad in a newspaper for a castle to rent on the Italian coast for a month, the month of April.

Unhappily married Lottie, played by Josie Lawrence, convinces unhappily married Madonna-like Rose, played by Miranda Richardson, to pursue the idea and they eventually go for the brass ring. Having some financial problems swinging the expenses with just two they grab elderly and frail Mrs. Fisher, played by Joan Plowright, and the beautiful Lady Caroline, played by Polly Walker, to share expenses. The latter two also unhappy the former with growing old and alone and the latter having had it as the prime sex object of her set.

The play amongst the four very different personalities with very different desires gets mellowed in the enchanted April Italian sun amongst the flowers and sea breezes. Part of that mellowing process at least from Lottie is that she finally realizes that she is incomplete without her penny-pinching husband. So she invites him to come and stay with her. Guess what the Mediterranean mellows him out. Number one problem solved. Lottie gets Rose to write her husband to come visit as well and she does not expecting to see her tawdry novelist husband to show up but he does and the Italian sea air softens him too. Number two problem solved. That magical sea air also softens the sickly Mrs. Fisher who after the month gives up her walking cane. Problem number three solved. Finally the angst-filled Lady Caroline takes up with the gentile man who rented them the place after he was on the rebound from an unsuccessful courting of Rose. Problem number four solved. That by the numbers at the end when they all leave the castle together is where the whole thing breaks down in my mind given the troubles of the cast of characters. I would like my own problem solved by not having to be put upon to do these improbable women’s films.      

Jim Morrison and The Doors- WE WANT THE WORLD AND WE WANT IT NOW!

Jim Morrison and The Doors- WE WANT THE WORLD AND WE WANT IT NOW!

Zack James comment: My oldest brother, Alex, who was in the thick of the Summer of Love along with his corner boys from North Adamsville above all the later Peter Paul Markin who led them out to the Wild West said that the few times that he/they saw The Doors either in Golden Gate Park at free, I repeat, free outdoor concerts or at the Avalon or Fillmore which were a great deal more expensive, say two or three dollars, I repeat two or three dollars that The Doors when they were on, meaning when Jim Morrison was in high dungeon, was in a drug-induced trance and acted the shaman for the audience nobody was better. Having been about a decade behind and having never seen Morrison in high dungeon or as a drug-induced shaman but having listened to various Doors compilations I think for once old Alex was onto something. Listen up.         

CD REVIEW

THE BEST OF THE DOORS, ELECTRA ASYLUM RECORDS, 1985


In my jaded youth I developed an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The origin of that interest first centered on the blues, country and city with the likes of Son House , Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James, then early rock and roll, you know the rockabillies and R&B crowd, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Roy, Big Joe and Ike, and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music, especially the protest to high heaven sort, Bob Dylan, Dave Von Ronk, Joan Baez, etc. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Meaning rootless or not meaningfully rooted in any of the niches mentioned above. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. Cajun, Tex-Mex, old time dust bowl ballads a la Woody Guthrie, cowboy stuff with the likes of Bob Wills and Milton Brown, Carter Family-etched mountain music and so on. The subject of the following review, Jim Morrison and the Doors, is an example.

The Doors are roots music? Well, yes, in the sense that one of the branches of rock and roll derives from early rhythm and blues and in the special case of Jim Morrison, leader of the Doors, the attempt to musically explore the shamanic elements in the Western American Native American culture that drove the beat of many of his trance-like songs like The End. Some of that influence is apparent here in this essentially greatest hits album.

More than one rock critic has argued that on their good nights when the dope and booze were flowing, Morrison was in high trance, and they were fired up the Doors were the best rock and roll band ever created. Those critics will get no argument here. What a reviewer with that opinion has to do is determine whether any particular CD captures the Doors at their best. This reviewer advises that if you want to buy only one Doors CD that would be The Best of the Doors. If you want to trace their evolution more broadly, or chronologically, other CDs do an adequate job but they are helter-skelter. This CD edition has, with maybe one or two exceptions, all the stuff rock critics in one hundred years will be dusting off when they want to examine what it was like when men (and women, think Bonnie Raitt, Wanda Jackson, et. al) played rock and roll for keeps.

A note on Jim Morrison as an icon of the 1960’s. He was part of the trinity – Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix who lived fast, lived way too fast, and died young. The slogan of the day (or hour)- Drugs, sex, and rock and roll. And we liked that idea however you wanted to mix it up. Then. Their deaths were part of the price we felt we had to pay if we were going to be free. And be creative. Even the most political among us, including this writer, felt those cultural winds blowing across the continent and counted those who espoused this alternative vision as part of the chosen. The righteous headed to the “promise land.” Unfortunately those who believed that we could have a far-reaching positive cultural change via music or “dropping out” without a huge societal political change proved to be wrong long ago. But, these were still our people.

Know this as well. Whatever excesses were committed by the generation of ’68, and there were many, were mainly made out of ignorance and foolishness. Our opponents, exemplified by one Richard Milhous Nixon, President of the United States and common criminal, spent every day of their lives as a matter of conscious, deliberate policy raining hell down on the peoples of the world, the minorities in this country, and anyone else who got in their way. Forty years of “cultural wars” in revenge by his protégés, hangers-on and their descendants has been a heavy price to pay for our youthful errors. Enough.