"Mame" Addendum: The Criticism

The release of the movie version of "Mame" in 1974 brought many a severe critical review. The main object of the scorn was Lucille Ball, whose singing and age were often the target. When I read through some of the critical writings about the movie and Lucille Ball, I came to the conclusion that some people have too much time on their hands, or they are consumed by a bitterness in their own limited abilities that manifests itself in tantrums and diatribes against others. Criticism is an important part of life, as it gives us a chance to see how others view us, or our work, and it gives us a chance to assess how we can improve. But some people seem to feel the need to spend gads of time being negative; oozing negativity like pus running from a sore. Just putting something or somebody down is not constructive, and it may tell us more about the person who is so highly critical, than it does about the recipient of the criticism. We also have to look beyond the negative at times and view the overall story and its message.

I'm not saying that some of the criticism was wrong, but it was the ferocity with which it was delivered. No question about it, Lucille Ball was not a great singer in "Mame." She also was already in her 60s, playing a character who in a great deal of the movie was supposedly much, much younger. By contrast, Angela Lansbury, who played Mame in the earlier Broadway version was only about 40 when she first got the role. When the movie was cast, I'm sure those involved thought they had guaranteed a box office success by landing Lucille Ball for the lead role. In those times, while Lucille Ball's television popularity had peaked prior to the filming of "Mame," she was one of the best known people on the planet, and most of us didn't refer to her as "Lucille Ball," but rather simply as "Lucy," and there was no need for further explanation, as everyone knew whom was meant. The thing was, Lucy's magic of the 1950s and 1960s only carried into the early 1970s, and by the time of "Mame," while still much admired, she was unable to command the strong box office numbers in the lead role of "Mame" the movie needed to cover the large cost of its production. It seemed that audiences were far more willing to sit at home and watch Lucy on television for free, than to pay to watch her performance at a movie theater. So the critics had their points, and the movie was not financially successful,* but those points were often just made in an unnecessary way, in my opinion. I'm not sure of this, but since those times, the film may now be seen in a better light than when it was released. But regardless what the critics said, I liked the movie and its great music and lessons about life.

The character of Mame perseveres through some trying times in her life and she inspires others to do so too. It isn't that Mame doesn't get depressed, she does, but she bounces back and doesn't let life's beatings destroy her. She exemplifies TOLERANCE for other people's eccentricities, something that all of us need to learn, and it isn't always easy, as even some of the most patient people likely have "their days," where just about anything gets on their nerves, let alone those with some unusual behavior. I don't recall the exact lines, but in the movie, when Agnes, her nephew's nanny, calls Mame "peculiar," Mame answers with something like, "Thank you Agnes, you're peculiar too." No offense taken, but rather seen more as a compliment received and then returned in kind. Mame's conflict with her nephew after she leaves the home of the parents of his fiancee is capped off by her retort to his accusation that she and her "crazy friends" have embarrassed him in the past. "My friends are not crazy. My friends are colorful," and she proceeds to contrast those friends with the bigoted and self centered parents of his fiancee. This is my favorite scene in the movie. 

Mame's desire to experience more about life and that general philosophy is expressed in one of the film's (and the stage play's) great songs, "Open A New Window," as well as in another, "It's Today," which really expresses that yesterday is past and tomorrow may be too late, live for today, now. Mame was not afraid to fail, although most of us likely shudder at the thought of failing. There are many lessons in "Mame," things the nasty critics of the film quickly forgot.    

* I have no idea if the movie became financially successful later with its release to network television (NBC), and I believe also it was later available to be shown on local stations, or with its release on video/DVD. I seem to recall that John Wayne's film, "The Alamo," was a financial disaster for him in its original release, but that the film later recouped its losses and made some money through re-releases to theaters and its network television showings. Now whether similar happened with "Mame," I have no idea. 

WORD HISTORY:
Dizzy-This word, related to "doze," and likely also "tizzy," goes back to Indo European "dheu," which had the notion of  "smoke, haze, dust," and the derived "dheus," meaning "swirl, whirl." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "dusijaz," which had the more figurative meaning, "hazy/unclear in the mind, confused." This gave Old English "dysig," which meant "foolish, unwise." This then became modern "dizzy." The other Germanic languages have: German and Low German Saxon "dösig/däsig" (meaning "drowsy, dizzy, unclear in the mind"), ^ Low German Saxon also has "düsig" (dizzy), Dutch "duizelig" (dizzy), West Frisian "dize" (a noun meaning "fog" or "mist"), Danish and Norwegian "døsig" (sleepy, drowsy), and Norwegian also has "disig" (hazy), Swedish "dåsig" (drowsy). I could not find a form in Icelandic.

^ An altered form gave German the noun "Tor," which means "fool," and "Torheit," which means "stupidity."    

" 'Mame,' Life Is A Banquet"

"Mame" came from a popular mid 1950s novel, "Auntie Mame," written by Edward Tanner, who used the name "Patrick Dennis" for his published works. The story was based upon his real life aunt, Marion Tanner, his father's sister. Note that the story was "based" upon her life, and was not truly biographical in every detail. The success of the book spawned a Broadway hit, with actress Rosalind Russell playing the title character, a role she also landed for a film version a couple of years later. The 1960s saw a musical version of story on Broadway, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, with music by Jerry Herman. This musical starred Angela Lansbury (later of NBC's "Murder, She Wrote" series) as Mame, with Beatrice Arthur as Mame's hard drinking friend Vera Charles. Beatrice Arthur was then unknown to the general public, but her performance in "Mame" boosted her career, and she later played liberal character "Maude," opposite conservative "Archie Bunker" in a couple of episodes of CBS's "All In The Family," before carrying on with that character in the CBS comedy series, "Maude." Later still she played Dorothy in NBC's "The Golden Girls" for many seasons beginning in the mid 1980s. The Broadway musical version ran for about four years, by which time a film version of the musical was under consideration. Big television star Lucille Ball was given the role of Mame, and Beatrice Arthur was signed to again play Vera Charles, and the movie was released in 1974.

The basic story was this: in the late 1920s, Mame's brother died and his son Patrick (of about ten, played by Kirby Furlong) goes to live with his only known relative, his Auntie Mame, who lives in a luxurious Manhattan building, where she is famous for throwing parties. The child arrives, accompanied by his nanny, Agnes Gooch (played by Jane Connell, who also played the same role in the Broadway version), during one of his aunt's big parties, which has lots of booze and lots of "making out" by some of the guests. The audience already gets the message that this will not be any standard guardian and child relationship. Mame and her nephew hit it off immediately and Mame exposes the boy to her form of a liberal arts education by enrolling him in a school that is anything but conservative (the headmaster wears no clothes and the kids are nearly that way too, and where running around and pranks like dropping water filled balloons from the window onto unsuspecting heads below are commonplace). She also teaches the boy tolerance, taking him to both Christian churches, but also to Jewish temples. The boy's highly conservative and stuffy trustee walks into the school one day and takes the boy with him to keep Mame from anymore influence over her nephew.

The stock market crashes and the Great Depression begins with Mame broke, but far more brokenhearted over the loss of her nephew, who has now been sent off to a conservative school by the trustee. The boy gets to visit on occasion, but that's all. Mame gets a job in a play starring her friend Vera, but she messes up the relatively minor role so badly, she and Vera have a falling out of sorts. She gets a job in a department store, where she meets customer Beauregard Burnside (played by long time actor Robert Preston), of Georgia. The two fall in love and marry, and as he is financially well off, her money problems are over. Meanwhile, Mame's nephew has grown up (played by Bruce Davison) and is attending college, where he has become quite a ladies' man, including another student from an upscale background, whom he wants to marry. Mame had had money in her earlier years, but she never looked down on other people who were less well off. When she regained her financial security through her marriage, after going broke during the Depression, she did not change. Her husband, Beauregard, is killed in an avalanche in Europe and Mame and Vera patch things up, only to collaborate in turning Patrick's former shy nanny, Agnes, who dresses like someone ready for a nursing home, into a sexy, hot to trot, woman. Mame's philosophy was summed up by her statement, "Life is a banquet, but most poor son of bitches are starving to death."* After Agnes' makeover, she goes off to experience the banquet, only to return months later looking "very" pregnant.        

Patrick wants his aunt to meet his future wife's family, and off Mame goes to their home, where she  finds the parents to be snooty, intolerant bigots. She and Patrick later have words about the whole matter, but they reconcile just in time for Mame to invite the parents to her home, where unwed, pregnant Agnes is to be kept out of sight. Of course, Mame delivers an evening totally opposite of the one she experienced at the parents' home, accompanied by a main course of "baked monkey," and a visit by Vera, who proposes a toast to Patrick and his fiancee, but Vera mistakes Mame's attractive new maid as Patrick's fiancee, adding some insult to the whole thing for the snooty family. Agnes makes an appearance and her obvious condition is also later supplemented by the revelation that she is not married (gasp!). This later leads to Mame's announcement that she has bought a piece of property right next door to the parents' home, where she will have a home for unwed mothers built. Need I tell you, the parents have more than some ruffled feathers, rather more like singed and plucked.

Patrick ends up realizing his mistake and he marries the MAID! When their son is born, guess who takes a hand in exposing him to life's banquet? He will not be like "most poor son of a bitches, or souls!"

The real aunt of the author lived well into her 90s, surviving her nephew, who unfortunately died when only in his 50s. The aunt was well known for her generosity (some might say, "over generosity") to those in need, and she literally gave until it hurt, often depriving herself of a comfortable lifestyle.

Way back in the 1960s when the Broadway version about Mame was popular, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass did their own version of the lead song for the show. I loved that song so much, I sort of became known for it with my closest friends, who would mock the way I got into the song and danced and sang along with the music. I can't put that Tijuana Brass song on without thinking of those times back then. There were many other great songs from the musical, likely best known are "We Need A Little Christmas," "My Best Girl" and "Open A New Window."

I'm going to do a brief (I intend it to be brief, at this time) follow up about the movie next.   

* I did not see the movie when it was released in theaters, but only when it was on television a few years later. If my memory is correct, it was on a two part NBC movie presentation. Anyway, television did not allow "most poor son of a bitches," and I believe it was replaced with "most poor souls." Since there did not seem to be any dubbing used for this, the scenes where the expression was used may well have been originally filmed with both versions, but that is just my guess.
 
The picture is from the 2007 Warner Home Video DVD version

WORD HISTORY:
Oft/Often-This word goes back to Old Germanic "ufta/ofta," which meant "often, a number of times," but how Germanic got it is uncertain. The Old Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "oft," which expanded to "often" in the 1300s, and indeed eventually replaced "oft" in the 1500s as the primary word to express the frequency of something.^ "Oft" is still around, but it tends to be rather quaint and is used in expressions like "oft stated," "oft repeated," etc. The other Germanic languages have: German and Low German Saxon "oft," Dutch "oft" (now archaic), Danish and Norwegian "ofte," Swedish "ofta," and Icelandic "oft." A form of the word apparently died out in Frisian. 

^ The addition of the "en" to "oft" to form "often" seems to come from its antonym, "selden," (the old form of "seldom"). Interestingly, some of the other Germanic languages used similar forms to English "selden," German for instance has "selten," but they did not follow suit with English "often," as they kept the shorter form similar to English "oft." By the way, the "t" was pronounced in "often," but the sound later died out, at least for most people, although some are criticized today for still pronouncing the "t," but I guess you could say, in fact, they are correct, more "ofTen," than not.     .

"The Last Of Sheila," A Great Whodunit

"The Last Of Sheila" was a Warner Brothers release in 1973, lasting about two hours. I first saw it later on television, but I don't recall if it was on network television or on some local station. You likely have not heard of this movie, but it is really quite good, and it has some very well known stars from its era: James Mason, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, Raquel Welsh, Joan Hackett, Richard Benjamin and Ian McShane.

I will only cover the basic story here, but I will not reveal the ending or some other specific information, because it will ruin it for you, if you've never seen the movie. This mystery/whodunit film is centered around a group of six people, all connected to Hollywood, invited to spend several days for a Mediterranean cruise of southern France on the yacht of a movie producer, Clinton Greene, played by James Coburn, who seems to enjoy making people feel uncomfortable. The get together takes place about a year after the producer's wife, Sheila, had been struck and killed by a hit and run driver. His yacht is named "Sheila." Once assembled, Clinton's guests are told they will be playing a game, something for which he has a deep affection.* He assigns a "gossip" secret to each of the six people on a printed card. Somewhat later "the players display the cards as": "shoplifter," "hit and run killer," "homosexual,"** "little child molester," "informer," "ex-convict." While he claims he made up the secrets, it seems each secret may just truly fit with one of the participants, although he does not give that person their own real life secret. The object of the game will be for the participants to find out the secrets of the others, but to keep their own secret from being discovered. The yacht will dock each night, at which time the producer will give the group a clue that will tell them where to go to discover that night's secret, although they will have to use their brainpower to even figure out exactly what the clue means. If the person with that particular night's secret uncovers the secret, that night's game will be declared "over." This is a movie where you have to pay lots of attention to what's going on, or you will not likely be "in the game." There are lots of little clues to the audience throughout the picture, but you may not recognize them as such at first.

So as not to spoil things for those who would like to see the picture, I will not tell much more, except that other incidents happen on the cruise and during the game playing, including a murder! This is a good picture which should keep you guessing what the hell's going on, right to the very end; unless of course, you are crafty enough to put everything together beforehand. Well worth watching and lots of fun!

* The "game" theme was based on the real life penchant for such party games by the script writers for this film, Anthony Perkins, well known for starring in the movie "Psycho" and several other films, and Stephen Sondheim, an award winning lyricist and music composer, who wrote the lyrics to "West Side Story," for instance, and the music and lyrics to many, many other Broadway and movie scores.

** The subject of homosexuality is dealt with briefly in an interesting way in the film, especially for those times, when the subject was often taboo.
   
Photo is of the 2012 Warner Archive DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Rib-This word, related to "reef," and used primarily as a noun, goes back to Indo European "rebh," which had the idea of "curved or arched cover." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "rebja/rebjo," meaning "curved covering for the chest," but also, "reef," perhaps from the notion of "rocks protruding near the water's surface like ribs on a body." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ribb," which meant "rib." This later became "ribbe" (and the "e" would have been pronounced "eh" or "ah"), before the modern version. The verb form, meaning "to tease someone," came from the noun much later, from the notion of nudging or poking someone in the ribs when joking or teasing with them. The other Germanic languages have: German "Rippe," Low German Saxon "Ribb," West Frisian "ribbe," Dutch "rib" (also "ribbe"), Danish and Norwegian "ribben," Icelandic "rif(bein)" (literally "rib bone"), Swedish "ribba." ^

^ The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish forms are likely borrowed forms from Low German (maybe also reinforced by Frisian), as these languages also had "similar" to Icelandic, as "rev/riv/rif."

Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' Part Two

Historically, the origin of the Vlachs has been tough to pin down and this is a subject far beyond the scope of this very basic article here. Modern DNA testing is shedding new light on many of the world's nationality and ethnic groups. Whatever the case, the Vlachs were a people who spoke, or came to speak, a Latin-based language in the general area of modern Rumania. The Vlachs got their name from the Germanic word that gave English the word "Welsh."*

The Magyars, a tribe, or more likely, a confederation of related tribes from Asia, came into that part of eastern Europe in the 800s A.D., where they eventually conquered and settled in the region. While they call themselves "Magyars," most other people know them now as the "Hungarians." The move of the Magyars into the region brought lots of conflict with other groups, including the Vlachs, and the Magyars took control of the area. Later the Turks gained control of much of the Balkans' area, including the Rumanian region, in the 1500s, but not before two principalities had emerged among the Rumanians, Wallachia and Moldavia. When the Turks took control, the Rumanian princes were allowed to rule their provinces to varying degrees over time, although the controlling princes had to pay the Turks (Ottomans) to do so, and those payments were taken from the people. Meanwhile in Transylvania, which had a large Rumanian population, a number of German settlers arrived during the 1100s at the invite of the king of Hungary, as that area was under Hungarian control, although later it too fell under Turkish rule. Initially these Germans were invited in to help secure the border areas, but continued German settlement took place in the 1200s, but more with the motivation of economic development. While most of these Germans came from various parts of the western Old German Empire (Holy Roman Empire), they came to be called "Transylvanian Saxons," and more Germans would come later. By the late 1600s, Transylvania came under the control of the Habsburgs of Austria, who also almost always were elected as German emperors, and who also gradually got control of the Hungarian lands.

The 1800s brought great change, as in the mid part of the century, Alexandru Cuza was chosen to lead Wallachia and and Moldavia. Transylvania remained under Austrian rule, soon to be Hungarian rule when the Austrian Empire was divided into "Austria-Hungary" (also known as the "Austro-Hungarian Empire"). Wallachia and Moldavia still remained under the overall rule of the Ottoman Empire, but this changed when Russia defeated the Turks in a war in the 1870s. In that war the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia allied with Russia, and the war's victorious conclusion brought independence for Rumania, by then led by Prince Carol, who then became King Carol I of the Kingdom of Rumania. King Carol was of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a noble family from southwestern Germany.  

More will follow shortly...

* For more on the word "Welsh," this is the link to the article with that history: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2014/10/welsh-rarebit-or-is-it-rabbitt-great.html

The following were consulted for this article on Rumania: "Kingdoms of Europe" by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Rome-While "traditionally" the name has been said to come from "Romulus," the founder of the city, the actual base word "likely" is derived from Etruscan ^ "Ruma," a tribal element of the Etruscans, and the closely related "Rumon" was the Etruscan name for what later came to be called the "Tiberis River" (English: Tiber).

^ Etruscan is a mystery language, but it was "possibly" related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it eventually died out when Latin came to the area, although some of its words were borrowed into Latin.

"The Exorcist" Stunned Audiences, Conclusion

Much earlier, before any trouble started, the daughter had questioned her mother's relationship with the movie director (played by Jack MacGowran), seemingly fearful that her mother would marry him, thus quashing any chance of a reconciliation between her parents. When the mother learns that the director has been killed in a supposed fall down the long series of steps to the street right below her daughter's bedroom window, she begins to worry that her daughter had something to do with his death, especially when an old detective (played by Lee J. Cobb, a favorite of mine) comes to the house asking questions, and relating how the director's body had been found at the bottom of the steps with his head turned clear around. The detective then theorizes that the director had been killed by a powerful man and then his body had then been pushed down the stairway. By the time of the detective's visit, the mother had already learned that the director had been left alone with the child, as the caretaker that night had gone out to pick up the girl's prescription at the drug store. This all brings another question: was the girl's dislike of the director the real motive for his murder?

Further, a statue at the local Catholic church has been severely defaced, a case the detective is also investigating. This brings him into contact with the troubled priest and a possible connection between the director's death and the defacing of the religious statue. Since the priest sees other priests with mental problems, the detective wonders if there is a psychotic priest on the loose.

During the troubled priest's first visit to the little girl, she mentions his mother, and the game of playing on his guilty conscience begins. She spews a green vomit into his face (you may never eat split pea soup again). The priest still seeks to use logic and medical science to help the girl, even though he witnessed more than the girl acting a bit bizarrely, like her knowledge of things a normal person could not possibly have known beforehand, and her markedly grotesque facial features. He goes to the church authorities to get permission to perform an exorcism (a driving out of an evil spirit). He is told by the bishop that, while he can assist, he wants to find a priest with experience in exorcism. This brings the situation back to the old priest we encountered at the beginning. He has returned from the archeological dig in Iraq, and is waiting to be summoned to fight the battle with the demon he confronted years  before. The summons comes.

The exorcist arrives at the house and meets the other priest. Still the man of logic, the young priest offers to explain the background of the case, only to be asked by the exorcist, "Why?" They proceed into the girl's bedroom where they are met by bellowing and ranting by the ferocious demon. Obscenities fly from the mouth of the girl, as the two priests recite the exorcism ritual. The young priest wavers at the display of power and evil from the demon, and the old priest has to keep him focused. The girl's body breaks the security straps on her wrists and ankles, and the body levitates. Things subside and the old priest decides they should rest before continuing. He goes off and places a nitroglycerin pill under his tongue to help his ailing heart. The young priest, seemingly quite discouraged, sits down and the girl's mother asks him if her daughter will die. This is like a slap in the face to the despondent priest, and he emphatically answers, "No!"

He goes back to the girl's bedroom, where the old priest had returned minutes before. There he finds the old priest slumped over dead from a heart attack. The girl is sitting to the side of the bed and begins laughing. The priest grabs her, throws her to the floor and begins beating her with his fists. He yells, "Come into me," and we see a change in his face as the demon tries to enter his body, and we hear the real voice of the crying little girl in the background. During the fight on the floor, the girl snatches his Jesuit medal chain from around his neck. The priest summons all his power and crashes through the bedroom window, where he then plummets down the same long series of steps to the pavement far below. People come running from everywhere, including another priest, who is his best friend. He administers the last rites and the priest dies.

The scene jumps to when the mother and daughter are preparing to leave Washington and as they leave the house, the dead priest's friend is standing there. They talk a moment, and although we hear that the little girl doesn't remember anything from the possession, she focuses on the priest's collar, and she steps over and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

As I mentioned in the first part, this movie caused quite a stir. The special effects, complete with twisting head, levitating body, blood and green vomit, had never been seen in a "public" movie before. The vulgar language, the visual sexual references and the religious sacrilege were quite astonishing for those times, and people flocked to the theaters, as the public couldn't get enough. Hmm, who knows what dark demons lie within any of us?  

The DVD part of the photo is from the Warner Home Video 2012 DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Demon-This word for an "evil spirit" goes back to Indo European "da/di," which had the notion of "divide, separate into pieces." This gave Ancient Greek "daimon," with the meaning "spirit of destiny/guidance;" thus also, "god," from the notion of "parceling out guidance, destiny," but it seems the word was used in religious terms for "evil spirit." Latin borrowed the word as "daemon," with the meaning "spirit," along with the religious "evil spirit." English borrowed the word in the 1200s. 

"The Exorcist" Stunned Audiences

When this movie came out in late 1973, it created a sensation in the public the likes of which I've rarely seen. Everywhere you went people were talking about this film and the theaters were packed. I went to see it twice, but perhaps three times. Many of us like to be scared, at least a little, but this film absolutely terrified some people. Based on the book of the same name by William Peter Blatty, which was published a few years before, the book sales soared along with the box office receipts. Blatty, who was raised Catholic, based his novel on a real case of exorcism performed some twenty plus years before.

The story is the classic struggle between good and evil. We can't kill evil in the true sense, for like in the Halloween movies, you think evil (Jason) is dead, but it isn't, it lives to come back at another time, and it lives within us, like a cold sore virus, waiting for an opportunity to manifest itself again. Conquering our own worst characteristics can be very difficult, especially for some, and those characteristics are then available for exploitation (the Nazis almost made a science out of exploiting the awful side of human nature, and then whipping it into pure hate). But we have choices to make, and likely you all have seen the cartoon of a person with an angel on one shoulder and the devil or a demon on other, both talking into the person's ears to convince them to choose their desired course. John Steinbeck used the same sort of theme in his great book, "East of Eden," which was another good versus evil saga, but with the idea that humans "may" choose their own course. This idea of "choice" also shows that we can't have good without evil (see Word History, below).

The story of "The Exorcist" revolves around a little girl, played by Linda Blair, living with her actress mother (played by Ellen Burstyn) in Washington, DC, while a movie is being filmed. They have a German couple (Swiss German?)* to take care of the house. The director of the movie being filmed in Washington, who is usually drunk, taunts the man for having been a Nazi, but the obviously perturbed man always uneasily says, "I'm Swiss." The girl's parents are separated, and as her birthday arrives, she overhears her mother using abusive and profanity laden words in a telephone call to the seemingly uncaring father, who is in Europe. The contrast is, the mother deeply loves and cares about her daughter, while the father, "... doesn't give a shit," per dialog from the movie. Does this lack of a father's love leave the girl vulnerable to evil? Does a possible former Nazi make the house and the girl a target?

After a series of odd noises are heard coming from the attic, the little girl begins to display behavior out of character for her, including bad language, a situation that grows increasingly worse. After all sorts of doctors and tests, and scans, the situation deteriorates further, as the child's bed shakes and quakes, even when the mother jumps onto the bed to help her daughter. The doctors insist there is a problem in the girl's brain, even when they too witness an episode of the bed shaking and even lifting off the floor. This all demonstrates their desire to apply logic to the illogical. Eventually the doctors tell the mother to seek religious help for girl, whom they say believes she is possessed by a demon.

Meanwhile, the film had opened at an archeological dig site in Iraq, where one of the artifacts recovered is a small demon-like figurine. The head of the expedition is a Catholic priest (played by Max von Sydow) who recognizes the figurine as a demon he has encountered before. He goes to an area with a large statue of the same demon. He stands opposite of the demon, thus depicting the coming battle of  "good versus evil."

Then we meet another priest (played by Jason Miller), who is in Washington, D.C., and who is a psychiatric counselor for troubled priests. The job has taken a toll on the relatively young priest, who sees clergymen who are questioning their very faith, a situation he also begins to face. The man had left home and his Greek immigrant mother, to join the priesthood, but as his mother's health declines, his conscience continues to trouble him, bringing him to a severe crisis of faith when his mother dies without him being there. When the little girl's mother seeks religious help for her daughter (they had no particular religious beliefs), she meets with this priest, who tells her the doctors are likely correct in their diagnosis of a brain problem. When he goes to the house, where the girl is now confined to bed, we see a now largely disfigured girl, whose voice too has dramatically changed.**

More and the conclusion coming next ....       

* How many Germans/Austrians claimed to be Swiss Germans after World War Two, I can't say, but the idea was not uncommon in the public mind and, thus, in the world of movies and television. The idea was, Germans/Austrians were trying to distance themselves from the Nazis and their crimes, crimes they themselves may have committed, so they presented themselves as Swiss Germans to avoid the suspicion of having been a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer. Switzerland was neutral during the war, although more than 2/3 of the population is of German background. The claims to be "Swiss" didn't always help, however, as suspicions of anyone with a German accent lingered long thereafter. The 1960's NBC comedy "Get Smart" had an episode that demonstrated in a comedic way this whole "Swiss German" situation. Secret agent Maxwell Smart was on a remote island with some other people, including a man with a heavy German accent, who always said he was Swiss. The man also claimed to be a clock maker, but when the cuckoo clock he had struck the hour, a little Hitler figure with outstretched arm came out and shouted, "Sieg heil! Sieg heil!" When Max told the man it wasn't two o'clock, the guy answered, "If he says it's 2 o'clock, you'd better believe him."       

** The voice for the demon was done being actress Mercedes McCambridge, who much earlier had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the movie, "All The King's Men."

The photo is of the Warner Home Video 2012 DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Evil-This word, used primarily as a noun and adjective, and of somewhat shaky distant ancestry, "seems" to go back to Indo European "upelo," which had the notion of "passing a limit/boundary." This gave Old Germanic "ubilaz," with the meaning of "bad." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "yfel," with the broad meaning, "bad, injury or illness causing, evil." This then evoled into modern "evil," but the meaning became more specific to "moral baseness, wickedness," as "bad" took over the more general meaning. The other Germanic languages have: German has "Übel" (evil, illness, nasty, wicked), Low German Saxon "övel" (ill, unwell), Dutch "euvel" (evil, flaw), West Frisian "evel" (now archaic), the North Germanic languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic) do not use forms of the word.