A Night to Remember (1958): Sinking of the Titanic

This British made film is named after the book written by American Walter Lord, and it is considered by many to be the most historically accurate movie about the disaster, although it too has some non historical content, with perhaps the most glaring non historical event being the opening of the film about the ceremony for the launching of the Titanic. Historically, there was no launching ceremony for the Titanic. I'm not sure when I first saw this movie on television and I'm not even certain if I first saw it on national network television or on a local station, but it was definitely decades ago.     

 

There was a large cast in this film, so I'm only listing a very limited number of the cast members. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Kenneth More was a pretty well known English actor, although he was naturally better known in Britain. This is just my own guess, but by the late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, American television executives were looking to get their hands on movies, as films were highly popular (and thus, profitable) for the television networks and also local stations, which had pretty much exhausted the catalog of available films. Thus Americans began to see more and more British, and other European films, and my recollection is that this was how I became somewhat familiar with Kenneth More, with several of his movies being shown on television. David McCallum became well known in the U.S. in the 1960s for his role as Illya Kuryakin in the television series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," which also starred already well known British actor Leo G. Carroll and American Robert Vaughn. Tucker McGuire (her real first name was Anne, but her middle name was Tucker) was an American married to British actor Tom Macaulay, which might have helped her (?) land several roles in British films, including this one. Harold Goldblatt played wealthy American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, although Goldblatt himself was from England, not the U.S.     

 

Partial Cast: 

Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller 

Michael Goodliffe as Thomas Andrews, the naval architect for the Titanic

Laurence Naismith (born Johnson) as Captain Edward Smith 

Kenneth Griffith (born Griffiths) as radio operator Jack Phillips

David McCallum as assistant radio operator Harold Bride

Tucker McGuire as Margaret "Molly" Brown

Frank Lawton as managing director of the White Star Line J. Bruce Ismay

Harold Goldblatt as American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim  

This movie is pretty much a straightforward telling of the fateful night in April 1912 when the great ship struck an iceberg and sank some 375 + miles from Newfoundland, which at the time was not a part of Canada, but rather a British dominion, with the British monarch as the head of state (in 1912, that was King George V), but with Newfoundland, otherwise, being self governing. The first part of the movie shows us examples of the passengers aboard the Titanic, with a great number of poorer Irish people heading to America for a new life, but on the other hand, very wealthy people of rank and privilege occupying the elaborate first class area of the great ship. On Sunday, April 14, the Titanic's radio operator begins to receive reports of ice and icebergs from other ships as the Titanic reaches the general vicinity of the Labrador Current, a cold flow of ocean water that comes down from the arctic and often carries icebergs southward, frequently broken off from glaciers in western Greenland. (Note: From what I understand, and it makes sense, these icebergs can be at any time of year, but they are more common in like March through June, when the weather in the Northern Hemisphere shifts into spring, then summer, bringing warmer temperatures, which weakens the ice of glaciers and can cause parts to break off; that is, forming icebergs, which then drift southward with the current to the area around Labrador and Newfoundland; thus, the name of the current. The area is called "Iceberg Alley" due to the many icebergs that travel the current there, and these pose many risks to North Atlantic shipping. To complicate matters, the warm water current that comes up from the south is called the Gulf Current, and when the warm and cold currents begin to mix, it can cause fog and mist, sometimes dense, which makes icebergs even harder to spot.) 

 

The movie deservedly gives a lot of attention to a British cargo ship, the Californian (the British owning company named its ships after American states, which had just recently increased to 48 from 46 in 1912), which was traveling to Boston in the same general area as the Titanic, which was headed to New York City on the night of the disaster. The Californian comes upon a field of ice on the evening of the 14th, and the captain has the engines stopped rather than proceed into the ice. He also tells his radio operator to contact the Titanic, which is in their area, to report the ice and its location. When the radioman tries to carry out his orders, the radioman on the Titanic is busy with all sorts of private messages being sent ahead by individuals to New York City, and he cuts off the Californian's radioman and tells him to stay out because he's interfering with radio traffic. Earlier, the Titanic's radioman was so busy with all the personal messages, he took a message reporting ice, but the message got mixed into all of the personal messages and was not passed on to the captain.    

The lookout spots an iceberg right ahead of the ship, and the Titanic begins to turn to miss the berg, but it's too late and the ship grazes by the iceberg, with some chunks of ice falling on board the lower deck. Most passengers and crew don't notice the shudder when the collision takes place, nor do many people notice that the engines stop not long afterward. Captain Smith sends for the ship's architect, Thomas Andrews, to get his assessment of how serious the damage is. After checking the damage, Mr. Andrews tells the captain the ship will sink in about an hour and a half. Captain Smith orders the lifeboats to be readied and staffed and he has the radioman send out distress signals. The British passenger ship Carpathia answers the Titanic, but the Carpathia's captain let's it be known that his ship cannot be to the Titanic's location for a few hours. The Carpathia was slightly less than 60 miles away from the Titanic at that time. Meanwhile, the Californian sits just about 8 miles away (I chose 8 miles as a sort of compromise, as I've seen 5 miles, 6 miles and up to 12 miles). The radioman had gone to bed, so he never heard the distress calls (radio was relatively new and there were no regulations requiring constant radio monitoring aboard ships, and indeed, not all ships necessarily even had a radio, with the Californian having acquired a radio just a few months before this incident with the Titanic). The Californian's officers and crew see a big passenger liner not far from them, and it seems to be stopped, but they believe, that like their own ship, this big liner is stopped because of the ice field. The captain of the Californian goes to bed to get some sleep before he tries navigating this ice field in the morning. The Titanic's crew begins firing distress rockets and the crew of the Californian see the rockets, but they are perplexed by what they mean. One officer awakens the captain to tell him about the rockets, but the captain wonders if they might be a company signal by the big ship to let other ships from the same company know about the ice field. The captain orders that they try signaling the big ship by flashing Morse code light signals, and he then goes back to sleep. The light signal lamp is too small for the officers on the Titanic to read the signal, and they conclude it is just some flickering light on the ship. The Californian's officers and crew don't even know which ship they're seeing, but without the messages from the radio, it really didn't matter. Likewise, Captain Smith and his crew on the Titanic can see a ship nearby, but they don't know which ship, as they can't get through on the radio. (Note: Of course, while we know the historical end result with the Titanic, many have wanted to know, still to this day, how many people might have been saved if the Californian had come to the rescue. Remember, about 1500 people perished from the Titanic that night, and a rescue of such a number would have involved more than the Californian showing up and 1500 people simply somehow magically transferring to it from the sinking Titanic. The Californian was a cargo ship, but it could "accommodate" a hundred plus passengers and crew, although it had no passengers that night [the movie script has one of the Californian's officers mention the ship's passengers, but historically that is incorrect]. "Accommodate" is meant that passengers and crew would be somewhat comfortable, not with extra people crammed aboard in an emergency such as was taking place that night. It had 4 lifeboats, 1 gig, a type of rowboat usually with a sail that had to be put up, and a pinnace, another type of small boat, usually equipped with a sail and oars.* How many people the cargo area could have held, I have no idea, but the thing to remember is, the Carpathia was nearing the Titanic's location and it arrived about an hour and twenty minutes after the Titanic sank. Other ships were also on the way, but arrived at later intervals. It may not have been pretty or comfortable, but being crammed aboard the Californian would certainly seem preferable to becoming shark doo doo. It is my understanding, that in those times, not having lifeboats for all passengers was not uncommon on passenger ships, because the technology was thought to be enough to keep the ships afloat for a period of time [some likely call this "arrogance," or "tempting fate"], and that lifeboats would be used to shuttle passengers to rescue ships, then return to the damaged vessel to take more passengers to safety. All of the possibilities about the Californian is beyond the scope of this article, but it's something to think about, although not one person can be brought back to life. Perspective.)

 

The movie goes on to show the lifeboats lowered away and the Titanic tilting more and more into the Atlantic until the end comes and the ship disappears beneath the water.** A while later those in the lifeboats see and hear a rocket. It has been fired by the Carpathia. Meanwhile, aboard the Californian, the captain is awakened and told the big ship has moved on, as they still don't realize the ship they had been viewing a few miles away was sinking and that the rockets were distress signals. At one point earlier, one of the officers mentions how odd the ship looks in the distance, "like it's listing," but another officer attributes this to the angle of the big ship to the Californian. We see daylight and the Carpathia has picked up the passengers and crew members of the lifeboats. The captain of the Carpathia is told that the captain of the Californian has contacted them and wants to know if he and his ship can help. ***  

* I just wanted to include some basic information about the Californian, and Wikipedia is great for such information, and while its article on the Californian says the ship's lifeboats, gig and pinnace could hold a total of 218 people, that specific entry's source isn't noted, although the information is likely accurate, I am unable to say what the actual source of that info is. Just another note about the Californian, it was sunk by German U-boats in the Mediterranean Sea during World War One, with the loss of one life (see section on Californian in Encyclopedia-Titanica.org). 

 

** In the 1953 film, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, the passengers gather and sing the Christian hymn "Nearer My God To Thee," and the version most popular in the United States is used. There has long been historical controversy over the last song on the ship, and one of the questions raised has been why would a British ship play what was basically an American song? And the passengers and crew all know the words, including the Straus couple, who were Jewish? (The song is a Christian hymn.) In "A Night to Remember," the band plays the British version of "Nearer My God To Thee," which is very different from the other version. As I noted, there has been a lot of controversy over the song, and some survivors claimed the last song was neither version, but rather a song called "Autumn." For movie purposes, I can understand why they chose the American version, as the dramatic music fits perfectly with what was already a dramatic and emotional scene. The American version has often been played at funerals and the scene in the movie just before the ship heads to the deep is a funeral setting.    

*** Interestingly, I found 3 different numbers for the total number of survivors: 705 (which is also stated in the movie), 706 (that's according to titanicfacts.net, which shows 492 passengers and 214 crew members) and 712 (this is listed on encyclopedia-titanica.org and also the figure given at the end of the 1953 movie "Titanic"). For the article on the 1953 movie, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/01/titanic-1953.html

 

Photo is of the 1998 The Criterion Collection DVD

WORD HISTORY:

Founder (this is the verb for "to sink")-This verb is distantly related to "bottom," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to the noun "founder;" that is, "one who sets up or establishes something," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French (but it is NOT related to the  word of the same spelling, "founder," nor to "foundry," both of which have to do with melted metal being poured for forming into shapes and sizes). "Founder" goes back to Indo European "bhundhm," which meant "base," with the beginning rendered in Latin as "f," giving Latin "fundus," which meant "bottom, base, foundation," which in French, a Latin-based language, became "fond," which also meant "bottom, base," but also, "ground." This gave Old French the verb "fondrer," meaning, "fall, fall to the ground, fall to the bottom;" thus also, "sink, sink to the bottom." English borrowed the word in the first part of the 1300s as "foundren," meaning "to fall to the ground or floor, collapse, send to the bottom," and Old French had the noun form "fondour (Anglo-French "fondur/fundur?"). The meaning of a ship sinking became more and more the most commonly used meaning in English, and the idea of "sinking" or "falling" gave the word many figurative uses, as in, "His problem with alcohol caused his career to founder." 

Sahara: Bogart & Company Fight The Nazis

This World War Two movie is set in the 1942 North African desert, as the German and Italian forces there are achieving major successes against the Allied forces seeking to prevent the Axis from capturing the Suez Canal. The movie depicts the main Allied troops as being British, but with French, South African and Sudanese also represented, and an American tank crew serving alongside. The movie was filmed during early 1943 in a desert area of southern California near the Mexican border. While the filming location was a desert, the production required tons and tons of sand to be spread out to make it look more like what the production crew wanted to represent a particular part of the desert in Libya.      

 

Actor J. Carrol Naish plays an Italian soldier who is a reluctant German ally, and who is more comfortable working with the Allies (there was certainly more than a little truth to this symbolic representation with many Italians of that era). During my life I seem to recall reading and hearing that J. Carrol Naish played more "ethnic" characters in movies and television than any major star, just as he played an Italian in this film, but in reality, he was of Irish descent (born in the U.S.), and in fact, his uncle had been an Irish official prior to Irish independence from Britain in the early 1920s. And since I mentioned Irish, this movie was obviously tilted more toward American audiences, and Irish-Americans have been a pretty prominent segment of the American population, especially in many metropolitan areas of the eastern half of the country. In the war era, the British and Irish were not necessarily on the best of terms, dating to previous British rule of Ireland. A long time friend of mine of Irish descent was easily riled if England or Britain was mentioned to him, and this was in the 1970s and 1980s (he was born sometime in the 1920s). His grandfather (or grandfathers?) had been from Ireland, and had tremendous animosity toward Britain. Anyway, one of the British soldiers is from Dublin, and it's just my guess that the film wanted to show that the British and Irish could work together in the face of the common danger of fascism. Not only that, the Irish soldier is a captain; thus, he outranks the other British troops and the Americans, too.  

 

Bruce Bennett plays American "Waco" in this film (pronounced as if "wake-o"), and he was the child of German immigrants, as his real family name was "Brix," but he took the stage name Bruce Bennett in the mid 1930s. He actually played Tarzan in the mid 1930s, but Johnny Weissmuller had already captured the public imagination with his performances as Tarzan by that point. And by the way, you'll see American actor Lloyd Bridges playing a British soldier in this movie. Bridges is likely best remembered as the star of the popular television show "Sea Hunt" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a show I watched regularly. Lloyd's sons Beau and Jeff are actors.     

 

Cast:

Humphrey Bogart as Sergeant Joe Gunn

Bruce Bennett as Waco Hoyt

J. Carrol Naish as Giuseppe (Italian prisoner)

Lloyd Bridges as Fred Clarkson

Rex Ingram as Sergeant Major Tambul

Richard Aherne as Captain Jason Halliday

Dan Duryea as Jimmy Doyle

Carl Harbord as Marty Williams

Patrick O'Moore as Ozzie Bates

Louis Mercier as Jean "Frenchie" Leroux

Guy Kingsford as Peter Stegman 

Kurt Krueger as German pilot and then prisoner

John Wengraf as Major von Falken 

 

In June of 1942, the three surviving American crew members of a US M3 tank, called "Lulubelle" by the crew, are serving in the Libyan desert during heavy Allied fighting against the German and Italian forces there. (Note: The U.S. supplied a somewhat modified version of M3 tanks to the British military in North Africa during the war. The American version was nicknamed the "Lee," while the British version was nicknamed the "Grant.") The crew receives orders by radio to retreat and as they withdraw they come across five British and Commonwealth troops (one is South African) and a Free French soldier. While one of the British soldiers, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is a captain in the medical service, the Americans have the tank, which is commanded by combat experienced Sergeant Joe Gunn; so, the British captain agrees to accept the American sergeant as the commander. The group comes upon a Sudanese sergeant and his Italian captive, who speaks heavily Italian-accented English. (Note: Sudan was in reality a British possession from the latter part of the 1800s, although "in theory" Egypt had a say in the governing of the territory.) With limited supplies, especially water, the Allied group debates whether to take the Italian prisoner along or whether to leave him to his fate in the desert. The man begs for his life and shows pictures of his wife and small child, but Sergeant Gunn doesn't even want to see the pictures. The British captain tries to persuade Gunn to take the Italian with them as the right thing to do, and most of the men seemingly agree, but Sergeant Gunn orders the tank to move forward without the Italian. The tank starts off, leaving highly visible tracks in the sand, and the Italian follows as best he can. Everyone is quiet and rather solemn, and Sergeant Gunn then looks out a hatch and sees the Italian struggling along in an attempt to stay alive. Gunn orders the tank to stop and he agrees to take the Italian with them. The men seem pleased. 

 

As the tank rumbles on, a German planes strafes the tank, but the crew is able to hit the plane with machine gun fire and the pilot parachutes out before the plane crashes. The men capture the pilot, a cocky Nazi, who doesn't want the Sudanese soldier to search him (the Sudanese soldier is black and the Nazi doesn't want him to touch him). Sergeant Gunn wants to turn the pilot over to intelligence officers for interrogation, so that means the group adds another man to its number. The group then learns that one of the British soldiers was badly wounded during the strafing. The Sudanese soldier leads the group to a well, but it is dry, and the situation is getting dire, as the Sudanese soldier tells them the next well is 50 miles away, and of course, there's no guarantee it won't be dry too. The wounded British soldier dies, and a message comes across the radio for all Allied troops to report to their main units to form a defensive line to keep the Axis forces from breaking through to the Nile and the Suez Canal. The group moves out to try to reach the next well amidst a sandstorm, but they finally reach the well where there is an abandoned building for shelter. The storm ends and the men go out to look for the well, as everything is now covered with sand. They find the well and it seems to be dry, but the Sudanese soldier goes down into the well and finds a trickle of water dripping from the rocks. The men send down any containers they can find and at last Sergeant Gunn allows each man to have three swallows of the precious water. Meanwhile, a German column has found the grave of the British soldier, but the Germans are desperate for water too. They have a Bedouin guide who tells them about the possibility of water at the well some 50 miles off, and out of their way, but the German commander knows he, his men and his vehicles need water, so off goes the German column, unaware they are heading to where the Allied group happens to be.  

 

Since the tank has had a lot of wear and tear from travel and the sandstorm, Sergeant Gunn wants to do maintenance on it. The Italian offers his help, telling Gunn that he was a master mechanic in Torino (Turin) before the war. Sergeant Gunn accepts the offer. Gunn mentions Mussolini to the Italian, and the man says that Mussolini talks big and says he has all of the answers, and that he has his slogans written on many walls all across Italy. The Italian says the slogans got into the minds of the people. A German reconnaissance vehicle with three Germans and the Bedouin is spotted moving toward the well area. Sergeant Gunn hopes to capture the Germans to get information. Inside the building, the Italian is put back with the German prisoner, who has heard everything that is going on outside, as he actually speaks English. He lets the Italian know he will tell him what to do. 

 

One German mans a machine gun mounted in the vehicle, and the other two Germans and the Bedouin leave the vehicle to approach the building on foot. Firing starts and the Bedouin and one German are killed and the other two Germans are captured. The British captain speaks some German and Gunn has him ask the Germans some questions, all as Gunn deliberately drinks water in front of the two thirsty men. One German remains uncooperative, but the other finally tells them that they are part of a mechanized battalion of 500 men and Gunn gives him some water. Sergeant Gunn tries the same with the other German and the man takes the water, says nothing and throws the water on the ground. In the meantime, the Sudanese soldier checks the well and finds the water has almost completely stopped dripping and he reports this to Sergeant Gunn, who tells him it won't matter, because they are going to leave, but then he thinks it all over and he wants the group to stay and delay the enemy battalion. Gunn tells them he realizes they could likely die and that no one may ever know what happened here. When one of the soldiers objects, Gunn goes into how the British withstood heavy German air attacks and how so many little boats sailed to Dunkirk to help evacuate the troops there, and how the Russians made a stand at Moscow, and how the American troops stood in the Philippines against the Japanese, and how the Chinese evacuated parts of their country in the face of the Japanese invasion. He gives the men some reasons to fight and they agree, regardless of any skepticism they may have. Gunn wants to offer the German battalion commander a phony deal. Sergeant Gunn will release the two German prisoners and have them tell their commander the Allied group will give the Germans water in exchange for food (of course, there really isn't very much water). In the meantime, Gunn will send one of his men in the captured German reconnaissance vehicle to try to find the Allied lines to get help. The captured German pilot hears the plan and he tries to yell to the two other German prisoners that there is no water, but he is stopped, and Gunn gives orders to kill him if he tries anything like that again.

 

The German prisoners are released and the Allied men find some land mines in the captured German recon vehicle, and they use them to mine the grounds leading up to the building area. They dig in the tank to give it added protection, as its gun is their only real firepower. Gunn sends American soldier "Waco" off in the recon vehicle to try to make it to the Allied lines. As the two German prisoners walk along hoping to meet up with their battalion, the one who had held out against giving information kills the other man, calling him a "damned traitor" ("verdammter Verräter"). Back at the outpost, the men see the German troops advancing to attack. The Allied troops let them get closer then they open fire. The intense fire, including from the tank, throws the Germans back, with heavy casualties. The first attack has been thwarted. Gunn checks on his men, but finds that the South African has been killed. The German commander shows a white flag and he and one of his men meet Sergeant Gunn halfway between the two sides. Gunn tells the German commander he'll trade water for guns and the mortar the German battalion has. The Germans are desperate for water, but no deal is reached. The captured German pilot decides to act and he tries to order Giuseppe, the Italian prisoner, to follow his lead, but Giuseppe will have none of it, and he delivers a sharp rebuke to Hitler and the Nazis: when the German pilot tells him the place will be taken by the German forces and then he will denounce Giuseppe as a traitor, Giuseppe says, "Denounce me then... Mussolini is not as clever as Hitler, he can only dress his Italians up to look like thieves, cheats and murderers. He can't, like Hitler, make them feel like that. He can't, like Hitler, scrape from the conscience the knowledge that right is right and wrong is wrong, or dig holes in their heads to plant his own Ten Commandments, steal from thy neighbor, cheat thy neighbor, kill thy neighbor..... It was for your Hitler that God, my God, created Hell!" This infuriates the German pilot and he knocks Giuseppe to the ground and then stabs him in the back with the screwdriver the Italian had been using to work on the tank. Though badly wounded, Giuseppe gets outside to tell the men that the German has escaped and is on his way to tell the German commander there is no water. The Sudanese soldier takes out after the German and kills him, but he himself is finally killed by German machine gun fire. As Gunn talks with one of the British soldiers, a German sniper kills the soldier. In the German camp, the soldiers are begging the commander for water, and he again goes to meet Gunn, who instead sends the Free French soldier, "Frenchie," out to meet him, as Gunn pretends to be bathing along with the British captain to make it look as if they have lots of water. No agreement is made and as the two men walk away, the German commander orders his men to open fire, killing Frenchie by shooting him in the back. The Allied guys return fire, killing the German commander. Meanwhile, the recon vehicle with Waco breaks down, leaving him to go on foot through the sand. Back at the well outpost, the Germans start another attack, and one of their mortar shells hits the well. One of the men is wounded and the British captain helps him inside the building, but another shell hits there too, killing both of them. Only Gunn and Ozzie, one of the British soldiers, remain alive and they prepare to fight to the end. Gunn calls out to the Germans to come and get the water, all they want, but he doesn't realize that the mortar shell brought water bubbling up out of the sand. The Germans throw down their guns and dash for the water. The two surviving Allies take them prisoner. 

 

Waco struggles through the sand, but finally a British reconnaissance vehicle comes along and the men spot Waco. After a while we see the column of German prisoners guarded by Gunn and Ozzie, as a British column approaches. The two men hear that the British and Commonwealth forces have held the Germans and Italians at El Alamein, stopping their drive for the Suez Canal. Sergeant Gunn looks at the dog tags of the dead men and he says they would want to know that the enemy had been halted. Their sacrifice helped in that effort. (Note: While the Allies halted the German and Italian drive at El Alamein, this desert rail station continued to be at the center of events in North Africa until a major British-led Allied offensive there in the latter part of October 1942, which resulted in the retreat of the Germans and Italians in early November. This was then followed by the Allied invasion of French Morocco and Algeria in northwestern Africa, and this sandwiched the German and Italian forces between the the British and Commonwealth forces pursuing their retreating forces from El Alamein, and the American, British and French forces advancing out of French Morocco and Algeria.)         

 

Photo is of the 2001 Columbia Pictures DVD ...

WORD HISTORY:

Sand-This word goes back to Indo European "samadho," but there are variations in how the Indo European form is rendered, but all beginning "sam," meaning "sand." This gave Old Germanic "sandam," which then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sand," where it remains all of these centuries later. Besides the "fine rock particles" meaning, the plural "sands" has long been used for desert and beach areas covered in sand. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German have "Sand" (all German nouns are capitalized), Dutch has "zand," West Frisian has "sân," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "sand," Icelandic has "sandur." The early part of the 1300s saw the development of the verb "sanden," which came from the noun. The verb long meant "to sprinkle sand over something," and this led to the further meaning "to cover over with sand." The meaning "to rub with a cloth or paper with affixed sand in order to make a surface smooth" seems to have developed in the mid 1800s, as this tool became increasingly popular.  

Oh Boy: A Coffee in Berlin

Slight addition 11-24-21, another small addition, a note about the psychologist, 3-30-22

 

 

I love this 2012 German film with English subtitles. It's original title, "Oh Boy," was changed to "A Coffee in Berlin" only for its release in the United States in 2014. Tom Schilling is superb in the role of the main character, Niko Fischer, and he won the German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) for best actor (this is the German equivalent to the American Academy Awards), and the movie itself won the German best movie award. There is great music throughout the movie, mainly jazz, and the music score also won the German Film Award.

 

Main Cast: 

Tom Schilling as Niko Fischer

Marc Hosemann as Matze

Katharina Schüttler as Elli

Justus von Dohnányi as Karl Speckenbach

Andreas Schröders as the psychologist

Friederike Kempter as Julika Hoffmann 

Katharina Hauck as the coffee shop employee

Arnd Klawitter as Phillip Rauch (actor at the filming site)

Inga Birkenfeld as the actress at the film site

Ulrich Noethen as Walter Fischer (Niko's father)

Michael Gwisdek as Friedrich (older man in the bar)

Theo Trebs as Marcel (the drug dealer)

Sanna Schnapp as the nurse 

Leander Modersohn as Schneider (the father's assistant)

Frederick Lau as Ronny (one of the drunken guys on the street)

Jakob Bieber as Kevin (one of the drunken guys on the street) 

Martin Brambach as train ticket inspector 1

R(olf) P(eter) Kahl as train inspector 2

Lis Böttner as Frau Baumann (Marcel's grandmother)

Steffen Jürgens as Ralf (the author of the stage play with Julika)

 

This film, set in Berlin, is a sort of dramedy with many funny moments about a day in the life of Niko Fischer, a young guy in his late 20s who is unfocused, sulky, brooding and unhappy; otherwise, he's okay. haha! We all have our bad days and we sometimes feel sorry for ourselves, and to me, some of the things in Niko's life on this day help us relate to him. Probably most of us have had people tell us that regardless of what we might be going through at any point in our lives, that there is always someone having a worse time of it. While I've never really felt much comfort in that thought, there is often some truth to it, and Niko, and hopefully all of us, see this truth near the end of the picture, as our perceptions of "bad" are centered around ourselves (no matter how trivial), and not often, if ever, around what is happening to others (no matter how serious). 

 

Nothing really fires Niko up about life; at least, not on a long term basis. Perhaps the best German term I can think of for Niko is "grüblerisch," sort of, "thoughtful in a brooding, melancholy way" (see Word History below). The young man's life comes to be represented by his struggles to get a cup of coffee (you DID read that right), yet he doesn't know how close he is to getting the coffee. The thing is, he misses his chance for the symbolically satisfying cup of coffee when he makes excuses to his girlfriend, a sweet, caring person, so that he won't have to see her again later (she had offered to make him coffee). It doesn't take the Berlin Wall to fall on her, and the young woman angrily leaves the room, ending their relationship. Ah, well the Berlin Wall had already come down, so maybe I need to rethink that line? During the course of this one day, Niko comes into contact with people with their own problems and eccentricities, just like their city, Berlin, and its history. Niko's father is financially well off and he worked to get to that position, but he also seemingly never had many, if any, heart to heart talks with his son to get an understanding of the boy. Niko's father transfers a good sum of money to his son's bank account every month, because the boy had been studying law, but Niko quit school two years before and he didn't let his father know that he had dropped out, fearing that the money would stop flowing into his bank account.

 

Niko is moving into a new apartment, and as he carries in some of his belongings, a man is sitting in the stairway watching him. The two men simply speak to one another. Inside his new apartment, Niko takes a moment to look into some of the boxes he has just brought in, and he looks at some pictures of himself and his (now former) girlfriend vacationing in Paris. Niko showers and goes into the kitchen and uses the toaster to light a cigarette. Niko is so unfocused, although he's a smoker, throughout the picture he always has to get a light from others. He starts opening his mail, which he obviously hasn't done for some time, given the quantity. He seriously reads one piece of mail and he quickly dashes around the kitchen, clearly conveying the message that he's late for an appointment. He meets with a psychologist who is to determine if he should have his driver's license returned after it was confiscated for his driving under the influence of alcohol. The psychologist asks Niko some questions about his life which prove to ruffle Niko's feathers: how he gets along with his parents, whether he is in a relationship, whether he is gay, if his short height bothers him, and Niko's attitude brings the psychologist to turn down the reinstatement of his driver's license; so, public transportation it is. (NOTE: The psychologist could use a ... ah, psychologist.)

 

Niko stops at a coffee shop for a cup of coffee, and the scene should get at least a chuckle from most people. Niko simply orders a cup of regular black coffee, but the waitress-clerk tries to sell him the special of the day, which includes a doughnut or a sweet roll, but Niko tells her he just wants a cup of coffee. Then she asks what kind of coffee, to which he answers, "Just regular." That still doesn't get him coffee, because she explains they have two kinds of coffee that are like "regular," one a Colombian and one an Arabica. Niko tries to be patient and he asks her which one tastes more like regular, but obviously he's still not said the magic word, as she tells him she likes both, so he finally says "Colombian." She makes the coffee and she asks if he wants milk, and he declines, but then she asks if he wants soy milk, which brings another decline. She tells him the amount, and it is above the typical amount for coffee, so he tells her this, but she replies, "You chose Colombian" (the implication being that Colombian costs more), to which he says, "You could have mentioned that." Niko counts out his money and he is a little short (ah, besides his height), and he asks if she will accept the lesser amount as an exception. The owner is sitting a short distance away and he shakes his head to indicate "no." The girl tells Niko if they make an exception, that every bum will want to pay less than full price. Niko is stunned by her terminology and he repeats the word "Bum?' (She uses the word "Penner," one of the German words for bum). Niko takes his money and leaves. 

  

Niko goes to an ATM (GERMAN: Geldautomat). This scene is hilarious, and I literally laughed out loud. A few feet away from the ATM a homeless man is sleeping, and he has a cup sitting out for passersby to drop in change. Niko decides to give the homeless man the money he took back at the coffee shop, and he drops the coins into the cup, but when he puts his card into the bank machine, the machine eats his card! Now he's got NO MONEY! In a moment of utter disgust, he looks around, and he glances down at the homeless man's cup. Niko decides to get his change back, so he tries to be inconspicuous as he moves over to the cup and squats down to get his money. He puts his hand into the cup, but a lady comes up, stops, and just glares down at him. Niko drops the coins back into the cup and leaves, even poorer for having been there. hahahaha! The thing is, we see that Niko has some sense of awareness about people in need, but he then got caught being the bad guy as he sought to undo his good deed. Remember too, he is taking money from his father under a false pretense. By the way, Niko calls his father for help about the bank machine having taken his card, but he has to wait for his father to return the call.

 

Niko goes home and he hears a noise on the stairway and he then catches a glimpse of the man he had seen earlier on the stairs. Niko goes into his apartment and lies down, and the door buzzer sounds. When he opens the door, it's the man from the stairway, who tells Niko he is a neighbor from upstairs. He presents Niko with a bowl of meatballs (Fleischbällchen) made by his wife as a sort of welcoming gift for Niko's move into the building. The man introduces himself as Karl Speckenbach and he keeps peeping into Niko's apartment from the doorway. Niko really doesn't want to be bothered with the guy, and he nicely tells him since he has just moved in, he has nothing to offer him to drink. Karl quickly pulls out a bottle of liquor, so he and Niko have a drink inside and the pushy Karl looks around the apartment, even looking into boxes still packed with Niko's belongings. Karl tells Niko of his basement room that is set up with entertainment devices to watch soccer and to play games. The two chat a little, but when Niko asks if Karl and his wife have any kids, the man turns serious and tells Niko that his wife had breast cancer 5 years before and that he and his wife don't have sex anymore. He tells Niko she had to have both breasts removed, and that he just can't be intimate with his wife anymore, so she just cooks and cooks and cooks. Karl begins to sob and Niko asks him if he has talked with friends about his situation, but he indicates he doesn't have anyone to talk with. Niko somewhat awkwardly tries to comfort him, and Karl finally leaves. Niko flushes the meatballs down the toilet and he gets a call from his friend Matze, a sometimes actor, who wants to land a big important role, but who hasn't paid his dues by moving up the ranks. Needless to say, Matze is often unemployed. 

 

The two friends go to a restaurant where Matze eats up a storm, including using a butter knife to get ketchup out of the bottom of a bottle, and squeezing the little packets of mayo until the mayo is all over his hand. Niko orders a coffee, only to be told that the machine is broken. A young woman sits down nearby and she and Niko look at one another, but for different reasons. He finds her attractive, but she actually recognizes Niko, and she calls him by name. She comes over to the table and refreshes Niko's memory that the two of them went to school together in their young teenage years, a time when she was much overweight, and that Niko and others made fun of her size. Her name is Julika, and she tells how Niko and other kids called her "Julika Schmulika" (it equates to English "Big Bertha" or "roly poly"). She said she often felt really bad about herself and that she attempted suicide. Julika has slimmed down in the years since school, and she tells Niko and Matze that she is an actress; and in fact, she invites them to a theater that evening where she will be appearing in a live performance. She will leave two free tickets at the box office for them. She also tells Niko that she had a crush on him when they were in school, in spite of how he humiliated her about her weight. 

 

Matze takes Niko to a site where a low-budget film is being shot and where he personally knows the main actor, Phillip Rauch. Once there, Matze wants to see if he can perhaps get a part in the picture; after all, some income beats no income. Matze's friend is playing a World War Two officer who is in love with a Jewish woman whom he hides from the Nazis in his basement. In the meantime, Niko goes to a table on the set with a coffee dispenser, but when he tries to pour a cup of coffee, the dispenser is empty; so frustrated again, he walks away, and seconds later a young man brings over a new full dispenser of coffee, so Niko misses out again. While at the movie set, Niko's father returns his call, and Niko lies to him by saying that he's at the library (implying that he's studying). His father sets up a meeting with Niko at a golf course, and when Niko arrives there, his father introduces Niko as his favorite son to his new assistant, Schneider. Niko interjects that he's his father's only son, but his father says that's not a known certainty. Later, Niko's father tells his son (ah, the known son) that Schneider has already received his law degree, and that he is slightly younger than Niko (ouch!). Niko's golf game is awful and his father criticizes Niko and tries to correct his mistakes. Afterward, the three go to the restaurant at the golf course. Niko orders coffee, but his father says it's too late for coffee, and the father insists they have schnapps. Mr. Fischer sends Schneider to get the car and he then tells Niko that, by chance, he met Niko's law professor at a recent meeting in Zurich. The father bluntly asks Niko why he has been lying to him about school and he asks further, what Niko has been doing for two years since he quit law school. Niko meekly answers that he's been thinking about himself, his father and everything. The father goes down a list of things Niko started in his life, but then dropped, with law school now added to the list. The father tells Niko he closed his bank account (that's why the machine took the card), but he gives his son some money, tells him to clean up and to get a job like others, and he leaves with the parting words that he feels the best way to help his son is to stop helping him. 

Matze picks up Niko and on their way to the theater to see Julika's play, Matze stops at the house of a young drug dealer named Marcel. They meet the dealer's elderly grandmother, who seems oblivious to what her grandson is doing. She is kind and offers to fix sandwiches. As Marcel sells to Matze, Niko goes to talk with the the grandmother in another room, where she sits all alone. She is sitting in a nice reclining armchair, and she tells Niko that her grandson bought it for her. She has Niko sit in the chair to see how comfortable it is, and then she even has him tilt back, and Niko closes his eyes, as the old lady now sits on the couch. Matze comes for Niko, who gives the old lady a hug before he leaves. She kindly tells Niko to take care of himself.   

 

Later on, Matze and Niko go to the theater, although the performance has already started. The man at the box office finds the tickets and lets them go in. The audience is not terribly happy about the two men coming in late and interrupting their view of the show. This isn't your typical play, but a modern interpretive piece where Julika seems to devour herself and then vomits. The scene brings laughter from Matze, which draws a scowl from the author of the play. Afterwards, the author makes it pretty clear that he doesn't like it when others aren't as understanding and enlightened as he sees himself. Niko goes outside to smoke a cigarette (he has to stop a couple walking by to get a light). Julika comes out, but some drunken young men approach and begin to harass her. Niko tries to avert a physical confrontation with the young guys, but Julika goes right at the main guy, and when Niko tries to step in, he is knocked to the ground. Julika humiliates the seeming leader of the band of men. Niko and Julika go inside and Julika tends to his injuries, and she tells him that while he got knocked down, at least he stepped in and tried to help her. This all leads to a situation of "near" sex between the two former schoolmates, but Julika wants Niko to say humiliating things to her, and Niko stops the whole situation, which brings Julika to order him to leave, which he does. Her past still haunts her.

 

It is later in the evening, and Niko walks around Berlin and he decides to go into a bar. He asks if they still have coffee, but the bartender tells him they have already cleaned the coffee machine for the day, so Niko orders a beer and a shot of vodka. In a powerful scene, an elderly man comes up to him telling Niko how he doesn't understand people in modern times. At first Niko is disinterested and asks to be left alone, but the man persists and he begins to get the young man's attention, as he tells him he is from this very neighborhood, and how decades before he learned to ride a bicycle by first falling on his face numerous times. Eventually the older man tells Niko, and the nearby bartender, that he has been gone from this neighborhood for a long time, but that when he was a child, his father came into the house one night and told him to come outside with him. Once outside, the father picked up a stone and shoved it into his son's hand and then told him to throw it. The father too threw a stone that smashed a window of a business at the very spot where the bar is now. The old man continues to tell how the street was full of people throwing stones at businesses that night, and that fires were set in some shops. Sometimes as we look back on our lives, we see and understand things much differently than we did when these things actually happened, especially if the events happened when we were children. The elderly man who witnessed Kristallnacht* that night long ago as a little boy tells Niko how he was not concerned with Nazi hooligans and complicit Berliners and how they affected the lives of his then neighbors, but rather he was upset that he wouldn't be able to ride his bicycle in all of the broken glass. (Note: That was a child's perspective of that night, but sadly we've allowed generations after Hitler and Mussolini to continue slipping away from how important it is to understand those times. Even worse, some people have not just failed to understand that, but they have become rock throwers themselves, and complicit in evil. And some have perverted religion and allowed themselves to be manipulated in the pursuit of political agendas.)

 

The old man gets up and goes out the door, but he collapses onto the sidewalk. Niko rushes out to him and the bartender calls for an ambulance. Niko goes to the hospital emergency room with the man, and he waits for any information about the man's condition. He goes to a coffee vending machine, inserts the money and presses the button, but the machine displays "out of order" (German: ausser Betrieb). Niko lies down and falls asleep on one of the benches in the waiting room. Finally a nurse comes out, awakens him and tells Niko that the old man has passed away. She says he had no known family, but she tells Niko his first name was Friedrich. Niko is sad, but we next see him, 24 hours after we first met him, sitting drinking a cup of coffee.                    

 

* Kristallnacht was the term given to a highly evil act of Nazi persecution against German Jews, as it shifted Nazi persecution to outright physical violence against Jews, and German law enforcement did not intervene to halt it. "Kristallnacht" literally means "crystal night," but it's underlying meaning for this Nazi evil was because of the broken glass from the Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, and how the glass shards sparkled in the night from the fires set to Jewish properties. Kristallnacht was the prelude to names that have come to symbolize far greater evil: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno, Babi Yar, Dachau, Buchenwald and unfortunately far too many more. 

For more on "Kristallnacht," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-twenty_03.html

 

 

Photo is of the Music Box Films 2014 U.S. DVD release ...

WORD HISTORY:

Grave-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this is for the noun and the related, but now antiquated, verb (the adjective form meaning "serious, solemn," is unrelated and I'll try to cover it in the near future). "Grave" is related to "grub," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "groove," another word of Germanic derivation, and likely right from the Germanic roots of English, but perhaps borrowed into Old English from one of the closely related Germanic cousins of English in northwestern Europe, like Old Dutch, Old Frisian or Old Saxon. The verb form is now antiquated, as its expanded form, "engrave," essentially replaced it, although "engrave" lost the actual "to dig" sense, as "engrave" means "to carve, scratch or cut into a surface" (its German cousin is "eingraben," which means "to dig in, to entrench"). "Grave" goes back to Indo European "ghrebh," which meant "to dig, to scratch, to scrape," and this gave Old Germanic the verb "grabanan," meaning "to dig, to scratch," and this produced the Old Germanic noun "graba" which meant "a hole made for a dead body, a tomb." There seems to have been a strong variant that developed in the Old Germanic form that replaced the "b" in several forms with an "f"; thus, "grafa." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "græf," meaning "a hole dug as a place of burial, a grave." This then became "grafe" and then "grave." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Grab" (pronounced "grahp/grawp," the capital 'G' is because all standard German and Low German nouns are capitalized), Low German has "Graff," Dutch has "graf," West Frisian has "grêf," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "grav," and Icelandic has "gröf." All mean "grave," or sometimes "tomb." NOTE: The German word "grüblerisch" means "thoughtful in a brooding, melancholy way," and I mentioned it in the article above. It is related to "grave." It is from the German verb "grübeln," meaning "to brood, to think over strenuously and seriously," and its ancestor originally was derived from the same Old Germanic form that gave German the modern verb "graben," meaning "to dig," and which gave English "grave," the noun, and also originally the verb, which then became "engrave." The original notion of the German verb "grübeln" was "to dig around into, to dig or bore into," and this provided the figurative meaning of "digging into one's mind, think things over."   

A Big Hand For The Little Lady

A totally fun movie from 1966. I decided not to do the ending "segment," which has more than one surprise. If you've never seen this film, watch and enjoy it without trying to find out the ending first, as you'll just ruin things for youself. While the movie has tension to it at times, it also has a good many lighthearted scenes, and the cast is superb. By the mid 1960s, Henry Fonda had been a major film and stage star for many, many years, and Joanne Woodward had won an Academy Award for her performance in 1957's "The Three Faces of Eve" (the award ceremony was held in 1958). Jason Robards was a pretty well known face for his stage, film and television appearances, and Kevin McCarthy had received an Academy Award nomination in the early 1950s for his role in "Death of a Salesman," but many are more likely to remember him for starring in the famous science fiction thriller "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" released in the mid 1950s. Charles Bickford was a long time supporting actor and multiple-time Academy Award nominee, and this was his last film, although he then took on one of the starring roles in NBC's popular Western series "The Virginian" for about a year, until his death. Charles Bickford played a number of grumpy, grouchy, difficult characters in his long career, perhaps because he looked older than his actual years and because his voice was perfectly suited for such, and he played the same kind of character here. Burgess Meredith was born here in Cleveland, and when he made this film, he had been around on stage, films and television for quite some time. He later was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards, but right after making this picture, Burgess Meredith signed on to play the role of "the Penguin" in television's "Batman" series on ABC. Robert Middleton was one of those actors who was more likely known to many people by sight, rather than by name. He played a lot of "bad guy" types during his career. Paul Ford was well known to people my age or older from his earlier television role in "The Phil Silvers Show," although he was also in some movies. He had a distinctive voice and I still remember him in a television commercial for some model of car, where his name was used in the punch line, which was something like, "Go down to your nearest car dealer and tell them a 'Ford' sent you. That oughta shake 'em up." Finally, John Qualen had been in movies for many, many years, and he was a regular in movies directed by famous director John Ford (there's that name again). Like with Robert Middleton, Qualen was likely better known to audiences by sight than by name.         

 

Main Cast:

Henry Fonda as Meredith

Joanne Woodward as Mary

Jason Robards as Henry Drummond

Kevin McCarthy as Otto Habershaw

Charles Bickford as Benson Tropp

Burgess Meredith as Doc

Robert Middleton as Dennis Wilcox

Paul Ford as C.P. Ballinger 

John Qualen as Jesse Buford

Gerald Michenaud (real given name Jean-Michel) as Jackie

While there is no date given for the setting of the movie, it seems to be the latter part of the 1800s, as there is one scene where the doctor is listening to music on what is some kind of early gramophone which were in use in that era. The film is also set "out West," but this isn't a typical "western," with cowboys, cattle drives, Indian wars, outlaws and such. The five wealthiest men in the territory gather in the back of a hotel barroom for an annual marathon poker game: Henry Drummond, Otto Habershaw, Benson Tropp, Dennis Wilcox and Jesse Buford. The whole town is excited about the game and the town folks struggle to get bits of news about how the game is going, as no one except the five players and the hotel owner are allowed in the room, and the hotel owner only goes in and out to bring in poker chips and drinks. After the game had been going on for awhile, into the hotel comes a man, a woman, and a young boy (Meredith, Mary and Jackie). While the hotel owner tells them his hotel isn't really for women and children, after a few words of coaxing, the owner rents them a room. They tell him there is a bad wheel on their wagon and they need to get it fixed before they can move on. As they start to go to their room, out of the poker room comes one of the players, Dennis Wilcox. He pays for $3000 in chips, as Meredith stares on, but Mary has a bit of apprehension on her face. Wilcox takes the chips and goes back to the poker room. Meredith asks the hotel owner what this is all about, and he learns that there is a big poker game in progress. Mary interrupts and gets Meredith headed to their room, with a few words exchanged between them (not harsh words, but it's still obvious Mary is not pleased). A little while later Otto Habershaw comes out into the barroom where he is quite taken with Mary when she goes to take the wagon to the blacksmith, leaving young Jackie with Meredith. After a little talk with Otto, Meredith learns that Otto is one of the poker players, so Meredith asks him if he can just watch the game. Some of the townspeople tell him no one is allowed to watch, but the super rich Otto tells everyone, "He can watch, if I say he can watch." Otto takes Meredith and Jackie into the poker room with him. When he tells the other players about his new friends, they object, but Otto gets firm and Meredith and Jackie remain as the game takes up again. Meredith explains that they are on their way to San Antonio for a small farm of 40 acres, and the size of the farm makes the rich poker players laugh, as they each own many times that.

 

Meredith is almost drooling as he watches the game, and finally he asks if he can play. He's told he must have the price to play; that is, $1000. Jackie protests to Meredith, but Meredith takes off and goes upstairs to get the money. (Note: Remember, this is the second half of the 1800s and $1000 was QUITE a sum of money.) He comes back downstairs, and Otto orders the hotel owner to give Meredith chips for the $1000. Meredith goes back into the poker room and learns that the rules of the game say that if he doesn't have enough money to stay in the game during a betting sequence, he must leave his money on the table and exit the game; thus, he will lose all of his money. The game resumes, but now with Meredith as a player, Jackie watching, and Mary at the blacksmith's. Meredith's chips dwindle as the game goes on, and he says the cards have got to soon break his way. With the next hand, Meredith shows indications that he's happy, and he stands pat with his hand, but his problem is, he's low on chips and the ruthless men at the table see it, so Drummond ups the ante past the amount Meredith has in front of him in an attempt to drive him out of the game. Meredith hands his cards to Jackie and tells him not to let anybody see them and Meredith rushes back upstairs and takes all of the money left in the traveling bag, $3000. The money is for the farm he had told the others he will be starting near San Antonio. He gets the chips and the game takes ups again, with Drummond telling him he essentially will try to force Meredith from the game, causing him to lose everything. All the players act as if they have good hands to play, and the pot increases substantially, but the players seem to believe Meredith must have a pretty good hand. 

 

Mary returns from the blacksmith's and when she enters the barroom, no one will tell her what has been going on. The owner lets her into her room, where she sees the empty travel bag. The owner then tells her Meredith is in the backroom playing poker. Mary begins to cry. In the backroom, Meredith needs over $400 more to stay in the game. He gets $100 for his gold watch, but the more than $300 still needed seems beyond him. Mary comes into the room, much to the anger of Benson Tropp, the undertaker for the area. He earlier made it clear that he hates women. Otto shuts up Tropp and Meredith begs Mary to understand that he has a great hand that could earn them a huge amount of money. Meredith offers to sell his wagon and team of horses for $500. He claims these are actually worth $700, but he finds that these wealthy men have no need of a team and wagon, as they already own horses and wagons. (Note: A hard and brutal law of business is, what do you need to sell something? Most people guess "a price," but nope, that's not it, although it will tie in. The anwer is, "a buyer," or preferably, "buyers." To Meredith the horses and wagon cost $700, but since these men aren't interested in buying the horses and wagon, the value is "zero, zilch, nuthin'.") Meredith is tense and he suddenly grabs his chest and collapses. They send someone to get the doctor, who had made a rather brief appearance in the barroom earlier. Meanwhile, Mary sends Jackie to their room to get a bottle of pills they have with them. He returns and they give Meredith one of the pills. The doctor arrives and he has Meredith moved into the kitchen. Henry Drummond yells into the doctor to ask if Meredith will be able to continue the game. Mary is shocked to hear such a question as Meredith is possibly dying. Otto speaks out against Drummond asking such a question, but Drummond argues there is nothing any of them can do to save Meredith and that he (Drummond) had interrupted his daughter's wedding to leave and take part in this poker game as he had promised. Otto, who is an attorney, answers back that to play in the game, he left his client in court, and that his client could have been hanged by now. 

 

The doctor comes out of the kitchen for Mary. As Meredith clutches his cards to his chest, he struggles to tell Mary she'll have to play his hand in the game. Mary is stunned, but she and Jackie go out to the poker table where she asks the five other players, "How do you play this game?" The men are shocked that the inexperienced Mary will replace Meredith in the card game. The doctor calls Mary into the kitchen again and tells her he's having Meredith moved out of the hotel and into his home, where has some medical equipment that will help him to better take care of Meredith. Mary returns to the poker table and asks the men to explain to her how to play the game. Most of the men complain, but Otto Habershaw offers to calm everyone down with his explanation of the game's current situation, essentially telling Mary that each of the five men thinks he has better cards than the other men and that each has bet $3500 to remain in the game. He explains further that Meredith only bet $3000 and that he needed $500 to remain in the game or he had to drop out and lose everything, but that Meredith then took sick. Mary understands, but Henry tells her that she will need more than $500, because the pot is going to grow, with Henry essentially indicating that he intends to up his bet, and that this could drive her out of the game. After some squabbling among the men and another refusal to lend her any money on the team and wagon, Mary asks if there is a bank in town. The bank is across the street, so Mary prepares to go there, initially with (a lustful) Otto accompanying her to insure that she does not tamper with her cards in any way. Otto tells her that she has to think about the four men she's leaving behind, and that they could tamper with their cards; so, four of the five men march across the street to the bank behind Mary. (Note: This bothers me, because one man is left at the poker table.) At the bank, Mary eventually gets in to see the owner of the bank, C.P. Ballinger, a cantankerous conservative lender known for his toughness before approving loans. Mary explains the basic situation and asks to borrow money using her hand in the card game as collateral. Ballinger thinks it's all a joke, although Otto tries to assure him it is not. Ballinger snarls and turns down Mary's request. The group returns to the poker table and some of them begin to laugh about all of the goings on. Only Otto and Benson Tropp, the undertaker, seem to think about how Mary, Meredith and Jackie are about to lose their life savings, along with their new life in San Antonio. 

 

Suddenly, in walks C.P. Ballinger. He says he came to see for himself if this is all a big joke, especially because several of the men are laughing so much. Otto again assures him this is no joke. Ballinger goes over how he once had a man who wanted to borrow $2 on a cow he had that gave 6 quarts of milk a day. In order to prove the collateral was good, Ballinger had the man move the cow into Ballinger's backyard, where he watched the man milk the cow for a week. The cow actually gave a little more than 6 quarts of milk a day, so he made the loan to the man. So after this speech about making loans on good conservative principles, Ballinger declares he's never been offered better collateral than Mary's cards. C.P., as the men call him, sits down at the table and buys $5500 dollars in chips. He puts in the $500 to keep Mary in the game, then he raises by $5000. Now the tables are turned, and it is the five men who must each put up $5000, or lose their bets. The now nervous men all look at their cards, and one by one they throw their cards down and drop out. 

 

That's as far as I'll take this, as it would be grossly unfair to ruin things for those who have never seen this movie; so, please watch this film, you won't be sorry. The performances are great all around.          

 

 Photo is of the Warner Brothers 2013 DVD 

WORD HISTORY:

Milt-This word is closely related to "smelt" (to melt metal), "malt" and "mild" (all from the Germanic roots of English). It goes back to Indo European "meld," with the meaning, "to soften, to make soft." This gave Old Germanic "miltjo," which meant "spleen" (perhaps because of its softness, but more likely because they believed it softened food products in the body. Don't laugh, because the spleen was long thought to be the center of anger; thus the expression, 'vent one's spleen'). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "milte," with the same meaning. The ending 'e,' pronounced "eh/ah," was gradually dropped. The late 1400s and early 1500s saw the meaning become "reproductive fluid from male fish." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "Milz," Low German "Milt," Dutch "milt," West Frisian "milt," Danish "milt"^ Icelandic "milta," Norwegian "milt," Swedish "mjälte."

 

^ The general forerunner of the North Germanic languages, Old Norse, seems to have had a few forms of the word: "milti," "milta," "mjalti."   

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge

This 1951 film was a British produced version of Charles Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol," which was also the name used for the film's release in the United States, while the title for release in the UK was "Scrooge." If Americans remember the name Alastair Sim, it is likely because of this movie, which, from what I can tell, has received the most accolades of the "Scrooge" films, and it IS a good one. Americans might also recognize some other performers, like Michael Hordern, who was in quite a number of movies like, "Gandhi," "Where Eagles Dare," "El Cid," and "Khartoum;" and Francis de Wolff, who appeared in films like, "Ivanhoe," "From Russia With Love," "Walt Disney's Treasure Island" and "Moby Dick;" while Hermione Baddeley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Room at the Top," and she also appeared in "Mary Poppins," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," and she was the maid, Mrs. Naugatuck, in the CBS television series "Maude," and she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for that role (she had replaced Esther Rolle, who had been the maid, but who joined the cast of the new show "Good Times" in 1974); and Patrick Macnee was on the ABC television show "The Avengers" in the U.S. in the 1960s (the first couple of seasons originally aired in Britain, not in the U.S.).

 

A very sad note about one of the cast members, John Charlesworth committed suicide at the age of 24, nine years after the release of this film. Please folks, if you or someone you know suffers with depression, seek help, preferably professional help, but even talking with family or friends can help. Don't wait and hope things will get better on their own. Don't worry about what someone might say about you, or what they might think about the situation. Be an activist!  

 

Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is undoubtedly one of the best known Christmas stories of all time. Unfortunately, but realistically, the story never goes out of style, although it was set in the England of the early 1840s, and it is a story that deserves more than just a traditional telling to celebrate the Christmas season, but rather it is important to really think about and understand the story, as it is more than a story about a mean old moneygrubbing man. It is a story about redemption and renewal. As we get older, we often can become bitter about the things we did, or perhaps about the things we wish we had done, but didn't do (notice I didn't say EVERYONE). We can grow more than a little skeptical, letting ourselves become so negative that we become a pain in the neck (or lower) to those around us. Life takes a toll on us, and that toll is oft manifested by our bitterness and negativity as we get older. So think deeply about the story and how it relates to you, as each of us may well see the story somewhat differently. There are several film versions, although they are pretty much the same basic story, and back in the early 1960s, there was even a cartoon version featuring Mr. Magoo as Scrooge (Jim Backus was the voice of Mr. Magoo).      

 

 

Main Cast:

 

Alastair Sim (Scottish actor) as Ebenezer Scrooge

Kathleen Harrison (English actress) as Mrs. Dilber, the housekeeper

Mervyn Johns (Welsh actor) as Bob Cratchit 

Hermione Baddeley (English actress) as Mrs. Cratchit 

Michael Hordern (English actor) as Jacob Marley 

George Cole (English actor) as younger Ebenezer Scrooge

Glyn Dearman (English actor) as Tiny Tim

John Charlesworth (English actor) as Peter Cratchit

Francis De Wolff (English actor) as the Ghost of Christmas Present

Michael Dolan (Irish actor) as Ghost of Christmas Past

Czeslaw Konarski (Polish actor) as Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

Patrick Macnee (English actor, of Scottish descent on his paternal side), as young Jacob Marley

The movie opens with the narrator telling us that "Old Marley is dead as a doornail," and that we need to understand this fact to understand the coming story. Ebenezer Scrooge appears and briefly talks with a couple of businessmen, telling them he doesn't celebrate Christmas, as Christmas keeps men from doing business. When Mr. Scrooge goes outside, he berates a debtor over the money the man owes him. In all of about one minute, we find out that Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean and angry man, and this is reinforced within about another 60 seconds, as Mr. Scrooge chases away three young carolers singing outside of his business. When one approaches him seeking a bit of change, Scrooge pushes her aside. Inside, Mr. Scrooge meets briefly with two businessmen who have come to ask for a contribution to help provide food and shelter for the poor, but Scrooge crudely points out that he supports things like prisons and work houses for the poor, but when the men protest that most of the poor would rather die than go to such places, Scrooge tells them that the poor should go on and die then, "and decrease the surplus population." He goes on to say that such things about the poor and their fate are not his business, and he sends the men on their way. In comes Scrooge's nephew to wish his uncle a merry Christmas, which goes over about as well as the men asking for a donation to help the poor. Mr. Scrooge tells his nephew that the young man married against his wishes, because his nephew's wife was penniless. Though his uncle is so unpleasant and so hostile towards Christmas, his nephew wishes him a good Christmas anyway and leaves. During the first few minutes of the film, we have heard Scrooge utter the word "humbug" more than once; and indeed, I would have to say that while the origin of the word is not known, it almost certainly is still with us because of this popular Dickens' Christmas tale. The word appears in the mid 1700s, but that doesn't mean it wasn't around earlier, perhaps in a somewhat different form. It's basic meaning is "a hoax, a fraud, a deception;" thus also, "nonsense."  

 

We next see a crippled boy with a crutch looking at and enjoying the display of various mechanical dolls and toys as his mother buys the family Christmas goose. This is Mrs. Cratchit and the boy is her son, Tim. As they begin their walk home, Mrs. Cratchit lets us know she's not the least bit fond of her husband's boss, Ebenezer Scrooge. At Scrooge's business, Scrooge prepares to leave and he tells Bob Cratchit how unfair the Christmas holiday is to himself and to other business people (he says it's workers getting to pick the pockets of their employers). While Scrooge grudgingly grants Cratchit Christmas Day off, the nasty old man tells his employee he expects him in early the day after that. When the brooding Mr. Scrooge gets to his house, the face of his deceased former partner appears on the entrance door, but Scrooge scoffs and goes into his house, locking the door well from the inside with upper and lower locks, beside the door's main lock. He goes up to his room and he locks the door there the same way. As he prepares to eat a bit of hot soup, Scrooge hears a voice call his name, then he hears various noises, mainly the sounds of small bells. The well locked door to his room flies open and in comes the image of a man who says he's Jacob Marley, and he lugs along a large chain with a lock. Scrooge tries to act brave, but when the image screams in a tortured agony, and asks if Scrooge believes in him, Scrooge cringes and mutters that he does believe in him. Scrooge asks why Marley is chained and why he walks the earth. Marley answers that he didn't walk among his fellow men in life and now he must do so incessantly in death and that he made the chain that he must bear by his actions in life. When Scrooge defends Marley as having simply been a good man of business, Marley yells out that mankind and the common welfare should have been his business. He warns Scrooge that he needs to change his ways, or he will share the same fate in death. Marley lets Scrooge know that he will be visited by three spirits and that only by their help can Scrooge hope to escape Marley's fate. Marley has Scrooge look out the window where there is a homeless woman clutching a child to her in the cold of Christmas Eve. (Comment: Remember, Scrooge told the men who sought a contribution to help the poor, that the fate of the poor was not his business.) 

 

Scrooge hops into bed and draws the drapes around the bed, as if drapes can protect him from ghosts. As Marley's ghost had told him, at 1 o'clock, a bell clangs and the first ghost appears to Scrooge and introduces himself as "the Ghost of Christmas Past," Ebenezer Scrooge's past. The ghost takes Scrooge back to Scrooge's school days. We learn that Ebenezer's mother died when giving birth to him and that Scrooge's father then foolishly blamed his son for his wife's death, never having anything to do with his son, and never giving the boy the love he needed. We see Scrooge's sister come and visit Ebenezer when he was a young man, and she tells Ebenezer that their father sent her to bring Ebenezer home, that he is a changed man regarding his son, even though he has never known his son. The ghost then takes Scrooge to his former place of apprenticeship, where the owner and his employees are having a merry time with music and dancing, and Scrooge can't help but to find himself enchanted by the fun, as he recalls his time there many years before. He asks the ghost if there ever was a kinder man than the owner. The ghost then reminds Scrooge that the party cost the owner a small sum of money, and Ebenezer quickly replies that the amount of enjoyment it gave to the employees made it seem to have cost a fortune. With this, Scrooge realizes what he's just said, that maybe money isn't everything, after all. The ghost then shows Ebenezer when he was in love with a woman named Alice, to whom he gave a ring. She is fearful to accept the ring, as she has no money or wealth whatsoever, but the Ebenezer of those days said that didn't matter. Next, the ghost takes Scrooge to when he was working for the owner mentioned above. The man is offered a large sum for his business in the name of "progress" by a big businessman, but the owner turns down the offer, telling the big businessman that there's more to life than money. When the owner goes to tend to some matter, the businessman talks with Ebenezer about him being able to get more money and advancement working in a new company, but Ebenezer tells the businessman he understands his employer's feelings, but the businessman still offers to meet with Ebenezer sometime. The ghost then takes Scrooge to the bedside of Scrooge's dying sister. Like their mother, the woman is dying after giving birth to a boy, the grown nephew we met earlier in the story. Scrooge leaves his sister's room before she is able to get Ebenezer to promise to take care of her newborn son, and she then passes away. The Scrooge who is with the ghost is now sorry. And the scene shifts to Scrooge working for the big businessman, having left his old employer. There he meets Jacob Marley, who works for the businessman too, and the two men find they have many similar beliefs, first and foremost, that the world is changing and that the changes will bring hardship to many, and that "one must steel oneself to survive it and not be crushed under with the weak and the infirm." (Comment: Dickens' story was set in the early 1840s, but since the ghost has taken Scrooge into the past when he was a young man, this part of the story would have been in the earlier 1800s.) We then see that Scrooge's former employer is going out of business, and when Scrooge comes to the building as it is being taken over, a young employee asks if he will still have a job, and Scrooge asks if he'll take a pay cut, which the young man accepts, then thanking Scrooge for helping him retain his job. When Scrooge looks over, he sees his former employer, but he can't bring himself to go to him; instead, he chooses to walk away. The ghost takes Scrooge back to Alice, who has released Ebenezer from his promise of marriage as she watched him change, and she tells him, "Another idol has replaced me in your heart, a golden idol." Scrooge answers by asking if it can be wrong to want to better yourself. Alice and Scrooge discuss his changes in attitude toward the world, and she reminds him that when he first courted her, they were both poor, but they were content in their lives, but that now he judges everything by gain, and she is still poor and brings nothing to his rising wealth. He leaves her. Scrooge tells the ghost he doesn't want to see and hear more, but the ghost says that he hasn't created this life story, as it the life story of Scrooge himself, and it is he who is responsible for these things. He takes Scrooge to the time of his joining with Marley in partnership when the big businessman has stolen money from the company, and Scrooge and Marley make good on the stolen money, but they then acquire a controlling interest in the company as partners. (Comment: Scrooge and Marley are such greedy and ruthless men, even the crooked big businessman warns the company directors about them!) Years pass and as Marley lies dying, a message is sent to Scrooge to come and see Marley before he dies, but Scrooge won't leave the business during business hours, which end at 7 o'clock. At that time Scrooge goes to see Marley, who is barely alive. When Scrooge gets to Marley's, a man is sitting outside Marley's room, and Scrooge asks the housekeeper if he is the doctor. She answers, "The undertaker," and the man tells Scrooge he is there before Marley dies, because it's a very competitive business. (Comment: Damn!) Marley tells Scrooge they were wrong, but Scrooge asks "Wrong about what?" Marley then warns Scrooge to "Save yourself," but Scrooge asks "Save myself from what?" But Marley has died. (Comment: At least the undertaker's happy.) Scrooge tries to stop the ghost from showing him more of his life, but the ghost tells him there is one more thing, and that is about Marley's funeral, and how Scrooge ruthlessly took Marley's money, house and furniture. Scrooge is now back in his bed and a bell clangs again, as a second ghost comes calling.

 

This is the Ghost of Christmas Present and he has Scrooge touch his robe to receive the magic power to be transported with the ghost to the places of the ghost's choosing. First they go to where a group of coal miners and their families are celebrating Christmas, and the group is having a warm celebration, although the miners work very hard in rough conditions, but still they celebrate. Next they go to the household of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's employee. The Crachit family can be seen enjoying Christmas Day after Bob Crachit carries in his crippled son, Tiny Tim. Scrooge asks the ghost if Tiny Tim will live, and the ghost answers that there is a shadow of an empty seat and an unused crutch that suggests that Tim will no longer be alive, unless events can alter this situation. He uses Scrooge's own words against him when he says the boy could "die to decrease the surplus population." As the family has their dinner and punch, Bob Cratchit offers up a toast to Mr. Scrooge, but the complaints rise about the nasty, miserly Scrooge from every corner, including Bob's wife. Bob objects to the complaints, especially on Christmas, so everyone settles down and drinks to Scrooge's health, in spite of their inner feelings. The next stop for the ghost and Scrooge is at Scrooge's nephew's home, where there is more great celebration of the Christmas holiday, as well as a toast from his nephew, but as happened in the Cratchit home, complaints rise at the very mention of Scrooge's name. His nephew stands by his uncle, saying that he feels sorry for him, and that his uncle's behavior hurts himself and leaves him alone in life. Off the two go to see Scrooge's former fiancée, Alice, who is tending to elderly, sick and poor people. Alice's kindness cheers these people and one old soul tells her that it's the best Christmas she's ever had. The ghost reminds Scrooge that he cut himself off from his fellow human beings when he lost Alice's love. The ghost takes Scrooge back outside and asks if Scrooge has learned any lessons yet, but Scrooge is unsure. The ghost opens his robe to show two young children, one boy and one girl, both with rags for clothes. Scrooge asks if the children belong to the ghost, but he answers, "They are man's. The boy is 'ignorance' and the girl is 'want.' " The ghost tells Scrooge to beware of both of the children, but especially the boy. When Scrooge asks, "Have they no refuge? No resource?" The ghost again uses Scrooge's own words as an answer, "Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses?" And as Scrooge covers his ears to block out his own words, the ghost repeats the words again and again, much to Scrooge's discomfort. As Scrooge tries to run away, an upraised hands stops him, and a bell clangs again. Scrooge realizes this is the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, and Scrooge tells the ghost he fears this ghost more than any other, but that he is too old to change his ways, although he feels sorrow for the things he has done in life. 

 

The ghost takes Scrooge to the Cratchit home again, but there is no joy or celebration this time. In the corner is the empty seat and the unused crutch mentioned by the previous ghost. The family mourns the loss of Tiny Tim. The ghost takes Scrooge to a group of cleaning women who are selling the belongings of a now deceased man, a man about whom they offer no kind words. Next we hear a conversation between two businessmen about the funeral of a man yet unnamed, and one of the men says he'll attend the funeral, but only if there's free food. The ghost takes Scrooge to the graveyard, where Scrooge asks if these are all things that must be, or whether these events can be altered by changes in a person's deeds. The ghost points to a gravestone with the name "EBENEZER SCROOGE." Scrooge breaks down and begs the ghost for mercy, saying he will make good the wrongs he has done, and then repeatedly uttering, "I'm not the man I was." Scrooge is back in his bed and his housekeeper knocks at his door to bring him his breakfast. Scrooge asks her the day, and she tells him it's Christmas, and Scrooge is happy and skips about joyfully. At this behavior, the housekeeper asks Scrooge, "Are you quite yourself, sir?" Scrooge tells her, "I hope not," as he runs and skips about, wishing himself and the housekeeper a merry Christmas. The woman is absolutely terrified by Scrooge's actions, but Scrooge tries to reassure her that he's not gone mad. He gives her some money and he then raises her pay substantially. Scrooge runs and opens the window to better hear the sound of the ringing church bells. He yells to a boy passing by and arranges for him to bring the butcher to him with the promise of a great tip for the boy. Scrooge has the butcher send a huge turkey to Bob Crachit and his family, but only Tiny Tim seems to think the massive bird has been sent by Mr. Scrooge. Then Scrooge goes to his nephew's house, where the group gathered there is singing, only to stop at the sight of Scrooge, who asks if it's too late to accept his nephew's invitation to dinner. His nephew welcomes him, and Scrooge asks his nephew's wife, "Can you forgive a pigheaded old fool for having no eyes to see with, and no ears to hear with all of these years?" The piano player plays an upbeat song and Scrooge dances with his nephew's wife, as the others join in. The next day, Scrooge sits in his office acting busy as Bob Cratchit comes into work a bit late. Scrooge acts as if he's about to fire Cratchit, but instead, he gives Cratchit a raise, as he laughs and laughs. The look on Cratchit's face leaves no doubt that he thinks Scrooge has lost his mind, but Scrooge assures him otherwise, and he tells Cratchit that he wants to help him raise his family. Scrooge can't keep from smiling, he's so happy. The narrator tells us that Ebenezer outdid himself and became one of the best men the city ever knew, and that he became a second father to Tiny Tim, who lived and got better.                          

 

 

 Photo is of the 2014 VCI Video colorized DVD version           

 WORD HISTORY:

Crutch-This word is related to "crook/crooked," "crouch" and "creep," all words from Germanic, and "likely" all are original English words, with some caveats for "crook" and "crouch" "perhaps" being from, but maybe just reinforced by, Old Norse, another Germanic language), and it is also related to "crochet," a word borrowed by English from French, which had borrowed it from Germanic (likely from Frankish, but here too Old Norse "could" have been involved). "Crutch" goes back to Indo European "ger/grewg," which had the notion, "to bend, to turn, to twist." This gave Old Germanic "krukjon," meaning, "crooked staff," which then became "krukjo" in West Germanic, meaning, "staff with a crooked handle or arm support." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crycce," with the same basic meaning. This then became "crucce," before the modern form. Other Germanic languages have: German "Krücke," Low German Saxon "Krück," Dutch (and Frisian?) "kruk." The North Germanic languages borrowed forms from Low German: Danish and Norwegian "krykke" and Swedish "krycka." Icelandic does not have a form, as apparently, it (Icelandic) was already established out in the North Atlantic when these other borrowings (into North Germanic languages) took place.