#claudine west

[claudsville]

Chakra Meditations Album Release

Chakra Meditations by Earth Tree Healing is now available on digital stores to stream and purchase. A musical tool with frequencies to relax, balance, meditate and do chakra work to. Music Links https://linktr.ee/earthtreehealing Muladhara (Root Chakra) Svadhishthana (Sacral Chakra) Manipura (Solar Plexus Chakra) Anahata (Heart Chakra) Vishuddha (Throat Chakra) Ajna (Third Eye…

[thebestestwinner]

Top two vote-getters will move on to the next round. See pinned post for all groups!

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Claudine Auger (Thunderball)— Thunderball is the first James Bond movie I ever remember watching and actually paying attention to, and it's all because of Claudine Auger as Domino in all her sexy black and white swimwear, AND [spoilers below the cut—]

Rita Moreno (Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story)—She’s an EGOT, an absolute legend for how she navigated her career as a woman of color in the fifties and sixties. Her performance as Anita in West Side Story is why I go back to that movie so many times. She is an icon and she is the moment.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Claudine Auger:

—the fact that she got to kill the villain.

Rita Moreno propaganda:

"Amazing showstopping actress in her one big memorable role as Anita in West Side Story. She sings and dances with unmatched joy and energy, and then breaks your heart with her acting. Rita took a role that felt as a stereotype to latina women and made it compelling and multifaceted. Her subsequent career was filled with mostly side roles, but she still managed to excel in whatever Hollywood threw at her."

"It’s Rita!! The EGOT herself! She can act, she can sing, she can dance, a triple threat. Obviously absolutely iconic as Anita in West Side Story (her part of the Tonight Quintet is the sexiest part of the film, fight me). But before that she was the amazing Zelda in Singin’ In the Rain!?! Thanks Zelda, you’re a real pal."

"She continues to be amazing but also she's got legs for days."

"THEE iconic rita moreno, EGOT winner, civil rights activist, theatre legend. watch her documentary "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It". also her rendition of "fever" on the muppet show"

[eretzyisrael]

by Matt Lebovic

“[Harvard] contributed to Nazi Germany’s efforts to improve its image in the West,” wrote historian Stephen Norwood in his book, “The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses.”

“Harvard’s administration and many of its student leaders offered important encouragement to the Hitler regime, as it intensified its persecution of Jews and expanded its military strength,” Norwood wrote.

Conant “was not just silent” about antisemitism, said Norwood, but “actively collaborated in it.”

In May 1934, Conant was publicly mute during the visit of the Nazi warship Karlsruhe to Boston, some of whose crew members were entertained at Harvard.

The next year, Conant permitted Nazi Germany’s top diplomat in Boston to place a wreath bearing the swastika in a Harvard chapel, according to Norwood.

Throughout the 1930s, Harvard tried to keep out Jewish refugees — and especially Jewish professors — as demonstrated in research on European scholars who attempted to flee Hitler.

Conant did not speak out against Nazism until after the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. Three years had passed since the Nuremberg race laws stripped German Jews of citizenship.

[lee-a-p]

so last week, there was a chemical attack on pro-palestine protestors at columbia university. the perpetrators, who tried to blend in with the crowd by wearing kufiyas, are former members of the IDF. they likely sprayed Skunk, a chemical used against Palestinians in the West Bank, on the protestors. by the most recent count, nine protestors have been hospitalized, many of them with severe symptoms like intense nausea, irregular heart rhythms, shortness of breath, etc. columbia has yet to reach out to any of these students.

the university claims it has banned the perpetrators from campus, but students have reported seeing one of the attackers on campus this week. the school also initially BLAMED the protestors for holding an “unauthorized event.” notably, they suspended the campus chapters of JVP and SJP in November after a unilateral policy change by the university leaders (and without the typical input of the student senate and other faculty groups). they then used this policy change to suspend JVP and SJP for a walkout. it's abundantly clear that columbia doesn't care about student safety. they care about protecting their image, which means punishing students who voice dissent regarding the university's involvement with Israel (through investments, partnering with a university in Tel Aviv, and making membership in the IDF something that bolsters applications).

let’s be honest. if this were the other way around, if pro-palestine actors (with a military background!) chemically attacked a pro-israel student protest, it would be front page news. god knows claudine gay’s dissertation was enough for the new york times to obsess over. but when it’s pro-palestine protestors facing violence? barely any coverage. and when there is coverage, it’s buried within everything else, with no effort by publications to publicize these stories (via placement on front page or on their social media).

these institutions will never exist to protect marginalized students, no matter how much they claim otherwise. they will tout their diverse population and their programs studying colonization, and then they will turn around and punish students for protesting genocide. they only care about us insofar as doing so protects their reputation and bottom line. they don't keep us safe—we keep us safe.

[vintagestagehotties]

Hot Vintage Stage Actress Round 1

Dame Gillian Lynne: Claudine in Can-Can (1954 West End); Wanda in Rose-Marie (1960 West End); Queen of Catland in Puss in Boots (1962 Coventry)

Carol Channing: Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949 Broadway); Flora Weems in The Vamp (1956 Broadway); Lynn in Show Girl (1961 Broadway); Mrs Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly! (1964 Broadway)

Propaganda under the cut

Gillian Lynne:

The Gillian Lynne Theatre is the first West End theatre to be named after a non-royal woman

Carol Channing:

god she’s such a theater legend

this picture exploded my brain. she got. leggy

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Over the weekend, one Jewish Democratic congressman joined with Elise Stefanik, the number-three Republican in the House of Representatives, to demand accountability for antisemitism.

Another took to cable TV to say she had no credibility on the issue.

The gap between the two Jewish Democrats — Florida’s Jared Moskowitz and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin — illustrates a broader dilemma for liberal Jews. Moskowitz joined with Stefanik to demand that three elite universities fire their leaders for failing to protect Jews on campus, while Raskin told MSNBC that Stefanik is a leading enabler of antisemitism because she has echoed a conspiracy theory that has fueled antisemitic violence.

The split on Stefanik stems from a congressional hearing last week in which she asked the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania if “calling for the genocide of Jews” is against the universities’ codes of conduct. All three, weighing campus conduct codes against free speech imperatives, said the answer depended on the context. In the ensuing outrage, Penn President Liz Magill stepped down and pressure built on Harvard’s Claudine Gay to do the same.

For some, Stefanik emerged from the meeting as an unexpected champion of the fight against antisemitism. Moskowitz said in a Fox News interview that Stefanik “did a great job” questioning the university presidents and signed a letter demanding their resignations. 

In the past, however, the upstate New York Republican has drawn condemnation for comments echoing the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” which in its original form claims that Jews are orchestrating the mass immigration of people of color into Western nations in order to replace their white populations. In 2021, Stefanik’s campaign posted on social media that Democrats plan to “overthrow our current electorate” by allowing undocumented immigrants to enter the country.

That statement by Stefanik has placed some Jews in an ambivalent spot: surprised to find themselves cheering her on.

“I felt very strange, kind of like rooting her on when she was asking her questions,” recalled Jewish philanthropist Lisa Greer. “I just thought ‘this is really amazing.’ And then I kept thinking, well, it looks like Elise Stefanik, but is that really her? I couldn’t believe it was the same person.”

Betsy Sheerr, a Democratic donor and a philanthropist who has given to multiple Jewish and pro-Israel causes, said she appreciated Stefanik for getting results.

“I think that she said what a lot of us were thinking when we listened to the testimony, to be honest, and as harsh as she was — she was really grilling them — I think a lot of us watched that and said you know, that’s absolutely right, this is unacceptable, this is ridiculous, this is cowardice,” Sheerr said from Israel, where she was on a solidarity tour. “So you know in that way I would have to begrudgingly admit that she shone a light and there were results that might not have happened without the directness of her grilling people.”

Raskin, speaking Sunday on MSNBC, said that Stefanik’s enabling of antisemitism in her party disqualified her from any role in combating antisemitism on campus.

“Where does Elise Stefanik get off lecturing anybody about antisemitism, when she’s the hugest supporter of Donald Trump, who traffics in antisemitism all the time?” Raskin said, according to an account in The Hill. He added that she “didn’t utter a peep of protest” when Trump dined a year ago with Kanye West, the rapper who embraced antisemitism, and Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier.

Stefanik responded on X that Trump was “the best friend Jewish people have had in the White House in modern times.” She listed a number of Trump’s Israel policies, such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, as well as his 2019 executive order on antisemitism.

Stefanik’s past actions did not deter the country’s leading antisemitism watchdog from sharing video of the congressional hearing. In 2022, after a mass shooting in Buffalo inspired by the “great replacement” theory, the Anti-Defamation League criticized Stefanik as on of its propagators, saying her campaign’s posts “strategically play on extremist rhetoric to stoke growing fears that white Americans are under attack and minorities seek to eject them.”

Yet its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, posted a video the day of the hearing that starred Stefanik. “These leaders’ lack of moral clarity in response to this line of questioning is shameful,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

Greenblatt and Stefanik did not return requests for comment.

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said Stefanik could not disentangle antisemitism from the left, which Stefanik repudiates, from antisemitism on the right, which Stefanik ignores.

“It’s important to understand how deeply connected all of this antisemitism is, they are all rooted in conspiracy theories around Jewish control and power,” said Spitalnick, who played a leading role in successfully suing the neo-Nazi organizers of the deadly Charlottesville march, who chanted “Jews will not replace us.” 

“By normalizing great replacement and related extremism, there’s this horseshoe effect where it inadvertently or intentionally fuels the idea that Jews have outsized power and control,” Spitalnick said. “And it all comes back in a way that is deeply dangerous not just for the Jewish community, but for everyone.”

What bothers Sheerr was her gut instinct that Stefanik would not walk back her own incendiary comments from 2021, or more robustly confront antisemitism in her own party. She noted that Stefanik started out as a moderate, and is now a loyalist of Trump — who also has peddled versions of the “great replacement” theory.

“She has really turned into one of the propagators of some of the vilest antisemitism,” Sheerr said. “She doesn’t call out anybody in her party, or anything, whether it’s for [peddling the] dual loyalty trope, or any of the other tropes, so I think she has done a service in a way but she’s a very dangerous member of Congress.”

Greer also wondered whether Stefanik would budge on her earlier views. “The best thing I can say about this is I wish in a perfect world she would have changed, she would say ‘I don’t believe that,’ and she would use that voice for good. That would be a wonderful thing,” she said. “But I have no sense that that’s going to happen.”

Others are more optimistic. Esther Panitch, a Democratic representative in the Georgia state legislature who has been outspoken in confronting anti-Israel sentiment in her own party, said she hoped that part of what spurred Stefanik to take the lead in confronting the university presidents was the lessons she learned from her flirtation with the great replacement theory.

“It seems she’s educated herself since the comments last year,” Panitch said in an interview. “I’m hopeful that’s what happened, and that she wasn’t trying to score a few points. I’m appreciative of what she did.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy Manning, a Jewish North Carolina Democrat, accused Stefanik of acting in bad faith after she appeared to have copied sections of a letter written by Manning that criticized the college presidents. Manning posted two letters on Twitter, hers and the one Stefanik and Moskowitz authored.  The first three paragraphs were identical and Manning said Stefanik had plagiarized her. “Rep. Stefanik is trying to get a sound bite and media hits,” she said.

Stefanik replied on X, formerly Twitter, that she made changes to the letter and then circulated it to Republican members. She accused Manning of “trying to do a hit piece to help panicked Democrats who are clearly on the wrong side of history protecting these university presidents.”

[vintagelasvegas]

Holiday Casino, 1982

(1) The west-facing casino entrance, with the marquee of the new showroom visible on the far left. (2-3) The south-facing casino entrance. Parking signs for Holiday Casino president and general manager Claudine Williams, and partner Avis Jansen. (4) View from across the Blvd.

Photos 1 & 3: November 1982, by Bertrand Laforêt. 4: Undated slide scan by Vintage Las Vegas.

[byneddiedingo]

Robert Morley and Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938)

Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley, Anita Louise, Joseph Schildkraut, Gladys George, Henry Stephenson. Screenplay: Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart, Ernest Vajda. Cinematography: William H. Daniels. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons, Henry Grace. Film editing: Robert Kern. Costume design: Adrian, Gile Steele. Music: Herbert Stothart.

Hollywood historical hokum, W.S. Van Dyke's Marie Antoinette was a vehicle for Norma Shearer that had been planned for her by her husband, Irving G. Thalberg, who died in 1936. MGM stuck with it because as Thalberg's heir, Shearer had control of a large chunk of stock. It also gave her a part that ran the gamut from the fresh and bubbly teenage Austrian archduchess thrilled at the arranged marriage to the future Louis XVI, to the drab, worn figure riding in a tumbril to the guillotine. Considering that it takes place in one of the most interesting periods in history, it could have been a true epic if screenwriters Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart, and Ernest Vajda (with uncredited help from several other hands, including F. Scott Fitzgerald) hadn't been pressured to turn it into a love story between Marie and the Swedish Count Axel Fersen. But the portrayal of their affair was stifled by the Production Code's squeamishness about sex, and the long period in which Marie and Louis fail to consummate their marriage lurks unexplained in the background. MGM threw lots of money at the film: Shearer sashays around in Adrian gowns with panniers out to here, with wigs up to there, and on sets designed and decorated by Cedric Gibbons and Henry Grace that make the real Versailles look puny. The problem is that nothing like a genuine human emotion appears on the screen, and the perceived necessity of glamorizing the aristocrats turns the French Revolution on its head. The cast of thousands includes John Barrymore as Louis XV, Gladys George as Madame du Barry, and Joseph Schildkraut (made up with what looks like Jean Harlow's eyebrows and Joan Crawford's lipstick) as the foppish Duke of Orléans. The best performance in the movie comes from Morley, who took the role after the first choice, Charles Laughton, proved unavailable; Morley earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his film debut. With the exception of The Women (George Cukor, 1939), in which she is upstaged by her old rival Joan Crawford, this is Shearer's last film of consequence. When she turned 40 in 1942, she retired from the movies and lived in increasing seclusion until her death, 41 years later. It says something about Shearer's status in Hollywood that Greta Garbo, who retired at about the same time, and who also sought to be left alone, was the more legendary figure and was more ardently pursued by gossips and paparazzi.

[mightyflamethrower]

WORLD — Hamas is reeling after losing two of their most cherished leaders on the same day: military commander Saleh al-Arouri, and Harvard President Claudine Gay.

"This is a devastating loss for our organization and the world," said Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh while throwing a dart at a dartboard with a picture of a Jew on it. "Al-Arouri helped mastermind our glorious murder/rape party of October 7th, 2023. Claudine Gay presided over the preaching of our message Jew-hatred in America's Ivy League. This is an incalculable loss."

Ismail Haniyeh then went back to his game of darts while sitting in a jacuzzi and having his shoulders massaged by a high-priced escort from Dubai.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that al-Arouri was blown up by a rocket while innocently meeting with other innocent Hamas officials planning totally innocent and harmless military operations in the West Bank. Sources also verified that Claudine Gay was forced to step down. Both attacks are being blamed on the Jews.

At publishing time, Hamas had put two 'help wanted" ads in the New York Times to help them fill both positions.

[ncisladaily]

It’s been a half-century since DJ Kool Herc energized a West Bronx rec room and invented the most popular musical genre on the planet. Now the celebration is going primetime.

The Recording Academy said today that it will honor the legends of the game with A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip Hop, a concert special that will air in December on CBS and stream on Paramount+.

The two-hour program will showcase and celebrate the genre’s profound history and monumental cultural impact around the world. Among the first announced performers are Black Thought, Bun B, Common, De La Soul, Jermaine Dupri, J.J. Fad, Talib Kweli, The Lady Of Rage, LL Cool J, MC Sha-Rock, Monie Love, The Pharcyde, Queen Latifah, Questlove, Rakim, Remy Ma, Uncle Luke and Yo-Yo, with many more promised to be added.

The show will be taped November 8 at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, and CBS and Paramount+ will carry A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip Hop from 8:30-10:30 p.m. ET/8-10 p.m. PT on Sunday, December 10.

The special will be produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, with Jesse Collins, Shawn Gee and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Dionne Harmon, Claudine Joseph, LL Cool J, Fatima Robinson and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay serving as executive producers. Marcello Gamma will direct the show.

[claudsville]

Bandcamp - Mushroom Music Pre Release

Bandcampers!! You can listen to ‘Chantarelle’ now and pre order!! My Earth Tree Healing Music ‘Mushroom Music’ album will be released 26th March 2024 on digital stores #applemusic #itunes #spotify etc.(I’m aiming to compose a few more tracks before release – giving you 14!) Listen to ‘Chanterell’me’ and purchase here. https://earthtreehealing.bandcamp.com/album/mushroom-music I’ve found so…

[ebookporn]

Where to start with: Colette

James Hopkin looks at why, 150 years after her birth, the pioneering French writer still deserves our attention

by James Hopkin

Last month marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who assumed the mononym Colette after her second divorce. Married at 20, she was coerced by her first husband to write books under his name, as depicted in the 2018 biopic starring Keira Knightley and Dominic West. The Claudine series proved a sensation, rapturously relaying a young girl’s coming-of-age and her search for sexual freedom; the modern French teenager had arrived. Once separated, Colette immersed herself in “pleasures so lightly called physical”, and expressed them in her novellas with poetic intensity and a joyous savoir faire. Simone de Beauvoir called her “the only great woman writer in France”, but Colette also flourished as a dancer, screenwriter, librettist, journalist and the hands-on owner of a beauty chain. She loved women, married men three times, and, aged 40, gave birth to a daughter. She was awarded four ranks of the Légion d’honneur, became the first female president of the Académie Goncourt, and was the first woman to receive a state funeral in France upon her death in 1954. For those new to this astonishing author’s work, writer and Colette fan James Hopkin suggests some good places to start.

READ MORE

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

10 Characters, 10 Fandoms, 10 Tags

I was tagged by @hobbitmajora :)

Leia Organa- Star Wars

2. Erique Claudin- Phantom of the Opera (1943)

3. Vanessa Ives- Penny Dreadful

4. Malcolm Reynolds- Firefly

5. Robin of Loxley- The Adventures of Robin Hood

6. Lady Marian Fitzwalter- The Adventures of Robin Hood

7. Meg March- Little Women (not the 2019 film)

8. Toby Ziegler- The West Wing

9. Brienne of Tarth- Game of Thrones

10. Susy Hendrix- Wait Until Dark

It's late and I'm tired, so I can't think of 10 people to tag...so I tag anyone who wants to play!

[ljones41]

"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Review

"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Review

Between 1936 and 1942, author James Hilton enjoyed a prolific period of successful collaborations with the Hollywood studios. Some of those collaborations included writing screenplays for a handful of movies. However, three of those collaborations featured the screen adaptions of a handful of his best-selling novels. One of tho latter proved to be his 1941 novel, "Random Harvest".

Like some of Hilton's previous novels, "Random Harvest" proved to a very popular piece of work that became a major best-selling hit. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) purchased the film rights to novel and set an adaptation of it in motion. Mervyn LeRoy served as the movie's director and both Ronald Colman and Greer Garson were cast in the leads.

Unlike Hilton's novel, screenwriters Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel and Claudine West abandoned the flashback narrative device for "RANDOM HARVEST". Because the novel had kept the duel identities of "Paula Ridgeway"/Margaret Hanson a secret until the very end, the screenwriters had decided to take a different approach, realizing it would have been difficult to maintain such a secret in this particular film, especially since the characters' faces - especially the leading lady's - must be seen. So . . . instead of treating the November 1918 sequence as a flashback, the screenwriters began the movie at that very moment with a British Army officer named "John Smith" confined to an asylum as an unidentified inmate.

On the day the war ends, the asylum's gatekeepers abandon their posts to join the celebration in the nearby Midlands town of Melbridge, and Smith follows him into town. There, he meets a music hall named Paula Ridgeway (stage name). Following a violent encounter with the leader of Paula's traveling theatrical group, she leads Smith away from Melbridge and they end up at a small Devon village. There, the couple fall in love, get married and conceive a son. Two years after they first met, Smith heads to Liverpool for a job interview at a newspaper. After a taxi hits him, while he was crossing the street, Smith regains his memories of his true self - Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy Midlands businessman. Charles' return occurred on the day of his father's death and within a few years, assume control of the family's business. Unfortunately, Charles has lost his memories of his three years as "John Smith", including his relationship with Paula. The latter eventually discovers his whereabouts after a few years. When Paula - or Margaret Hanson - realizes that he does not remember her, she becomes his executive assistant in the hopes that her presence will jog his memories of those lost three years.

"RANDOM HARVEST" is not a perfect movie. What movie is? However, I can only think of one or two aspects about it that failed to impressed. It is quite clear that most of "RANDOM HARVEST" had been filmed inside a soundstage or on the MGM backlot. I have no general issues with this. In fact, I really admired Cedric Gibbons' art directions and Edwin B. Willis' set designs for the Melbridge street scenes. But there is one particular sequence - "Smith" and Paula's time in Devon - that looked particularly fake to me. I just did not find the Devon countryside featured in this movie convincing. But I really had a problem with the film's costume designs and hairstyles. "RANDOM HARVEST" was set during the years between 1918 and 1935. The movie had been shot and released in 1942. Robert Kalloch's costume designs did not reflect the movie's time period, as shown in the images below:

There was nothing about the dresses, suits, gowns, shoes and even the hairstyles that seemed to convey 1918-1919, the 1920s, or the early-to-mid 1930s.

But aside from these quibbles, I must be honest. I really enjoyed "RANDOM HARVEST". I have always enjoyed "RANDOM HARVEST". Between Mervyn LeRoy's direction and the screenplay written by Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis; MGM released a movie that I believe proved to be one of the best romantic films I have ever seen. But the film's romance was enhanced by World War I's consequences upon Charles Ranier/John Smith's life and memories. "RANDOM HARVEST" not only struck me as a romantic film, but also a melancholic and sometimes, heartbreaking movie. Also, for a movie with a running time of 125 minutes, "RANDOM HARVEST" managed to maintain a steady pace, thanks to Mervyn LeRoy's direction. I found this mind boggling, considering I have found the pacing of many old movies from the 1930s and 1940s to be rather slow . . . almost to the point of dragging the movies to a stop. Thankfully, "RANDOM HARVEST" managed to convey a poignant and melancholy romance without putting me to sleep.

Certain aspects in the film's narrative managed rise "RANDOM HARVEST" above the usual tearjerker. The emotional impact of World War I upon Charles resulted in the creation of the melancholic and sad man struggling to deal with his amnesic state during the film's first half hour or so. Another scene featured Kitty Chilcet's - the stepdaughter of Charles' sister and his fiancee - discovery that he was not in love her. It proved to be one of the film's most haunting and emotionally devasting moments. One fabulous scene featured the revelation of Charles' secretary Margaret Hanson as Paula Ridgeway, the music hall entertainer he had married not long after the war. This revelation had led to a heartbreaking conversation between Margaret and Charles' former analyst and head of the Melridge asylum, Dr. Jonathan Benet, in which he advised her not to force her true identity upon Charles for the sake of his mental health. What made the film's second half even more poignant was Margaret's struggles to remain silent about hers and Charles' past, while stuck in what seemed like an arranged marriage between businessman and secretary.

"RANDOM HARVEST" managed to earn seven Academy Award nominations. Two of them were in the acting category - Best Actor for Ronald Colman and Best Supporting Actress for Susan Peters. For me, the two acting nominations served as a hint of the film's level of acting skills from the cast. There was not a performance that did not trouble me. The movie featured solid performances from Bramwell Fletcher, Rhys Williams, Melville Cooper, Jill Esmond, Alan Rapier, Ivan F. Simpson, Margaret Whycherly and Arthur Margetson. Una O'Connor and Reginald Owen both provided brief, yet entertaining performances as Melbridge citizens that Charles/"Smithy" had encountered on the night he had left the asylum. Henry Travers gave a poignant performance as doctor that the pair had befriended during their stay in Devon. Dutch actor Philip Dorn gave an intelligent, yet surprisingly emotional performance as Dr. Jonathan Benet, the gentle head doctor of the Melbridge asylum, who fell in love with Margaret/Paula years later.

Susan Peters reached the peak of her career in her portrayal of Kitty Chilcet, the step-daughter of Charles' sister. She gave an intelligent, yet lively performance as the charming, yet patient schoolgirl who managed to win Charles' heart. But in one scene in which Kitty realizes that Charles had memories of another love that would lead him to regard her as a stranger, Peters elevated her game and gave a subtle, yet skillful performance that led to an Oscar nomination for her. Of the three main leads, Greer Garson did not receive an acting nomination for her performance in "RANDOM HEART". Which seemed a pity to me, because I believe she really knocked it out of the ballpark as Margaret Hanson/"Paula Ridgeway", the music hall entertainer-turned-secretary who managed to win over Charles with her quiet wit, charm and warmth. Her rendition of the music hall song, "She's Ma Daisy", is something to behold. I believe Garson really shined in the film's second half, as her character struggled to nudge Charles into regaining his memories as "Smithy" and at the same time, keep her emotions and other identity in check during her "marriage of convenience" to him. In the end, Garson ended up being nominated for her performance in "MRS. MINIVER". She won in the end, but I cannot help wishing she had been nominated for her performance in "RANDOM HARVEST". For years, I have always pinpointed Ronald Colman as an actor known for his charm, dash and some pretty good acting skills. But in recent years, I have realized that I had underestimated just how skillful an actor he truly was. I thought he had given a phenomenon performance as a World War I amnesiac, who discovers he is a scion of a wealthy family. In scenes that featured "Smithy"'s confusion during the film's first thirty minutes, his confusion over his growing emotional dependence on Margaret and especially that one moment in which he regarded Kitty as a stranger, when his memories as Smithy returned briefly made me realize what a superb actor Colman truly was. It seemed a pity that he did not win the Best Actor award for that year.

It seems a miracle to me that Hollywood or anyone else has never considered making another serious adaptation of James Hilton's 1941 novel. Granted, that filmmaker or television producer would probably have great difficulty overcoming the ghost of the 1942 adaptation. I might as well say it . . . "RANDOM HARVEST" is excellent adaptation of Hilton's novel. Mervyn LeRoy did an excellent job in maintaining a strong pacing for such a melancholic story. Screenwriters Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis had made some changes that proved to be very effective for the film's narrative. But without the excellent cast led by superb performances from Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, who knows if "RANDOM HARVEST" would have become the classic it now is.

[my-chaos-radio]

Release: August 13, 1989

Lyrics:

Cut, cut, cut, tell me somethin'

You can play a bass

You can play a drum

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here

Get up, the MC has started

Pump up the house and groove it

Stop, you're in a shakedown zone

You like bass, I love it to the bone

Hustle, I got muscle

Time to rock 'cause the rhythm is trouble

Dance, let's go crazy

When you see me, shout "Rebel MC"

Outlaw kicking up dust

You know what it is, I'm just street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here and he's street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here

"Just keep rockin'" was the last chant

I'm back, brand new round the mike stand

On stage I make it look easy

I'm the Rebel so run, come follow me

Hard not soft, underground boss

Turn up the bass and the treble of course

Feel with the music and you wonder

Is he a Yankee? No, I'm a Londoner

Tell yo mate I'm droppin' it rough

You know what it is, I'm just street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here and he's street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here

Elementary like A, B, C

Easy as one, two, three

Yes, it's the Rebel MC

Rough like a ninja, stinging like a bee

Back by public demand

You're now rockin' with a one man band

Go with the flow, moves you know

Jam the nightclub, rock the disco

Funky music, I can't get enough

Know what it is, I'm just street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here and he's street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here

Rhythm gets me hype

Let me take you on a journey, a musical flight

I'm a hustler, know how to deal

Not fake 'cause I'm so real

Get down to the brand new mix down

Stand firm, Double Trouble in the background

For the white, black and the light brown

Dash the old style, this is the new sound

Wheel

You know what it is, I'm just street tuff

Songwriter:

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here and he's street tuff

Everybody shake your stuff

The Rebel's here

Claudine Cramer / Leigh Guest / Michael Alec Anthony West / Michael Menson / Michael West

SongFacts:

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