Love on the Dole (1940) - Deborah Kerr and Clifford Evans

 

What an extraordinary film. Britain during the height of the Depression. The Hardcastle family struggles to survive. Even before the economic crisis things were hard, but when the layoffs begin and the "means testing" of the overloaded social safety net system begins, famiies are ruined and hard choices need to be faced.

This was only Deborah Kerr's third film, and it ranks as one of her best. She is perhaps the main character in the story, but the rest of the cast all shine in this pristinely restored film from 1940. Set in a worknig class town the story is intense and offers an insight into the hard times between the wars.

There is a finely restored colorized version of this film which does it even more justice, which is unavailable at the moment. But this black and white version serves the story of the Hardcastle family equally well.

Although the captioning may come on automatically at the beginning, it can easily be switched off. Either way, I hope you will take the time to view it.

The title beneath the film labels it as a "banned" film, but that is slightly misleading. When the making of the film was first proposed in 1935 the Review Board turned it down as being "too sordid". By 1940, with the Second World War and the Battle of Britain waging in full, the Review Board seemed to have a change of heart. Perhaps they realized that, with the coming of the war, the people needed to look back on the hardships they had survived in order to cope with the hardships which lay ahead.

Hometown Skiffle (1928)

We're all familar with the 1956 recording of "Rock Island Line" by Lonnie Donnegan and how that became the hit record which launched a thousand bands in Britain, and even crossed the Atlantic Ocean to become a legendary recording. I have the 45 RPM, though I doubt it is still playable. I picked it up in the "oldies" rack at Crawfords on Kings Highway in the late 1960's.

But the history of that song goes way back before Lonnie Donnegan recorded it. Donnegan, who was really named Tony, was a guitar/banjo player with Chris Barber's Jazz Band. Chris Barber was a trombonist who originally played with Ken Coyler's band. Coyler's name comes up frequently when reading about all the later British bands and the influence of skiffle on what became known as  the "British sound".

Tony Donnegan changed his name to Lonnie in honor of Lonnie Johnson, one of his jazz heroes. But the history of "Rock Island Line" really goes back to a 1928 American 78 RPM recording called "Hometown Skiffle" featuring Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Will Ezell, Charlie Spand, The Hokum Boys and Papa Charles Jackson. You can find out more about each of these guys on Wikipedia.

The record was a two sided affair, so you had to turn it over to hear the whole song. It was recorded on Paramount Records and labeled as a "Race Recording". In essence, this record spawned a movement in Britain 30 years later which influenced the late 1950's sound and set the whole world rocking.

Here is another link to the original release.   

https://youtu.be/5XwzQhf801U?si=XJYgAcwBB8b21c0l

"Furious Hours" by Casey Cep (2019)

"Furious Hours" by Casey Cep is actually 3 books in one. The first is the true story of Reverend Willie Maxwell, a rural preacher accused of murdering his first 2 wives, and a nephew and a niece, over a period of 7 years beginning in 1971. He had taken out multiple insurance policies on all of them, without their knowledge, and collected on them all. But he was never convicted. The killings only came to an end when the Reverend was shot at point blank range, in front of 300 mourners at the funeral of his last victim; his niece. There was no question of his guilt. He even confessed to it. Twice. 

Some claim the Reverand was a Voo Doo Practitioner, others just wrote him off as a homicidal maniac, but try as the State of Alabama might, he was never convicted. It went so far that the entire town was living in fear of who the next victim would be. 

Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird", only enters the story halfway through the book. She had come from New York City to gather material for a book about the Reverend's crimes and his subsequent murder. It should have been easy, but it wasn't. It would consume 10 years of her life, and produce nothing. So this portion of the book is about the book which never was. 

The third part of the book is even more compelling. It delves into her collaboration with Truman Capote and the writing of "In Cold Blood", which was begun in 1959 and took 7 years to finish as the appeals of conviction wound on and on. During this time Harper Lee had finished her masterpiece, won a Pulitzer Prize, sold the film rights and became an elusive, and troubled celebrity. Because of this, her childhood friend, Capote, drifted away from her. Part of this was a difference in lifestyle, part was jealousy. 

You don't want to overlook this book. So much information is imparted within its pages. It really is a well written work, and a tribute to the author Casey Cep, who ultimately wrote the book which Harper Lee could not. That, in itself, is reason enough to read it.

Three things in this book really stand out. First, "Tell a Watchman", Ms. Lee's long awaited second book was really funished before "Mockingbird". It wasn't released for decades because it was written from a critical perspective of her home town. It is the story of a grown woman who leaves Alabama and returns home to find out her father and Uncle, portrayed with such nobility in "Mockingbird", have become members of the White Citizen's Council, which called for "gradualism" in the area of Civil Rights. It wasn't until 2 of her friends gave her a Christmas present of about $10,000 that she was able to quit her job selling tickets for a major airline that she was able to take a full year off work to concentrate solely on writing "Mockingbird."

By the time "Watchman" was published, the public, including me, was in no mood to hear anything negative concerning the nobility of her father and all the other characters in "Mockingbird." No one likes to see their heroes fall from grace.

One of the best revelations in this book is that Boo Radley was based on a real person from her childhood. The son of a local judge had been involved in a crime with another teenager, and both were sentenced to serve time. But the Judge's son was released to his father's custody and kept locked in the house for many years, peering out from the shutters by day, and roaming the small town streets at night. So vividly was his character portrayed that his older sister attempted a lawsuit against both the author and her publisher. 

The third part of the book concerns the unfinished book about the Reverend Willie Maxwell. This is an extraordinary work by Ms. Cep, who not only gives us that book, but incorporates a fresh look at Harper Lee and the demons which truncated her literary career. 

The subtitle conveys the book accurately. Harper Lee's books were all concerned with trials. After all, she was the daughter of an attorney, and she herself left law school only 6 months shy of her degree. First there is the trial in "Mockingbird", followed by her essential collaboration with Truman Caplte on "In Cold Blood", and lastly the unfinished story of the trial of the nephew who shot and killed Reverend Maxwell.

A compelling read, this review hardly does the book justice. Therefore, it is a book which must be read to be truly appreciated.