"Father is a Batchelor" with William Holden (1950)

Johnny Rutledge (Wiliam Holden) is a Minstrel in a traveling Medicine Show but finds himself stranded in small town when the owner is jailed temporarily for fraud. When he meets a group of siblings named January ("Jan"), February ("Feb") along with twins March and April and their little sister May (Jane Saunders). Jan and Feb  are the only ones who knows the truth that their parents have been killed in a Riverboat accident 6 months ago. Little May is still waiting for her Mom and Dad to return. The children are fending for themselves over the summer, but with school approaching things will come to a head.

When Jan tells Johnny the secret he starts to help them out for just a few weeks until the Medicine Show can continue. But somehow he becomes their de-facto  father. This arouses the Mayor's daughter Prudence (Coleen Grey) to wonder where the parents are. Fearing that she will send the children to an orphanage Johnny must pull off several little scams, or miracles, to avoid this. And he gradually warms to the task. There are a few silly songs involved, with William Holden's singing is overdubbed by Buddy Clark, whose voice is almost a dead ringer for Bing Crosby. Unfortunately Buddy Clark passed away just a few months before this film was released.

If you've got about 90 minutes to spare, this film is a forgotten little gem.

"Christmas Must Be Tonight" - The Band

 This is one of the most overlooked Christmas songs of all time. Rick Danko's vocal is excellent and the whole Band is wonderful. First recorded in 1975 it wasn't released until their 7th album, "Island", which was released in 1977. 

Re-recorded several times by Robbie Robertson on solo projects, and though Robertson wrote the song, none of those versions ever quite recreated the beauty of Rick Danko's voice on the original track. Merry Christmas everyone, everywhere......❤

My Great Great Grandmother - Sweet Shop

 My Great, Great Grandmother on my Dad's paternal side had a sweet shop. I believe it was in Rhye, North Wales. As part of he trade she wore a conical black hat, similar to the popular depiction of a pointed Witches hat, but flat at the top. You can see an image of this in the 1948 film "How Green Was My Valley".

These hats, the pointed ones, had been worn for centuries by women who sold ale in busy market places so they could be seen more easily. They were known as "alewives." They brewed their ale in large black cauldrons and kept a broom, made of sticks, outside the door of their shops. It was, for reasons unknown to me, a sign of their trade. The black cats were kept to help ward off the mice who ate the grain meant for the ale. 

As the ale business became more centralized in the 1600's, the larger companies, owned by men, tried to run off their independent, smaller competitors by spreading rumors of witchcraft. At the time sorcery, or witchcraft, was punishable by banishment and even death. Many of these women, particularly in Wales, went into the sweets business. The tools of the trade were similar. The black cauldron now held sugar and water for making rock candy, which made the black cat still indispensable for warding off the mice. 

By the late 19th century the look of the Aleswife and Sweet Seller had been altered for good. Thanks to novels and then film, the history of their trade had been completely co-opted.

"The Last Angry Man" - Paul Muni (1959)

 "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away". This phrase from Thoreau accurately describes Physician Dr. Samuel Abelman of Brooklyn in the film "The Last Angry Man." It is, in fact, the central theme of this extraordinary film.

Dr. Abelman is the polar opposite of his friend and colleague Dr. Vogel, who writes on Dr. Abelman's Death Certificate under "Cause of Death: Coronary Occlusion/ Fighting Other People's Battles." A truly remarkable film and Paul Muni's last.

"The First Legion" (1951) w/ Charles Boyer, William Demarest, Leo G. Carroll

I am not just recommending this film. I am pontificating upon it's message, as I see it. 

Father John Fulton is a Jesuit instructor in a seminary school, who feels he has lost his faith and desire to continue in his role. A talk with his friend Father Marc Arnoux, played by Charles Boyer, is of no help.

The Head of the Order wants to throw him out. But an issue of theology arises which can make or break the whole outcome. Father  Arnoux is supportive of his decision, but also sensitive to the needs of the Rectory. He is marvelous in this  role.

The issue is finally decided by H. B. Warner as Fr. Jose Sierr, who has been in a coma for three years. He is expected to die soon and his body is completely atrophied from being bed bound for so long. It would take years of physical therapy to get him to even sit up in bed, let alone walk again. In short, it would take a Miracle. 

On the eve of the young Priest's departure the other Priests and the Monsignor, played by William Demarest, are all gathered for dinner in the ground floor dining hall. Father Sierr is upstairs in bed. He cannot possibly know of the situation concerning Father Fulton leaving the Order.

Suddenly, alone, he awakens from his coma and miraculously rises from his bed as if he has just taken a nap. He is crying. From his bed chamber he goes to the stairway and comes down the stairs to the dining hall. 

All of the Priests, the reigning Monsignor and even the secular Doctor are astonished to see him. They rush to his side, but he doesn't need their help. They ask why him why he is crying. He, in turn, completely and rationally explains what he cannot possibly know. 

If the Brother is leaving he is breaking God's will, but it is God who has also implanted Self will within each of us. The dilemma, as he sees it is this;

If God saw fit to lead the young Priest to the Jesuits, he must stay. But if God also gave him Self will, then he must be allowed to leave. The others argue that God surrounded the Brother with a mission in life to serve a higher cause than his own. 

The older, formerly comatose Father Sierr reasons back that God has also now called upon Father Fulton to honor his Self will, and he must be permitted to leave in order to follow that call.

When asked why he weeps he replies that he is weeping because they are losing a brother who can help them all in fulfilling God's will. But at the same time, Father Fulton may have now been called upon to answer another, even higher calling. Who is to say what is right or wrong? Who is qualified to speak for God?

And that is the message of this film, as I see it. There are other subplots going on as the town becomes a magnet for hucksters and lost souls. There is even the question of arguing for recognition of Father Sierr's recovery as a genuine Miracle, to be recognized by the Vatican. But to me that is all just stuff and nonesense.

This film is not for everyone, but the message is. I hope that others will find it as meaningful as I have. 

"The Juggler" with Kirk Douglas (1953)

 

This was my first time seeing this film. I had never heard of it before today. It was posted on You Tube 5 days ago. Kirk Douglas plays Hans Müller, a displaced German freed from the Concentration Camps. It is 1949 and he arrives in the newly formed State of Israel.

Before the war he was a famous juggler and ventriloquist in Germany. He thought his fame would shield him from the Nuremberg Laws and all that followed. So he stayed. And paid the price. 

Now, in Israel, and in a Camp for newly arrived Refugees, he initially mistakes a woman for his deceased wife. He doesn't adjust well to the camp, or the attempts to assimilate him into society. He flees the camp and sets off to see the outside. 

What happens next is the story of a man who has been traumatized and now becomes hunted in a new land where he is supposed to be accepted. It is a gripping film. And Kirk Douglas is perfect in his role, along with all the rest of the cast. I highly recommend this film.

"Teddy and Booker T." by Brian Kilmeade (2025)

 

This is a remarkable book about two remarkable men. Born within 2 years of one another, Booker, born a slave; and his birthdatdate has never really been established; while Teddy was born a child of great privilege in 1858. But from that point onward both were on parallel courses and each would have an impact on the nation as a whole, as well as upon their individual races, and one another.

Booker is most remembered for founding Tuskegee Institute, while Teddy is remembered for his charge up San Juan Hill. But these are both narrow views of each of their lives. They were friends and colleagues who both worked to bring the nation forward in an attempt to bridge the gap between their races. And both were battling their own races in their attempts to do that. (Booker was the first African-American to have dinner with the  President and his family in the Executive Mansion, as it was called back then. The reaction, from both sides, was enormous. And controversial.)

The author alternates the story, with a chapter about one following a chapter on what the other was doing during the same period. As the book progresses that story becomes one.

You will find this an informative and well paced read. And several popular images of both men will be shown to be surprisingly different than what we have previously been taught.