Happy 1st Birthday Rooftop Reviews!

Well, it has been one year ago today since I started this blog. It was an impulse based on boredom. And when I saw that my freind Suzy at Garden Lust Journal had a blog, well, I just had to have one too!

The name kind of popped into my head - and the best rooftop photo I had was the one you see and I have grown attached to over the 15 years or so that it has hung on the bedroom wall of wherever my wife, Sue, and I have lived. Currently, that is North Carolina.

Originally I was going to compare books with the movies that were made from them, but somehow I got sidetracked into everything from a short autobiography in 31 installments to book and movie reviews as well as music and theater. I actually did get around to doing a couple of comparisons with movies and books here. It was a surprise to me as well!

I have met and corresponded with so many different people through this site. Most comments come as e-mails, my address is posted right at the top. The correspondents range from authors such as Boris Gindin to Tommy Chong. (I'm still smiling from that one!) I have communicated with Mafia hitmen and ex FBI agents. My favorite in that category has been Abraham Bolden, he was the first African-American Secret Service Agent. Appointed by Eisenhower, he was later placed on the Kennedy White House detail. A very spiritual person, with a very interesting story to tell.

I get almost no negative e-mails, well that depends on your point of view. I did have one Aryan fellow e-mail me to tell me how right I was in my assesment of a particular book. I had to re-read the book to make sure that I was not going crazy!

So this is a day off for me- I can't believe I stuck it out for a year already. I don't post every day, more like 4 or 5 times a week. I avoid politics and religion. There are already too many divisive voices out here. I like to think of this site as an oasis. I hope you do as well, and thanks for stopping in. It really means alot to me that you do.

"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962 version) with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury

This film works on so many different levels that it's hard to hit them all, but I'll try. First off, it's a "cold war" film, so that grabs me right away. The real life intrique was never very far off from the plots of some of these films. "Manchurian Candidate", like "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," captures that realism.

In another vein, if you think that Frank Sinatra couldn't act, get ready to eat those words. This is one of his finest performances, no singing, no casino robberies, no Rat Pack. This may be his best dramatic screen performance since "The Man With the Golden Arm."

The story centers around a guy named Raymond, the son of a wealthy political family with high ambitions. Raymonds service in Korea is a part of their image. During the war he receives the Medal of Honor for leading his patrol back from behind enemy lines.

Things are not what they seem however, and so the film is filled with twists and turns that eventually lead to the one inescapable ending. Tremendous performances by Laurence Harvey as Raymond and Angela Lansbury as his self serving mother, along with flawless acting by Frank Sinatra, have long made this a favorite of mine. And wait- there is more to this story....

I saw the film at the Century Avalon on Kings Highway in Brooklyn when I was 8 years old. I didn't understand it. By the 1980's, when VCR had emerged, I was looking for old films to watch and couldn't find it anywhere! It was an Oscar Nominated film directed by John Frankenheimer, yet it was nowhere to be found. A mystery. That is, until one particular night in the car listening to AM radio.

Larry King, a freind of Frank Sinatra's, was on the air and asked him about the film, stating that it was one of his best and he couldn't find a copy. Genuinely flustered and without an answer, Mr. Sinatra promised to look into it.

About 2 weeks later he contacted Larry King by phone and explained that the film was yanked from theaters shortly before the Kennedy assassination in Dallas. It was bought by his business people and was in his vault at some studio. He was going to pull it, restore it and re-release it. And, lucky for us, he did.

Now, look at the film from this perspective. The mind control program revealed in this film, along with the military's use of LSD and other drugs to create "agents" is now widely known and accepted to be true. Put this together with Sinatra's "Rat Pack" and their connections to Sam Giancanna, long suspected to be the architect of the shooting in Dallas, and you have one hell of a story. Remember that these 3 guys shared the same women(Judith Campbell in particular) as well as other financial and political pursuits.

Still not convinced? Try this one. Frank Sinatra was an ardent admirer of JFK. When his plans to host the President in Palm Springs in 1962 fell through, the mob was ready to "whack" him for it. That is actually on tape. So, about 6 months before the events in Dallas, the film is locked away. When the assassination happened Sinatra was beside himself, to the point of being a risk. Now remember that within 2 weeks of the assassination, his son, Frank, Jr. was kidnapped by 2 low level guys out of Florida. Coincidence? I'm not so sure.

Watch this film with an open mind and leave any pre-conceived notions at the door.(Except for Angela Lansbury, who looks exactly the same now as she did then.)

A very tightly woven tale of political intrique, this film will not fail to make you think. And that alone makes it a pleasure to watch.