And what seems to be a trend here, the b-movies are more diverse than the main features: This on has not only black people, but an Asian guy! Which is a first in this blog series, I think.
It’s amusing, I guess, but it feels like it never really gets its steam up. It wants to spiral out of control, but instead nothing really happens.
Popular movies in September 1941 according to IMDB:
In the last episode, I whined about how useless wireless earbuds are, with the main problem being that the typical range of these earbuds extends all the way from your left ear to your left shirt pocket, and not any further (when you’re outdoors and the blutooth signal doesn’t have walls to bounce off of).
But a few weeks back, I read a review for the Jabra Elite 65t, which claimed that these were the best wireless earbuds ever (when it comes to range), so I thought it was worth a go.
And it is! These are larger earbuds than I’ve been using, which probably explains the extra range. They have a little sticky-outey bits that probably has an antenna, and it seems to help: I can now semi-reliably keep my phone in my left pants pocket while having an earbud in my right ear, which was pure sci-fi with the older earbuds.
The UX on these is also quite satisfying: I pick an earbud out of the charging case, and it connects to the phone almost immediately, and then clearly tells me it’s done that. And it has a physical button that can be used to pause/unpause the audio, and switch the earbud on/off (if you don’t have the charging case with you).
If you’re just using a single earbud, that has to be the right one, but they are quite comfortable to wear, so I’ve gotten used to listening to stuff with my right ear only.
The user interface basically can’t be improved upon for my use case, which is walking around listening to radio dramas in one ear. The battery time seems to be good, too: They haven’t run out of juice once while I’ve been using them.
Which brings me to the one annoying thing, because everything has to be annoying, right?
Right.
The charging case itself is just horrible. If you open it a bit stridently, the earbuds are liable to go flying all over the place. And there are no magical magnets to keep them in place, or to guide you to inserting the earbuds back into the case, so you really have to concentrate while doing that.
Here’s an interpretative video:
Which is a shame. This is almost a perfect product, but in daily use, the bad charging pod design is an annoyance.
She’s magnificent here, but that shouldn’t be a surprise.
This is a film set in the somewhat oldee south, but I wonder whether it’s a conscious political decision to have a black person in just about every scene (mostly as servants, of course). It makes a huge change from these other movies I’ve been watching today, which probably had… like… almost zero? zero? black actors in them.
Director William Wyler was a pinko commie, except the pinko and commie parts, of course.
This is kinda brilliant. Wonderful performances, interesting intrigue and on-point cinematography.
It was nominated for all the Oscars this year and won none, which is appropriate for something as good as this.
This is a big-budget huge sentimental Hollywood movie written by John Huston and directed by Howard Hawks and starring just about everybody.
This was nominated for all the Oscars and won a couple, and neither is surprising. This is one of those national myth-building American films that pop now and then. It’s Howard Hawks, so it looks good, but coming off of a Fritz Lang high, the huge vistas somehow seem pedestrian.
But it’s just downright disturbing seeing a slightly balding 40-year-old Gary Cooper playing a teenager. He goes for 16-year-old dopey but hits developmentally challenged instead.
Still, it’s an interesting movie. It’s set during the previous war, and the protagonist is a pacifist farmer (well, he’s read the bible and the bible is apparently agin’ it), but he still has to go. Is that a comment on the US’ stance during the current war (so far)? It’s a sub rosa agitation for the US to get involved in the fight against Hitler? But set in the previous war to avoid having the Senate Committee on Hollywood Pro-British Activities come down on them like a ton of rocks?
It’s not a movie for strident atheists.
Unfortunately there’s no documentary extras on this DVD, because I kinda wanted to know what they were thinking when they made this.
Hm…
Some of the response to the film divided along political lines, with advocates of preparedness and aid to Great Britain enthusiastic (“Hollywood’s first solid contribution to the national defense”, said Time) and isolationists calling it “propaganda” for the administration.
Hm… Oh! This is based on a real person, and all the weird stuff in here really happened? I didn’t see that one coming. And Alvin was 30 in 1917, which makes more sense than him being a teenager.
Is this the first American war film (sort of) in this blog series? Everybody’s speaking English, though (except for the Germans), so perhaps it was just financed by Americans, but it’s British?
And it’s Fritz Lang! Golly!
The cinematography is on another plane entirely from these other American films I’ve watched previously. So many details. So stylised. (I know that’s a contradiction.)
It’s thrilling to watch on a scene-by-scene basis, even if the plot doesn’t really make that much sense. It’s been lovingly restored for this blu-ray release.
If this had had a non-moronic plot, it’d have been a classic. The acting’s great and it’s exciting and it looks wonderful. But I can easily see that others wouldn’t be this patient with this nonsense.
[time passes]
I’m now watching the documentary extras on the disc. It’s fascinating! There were congressional hearings after this film was released to investigate pro-British Hollywood activities! Because the US was neutral at this time, of course, and this film is overtly anti-Nazi.
