Nagasaki

Nagasaki, Japan is located on the island of Kyushu.  Its current population is approximately 400,000.

It was founded by Portuguese explorers in 1543.  Nagasaki became the sole port used for trade between Japan and both the Portuguese and the Dutch from the 16th through the 19th century. 

In the beginning, the little village of Nagasaki was where the Portuguese introduced such products as tobacco, bread and textiles into the Japanese marketplace.  

In 1663, a fire destroyed much of Nagasaki.

In 1720, a ban on Dutch books was lifted.  As a result, scholars flooded into Nagasaki to study European science and art.  

In 1889, Nagasaki was officially proclaimed to be a city.  Christianity was legalized, allowing it to become a center for Roman Catholicism in Japan.

During World War II, Nagasaki was an important industrial city.  Factories produced steel, arms, engines and ships.  90% of Nagasaki's work force was employed in such factories.  

Nagasaki was rebuilt after the war ended.   

Brute Force

Brute Force is a 1947 film noir produced by Mark Hellinger and starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Howard Duff and Yvonne DeCarlo.  

Before his untimely death at age 44 also in 1947, Hellinger produced other memorable films such as The Killers (starring Lancaster) and The Naked City (starring Duff).

The film was directed by Jules Dassin.  He also directed other films noir such as Night and the City and The Naked City.

In this film, Lancaster plays the leader of a group of prison inmates plotting an escape.  I can think of at least three other of his films in which he was in prison: The Killers, Birdman of Alcatraz and Judgment at Nuremburg.

Cronyn here portrays a sadistic prison warden, rival of Lancaster.  He played a very positive character in the Alfred Hitchcock film, Lifeboat.

In Brute Force, Duff is another prison convict.  In The Naked City, he is a jewel thief.  Years later, he is the lawyer of Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer.

DeCarlo played opposite Lancaster in another film noir, Criss Cross.

Paladin, Chapter 21

 INT - GRACE & CHARLES HOME - NIGHT

CHARLES starts to enter their bedroom.  GRACE sits on edge of bed wearing a nightgown pulled down to reveal her breasts.  When CHARLES sees her, he stops for a moment, then retreats closing door behind him.  His face shows disappointment.

INT - PALADIN'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

PALADIN is sleeping when there is a knock on his door.  He rises quickly and grabs his gun.  He slowly opens the door and is surprised to see GRACE standing there.  

PALADIN:  GRACE, what are you doing here?  What time is it?

GRACE:  It's very late.  May I come in?

PALADIN:  Certainly.

PALADIN quickly puts on more appropriate clothing.  GRACE enters and sits in only chair in room.  Door is closed.

GRACE:  You said I was an attractive woman.  My husband doesn't think so.

PALADIN:  Your husband's a fool.

GRACE:  I threw myself at him tonight and he wasn't interested at all.  I need to reassure myself that I'm really a woman a man would want.

PALADIN:  You are.

GRACE:  You seem to be the only man who thinks so.

PALADIN:  You're a married woman.  Most men won't attempt to show you how they feel.

GRACE:  Most men?  What about you?  Are you only a talker?

PALADIN, upon reflection, approaches GRACE.  He holds her face in his hands and gently kisses her lips.  The kiss lasts for several seconds.

PALADIN:  I find you a very desirable woman, GRACE.  Unfortunately, you're married and in my line of work I cannot commit myself to a woman.  

GRACE:  CHARLES never kissed me like that.  Nobody ever kissed me like that.

The door is flung open and POLLYANNA is standing there wearing riding clothes as if she is on her way back to her ranch.

POLLYANNA:  Well, PALADIN, you are some hypocrite.  GRACE, strange to find you here.  CHARLES will be very interested to hear this.

POLLYANNA leaves.  PALADIN and GRACE look at each other and start to laugh.

George McGovern

George McGovern was born July 19, 1922 (104 years ago) in Avon, South Dakota.  The McGovern family lived on the edge of poverty for much of the 1920s and 1930s.  

Growing up so close to privation gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers.  He was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest, as well as the teachings that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance.

McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra  for a music appreciation class when he heard the news of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  In January 1942, he drove with nine other students to Omaha, Nebraska and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces.

As a B-24 pilot, McGovern flew 35 missions over German occupied Europe from an air base in Italy.  He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing and saving his crew.

After the war, McGovern earned degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) and Northwestern University.  Later, he returned to DWU as a professor of history and political science.

In 1956 and 1958, McGovern was elected to the US House of Representatives from South Dakota.  In 1962, 1968 and 1974, he was elected to the United States Senate.

In 1972, McGovern won the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States.  He lost to the incumbent Richard Nixon by one of the biggest landslides in US history.  However, I voted for McGovern, the first time I voted for a Democrat.

On October 15, 2012, McGovern died at the age of 90 in his native South Dakota.      

A Nameless Girl Again

I recently saw a video on YouTube in which people my age (80) and above were asked about lessons learned over their lifetime.  One gentleman responded that he should have made love more often.  Nothing better he said.  Really?

Twice in my blog I have written about a Nameless Girl I met when I was nineteen years-old.  I was home on vacation from Penn and she was a student at the State University of New York at Oswego.  

I was driving her back to her sorority at the end of our second date.  When I stopped in front of the house, she threw herself at me and we engaged in heavy duty "making out."  Great!

When I returned home that night, instead of thinking about the end of the date, I focused on her behavior that afternoon when she had acted in a very bossy manner, which I didn't appreciate.  I decided to unilaterally end our budding relationship...without confronting her.  Ghosting!  Needs an apology.

I should have focused on the end of our date in which she showed she obviously wanted an intimate relationship with me.  Other than the bossy behavior, I liked her.  I wanted intimacy, as well.  

We could have talked about what had upset me that afternoon...and resolved it.  Maybe?

We could have gone to second base...or even hit a home run.  Maybe?  

Sweet Smell of Success

 Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis reunited (after Trapeze) in the 1957 film noir Sweet Smell of Success.  

The film tells the story of powerful, sleazy and sinister newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Lancaster) who uses his connections to ruin his young sister's relationship with a man he deems unworthy of her.

In reality, because of J.J.'s obsession to maintain a close relationship with his sister (they live together), no man would be deemed worthy of her.

Manhattan press agent Sidney Falco (Curtis) scans the New York Globe for J.J.'s column which dominates the entertainment world. For the fifth day in a row, J.J. has not publicized any of Sidney's clients, as he has asked Sidney to end his sister's affair with a jazz guitarist. 

Sidney has been unsuccessful so far.  But, J.J. wants him to continue trying.

Similar to Trapeze, in the end. J.J. and Sidney's relationship is broken because of a woman.

Sweet Smell of Success was filmed on location in New York City in black and white.  Both Lancaster and Curtis were native New Yorkers, born in Manhattan.

Lancaster was reunited in this film with two actors from his first film, The Killers.   Sam Levene played the Swede's friend since childhood and now J.J.'s sister's boyfriend's agent.

Queenie Smith portrayed a maid in a hotel where the Swede stayed and now a personality J.J. wanted on his weekly program.  

Paladin, Chapter 20

INT. HOTEL - NIGHT 

PALADIN enters hotel and walks to reception.

PALADIN: In what room is POLLYANNA?

CLERK: I'm sorry, sir, but she's not here.  She's most likely at her ranch this time of night.

PALADIN: (grabbing the shirt of clerk) One last time.  In what room is POLLYANNA?

CLERK: 10.

PALADIN climbs stairs and goes to room 10 and enters it.

INT. ROOM 10 - NIGHT

PALADIN enters room 10.  POLLYANNA is lying in bed in her night clothes and is mildly surprised to see PALADIN.

POLLYANNA: Well, this is a pleasant surprise.  I can't say I'm disappointed either.

PALADIN: I wanted you to know your friend won't be coming tonight.

POLLYANNA: What friend are you talking about?

PALADIN: Well, it's not BIG DAN.

POLLYANNA: So, why is my friend not coming tonight?

PALADIN: I told him to go home to his wife.

POLLYANNA: And he did...just like that?

PALADIN: You could say I didn't give him much of a choice.

POLLYANNA: What a coward!  Well, you're here.  Why don't you stay.  We have a lot to talk about.

PALADIN: Look, if you want a new husband, get a divorce and look for a single man.

POLLYANNA: You're so old fashioned.

PALADIN: Perhaps.  But, I don't like to see people get hurt unnecessarily.  Especially somebody like GRACE.

POLLYANNA: Who cares about GRACE?

PALADIN: I do.

POLLYANNA: On the other hand, you're single.

PALADIN: Yes, I'm single, but I'm not interested in staying here.  Have a good evening.

PALADIN is set to leave the room.

POLLYANNA: (Shouting) PALADIN!

PALADIN: Quiet, POLLYANNA.  You'll wake the other guests.