Wait Until Dark

 Wait Until Dark is a 1967 psychological thriller film starring Audrey Hepburn (in a much different role than what I wrote about last month), Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston.  It was produced by Mel Ferrer, Hepburn's husband.

Hepburn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress (but lost to Katherine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner).  Wait Until Dark grossed over $17 million dollars on a budget of only $3 million.

In the film, a woman arrives at a New York airport with a doll stuffed with illegal drugs.  She persuades a fellow passenger to take the doll without telling him what is inside it.

The fellow passenger is the husband of a blind lady (Hepburn) and they live in a small apartment in the city.  The husband goes away on business.

Two criminals (Crenna and Weston) arrive at the apartment, posing as policemen, and try to persuade the blind lady to give them the doll.  But, she doesn't know where it is.  An adolescent neighbor girl took the doll not realizing drugs were inside.

The two criminals try to act tough with the blind lady, using intimidation to get what they want.  Realizing they are not police and acting very brave, the blind lady continues to resist.

A third criminal (Arkin) kills the first two and will kill the blind lady, too if he doesn't get what he wants.  As day turns to night (Wait Until Dark), the blind lady breaks all the lights in the apartment in order to equal the playing field.  Neither she nor the criminal can see the other.  She spills broken glass on the floor so she can hear him.  

The blind lady stabs the criminal with a kitchen knife and the audience believes her to be free from danger.  However, he suddenly leaps across the room and grabs her leg.  

This cinematic trick (the villain reappearing suddenly when you believe he/she has been mortally wounded) has been repeated often, such as in 1987 with Fatal Attraction and in 1990 with Misery.  But, I believe Wait Until Dark was the first.       

Wedding

 It started on June 3, 2022, the birthday of Pam (now) Lasky.  She agreed to marry my son Bret while they were on vacation.  It was recorded by The Weather Channel because Bret and Pam were on a beach during an approaching storm.  

Flash forward to May 22, 2023 when our taxi driver Ademar picked Cristina and me up at our home in Sao Paulo at 4:30 PM.  He delivered us to Guarulhos Airport in less than an hour, the fastest time in recorded history.

Our flight to Miami (saw A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks) was only eight hours arriving at 4:30 AM Tuesday the 23rd.  We had to wait 5 1/2 hours for our flight to Jacksonville (JAX).  That allowed us to have both breakfast and lunch at Miami International.  It also gave me time to buy and start reading Tom Hanks's new novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.

Our taxi driver for the trip from JAX to our hotel in St. Augustine (Homewood Suites by Hilton) was originally from South Sudan, the youngest new country in the world.  Very educational ride.

On Tuesday night, Bret joined Cristina and me for dinner at Hurricane Patty's.  I enjoyed a delicious meatloaf and discussed our upcoming celebration dinner (Saturday night) with one of the managers.

On Wednesday the 24th, we took an Uber to the Men's Wearhouse at the St. John's Town Center in Jacksonville to pick up my tuxedo.  I must comment on their lack of good customer service.  They refused to let me use their bathroom.  Claimed they didn't have one.  I don't believe that.

We also shopped at Target (which was so freezing I bought a sweatshirt) and Barnes and Noble.  We lunched at Panera Bread.  

That night our hotel had a reception offering some tasty snacks and beverages.  Then began my series of surreal experiences.  A young woman waved at me.  Who was she?  As she got nearer I recognized my niece Lauren (whom I hadn't seen in perhaps twenty years) followed by her husband Alex (whom I had dinner with in Sao Paulo about five years ago).  

On Thursday the 25th, Cristina and I attended the wedding rehearsal followed by a dinner and then a cocktail party at Sangrias.  We happily saw my sister in law Janet, then the bride to be Pam (Mrs Lasky) and her family Ron, Janet, Becki and David.  On the street near Sangrias, we ran into Varun, Joe and Eddie, three of Bret's childhood friends from Queens whom I hadn't seen since they were in high school.

On Friday the 26th was the wedding.  Cristina (in her beautiful green dress) and I arrived by shuttle at the White Room at 3:30 PM for photographs.  The ceremony started at 4:30.  Bonita and I escorted Bret down the aisle.  My job then was to give Pam Bret's wedding band.  I "done good."  Also standing up for the bride and groom were my daughter Rachel, my son in law Mike and my grandsons Nate and Leo.  

Following the ceremony was a dinner also at the White Room.  I made a speech toasting Bret and Pam which was well received.

The next morning I returned my tuxedo.  We then walked to the Apple Store where Cristina bought a new cell phone.  We lunched at Panera Bread again.  Our Uber driver both ways was from Ethiopia.  

On Saturday the 27th was the celebration dinner at Hurricane Patty's, hosted by Rachel, Mike, Cristina and me.  I had done the work, along with the restaurant's management, of arranging the dinner.  All, especially Rachel, said it was a success.

On Sunday the 28th was the brunch at the Chatsworth Pub and Tea Room.  On our way back to the hotel, I had a chocolate ice cream cone at Kilwin's on St. George's Street.

On Monday the 29th Cristina and I shopped at Publix supermarket where we bought things difficult to find or not available in Brazil: Coffeemate, cans of tuna chunks packed in water, Paul Newman's salad dressing, Kraft Parmesan Cheese, Jello pudding, Crest toothpaste and Ghirardelli's chocolates.  I also bought a small apple pie, which turned out to be cherry.  Better luck next time.

Cristina and I had lunch at Panera Bread for the third time.  We had dinner at Harry's Seafood, Bar and Grille, where I ate shrimp and grits.

On Tuesday the 30th, we checked out of our hotel, had lunch at the St. Augustine Fish Camp and took an Uber to JAX.  Our flight to Miami was delayed so when we arrived we had to walk fast to get to our flight to Sao Paulo.  

On Wednesday the 31st, Ademar was waiting at Terminal 3 and delivered us safely home.  It was my tenth anniversary of arriving in Sao Paulo to live permanently.  

I must also mention others whom I enjoyed being with: Adam and Mary, Karen and Bill, Elyse and Talia, Cindy and Robert, Torie and Daniel and Grey plus Taylor, Matthew, Helaine, Andrea and Dani, Robbie and granddaughter Adeline, Leslie plus her sons Derek and Jered, and finally Ted and Barbara.  The week exceeded my high expectations.

Abraham's Son, Chapter 17

 INT. ABRAHAM'S KITCHEN - NIGHT

Two weeks later, ABRAHAM removes lasagna from oven at same time there is a knock on front door.  He puts lasagna on table, grabs flowers and heads toward front door.

INT. BY FRONT DOOR OF ABRAHAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT

ABRAHAM opens front door.  SARA enters and shows a poker face, no expression.

ABRAHAM:  Here's some flowers for you.

SARA:  Oh, thanks.  They're beautiful...Well, what do you want first, good news or bad news?

ABRAHAM:  Good news.

SARA:  I'm pregnant.  Congratulations, Dad.

They embrace and kiss each other on the cheek.

ABRAHAM:  I couldn't be happier, SARA...What was the bad news?

SARA:  No more fucking.

INT. ABRAHAM'S KITCHEN - NIGHT

ABRAHAM and SARA eat lasagna and discuss the future.

SARA:  The lasagna's good...but, I'm not Italian.  What do I know?

ABRAHAM:  I'm glad you like it, but let's talk about the future.  I'm going to pay for everything.  Have you chosen an OB-GYN yet?  

SARA:  No.

ABRAHAM:  Let me get a recommendation and then we'll make an appointment.  I want to go to all the doctor's visits.  I can pick you up and bring you back.  I want to make this as pain free for you as possible.  

SARA:  Pain free.  Yeah!  

ABRAHAM:  Also, any food supplements, vitamins, whatever the doctor recommends, I'll pay for.  You have to carry the baby, but I want to take care of you...Oh, if and when you decide, you can come here to live.  I have two more bedrooms, one for you and one for the baby.  There'll come a time when you can't work.  Also, I'll want to make sure you're okay and living here will help with that, but it's your decision.

SARA:  You're very kind, ABRAHAM.  We'll work it out together.

_________

Next blog post will be in two weeks on June 4, 2023.

Hyannis

Starting in the early 1980s, when my daughter Rachel was a little girl and my son Bret was yet to be born, my family, numerous times, would go for a week's vacation during the summer to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  On such visits, we would spend some time in nearby Hyannis which offered many tourist attractions.

President John F. Kennedy put Hyannis on the map as he and his extended family lived in a compound nearby.  We drove by it once.  

I remember dining in restaurants near the water where I would start with a delicious bowl of New England clam chowder.  One time, we took a boat trip to Martha's Vineyard.  Another time, we went to see a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston.

One rainy day on one of our trips to Hyannis, we stopped at a resort to find out more about a time share.  I was just curious and had no intention of buying one.  

However, a slick saleswoman changed my mind and we bought a time share for a week at the resort in Hyannis.  We spent several weeks there over the years.  When we grew less interested in going to the Cape, we sold our time share at a great loss.  Better to buy at the resale market.  

When my son Bret finished his sophomore year at the University of Maryland (2005), he got a summer job broadcasting baseball games for the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod League.  I drove him there from New York and when we arrived the weather had changed drastically from what it had been when we left home.  

It was May, but it seemed as if it was still winter on the Cape.  We went to a store to buy sweat shirts to protect ourselves from the cold weather.  I still have the New England Patriots sweat shirt I bought there.  

Bret spent the summers of both 2005 and 2006 broadcasting baseball games for the Hyannis Mets.  The last game he broadcast there was on my 61st birthday, August 7, 2006, while I was in attendance.         

   

Sabrina

 Sabrina is a 1954 film comedy-drama starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart, in a much different role than last month's In a Lonely Place.  The film was written and directed by Billy Wilder.

In the film, Sabrina (Hepburn) is the daughter of a rich family's chauffeur and is in love with David (Holden), the rich family's younger son.  Because of her youth and lack of sophistication, David never pays any attention to Sabrina.  

Distraught that David plans on seducing another woman at their home on Long Island,  Sabrina attempts suicide by turning on all eight cars in the family's garage and closing the doors.  

One bitter cold day when I was an ignorant teenager, I almost did the same thing without knowing what I was doing.  I did not have a key to my family's house, but was able to enter our garage and turn on one of the family's cars to get warm.  I did not know enough to open the garage door.  I could have died from carbon monoxide had not my parents arrived soon after.

In Sabrina's case, she was saved by David's older brother Linus (Bogart) who discovers what she has done.    

Two years later, Sabrina returns from an education in Paris as an attractive and sophisticated young woman.  At first, David does not recognize her, but when he finally realizes who she is, he invites her to his engagement party (to his fourth wife) where he plans on attempting to make love to her.

The marriage to David's fourth wife was arranged by Linus as a sort of business deal.  The two families that would be joined together would form a profitable venture.  As such, Linus wants to prevent David from having a rendezvous with Sabrina and thus sabotaging the engagement and the business deal.

David has the habit of hiding champagne glasses in his back pocket.  Linus forces him to sit down which has the affect of breaking the glasses and putting David out of commission for some days.

While David is recuperating, Linus spends a lot of time with Sabrina hoping to get her to stop thinking of David.  Linus's plan works so well that the two of them forget David and fall in love with each other.  At the end, the two lovebirds take a cruise to France.

One criticism of Sabrina is that Bogart is 30 years older than Hepburn.  Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon (1957) is 28 years older than Hepburn.  Cary Grant in Charade (1963) is 25 years older than Hepburn.  That was typical of Hollywood during that era, much older male star opposite a young starlet.        

April 30, 1930

On Wednesday, April 30, 1930 (93 years ago), my parents, Margaret Karch and Harry Lasky wed in Oswego, New York.  Is Wednesday a typical day to get married?  

They honeymooned in Bermuda.  

191 days (27 weeks) after their wedding, on November 7, 1930, my mother delivered a stillborn female child at the Oswego Hospital.  Was it a premature birth?

After graduating from the Oswego Normal School (now the State University of New York at Oswego), my mother signed on to teach for a year in the Niagara Falls, NY school system.  Based on my memory of having seen that contractual agreement, it would have ended in June 1930.  My mother presumably ended the agreement two months early to get married.  Why?

My parents met in 1925 when my mother was eighteen years-old.  My father was twenty-three or twenty-four. 

My parents met when my father was taking room and board at my mother's family's home as he had recently moved to Oswego for work.  My grandparents provided the kosher environment which my father wanted.

My mother confessed to me that she fell in love with my father at first sight, but it took him five years to agree to marry her.  In the mean time, he confessed to me that he dated other women.  

My late brother Ted told me that my mother's sister (Aunt Frances, who died in 2004) told him my mother was pregnant "when she walked down the aisle."  How did she know that?

Neither of my parents ever mentioned the stillborn birth to me. 

What ever is the truth about April 30, 1930, it is important to note that my parents remained happily married for more than fifty-one years until my father's death on September 17, 1981.  They always called each other "sweet."  A good memory of mine.

         

Abraham's Son, Chapter 16

 INT. ABRAHAM'S KITCHEN - DAY

It is next morning and ABRAHAM and SARA eat pancakes and drink coffee.  She wears same clothes she came wearing night before and he is in his pajamas.

SARA:  These pancakes are pretty good...maybe better than Blue Bay.

ABRAHAM:  And you're eating them with real maple syrup, not that fake stuff they have at most places...so, when can you know if you're pregnant?

SARA:  In two weeks, I'll get one of those test kits at the Duane Reade.  Then, I'll know.  I'll be back on Thursday the week after next...for dinner.  Okay?  And you can make your lasagna again.  This time I'll eat it.

ABRAHAM nods his approval.

SARA:  Gotta go.  Thanks for breakfast...and last night was great...glad we did it.  

ABRAHAM:  Me, too.  See you in two weeks.  Take care of yourself.

SARA rises from table, goes to door and leaves.  ABRAHAM remains at table eating.

EXT. IN FRONT OF ABRAHAM'S HOUSE - DAY

As SARA leaves, SANDY arrives at ABRAHAM's house.

SARA:  Good morning.

SANDY:  What?  Who are you?  

SARA:  You must be SANDY.  I'm SARA.  He's told me a lot about you.

SANDY:  Did you sleep with him?

SARA:  Can't tell a lie.

SANDY:  You whore.  I should slap your face.

SARA:  I wouldn't try that.  You'd regret it...A better idea would be to go in and talk to ABRAHAM.  He's got hot pancakes and coffee.

SANDY:  I will do no such thing.  I'm leaving.

SANDY heads back toward her car parked in front of house.

SARA:  If you're gonna leave, then give me a ride to my job.  I waitress at the Blue Bay Diner.  I'll even treat you to breakfast.  And we can talk about your boyfriend.

SANDY listens incredulously.