Chap? Cad? Bounder? Rogue? Scallywag? Or just mimicry of the late Alistair Cooke at the start of Masterpiece Theatre? You be the judge.
The Young Master and I both opted for "country colors" and autumnal tones this morning. While the Grand Duchess is especially proud of his improvised Space Needle -- after the one in Seattle, Washington U.S.A. where his maternal grandparents live -- that he built himself, the same cannot be said of her reaction to my vintage Magee Donegal tweed sports jacket. It seems the poor Grand Duchess has an irrational fear of patterned menswear. I ask you, where is the humanity??!!
We might, just might, have a budding sculptor or artist in our midst. The Young Master has recently started to demonstrate surprising and interesting vision in his drawings and improvised structures. Definitely one of the more fascinating facets of parenting to observe.
Comments
By the way I just ordered a collection of film noir DVDs earlier today.
-- Jeff
Best Regards,
Stokes
-- Jeff
A Must-Have Bargain for Film Noir Fans Jun 13 2012
By Terry Sunday - Published on Amazon.com
Right off the bat, I have to assume that the only way anyone can put together a collection of 10 films noir and sell it for less than 10 bucks is to get the movies from the public domain and not have to pay any royalties for them. Usually, collections assembled in that way are pathetic at best, such as the "50 movie packs" of science fiction, westerns and other genre films that you can pick up for a song. Most if not all of the films in such collections are obscure, laughably bad grade-Z stinkers that are a total waste of time to watch. Plus, their video and audio quality typically suck big-time.
That's not the case for "The Film Noir Collection." First, the movies are not that obscure. In fact, some of them are genuine classics. Several are available individually (a quick search found "Whirlpool," "D.O.A." and "Scarlet Street," and there may be others). Eddie Muller covers five of these movies in his fantastic film noir volume "Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir," which gives them a lot of legitimacy. I haven't yet watched them all, but I have run all of them for a few minutes to make sure they played okay and to check out the video and audio quality. It should be no surprise if I say that the video and sound quality vary greatly among the films. They're unrestored and un-remastered, obviously, so their quality doesn't compare with films that have gotten professional treatment. But they're not that bad, either. Most of them are not as sharp as they could be, some are too contrasty and some are not contrasty enough, and the sound levels vary wildly from one to another. But all are very watchable.
The 10 films come five each on two DVDs, each with a main menu only. There are no chapter stops, "making ofs," interviews or any other extras--again, for this price, that shouldn't be a surprise. The whole thing comes in a single plastic case tucked inside an embossed metal tin, which, to my mind, serves absolutely no useful purpose whatsoever, since the graphics on the tin are exactly the same as the graphics on the plastic case. Why not lose the tin and knock the price down a little more? But that's not a complaint. This collection is well worth its price, and any film noir fan should pick it up without a second thought.
I'll remind myself not to meet you in a back alley at night. Personally I'd opt for the Roger Thornhill suit from North by Northwest.
Cheers
PD