1. Debbie worked much of the day today preparing to return to work on Monday. The one lingering symptom of her Covid case is a cough. She coughed some in the hour or so after she came down from bed, but as the day progressed, she coughed much less and less. Early in the evening, Debbie went next door and enjoyed a great conversation with Christy over cocktails, another sign that she's improving.
2. David Lean is probably most famous for epic movies he directed like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago. He also directed much beloved adaptation of two Charles Dickens novels, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.
I'm more familiar with David Lean's smaller movies, having recently watched A Brief Encounter and Blithe Spirit, with plans to watch This Happy Breed before long.
Today, I turned to the reliable streaming service BFIPlayer Classics and clicked on David Lean's comic masterpiece, Hobson's Choice (1954).
I really can't get enough of British comedies, especially those made in the 1940s and 50s, and I was especially stoked to watch this movie because it features Charles Laughton.
Not too long ago, I watched Laughton as an arrogant, highly skilled, blustering barrister in Witness for the Prosecution, my introduction to his skill at bringing bombastic characters to life with his nimble physical girth and his malleable face, what could be considered his ugliness -- he's definitely not a dashing and handsome leading man!
As the widowed, alcoholic proprietor of a bootmaking shop, Laughton immediately establishes his character, Henry Hobson as a tempest of ill temper, insults, bombastic autocracy as the father of three adult daughters, and drunkenness.
I immediately thought Laughton would dominate this movie, but he didn't. No, his oldest daughter, Maggie, played with firm resolve and tenderness by Brenda de Banzie is more than Laughton/Hopson's equal and is touchingly complimented by John Mills, who plays a humble bootmaker Will Mossop, the man Maggie is determined to marry, very much against her father's will.
Like many comedies, Hobson's Choice is a story of love and marriage for all three of Hobson's daughters and Henry Hobson serves the plot as a most formidable force looking to block his daughters from marrying the men they love.
While I clicked on this movie primarily to watch Charles Laughton at work, by the end of the movie I was swept away by the relationship that developed between the characters played by Brenda de Banzie and John Mills and savored how each of them revealed more and more dimensions of their characters as their growing affection for each other freed up their tenderness, intelligence, and courage.
3. Debbie turned the pot roast, vegetables, and braising liquid we at on Thursday into an awesome beef stew for dinner tonight.
I made the eating the stew at least doubly enjoyable by watching three episodes of Perry Mason.
Recently I read Spencer Tracy described as the Rock of Gibraltar as an actor and tonight made me wonder if there was ever a more rock solid, Rock of Gibraltar series on television than Perry Mason.
Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake are unflappable as they calmly and steadily investigate each case that comes before Mason. In every instance, it looks like Hamilton Burger and the police have an airtight case against the character Perry Mason defends, but in one case after another, we learn that appearances can be deceiving, that things are not what they seem, and the Perry Mason team gets to the bottom of what really happened and the defendant is not guilty and the crime's real perpetrator is revealed in the court room.
Referring back to yesterday's post, there's not a doubt in my mind that watching Perry Mason as a kid helped me become a believer. Not once did I think it was implausible that this calm, intelligent attorney and his team would win every case, nor did I ever think it was implausible that poor old Hamilton Burger would have the longest losing streak in the history of District Attorneys!
No. Just as I did tonight, I surrendered myself to the development of these stories, wondered how Perry Mason would get his client out of this pickle, and, without exception, felt the satisfaction that came with Perry Mason winning another case.
Now, did I think as I got older and paid more attention to what happens in courts in the USA that things would always turn out in actual courts the way they did on Perry Mason?
No way.
But knowing that court cases in the actual world rarely work out the way they did on Perry Mason never diminished my belief in what I saw transpire in every Perry Mason episode, never lessened my enjoyment of watching this show.
The same was true tonight.
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