1. I felt recovered enough and energetic enough to drive to CdA today to take care of a handful of things that need some attention. But, wouldn't you know it, I got waylaid by an obsession. I cared a little too much about that program on cable tv in Eugene in 1980 called Phil's Philms featuring Holman the Poleman, Phil Holman. So, rather than spring into action and hit the road, I dove into the Eugene Register Guard archives via Google and, lo and behold, not only did I figure out the channel I tuned in to for Phil's Philms, I found the notice in the March 1, 1980 Register Guard of the first Phil's Philms I watched. It all came back to me. In 1980, one of the local cable television offerings was KOBI, Channel 5 in Medford. I thought earlier this week I'd watched Phil's Philms on a Eugene station, but, no, I watched it on the Medford station and the first movie I watched on his show was Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run.
It's a small detail from my life forty-two years ago, living in the Westmoreland married student housing project in West Eugene, desperately hoping I could survive as a graduate student.
Small detail, yes.
A source of elation?
Absolutely.
2. As I thought more today about KOZY-TV in Eugene and the old movies they played and about trips I used to make to Everybody's Records on 5th and Willamette to rent old movies (because they still carried rentals in the beta format) and as I thought about how much I loved Woody Allen's homage to screwball comedies and escapist cinema, The Purple Rose of Cairo, I also thought more about the short video I watched of Patton Oswalt reflecting upon screwball comedies.
His main point, especially for the contemporary movie watcher, is that a person has to approach these movies with an open mind. They are madcap plunges into absurdity, satire, confusion, snappy and witty language, and, most of all, into an adept blend of fantasy and realism.
I surrendered myself to Patton Oswalt's mild mandate and started my tour of screwball comedies with Howard Hawk's 1934 gem, Twentieth Century.
On the face of it, Twentieth Century is about an egomaniacal theater impresario (John Barrymore) who brings an unformed, rawly talented leading lady into his theater company (Carole Lombard) and how their stunningly successful collaboration falls apart.
Coincidentally, while her career soars and his plummets, they both happen to be on the same cross country train (the Twentieth Century) together and he begins a coast to coast effort to woo her back into his theater company.
The movie's electricity is powered by the merry war, the skirmishes of wit that take place between Barrymore and Lombard. But, at the same time, I enjoyed the devilish and often random hijinks of several supporting characters and comic bits they engage in as the Twentieth Century blasts across the USA.
As I further scanned the Criterion Channel screwball comedy listings, I decided to watch an early Spencer Tracy outing Me and My Gal (1932) as he plays a law enforcement officer who falls in love with a waitress at a diner played by Joan Bennett. Raoul Walsh directed this movie, a blend of screwball wooing and mobster crime. Unlike Twentieth Century which is light, witty, full of slapstick gags, and whose mood only occasionally darkens, Me and My Gal combines a homicidal story line and Spencer Tracy's hunting down of an escaped convict with the nutty love story and some slapstick passages featuring a waterfront drunk and so the movie strikes fear in its audience while also giving us plenty to laugh and feel warm and fuzzy about.
3. In the midst of watching these chaotic comedies, I also tuned in to the Memphis/Alabama basketball game. I wanted to get an even clearer picture of Alabama's talent and style of play than I already had in anticipation of the Gonzaga/Alabama tilt on CBS Saturday morning at 10:00.
Memphis gave Alabama a good test. Memphis exerted maximum effort, especially on defense, but they didn't have the firepower on offense to overcome Alabama's barrage of three pointers and their both powerful and cagey drives to the iron.
Alabama prevailed, 91-88.
If Gonzaga can put together an effort that tops Alabama, I'll be intrigued (and happy) to see it. In my mind, Gonzaga enters this game an underdog. I would like to be able to say what I think the Zags have to do beat Alabama, but I don't know (aside from score more points). Only if they do it will I be able to look back and say, "Ah! That's what it took!"
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