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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Tim Riley
The love theme is fitting for everyone passionate about viewing many classic films that could be seen on the TCM channel but are so much better when shared with an appreciative audience on the big screen.
Traditionally, film noir represents a genre of crime dramas with an emphasis on cynicism and sexual tensions that thrived in Hollywood from the early 1920s to the late 1950s.
This dark style remains popular at the TCM Classic Film Festival, in part because Eddie Muller, an expert who founded the Film Noir Foundation, would appear every year to fill in details on each film’s backstory.
It seemed surprising that Muller was not on the list of guests for presentations. For the 1933 crime drama “Blood Money,” the ultimate pre-Code film, his role was filled by Bruce Goldstein, founder of a classic film distribution company.
For starters, “Blood Money,” starring George Bancroft as a shady bail bondsman, was not just a story of civic corruption but included a cross-dressing bit player, jokes about hemorrhoids, and a leading lady who’s a masochistic kleptomaniac.
After the screening, Goldstein shared various clips of the film that were banned in certain states and countries. The most ludicrous of all was the Chicago ban of a gangster talking about killing someone. This would seem ironic given the city’s gritty history of criminal violence.
On the final night, it was great to see Eddie Muller showing up unannounced to present “Open Secret,” a 1948 film noir that was unsettling for the depiction of insidious anti-Semitism running rampant in a post-War neighborhood.
Director John Reinhardt was noted for product so low-budget that Muller said his films often seemed like one reel was missing. That was the case with “Open Secret” when in one glaring situation the transition from one scene to the next left a gaping hole.
Nevertheless, John Ireland, a newly-married veteran, and his wife Jane Randolph, show up to visit an old army buddy who is missing, and then uncover a nest of local bigots operating a neo-Nazi cell to rid the neighborhood of undesirables like the local Jewish camera store owner.
“Open Secret” was thought to have been lost and only available in dingy public-domain prints until it was reconditioned by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The restoration made the film a worthy addition to the film noir canon.
The primarily urban film noir genre didn’t often venture into rural areas, but “Road House,” not the one starring Patrick Swayze, made it work in the 1948 film with Richard Widmark, the owner of a backwoods nightclub, just as vicious as any big city hood.
A tough-talking torch singer, Ida Lupino is a sultry femme fatale who comes to town to be Widmark’s lounge act, and though he is smitten with her, she falls for his best friend Cornel Wilde, setting the stage for a fiery triangle that gets wrapped up in murderous jealousy.
Not in the film noir genre, the 1964 crime drama “The Killers” had been planned to be a TV movie but it was deemed too violent and sexy for a network, and it ended up on a double-bill in theaters.
The notable thing about “The Killers,” aside from a good cast that included Lee Marvin, is that in his last film Ronald Reagan plays the bad for the only time in his career. Completely removed from his good guy image, Reagan viciously slaps his girlfriend Angie Dickinson.
For her part, Dickinson told the audience that Reagan hated the movie and only took the part because movie mogul Lew Wasserman would only let the future governor and president out of his contract if he made this film.
The most laughs came with the improbably titled “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” a screwball comedy in which spoiled teenager Shirley Temple has a crush on playboy Cary Grant, who lectures on art at her school assembly.
Meanwhile, Grant falls for Temple’s older sister Myrna Loy, the local judge, whose suitor is district attorney Rudy Vallee, which leads to jealous retribution that lands Grant briefly in jail.
Excelling at comedies like “The Awful Truth” and “His Girl Friday,” Grant gets his fair share of hilarious one-liners. Responding to the insanity around him, Grant tells the court psychiatrist to “come back in an hour. I’ll be crazy by then.”
In another great screwball comedy “My Favorite Wife,” Cary Grant has his lost-at-sea wife Irene Dunne declared legally dead so he can remarry Gail Patrick just before she reappears, eager to get her family back.
Complications set in when Grant doesn’t know how to break the news to his new bride and then jealously discovers his missing wife was shipwrecked on an island with the handsome Randolph Scott.
With several of his films on view, TCM delivered a mini-Cary Grant festival, a not altogether bad thing.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Mendocino College
Mendocino College students have been working hard in and outside of class producing a wide range of work including ceramics, sculpture, photography, textiles, paintings, drawings and mixed media works.
Mendocino County is known locally, nationally, and internationally as an artist’s mecca. This annual show of the Mendocino College students’ artwork reflects that history in its quality, abundance, and creative diversity.
The student show runs from April 22 through May 17, with a gala opening on Thursday, April 25, from 4 to 6 p.m., featuring delicious treats to delight the taste buds, dancers to delight the eyes, music for the ears, and student artists documenting it all in sketches, drawings, and paintings being done live and on the spot!
The show can also be viewed during the Spring Dance Festival May 1 to 5, the UCCA Concert on Saturday, May 13, and the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra Concert May 18 and 19.
Regular gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and by special appointment.
For more information call 707-468-3207 or email
The Mendocino College Ukiah campus is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The annual winter/spring “Concerts with Conversation” series at the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake continues on Sunday, April 28, at 3 p.m. in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the hotel.
This unique program features Steve Seskin, one of the leading country songwriters and entertainers in the business today.
Seskin will be backed by David Landon, a master guitarist and songwriter in his own right.
“David Landon is a good friend whose band we’ve lucky to have at the Blue Wing on occasion,” says Tallman owner Bernie Butcher. “When David mentioned that he’d done a number of fun educational gigs with the great Steve Seskin, I jumped at the chance to book them both for a concert.”
Seskin is popular in Nashville and throughout the country for his songwriting skills. His material has been recorded by Tim McGraw, Neal McCoy, John Michael Montgomery, Kenny Chesney, Collin Raye, Peter Frampton, Waylon Jennings, Peter Paul and Mary, and many others.
Seskin has won many awards over a long career. His song "Don't Laugh At Me,” featured in the video below, was a finalist for CMA "Song of the Year" in 1999 and he was nominated to the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
He enjoys mentoring other songwriters and playing his own material in front of people interested in learning more about the songwriting process.
Singer, songwriter and guitarist David Landon began his professional career in Paris, where he was a steady fixture in the European club and festival circuit.
Landon returned to the US in 1995 and has since formed his own band, released 5 CDs and played in countless recording sessions. He and his band are a favorite at the Blue Wing and he has been featured at the annual Blue Wing Blues Festival.
Tickets for the April 28 concert at $25 plus tax are available by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0. Coffee and cookies are served to guests.
The hotel is also offering a 10-percent discount on hotel bookings that weekend for people purchasing tickets to the concert.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center’s Restore project features a writers’ workshop with Clive Matson this Sunday, April 21, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Adults and children age 12 and up of all levels of experience are invited to come to one or monthly writers workshops that will be offered until May 2019.
A long-time Bay Area author and poet, Matson uses his own methodology based on his book “Let the Crazy Child Write!” to allow writers to delve into their unconscious and express that itch or urge that the creative unconscious wants to release.
Matson’s workshops focus on writing and sharing with positive feedback, providing a safe and encouraging environment for writers of all levels of experience.
As Matson expresses it, “We recognize three voices in the writer’s psyche: ‘Editor,’ ‘Writer’ and ‘Crazy Child’ – or creative unconscious. The Editor is the ‘should ‘ voice, as in: you should write everything perfectly the first time, you should make money with your writing, and, you should make no spelling errors. The Writer organizes your writing life, finds blank paper and pens that work, makes time to sit at the computer or go to a coffeehouse with a notebook. The Crazy Child is the urge to write, that itch in your psyche or body that wants to get out into the world. We’ll tell the Editor and Writer to take a walk and let your Crazy Child write whatever it wants.”
To learn more about Clive Matson, check out his Web site at http://matsonpoet.com/.
Please register in advance for this and all Restore classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/restore , email
Class this Sunday is one of two final Restore writing workshops. The last one will be on May 11 with Georgina Marie and Casey Carney. Participants are encouraged to submit work to contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images at class this Sunday, April 21.
Writers may also read at an Open Mic Spoken Word event on April 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Woodland Community College Culinary room, and at a curated reading on June 1 at the re-opening of EcoArts Sculpture Walk 2019 between 5:30 to 8 p.m.
MAC’s first chapbook, “Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art,” is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC Web site.
The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques. The project comes to a close in May. Remaining classes in printmaking, and in creation and installation of a collaborative sculpture for Rabbit Hill are coming up. Visit www.middletownartcenter.org/events to learn more.
The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses, and individuals.
Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s important work in communities and schools throughout California.
Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in Restore, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.
Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening at MAC.