Belita & John
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, ran another film I’d never seen, The Hunted (1948), part of its Sunday Night Noir series. It stars Preston Foster as a police Lieutenant who helped send his ex-girlfriend up river on a robbery charge. After a four-year stretch, she is paroled and insists on her innocence. The cop is skeptical. Rather talky, the flick’s pace doesn’t pick up until late in the scenario. Its most interesting aspect is the female lead, with whom I’d been completely unfamiliar — Belita. There are only 13 titles under her name at IMDb. She is not defined by her movie career. Born in England in 1923, she trained in dance from the age of two. She was also an ice skater and competed in the 1936 Olympics at the age of twelve. She then turned pro. Producers hoped she would be another Sonja Henie. Although that didn’t quite work out, she had a spectacular run on and off the ice. On the stage she did The Cherry Orchard, Twelfth Night, Ulysses in Nighttown and Damn Yankees! She was taught mime by Marcel Marceau, and it showed in her skating sequence in The Hunted. Of course, she appeared in the Ice Capades. An uber woman, she spoke four languages and played violin. Here’s a surprising quote attributed to her: “I hated the ice. I hated the cold, the smell, everything about it. I only did it for the money.” She passed away at 82 in 2005.
RIP John Saxon, 84. Born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn, his career began in 1954 and will end with a posthumous release in 2021. There are 198 titles under his name at IMDb. He won a Golden Globe as the Most Promising Newcomer — Male for This Happy Feeling (1958). A black belt in Karate, he was a natural for Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973). He also starred in the original Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Fluent in Italian, he did several films in Italy. He made numerous guest appearances on popular prime time TV shows, and did a season each of The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, and Falcon Crest. Here’s a neat bit of trivia: during high school he worked at a Coney Island archery concession. Well done, goombah. Thank you. Here he is in character in The Appaloosa (1966), a role for which he received high praise, playing opposite Marlon Brando, and which garnered him a second GG nomination:
Here’s a foxnews.com headline that sums up politics in a nutshell: “Michigan county treasurer rebuked for seizing retiree’s home over $8 tax debt.” More than 100,000 homeowners in the state have fallen victim to an aggressive property tax law. Will those who cannot meet payments because of Corona suffer a similar fate? Is it as bad as it seems or is there more to the story?
The best I could do with parking today was 30 yards from the shade of Avenue Z just past E. 13th. To minimize the toil, I put out less than 50% of the wares. There was a stiff breeze blowing, which took some sting out of the heat. My thanks to the woman who bought two books in Russian, and to The Quiet Man, who purchased two books on CD; and to the guy who came along playing a harmonica, who selected a book in Russian and two instructionals on Italian. I asked if he was a bluesman and he blew a few more notes. He said he was scheduled to be a part of a Donovan tour back in the day, but it was cancelled. A repeat customer, I always wonder if he’s homeless, one of these geniuses unable to hold a job… There were also two other instances of note in today’s session. I asked Eve, who raved about Class of ’67, to rate the intensity of its violence on a scale of ten. She said nine… And Herbie, a diabetic, was thrilled to hear what the news channels he follows have failed to report — Trump’s executive order on the lowering of drug prices. I advised him, if he doesn’t see a significant decrease in the cost of insulin by mid August, to check into it… And then it was time to haul the stuff to the car. As slowly as I worked, I was exhausted during the walk home. I hope I get lucky with parking tomorrow.
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