Good & Bad Choices

Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin was published in 1867. Since then it has been revived again and again. IMDb lists 13 film or TV adaptations, two operas, two radio plays, and several theatrical stagings including a musical, Thou Shalt Not, that Harry Connick Jr. composed. Last night, courtesy of Netflix, I watched Marcel Carne’s 1953 version. Since I haven’t read the novel, I can’t speak to comparison. Carne and Charles Spaak collaborated on the screenplay. Set in the ‘50’s, shot in black and white, it is the story of a woman who was cajoled into marrying a cousin by her aunt. It is a dead marriage. She is going through the motions of a life, not living one. Enter a passionate truck driver. The rest is obvious though compelling. Euro icons Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone are the leads. Signoret embodied the worldly woman as well as any actress ever, and Vallone the ardent suitor, although he was also great as Michael’s confessor in The Godfather III (1990). This is a solid film that falls short of greatness. 1000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 7.3 on a scale of ten. Its appeal is probably restricted to fans of the stars and to those interested in how a novel is adapted to the screen. It runs only an hour-and-forty minutes and, remarkably, doesn’t feel like anything was left out. Here are the celluloid lovers:

Terrablock is a barrier used to protect military bases, a quick and less-expensive way to block hundreds of miles of undefended border territory. The entire 1200 mile stretch at our southern border could be installed for less than a billion dollars, far less money than already allocated. According to its manufacturers, even a semi would be unable to penetrate it. And the Army Corps of Engineers would have it in place by election day 2020. This idea should be studied immediately. One potential problem comes to mind — if a company or companies already have a contract to build.

Werner Gustav Doehner, the last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster, has died at his home New Hampshire. He was 90. He was eight when the zeppelin erupted into flames and crashed while docking in Lakehurst, New Jersey, May 6th 1937. RIP. Imagine how surreal it must be to be part of so momentous an event.

Here’s something that bears watching, from a headline at foxnews.com: “Amazon takes large step forward to shelter Seattle’s homeless families.” Nobody would be surprised it the company did it way better than government does.

When watching Euro dramas on WNDT, channel 14–1 on over the air antennas in NYC, I chuckle whenever whoever does the subtitles uses “boink” to describe intercourse. I’ve yet to use it in my own writing, but I may not be able to resist the temptation to slip it in (pun intended) as I wind down work on what will probably be my last book.

It was a great day to sell books on the sidewalk, but few people were interested. My thanks to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music, who bought what I thought was the most interesting title in the display — 1666: Plague, War, and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal.

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