Henry & More
RIP Hollywood icon Henry Silva, 95. Born in Brooklyn, of Latino and Sicilian descent, his career spanned 1950–2001. There are 140 titles under his name at IMDb. I wonder how many had him playing a villain, at which he excelled. He quit school at 13 and supported himself as a dishwasher, then waiter. He earned a spot in the prestigious Actors Studio, which led to a Broadway role in Michael V. Gazzo’s A Hatful of Rain, which co-starred fellow students Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Harry Guardino and Anthony Franciosa. He reprised the role in the 1957 film adaptation. Here are a few of the movies in which he appeared: Viva Zapata! (1952), The Manchurian Candidate (1960), Johnny Cool (1963), Dick Tracy (1990), both the 1960 and 2001 versions of Ocean’s Eleven. He made a lot of appearances on prime-time TV, including on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and, of course, The Untouchables, and he did a few spaghetti westerns. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “Funny thing over here [America] they see me as a bad guy; in Europe they see me as a hero.” Married three times, he is the father of two sons. Well done, sir. Thank you. Photo from Google Images:
Friday night’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was a winner: Alone (2020), a familiar theme well executed. It’s the story of a young woman recovering from personal horror who, while traveling in a rural area, encounters a murderer, probable serial killer. Its best aspects are the psychology used by the nutjob, the suspense, and the locations, shot in Portland, Oregon. Jules Wilcox and Mark Menchaca are excellent as the antagonists. I was completely unfamiliar with each despite their impressive resumes. That is also the case with director John Hyams, who has extensive experience in TV, which explains why the work is so polished. This was Sweden’s Mattias Olsson’s fourth script, two others being shorts. 20,000+ users at IMDb have rated Alone, forging to a consensus of 6.2 on a scale of ten. It returned only $600,000 at the box office. I doubt its budget was more than a few million, and hope DVD sales, rental and streaming have closed the gap for this worthy flick. The violence is not as graphic as many films, and the profanity is minimal. It is grounded, barely straining credulity. Running time is a bit more than 90 minutes. Here are the leads in character, photo from GI:
Politics is almost always infuriating and demoralizing. The immigration issue is providing entertainment. Here’s more, headline from nypost.com: “Martha’s Vineyard local calls on Obamas to open their $12M mansion to migrants.” Yes, by all means, and their other mansions as well.
Problem in Geriatric Park, headline from NYP: “‘Dead or alive’: Miami Beach considers paying bounty for iguanas.” Photo from GI:
Maybe there will be a celebration on the White House lawn for this too, unearthed by a Google search: “The S&P 500, one of the broadest measures of the US stock market and the economy, is down 2.7% since January 20, 2021. Stocks fell into the red for the Biden era following Monday’s 3.9% market plunge.”
For the first time in months I lucked into a Saturday parking spot on Bay Parkway. It looked like below average return until the retired judge came along and bought: The Scarlatti Inheritance by Robert Ludlum, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White; Lady: Lisa Lyon, a tiny pictorial by Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Chatwin; Acupressure’s Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments by Michael Reed Gach; and The Everything Catholicism Book: Discover the Beliefs, Traditions, and Tenets of the Catholic Church by Helen Keeler and Susan Grimbly. My thanks, and also to the young man who purchased Marvel’s Spider-Girl in beautifully illustrated paperback book form and A Year Off: A Story About Traveling the World — And How to Make It Happen For You by Alexandra Brown and David Brown; and to the gentleman who took home a thriller by Stephen Hunter in Russian; and to the woman who treated her beautiful little girl to an installment in The Amazing World of Gumball series by Megan Brennan and Ben Bocquelet.
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