Ken, Bobby, Mel
RIP Ken Osmond, 76, who created the iconic Eddie Haskell of Leave It to Beaver. He appeared in 96 episodes of the original series and 101 of the ‘80’s reboot. There are 30 other titles under his name at IMDb. After Beaver, he found acting work difficult to come by, so he joined the LAPD in 1970. He was wounded three times in the line of duty and retired on disability. He was married from 1969 until his passing and was the father of two sons. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “It surprises me every day that this character is still so popular. I don’t completely understand it, but it’s nice.” Thank you, sir.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, ran another movie I’d never seen as part of its Sunday Night Noir series. The Window (1949) is the story of an imaginative boy who witnesses a murder. No one believes him. Although there are several lapses in logic, the sets and location shooting are first rate, elevating the film well above the ordinary. The four adult principles had fine careers: Arthur Kennedy, Barbara Hale, Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman, but the show belongs to Bobby Driscoll, who had great success as a child actor, began well as an adult, then plunged into the netherworld and was dead by 31 in 1968, found in an alley and buried in Potter’s Field, where his body remains, as a fire destroyed records before his fingerprints were identified. Appearing before a judge following a drug bust, he said: “I had everything. I was earning more than $50,000 a year, working steadily with good parts. Then I started putting all my spare time in my arm. I’m not really sure why I started using narcotics. I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. In no time at all I was using whatever was available, mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it.” There are 53 titles listed under his name at IMDb, the most notable Treasure Island (1950) in which he played Jim Hawkins opposite Robert Newton as Long John Silver. He was a divorced father of three. Imagine their sorrow. Here he is:
The Window received an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing, done by Frederic Knudtson. The fantastic cinematography is credited to Robert De Grasse and William O. Steiner, although I’d guess the director, Ted Tetzlaff, had a hand in it. Before amassing 17 credits at the helm of big and small screen projects, he logged 115 as a cinematographer, the most notable My Man Godfrey (1936). He passed away at 91 in 1995. The screenplay, based on the Aesop fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, was co-written by Cornell Woolrich and Mel Dinelli. Of course, whenever I see a goombah’s name with which I’m unfamiliar, I research it. There isn’t a lot of information on him, but his obit reveals the name of a nephew that also seems of Italian origin. Born in New Mexico, he specialized in suspense, his most notable title was his first, The Spiral Staircase, which has been filmed three times, the most famous in 1946, directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Dorothy McGuire and Ethel Barrymore, who received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role. There are 24 other credits under his name, most of them in TV. He also wrote radio scripts and a 1950 Broadway play, The Man, about a housewife held captive by a killer, starring Dorothy Gish. Dinelli passed away at 79 in 1991. (Facts also from Wiki)
From an article at nypost.com: “Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ‘compassionate’ releases from jail on Rikers Island for supposedly non-dangerous offenders have created a revolving door — as at least 110 have been rearrested.”… Although it’s early, there’s good news in a headline at foxnews.com: “Officials have yet to see coronavirus cases spiking in states that are reopening.”
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