Spring Has Sprung

Friday night’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was a winner. Intrigo: Death of an Author (2018) is an intricately plotted mystery adapted from the literary work of Sweden’s Håkan Nesser, screenplay by Birgitta Bongenhielm and director Daniel Alfredson. Set in Europe, it is the story of a translator who plots the murder of his wife, who is leaving him. Actually, that is only the first phase of the narrative, which expands as it includes a famous writer played by the great Ben Kingsley. Although he receives top billing, the star is really Germany’s Benno Furman, who is in the midst of a highly successful career on the other side of the Atlantic, 128 credits at age 48. I will say no more, as this is the type of flick that forces the viewer to think as it unfolds. It is low-key. Fans of action might be completely bored by it. Alfredson, born in Stockholm, has followed up with two more in the Intrigo series, entirely different casts. He was at the helm of the Swedish versions of the latter two entries of the late Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular Millennium novels. 600+ users at IMDb have rated Intrigo…, forging to a consensus of 5.7 on a scale of ten, too low in my opinion. I say seven. I think fans of the more sophisticated works of the genre would love it. Here are the leads:

RIP TV mainstay Henry Darrow, 87, whose career spanned 1959–2012. He was born Enrique Tomás Delgado Jr. in NYC to Puerto Rican immigrants. He co-starred in 97 episodes of The High Chaparral, 93 of the Santa Barbara soap opera, 81 of three incarnations of Zorro, and he did guest shots on scores of popular prime time shows. There are 148 titles under his name at IMDb. He appeared in popular films such as The Hitcher (1986) and Maverick (1994). And he did stage work as well, playing Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, and the creator of Don Quixote in the one-man show That Certain Cervantes. Thank you, sir.

Good news in this snippet from an article at nypost.com, edited by yours truly: “Hotel occupancy in NYC hit 47% for the week of 3/7–3/13 — the highest weekly average since late June.”

Interesting second amendment development in the halls of congress, headline from foxnews.com: “GOP rep says he intentionally sidestepped House metal detectors to get legal standing to sue Pelosi.”

Something to hide? Another headline from FN: “Dem rep says media shouldn’t see inside border facilities for migrant children.”

And here’s an amusing one in the selective outrage genre: “WH axes staffers over past pot use even though Kamala Harris has admitted she smoked it.”

It was an awesome day for doing business curbside. My thanks to Johnny Boy, who bought Dark Angel by Kim Richardson, The People of The Mist by H. Rider Haggard and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling; and to Bill, who purchased two by John Steinbeck: WWII non-fiction Bombs Away and Zapata, which includes the screenplay the author did for the 1952 film starring Marlon Brando; and to the lovely young woman who bought a Bible in Hebrew; and to the folks who swapped and bought Russian books. The highlight of the session was a visit from Neil of cable access show Della Peppo Village. He was just released from Facebook jail, unjustly accused of bullying. He’s working on an independent project, a film about people 70 and older, what they are most grateful for. I, of course, said I’m grateful to have lived long enough to have completed my literary canon, 12 books. I’m pretty sure I don’t have another in me, and I don’t want to write just to write, although it can be argued that is precisely what I do with the blog. Good luck, Neil.

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