THE MT VOID
04/05/24 -- Vol. 42, No. 40, Whole Number 2322
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.netCo-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
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Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 22 (DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE,
ROLLERBALL, KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT) (film reviews
by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
Hugo Award Finalists Announced
Blackface (letter of comment by Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (THE PENGUIN BOOK OF MURDER MYSTERIES)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 22 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)
This is the twenty-second batch of mini-reviews, all older films.
DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1960): DARBY O'GILL AND THE
LITTLE PEOPLE reminded me of THE WICKER MAN (1973). Given that
DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE is a G-rated Disney film, and
THE WICKER MAN is most definitely an R-rated horror film, this may
seem like an odd statement. But both of them use attempt to fool
the audience with a trick in the credits.
In DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, Disney credits King Brian,
saying, "My thanks to King Brian of Knocknasheega and his
Leprechauns, whose gracious co-operation made this picture
possible. -Walt Disney"
In THE WICKER MAN, the credits read, "The Producer would like to
thank The Lord Summerisle and the people of his Island off the west
coast of Scotland for this privileged insight into their religious
practices and for their generous co-operation in the making of this
film."
Everyone comments on FARGO (and other films) which claim to be
based on true stories but aren't, but DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE
PEOPLE and THE WICKER MAN add a layer of subtlety which is rather
charming.
Released theatrically 22 June 1960.
Film Credits: <
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052722/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/darby_ogill_and_the_little_people>
ROLLERBALL (1975): Our film and book group watched the original
1975 ROLLERBALL and read the short story of the same name. The
themes were are pertinent now as then, but the film does have
problems. There was (in my opinion) far too much of the sports
aspect. Obviously one of the ideas behind the film was that the
crowds like violent sports--and the more violent, the better. The
uniforms and equipment purposely invoke gladiatorial contests, and
the progression of rule changes to make the game even more violent
seems to meet with the approval of the crowds. The message pushed
by the corporations--that it is the team, not the individual, that
matters, and hence employees are just interchangeable units--is one
that still persists.
There are times that I was reminded of ZARDOZ in some of the
pastimes of the idle rich. The way women are treated seemed to be
inspired by how they were called "furniture" in SOYLENT GREEN. And
the use of sharp glass vanes to give the appearance of openness
while actually enclosing a cage/trap was a nice touch. [-ecl]
Released theatrically 25 June 1975.
Film Credits: <
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073631/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rollerball>
KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT (1964): I just watched KISSES FOR MY
PRESIDENT, and a painful experience it was too. It was the first
film with a female President of the United States, but it was just
as patronizing as you might expect, and with an ending that meets
all one's expectations for a film like this made in 1960. Everyone
seems totally clueless about having a "First Gentleman" instead of
a "First Lady": the bedroom assigned to him was more feminine that
anything outside of a farce, he is left to wander around the White
House rather than being taken around to familiarize himself with
it, and people still treat the President as if she's still a
housewife. From the post-Hillary, post-Chastain era, this looks
totally ludicrous. Actually, it probably looked fairly ludicrous
even then. Polly Bergen is at times at least somewhat
Presidential, though not consistently. Fred MacMurray is totally
at a loss as "First Gentleman", even though Bergen must have had a
long career in politics before she became President. And the
Secret Service seems not just inept, but positively derelict in
duty. (Yes, this was made before the Kennedy assassination, but
even so the Secret Service would not have let the First Gentleman
get in a car alone with a clearly unbalanced foreign dictator, or
visit an ex-girlfriend alone without explicit instructions from
him.)
Released theatrically 21 August 1964.
Film Credits: <
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058266/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kisses_for_my_president>
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo Award Finalists Announced
We are not going to include the entire list here (it is over 200
lines long). It can be found at
<
https://glasgow2024.org/hugo-awards/2024-hugo-award-finalists/>.
We will list the two "major" categories, and will actually include
all the info for them (in the Roman alphabet), rather than just the
titles and authors:
Best Novel:
- THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SIRAFI by Shannon Chakraborty
(Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK)
- THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
- SOME DESPERATE GLORY by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
- STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK)
- TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
- WITCH KING by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:
- BARBIE, screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, directed
by Greta Gerwig (Warner Bros. Studios)
- DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, screenplay
by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Michael Gilio,
directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
(Paramount Pictures)
- NIMONA, screenplay by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor, directed
by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Annapurna Animations)
- POOR THINGS, screenplay by Tony McNamara, directed
by Yorgos Lanthimos (Element Pictures)
- SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, screenplay by Phil Lord,
Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham, directed
by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson
(Columbia Pictures / Marvel Entertainment / Avi Arad Productions
/ Lord Miller / Pascal Pictures / Sony Pictures Animation)
- THE WANDERING EARTH II, based on the novel by Liu Cixin,
screenplay by Yang Zhixue, Frant Gwo, Gong Geer, and Ye Ruchang,
script consultant Wang Hongwei, directed by Frant Gwo
(CFC Pictures Ltd / G!Film (Beijing) Studio Co. Ltd
/ Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communication Co, Ltd
/ China Film Co. Ltd)
Glasgow reports:
The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the
final ballot, but declined nomination:
Best Novel – SYSTEM COLLAPSE, by Martha Wells
Best Novelette – "The Far North" by Hai Ya
Best Related Work: Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood’s promotional tweets
for THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR
Best Editor, Long Form: Natasha Bardon
Best Fan Writer: Camestros Felapton
The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the
final ballot, but were not eligible for specific reasons:
Best Novel – COSMO WINGS by Jiang Bo – publication in 2024
Best Fancast - Discover X: interviews by Tina Wong –
professional production; also qualified in the Best Related
Work category.
Best Fancast – Diu Diu Sci Fi Radio – also a professional
production.
If/when there is a website showing where some of the short fiction
works can be accessed free on-line, we will provide that URL.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Blackface (letter of comment by Gary McGath)
In response to Evelyn's comments on blackface in the 03/29/24 issue
of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:
Evelyn wrote, "Is TCM having a theme of blackface and racial
stereotypes this month? We have: THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON
(1956): A combination of progressiveness (interracial romance) on
one hand, and racial stereotyping and yellowface (Marlon Brando as
a Japanese) on the other." [-ecl]
It annoys me whenever I see the term "blackface" used in a trivial
way. Blackface was a device used by the minstrel shows of the 19th
century. It isn't simply dark makeup, but *caricature*. You can
see it, for example, in the final scene of the 1927 THE JAZZ
SINGER. In the minstrel shows, it was part of a shtick which made
black people objects of ridicule. "Coon songs," sung in fake
dialect, generally went along with it. Even black performers
sometimes had to wear that makeup, which helps to show that it
wasn't just to make the actors look like black people.
Using terms like "blackface," "yellowface," etc. for makeup that
simply alters a performer's skin tone trivializes what it was.
[-gmg]
Evelyn responds:
I understand what you are saying, but you are fighting a losing
battle, because the terms have come to mean having actors
portraying an ethnicity or race other than their own with the use
of make-up. I think we can agree, though, that Mickey Rooney in
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S is definitely yellowface. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF MURDER MYSTERIES edited by Michael Sims
(Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-313753-5) is, thank goodness, not a
doorstop of a book. It is about 325 pages with thirteen murder
mysteries from the nineteenth century. Sims gives a couple of
pages of introduction for each story (and author).
Sims definitely reveals a twenty-first sensibility, both in his
overall introduction (where he talks about how people of color,
women, and LGBTQ folks were considered the outsider in stories of
this period) and in the individual introductions, where he also
warns of derogatory racial terminology (which is much better than
re-writing the language in the story).
Sims does make a goof when he explains why there are no Sherlock
Holmes or Auguste Dupin stories: "The world does not need another
reprint of 'A Scandal in Bohemia' or 'The Murders in the Rue
Morgue.'" What's the goof? "A Scandal in Bohemia" is not a murder
mystery.
The stories are clearly of a different era, and so will appeal
primarily to those who have enjoyed other, better-known stories of
the era. For the reader who has read Doyle and Poe, but prefers
modern murder mysteries, however, there is little to appeal.
Somewhere in between these two periods would be authors such as
Jacques Futrelle ("The Thinking Machine" stories), Baroness Orczy
("The Man in the Corner" stories), and others. These can be found
in the "Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" series edited by Hugh Greene.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's
knowledge of the facts -- the less you know the hotter
you get.
--Bertrand Russell
MT VOID, 04/05/24 -- Vol. 42, No. 40, Whole Number 2322