Gallimaufry (book review)

A new book review from The Movie Snob.

Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits, by Joseph Epstein (2020).  I have sung the praises of essayist Joseph Epstein on this blog many times before.  This is a new collection of 57 essays that he has published in various periodicals, mostly within the last five years.  As ever, I found his prose a pleasure to read, and I usually learned something along the way.  Quite a few of these pieces are colorful mini-biographies on people as varied as the ancient Greek scoundrel Alcibiades, George Gershwin, and Susan Sontag.  How does Epstein know so much about so much?  I have no idea, but I hope he continues writing for many years to come.

Born to Kill

A new DVD review from The Movie Snob.

Born to Kill  (B).  This film noir from 1947 was directed by none other than Robert Wise, who would go on to direct such films as West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  It’s an efficient little thriller.  Claire Trevor (Stagecoach) plays Helen, a freshly divorced socialite with a heart of ice.  When she meets the amazingly square-shouldered Sam (Lawrence Tierney, Dillinger), sparks start to fly.  And when she finds out he’s a cold-blooded killer, her attraction to him only seems to grow!  Needless to say, Helen is not thrilled when Sam marries Helen’s wealthy, beautiful, and naïve sister Georgia (Audrey Long, Desperate), and things spiral out of control from there.  Nice supporting work from Elisha Cook Jr., who had a memorable guest role on the original Star Trek as an eccentric, book-loving attorney.  My DVD has a commentary track by film-noir expert Eddie Muller, and I listened to some of it after watching the film.  It was very interesting—interesting enough that I’m hoping to go back and listen to the whole thing sometime . . . .

The Golden Ass (book review)

A book review from The Movie Snob.

The Golden Ass, by Apuleius (translated by Sarah Ruden, 2011).  It seems that around the middle of the second century A.D. this fellow Apuleius wrote what Ruden calls the only complete Latin novel.  It is the bizarre story of a Greek fellow named Lucius who, while wandering about in Greece, lets his curiosity gets the better of him and gets magically transformed into . . . a donkey. Lucius tells this story of his asinine adventures and (mostly) misadventures in the first person, and he’s fond of digressions as he also reports other stories told by other characters. The stories and adventures are usually outlandish tales of greed and lust, featuring murderous brigands, adulterous wives, cuckolded husbands, fiendish sorcery, poisonings, suicides, and much, much more. But there’s also an extended rendition of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. And a passing reference to the trial of Socrates, which would have already been 500+ years in the past! And it’s all told in an amazing style that constantly veers between sober sophistication and silly slang, with splashes of alliteration that Ruden assures us are in the original Latin too. It’s a rollicking ride of a book!