Seven Letters

My life, at the moment, is ruled by seven letters. They are, alphabetically, B,C,D,I,M(twice) and T. Less cryptically they are TCM and IMDB. I fill much of my down time here in Toronto watching classic movies on the wonderful Turner Classic Movie channel. But it is taking me, on average, three hours to watch a ninety minute film. The reason for this is obvious and is a symptom of that most modern complaint.... information overload. No sooner am I settling into the plot of one of Holywood's Golden Age greats than I recognise an actor from countless other movies and simply have to know his name. The film is paused and IMDBpro opened. The name retrieved I need to remind myself of the other films he has been in and catch a glimpse of a familiar face along the way and start to investigate her. Fifteen minutes later I find myself trying to discover exactly how many kangaroos played Skippy and I have to start the movie over.

Of course this random fact gathering indicates an obsessive behaviour. Which has it's roots, in my case, from having left school early. Train spotters and stamp collectors are all in the same boat. I imagine people who completed their education successfully do not have such grasshoppper minds. My bedside table is littered with half read books on subjects ranging from Cosmology to Evolution, covering such esoterica as Quantum Loop Gravity and Devonian Rock formation.

Stephen Fry once told me that he could tell I had an incomplete education just by the fact that I read such books. Anyone who has gone through a university education would never willingly pick up such stuff again. Of course, my lack of education also makes me prone to a sort of mawkish sentimentality. I can be frequently found, late at night, sobbing uncontrollably, reading IMDB, with TCM on pause, as I discover that the fresh faced beauty smiling at me from "The Public Enemy" or "Bombshell" died at the tragically young age of 26 (Jean Harlow in 1937). Equally tragic will be the discovery that the chirpy young songbird, warbling her way through 'Oh, You Beautiful Doll" was to leave films in 1953, join a convent , then marry Fred MacMurray (June Havers) only to live till the age of 80 and pass away in 2005 before I had a chance to love her talent.

But it isn't all wasted youth and missed opportunity. Occasionally you learn of something wonderful.

Luise Rainer won two Oscars, back to back, 1937 and 1938 before retiring from public life. The second of her Oscars, was for a wonderful film called "The Good Earth" in which she starred with the great Paul Muni. This film was recently restored and will be shown at the TCM film festival in Hollywood this April. The first showing of the picture will be introduced by... Luise Rainer herself. She will be 100 years old.