Film Review: The Butler (More Hollywood Leftist Lies)

And yet another Hollyweird Leftist film I'll be sure to miss. I hope it's not "against the rules" to post this article intact. I can't find the link for it on-line.  Michael Reagan is one of my favorite political authors. I think his piece says it all, especially since he was there.

~ Sparky

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The Butler
By Michael Reagan · August 22, 2013

There you go again, Hollywood.

You've taken a great story about a real person and real events and twisted it into a bunch of lies.

You took the true story of Eugene Allen, the White House butler who served  eight presidents from 1952 to 1986, and turned it into a clichéd "message movie."

"Lee Daniels' The Butler'" stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, a fictional character supposedly based on Eugene Allen's real life.

But let's compare the two White House butlers.

Guess which one grew up in segregated Virginia, got a job at the White House  and rose to become maître d hote, the highest position in White House service?

Guess which one had a happy, quiet life and was married to the same woman for 65 years? And who had one son who served honorably in Vietnam and never made a peep of protest through the pre- and post-civil rights era?

Now guess which butler grew up on a Georgia farm, watched the boss rape his mother and then, when his father protested the rape, watched the boss put a bullet through his father's head?

Guess which butler feels the pain of America's racial injustices so deeply that he quits his White House job and joins his son in a protest movement?

And guess which butler has a wife (Oprah Winfrey) who becomes an alcoholic and has a cheap affair with the guy next door? (I'm surprised it wasn't the vice president.)

After comparing Hollywood's absurd version of Eugene Allen's life story with the truth, you wonder why the producers didn't just call it "The Butler from Another Planet."

Screenwriter Danny Strong says he was trying to present a "backstage kind of view of the White House" that portrayed presidents and first ladies as they really were in everyday life.

Well, I was backstage at the White House -- a few hundred times. I met and knew the real butler, Mr. Allen, and I knew a little about my father.

Portraying Ronald Reagan as a racist because he was in favor of lifting economic sanctions on South Africa for its policy of apartheid.

If you knew my father, you'd know he was the last person on Earth you would call a racist.

If Strong had gotten his "facts" from the Reagan biographies, he'd have learned that when my father was playing football at Eureka College one of his best friends was a black teammate.

Strong also would have learned that my father invited black players home for dinner and once, when two players were not allowed to stay in the local hotel, he invited them to stay overnight at his house.

Screenwriter Strong also might have found out that when my father was governor of California he appointed more blacks to positions of power than any of predecessors -- combined.

It's appalling to me that someone is trying to imply my father was a racist. He and Nancy and the rest of the Reagan family treated Mr. Allen with the utmost respect.

It was Nancy Reagan who invited the butler to dinner — not to work but as guest. And it was my father who promoted Mr. Allen to maître d'hote.

The real story of the White House butler doesn't imply racism at all. It's simply Hollywood liberals wanting to believe something about my father that was never there.

My father's position on lifting the South African sanctions in the '80s had nothing to do with the narrow issue of race. It had to do with the geopolitics of the Cold War.

But facts don't matter to Hollywood's creative propagandists. Truth is too complicated and not dramatic enough for scriptwriters, who think in minute terms, not the big picture, when it comes to a conservative.

Despite what Hollywood's liberal hacks believe, my father didn't see people in colors. He saw them as individual Americans. If the liberals in Hollywood -- and Washington -- ever start looking at people the way he did, the country will be a lot better off.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan

"Avatar" Just Another Anti-American Movie

Avatar
Another 'save your money and buy a DVD' moment. Apparently, the new Avatar movie is not worth blowing one's hard earned American money on.

(Avatar is) over-hyped (un)believable tripe that spews political messages that 70% of America doesn't believe in.

[--]

... Debbie Schlussel, (hattip Saberpoint), thinks that "Avatar" stinks to high heaven. Long, boring, unoriginal. And oh-yah uber-left too.

[--]

Smurf-like natives made to look like overgrown American Indians, complete with warpaint, mohawks, and long ponytails (that have computer-like USB cable tendrils in them, which can communicate with nature–ludicrous). Does that sound like earth-shattering stuff to you? They looked like Jar Jar Binks with arrowheads.

So, my advice is don't waste your money or your brain on more Hollywood sewage. Stay home and watch a nice old movie or a REAL nature show. You'll be richer in spirit and in the pocket. $$

Source: Skip Avatar This Weekend, Stay Home And Watch Seven Brides For Seven Brothers by Left Coast Rebel

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (1987)

Hubby first watched "Manon of the Spring" after his first colon surgery. He had suffered a ruptured colon from diverticulitis in March 1989 and almost died (I had no idea colons can burst until this happened!). It was truly God's mercy that I got him to the emergency room on time. He had to have a second surgery six weeks later to put everything back together again. It was pretty arduous time for us.

Anyway ...

He was recovering at home, alone, depressed that his life would never be the same, and he watched this on one of the movie channels. It really spoke to him. So, he's enjoyed this series of movies every since. The actor Yves Montand is one of his favorites.

This post is for him.


First in the series is Jean de Florette.

CAST:
Yves Montand ... Cesar Soubeyran dit Le Papet
Daniel Auteuil ... Ugolin
Emmanuelle Béart ... Manon (as Emmanuelle Beart)

ABOUT THE MOVIE:
Co-adapted by director Claude Berri from a novel by Marcel Pagnol, this hugely successful French historical drama concerns a bizarre battle royale over a valuable natural spring in a remote French farming community. City dweller Jean Cadoret (Gérard Depardieu) assumes ownership of the spring when the original owner is accidentally killed by covetous farmer Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand). Soubeyran and his equally disreputable nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) pull every dirty trick in the book to force Cadoret off his land, but the novice farmer stands firm. Although the Soubeyrans appear to gain the upper hand, the audience is assured that they will eventually be foiled by the vengeful daughter of the spring's deceased owner -- thus setting the stage for the film's equally successful sequel, Manon of the Spring.
Written by: by Hal Erickson - allmovie

PLOT: In a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, so are dismayed to hear the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts they think only of getting the water.
Written by Jeremy Perkins {jwp@aber.ac.uk}
Source


The second movie to watch is Manon of the Spring. "Manon" is pronounced "Man-yon". This is the one I watched and did enjoy it greatly.

CAST:
Yves Montand ... Cesar Soubeyran dit Le Papet
Daniel Auteuil ... Ugolin
Emmanuelle Béart ... Manon (as Emmanuelle Beart)

PLOT: In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She determines to take revenge upon the men responsible for the death of her father in the first film.
Written by Martin Urch c/o {mah@imdb.com}

PLOT: In a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative are successful flower growers using water from a spring on an adjoining property they now own. The grown-up daughter of the previous owner still lives in the hills as a goatherd and comes to realise that not only these two but the whole village knew of the existence of the spring when her father was desperately trying to water his crops. An accident with one of the goats leads her by chance to the source of the spring and the possibility of a terrible revenge.
Written by Jeremy Perkins {jwp@aber.ac.uk}
Source


What starts out as a story of revenge carried to the second generation evolves into one of forgiveness. It's quite touching and teaches a good lesson about life. I hope y'all enjoy them too.

♥ ∞

What's Up, Doc? (1972)

What's Up Doc? (1972)
This is one of my all time, absolute, compared to none, fav-or-ite movie. It is A Numbero Uno with me.

"What's Up Doc?" was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and written by Buck Henry. They made a good team, at least in the movie world, that is.

Barbra Streisand plays the lead role of Judy Maxwell. There's a twist at the end that is just a riot.

Ryan O'Neal plays the male lead role of Dr. Howard Bannister. He made an excellent Straight Man.

It has many big name stars one of which was the then unknown Madeline Kuhn in her first starring role as Eunice Burns. Gosh, she was funny in this movie. Poor thing died of cancer in December 3rd, 1999. I miss her comedy.

If you haven't seen the movie, this is the synopsis according to Wikipedia:

What's Up, Doc? is a screwball comedy from 1972. It was intended to pay homage to comparable motion pictures of the 1930s, such as "Bringing Up Baby" (released by RKO Pictures), as well as the Bugs Bunny cartoons — which, like this film, were made by Warner Bros. Pictures.

The story, which takes place in San Francisco, centers on four identical plaid overnight bags and the people who own them.

One of the bags belongs to Howard Bannister, Ph.D. (played by O'Neal), and is filled with igneous "tambula" rocks that have certain musical properties. Bannister, a musicologist from the Iowa Conservatory of Music, and his tightly-wound, overbearing fiancée, Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn), have come to San Francisco from Iowa in the hope of winning a grant funded by Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Howard has a theory about how ancient man may have used rocks to create music. Howard's rival for the grant is the ethically-challenged, dubiously-accented Hugh Simon (Kenneth Mars), who apparently is from Yugoslavia (Croatia) but seems to be doing work in Western Europe.

The second bag belongs to Judy Maxwell (Streisand), and is filled with her clothes, and, interestingly enough, a large dictionary. No matter where Judy goes, trouble happens, from car crashes to spontaneous combustion of hotel rooms. She never finished college, but nevertheless has amassed a considerable amount of knowledge from all of the courses she took at the many institutions of higher learning from which she was expelled.

The third bag belongs to Mrs. Van Hoskins (Mabel Albertson), a rich woman who is using it to store her valuable jewels.

The fourth and last overnight bag belongs to the mysterious "Mr. Smith" (Michael Murphy) and contains top-secret government papers. There is at least some indication that he has them illegally and wishes to make them public. The equally mysterious "Mr. Jones" (Philip Roth) identifies himself as a being from the government, and is on a mission to recover the documents.

Howard, Eunice, Mrs. Van Hoskins, and Mr. Smith all happen to check into the Hotel Bristol at the same time, whereupon Judy lodges herself there without paying and begins pursuing Howard (to his bewilderment), two hotel employees (Sorrell Booke and Stefan Gierasch) attempt to steal the jewels belonging to Mrs. Van Hoskins, and Mr. Jones attempts to get the bag belonging to Mr. Smith. Over the course of the evening, the bags get switched willy-nilly from room to room as the four parties unwittingly take one another's suitcases. Howard ends up with the jewels, Judy with the documents, Mr. Smith with the clothes, and the thieves end up with the rocks. Few people ever actually open the bags to confirm that what they think they have is what they actually possess. Meanwhile, Judy manages both to secure the grant for Howard while masquerading as Eunice and to destroy his hotel room. The following day, everyone makes their way to Mr. Larrabee's home where a shooting ensues, Howard and Judy take all the bags and are chased up and down the hills of San Francisco on a delivery bike and a Volkswagon Beetle (after they crash the bike into a costume shop) by the thieves, Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, Eunice, Simon, Larabee and a few roped-in bystanders. They go through Chinatown, down Lombard Street, and eventually into San Francisco Bay. All the protagonists finally end up in court, under the gavel of a world-weary and curmudgeonly judge (Liam Dunn) who, improbably, turns out to be Judy's father.

WARNING: Below is the Spoiler!.
In the end, everything is cleared up, Mrs. Van Hoskins pays the considerable damages in Howard's name with the reward money he would have received for the return of her jewels, the hotel thieves are forced to flee the country and the papers are put back in the hands of the government (though perhaps not for long...). More importantly, Judy exposes Simon as a fraud and plagiarist, Eunice leaves Howard for Larabee and Judy announces she is taking one more pass at college — studying Music History at the Iowa Conservatory of Music. The film ends a suitably romantic (and silly) note as Howard and Judy share an airborne kiss while their in-flight movie shows the Bugs Bunny cartoon that gave the film its name.

Source

I love this movie and never tire of watching it. I'm not a 'fan' of Barbara Streisand as I don't like her as a person nor her politics. (This was made back before she was so nutty.) But whenever I need a Pick Me Up, I pop in the DVD and it's instant joy. I hope you enjoy it too.

Have a great Sunday y'all!

♥ ∞

Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

Another obscure, quiet movie y'all may have missed is the English film "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995, comedy).

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is a comic novel. It was made into a movie and released to the public in 1996.

The setting is England in the early 1930's, 20 year old Flora Poste, a recently orphaned 19-year-old socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm. Everyone on the gloomy farm is completely around the twist, but Flora tries to sort everything out. But Flora discovered a new branch of her family tree ... the one with all the nuts.

It's one comic situation after another.

If you're a big fan of English comedy, you'll probably recognize many of the cast.

Some Of The Cast:

Joanna Lumley as Mrs. Smiling (of AbFab fame)

Kate Beckinsale as the orphaned Flora Poste

Ian McKellen as the overly religious Amos Starkadder

Miriam Margolyes as the sensible housekeeper Mrs. Beetle


Part 1 of 10
Here ya go Lanny. Now you can waste another afternoon at YouTube ... tee hee

Let me know if you've seen this movie. I now have it on DVD and never tire of watching it. Enjoy!

♥ ∞

Avanti! (1972)

Avanti!

Another one of my favorite movies, that I never tire of watching is "Avanti!". This movie was released to theatres in 1972.

In a nutshell, the story is a successful businessman (Jack Lemmon) who goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon-father's body only to discover dad died with his mistress of long standing.

Plot Summary: Baltimore industrialist Wendell Armbruster (Jack Lemmon) crosses paths with London shop girl Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills) when they come to Ischia to pick up the bodies of her mother and his father, who have been killed in an automobile accident after a ten-year summertime affair. Straitlaced Wendell tries to avoid a scandal while free-spirited Pamela is impressed by the romantic setting. After some confusion with the bodies and a blackmail attempt by unscrupulous locals, Wendell and Pamela extend their parent's affair into the next generation.
Source



You'll remember the English actress Juliet Mills from the short run TV show "Nanny and the Professor" (1970-1971). She exudes an adorable personality and makes the story so much fun.

The Director was Billy Wilder. I thought he did a superb job in the timing of the jokes.

And for anyone who understands the laid back way of how the Italian's 'work' and think, it's an absolute laugh riot from beginning to end.

Caution: Being a 'foreign' film it does have some brief nudity but it is all very tastefully done and does fit into the story.

---

PS: Off subject but the first race of the season for World SuperBike starts today at 4:00 PM EST on Speed channel. It should be really exciting as the new rider for Yamaha, Ben Spies (pronounced SPEEZE), has the pole position today. He's American and we're pulling for him.

I'm gonna have my 'secretary' (i.e. answer machine) hold all my calls this afternoon ... [lol]

♥ ∞

The Chalk Garden (1964)

The Chalk Garden
I so enjoy old movies. One of my favorite actresses is Deborah Kerr and for me her best movie was "The Chalk Garden" (January 1964).

The movie in a nutshell is about Madrigal (Deborah Kerr), an Englishwoman recently released from prison after serving time for murder, arrives at the home of Mrs. St. Maugham (Edith Evans) to apply for the position of governess and companion to the elderly woman's 16-year-old granddaughter, Laurel (Hayley Mills).

She is hired, despite her lack of references, primarily for her knowledge of gardening because Mrs. St. Maugham has difficulty raising anything in the chalky earth of her garden. Madrigal keeps her past a secret, but Laurel, who lives in a partial fantasy world (she hates her mother whom she believes abandoned her when she divorced and remarried) tries to uncover the secrets of her new governess. Maitland (John Mills), the butler, becomes attracted to Madrigal and tells her that Laurel's wild tales are untrue. When the judge (Felix Aylmer) who convicted Madrigal comes to lunch, he does not recognize her, but they get into a heated discussion about the case.

Laurel suspects that Madrigal is the murderess in question but makes a pact with Maitland never to reveal her suspicion. Madrigal realizes that Laurel is much the same as she was at 16 and fears that Laurel might make the same mistakes if she is not told the truth about her mother. She tells Mrs. St. Maugham that Laurel's mother should be allowed to have her, and Laurel, overhearing them, realizes that she was never abandoned. When her mother arrives, Laurel is ready to go with her, and Madrigal remains at the house as companion to Mrs. St. Maugham.

Synopsis Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies



The Chalk Garden is an intense, wonderful psychological game of cat and mouse. It has excellent performances from all involved and the writing and direction is superb. I want so much to order it on DVD. (It's $30 new ... OUCH!!)

"At our last meeting, I died. It alters the appearance." A quote from the character from Madrigal/Constance speaking to the judge in a chance meeting. I can so relate to her character. I've never been jailed, of course, but I was in a mental jail from an abusive parent. My mother died in 1966 and my father tore up his parent card. When I allowed Christ to come into my life at the age of 14, God mercifully gave me the Key to get out ... and I did. I ran to that mental door and freedom!

Anyway, The Chalk Garden speaks volumes to me. Does anyone else enjoy this movie? Or are there any others you'd like to recommend?

I also like the old horror movies from the 1960's and 1970's. It's fun to curl up on the sofa with husband and watch them with popcorn on Halloween. Reminds me of when I was a little kid, mom was still alive, and I would watch those old movies on our 'big' 12 inch console TV that sat on the floor. Such delightful memories. :o)

♥ ∞