BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #12

THE WIZARD OF OZ AND THE RAVEN

“Filming resumed November 4 under Victor Fleming 
who would receive the director credit for the film. 
Again, the cast began with the cornfield scene. 
The ‘crow’ that was to land on Bolger’s shoulder 
in the scene was actually a raven named Jimmy. 
Although Jimmy was himself a screen veteran, having
acted in more than a thousand films in the 1930’s  
he was having a rough day when Fleming got to work. 
He got loose on the set and refused to return to 
his handlers. The entire soundstage had to be shut down 
until he was caught, and nothing else was done that day.”

Holly Van Leuven. Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow 
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)

**
JUDY GARLAND’S FAVORITE AUTHOR

“ Bolger gave Garland a pristine edition of ‘The Raven’ 
by Edgar Allan Poe, her favorite author. The gift 
served the dual purpose of also being  a gag, 
recalling the memories of Jimmy the misbehaving  
raven from their cornfield scenes.”

Holly Van Leuven. Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow 
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)
**

Would the American People be better off if Judy
Garland was the head of the Department of Justice
instead of Merrick?
**

AMONG MANY REASONS TO WATCH MOVIES

“There are many reasons to watch movies, some 
better than others. One of the worst reasons 
is to learn how to live. I  know that films 
won’t provide me with a reliable way to navigate 
my emotional difficulties, but I still watch 
them in hopes in the hopes they might do so 
eventually. Rowland’s work with Cassavetes 
tells us, explicitly that everyone in the world 
is very screwed up.”

Andrew Key.”Gena Rowlands” in The New York Times
Magazine (February 20, 2022).

**

EDGAR G. ROBINSON DURING WORLD WAR II

             “During World War II, Robinson broadcast 
 messages over the BBC to occupied countries in seven 
languages: English, French, Romanian, Russian, German, 
Polish, and Finnish! When he was asked  to give a 
voice level, he did it in a perfect Oxonian accent. 
The actor was one only two people ever permitted by 
the BBC to smoke a cigar while broadcasting. The 
other, of course, was Sir Winston Churchill, England’s 
wartime prime minister. After all, where else would 
they find a movie star fluent in seven languages.”

Jeffrey Lyons.  Stories My Father Told Me: Notes 
from “The Lyons Den” ( New York: Abbeville Press, 2011)
**


OLIVER STONE,IN MOSCOW AND VLADIMIR PUTIN 
WATCH DR. STRANGELOVE TOGETHER IN 2017


“As Joseph Heller realized while writing Catch-22, 
certain ridiculous truths about war simply can’t 
be portrayed non-comedically. As realized through 
the painstakingly exact filmmaking of Kubrick and 
his collaborators, Dr. Strangelove is the blackest 
of black comedies. “There are certain things in 
this film that indeed make us think,” Putin says 
to Stone after the closing montage of mushroom clouds. 
He even credits Kubrick with technical foresight: 
“Modern weapon systems have become more sophisticated,
 more complex. But this idea of a retaliatory weapon 
and the inability to control such weapon systems still 
hold true today.” Not much has changed since the days 
of Dr. Strangelove, he admits, and now that he’s 
undergone his own bout of geopolitical brazenness, 
let’s hope that he remembers how the movie ends.”

OPEN CULTURE : Thu, Mar 17, 2022 
**
“There are only three reasons to make a movie, to 
make people laugh, to make them cry, or to frighten 
them.”

                          William Friedkin
     **
“I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 
18 million people with every movie I made.”

 Sidney Poitier

**


FILM NOTE TO AN EASY RIDER
CO-STAR

Dennis Hopper
Cd not be any hipper
Making young audiences happier
By pissing off Hedda Hopper
& perplexing Charles Napier.

**

MICHAEL RENNIE

Michael Rennie –
I wonder if there are any
Other poems about him.
If not, then, this is the only one he’s got.