Not all so chirpy!

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Director: Charles Vidor

The world remembers Doris Day as the chirpy, bright, toothy blonde who would brighten up anyone's morning. The pose that strikes most people is her rendition of the song 'Que Sera Sera' in Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'. However, in real life, hers was not all sunshine and blue skies.

Growing up from 10 with her single mother, after her father walked on them, Doris Day wanted to be a dancer. After a car accident and a broken leg, she had to abandon her dream. During convalescence, she taught herself to sing. Seeing much potential, her mother sent her to singing classes. Doris soon got singing gigs on the radio and at dinners.

At 20, she delivered her only child. Her husband turned out to be a violent schizophrenic who committed suicide. She had four marriages altogether. Her third husband got her deeply into debt. Her son went on to become a famous record producer and almost signed up Marilyn Manson, the eccentric killer.

In this movie, Doris Day plays the role of Ruth Etting, a famous singer of the swinging twenties. Etting's life story is equally stormy. Starting as a dancing girl, with the help of a mobster, Snyder, she gained fame and fortune as a singer at the prestigious Ziegfeld Follies. She acted in a few short talkies. Even though Etting's love interest is her pianist, she marries Synder out of fear. Synder's frequent anger outbursts and paranoia finally led him to shoot the pianist.

Etting later divorces Snyder and leaves the music scene.

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Laugh with friends, cry alone!

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Director: Michael Showalter

It is not only Islam that provokes the name of God to legitimise each and every one of their actions. In the late 70s, when the US economy was in the doldrums, and a plethora of social issues hogged the headlines, Ronald Reagon, despite his not so-Christian background, being a divorcee and his pro-abortion stance as Governor of California, decided to woo the Christian Conservatives and the Evangelists to his side.

This practice, having proved successful, continued through the campaign of a born-again candidate, GW Bush. And we know how that divided the world with a wide fissure - you are either with us or against us! (or should it US?)

In the zest to cow people into submission, to coax the herd in the intended direction, money was infused indiscriminately into megalomaniac projects that never materialised. A point to note in the Malaysian context. Over the past decade, many shady foundations were created with the zeal to imbibe Islamic values into the administrative system. They were managed by politicians of the ruling party and their cronies. Their transactions were classified as official state secrets. The million ringgit question is whether the intended target goals were met or the intended target group benefitted from them.

The change of Government saw a little light shining through to expose the foolhardy, but as quickly as the change, a backdoor coalition usurped power to cover everything up again.

This film shows a pair of high strung drop-outs of a Christian College with big ideas going out to the world to spread the word of God. Starting with nothing, their brand of televangelism admixed with puppetry, music, songs, and sermons drew the attention of a Christian TV channel. Pretty soon, they had their TV channel. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were rolling in money in torrents from sympathetic donors.

That is when everybody wanted a piece of the action. Everyone wanted to ride on their popularity. Even Ronald Reagan had Jim and Tammy help him win his re-election.

Marital issues started seeping in. Taxmen started querying their income and expenditure. The last straw was when Jim's gay partner exposed their affair. The party who was supposed to manage the company amidst the trials decided to take over management instead. Jim went to jail for tax charges. Thus ended their dream tale of rag to riches and then slip-sliding into oblivion as the number one enemy of the state.

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Bite the bullet or shoot it?

Bombshell (2019)

They tell you it is right to speak up. How long are you going to be trampled upon? Where is your dignity? It is a matter of principle. You can be the change that you want the world to be. We will back you all the way. So you take the difficult first step. You bite the bullet, stand through the embarrassment, convincing yourself that you are doing it for the greater good. You persevere, you fight a good fight and find yourself drained of your finances. The friends who promised you to stay through thick and thin now become sparse.

You proved your case. Your victimisation is proven. You should be happy, but then you have a bitter after-taste. Your image is tarnished. You will forever be frowned upon as a trouble rouser. You are a liability for peaceful coexistence. Somehow you get a feeling that others (read the purveyor of law and order, it seems) who benefitted most. They screamed for justice even though their methods remained much to be desired.

You stand alone, but you soldier on telling yourself that your action may rub and alert others in the same shoe.

This film, based on actual events, tells about a time in 2016 when an anchorwoman with Fox TV, Gretchen Carlson, decided to spill the beans on her Head, Roger Ailes. Soon many other female presenters came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Ailes. Events like these spread like wildfire to other parts of the world. Many up and coming artistes came out with their bad experiences as part of the #Metoo movement.

Sometimes, I wonder if this is the proper way to expose overt discriminations. It leads to animosity, negativity, and it creates a toxic paranoid working environment. Sexual harassment, even though allegations may be proven, it is enough to tarnish the image of the alleged perpetrator. Any publicity is good publicity for the accuser.
I know a lawyer who once advised his client to sue his doctor. It was not because he had a strong case against the medical management of the client. He just wanted to disturb to ruin the doctor's routine for the client was upset that his diagnosis was unfavourable to him. Legal proceedings, which are notoriously lengthy and fraud with delays, was a sure way to turn the doctor's timetable topsy-turvy. 

Norwell Roberts ©BBC

That reminds me of a Norwell Roberts of 1967 London Metropolitan Police who is often hailed as the first black policeman in Britain. Actually, John Kent was the first black officer in the 19th century UK.
In the heady times of the mid-1960s, as a public relations exercise, Britain decided to recruit coloured police constables. Norwell Roberts who applied for a joke got called in. From the word go, Roberts had to endure systemic racism from his colleagues and superiors. He experienced verbal abuse and overt discrimination, even from the lay public. The officer never once complained. He was powerless to act and did not get any positive support from his top guns. He could have highlighted his plight in the media as it was closely watching the force and their efforts to make it multicultural, but he did not. 

There was a time when he was called 'Judas' when he was part of the force that resisted anti-apartheid protestors in London.

After retiring as Detective Sergeant with the CID and receiving the Queen's medal for long service, he has this much to say. Nobody should be subjected to the type of treatment that he underwent, ever. Roberts likes to believe that his resilience made more blacks to be interested in the force. If he had gone on a rant after the initial hardship, he would probably not reached the level that he had attained.

Bite the bullet or fill it up in the barrel?

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To laugh is to think!

The webpage screamed of the event being the biggest congregation of Malaysian stand-up comedy acts. It promised a night to remember as most of the national biggest bigwigs of the business were to share the same stage. They even brought in a Singapore artiste to add to the razzmatazz of the night. 

We were suckered in to part with our hard-earned moolah with their pledge of a stomach aching, rolling-on-the-floor type and eye-tearing kind of laughter. With the lure of ease of booking online, within a jiffy before the level headed neocortex could knock sense into our action, the transition was finalised. 

Even though getting to the venue was alright, parking arrangements were not really a breeze. The auxiliary officers did an excellent job though, to avert haphazard parking by patrons. The importance of this was appreciated later when the dissatisfied audience found it easy to take their vehicles out. (That is for later.) Malaysians are notoriously creative at parking their cars in the most precarious and mind-boggling way. Parking tickets do not mean anything as the local council have no punitive powers. 

Keeping to their Malaysian way of doing things, nothing happened at the time the show was to begin. People kept loitering in, out and around. The sponsors were busy promoting their merchandise and house pouring beer. No announcements. No tension in the air. 

A good half an hour later, the compère descended, literally, on a trapeze-like contraption from the ceiling of the stage. He was actually a guest comedian cum Masters of Ceremony. There were no apologies on the delay still.

He went on a rant about the weather, about Kuala Lumpur and his hotel. His stage persona was one that celebrated cross-dressing. The local rules, however, forbad male performers to appear effeminate. He made it a point to highlight his sexuality. 

From then on, it was downhill. Working on the same jokes, YouTube and social media must be a bane to their artistic work. We felt we had heard the punch line so many times before.

Next sauntered in a prima donna who is known for her raunchy lines. Her jokes were not just filled with sexual innuendos but were overtly pornographic. With no qualms, she utters profanity and describes private parts without batting her mascara filled false eyelashes. 

It was followed with more artistes; an American Pinoy with racial jokes, a Caucasian with lame rambling for laughs and an ‘Aunt Agony’ type of call-in show with a panel of 'experts'. 

Maybe it catered for a different crowd as the roar of waves of laughter were heard throughout the show. Or was it canned laughter? I am sure laughter must have been accentuated with the help of acoustics. The musical extravaganza that they promised was nowhere to be seen. After one long hour of performance, there was a break. 

Don’t know what happened afterwards as we joined the chorus of unhappy audiences who took a long walk to their parked cars to call it a day. 

Comedy is actually serious business. Look at all the doyens who stay eternally in my minds. Many comedians on the silver screen started of standup acts. Much of their humour came from human behaviours, with political or social messages or even laughing at our own follies. Many comedians are actually intellectuals well versed with the goings of the world. One can also create a comedy of errors through language.

Talking dirty and infusing four-lettered profanities does not constitute comic. And I do not when uttering vulgarity induced laughter. It is lazy creativity at best. 

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We can't go blaming our parents forever?

Rocket Man (2019)

No, this is not the story of the one that Donald Trump is telling to tone down. This 'Rocket Man' is from nowhere near the East or has to do with space travel. It is a musical presentation of the lives and times of Reginald Herbert Dwight a.k.a. Elton John.

It is an original musical in the sense that it uses all his songs, with altered lyrics and tempo, with the liberty of anachronism, as the sequence of songs does not follow the order it was released, to narrate the story of an English musical prodigy.

Just for how long are we going to blame all our unhappiness and failures in life to our parents and how we were brought up? The movie is made on the premise that Elton John lived a miserable life. The root of his disharmony is put squarely on his childhood, that he hardly spent quality time with his father, that his mother was a cynical two-timing vixen, that his parents separated when he was only a young boy. Nobody talks about him, being left with his own devices, delved and created a personal new world of music and creativity. Didn't the ancient forefathers tell us that tragedy is essential for us to appreciate life?

If Michael Jackson were not drilled as hard and as heartless as he was, (as MJ later in his life lamented), the world would not have seen the first moonwalk on Earth. The kid in Outer Mongolia would not be dancing to Billie Jean and Bollywood not have ventured into set dances. If Adele had not had romantic breakups, her hit songs would not have hit the charts.

If not for the sadness that hung throughout her life, the world would have missed understanding the pains and tortures that were beautifully crafted by Sylvia Plath through her short stories and poems. Her works exposed to the downtrodden that they were not alone in experiencing despair and melancholy.

The Other Rocket Man

At one time, the medical fraternity also attributed to homosexuality to an over-domineering mother. Children exposed to contradictory views from both parents contributed to schizophrenia, it seems.

Rather than blaming all our maladies on our parents, who did what they thought was best at that time, given their mental and economic abilities, we should embrace our misfired start and get the best of our setbacks. Like Sisyphus, life is reaping much that is proffered to us.

A scene from this movie struck a note with me. It was a scene when Elton John's father, who spent very little time in his childhood, was seen lovey-dovey with EJ's step-brothers.  An uncle that I know had a similar predicament. "Why wasn't he so nice to me when I was young?" the uncle asked himself. Quickly, he shrugged off the negative thoughts and went on to achieve greater things in life. 

Sometimes, we have to have to be unkind and unsentimental. We should not be chained and embroiled in chains and bonds that in relationships that bring us down. Look ahead in life, we set our standards and not be apologetic to the sins of our fathers.

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