Touch of evil

After a self imposed exile in Europe of 10 years, Orson Welles made this 1958 movie with a star studded cast of Charleton Heston, Janet Leigh, himself, Marlene Deitrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dennis Weaver and others.
It is a film noir with a very convoluted storyline and is the last of legendary movies of its genre. Here, guitar music of rock and roll had replaced the usual jazz music. This movie was supposed to be a come back movie for Welles. Again here, the studios felt that the movie had to be edited and redone much to Welles disappointment that made him write the now famous 58 page expressive plea. In 1998, the director's plea materialized and was restored to its previous glory.
Charleton Heston acts a mustachioed Mexican drug enforcement officer! Welles who was hired as a supporting actor and villainous evidence planting over-sized unhealthy looking cop ended up doing the screenplay and direction for free. This outing however lacks the power dialogue that is synanomous with Welles' offering. The one striking take was the opening scene where the director introduces the US-Mexico border town via an extremely long tracking shot which is quite unique.

Quinlan: Come on, read my future for me.
Tanya: You haven't got any.
Quinlan: Hmm? What do you mean?
Tanya: Your future's all used up.

The dilemma of a serial killer

Following a recommendation from a Facebook friend's list of best movies of all time, I gave Mr Brooks a try. It is a 2007 film starring Kevin Costner as Mr Brooks, William Hurt as his id, Demi Moore (the cougar in female skin) as cop out to nail him.
I found the movie particularly disturbing initially but later the emotional display and story line was one all can relate to. It definitely, would not make it to my list of best movies of the century!
Mr Brooks (Costner), a celebrated businessman from Portland is feted in a congratulatory dinner for being the businessman of the year. After returning from the dinner and tucking his wife to bed, he retires to his 'studio' and drives off to killed off a couple who were in midst of passionate lovemaking. He cleans up the crime scene and leaves behind the victim's blood stained thumbprint! You see, Mr Brooks is a serial killer dubbed the 'Thumbprint Killer'!
Accompanying Mr Brooks all around is his id (William Hurt)- only visible to him, communicates and even argues with him but of course nobody else can see that. All others see is like Mr Brooks is in deep thought!
The 'Thumbprint Killer" has been terrorizing the city for a long time as Mr Brooks had managed to suppress his inner desire to kill and attending sessions of Alcoholic Anonymous. His last outing happened when he succumbed to the demands of his id! Unfortunately, his last killing was witnessed by a peeping tom voyageur, Mr Smith, who started blackmailing Mr Brooks; not for money but to include him for his next expedition!
About the same time, Mr Brook's daughter returns home from university saying that she is pregnant and wants to discontinue her education. Things get  complicated when cops turn up at their home to interview his daughter after one of her dormitory mates is murdered. Paternal instincts make Brooks think that there is more than meets the eye and suspects that his killing genes may have been passed to her.
In order to divert the attention of the police, Brooks goes over to his daughter's campus (another state) to commit a similar type of killing (as the dorm mate) to confuse the cops into thinking that they were dealing with a serial killer and keep his daughter off the hook!
In the other side of town, a lady cop (Detective Atwood) rich in inheritance, is at wits end dealing with the 'Thumbprint Killer', her ex-husband and divorce negotiations.There is also a escaped convict who is out for her blood.
After much prodding, blackmailing and delay tactics, Smith and Brooks choose their next victim who turned out to be the detective's ex-beau. Fearing that he was close to apprehension and fearing the humiliation that the family would receive, Mr Brooks was toying the idea of planning an elaborate ploy to get himself killed by Smith after the last outing.
Mr Smith turned out to be an embarrassment at the swan song killing. The excitement made him pee in his pants, leaving valuable DNA for the cops. (Mr Smith would be concluded to be the 'Thumbprint Killer') So change of plans -  Mr Brooks shoots Smith in a dug cemetery in a plot he owns, buries his double life and starting life as a soon to be grandfather but at the back of his mind  always fearing that his beloved daughter may one day turn out to be a ruthless serial killer like him!
Well, after watching so many silent movies and black and white movies of late, it was treat to stimulate the cone receptors again by watching things in true advanced cinematographic vision. So what is the take home message? That serial killers too have moral dilemma and moral obligations?

Never stop fighting till the fight is done!

Well, that is the tagline for the 1987 production of 'The Untouchables'. In real life, the fight does not have to be a physical transmission of force over another mass, but it can refer to any challenge in life; be it psychological, ambition or over disease!

Kevin Costner (Elliot Ness), a clearly under-rated star, stars here as the Federal Agent from US Treasury sent to Chicago during the gangster-filled time of the Prohibition era when the production and transportation of liquor above a certain level was prohibited. He was facing an uphill battle trying to abate the sales of bootleg booze as the mobster in charge, Al Capone, had practically got everyone from the municipality to law enforcers under his thumb.

Robert De Niro, the likeable villain, gives a sterling performance as Capone. This guy can do any role- a soldier (Deer Hunter), a mobster (Casino, Godfather II and so many others), a boxer (Raging Bull), a deranged escaped convict (Cape Fear), a cop (Ronin), a doting father (Everybody's okay), in a comedy like 'Meet The Parents' you name it...

After a failed raid foiled by the corrupt inside job, Ness assembles his team of bootleg busters. He recruits Jim Malone (Sean Connery), a veteran beat officer, a marksman recruit Stone (a very young Andy Garcia) and an accountant sent by the Treasury, Agent Wallace. Wallace later proofed to be of value as they managed to nail Capone down with tax charges rather than for bootleg whisky.

Even though the character played by the original 007 dies midway through the show, Connery managed to steal the show with his witty lines and charisma. He must have impressed the jury too to win the Best Supporting Actor award in Academy that year.

It is just amazing how the studio can re-enact the buildings, automobiles and ambience to bring us back in time to the early 30s! A classic scene, in my opinion, which would forever stay in everybody's mind would be the one which occurred at a Chicago train station involving a lookout for Capone's escaping bookkeeper, a bust-up with the baddies and a baby in a cradle in the middle of all this.

Migration* makes the world go round!

Yet another meal from another relative to mark the departure of K's family to the 'Land of the plenty'. With so many dinners in their honour, it looks like they simply cannot reverse their decision now to migrate lock, stock and barrel to Land of Vegemite Sandwich.
K's ancestory saga began at beginning of the 20th century when K's grandparents made their own boat to escape unlivable living conditions in the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. They with a couple of friends set sail on a thug boat to Maldives. The captain, obviously a captain of circumstances who got all his bearings crossed and pretty soon found himself and all the passengers stranded in the wide open ocean at the mercy of the elements of nature, clinging on to whatever bits and pieces of their dear lives. Rescued by a passing steamer,  left with Hobson's choice, they landed in their next of calling, Pearl of the Orient, Penang. Seeing many of their fellow countrymen (and women) in a harmonious symbiotic life with other immigrants and locals, they decided to set home there. (as if they had much of a choice). In that situation, I suppose, everywhere you lay hat, that would be home!
They built home in a vacant plot of land in Parit Buntar, started cultivating and pretty soon were prosperous enough to be known as the place for a square meal and where the kitchen never sleeps. After scaling through life in the rough seas to edge of life and back, they took it upon themselves to be guardian angels to fellow men. They had no qualms of helping others and valuing inter and intrapersonal relationship. Their home was home to anyone who walk through their front door and never walks back hungry!
The blessing uttered by the contended hearts of a full stomach must have gone a long way in ensuring longevity of its inmates and prospering lives of its descendants. The next generation of the clan saw its members educated, responsible and holding respectable vocations. K's father became a top ranking feared by villains of the day as he posed majestically in the dailies after foiling yet another attempt by the bandits in creating mayhem! With his wife, a Kirby trained educators, travelled the country over, their motherland, educating the natives and ensuring peace in the newly independent nation called Malaysia. With the continuity of showers of blessings, like the falling petals of lotus flower off Goddess Laxmi, -gratitude of the satiety of a sage, perhaps, ensured life to be smooth sailing with succession of offsprings all well mannered and overseas educated.
Looking at the direction of the country with its uncertain gutter politics and communal upheavals, the 4th generation of the Malayan's own Quakers (parallel to Quakers who migrated to American fearing persecution only to prosper their newfoundland) suddenly felt they had to migrate for the well being of their downlines just as their ancestors had fled adverse living environment a century earlier . They have decided that Australia would be their new found home. We all wish them the best! Bon Voyage!
Over time, perhaps living conditions in Australia may decline and the need to migrate again may arise in generations to come. The whole cycle may be complete when migration to India may be the 'in thing' and the way India and China are holding the helm of economic prowl, its pull factor may not be an illusion but indeed could be imminent!

Indy Nadarajah & Alan Pereira

I just cannot help but remember the little caption from Indy Nadarajah and Alan Pereira's stage show (Man-O-pause) a few years ago where they were cross-dressed as Devi and Myrtle respectively. Devi, a happily-living-in-Malaysia contended gossipy housewife meets up with her old neighbour, Myrtle , who had earlier migrated to Australia for 'better life'.  Being inquisitive and busybody as most Malaysians are, Devi asks how Myrtle's children were performing as they were the main reason for immigration. "Oh, my first son has got a skating scholarship to teach children on a beach, my second has become gay and my daughter is living in with a man and have 2 children from two different men. And they are all very happy!" 


[*My English master(KSG) would be very crossed. Even though now migration and immigration used interchangeably, he strongly believed that migration is strictly for movement of animals whereas for humans the word is immigration!]

A lesson in champagne life!

Champagne (1928)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

1928 must have been a very good year for a young Alfred Hitchcock. His maiden film as a director as well as a few others came alive on screen and since then champagnes have been popping. News had it that Hitchcock did not really enjoy post-production cocktail parties and was rarely seen after shooting times. The silent movie 'Champagne' is a 1928 production that made its way to my collection of Hitchcock's movies - that means only 'No. 13'(1922-lost film), Mountain Eagle (1925-lost film), 'Always tell your wife' (1923) and 'Elstree Calling'(1930) are still elusive!

'Champagne' starts with a Wall Street magnate fuming mad (literally, evidenced by puffs of cigar fumes) whilst reading about the antics of his headstrong daughter flying across the Atlantic to meet up with her secret lover. In the next scene, passengers of a cruise ship are excited over the apparent rescuing of a stranded plane in the middle of the ocean.
The lovers meet on board but they do not show their affection in public. Meanwhile, there is another gentleman on board who has both eyes set on the heir. The lovebirds' plan to be married by the Captain crumbles after a lovers' tiff.

The ship reaches Paris. Betty has a whale of her time immersing herself in luxury. Her father appears at her doorstep to inform her that they were poor now after Wall Street crash!

Betty starts working as a flower girl in a nightclub. The earlier suitor (aboard the ship) befriends her. Talk about coincidence, her boyfriend also appears there. Furious that her sweet girl is working in a place like that, he brings in her father who clarifies that the whole story of insolvency was made up to make her realize the importance of money. Angry for being fooled, she follows the suitor who incidentally was going back to America. As in all good Indian movies, the happy ending is told aboard the ship - that the suitor is actually her father's good friend who was summoned by Betty's father when he got news that she was planning to elope. After discovering that the boyfriend is a good guy, the father consents to the marriage and they toast to the union.

One man's wastage is another man's economic stimulus!

Datuk Zainal Alam, senior RTM broadcaster,
entertainer, singer, and stand-up comedian.
© Star

Of late, they have been talks of unspeakable wastage of stream of milk filling the drains of Batu Caves all along the days surrounding Thaipusam. Money that otherwise can be used for the upliftment of the Indian Malaysian community is said to be literally down the drain.

Milk, as described by Datuk Zainal Alam, a fellow Penangite, comedian, entertainer extraordinaire, is the first and last thing consumed by humans and would not have been so much stature and reverence in life is not for its pristine white hue. Imagine a purple liquid called 'milk'! I digress...

Much has also griped about the humongous garland donned upon 'The First Lady' and her consort, which would have taken half an acre's yield, going to waste.

Ever since my language teacher in Form 1 (AA), told the class that we could not say the space expedition is a waste of money in our essay as money just changes hands, I took upon the idea. These acts of pouring gallons of milk, breaking grosses of coconuts, deflowering of plants to glorify idols are not usually a waste of resources. In fact, it stimulates economic activity. Dairy farmers, small plantation holders, florists, middlemen, transportation companies, and even labourers benefit tremendously from this sudden surge of demand. It would improve the production and distribution of these items. The philanthropic act is still done but people have to work for it - no handouts!

It is just like the Chettiars in the early history of our country. They were big landowners but were contented in keeping them idle for cows to graze and keep trespassers at bay. When the Chinese bought over the land when the British gave away independence and the Chettiars returned to their motherland, they started building supermarkets, factories, restaurants etcetera there. This had a snowball effect on related businesses and eventually these small and medium industries have now become the lynch pinch of Malaysia's economy. But then, these activities are still going to leave our carbon footprints of which our descendants will be cursing and trying to clean up. May all the worshipping now would help them then!

Love will keep us together!

Quick Draw McGraw

Fate has a warped and cruel sense of humour! In my limited exposure to turn of events and people in my lifetime, I have come to realize that people may have misunderstanding between and amongst each other for the most trivial of reasons - over pride, ego, worldly material, (lack of) show of respect, he said she said etcetera. All it takes is a tragedy, in a form  of accident, death or loss of love, all will be forgotten and all will cry together!
Just as paradoxically as love and money may be the root of all evil, they can also draw warring factions to the table and at the same time waiting to do a quick draw as and when the necessity arises!
Love will keep us together, or whatever!