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Without access to news photos, The Times publishes Frederic Eddy’s drawing of what the evacuation of Dunkirk might have looked like.
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May 31, 1940: “Bells to Billie Burke for her campaign to lower the cost of Los Angeles dog license, which she says are too high for poor kids,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
Back to vintage horror this week, with a classic from the Universal vaults… although "The Mummy's Hand" is more of a remake (or re-imagining!) of the 1932 classic "The Mummy" starring Boris Karloff. Not quite a sequel but definitely not a whole new movie, it's sort of a hybrid in the vein of "Evil Dead 2" or, perhaps more accurately, "Superman Returns."
The original film stars Karloff as Im-ho-tep, an ancient Egyptian priest who is so heartbroken by the death of his true love, Ankh-es-en-amon, that he commits sacrilege in an attempt to revive her; when he is caught, he is forcibly wrapped in bandages and buried alive. A 1930s archaeological team accidentally revives him, and he goes prowling off after a fetching modern lass whom he hopes to sacrifice in order to reincarnate Ankh-etc., but he is defeated by the goddess Isis or something. It's brooding, gorgeous, romantic horror, with some amazingly beautiful sets and genuinely creepy moments, and a powerful central performance from Karloff.
"The Mummy's Hand" brings back the same mummy (now played by Tom Tyler) and girlfriend, but relegates them to much less central roles — the poor mummy himself gets eighth billing in the opening credits (that's not quite halfway down). Given the snappier new names of Kharis and Ananka, they spend most of the movie in their crypts — Ananka actually never gets out of hers at all. The movie opens with the same back story as the original "Mummy," using a lot of the same footage, although new mummy Tyler is featured in the close-ups instead of Karloff. But this film goes to some very different places.
Mostly "The Mummy's Hand" is an action-adventure film, not horror; the mummy really is just here for decoration, like the cobwebs that adorn a vampire's castle. Most of it scans like a Saturday morning cartoon — which means it's a blast to watch. (At 67 minutes, it's also over in about the same amount of time, except without commercials.)
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May 31, 1910 : “They were fewer and failing in strength but mighty in spirit. About 150 veterans gathered to pass in an annual review before the generations which have come into existence since the soldiers were mustered out …. Those who have not fallen from the ranks are a little more stooped and their hair is perhaps a trifle whiter, but the spirit in their hearts has not been dimmed a bit,” The Times said. "What do we celebrate on this Memorial Day? What do we glorify in song and speech? Not war itself. My voice shall never be given to proclamation of the glories and grandeurs of deadly conflict. "War is not glorious. The poet may sing, the orator may cast his magic spell, the hideous form may be covered with the magnificent robes of imagination, but war is not glorious. "We celebrate not the bloody death but the sacrificial spirit of those who gave themselves to death. We celebrate not the anguish and suffering of those dark and dismal days, but the devotion that bore the burden on the behalf of the American republic."
–The Rev. Matt S. Hughes, Pasadena.
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May 30, 1960: Matt Weinstock writes a bit more about Bunzo Minagawa, a Japanese soldier who was found on Guam 16 years after the U.S. recaptured the island. DEAR COFFEE BREAKERS: I would say 39. The proof is that millions of women, by their own choice, remain 39 for years, Abby says. |
Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Update: Yes, this is George Raft and Bugsy Siegel from a 1944 hearing on bookmaking charges.
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| OK, this may not be much of a mystery, but it’s too cool not to post. Finding a gem like this made my day. |
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May 30, 1960: Paul Coates spends Memorial Day on skid row and talks with a World War I veteran. |
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May 30, 1940: Carole Landis' "chic" in "One Million B.C." clearly proves the skill of Pleistocene hairdressers, Jimmie Fidler says. |
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May 30, 1980: Charles Champlin takes an overview of the downbeat films at the Cannes Festival, which included “All That Jazz” and “Kagemusha.” “This year, there was hardly a title among the 22 in competition that could accurately have been called escapist or ‘sheer entertainment.’ Then again, the kind of individually shaped and excellent film that Cannes and its chief selector, the former critic Gilles Jacob, now seek is in this day simply more likely to be a bitter pill than a chocolate eclair," Champlin says. On the jump, Richard West writes about an alleged Scientology plot to smear a deputy attorney general. The plot was fairly elaborate, but unfortunately, The Times never followed up on the story as far as I can tell. A Scientology spokesman “said the plot constituted nothing more than ‘unauthorized pranks of which we have no evidence were ever carried out.’ ” |
| Look! It’s Julian Eltinge! |
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May 30, 1910: “Babe” McCain, the bouncer at Turner Hall, brings two prisoners to the police station, but they can’t be booked until McCain removes the handcuffs – which proves to be a problem. And four men on a streetcar got into a fight with a passenger who told them to stop spitting on the floor. Now they’re in jail on charges of injuring a woman when one of them threw a rock at the streetcar because they ordered to get off. |
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Aug. 10, 1969: Charles Champlin on “Easy Rider.” "Fonda and Hopper, it should by this time go without saying, give immense performances: Hopper as the more traditional 'Hey, man' Rider impatient, self-indulgent, fearful of anything that looks like commitment; Fonda as something more of a bridge figure, sensitive and perceptive, hung up on his awareness that neither road nor establishment have all the answers or all the problems. He is at last unambiguously tragic, discovering and experiencing the truth that the freedom of the road may well only be another kind of evasion and captivity." |
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May 29, 1940: “Lyle Talbot gave N.Y.ers a sample of Hollywood by dating seven lovelies on as many Broadway nights,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
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Los Angeles Times file photo
Update: As everybody finally realized, this is Marian Carr. In the above photo, she’s showing a derringer being displayed at an antique show, Oct. 19, 1946: It’s a mystery guest with a gun! How cool is that? And how about that wallpaper? |
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May 29, 1960: Former Times Editor in Chief L.D. Hotchkiss (1893-1964) writes a long advance on the Democratic National Convention, which starts July 11 at the Sports Arena. He says that although he worked for a Republican paper for 40 years, the Democrats put on better shows. Hotchkiss says that one of the best speeches he ever heard was given by Alben Barkley at the 1952 Chicago convention. Barkley, if you don't recall, was vice president under Harry Truman. |
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May 29, 1910: Judge Frank R. Willis talks to The Times about the success of his program to put criminals on probation instead of sending them to prison. Of the 100 men sentenced to probation, 88 men are holding responsible jobs, seven have broken probation and been sentenced to serve their terms, and five had disappeared, The Times says. "Three-quarters of the men charged with petty crime come from the ranks of waiters and hangers-on in the cheap cafe and hotels," Willis says. |
| "Since When Does a Boy Brag About a Girl Out o' Respect for Her Brains??" |
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May 28, 1960: John Steinbeck writes an essay in Esquire about life in Pacific Grove during the Depression. Matt Weinstock adds a bit about his own experiences in Los Angeles. DEAR PESTERED: The next time he calls, tell him you do not want to go out with him any more. And don't feel sorry for him, no matter what he says, because if you date him again, you'll be back where you started from. This man sounds possessive, jealous and childish. And people who react favorably to being treated “dirty” are also a little sick, Abby says. |
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May 28, 1960: Paul Coates’ cat ladies, Beth Lawrence and her daughter Betty, have new troubles. TV host Jack Linkletter was interviewing them (and their 13 cats) in Bronson Canyon Park when their white Persian cat named Prince Baba escaped from one of the show’s assistants and fled into the wild. The cat ladies are still looking for husbands, btw. And on the jump, Japan welcomes former Cpl. Masashi Ito and Pfc. Bunzo Minagawa, who hid on Guam for 16 years after the U.S. captured the island in fierce fighting in 1944. |
| “Diff’rent Strokes” premieres, Nov. 3, 1978 |
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March 2, 1979: "It's always the same. Three minutes. And me and George Carlin was just gettin' into it," Gary Coleman tells Howard Rosenberg about an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson." |
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May 28, 1940: “Linda Darnell, locationing at Lone Pine, Cal., where the thermometer has been scoring 114, postcards she's lost seven pounds,” Jimmie Fidler says. |
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May 28, 1980: George Lucas tells Rolling Stone that movie folks are "rather sleazy, unscrupulous people. L.A. is where they make deals, do business in the classic corporate American way, which is screw everybody and do whatever you can to make the biggest profit. "They don't care about people. It is incredible the way they treat filmmakers, because they have no idea what making a movie is about. To them, the deal is the movie." … Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” has a big opening in a limited release, taking in more than $600,000 [$1,541,985.35 USD 2009] in the first four days. … And Warner Bros. is planning a musical based on "Tiger Beat." Kim Friedman has been signed to direct, with a script by Mark Kudlow and Larry Kaplan, The Times says. |
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May 28, 1910: Mrs. Frances Squire Potter of the National Suffrage League says the day is coming when women will serve as police officers, lawyers, judges and jurors. She says: "In that good time coming, the woman will pick her husband instead of being picked. There will be more divorces for a while, because of more mistakes being made than when the men did the picking, but by and by when more of the matrimonial arrangements are made by the women, the standards will be raised so much higher that divorce will be done away with." The story also notes that she’s against women wearing men’s clothing. |
