Movie Review: The Man Who Laughs (1928)

The Man Who Laughs (1928) directed by Paul Leni, based on Victor Hugo's novel

Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt) is the son of disgraced nobleman Lord Clancharlie under English King James II. The king punishes the nobleman by turning the ten-year old Gwynplaine (Julius Molnar) over to Comprachicos, a band of gypsies who disfigure people and sell them. The king gets the idea from his sadistic jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst). The Comprachicos give Gwynplaine a broad, ridiculous grin. James banishes the Comprachicos from England but they leave Gwynplaine behind. Gwynplaine flees through the snows, discovering a baby cradled by a dead mother. He takes the baby and winds up at the house of Ursus the Philosopher (Cesare Gravina), who takes both of them in as his children. Ursus is also a traveling showman. 

Once the children are grown, the trio wanders England putting on shows featuring Gwynplaine as "The Man Who Laughs." The show is popular but Gwynplaine is ashamed of his disfigurement. The baby has grown up to be Dea (Mary Philbin), who is blind but still performs in the show. She loves Gwynplaine but he can't believe any woman would love him with the way he looks. They go to a popular fair near London where the doctor from the Comprachicos has his own freak show (including a five-legged cow!). The doctor recognizes his work. He also knows that the spoiled Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) has inherited the Clancharlie estate. The doctor plans to blackmail Josiana. The plan doesn't work out because Barkilphedro, who has become a noble, intercepts the letter. He offers the information to Queen Anne so she can get rid of Josiana, or better yet, humiliate her by forcing her to marry Gwynplaine, who is now destined to wind up in the House of Lords. Tragedy ensues.

Veidt's makeup inspired the look of Batman's arch-nemesis, The Joker. Barkilphedro seems more like the inspiration for Joker's personality. He's sadistic and vicious, ready to take advantage of anyone for his own benefit or even just his own amusement. Gwynplaine is a sensitive and caring man who can barely stand other people seeing his face. Veidt gives the character lots of pathos and delivers a great performance, though often only his eyes are visible. The rest of the cast is also good. The movie is a silent film and the actors use the typical exaggerated gestures common in the silent era. 

The sets are impressive, capturing the gloominess of the story and the roughness of the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century England. Leni's directorial style is nice, with occasional expressionistic flourishes that heighten the drama. I was a little worried when I bought this BluRay/DVD because the cover art looks unprofessional, but the film looks great and the score is fine.

Recommended, highly for silent film buffs.

TV Review: Lost in Space Season 2 (2019)

Lost in Space Season 2 (2019) created by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless based on the show by Irwin Allen

After the finale of Season 1 (which for some reason I did not review), the Robinson family is trapped on a planet in the middle of nowhere. They struggle to survive on a watery planet without the Robot and with Dr. Smith (Parker Posey) locked up. Mrs. Robison says in the first episode that she will never let Dr. Smith out, under no circumstances whatsoever. By the end of the episode, they've let Dr. Smith out. Soon enough, they escape from the planet and are reunited with the main colonist ship heading to Alpha Centauri. Young Will Robinson wants to reunite with the Robot, so they work on that as they work on getting to Alpha Centauri.

The show is not full of surprises but the effects are amazing. The actors are charming and work well together. They act like a family. The perilous situations often seem contrived, encouraging viewers to put their minds in neutral to get the maximum enjoyment from the show. There's plenty to enjoy, except for being left with another big cliffhanger ending.

Recommended for an entertaining family show.

Currently (May 2021) the show is only available for streaming on Netflix. Season 3 is supposed to come later this year.

Riverfront Park, Laurel, Maryland

It all started as an innocent trip to the Patuxent River to throw rock in the water (or to the other bank). Riverfront Park was our destination. We parked at the west end of Main Street, Laurel, and followed a trail down to the river. Everything seemed fine and normal.

Having fun

A bend in the river

The kids even climbed some rocks. That was fun for everyone but the parents. "It's too high" was a complaint that was about to seem insignificant.

Posing on top

Nearby, we spotted some ruins with a helpful information display.

What's that?

A large dam with a mill race was built on the river in 1850. Water was stored and diverted to a cotton mill right next to the river. The original dam was 222 feet across and 27 feet tall. The dam needed lots of repairs through the years and was mostly destroyed in the 1940s. The remains are still there.

One side of the dam

The other side, a lot rougher

With their great curiosity and lack of fear, my two oldest wandered in through the rocks to it check out. 

Thirsty minds

They found the gate to the mill race. The race let the water onto two overshot wheels (the water flows onto the top of the wheel) and a Boyden Turbine. The gate was open to various degrees depending on how much energy the mill needed. The gate is long gone but the gateway is there, letting anyone through.

A passageway for water

Looking from the water side of the dam

Going through was not so stressful for us parents. Going up, on the other hand, did give us the willies. Not that we went up; our kids did.

That really is too high, right?

View from the mill side of the dam

If only that branch wasn't there

Mill race gate from the mill side

We always have fun finding new bits of old history in our neighborhood. We initially had to drag the kids out for this hike but they returned home big fans.

Book Review: The Way of the Househusband Vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono

The Way of the Househusband Volume 1 story and art by Kousuke Oono

A man know as "The Immortal Dragon" in the Yakuza has left organized crime and now lives his life as a househusband. He still wears the intimidating black clothes of a tough guy but has an apron with a cute cat on it. He makes breakfast and packs lunches. He cleans house, even using new technology. He shops for groceries and whatever else he and his wife need. Occasional run-ins with old associates  don't tempt him to return to his old ways. He is committed to his new life even as he uses his old skills to deal with everyday people (including his wife). 

As one might guess from the description, this manga is a comedy with some action thrown in. The writing is fun and the juxtaposition of his Yakuza grit to his new lifestyle is fun. I will definitely read more.

Recommended.

Book Review: Network Effect by Martha Wells

Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel by Martha Wells

Muderbot, a rogue cyborg who used to be more robot than human, goes on another adventure. This time, he's bot-napped by aliens and taken through a wormhole to an abandoned colony far beyond any other humans (or bots). The colony is the home of the aliens, or at least the location of alien artifacts that have infected some humans and turned them into parasitic monsters. Other familiar beings are involved in the story, like ART the university survey ship that helped Murderbot to look and act more human in a past story. It may have worked too well. Muderbot is a lot more emotional and humane in its attitude toward others. 

The story is exciting and humorous, giving a lot of joy to the reader. Some new characters are introduced toward the end of the book that bring out just how far along Murderbot has developed as a character. Lots of other serialized science fiction (and serialized fiction in general (I'm looking at you, Jack Reacher)) tends to play it safe by having their heroes stay basically the same story after story. Murderbot is not like that--it grows as a person which makes for exciting further developments. A lot of the action is more of the same (i.e. well-written action) from earlier stories but the hero grows as a person and becomes more interesting. I can't wait for the next story.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: The Black Cat (1934)

The Black Cat (1934) directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Very loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Black Cat, this movie features the first team-up of Bela Lugosi (Dracula) and Boris Karloff (Frankenstein). "Team-up" is the wrong word, because their characters are enemies. Lugosi plays Dr. Werdegast, a recent escapee from prison who is coming to an obscure Austrian town seeking revenge on Poelzig (Karloff). They were in the war together (presumably World War I). Poelzig commanded a fort where thousands of men died. Werdegast was stationed there but wound up in the prison. The real problem is that Poelzig stole Werdegast's wife and daughter, claiming Werdegast died in prison just after the war. Now, Poelzig has built an ultra-modern home on the ruins of the fortification (so he has an appropriately creepy basement). Werdegast travels by train and runs into some American newlyweds who ride the same bus through the obscure Austrian town. The bus crashes in the rain, killing the driver. The passengers seek shelter in Poelzig's home. The tension quickly skyrockets as Werdegast plans his revenge, only to find his wife dead and eerily preserved in the basement. Poelzig has even more sinister plans, especially for the young bride.

The movie has almost nothing to do with the Poe story. Karloff's character does have a black cat; Lugosi is pathologically afraid of cats (leading to a bit of overacting). The conflict between the two is fun as they simmer in rage. The newlyweds are more like unfortunate victims caught in the crossfire. Visually, the movie is impressive. The sets are expressive and do a good job mirroring the duplicitous nature of Karloff's Poelzig. The editing also has some nice visual flourishes and hints at the really shocking moments without being graphic.

Recommended--not as great as Dracula or Frankenstein, but a worthy horror outing. I was inspired to watch this by a history of Universal Horror films on the Hypnogoria podcast.

B&O Railroad Museum: FCSME Model Train Display

The Four County Society of Model Engineers set up an HO-scale display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. The set was very large, taking up the whole roundtable in the middle of the main building.

The train set

The layout is not of any particular location but it does have lots of delightful details. The train running on the loop takes quite a while to get all the way around.

The front (?) of the display

Cute motel

Mill with tunnel

Indian Motorcycle shop

One of the many cool bridges

Coca-Cola factory

Another cool factory with a bridge next door (and tunnel underneath!)

Esso gas and "Dari-King"

Farmhouse with, you guessed it, a bridge

An inclined street

Detail from above

The set was on display until Sunday, April 18. We went on the penultimate day, so this post didn't make until afterward. Sorry about that! You can check the FCSME calendar to see where they will be next. 

I did see another cool display we missed during our last visit. The Carrollton Viaduct is the oldest train bridge in America. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built the bridge in 1829 as part of its first route to the town of Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City) thirteen miles away. The main arch is 80 feet across Gwynn Falls (which is a stream). The smaller arch (only 20 feet) let farm traffic through. The smaller arch is now part of a nature trail. The stone structure still stands and is still used for trains!

Carrollton Viaduct

The viaduct is named after Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was on the board for the railroad company and was the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

I do want to hike or bike through the little arch some time soon!

BALOO Training!

As part of my Woodbadge ticket, I took BALOO training hosted in the Baltimore Area Council of Scouting BSA. The name stands for "Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation" and is meant to mimic the character from The Jungle Book who teaches Mowgli the law of the jungle. We learned the law of the outdoor camping, which was fun. The camp site is just outside Poplar Springs Park in western Howard County.

Park entrance

Pretty sure this is the Poplar Spring

I already have some camping skills, like setting up a tent. They encouraged small tents since each of us had our own tent and the campout was only one night.

Our 1-2 person tent

We have a smaller tent but I didn't take it since the forecast had rain and drizzle. The one-person tent does not do well in the bad weather.

The scout campground is right next to a residential street. My nearest neighbors were chickens!

In the coop

The course started on Friday night. We had a campfire program as a model to show the elements of a good campfire. They described and then demonstrated various components of a campfire, including songs, skits, walk-ons, and ceremonial bits. We didn't do any cooking, i.e. no smores!

The campfire

The guy managing the fire did a great job and was able to extinguish it easily thanks to a good set-up. He said that he puts an unburnt stick in the middle of the campfire remains to assure the fire is completely out. 

The fire ring extinguished

Saturday morning we had a model flag-raising ceremony. My den was selected as the color guard, meaning we had to raise the flag. I attached it to the rope and pulled it to the top!

Later in the day

We learned a lot of other skills throughout the day, including knot tying, whittling safety, first aid (a natural follow-on after whittling), aquatics (though no actual swimming or boating), cooking (thanks to Covid, we didn't do any practical skills), hiking, geocaching (a nice add-on to a hike), and other topics. The group had three dens so we rotated through three stations. Some people got their first aid before their whittling!

The campground

During the geocaching rotation, we found the Poplar Springs Cache in the park. I already had the app loaded and led the way.

It's in there somewhere

One of the final rotations was through Large Group Games, where we were taught games appropriate for a whole bunch of people to play. One team game was taken from the recent Klondike Derby. Two scouters had to stand on a pair of planks and walk across the field. It's much harder than it looks! But also fun.

Tools to cross the field

The final ceremony was the awarding of completion certificates. The organizer made one long tube out of the certificates and made them into Kaa the Snake, another character from Jungle Book. Participants went one at a time to get their diploma and to announce the next recipient. 

Can you spot the snake?

The course is a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it and I am now ready to help the pack go camping.

Book Review: Gilgamesh by Gerald J. Davis

Gilgamesh: The New Translation by Gerald J. Davis

Gilgamesh is a first in many ways: the first epic, the first action adventure, the first buddy story. The earliest copies of it date back to 2000 BC. They tell the story of Gilgamesh, ruler of Uruk, who begins as an infamous character. He possesses great power and intelligence but is only interested in bedding any and every woman he wants. The people cry out to the gods who provide an answer in Enkidu, a wild man forged in the hill country. He is a complete savage until he meets one of the temple harlots. She civilizes him after distracting him with her womanly wiles. Once he's shaved and given clothing, he looks very similar to Gilgamesh and comes to Uruk. Enkidu and Gilgamesh have a great battle in the streets. They wind up friends and go on quests together. First, they vanquish Humbaba the Fierce who lives in the faraway Forest of Cedars. When they return, the goddess Ishtar wants to marry Gilgamesh. He rejects her offer since every other mortal who has wed her dies soon thereafter. In her angry jealousy, she asks the father of the gods for revenge. A divine bull is sent after Gilgamesh. Enkidu helps to defeat the beast, throwing a chunk of it back at Ishtar. She curses them both. Enkidu suddenly has a fatal disease, leaving Gilgamesh alone. He seeks out immortal life by journeying to the dwelling of Utanapishtim. He is a mortal who survived a great, worldwide flood and was granted immortal life by the gods (who saved him from the flood by warning him to build a boat). Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh of a plant that grants life everlasting. Gilgamesh finds the plant but loses it along the way back to Uruk. 

The story moves along at a good pace for the most part. Occasional passages have a lot of line repetition which may have been better as poetry or as spoken aloud but is a little wearisome as prose text. The civilizing of Enkidu is interesting as he leaves behind the country life for city living. It's not really clear how his confrontation with Gilgamesh made the ruler a better person, other than starting other activities. Just getting Gilgamesh out of town may have been enough of an accomplishment! The quest for immortality at the end is also interesting, especially when Gilgamesh has to travel through a long, dark cave on the way to Utanapishtim (who is clearly a Noah-like figure). He almost goes through death and burial to come back to life on the other side. Just not the immortal life he'd hoped for. 

This book includes a separate poem about the death of Gilgamesh along with a few commentaries by other authors. One commentary is from the 1920s and discusses many different aspects. Sometimes it talks about the story, sometimes it bogs down in etymologies and comparisons between a Babylonian version and a Syrian version, sometimes it makes unfavorable comparisons to similar stories in Genesis. I wound up skimming bits and did not find it particularly valuable.

Even though I enjoyed this text, I am curious to try other translations as a comparison. Did anyone write it more as poetry? Did they take more license with the text and not have so many repetitions?

Recommended, though it might get downgraded if I find a more interesting version.

The story is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast episode 254.

Book Review: Usagi Yojimbo Book 4 by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy by Stan Sakai

This volume of Usagi Yojimbo is one long story about a potential civil war. Usagi stumbles across a plan by Lord Tamakuro to overthrow the Shogun. Tamakuro has been stockpiling flintlock guns and lead, preparing to take over all of Japan. Usagi has help from many friends from past stories, including Zato-Ino the blind swordpig, Gen the bountyhunter rhino, and Tomoe Ame. Each character starts from a different point but the plot threads come together nicely making a very satisfying story. As usual, the art is simple and beautiful, communicating the action and the emotion along with the storyline. It's another great outing for the rabbit ronin.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Goksung (The Wailing) (2016)

Goksung (The Wailing) (2016) written and directed by Hong-jin Na

Local policeman Jong-goo (Do-wan Kwak) has a tough time with nightmares about horrible things happening. If that wasn't bad enough, bad things do start happening in the local village. Mysterious and gruesome murders take out entire families, often with one family member (who killed all the others, i.e. the perpetrator) committing suicide. The theories that assign blame are all wild speculations, from bad mushrooms to the recently-arrived old Japanese man (Jun Kunimura). The investigation is slow and depressing but becomes more urgent when Jong-goo discovers that his daughter (Hwan-hee Kim) has started changing and may be the next perpetrator. Jon-goo's mother-in-law contacts a local shaman to help get rid of the evil presence, if it's not already too late.

The movie starts like a police procedural but quickly morphs into a horror film. Jong-goo is a bit hapless and very passive at the start. He gets more active once he's in jeopardy. The atmospheric surroundings create more tension in an already tense situation. The setting is beautiful and also haunting with all the fog and rain. The plot suffers from having too many red herrings. A lot of significant scenes don't make sense with how things turned out at the end. The ending is horrifying but fails to pull things together, leaving me as a viewer unsatisfied.

Mildly recommended--the atmosphere is great and the story is intriguing until they fail at the ending.

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area, South Wind Trail

We went for a local hike to the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. The website shows two different hikes. The South Wind Trail is slightly shorter (2.3 miles to the Wildlife Loop's 2.4 miles). The entrance is on a neighborhood street with free street parking. We almost took a paved path that is part of the Columbia trail system, not the MPEA hike. My eldest spotted the sign for the park, which has a dirt trail behind it. 

Not my oldest son

A few small fields are sprinkled throughout the area, making habitats for field and forest animals. They attract a good diversity of flora and fauna. We hiked in early spring, so not much sign of either yet.

A pleasant field

Walking the trail

The trail features markers that match the descriptions on the trail brochure which I downloaded from the website. 

Marker #1

Another field with some additional habitats in the distance

We came to a fork in the trail and chose a route randomly. The choice didn't matter so much since this is the loop part of the trail, meaning we'd come back out the other tine of the fork.

Going right

Part of the area is an easement for utilities, including rain sewer lines, so we saw some unusual forest dwellers.

At least that hole in the ground is covered!

This area has lots of fallen trees that are left where they lie in order to provide shelter and food for the local critters.

"Y" did it fall down?

Another trail marker that blends in well

Plenty of undergrowth

The park has many small and large tributaries that feed into the Middle Patuxent River (there's also a Little Patuxent River and a plain old Patuxent River). Some are little more than runoffs from higher ground.

A small stream hiding in the undergrowth

The tributary and my son cross the path

A mighty leap!

The path turns along Cricket Creek, the largest tributary in the park. The kids wanted to throw stones, climb over rocks, and even cross the creek if they could. I encouraged everything but the last.

A fabulous find

Cricket Creek

Out in the water

Relaxing rock

The trail parallels the creek with the occasional bridge for humans over muddy bits of the trail. Just off the bridge we saw tracks for non-humans.

Looking around

Some identifiable prints

We weren't quite sure where the creek ended and the Middle Patuxent began. So we explored more sections of the flowing water.

Out on a sandy bank

Further out, coming back

Beautiful water

Not sure if that was a man-made or nature-made dam/crossing

A spooky hollow

We took the opportunity to throw more rocks. A new popular sport was throwing rocks to the other bank of the stream.

Looking for the perfect stone

The beach is on the wrong side (from our perspective)

Another attempt at crossing

I am fairly certain this next view is definitely the Middle Patuxent River.

Should we throw more rocks?

The walk back was fun with more of the same foresty goodness.

More fallen trees for the bugs and the animals to enjoy

We may go back to this trail. We will definitely try out the other trail soon.