Distracted Start: Old Movies

Isn't it funny when you put things together? I turned on an old movie tonight, Hearts Divided (it's Marion Davies' birthday; learn something new every day)(no, I never heard of her either), from 1936, and found it most amusing, if terribly unlikely. Nice for instance how they make no attempt to have Napoleon and his brother sound French; and the attitudes about the servants are quite through rose-colored glasses.

But I also recognized more than one of the actors, and turned to IMDB to place them. Claude Rains is one thing, but I knew one of them from Holiday, the wonderful Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn movie that a friend introduced me to only a few years ago. Edward Everett Horton was great fun in that, and here he is in this one. I turned to his IMDB page to see what else I might have seen him in, and behold! He was the narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales on Bullwinkle! Also I clearly haven't watched Arsenic and Old Lace in too long, for I don't remember him in that. I'll watch it soon, and I'm sure it will all fall into place.

Another actor who sounds familiar, but looks far too young, turns out to have been in the Hayley Mills version of The Parent Trap--of course! My goodness: Grandfather!

Isn't it disconcerting to see an actor you "knew" as older suddenly grown young? I do love old movies.

Well, that wasn't how I planned to start, was it? I'm feeling so much better today that I've had to remind myself frequently, "so much better than I was" does not equal "well".

Progression in how I've felt during this illness:
Thursday: "I feel like shit. No, worse than that."
Friday: "Wow, I feel like shit. No, worse than that."
Saturday: "Wow, I still feel like shit. No, still worse than that."
Sunday: "Hey, I feel like shit, but not worse."
Monday: "Yup, still feel like shit."
Tuesday: "Wow, I still feel like shit."

Only for so long does the "I don't feel as bad as I did" feeling give me a rush. Today I kept somehow forgetting that I'm still not 100%, attempting to move at my normal pace, and going, "ooh, bad idea." I don't think turning my head should make me dizzy, for one thing. At one point, I made myself giggle by imagining going to my boss and saying, "I'm sorry, but I can't have two monitors after all; swiveling my head between them is making me dizzy."

So there we are! Better, but not all better. The movie is done, I've had dessert and want my dinner, the lovers were parted and reunited, the three spurned suitors (the third one was the butler in Heidi, and the constable in Mary Poppins!) are left to console themselves, and Napoleon must build his empire without the consolidation of a royal marriage by his brother.

Oh, should I have warned you there were spoilers? Well, here's a general spoiler: if I love a movie, it almost always has a happy ending. Goodnight!