Anna Lucasta

Some small treasures are things you see - like this kid on his hi-rise bicycle. Why?? A little bit of show off, a little bit of just for the fun of it. Made me smile anyway!
I have been drowning in movies. First I went to a real movie theatre and saw Memoirs of a Geisha which I liked, but I soon found out that for all sorts of reasons I wasn't supposed to. I don't care about the nationality of the actors or the lawsuits of the writers, I do not care if the movie is inauthentic, all I care about is it held my attention without resorting to Special Effects and Massive Violence. Then I finally got my hands on the 'white' version of Anna Lucasta with Paulette Goddard and John Ireland instead of Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Junior. I saw the 'black' version when I was a child in England, and I had often wondered about it. Then I found a book called Best American Plays of 1941. It had an article about Anna Lucasta. It was first written for a Polish American cast, but the writer could not get it produced. Then he found out that there was money available for a play with a black cast, so he did a few modifications and lo and behold it was produced. I think the 'white' version of the movie preceded the 'black' one by a couple of years. You can't beat Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Junior for pure charisma, but both movies told the same story about bad girls gone right.... or did they? I'd bet neither Anna would last more than a couple of years on the farm. And then the geisha...... at the end she gets her guy but complains gently that she can never be more than companion, never wife to him. What is she complaining about? She's missing all the boring stuff like money and housework and kids and obligatory sex. She gets the nice bits and gets to wear pretty clothes.
Then I swooped on the dollar video rack at Walmart and came home with a treasure trove. I think Stage Door Canteen has to be a priceless historic document. It was knock down drag out propaganda with tons of celebrities doing their bit for the cause. Katherine Hepburn, Ethel Waters, Ethel Merman, Gypsie Rose Lee, Helen Hayes, the Lunts, Harpo Marx, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and was that Peggy Lee? Xavier Cugat, real Russian Sailors, including a stunning and scary looking woman, fake Chinese airmen, Australian Aborigines, Brits and even a rare black American soldier. It knocked me sideways! I also got Orson Welles, Edward G Robinson and Loretta Young in The Stranger and EGR in Scarlet St on one dvd, Rod Steiger as Al Capone, Liz Taylor, Donna Reed and Van Johnson in The Last Time I Saw Paris, a movie about trying to stop destruction of the redwoods called Big Trees with Kirk Douglas, sharing a DVD with Dear Secretary. I managed to stop snatching at these treasures but not before I grabbed a couple of Roy Rogers movies. Nine movies for six bucks! I haven't made a dent in them yet.