Still Worn Out - But Humming

I am still pretty worn out, and tomorrow is the department pot luck so I had to make cookies tonight.

But I watched two old movies today. (This, of course, counts as research for the current series.) First we went to see Meet Me In St. Louis, which was playing at one of the local multiplexes. (They play old movies on many Tuesdays and Thursdays.) It is not the greatest of MGM musicals, but it does feature The Trolley Song, and a good cast, and needs to be seen once in a while on the big screen.

But then tonight while I was baking the cookies, I discovered that Hulu has Ball Of Fire playing free online. This 1941 Howard Hawks comedy is a heck of a lot of fun. It stars Gary Cooper as a linguistics professor who has been living a monastic existence with seven other professors (all played by great long time character actors like "Cuddles" Sakall and Henry Travers) as they write an encyclopedia. And then Barbara Stanwyck sashays into their lives as Sugarpuss O'Shea, a nightclub singer on the lam. (This was remade in 1948 as A Song Is Born, a musical with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo.)

As I said, this is RESEARCH, because Karla sees everything through the metaphor of movies (sorta like Miss Marple sees the solutions of mysteries through the metaphor of small town life). Unfortunately none of the movies mentioned today are suitable for for Book One. But they may give us some place to go in Book Two. (Though I'm thinking I need a little Clifton Webb for that book.)

Off I must go to bed. Another long day tomorrow.

(Humming Clang clang clang went the tolley! Ding ding ding went the bell! Zing zing zing went my heart strings. From the moment I saw him I fell....)