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Family: 6 of 6
〰〰〰〰
There's something missing. I've been struggling and keep questioning what isn't present. Society makes me think of the beautiful case of stairs, the car with three rows, the grass that's always green, and it makes me misinterpret what I should be doing.
Success is a powerful word. It stands for most everything we believe in and can be used so quickly to determine how we view ourselves. It took me a lot of time to understand the truth to this word, to how I use it in my vocabulary, to how I look at another person. One day, I realized, maybe success isn't what I've seen it as this whole time. Maybe it simply means having a smile on your face and not spending days regretting your past. Or maybe it's just seeing your kids grow tall and strong. Or it could be being a master of one thing, possibly terrible in the rest. Or being strong in many categories, where you might still be considered a follower and not a leader.
I've explored my options in many different forms, and I've found the things that I love and always will, but there's STILL something biting the back of my head.
Not too long ago, I met a girl walking through the halls of my highschool. Not long after, I became a friend, a boyfriend, then a husband. Quickly came the moment we lived together. And in all of this blur of a life; time being something we've lost track of, we've spent time lying in bed speaking of the days we would have a child. What their names would/will be and I know that this is what I long for. What I live for.
There is a Portuguese word, Saudade; meaning, the nostalgia of an absent body from one's life.
This has hit me hard; the times that we thought she was pregnant, the time that we've worked to get where we are.
I know though, she will forever hold my hand, to where our bodies are dust. No matter if there will be another hand in between ours; first small in size, growing far too fast, I know our love will carry us.
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
2017 Liverpool Pride event.
I'm guessing that these young questioners were carrying out some sort of school/college project they had been set
Bonobo 3
Zoo Frankfurt / Zoologischer Garten Frankfurt im Affenhaus.
creative commons by marfis75
Twitter: @marfis75
License: cc-by-sa
you are free to share, adapt - attribution: Credits to "marfis75 on flickr"
St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
This is our neighbors dog Maco. He is a Pitbull that is kind and friendly. I've known him since he was a puppy and consider him as a friend. He has a roommate named Oscar. Oscar is the boss since he was there when Maco was a puppy. Oscar is a Chihuahua.
.......................................................................
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
"Albert Einstein"
......................................................................
October, is the Breast Cancer Awareness month ...
My simple dedication to my dear friend Maha who is courageously fighting this enemy ..
Dear Maha, I wish you a speedy recovery and hopefully soon when we celebrate you officially declared Cancer free ..
{♥} YOU ARE A TRUE HERO GIRL! {♥}
Dear friends - female friends - few seconds on self-checking every month could save your life ..
Please stay healthy - for me :) -
I am a female by the way {♥}
***{MODEL: another dear friend - Thanks :)}***
Please find below few useful links:-
{♥} , {♥} , {♥} , {♥} , {♥} , {♥} , {♥}
.
RULE OF THIRDS is the topic for Tuesday October 18
.
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Spectacular view associated with wind gust.
Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
VERTICAL LINE GARDEN 2017
Julia Jamrozik, Coryn Kempster
Buffalo, United States.
Visit: www.ck-jj.com
From the plaque:
Drawing on the formal language of historical garden design, and the contemporary means of mass-produced safety and construction material, the project is a strong graphic intervention that aims to produce an abstract field.
Defining a geometric zone out of tightly spaced parallel lines of stretched commercial barrier tape , the installation introduces ordered man-made elements into the cultivated natural environment of the Reford Gardens. Through this juxtaposition, a dialogue between the two spheres is created based on the shared theme of protection and necessary safe-guarding while questioning the definition of what is truly natural.
As one approaches and then walks around and through the installation the changing viewpoint will allow the shifting of the tape lines in space and thus varied views of the overall composition. Further the movement of the lines with the changing of the climate, the wind and the sun will ensure a dynamic optical and auditory engagement for the audience. As visitors enter and inhabit the space by occupying the provided loungers, the fluctuating appearance of the installation is further enhanced.
In the 2015 version of the garden, we have decided to alter the colours of the field and provide and to provide canpy elements which will not only provide shade but also give a different experiential perspective of the banner tape.
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Texte de la plaque:
S'appuyant sur le langage formel de la conception du jardin historique, sur des moyens modernes de sécutité et sur des matériaux de construction produits en massa, le projet se veut une intervention graphique cherchant à créer un champs abstrait.
Des lignes parallèles de rubans de sécurité étroitement espacés définissent une zone géométrique. Cette installation d’éléments ordonnés prend place dans un milieu d’aspect naturel. Par cette juxtaposition, un dialogue entre les deux se crée basé sur le thème commun de la protection et de la sauvegarde , tout en s’interrogeant sur la définition de ce qui est vraiment naturel.
En s’approchant, en marchant autour et au travers le jardin, le point de vue change, ce qui permet le déplacement des lignes dans l’espace pour offrir de nouvelles perspectives sur la composition globale. Outre le mouvement des lignes, les changements de climat, le vent et le soleil procurent aux visiteurs des expériences visuelles et auditives dynamiques. Lorsque les visiteurs entrent et habitent l’espace en s’assoyant sur les chaises, l’aspect fluctuant de l’installation est renforcé.
Dans la version 2015 du jardin, les couleurs des rubans sont différentes et trois canopées ont été ajoutés. Ce qui va non seulement fournir de l’ombre mais aussi offrir une perspective expérientielle différente sur les rubans de sécurité.
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Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
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St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
Ms. Rhodes' smile is still fresh in my head. Just as pretty as she is. When I showed her the news showing how Adam Hunt was now wanted for questioning by the police, it's hard to blame her for being happy. Pained me to crush her happiness when I told her she was staying where she was until I kill Hunt myself. She got pissed, told me how she deserved revenge and all that, but I'm not letting her out. She's done enough. The next few days I spend following cops trailing Adam Hunt. Some were saying the piece of shit's out of the country right now, but I wouldn't be so sure. If my own research on Hunt indicates anything, he's got virtually nothing outside of the states. All his money is here. He's not gonna abandon it because his nighttime routines are all over the rags, now. And wouldn't you know it, I was right! A day later he was discovered hiding out a bit upstate, or upstream, preferably. You literally had to follow a river just outside of Gotham to find him. Joining a police chase in the Roadblade and I end up cornering him in a dam. His own fault for trying to outrun me and a squad of cops in a fucking van. Until I learned the hard way just what that van was carrying. As I got out of the Roadblade to probably rip him to pieces in that van, he kicks out the back door and open fires. Thing is, he didn't open fire with a handgun or a rifle or whatever. I think he knows none of those would get him far with me. No, he came out with a fucking minigun. A Patton Arms model, nonetheless.Well, shit. He was also pretty quick with it, too. Wherever I ran he could keep up. The rounds in that minigun were enough to do some legit damage to the armor. Already had some gashed from a few bullets that grazed me. And sneaking up on him's not gonna be easy. This damned dam is pretty open. Maybe the generators above can help me get around him... well, I lead him up to one of said generators and take cover. From this point on I can only hope he doesn't just unload into the generator I'm taking cover on. If he does, I might be shit outta luck..
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
I fell in love at 17 and married that man at 25. We were the ideal couple and admired by many. He could build anything, fix anything, was handsome, loving and so very kind. I was the somewhat pretty girl, in my view, but never quite good enough. I grew up with a constant questioning of my looks, my worth, my intelligence. I had a boyfriend for two seconds in 7th grade, and then not again until late in my senior year. And guess what? I married him. Never had I felt more at home and safe, and truly in love. The problem was, I had never stopped questioning my worth. And I continued to look for validation and nods of approval from other people. It became “not enough” to have my husband’s love, I was looking for more. Though I was not aware I was doing this, I also started to measure and question my husband’s love as true or not. This would look like me flirting with people even in front of my husband (if he seemed jealous, maybe he really loved me) or leading people on just enough to have to tell them I was in a relationship. This was a pattern for me, one I didn’t see clearly at the time. (I also didn’t see, couldn’t see that every flirt, glance, or lead-on was me looking for me). And, I loved him. When he would leave for work, I would feel a loss, I loved being with him. I even think he knew about me and my insecurities, and loved me still.
We decided to have kids once he turned 30, and that was when things got really strained.
Jonas came in to this world with an extremely rare genetic disorder that ultrasound and genetic testing at the time did not detect. The dream of starting a family the way I had imagined was thrown into a washing machine, dryer and then a wood chipper. He struggled with life from the start, and ended up in the hospital a lot. That started the dynamic of once my husband came home, I would hand him our son and go hide in housework or a book or some other escape. There was a lot of love, pain, struggling, more hospitalizations, sleepless nights and generalized anxiety. I was not grounded in who I was, I was surviving. Jonas wasn’t even typical for an atypical child. In the handicapped and special needs world, he was the most complex. That wasn’t even the most difficult part. That was the crying. He seemed to never stop. He mostly cried, with little moments of calm (the opposite from other children)...something that didn’t improve much till he was 5 or so. Then I had this great idea to have another baby. At least I could have something ‘normal’ to deal with. Wesley came about 18 months later, and was as I imagined. Perfectly typical. Keeping myself busy, distracted, “important”, having so many reasons to not deal with who I was and what I needed led me to eventually come to the realization that our marriage wasn’t working. He didn’t love me. I had been collecting evidence like “see he didn’t even kiss me goodnight” “he never called to check in from work” or “why does he call me from work, he doesn’t think I know how to take care of the kids?” I had convinced myself he wasn’t the ‘one’ for me after all. That the love must not be real, and it must be somewhere else. So, I started to wait for my true love. And thoughts like “wait, He was my true love so what happened??” came but for some reason I avoided working it out. I had my answer, true love was coming from somewhere else. And then guess what? It did.
I started down the divorce path, and it got real. There were so many moments I knew I had messed everything up, and I should just go back and try to repair things. That was paired with a justification because evidence still showed he didn’t love me. I mean, he was letting me divorce him.
Our divorce took years. I couldn’t do it. Then I could. Then I couldn’t. I stalled, he stalled. I avoided. He avoided. But all the while, I was in a new relationship...the one I called the ‘true love’. The stalling and avoiding was impacting my new relationship. It felt like I was taking off my own arm so that I could feel more complete. And it made as much sense as that. The pain got so overwhelming at one point, I broke up my new relationship thinking it would all get easier. I had been dealing with extreme anger and hatred from my ex-husband’s family. A family I once loved, and who supposedly loved me. There was so much anxiety and fear and pain, at one point I contracted mono, paired with hepatitis and spent months on the couch. Alone. That was when I realized my now ex husband found the love of his life. How could I feel jealous and angry? Well, I did. She was younger. And pretty. Great body. And she had my kids with her half the time. What.the.fuck.
It got ugly. I had finally found moments of peace and workability with my ex husband where he wasn’t angry all the time, and now she’s here? Well, that brought a new level of tension and drama. I remember a soccer game where he brought his brother and parents, and I brought my sister so I’d have backup. His girlfriend was sitting on the ground with Jonas and I couldn’t even get near him. How freaking awkward. What were people thinking. What does it mean about me that I cant just go over there and tell her that I would like to hold my own son. In times like those, I wanted the earth to swallow me up. It went on like that for a while. I had moments of extending the olive branch, and trying to be nice and sharing movie recommendations. Something inside of me knew it could be different. I even saw things I liked about her. And deep down, I still loved my ex. I could see that I didn’t love him romantically per se, but that I was not complete with the way things were. It was like a nagging constant voice of why? why? why? why? In my head. Meaning, why was it like this? Why are we pretending to be enemies? Didn’t it make sense what I did? Aren’t you happier now? Why are you still mad? Voices in my head would confuse me and have me wonder why I’m still wanting him to prove his love to me. After all I did? But it was like that: “You should hate me. Why do you hate me? You should thank me. I am so sorry. You should be sorry. “
Years go by in a mostly polite, kind-of peaceful manner and then I had a great idea. I would invite them to this enormous party I was having for Jonas. He had lived for 10 years by then, and every time he was sick I would try to prepare myself for his death. So when he was about to turn 10, I thought we should throw him a ‘life party’. I rented a place, and catered the event with food and drinks, music, games, and a movie I had made about Jonas (which included his dad and now girlfriend). Well, they came, and it was fine. They managed to find people to talk to without it being awkward for them, and I was so happy to be having a party of love that I didn’t even worry about them. I also didn’t worry if I was hugging my new husband too much. I guess I was starting to feel overall more comfortable inside with the choices we all made. Well then the first of many small miracles happened. When the party was over, she sent me a text. She shared that it was amazing for her to get a glimpse of the mother that I really am, instead of through the lens of my ex family (who still hated my guts I was sure). She saw the love, and what I had created for Jonas, and she started to wonder at the person I really was. It was the first moment perhaps, that she actually saw me. For me, that was validating and gave me the energy to keep going, to keep moving in the direction of healing and peace. Man, all it took was saying something nice to one another. We make it so complicated.
The next monumental moment was after I took a course through Landmark Education and invited her to my ‘graduation night’. She came, and she brought me a gift. I thought that was adorable. Maybe I was starting to actually like this girl? That very night, she signed up for the same course, and signed her husband (my ex husband) up too. Once we all took that course, our healing and forgiving and connecting took off. All we needed was a common language so that no one feels blamed, or wronged. We all learned about how dynamics are created, and how we keep patterns alive in our thinking -and now we had tools to actually share when we got hurt or upset. This is also around the time that I finally started to understand what happened in my marriage. I learned that when I was younger and in a certain moment with my parents, I convinced myself that they didn’t love me. It was not conscious. I also in that moment, learned to shut my love off in response. I then got to see how that had created patterns of hurt and pain, and shutting off my love for people- all without me knowing it was a decision I made from childhood. I actually felt justified and it all felt real. To constantly question people’s love became normal. I collect evidence to support my ‘truth’, and then I usually distance myself from that person. Divorce.
Yes, I do think it could have been avoided had I learned this about myself sooner. But would I go back now? No. I’d even go through the yuckiest, sickest, deepest sadness of my life to be where we are today. After Landmark, we were no longer afraid to share time together. We started hanging out a little bit more. We eventually shared Christmas Eve together. We really enjoyed our time together. We hit a few bumps in the road, but they didn’t stop us, and Megan and I started calling each other if we sensed something was up. We realized we had a common commitment to the kids being happy, and now we were both living from that. In the past three years, my husband and I hosted their first baby shower at our home, we have gone on vacation together, we have had countless dinners, brunches and lunches together. Last Christmas Jonas ended up in the hospital for about 3 weeks. His heart stopped. For 25 minutes. My ex husband Kieran, his wife Megan and I stood at the head of Jonas’s bed and watched while they tirelessly tried to revive him. They surrounded me in love beyond what I could have ever expected. What we shared in that moment, really got me present to that THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS LIKE TO SHARE A CHILD. Before the drama. Blaming. Comparing. When we are able to forget about our own complaints, judgements, etc...we were just there because we love someone. Our son. Stepson. Whatever. It’s all love. When we let love BE there, it all makes sense. Those few weeks with the four of us in the same hospital room provided a slowing down of life, and a presence with each other that is difficult to achieve in every day life. We talked about what each of us wants for Jonas. What kind of life we want to have for him, for us as a family and as individuals. COVID didn’t stop us, and only kept us in the conversation of how we really want to live. We have had dinners or lunches every weekend when we ‘trade’ the kids. We are talking about that together, anything is possible. We could even live abroad. What can I say? Life works when we clean up our complaints and take responsibility for our happiness. Imagine if I hadn’t invited them to Jonas’s party? It just took an act of kindness.
This is a story about true love. And how I know it exists. No, I didn’t marry my high school sweetheart, travel the world, have 3 kids who are now doctors and lawyers and now we’re sitting on the front porch swing holding hands.
No, no, it’s much more than that. Love, Grief, and Gut Wrenching Pain. Dreams and expectations thwarted. Lies of the worst kind. Near death experiences. Divorce. Is the true love about my current husband? No. And yes. It is the true love that existed all along that allowed for healing and an ultimately stable environment for our kids. True love, isn’t the marriage that lasts for 40 years only. It is there in the mess, in the hurt, in the pain, in the lies. It’s just covered up by our opinions and thoughts about it all. I am so profoundly happy that I listened to the voice (that was almost silenced) that I could still love my first husband, and that it didn’t have to be romantic to still be love. And trust it to build what we built. Kieran held the other end of this. I am so grateful to his wife Megan for being so strong and badass to allow space for that to happen. And my husband, who tirelessly fought for us to all heal.
And lastly, perhaps the greatest love affair was me falling in love with me. I never knew how to do that. Everyone says ‘love yourself so that you can love others’. But no one ever tells us what that actually looks like in real life. It might look like saying “No”. Maybe not having the third glass of wine because you don’t need it to feel ‘comfortable’. Maybe it looks like exercising not to get into a size ‘6’ but because you want to nurture your well being. Telling the truth. Not needing so much validation. It might look different altogether for others. But its not a course, we do not get a certificate in this. It becomes a declaration. For me, I declare myself worthy of love exactly as I am, with my awful mistakes and loving intentions all the same. I hope this inspires all to do the same. No matter what.
Detectives probing the kidnaps of two men in Salford last month are questioning five suspects after dawn raids this morning saw properties targeted across the city and Manchester as part of the investigation.
Earlier today (Thursday 7 April) officers from our Tactical Aid Unit (TAU), alongside local officers, hit six addresses in Blackley, Gorton and Salford.
The action comes after we received a report on the evening of Thursday 24 March regarding a man being assaulted and dragged into a car by a group of three men on Clarendon Park.
Thankfully after enquiries by specialist investigators, the victim - a man in his 20s - was found safe and well with some physical injuries but none that required hospital treatment.
Subsequent enquiries have led detectives from our Swinton CID to believe that a second man - also aged in his 20s - was also targeted by the group but was able to flee from the offenders vehicle.
We think that the incidents have been targeted attacks emanating from a possible drugs dispute involving organised criminals and we're keen to ensure that any potential suspects are identified and brought to custody for questioning.
Five men aged between 20 and 30 are currently in two custody sites across Greater Manchester and await questioning on suspicion of kidnap.
Anyone with concerns or information about suspicious activity in their area should contact us online via LiveChat, if able, or by calling 101 knowing that information will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Details can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Today I was waiting on my wife to finish work before we could go to the rodeo. I had some time to kill, it was approximately 6pm (I know, we were running late) and I was near Transco (Williams Tower) so I thought I would take some photos with the waning light on the tower. I saw red and blues and thought I would go investigate, maybe practice some photojournalism style photography.
When I arrived on the scene 3 police cars had pulled over a blue Mustang and had arrested the driver and the car was being towed. I was on the sidewalk, out of the way of the action, snapping a few shots.
Then things got interesting. as I tried a few new angles, a third police officer (Officer Hudson) became agitated and told me I was not allowed to take photos. I noted to him that I was in a public place and was simply photographing the scene, that if I was in any way impeding his work, I would be glad to comply with his orders, but otherwise I would continue about my business. He insisted that I was disrupting his work by taking photos as he "doesn't want his picture taken." He noted that the scene was an active police investigation and that I would have to 1) stop taking photos and 2) delete the photos which I had taken. I politely refused, stating that I was in my full rights to take the photos, and that I intended to keep them, noting that there probably wouldn't be any good ones anyway.
Upon noting my refusal, Officer Hudson reached for my camera, as if to take it out of my hands. I pulled back and again reiterated my point that I was in my rights to take the photos. He stated that I could either delete my photos or he would arrest me for obstruction of justice. Appalled, I informed Officer Hudson that arresting me and getting a warrant for the photos would be the only way to get me to delete them and that I wanted his full name and badge number. He refused to give it to me. He told me that he was in a "generous mood" and would give me a chance to walk away. Noting that the situation could not end well for me, I noted that I intended to file a complaint against him, and headed on about my way.
Photogs, please note that you have rights and don't let police bully you around. Obey the rules, but remember that PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME!
Top is done! I'm questioning my choice for the outer border, but it should be according to my partners likes. I hope it's not *too* cute! I love it a lot, will be hard to let it go.
Now to figure out how to quilt! And even harder, what to use for a binding. Black and white stripe would be cool, but I don't have any...
Upper Rhenish Master (1400/35), active in Strasbourg (?)
Fragment of an altar with the history of John the Baptist, to 1410/20
The Visitation
The birth of John the Baptist
The encounter between the boys Jesus and John the Baptist
The questioning of John the Baptist by priests and Levites
Acquired in 1988 from Toto-Lotto funds, Inventary 2814-2817
Oberrheinischer Meister (1400/35), tätig in Straßburg (?)
Fragmentes eines Altars mit der Geschichte Johannes' des Täufers, um 1410/20
Die Heimsuchung Mariä
Die Geburt Johannes' des Täufers
Die Begegnung der Knaben Jesus und Johannes der Täufer
Die Befragung Johannes' des Täufers durch Priester und Leviten
Erworben 1988 aus Toto-Lotto-Mitteln, Inventar 2814-2817
Collection
The foundation of the collection consists of 205 mostly French and Dutch paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries which Margravine Karoline Luise acquired 1759-1776. From this collection originate significant works, such as The portrait of a young man by Frans van Mieris the Elder, The winter landscape with lime kiln of Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, The Lacemaker by Gerard Dou, the Still Life with hunting equipment and dead partridge of Willem van Aelst, The Peace in the Chicken yard by Melchior de Hondecoeter as well as a self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn. In addition, four still lifes of Jean Siméon Chardin and two pastoral scenes by François Boucher, having been commissioned directly by the Marchioness from artists.
A first significant expansion the museum received in 1858 by the collection of canon Johann Baptist von Hirscher (1788-1865) with works of religious art of the 15th and 16th centuries. This group includes works such as two tablets of the Sterzinger altar and the wing fragment The sacramental blessing of Bartholomew Zeitblom. From 1899 to 1920, the native of Baden painter Hans Thoma held the position of Director of the Kunsthalle. He acquired old masterly paintings as the tauberbischofsheim altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald and drove the expansion of the collection with art of the 19th century forward. Only his successors expanded the holdings of the Art Gallery with works of Impressionism and the following generations of artists.
The permanent exhibition in the main building includes approximately 800 paintings and sculptures. Among the outstanding works of art of the Department German painters of the late Gothic and Renaissance are the Christ as Man of Sorrows by Albrecht Dürer, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald, Maria with the Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, the portrait of Sebastian Brant by Hans Burgkmair the elder and The Nativity of Hans Baldung. Whose Margrave panel due to property disputes in 2006 made it in the headlines and also led to political conflicts. One of the biggest buying successes which a German museum in the postwar period was able to land concerns the successive acquisition of six of the seven known pieces of a Passion altar in 1450 - the notname of the artist after this work "Master of the Karlsruhe Passion" - a seventh piece is located in German public ownership (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne).
In the department of Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 16th century can be found, in addition to the aforementioned works, the portrait of the Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria by Peter Paul Rubens, Moses strikes the rock and water flows for the thirsty people of Israel of Jacob Jordaens, the still life with kitchen tools and foods of Frans Snyders, the village festival of David Teniers the younger, the still life with lemon, oranges and filled clay pot by Willem Kalf, a Young couple having breakfast by Gabriel Metsu, in the bedroom of Pieter de Hooch, the great group of trees at the waterfront of Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael, a river landscape with a milkmaid of Aelbert Jacobsz. Cuyp as well as a trompe-l'œil still life of Samuel van Hoogstraten.
Further examples of French paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries are, the adoration of the golden calf of Claude Lorrain, preparations for dance class of the Le Nain brothers, the portrait of Marshal Charles-Auguste de Matignon by Hyacinthe Rigaud, the portrait of a young nobleman in hunting costume of Nicolas de Largillière, The storm of Claude Joseph Vernet and The minuet of Nicolas Lancret. From the 19th century can be found with Rocky wooded valley at Civita Castellana by Gustave Courbet, The Lamentation of Eugène Delacroix, the children portrait Le petit Lange of Édouard Manet, the portrait of Madame Jeantaud by Edgar Degas, the landscape June morning near Pontoise by Camille Pissarro, homes in Le Pouldu Paul Gauguin and views to the sea at L'Estaque by Paul Cézanne further works of French artists at Kunsthalle.
One focus of the collection is the German painting and sculpture of the 19th century. From Joseph Anton Koch, the Kunsthalle possesses a Heroic landscape with rainbow, from Georg Friedrich Kersting the painting The painter Gerhard Kügelgen in his studio, from Caspar David Friedrich the landscape rocky reef on the sea beach and from Karl Blechen view to the Monastery of Santa Scolastica. Other important works of this department are the disruption of Adolph Menzel as well as the young self-portrait, the portrait Nanna Risi and The Banquet of Plato of Anselm Feuerbach.
For the presentation of the complex of oeuvres by Hans Thoma, a whole wing in 1909 at the Kunsthalle was installed. Main oeuvres of the arts are, for example, the genre picture The siblings as well as, created on behalf of the grand-ducal family, Thoma Chapel with its religious themes.
Of the German contemporaries of Hans Thoma, Max Liebermann on the beach of Noordwijk and Lovis Corinth with a portrait of his wife in the museum are represented. Furthermore the Kunsthalle owns works by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Carl Spitzweg, Arnold Böcklin, Hans von Marées, Wilhelm Leibl, Fritz von Uhde, Wilhelm Trübner and Max Klinger.
In the building of the adjacent Orangerie works of the collection and new acquisitions from the years after 1952 can be seen. In two integrated graphics cabinets the Kupferstichkabinett (gallery of prints) gives insight into its inventory of contemporary art on paper. From the period after 1945, the works Arabs with footprints by Jean Dubuffet, Sponge Relief RE 48; Sol. 1960 by Yves Klein, Honoring the square: Yellow center of Josef Albers, the cityscape F by Gerhard Richter and the Fixe idea by Georg Baselitz in the Kunsthalle. The collection of classical modernism wandered into the main building. Examples of paintings from the period to 1945 are The Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay, the Improvisation 13 by Wassily Kandinsky, Deers in the Forest II by Franz Marc, People at the Blue lake of August Macke, the self-portrait The painter of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the Merzpicture 21b by Kurt Schwitters, the forest of Max Ernst, Tower gate II by Lyonel Feininger, the Seven Deadly Sins of Otto Dix and the removal of the Sphinxes by Max Beckmann. In addition, the museum regularly shows special exhibitions.
Sammlung
Den Grundstock der Sammlung bilden 205 meist französische und niederländische Gemälde des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, welche Markgräfin Karoline Luise zwischen 1759 und 1776 erwarb. Aus dieser Sammlung stammen bedeutende Arbeiten, wie das Bildnis eines jungen Mannes von Frans van Mieris der Ältere, die Winterlandschaft mit Kalkofen von Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Die Spitzenklöpplerin von Gerard Dou, das Stillleben mit Jagdgeräten und totem Rebhuhn von Willem van Aelst, Der Friede im Hühnerhof von Melchior de Hondecoeter sowie ein Selbstbildnis von Rembrandt van Rijn. Hinzu kommen vier Stillleben von Jean Siméon Chardin und zwei Schäferszenen von François Boucher, die die Markgräfin bei Künstlern direkt in Auftrag gegeben hatte.
Eine erste wesentliche Erweiterung erhielt das Museum 1858 durch die Sammlung des Domkapitulars Johann Baptist von Hirscher (1788–1865) mit Werken religiöser Kunst des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Zu dieser Gruppe gehören Werke wie zwei Tafeln des Sterzinger Altars und das Flügelfragment Der sakramentale Segen von Bartholomäus Zeitblom. Von 1899 bis 1920 bekleidete der aus Baden stammende Maler Hans Thoma die Position des Direktors der Kunsthalle. Er erwarb altmeisterliche Gemälde wie den Tauberbischofsheimer Altar von Matthias Grünewald und trieb den Ausbau der Sammlung mit Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts voran. Erst seine Nachfolger erweiterten die Bestände der Kunsthalle um Werke des Impressionismus und der folgenden Künstlergenerationen.
Die Dauerausstellung im Hauptgebäude umfasst rund 800 Gemälde und Skulpturen. Zu den herausragenden Kunstwerken der Abteilung deutsche Maler der Spätgotik und Renaissance gehören der Christus als Schmerzensmann von Albrecht Dürer, die Kreuztragung und Kreuzigung von Matthias Grünewald, Maria mit dem Kinde von Lucas Cranach der Ältere, das Bildnis Sebastian Brants von Hans Burgkmair der Ältere und die Die Geburt Christi von Hans Baldung. Dessen Markgrafentafel geriet durch Eigentumsstreitigkeiten 2006 in die Schlagzeilen und führte auch zu politischen Auseinandersetzungen. Einer der größten Ankaufserfolge, welche ein deutsches Museum in der Nachkriegszeit verbuchen konnte, betrifft den sukzessiven Erwerb von sechs der sieben bekannten Tafeln eines Passionsaltars um 1450 – der Notname des Malers nach diesem Werk „Meister der Karlsruher Passion“ – eine siebte Tafel befindet sich in deutschem öffentlichen Besitz (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln).
In der Abteilung niederländischer und flämischer Malerei des 16. Jahrhunderts finden sich, neben den erwähnten Werken, das Bildnis der Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria von Peter Paul Rubens, Moses schlägt Wasser aus dem Felsen von Jacob Jordaens, das Stillleben mit Küchengeräten und Lebensmitteln von Frans Snyders, das Dorffest von David Teniers dem Jüngeren, das Stillleben mit Zitrone, Orangen und gefülltem Römer von Willem Kalf, ein Junges Paar beim Frühstück von Gabriel Metsu, Im Schlafzimmer von Pieter de Hooch, die Große Baumgruppe am Wasser von Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael, eine Flusslandschaft mit Melkerin von Aelbert Jacobsz. Cuyp sowie ein Augenbetrüger-Stillleben von Samuel van Hoogstraten.
Weitere Beispiele französischer Malerei des 17. bzw. 18. Jahrhunderts sind Die Anbetung des Goldeen Kalbes von Claude Lorrain, die Vorbereitung zur Tanzstunde der Brüder Le Nain, das Bildnis des Marschalls Charles-Auguste de Matignon von Hyacinthe Rigaud, das Bildnis eines jungen Edelmannes im Jagdkostüm von Nicolas de Largillière, Der Sturm von Claude Joseph Vernet und Das Menuett von Nicolas Lancret. Aus dem 19. Jahrhundert finden sich mit Felsiges Waldtal bei Cività Castellana von Gustave Courbet, Die Beweinung Christi von Eugène Delacroix, dem Kinderbildnis Le petit Lange von Édouard Manet, dem Bildnis der Madame Jeantaud von Edgar Degas, dem Landschaftsbild Junimorgen bei Pontoise von Camille Pissarro, Häuser in Le Pouldu von Paul Gauguin und Blick auf das Meer bei L’Estaque von Paul Cézanne weitere Arbeiten französischer Künstler in der Kunsthalle.
Einen Schwerpunkt der Sammlung bildet die deutsche Malerei und Skulptur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Von Joseph Anton Koch besitzt die Kunsthalle eine Heroische Landschaft mit Regenbogen, von Georg Friedrich Kersting das Gemälde Der Maler Gerhard Kügelgen in seinem Atelier, von Caspar David Friedrich das Landschaftsbild Felsenriff am Meeresstrand und von Karl Blechen den Blick auf das Kloster Santa Scolastica. Weitere bedeutende Werke dieser Abteilung sind Die Störung von Adolph Menzel sowie das Jugendliche Selbstbildnis, das Bildnis Nanna Risi und Das Gastmahl des Plato von Anselm Feuerbach.
Für die Präsentation des Werkkomplexes von Hans Thoma wurde 1909 in der Kunsthalle ein ganzer Gebäudetrakt errichtet. Hauptwerke des Künstlers sind etwa das Genrebild Die Geschwister sowie die, im Auftrag der großherzöglichen Familie geschaffene, Thoma-Kapelle mit ihren religiösen Themen.
Von den deutschen Zeitgenossen Hans Thomas sind Max Liebermann mit Am Strand von Noordwijk und Lovis Corinth mit einem Bildnis seiner Frau im Museum vertreten. Darüber hinaus besitzt die Kunsthalle Werke von Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Carl Spitzweg, Arnold Böcklin, Hans von Marées, Wilhelm Leibl, Fritz von Uhde, Wilhelm Trübner und Max Klinger.
Im Gebäude der benachbarten Orangerie sind Werke der Sammlung und Neuankäufe aus den Jahren nach 1952 zu sehen. In zwei integrierten Grafikkabinetten gibt das Kupferstichkabinett Einblick in seinen Bestand zeitgenössischer Kunst auf Papier. Aus der Zeit nach 1945 finden sich die Arbeiten Araber mit Fußspuren von Jean Dubuffet, Schwammrelief >RE 48:Sol.1960< von Yves Klein, Ehrung des Quadrates: Gelbes Zentrum von Josef Albers, das Stadtbild F von Gerhard Richter und die Fixe Idee von Georg Baselitz in der Kunsthalle. Die Sammlung der Klassischen Moderne wanderte in das Hauptgebäude. Beispiele für Gemälde aus der Zeit bis 1945 sind Der Eiffelturm von Robert Delaunay, die Improvisation 13 von Wassily Kandinsky, Rehe im Wald II von Franz Marc, Leute am blauen See von August Macke, das Selbstbildnis Der Maler von Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, das Merzbild 21b von Kurt Schwitters, Der Wald von Max Ernst, Torturm II von Lyonel Feininger, Die Sieben Todsünden von Otto Dix und der Abtransport der Sphinxe von Max Beckmann. Darüber hinaus zeigt das Museum regelmäßig Sonderausstellungen.
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It looked like the book/cookie thief didn’t fall for traps so I decided to use other means in solving this mystery.
So I set up a little interrogation room with a top notch lie detection equipment and the traditional bright light and started the questioning.
The first “willing participant” was Little Pip, not because he was my prime suspect but because he was the first who entered the interrogation room. Probably because he thought there was something to eat in there.
After I hooked him on the polygraph I started the questions. To add credibility I had borrowed a pipe from the prop department and used it to point at the suspect a lot (it never fails!).
Here’s the protocol:
Inspector Shaun (IS): Suspect, please state your name for the protocol.
Suspect Pip (SP): Pip!
IS: To make things easy I will only ask yes or no question, two pips means yes, one pip means no, do you understand?
SP: Pip…pip!
IS: Very good, now have you ever taken out a book from my uncle’s library?
SP: Pip! (shakes head vigorously).
IS: Have you ever seen anyone taking out a book from the library?
SP: Pip Pip! (nodes head enthusiastically)
IS: Ah we’re getting somewhere, can you tell me who?
SP: Pip Pip!
IS: Well…
SP: Pip Pip (points paw at interrogator).
IS: Sigh... I meant apart from me?
SP: Pip! (shakes head, slightly bored now)
IS: Well I think we’re almost done here, hold one what are you doing? Noooo…
End of Protocol after suspect jumped towards the interrogator, happily licking his face before running away and getting entangled with the polygraph cable in the process…
Oh dear… this really didn’t go so well… but rest assured, Inspector Shaun always gets his man!
…questioning her new haircut! Uh, dad likes the longer pieces…he sez makes me look special! Really dad!!!
St Margaret, Sotterley, Suffolk
That poor Simon Jenkins. Not a day can go past without someone questioning the choices in his book England's Thousand Best Churches. But then, if you make such a claim and then miss out some which are plainly among the best, I suppose you leave yourself wide open to criticism. Here in Suffolk, he missed many peoples' favourites, but particularly three that are, for me, clearly county top twenty material: the amazing St Andrew at Westhall, grand St Mary at Redgrave, and here, St Margaret at Sotterley. Westhall has been described as Suffolk's best-kept secret, but in many ways Sotterley is more secretive, and is certainly less well-known. Indeed, some people would be surprised to learn that it has more figure brasses than any other church in Suffolk, not to mention much else of interest.
But first, you must get there. Sotterley is easily found on an Ordnance Survey map because it looks so darned curious. The roads between Beccles and Southwold swerve widely to avoid it, and it is marked as a large, round private park, about three miles in circumference. Houses scattered around the perimeter form the village, but the parkland itself is all open fields, lawns and a long ornamental lake. Near the centre of the parkland is the great house, and beside it the church of St Margaret. A private driveway reaches the house from near the turn off to Willingham, but it doesn't give access to the church except for services, and no public footpath crosses the park.
In addition, you cannot see the church from any public road, so unless you have the map or inside information, you won't even know it is there. However, just to the north of the private drive entrance, there is a gap in the hedgerow and a wooden stile. This is the start of a 'permitted access' path, a walk which is almost a mile long; it will take you across the fields and to the church.
You climb the stile, and set off across the fields. In summer and autumn you will find yourself walking through cows, but they are harmless enough. The way is marked by OS church symbols attached to trees, but they can get hidden by growth in springtime. After about a third of a mile, the path diverges rightwards down to a rickety wooden bridge across the infant River Blyth, and then into the field beyond. The path then skirts the righthand edge of a field for about a third of a mile and takes you round to another wooden bridge with sheep gates. Here, you can see the church for the first time, and across the next field, you enter the churchyard in its north-west corner.
St Margaret is a long, low building, with a tower that is at once simple and elegant. The lower stage is probably Norman, and the great rebuilding here happened unusually early for Suffolk, certainly before the Black Death.
The 18th century Hall sits immediately to the south, separated from the graveyard only by a low wall. St Margaret is a classic example of an estate church, one of few in Suffolk that retains its relationship with the Big House. The estate was the home of the Playters family until the middle of the 18th century, and it is their name you'll find all over the inside of the church. Earlier, it had been the seat of the Soterleys, and later it became the home of the Barne family, who we have already met at Dunwich. The families have been good guardians, because the building not only retains eight figure brasses and numerous other inscriptions, but some fascinating medieval glass, wonderful roof corbels, a good roodscreen (albeit completely repainted) and Suffolk's loveliest monument. All in all, it is a shame that Simon Jenkins missed it.
Although much of the fabric of the building is original, there was a substantial late 19th century restoration here, which filled the nave with middle-brow furnishings. The font is a good example of the typical 15th century East Anglian design, and there are four hatchments above the war memorial. This end of the church is little more dramatic than many other local churches, but don't miss the banner stave locker set in the wall to the west of the south door. These tall alcoves were supposedly designed for holding processional crosses and the like; there are about a dozen of them, but they are only found in the churches of the north-east of the county. Why here? Perhaps it was just a Lowestoft area thing, a need to tidy things up. What did people do elsewhere?
As you walk east, the building becomes more interesting, and once you are in the chancel it is fascinating. Here, the Soterleys and the Playters remembered themselves in brass and stone. Some of the brasses are set in the sanctuary, others in the centre of the chancel floor. There are six figure brasses, as well as numerous inscriptions. All the brasses except that on the tomb chest are covered by removable matting, but it would be easy to miss them if you did not know that they were there and did not think to investigate.
The same cannot be said for the grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters to the north of the sanctuary. It is probably the most famous in Suffolk, and I think it is the best. It was actually installed during the Commonwealth in 1658, and Mortlock says that the sculptor was Edward Marshall, who would become sculptor to the crown at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
Thomas Playters had died in 1638, and a brass inscription in the chancel floor remembers him. Here on the wall he is shown in the middle, with his two wives on either side, both conveniently called Anne. By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character - in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer. One poor little mite is wrapped in a blanket right near the middle of the panorama, to show that she died in infancy.
It has to be said that Sir Thomas's first family look more equal to the task of formal mourning than the second. The monument is rather hard to photograph, because the altar screen stands in front of part of it.
Stepping back through the screen, the nave is lighter than the chancel because of the two large windows either side. Presumably, they were intended to light the rood, but the one to the north is set in the closed entrance to a now-vanished transept chapel. Panels of medieval and continental glass have been set in them, surrounded by clear lozenges. Among them are a Lamb of God, Christ in Majesty, a pilgrim who may be St James, and a later Flemish Holy Trinity; God the Father sits on a throne with the crucified Christ on his lap, while a dove perches on his shoulder. It looks very unfamiliar in an English church.
There is some other good glass in the west window beneath the tower; a king with a sword walks towards a beckoning bishop, rather as if they were on their way to a chess match. I wondered if the person who set them there had imagined them to be St Paul and St Peter. Perhaps the best medieval glass in the church is behind the altar screen in the east window, so you may have missed it. Beneath the restrained Victorian saints is a reset 1470s portrait of Sir William Playters, with his sons grouped behind him, looking as if he is on holiday from the north aisle at Long Melford.
The screen, then. It is elegant and pretty in that way that only smaller screens are, but it has been heavily restored and repainted. This incurs the wrath of the likes of Cautley, but we have no way of knowing what was lost and in an case it is done here rather well. The original doors are in place, which is very unusual in this part of the county, and the cusping at the top was thought original by Mortlock. The Saints are in an early 20th century style, and are mostly easily identifiable from their symbols.
Looking through the screen, Sir Charles Nicholson's reredos is at once imposing and seemly, in that Anglican triumphalist style of between the two world wars. All that is missing is a font cover at the west end to balance it.
American Penis!!! lol. Ok, if your questioning this festival, its a festival to promote fertility for women and to have a fruitful season for the crops being grown!
You are suppose to touch the penis, (not that one, a different one) and it is suppose to be good luck to help women get pregnant.
A series of limited edition prints of ten images revealing layers of time & place, hope & faith, science & religion. Contemplation and questioning, at a time of grief for my father's death. Letters-in-a-book is a series of ten images using layers of old letters found in a thrift shop, written between Oct. 1945 and July 1946, sent from family members in Warsaw, Poland to kin in Shawinigan, Quebec. These letters convey post-WWII life in, then occupied, Poland, at a time and place that reminds me of my father as a young man from this part of the world, at his most vital time in life.
Also included are personal letters sent to me by my husband.
These handwritten and typed letters are juxtaposed with two old books. One is a book of ancient & modern "Hymns" of the Church of St James The Apostle and the other is “EOS, Or the Wider Aspects of Cosmogony*” by J. H. Jeans. Books that represent my Roman Catholic, religious upbringing while at the same time further reflecting my own personal search for meaning at a very contemplative time in my life.
“The universe which we study with such care may be a dream, and we brain-cells in the mind of the dreamer.”
*cosmogony
1. cos·mog·o·ny
A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe.
2. cosmogony
n : the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe, one such theory can be found in Genesis.
Exhibited at Les Femmeuses, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Montreal, April 2005. Purchased by and currently in the Loto-Quebec Collection.
I was really questioning this action figure, as I didn't recall Two-Face ever appearing in the 60's Batman tv series. However, I read he was planned to appear, but the episode was never produced. It is marked Batman 66, as opposed to Classic TV Series and a subsequent comic (Batman 66: Two-Face The Lost Episode) and animated movie (Batman vs. Two-Face)-'with Adam West and William Shatner voicing the characters-- were eventually released. The movie is on HBOMAX, so I watched it. I really liked the clever way they had Lee Meriwether substitute for Julie Newmar as Catwoman.
Nightstalker Echo 52 questions a detained subject found armed and walking along a jungle trail after dark. Photo taken Oct 2, 2010.
Questioning is an important part of Jewish culture, both religious and secular. Talmudic pedagogy, which involves series of Q& As followed by more Q& As, left an imprint on the Jewish mind. A classic Jewish joke describes a man asking his rabbi why he always answers a question with another question, to which the rabbi replies: “Why not?”
--The Wisdom of Not Knowing: Discovering a Life of Wonder by Embracing Uncertainty by Estelle Frankel