Sole Hope-A Worthy Endeavor

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus related a very strong visual of what the day of judgement would look like.  He relayed how the people of all the nations would be divided into two groups, much as a shepherd divides up the flocks into  the sheep and the goats; the sheep on His right hand side, the goats on His left.  He tells those on His right that they are blessed and they are to enter into their inheritance.  “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat,  I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Mt. 25:35-36.   The righteous are puzzled by Jesus’s announcement.  They ask when did they see Him in such need? Jesus reminds them that whenever they did something to meet the needs of their fellow man, that they were also serving Him.

A thought provoking passage, to be sure.  One that is good for self-introspection.  How are we doing at serving our fellow man, woman, or child in need?  Sunday, I had an opportunity to do just that, working alongside a wonderful organization, called Sole Hope.

Sole Hope began a few years ago when Asher Collie was perusing the internet for more information on international adoptions.  She found a Youtube video about the horrors of jiggers, the parasitic chigoe flea of Sub-Saharan Africa.  These fleas burrow into the flesh of unsuspecting humans, the feet the most common site of the attack.  After burrowing in, the flea lays eggs, which cause infections, horrible sores, difficulty in walking, and if left untreated, can lead to fatal conditions such as gangrene, and sepsis.

The images from the video stayed with Asher and she shared her concerns to her husband, Dru.  Something had to be done to combat this horrid medical issue, and that’s where Sole Hope was born: creating shoes for the people in Uganda in order to protect their feet, provide medical clinics to help those infected, and education classes in order to help the Ugandans know how to protect themselves from these fleas.

Sole Hope hosts shoe preparation parties and that was the event I was invited to at my church, Greentree Christian, in Rolla.  8 pf us ladies  divided our efforts into 3 different groups of activity.  Some of us cut apart the donated and washed blue jeans-cutting away the hems, seams, front pockets, and waistband in order to leave behind the main leg material of the denim.  Another group took the cut denim and laid onto it the patterns for making the shoes upper parts, tracing the patterns onto the denim.  The third group cut the pattern pieces out and then pinned them together as a set.  These would then be mailed to Sole Hope’s headquarters in Uganda, where locals there make the shoes.  Another good idea that has stemmed from Sole Hope’s work is that in Uganda, bicycling is a thriving mode of transportation, however when one’s bicycle tires wear out, it’s not uncommon to toss that tire off of the road, out into the brush.  Sole Hope has been able to collect these unwanted tires and has found a company that can recycle the tires into the soles of the shoes being made.

It was a small effort on my part, but I had an enjoyable time working with the other ladies at the Sole Hope Party, and it was nice to think that my small effort could have a good and larger impact on people who would truly benefit from pairs of shoes.

If you are intrigued about Sole Hope and what they are about and trying to accomplish in Uganda, then click on this link and learn more.http://www.solehope.org/gallery/      The included gallery is a montage of pictures of Sole Hope in action in Uganda.

 

Advertisement

My Classic Movie Pick: Love Letters

British Officer Alan Quinton has a big problem.  It’s World War 2, he’s in Italy, and he has been writing love letters to a girl back in England for his war buddy, Officer Roger Morland.  Roger was granted a leave in London a few months back and while there, he met a beautiful girl, Victoria Remington, at a ball.  He danced with her a lot and made her laugh.  He decided to keep the lines of communication open with her despite his return to the war and despite his lackadaisical attitude to writing letters, so he asks, begs, and badgers his friend Alan to write love letters to Victoria for him.   Alan, even though he’s engaged to Helen Wentworth and has never met Victoria, begins to fall for her due to the responding letters she writes back.

Alan writing a love letter for Roger

 

The plot thickens when Roger gets another leave to London and marries Victoria on a whim.  Alan gets wounded in a battle and is sent home to England to finish his recovery.  While at the hospital for recovering veterans, Alan and Helen know that their earlier promise to one another to marry has been weakened somehow.  Alan then learns that  Roger has died in an accident and Alan also finds out he has inherited an elderly aunt’s country home, still employing her caretaker, Mack.  Alan decides to move from London to live in this inherited home, hoping to  clear the cobwebs from his mind and decide what he now wants to do with his life.  Prior to going to the home, his brother, Derek, takes him to a party and it is there that Alan meets Dilly and a young woman who goes by the name Singleton.  At the party, Alan has too much to drink and goes on and on to Dilly about how he wrote love letters during the war for his officer buddy who he has recently learned was killed in an accident.  Dilly, startled by Alan’s confession, urges him that after he’s settled in at the country home, he should focus on the story about an “old murder” that happened near his aunt’s home.

Alan recovering at the Veteran’s Hospital

Dilly’s suggestion to a now sober Alan about investigating an old murder

Alan recalls Dilly’s advice, breaks off his engagement to Helen, and decides that since he has fallen in love with Victoria, he must meet her, especially now that Roger has died.  He travels back to London to visit a  library in order to try and find out about Roger’s death.   Alan finds out that Victoria was found guilty of murdering Roger!  Now Alan feels terrible, as he blames himself for writing those letters that brought Roger and Victoria together.

As I watched this romance/mystery film, I thought two things: one, I know that TCM is focusing on films that were either nominated for Academy Awards or winners of the award, showing such films as a lead up to the Oscars, but why not put Love Letters on the air on Valentine’s Day??  Second, this film is screaming for a remake, maybe Hallmark Channel needs to do this??

The plot continues to thicken: Alan is told Victoria is dead, he remeets Singleton and they fall in love.   He learns that Singleton has amnesia and can’t remember who she really is.  Dilly has information for him about Singleton.  Dilly shares with him her fears of the negative consequences that could happen when Alan tells her that he and Singleton wish to marry.  An elderly lady appears in the story, a Miss Beatrice Remington and she seems somewhat menacing towards Alan and Singleton and their wedding plans; she eventually relents and reveals that she is a key connection to Victoria and Roger Morland.  Singleton is driving herself crazy with memories suddenly popping up in her mind, memories that are confusing and scary for her.  She is also worried that Alan married her out of pity and that he really is in love with Victoria Morland, perhaps Singleton should just go away and give Alan up so he can find Victoria and be truly happy?

Alan and Singleton have fallen in love

Mack and Alan helping Singleton when she has one of her hysterical episodes due to memories re-emerging

Love Letters arrived at the US movie theaters in 1945 and it did really well with American audiences.  The film was produced by Hal B. Wallis, based upon the novel, Pity My Simplicity, by Christopher Massie.  The screenplay was written by Ayn Rand.  William Dieterle was selected as the director.  Producer, movie mogul David O. Selznick agreed to let two of his actors, Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones play the two leads, Alan and Singleton, but he sent constant memos to Wallis with suggestions and essentially commands as to what he wanted for Jones’s contract; Selznick soon after married Jones.   The rest of the cast: Roger Morland-Robert Sully, Helen Wentworth-Anita Louise, Dilly-Ann Richards, Mack-Cecil Kellaway, Beatrice Remington-Gladys Cooper.

What I liked about this film was the acting and the score.  Sure, the plot was a bit  convoluted, hence my Hallmark remake suggestion, but all of the cast works well together to tell the story and make it believable and Dieterle’s direction with Rand’s screenplay give it all a fitting ending.  The score, by Victor Young, was nominated for an Academy Award as was Jones, for Best Actress.   Where can one find this film?  TCM will be airing it again on Sunday, March 13, at 10:00 am est/9:00 am cst.  The film is available on dvd via Amazon,  and at TCM’s Shop.

Here is a lovely clip of Nat King Cole’s rendition of Love Letters,  Victor Young’s Academy  Award nominated song for the film.  Here is the link to the trailer that audiences in 1945 would have seen to advertise the film.   http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/154197/Love-Letters-Original-Trailer-.html

O Canada Blogathon: Leslie Nielsen and Forbidden Planet

Before Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen hit his stride playing serious characters in broad comedies, such as Airplane!, and the Naked Gun series, earlier in his film career Hollywood studios  often cast him as the super-serious hero type.  That’s what I discovered in 1956’s Forbidden Planet, which I just watched again for the third time, giving it a  more critical eye than I had done in past viewings.

I applaud the special effects team of Forbidden Planet: A.Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe, and Irving G. Ries. My 12 year old happened to watch the opening scenes with me of the spaceship from Earth, flying around in outer space, it’s red light pulsating as it glides through a dark sky brilliantly lit with multitudes of stars.  He didn’t once scoff at the scene or make any comment about “fake” sets.  The fact that a youth of today can’t pick apart the special effects in a film made in 1956 is a testament to the work of that special effects team.   I also applaud the Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons and Arthur Lonergan.  What creativity those two men had!   They had to imagine a future world, future interiors of a spaceship, a home on another planet, the possible nature around it, an inner zone  depicted as huge that provides the energy to run another planet, a robot that could move and his fast moving planet rover, I really enjoyed seeing the sets again.  I can’t leave out two more behind the scenes skills that really made this movie so good: sound effects and animation.  A husband and wife team, Louis and Bebe Barron, were listed in the credits for creating the “Electronic Tonalities”, cool sounding electronically made beeps and whirs, and whizzes and bops, and so much, much more to add to the feeling of what it could sound like in Outer Space(I know, another sci fi film has told us that in space no one can hear one scream but I want it to sound like the Barron’s work!)  Disney lent out Joshua Meador to create the animation that helps to depict the outlines of the film’s monster. “SPOILER”-there is an invisible monster terrorizing the crew that has landed on the planet of the title.  When the monster tries to crash into the spaceship’s force field, we get a bit of a visual outline of the malevelant killer, and Meador created those animated outlines.

Nielsen plays Commander JJ Adams, leader of the space ship C57D, who with his crew of 18 men, have been sent on a mission, to find the distant planet Altair-4 and the crew of the space ship Bellerophon, which had landed there 20 years earlier.  On board the C57D is the capable communications man, Quinn(Richard Anderson), Dr. Ostrow(Warren Stevens), Lt. Farman(Jack Kelly), Cook(Earl Holliman), and bosun(George Wallace.)  James Drury of tv western The Virginian  and James Best, best known as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazard also play crewmen on the ship, but you really have to be looking for them, they’re a bit hard to find.

Giving out some orders inside the C57D

 As they are about to land on Altair-4 they make vocal contact with a Dr. Morbious(Walter Pidgeon, another Canadian!), one of the survivors from the Bellerophon ship.  He tells the men to turn around and go back to where they had come from, he doesn’t need their help, and there is danger on the planet.  This causes Commander Adams to get his back up, so to speak, and he tells Morbious that ready or not, they’re going to land!

Landing on Altair-4 despite the warning not to!

After the landing, as all of the crew are outside their ship observing the planet’s surface and sky, a distant dust cloud appears and grows closer to them.  With laser guns ready, the crew discovers that it’s a vehicle of some type, driven by a robot!  The robot introduces himself as Robby, and he asks the Commander to get in the vehicle as he, Robby, has been sent by Dr. Morbious to bring the Commander to the doctor.  Lt. Farman and Dr. Ostrow join Commander Adams and off they go.

After chit chat, and scientific thoughts, philosophies, a meal made by that fabulous Robby, and Dr. Morbious’s history about the Bellerophon have been digested, in strolls Altaira, Dr. Morbious’s gorgeous 18 year old daughter(Anne Francis)-oops!  Dr. Moribious forgot to mention that he has a daughter and our 3 crew members from C57D are suddenly sitting a lot taller in their chairs, and paying a lot of attention to this female.  Altaira is delighted to meet them as she’s never met real, live men before!!  There are some funny moments when Lt. Farman decides to introduce kissing to her-it helps with stimulation, he tells her!!!  Of course, this leads to Altaira visiting the men at their space ship, and she gets a royal scolding from Commander Adams for stirring up his crew, especially in her very short-hemmed dresses.  This causes Altaira to “hate” the Commander, but we know that by the film’s end, they’ll be in love.

Dr. Morbious explains he’s made the Robot incapable of killing

Publicity shot of Anne Francis with Robby the Robot

Dr. Morbious and Altaira vist the men at their landing site.

Altaira asking Lt. Farman just what is kissing??

There’s more to the plot as an invisible monster begins to wreak havoc on the space ship and the crew.  Commander Adams blames Dr. Morbious for all of this evil and with psychiatric jargon and definitions, the evil is finally exposed and explained.

Why do I like this film?  For the good story, the visual look and sounds of this film, and the acting.  Leslie Nielsen, OC(means he received the Order of Canada in 2002) native of Regina, Saskatchewan decided as a youth that he wanted to try acting for a career, due to the success of his half-Uncle, actor Jean Hersholt.  He noticed the respect his half-Uncle drew for his career and thought that it wouldn’t be such a bad way to make one’s way in the world.  Nielsen is good as the take charge leader, and despite his scolding of Altaira, it’s easy to see why she falls for him later in the film.  Nielsen also gets to chew the scenery when he yells at Dr. Morbious, who needs someone to yell at him!  Walter Pidgeon is good, in a sort of obtuse, “I’m the smartest person in the room” attitude.  Anne Francis is lovely as Altaira, not realizing that her presence is a hindrance to the men.  Earl Holliman has a smallish, comedic part as the cook always looking for booze.  Richard Anderson, Warren Stevens, and Jack Kelly bring the right amount of seriousness to their roles, too.

For a look at a sci fi rendering of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and for a film that some believe helped to inspire Star Trek, seek out Forbidden Planet!   It does air on TCM from time to time, so check for it there.  Also, a kind soul has put the movie on Youtube, in 20 segments.  I’ve included the link for the first segment here.

Behind the scenes camaraderie

This post has been for the O Canada Blogathon.  Be sure to visit classic movie bloggers Kristina at Speakeasy, Ruth of Silver Screenings to read more wonderful posts about just how much Canadians have contributed to Classic Movies.