ok… we got a bunch of email.. what’s a Biwi? That stringed instrument in the picture above is a Biwi…’k. Or better still, check out Hoichi the Earless explode in a wild Biwi performance in Kobayashi’s horror masterpiece called Kwaidan.
Nine years before the Hindenburg flamed out in Lakehurst, NJ in 1937 - the Graf Zeppelin’s made its First TransAtlantic Flight … 75 years ago today… on Oct. 12, 1928. Check out some cool archive footage on the dirigible and get a dose of blimp history.
The second tale from Kwaidan, Woman of the Snow is ready to check out. A young man gets stranded in a blizzard with a friend. Late at night, he watches a strange spirit woman emerge from the snow… and breathes on his friend. This breath turns out to be a kiss of death, as his friend immediately freezes to death. For some reason, she spares the young man, but he must never tell anyone what he witnessed. And then the story takes a bizarre turn.
Kwaidan is a fascinating film. A Winner at the Cannes Film Festival, nominated for an Oscar - this is a great movie you have probably never seen. It is worth watching and though the pacing is slow by today’s standards - it works for the stories depicted. The most amazing part of the movie is the glorious cinematography and remarkable stage sets. Somebody sure spent some serious money to make director Masaki Kobayashi’s vision come alive. The film is terrific and leaves a lasting impression. Part 3 - Hoichi-the -Earless is up next. Just search for Kwaidan for a current listing.
On Oct. 8, 1967 - it was reported that Che Guevara had been fatally wounded in battle, fighting with peasant revolutionaries trying to take control of Bolivia. Shortly thereafter… it was reported he was executed by U.S. trained Bolivian soldiers in a one-room schoolhouse near Vallegrande, Bolivia on Oct. 9, 1967. Rumors swirled and the body was never delivered…. though they did supposedly cut off Che’s hands… to get a bona fide fingerprint ID.
Many years later in July 1997, Che Guevara’s body was found in in a mass grave near Vallegrande and reburied in Santa Clara, Cuba. In an odd twist of fate…. Vallegrande has become a leading merchant of Che Guevara posters, t-shirts, etc. etc…. so it looks like the capitalists had more staying power than the communists. When I was in college, my roommate had a poster of Che that graced our walls. As I got older, and learned more about the Castro regime in Cuba that brutally oppressed the good people - Che became less of a hero… and started to look more like a terrorist. To this day, Che Guevara remains a hero to many on the “left” side of politics. I think they should talk to some folks who lived in Cuba at the time… as they will hear a different story. In a related current new item… the bozo from Reuters, Stephen Jukes -global head of news at Reuters… has stepped down. His claim to fame… and how is this related you ask… Jukes coined the phrase… “One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.”
On Oct 7th, 1913…. just 90 short years ago, Henry Ford revolutioned manufacturing - when he created the Assembly Line Method. Check out the cool archive clip that details this major moment in history.
Happy Birthday Jane Alice Peters, better known as Carole Lombard- born October 6, 1908 in Fort Wayne, Indiana USA. She was a huge star and a fascinating character. She was very friendly to all.. and liked by all in addition to being a talented actress. But she was also known for her mouth - which could spew a rapid fire string of expletive deleted phrases… that were so bawdy it could make a sailor blush. The story is she learned this little trick from her brothers, to provide her with a defense against aggressive boys. She’d let them have a verbal assault… and they would back off. Anyway… this is how she earned her nickname - The Profane Angel.
Carole Lombard made a lot of great movies - and my personal favorite is My Man Godfrey, which also stars William Powell, who happened to be Lombard’s ex-husband. When they were married - the couple was dubbed Fire and Ice. William Powell, known for his calm and suave demeanor was of course, Ice. At the peak of her career, she married Clark Gable in a massive story… bigger the Ben and Jo-Lo blah blah blah today.
During World War II - she was very active selling War Bonds, and in fact volunteered her husband, Clark Gable for the job as head of Hollywood’s effort to push the bonds. Clark wasn’t pleased… so Carole ended up taking the Press Agent in Clark’s place to go sell bonds… At the last minute, Lombard changed her mind and skipped the train ride for a TWA DC-3 plane…. that crashed in the side of a mountain. After a huge and futile search (a la JFK jr. crash… a big media event), Carole Lombard died in the crash along with her mother who came along for the tour. Also of note… the plane crashed about a month after Pearl Harbor (on January 16, 1942) - so the nation was already in a state of shock.
Anyway…. check out some movies, news clips and more on Carole Lombard. Another related tidbit of information - Clark Gable was also involved in another scandal - during a movie, he had an affair with Loretta Young, which produced a “secret” love child. All this was confirmed many years later after Gable died, but during his life, it remained pretty much a secret - though it was whispered about, it never had the media scrutiny (or insanity) we have to deal with today.
The first part of the Japanese Horror Classic - Kwaidan, The Black Hair is ready for streaming, downloading the mpeg-1 files, or perusing the image library. This story is pretty decent…. but my favorite remains the story of the blind guy, who losea his ears, and has visions of Samurai battles from days gone by. Coming reall soon!
Kwaidan is a really cool Japanese film comprised of four separate stories… and each one of them is fascinating. The cinematography of this film is wonderous… over the top saturation of color… and high budget. It looks like most of the film was shot on a sound stage… which is even more remarkable… in that all the background scenes were painted on. The whole movie has a Wizard of Oz kinda feel… as we are brought into non reality world… and the madness of men’s mental wanderings.
Make sure you catch this series… for today’s viewers… the pacing might feel a little slow… but give it a chance.. as you will slowly submerge yourself into the fantasy lands the film takes you too. And wait till you hear the great singing of the earless man…. who lost his ears when a troubled Samurai Ghost ripped them off his head… for a friend in the netherworld, who had no ears. Part one will be released on Friday.
