Well, Dan didn't get back until after 9PM last night, so we did not go to the charity dinner thingee. Instead, I cooked dinner and we ate at home. The triple chocolate brownies were a big hit.

The warehouse club near me (actually it is the closest grocery store to my house, so I go there fairly often) has been selling old movies newly released on dvd this summer. Most of them have won at least one or two Academy Awards, and it only costs a couple more dollars to purchase them than it would be to rent them at the little video place in town. So I have been picking them up one of two at a time...

Last night we watched an interesting one. It was the 1935 Best Picture winner, Mutiny on the Bounty. Three of the actors appearing in it were nominated for best actor, though I believe none of them won (they probably cancelled each other out in the voting). Charles Laughton was very good as the evil Captain Bligh. I have decided that Clark Gable was the Tom Cruise of his day. He was wildly popular, many women apparently found him attractive for mysterious reasons, and I have yet to be impressed with his acting in either movie I have seen him in (this one -- where he was nominated for an Oscar -- and I thought he was by far the weakest talent in Gone with the Wind).

While it was probably cutting edge in its day, it cannot even begin to stand up against modern movies like Master and Commander in its action shots at sea.

The sound track was interesting -- parts of the background music sounded like Gershwin tinged jazz -- and I was thinking if it were to be filmed again today they would either use John Williams or authentic period music, or a combination thereof. But I don't think they would use Gershwin style jazz.

Some of the actors used very dramatic arm movements. That mystified us for a bit, until I realized that they had only been using sound in movies for about five years before this was filmed. Most of the people appearing in the movie had probably been trained in silent movies, so had learned exaggerated body language and gestures.

So here is this very old black and white movie with some problems in comparison to modern technology and acting techniques -- but you know what? It was STILL enjoyable, in large part to the delightfully evil performance of Charles Laughton. And I am glad to have watched it.