I think LI will be the first to point out the perhaps saddest part of the whole prosecutor scandal is a might-have-been. Just imagine: it is August, 2001. CIA operators have flown down to Crawford, Texas. They present the evidence they have that Al qaeda has representatives in the U.S. who are preparing to attack. Now, imagine that they had added – these al qaeda terrorists are so evil that they are prepared to help - listen to this part, please, no, don't start testing your power saw yet, Mr. President - they might - please, can you hear me over the noise of that thing? Please. Okay. They might be trying to help disenfranchised black males register to vote!
We know what would happen. We know how President Backbone leaps into action when the Republic is threatened. Like Superman emerging from Clark Kent, or Venus from the foam of the sea. Instead of writing in his diary, for that day, "Nuthin happned. Shure is ez being presnident. Bush Rulez! In the House” – there would, instead, have been midnight oil burned at the Justice department. The FBI director would have put out a memo. The search would be on. Say what you want, when the President wants something done, he knows how to shake up the bureaucracy to do it!
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A tragedy, Roger. The presnident missed his moment of true glory. Even exponents of anarchist hobbitry would have cheered him, and possibly chipped in for a very sincere looking cast bronze codpiece, the display of which would have restored full diggety to Orville Orifice.
ReplyDeleteok, best court room dramas. "Nuts" starring Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, Robert Webber, James Whitmore, Leslie Nielsen... what a cast!
ReplyDeleteNorth, you aren't making that movie up, are you? Nuts? You aren't putting one over on a poor blind beginner in the great art of cinema, are you? I've gotta google this... Okay, I did. You aren't making it up.
ReplyDeleteSo tell me why you like it? And, throwing in my best card, I have to say that the courtroom scene in Lady From Shanghai is the best courtroom scene I've ever seen. The famous Bannister, defending his wife's lover against the murder of his partner, telling Orson Welles that he's never lost a case - but hope's this one is the first. And Rita, I just about weep when she is up there under crossexamination:
q:As a matter of fact, didn´t you
and your husband argue about...
...your showing an infatuation
for O´Hara?
R:We did not.
Q:Isn´t it a fact that the defendant O´Hara made advances to you......and told you he was
infatuated with you?
R: He was very respectful.
Judge: Speak up, Mrs. Bannister.
R: He was very respectful.
The soft, silky way she says he was very respectful, even as she is setting him up to be the fall guy! She loves him, but she has to kill him. I so understand this paradox!
Streisand, of course, is Nuts. she's in a women nut house & can't act herself out. but ....Dreyfuss, her lawyer, acts up a storm & gets her off. classic hollywood cast. it was on cable the other day, but i didn't have that station. durn. i love it because Streisand's character doesn't have to change who she is in order for Dreyfuss to prove her innocence. & he does it very cutely.
ReplyDeleteI don't like 'Nuts' that much, but it's pretty good, though. Anyway, 'Witness for the Prosecution' is pretty good courtroom, but also 'Miracle on 34th Street' (infantile Patrick)...Good courtroom in 'Peyton Place' too--love that American pulp in this one. Think I need to finally check out 'Lady from Shanghai', a major omission in my movie-watching.
ReplyDelete