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commander1958
Reviews
Route 66: There I Am - There I Always Am (1962)
187 hours in 1962 Catalina
She is the jaded, beautiful damsel who doesn't care if she is in distress. He is her rescuer that can't quite close the deal.
After she bails on her party boat, swimming into Little Harbor with only her dress, attitude and a champagne bottle, our angel becomes entangled in tide-pool rocks below the high tide line.
All attempts at rescue fail until her not quite equally cynical friends come looking for her and rescue her with the anchor from the boat.
Draining the offered flask on the shore, she leaves with a parting line: I know you think you love me, but I am a train wreck, and not good enough for you: "There I am - there I always am."
Naked City: Hold for Gloria Christmas (1962)
an old fool tries and fails
Not that we 21st century gluttons need it, but this show has all the answers we should have learned in preschool.
Burgess Meredith plays a ruined poet on the run from NYPD. He is decades into his decline and unredeemable. We are given glimpses that show us his barbarous nobility, his naiveté, his brilliance, self-indulgence, self-loathing and genius. The director jumps around in flashbacks and tells the story that makes you ache to want it. We see several characters he has wronged along the path of his walk to truth and beauty. His impoverished, bitter, tortured wife, who made me want to be a better husband and writer; his editor; his barman; the guy who sells the newspapers; and a generous friend and playboy. All have betrayed him unavoidably and helped him descend the mad ladder he is taking.
We hang on every word, because the actors believe them. Not that the acting is overly dramatic or atypical for early golden days of TV, but it just rings true. Authentic.
He dies in the end, there are several future stars of stage and screen. And every word was sweat over and considered, weighed and judged and found worthy. Are we?