#sons of the desert (1933)

[ennaih]

Every Film I Watch In 2023:

132. Sons Of The Desert (1933) - a rewatch

[makeitquietly]

Mae Busch and Dorothy Christy in Sons of the Desert (1933)

[aheathen-conceivably]

Long before the last note Antoine had grown aware of Zelda’s presence; but as he finished, he looked up at her with a newfound vulnerability in his eyes. As she stared at him unmoving, he absentmindedly moved his hand along the strings to fill the quiet left by the watching stars, “Was it alright, you think? Writing lyrics, it’s new. Harder than assembling notes, if you ask me.”

She looked at him in amazed silence. His original piano pieces had been brilliant, and sometimes he had written ditties for her to sing, but never before had she heard him sing his own lyrics. She had always known how much he loved it - this place that he had left but that walked alongside him everywhere he went; but it was so much clearer this way, so full of both love and hate, loyalty and disdain, longing and relief, that it was difficult for anything other than music to encompass it. 

She brought her hands together in something that may have been a clap if she wasn’t so afraid to disrupt the stillness of the desert air. On silent footsteps, she left her reverie behind and moved to sit where he had made room for her on the worn wooden bench.

She looked at him earnestly, trying to ease his fear with even just the movement of her eyes, “It’s brilliant, Antoine, truly.” And she meant it, not just because she was under his spell and not her own now; the judgmental eyes of God and her sisters were shut out when she was in his orbit. Now there was only him and his memories for her to get lost in. 

He left his hands on the strings, still playing the familiar notes as though they helped make the admittance easier to utter, “You were right, you know? When I play it’s like I can see it all laid out in front of me. Or better yet, under me. Like I’m above it, observing it all like a story. Makes me realize I loved it more than I thought I did. That house. That place. Her. I wrote it because I know it’s gone now, probably nothing but rubble under a cheap government build. I just don’t want to forget. Or maybe I don’t want the world to forget.”

The stars looked down on them as his smile widened with every inch she drew closer to him. They reflected brightly in her eyes as she leveled them to his, “Would you sing it again? So I can hear it better?”

He let out a small laugh, just as much in relief as in humor. “Surely you would prefer to sing it? With a voice like yours I would hate to imagine what mine must sound like.”

She brought her knee up on the bench with them, curling as close as she could without dislodging the guitar from his arms. “Hush and sing. You don’t need me now.”

“I always will, Mrs. Duplanchier. No matter what. But as you wish….” 🎶

Part 3/3

(As Antoine is meant to have written House of the Rising Son in this universe, I’m going to leave a little disclaimer about this song and its origins under the cut, in case you are interested!)

The origins of the song House of the Rising Sun are much older and more complicated than I have presented here. Folklorist Alan Lomax has written more on it if you are interested, but it is commonly thought to have originated as an English folk song, morphing into the version we know today amongst various groups of American immigrants.

Perhaps best known for its 1964 version by The Animals, it has long formed a staple of American folk, blues, rock, and country recordings, with recorded versions by everyone from Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Doc Watson, Nina Simone, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Alt-J (amongst so many others). However, I have taken inspiration from the earliest known recorded version, which was done in Appalachia in 1933.

Of course, in having Antoine write this song I have compressed much of this history into a single figure, as well as slightly twisted the meaning of the song to fit the story line. The latter is mostly based on personal interpretation of the lyrics and is purposefully meant to draw a line from this family’s musical heritage through the 1960s and beyond. It also gives a face to the very real figures behind many of the staples of American music that have come to us from the early part of the 20th century, many of which were written or played by black men and women whose songs have continued onward while many of their names and stories may have been forgotten.

[gatutor]

Stan Laurel-Oliver Hardy-Mae Busch "Compañeros de juerga" (Sons of the desert) 1933, de William A. Seiter.

[thesludgeofbabylon]

Top 100 Films

Just wanted to put this somewhere for the sake of documentation, might do this once a year to see how much the overall list changes.

Not ranked, but the list is done by release date, earliest to most recent. Includes short and feature length films (plus one TV series, and two serials, if you want to be specific):

• The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), dir. D.W. Griffith

• Fantômas (1913), dir. Louis Feuillade

• Les Vampires (1915), dir. Louis Feuillade

• The Doll (1919), dir. Ernst Lubitsch

• Foolish Wives (1922), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• Sherlock, Jr. (1924), dir. Buster Keaton

• Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924), dir. Fritz Lang

• Greed (1924), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• The Last Laugh (1924), dir. F. W. Murnau

• The Gold Rush (1925), dir. Charlie Chaplin

• The General (1926), dir. Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman

• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), dir. F. W. Murnau

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• The Docks of New York (1928), dir. Josef von Sternberg

• The Wedding March (1928), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Dziga Vertov

• M (1931), dir. Fritz Lang

• Vampyr (1932), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), dir. Mervyn LeRoy

• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), dir. Mervyn LeRoy, Bubsy Berkeley

• L’Atalante (1934), dir. Jean Vigo

• The Scarlet Empress (1934), dir. Josef von Sternberg

• The Thin Man (1934), dir. W.S. Van Dyke

• The Only Son (1936), dir. Yasujirō Ozu 

• Citizen Kane (1941), dir. Orson Welles

• Now, Voyager (1942), dir. Irving Rapper

• Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), dir. Maya Deren

• Day of Wrath (1943), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• At Land (1944), dir. Maya Deren

• Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), dir. Sergei Eisenstein

• Notorious (1946), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

• Sunset Boulevard (1950), dir. Billy Wilder

• Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), dir. Jacques Tati

• The Wages of Fear (1953), dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot

• The Big Heat (1953), dir. Fritz Lang

• The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), dir. Kenneth Anger

• Rear Window (1954), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

• Ordet (1955), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• A Man Escaped (1956), dir. Robert Bresson

• Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars’ Plot (1958), dir. Sergei Eisenstein

• La Dolce Vita (1960), dir. Federico Fellini

• L’Avventura (1960), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• La Notte (1961), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• L’Eclisse (1962), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• The Exterminating Angel (1962), dir. Luis Buñuel

• Mothlight (1963), dir. Stan Brakhage

• Red Desert (1964), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• Gertrud (1964), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• The War Game (1966), dir. Peter Watkins

• Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), dir. Robert Bresson

• Daisies (1966), dir. Věra Chytilová

• Lemon (1969), dir. Hollis Frampton

• The Conformist (1970), dir. Bernardo Bertolucci 

• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), dir. Luis Buñuel

• F for Fake (1973), dir. Orson Welles

• Lancelot of the Lake (1974), dir. Robert Bresson

• A Woman Under the Influence (1974), dir. John Cassavetes

• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). dir. Tobe Hooper

• House (1977), dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 

• Stalker (1979), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

• Nostalgia (1983), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

• L’Argent (1983), dir. Robert Bresson 

• Blue Velvet (1986), dir. David Lynch

• Heathers (1989), dir. Michael Lehmann

• Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), dir. Hayao Miyazaki

• Baraka (1992), dir. Ron Fricke

• Satantango (1994), dir. Béla Tarr

• A Confucian Confusion (1994), dir. Edward Yang

• Chungking Express (1994), dir. Wong Kar-Wai

• Ed Wood (1994), dir. Tim Burton

• Whisper of the Heart (1995), dir. Yoshifumi Kondo

• Showgirls (1995), dir. Paul Verhoeven 

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997), dir. Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki

• Gummo (1997), dir. Harmony Korine

• The Big Lebowski (1998), dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen 

• Outer Space (1999), dir. Peter Tscherkassky

• Beau Travail (1999), dir. Claire Denis

• Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), dir. Harmony Korine

• Yi Yi (2000), dir. Edward Yang

• Dancer in the Dark (2000), dir. Lars von Trier

• The Piano Teacher (2001), dir. Michael Haneke

• Mulholland Drive (2001), dir. David Lynch

• What Time Is It There? (2001), dir. Tsai Ming-liang

• Memories of Murder (2003), dir. Bong Joon-ho

• The Matrix Reloaded (2003), dir. Lily Wachowski, Lana Wachowski  

• The Village (2004), dir. M. Night Shyamalan

• Caché (2005), dir. Michael Haneke

• Southland Tales (2006), dir. Richard Kelly

• Inland Empire (2006), dir. David Lynch

• Zodiac (2007), dir. David Fincher

• The White Ribbon (2009), dir. Michael Haneke

• The Turin Horse (2011), dir. Béla Tarr

• Five Broken Cameras (2012), dir. Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi

• The Master (2012), dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

• Spring Breakers (2012), dir. Harmony Korine

• Song to Song (2017), dir. Terrence Malick

• Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), dir. David Lynch

• The Favourite (2018), dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma

• We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), dir. Jane Schoenbrun

(10/4/23)

[bopinion]

2024 / 35 - Abridged vacation edition

Aperçu of the week

“The events from 1933 to 1945 should have been combated by 1928 at the latest. Later it was too late. We must not wait until the snowball has become an avalanche. You have to crush the rolling snowball.”

(Erich Kästner, one of the most important German children's book authors, whose works were burned by the Nazis as being “against the German spirit”)

Bad News of the Week

For a few years now, climate activists have not known what to do and have been escalating civil disobedience. It started with mashed potatoes on sculptures and then moved on to blockades of infrastructure such as airports and main roads. What the “Last Generation” is primarily doing in Germany, the “Just Stop oil” organization is doing in the UK: attacking exactly where fossil fuels cause emissions, namely in transport.

Legislators and the judiciary have now begun to declare offenses that were previously considered misdemeanors to be crimes. And the activists have become criminals. There was a huge outcry when the homes of activists in Bavaria were searched on the grounds that they were part of a criminal organization. A court in London has now topped this off by sending activists who blocked the M25 ring road in 2022 to prison for up to five years.

This is particularly blatant if you compare the sentence with those handed down to rioters in recent weeks. One offender who set fire to a police vehicle received two years and five months in prison. Another person has been jailed for three years for beating up a paramedic and for racist assaults. No wonder Michel Forst, special envoy of the United Nations, announced on the day the verdict was announced that this was “a dark day for peaceful environmental protests”. And he is right.

Good News of the Week

There has hardly been anything good to report recently from multi-business mastermind Elon Musk. At least if you're neither a Trump fan nor a Boeing hater. But now, after a long time, he is making positive headlines again. Back in the days he had already activated his Starlink satellite network for Ukraine to ensure basic communication for the population even during the war. And he did it for free. Which is already amazing for a rock hard capitalist.

Now he's done it again. And again for a good cause and again for free. The background to this is that there are plenty of areas on this planet that are not covered by conventional, antenna-based mobile phone networks - in national parks, for example. Or deserts. Or primeval forests. Or on the high seas. And there Starlink will guarantee free emergency phone coverage everywhere in the future. Thank you, Elon Musk. A lot of the other things you do or say are still bullshit.

Personal happy moment of the week

Seeing family and friends back in the old homeland brought (and still brings) a whole series of happy moments. Which I deeply enjoy.

I couldn't care less...

...that the Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder has adopted my beard look. Without asking. He is also welcome to copy my political views.

It's fine with me...

...that Iran's new President Peseschkian is keeping his first promise. During the election campaign, he announced to resume nuclear talks with the West. Now the first step is being taken, because according to Iranian sources, a visit by IAEA chief (the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency) Rafael Grossi is planned in the near future. Good.

As I write this...

...my son keeps telling me jokes. Example: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was out-standing in his field.

Post Scriptum

This couple has also just traveled to Canada: Tjorven Bellmann and Matthias Lüttenberg met and fell in love during their training at the Federal Foreign Office. And now they are sharing the ambassadorial post in Ottawa. A nice idea.

[from1837to1945]

Richard Barthelmess, his ex-wife's daughter Mary Hay Barthelmess (born in 1923), his wife Jessica Stewart, and her ex-husband's son Stewart Sargeant (1923-2006)

"If the exodus of screen stars keeps up, Hollywood will soon be a desert village. Pictured here are the latest travelers--Mr. & Mrs. Richard Barthelmess, seen sailing on the Santa Elena for a long Central American trip. Mary Hay Barthelmess and Stewart Sargeant, children of each be formermarriages, are shown with them in the chart room of the Santa Elena."

-May 1, 1933

[visualpoett]

Sons of the Desert (1933)

Director: William A. Seiter

[aslamat]

John Dillinger: The infamous robber and being the public menace of the 1930s

*Early Life: Born as John Herbert Dillinger on June 22, 1903, he was an American born in Indianapolis, Indiana. John Wilson Dillinger Sr. , his father, owned a small grocery store and four houses to support his family, thus giving them a fairly decent but not extravagant life. Unfortunately, Dillinger’s mother, Mollie Lancaster died, and left her only son, Johnnie when he was just a tender three years of age.

*Criminal Beginnings: The early years of Dillinger’s teenage hood was characterised by drooling and rebellious nature. He left school and joined a machine shop and for the next few years he was a day shift machine operator. His homecoming at night was a thorn in the flesh of his disciplinarian father, who used to scold him for coming home late at night. Having realized the need to be disciplined in life, Dillinger joined the navy though his stay only lasted five months during which he deserted. In April, 12, 1924, Dillinger, aged 20, married a 16-year old Beryl Hovious, which worsened the already bitter relationship between Dillinger and his father.

*The Rise to Notoriety: Dillinger’s first encounter with the law occurred when at the age of 19, he was caught and charged with the robbery of a grocery store in the town of Mooresville, Indiana in 1924. He was given a severe punishment of a long-term imprisonment ranging from 10 years to 20 years. From his cell in October 1933, Dillinger penned a poignant letter to his father, expressing regret and bitterness: “I realize I have let you down in so many ways but I guess I did my time, for where I went in a carefree boy, I came out hating everything in general… if only you had let me off the hook the first time I offended you, then this would not have happened. "

*The FBI Pursuit and Downfall: Dillinger was officially named as as the first Public Enemy No 1 in America, on June 22, 1934 which incidentally was his 31st birthday. The federal government raised its bounty to $10,000 for his apprehension, while it offered $5,000 for anyone who could supply information that would lead to his apprehension. A month later again on the July 22 1934, Dillinger’s crime spree came to a violent end when he was shot twice and killed instantly by the Division of Investigation otherwise known as the FBI before he could successfully execute his mission outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

*Legacy and Impact: John Dillinger came to represent a much-loathed yet iconic figure of the Gangster Age and the spirited years of the Great Depression. It appears that for this man his sophisticated burglaries and prison escapes were painted with a positive perspective by most people who admired his acts, although his egregious acts of crime could not go unnoticed, for they were violent and destructive. Dillinger’s apprehension by the elites in FBI was a turning point in the agencies history and further expressed its intention in fighting the mafia. Through these pieces of fiction, Dillinger and his short lifetime of crime have become legendary, perpetuated as both entertaining and cautionary, a violent morality tale that depicts the ignoble end of the outlaw at the hand of justice.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (Year 4, week 6)

2 more by Irish director John Michael McDonagh:

🍿 "Piece by piece, the camel enters the couscous..."

The Forgiven, my 4th atmospheric, restrained thriller by [Martin McDonagh's brother]. A jaded, cynical boozer Ralph Fiennes arrives in Morocco for a weekend in the desert, and accidentally kills a local boy. Ominous, well-made drama about the clash of cultures, guilt and the search for redemption, with luminous Jessica Chastain. 7/10.

🍿 The second death was his first short. A taciturn alcoholic sits in an Irish bar, grapples with his memories.

By now I've seen the 5 movies he directed, and all but 'War on everyone' were great.

🍿  

I've waited to the much-anticipated American Fiction, an intelligent meta-film about a writer pandering to black stereotypes. It's an intellectual and erudite story about bookish people, with a protagonist named Thelonious "Monk" Ellison. The 2 highlights were the subtle dancing scene (at 1:18) between the mother struck with Alzheimer and her son, and the meta-ending, trying different hats for size. The score was great, the sister was funny, the approach was highbrow. But best film of 2023?... C'mon. 8/10.

🍿  

Robot dreams is my second by Spanish Pablo Berger (I just saw his Torremolinos 73 a few weeks ago). It's a very emotional, wordless tale of loneliness and friendship between "Dog" and his robot. Outstanding sharp animation from the very first images, it vividly depicts NYC in the 80' in rich and colorful details [eating Cheetos, playing Pong, cleaning bowling balls like Jesus Quintana]. 9/10 and my happiest film experience of the week. Deserves an immediate re-watch.

I haven't seen 'The boy and the heron' yet, but it was nominated for this year's Oscar, and I hope it wins.

🍿  

First watch: Murnau's classic melodrama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, winner of the first Oscars in 1929. Tracking camera movements, elaborate German expressionism sets and visual poetry.

🍿  

5 more groundbreaking animations:

🍿 The amazing short, voted as the 19th Greatest Cartoon of All Time: Betty Boop in Snow-White. Max Fleischer's 1933 surrealistic piece, with Cab Calloway as 'Koko the Clown' singing "St. James Infirmary Blues."

Cab Calloway, the originator of the Moonwalk, collaborated with sexy Betty Boop in two other insane ditties: The Old Man of the Mountain and Minnie the Moocher.

🍿 Also, Dziga Vertov's 1924 Soviet Toys, the Soviet Union’s first ever animated movie.

🍿 Every time I watch the Dutch Father and daughter, it annihilates me, because I'm the father. Oscar winner for 2000. 10/10.

🍿  

The Brother from Another Planet, my 3rd film by John Sayles, and the first disappointing one! This low-vibe sci-fi about an escaped extraterrestrial slave trying to find a new life in Harlem went way over my head. Originally, he was in a state of confusion, not knowing what things are. But then he developed some survival skills, but not others. (?). With young Fisher Stevens as a card hustler. 3/10.

🍿  

2 with Laura Linney:

🍿 Suncoast is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story that feels crowded and depressing. A isolated 14-year-old girl in 2005 Clearwater, FL lives a life of trauma. Her brain dead, vegetative brother is being admitted to the same hospice where Terri Schiavo is, her father is already dead, she has no friends at all, and her mother, Laura Linney, is semi-crazed from all the tragedies. It's tough to take all that in, with death, Christianity and politics, mixing it up with regular teen angst and mother-daughter conflicts. With stirring performances by the two women, as well as Woody Harrelson as an irreverent anti-euthanasia activist. 4/10.

/ Female Director

🍿  "We're not in therapy right now. We're in real life..."

The Savages was the last of this week's movies, an afterthought. But it turned to be my favorite drama. My first by Tamara Jenkins, it tells of brunette Laura Linney, and her estranged brother Philip Seymour Hoffman, who have to get closer to each other, as they handle their distant father, now suffering from dementia. An unglamorous story with tender and subtle performances. 8/10.

[Strangely, both films, which has otherwise nothing in common with each other, include the same sad, cold scene of walking away in the corridors of a impersonal health-care institution, after the eventual death of a close relative.]

/ Female Director

🍿  

The Company of Strangers is a Canadian story about 8 old women on a trip to the countryside, and who are stranded at an isolated cottage when their old tour bus breaks down. It's refreshing to see such a different premise for a movie, although, tbh, it wasn't too exciting.

/ Female Director

🍿  

Carnival of Soul X 2:

🍿 "That's strange, Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home".

Carnival of Souls, a 1962 indie ghost story, the only feature film created by a guy from Lawrence, KS (who also played "The man"). A low-budget creative look, with German expressionist style, eerie organ score. A creepy neighbor, and a mansplaining doctor gaslight a single woman. There's an abandoned pavilion where the climax of the movie takes place, and it's clear that the whole plot was written around it. 4/10. (Photo Above).

🍿 Yella, my third enigmatic drama by Christian Petzold, loosely transported the narrative of 'Carnival of Soul' to modern day Germany. The heroine, Yella, is a submissive young woman with an abusive ex-husband who sees visions without agency. But replacing the spookiness of the original with unconvincing business machinations and unexplained sounds made it unremarkable and tedious. The fact that everybody left their hotel doors ajar was a big turn-off for me. 3/10.

🍿  

Buster Keaton's The Navigator was his biggest commercial success. Later on it got selected for the National Film Registry, and earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. A few memorable set ups: Shuffling a deck of wet cards and an underwater sword fight with a swordfish. There's also the plot of the savage 'natives' / cannibals.

🍿  

Kings of pastry, a D. A. Pennebaker documentary about three pastry chefs trying to achieve MOH status in 2007. For people with sweet tooth. Lovely over-use of Django Reinhardt 'Minor swing'. Re-watch.

🍿  

In One Hour Photo Robin Williams played a lonely and obsessed clerk at a photo developing center at a mall. Not completely psychotic, he's sad and pathetic. The climax does not deliver.

🍿  

First re-watch in many years: Tootsie about a unemployable actor who finally scores playing a female role. A melodrama about sex-roles and 1980 feminism that aged well for the most part. Mostly thanks to Sydney Pollack solid direction (and acting! He was better than the NY-actor Dustin Hoffman here, and he had all the best lines). Cross-dressing for the sake of a paycheck. 7/10.

🍿  

First watch: Stephen King's middle-brow The green mile. Three hours of shallow drama, even before the supernatural miracles starts. A man-child 'Magical Negro' with the power of healing, all the time sweating like hogs, because of 'The south'. 3/10.

🍿  

Nir ve Gali (ניר וגלי) is an Israeli animation studio that produced 91 anthropomorphic shorts. Unfortunately, their humor, which is among the funniest shit I ever saw, is probably untranslatable to people who don't speak Hebrew. Re-watch. 10/10.

🍿  

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

Buster Keaton Adora.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[only-films-i-have-seen]

Sons of the Desert (1933)

Stan Laurel as Stan

Oliver Hardy as Oliver

Charley Chase as Charley

Mae Busch as Lottie Hardy

Dorothy Christy as Betty Laurel

Lucien Littlefield as Dr. Horace Meddick, the veterinarian

Stan and Ollie want to go to the national convention of the Sons of the Desert fraternal lodge in Chicago. Unfortunately Mrs Laurel and Mrs Hardy want to go to the mountains.

For me, this is Laurel and Hardy at their very best. The storline, though basic, is a much imitated classic. The gags come thick and fast. The slapstick is perfectly executed, and every performer plays their part to perfection. As always with Laurel and Hardy, it's the lovely slow little bits and pieces around the chaotic gags that make it so very good.

A particular stand-out scene is Ollie faking his "nervous shakedown" and Stan providing chaos and a vet to help out.

Charley Chase makes the most of his cameo appearance as a rather annoying felow Son of the Desert.

Special mention should also go to Ty Parvis and Charita Alden of Honolulu Baby fame.

Director William A. Seiter had already been directing films for almost 20 years when Sons of the Desert came out and he's competent and unflashy.

Mark: 10/10

[makeitquietly]

Sons of the Desert (1933)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.8 (after 1900)

1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people. 1905 – The 7.2 Mw  Calabria earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people. 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war. 1916 – In a bid to prove that women were capable of serving as military dispatch riders, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren arrive in Los Angeles, completing a 60-day, 5,500 mile cross-country trip on motorcycles. 1921 – Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America. 1923 – Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed. 1925 – Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima, Morocco. 1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations. 1933 – Ghazi bin Faisal became King of Iraq. 1934 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 137 people. 1935 – US Senator from Louisiana Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building. 1941 – World War II: German forces begin the Siege of Leningrad. 1943 – World War II: The Armistice of Cassibile is proclaimed by radio. OB Süd immediately implements plans to disarm the Italian forces. 1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time. 1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier. 1946 – A referendum abolishes the monarchy in Bulgaria. 1952 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes its first televised broadcast on the second escape of the Boyd Gang. 1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established. 1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1). 1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star. 1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "The Man Trap". 1970 – Trans International Airlines Flight 863 crashes during takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, killing all 11 aboard. 1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. 1973 – World Airways Flight 802 crashes into Mount Dutton in King Cove, Alaska, killing six people. 1974 – Watergate scandal: US President Gerald Ford signs the pardon of Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office. 1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 88 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran. 1986 – Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, is indicted on charges of espionage by the Soviet Union. 1988 – Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires. 2004 – NASA's uncrewed spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open. 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announce the beginning of the Deir ez-Zor campaign, with the stated aim of eliminating the Islamic State (IS) from all areas north and east of the Euphrates. 2022 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom dies at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. Her son Charles, Prince of Wales, ascends the throne upon her death as Charles III.

[rlsantucijr]

"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" -- Oliver Hardy / Sons Of The Desert (1933) #SaturdayMovieTVQuote

[o-the-mts]

90 movies in 90 Days: Sons of the Desert (1933)

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less. Title: Sons of the Desert Release Date: December 29, 1933 Director: William A. Seiter Production Company: Hal Roach Studios Summary/Review: Stan: I’ve certainly got to hand it to you. Oliver: For what? Stan: Well for the meticulous care with which you have…

[howardhawkshollywoodannex]

Honorable Mentions mid 30s

1933 (12): Bosco's Picture Show (the first of 101 Looney Tunes through 1964) -- Eagle and the Hawk -- Employee's Entrance -- Flying Down to Rio -- Hard to Handle -- Lady for a Day -- The Life of Jimmy Dolan -- Little Women -- Song of Songs -- State Fair -- The Vampire Bat -- Wild Boys of the Road

1934 (16): Anne of Green Gables -- As the Earth Turns -- The Barretts of Wimpole Street -- Easy to Love -- Fog Over Frisco -- Four Frightened People -- The Goddess -- Imitation of Life -- Judge Priest -- Little Miss Marker -- Manhattan Melodrama -- Murder in the Private Car -- The Old Fashioned Way -- The Scarlet Empress -- Sons of the Desert -- Thirty Day Princess

1935 (11): Alibi Ike -- Cardinal Richelieu -- Crime and Punishment -- The Devil is a Woman -- Folies Bergere -- Four Hours to Kill -- The Glass Key -- Hands Across the Table -- Mark of the Vampire -- Music is Magic -- The Scoundrel

1936 (20): Big Brown Eyes -- Born to Dance -- Broadway Melody of 1936 -- Bullets or Ballots -- Craig's Wife -- Girl's Dormitory -- Green Pastures -- Olympische Spiele -- Rembrandt -- The Road to Glory -- Sabotage -- Showboat -- The Story of a Cheat -- Tarzan Escapes -- Texas Rangers -- Theodora Goes Wild -- These Three -- Three Godfathers -- Trail of the Lonesome Pine -- Wife vs Secretary