Double Indemnity is a multiple Oscar nominated movie, released in 1944, and directed by Billy Wilder, based on the theme of Double Indemnity where a wife seeks to get her husband murdered, with the depiction as an accident. The movie was based on a novella by James M. Cain of the same name, that appeared over 8 issues of the 1935 edition of Liberty magazine. The story is based on the 1927 case of a lady based in Queens, Ruth Snyder, who along with her lover got her husband murdered after he took out an insurance scheme with a double indemnity clause.
The movie plays out in flashback, with Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), an insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk dictating his story into a dictaphone for the benefit of his colleague, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), who is a claims adjuster, and investigating the same case that Neff is intimately involved in. Neff is in his death throes, being shot and badly wounded.
The story was that Neff met Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) at her house when he had gone to renew the car insurance of her husband. They flirt, and then Barbara asks Neff how to take out a new insurance policy on her husband without her husband getting to know, something that causes the suspicious antenna on Neff to start working, for a person in the insurance business, that question is very fishy, and he suspects that she wants her husband killed. He refuses, but she follows him to his house and persuades him to become part of a plan to kill her husband. They work out a plan where her husband falls from a moving train.
The insurance company sends Keyes to investigate, who after some initial hesitation, concludes that Barbara must have a hand in this murder. He has no knowledge about the involvement of Neff. Then Lola, the dead man’s daughter and the step-daughter of Phyllis comes to Neff for help, especially since her mother had died when Phyllis was taking care of her as a nurse. Neff soon realizes that Phyllis is also seeing Lola’s boy-friend, and soon realizes that he can get Phyllis and the boy-friend to become the main suspects.
Neff has a confrontation with Phyllis, and Phyllis shoots first, but does not shoot again, refraining from making the killing attack; accepting that her refusal to shoot again means she could now be in love with Neff. She hugs Neff, who then shoots her dead. Neff drives back to the office, for the end of the flashback, and collapses on the floor of the office after making his confession, in time for Keyes to hear everything.

Oscar nominations;
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Barbara Stanwyck)
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Best Director (Billy Wilder)
Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Sound, recording
Best Writing, Screenplay

Clarissa is 28 (actually 31), somebody who has never worked for anything her whole life. She depends on her father and mother, and lives a life of parties, gossip, and the close company of her group of friends (called the Star Chamber - some of them are close friends, and with one of whom she has a relationship that is more enemy like than with friends). Clarissa is very clear on her priorities in life, such as food (good), sex (good), shopping (good), work (bad). She also realizes that since she is actually 31 years old, her biological clock is indicating that she needs to get a move onto finding a man for her (and obviously, it has to be a rich man since she needs to be supported in life as per her expectation). It is a biting satire of the lives of the rich and famous that Clarissa even has though through her future, including when to have children, when she will get divorced. Her relationship with her mother is also shown as pretty interesting, somebody on whom she depends at times of extreme stress, but not otherwise.
So, after crossing through a number of potential husbands and rejecting them (such as Bruce Springsteen, John F. Kennedy Jr. (who is a good potential, but dead), Ted Field, etc), she narrows her choice down to young Aaron Mason, a person rich enough that he can afford to be what he wants (he wants to make a movie about an old subject). Now starts the process of planning for the marriage (even though the groom does not know that he is the target, and that his marriage date has been decided). She finds out that Aaron is not as dumb as he would appear, and is wise to what she is trying, but he plays along and finally they get married.
And this is where the novel takes a twist, with Aaron having far more secrets than Clarissa would like, one of which leads her to living in a much smaller apartment than the swanky house and comfort that she had expected. Clarissa is shocked, but slowly starts to get used to it, and then she gets more shocks from Aaron. The end is different, but the novel starts to meander a bit, and loses the wit and bite soon after the marriage, and slowly starts to become more saccharine sweet. On the whole, it is still enjoyable.

The concept of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is an extremely old concept, valid in different cultures and across geographies. The theory that a girl and boy from 2 rival clans meet, fall in love, and fall victim to the enmity between their clans (and getting killed due to this rivalry) is something that finds mention in a lot of different cultures. This movie is also based on the same concept, with the clans being modified to be 2 different gangs set in New York in the 1950’s. These are 2 rival gangs called the American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks (and these are composed of members from different racial backgrounds), fighting for supremacy over the New York neighborhoods in which they operate.
The romantic duo are Tony (Richard Beymer), who is a former member of the Jets gang (and also its co-founder), and Maria (Natalie Wood), who is the sister of Bernardo (George Chakiris), the head of the rival Puerto Rican immigrants gang, the Sharks. These 2 meet at a dance, to which Tony has gone to convey a message about a challenger between the 2 gangs, something that would decide the rivalry once and for all.
The movie is a musical, so there are several song and dances about the tension in the gangs as they proceed to a final rumble (the challenge) between them, along with the excitement in the life of Tony and Maria as their love increases. The story climaxes when Maria requests Tony to stop the rumble, and Tony is subject to ridicule from the gang members when he tries to stop them. His attempts are met with scorn, and the Jets head Riff cannot stand to see this ridicule of his close friend and starts fighting with Bernardo. In this tussle, Bernardo kills Riff, and Tony kills Bernardo in revenge. At this point, the police arrive and the gang members disperse.
Maria is informed by another gang member Chino (Jose DeVega) about the fight and about Tony killing her brother. When Tony arrives, Maria is very angry, but Tony manages to convince her by detailing what happened at the fight, and by offering to surrender to the police. However, the story happens in tragedy when Tony and Maria are about to meet, Chino comes in and shoots Tony. It is in this tragedy that the gangs unite, when member of both gangs carry Tony’s body.

Academy awards:

Wins:

Academy Award for Best Picture – Robert Wise, producer
Academy Award for Directing – Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – George Chakiris
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Rita Moreno
Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Set Decoration, Color) – Victor A. Gangelin and Boris Leven
Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Color) – Daniel L. Fapp
Academy Award for Costume Design (Color) – Irene Sharaff
Academy Award for Film Editing – Thomas Stanford
Academy Award for Original Music Score of a Musical Picture – Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal, and Sid Ramin
Academy Award for Sound – Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD), and Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Nominations

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium – Ernest Lehman

In High Places was the third book by Arthur Hailey (following Runway Zero-Eight and The Final Diagnosis), and covered an area that is still not covered too well even now. There are numerous books and movies on the politics of the United States and Great Britain, but Canada has never been covered by major books or movies in terms of politics. In High Places was a book that took a look at the politics at the top level in Canada, including the Prime Minister.
The book covers the issues plaguing the Prime Minister of Canada, James McCallum Howden. The Prime Minister is a dedicated person, spending huge amounts of time for his work and not able to spend the required amount of time with his wife, Margaret who understands the situation. What adds to the tension in the book is the situation where there is a huge stand-off with the Soviet Union with the threat of nuclear war seeming almost inevitable. A nuclear war would mean that missile interception and destruction (with a nuclear fallout happening over Canadian territory and poisoning its land mass). There is the pressure of signing a pact with the US called the Act of Union, but that would reduce Canadian sovereignty by giving the US a much greater responsibility of Canada’s defense and its armed forces, not a prospect that is easily acceptable.
And of course, there is the inevitable back-stabbing, intrigue, involvement with women at the highest levels, and so on, which make this a hugely interesting book.

The movie portrays the life of teenagers who did not fit into the normal and sugar portrayal of movies of that era, with the movie attempting to take their viewpoint and explaining what makes them rebellious (in sharp contrast to a lot of movies who would try and see how a teenager could be made to see light). The combination of Director Nicholas Ray and screen-writer Stewart Stern scripted a movie that has become ‘the’ portrayal of youthful angst.
James Dean portrays the role of 17 year old Jim Stark, who moves to Los Angeles along with his parents and enrolls in the local school. He is soon in trouble, brought into the police station for public drunkenness; and soon you realize what one of the motifs of the movie is. His family comes to get him out of the police station, and then you realize that part of what makes him so rebellious is that he does not have a strong father figure - his father and mother frequently quarrel, including in front of Jim. His father bows down many times in such a quarrel, leading to Jim realizing that his father does not have a strong backbone. In the police station, he also meets 2 other characters who are with him through the movie - a 15-year-old boy, John, nick-named Plato (Sal Mineo) who starts to idolize Jim, and Judy (Natalie Wood), who was in the police station for being out after dark.
Judy is a member of the gang of Buzz Gunderson (Cory Allen), somebody whom Jim has an ongoing battle with. In a ‘chicken race’ with Buzz, where the challenge is to see who first jumps out of a car heading towards a cliff, Buzz gets stuck to the car and goes over the cliff. This experience is unsettling to Jim, but he is unable to get any kind of understanding from his parents when he tries to explain to them. The members of Buzz’s gang also start pursuing Jim and Judy (and Plato, who is along with them), and the fight takes a tragic turn when Plato is escaping from the police with a loaded pistol, and is shot by a police officer in self defense.
Originally, Jim’s parents think he has been killed, but then realize that he is alive, and this causes a change whereby Jim’s father decides to be a better father figure.

The tale is complex, being the tale of a person in a shipwreck, as revealed through letters and memoirs. It is not just the tale of the isolation of a ship-wreck, but the tale of the life of 17th century France, of the society, the politics, and through all this, the life of a young man. The book is the story of Roberto della Griva, born into a minor noble family. The story is devoid of many details, such as how the memoirs of Roberto got into the hands of the modern day editor who is writing the book.
Roberto is a complex personality, he believes that all the problems that he suffers is because he has an evil twin called Ferrante (an easy way to blame all the problems that a person suffers); Ferrante is a way out to ascribe the problems that a person may face. As Roberto is growing up, there is a sudden upheaval in his life, his father dies in a siege, in the Siege of Casale, the fortress guarding the frontier between Italy and France. Roberto makes his way to France where he suffers from one-way love (and that too with one of the great ladies of France); the novel also describes the colorful and complex situation in France of that time, this is the time when there is a transfer of power happening between Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin.
However, he is soon forced into booking his passage on a Dutch ship (the Amaryllis) that is on an expedition to find the problems of longitude, and unfortunately for him, he ends up in a shipwreck, and is washed up on another deserted ship, the Daphne. And this is where the title of the book is relevant, since Roberto believes that the ship sits on the International Date Line, and he can look at the previous day from one side of the ship.
The book may seem boring to some, but for others, it is a perfect example of the writings of Umberto Eco. Worth reading, and for many, worth treasuring.

MacGregor is a chieftain who wants to get into the business of trading Highland cattle, and hence borrows 1,000 pounds from the Marquess of Montrose (John Hurt). He entrusts the money to his sub-chieftain, but is however devastated when the Marquesses’ factor (person tending to his grounds and collecting rents) Killearn (Brian Cox) and his sociopathic protégé Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) murder the sub-chieftain for the money. No one knows that they have done this, but the net result is that MacGregor is now in debt to the Marquess for 1,000 pounds (a sizeable amount).
When he wants to try to make a settlement with the Marquess, the Marquess agrees, but wants MacGregor to falsely testify that the Duke of Argyll (Andrew Keir) is involved with a Jacobite plot (an attempt to bring back the Catholic King James to the throne of England and evict the Protestant kings from the throne). MacGregor is not comfortable with perjuring himself and refuses. With this, hopes of clemency from the Marquess vanish and the Marquess orders Cunnigham to take MacGregor to debtors prison. MacGregor runs away, and his house and wife bear the brunt. His house is destroyed, livestock killed, and his wife Mary raped by the psychopathic Cunnigham. This is discovered by MacGregor’s brother Alasdair, but he is sworn to secrecy by Mary.
MacGregor and Mary find out the truth about the stealing of the money from Betty, who is a chambermaid at the residence of Montrose, and who had been having an affair with Cunningham and who is dismissed from service when she becomes pregnant. She however kills herself before she can testify. And so goes a constant battle by MacGregor to prove the complicity of Killearn and Cunningham in the killing and theft, with constant struggles. In the end, a duel is arranged between MacGregor and Cunningham, where MacGregor is on the edge of defeat, but just when he is going to face the final blow, he counter-attacks and kills Cunningham.

Mansfield Park is the name of a house owned by the wealthy Sir Thomas Bertram. He is married to Fanny’s aunt (Fanny’s mother married a poor solider, and hence their life has always been distant from the rich world of Sir Thomas). However, Fanny has been sent to her aunt’s house to take care of her aunt, but because of her poverty, 3 of her cousins, Tom, Maria and Julia, ignore her and do not consider her to be of the same level. It is only the second son, Edmund, who treats Fanny kindly; as a result, Fanny has always looked at Edmund with devotion, which turns to love as she grows (the novel depicts her in a majority of the story to be at age 18-19).
Sir Thomas is strict, and this seems to have a bearing on the behaviour of his 3 children, Tom, Maria and Julia, who all have their own weaknesses, whether that be Tom’s weakness for gambling, or the vain and arrogant nature possessed by Maria or Julia. Soon, Sir Thomas leaves for 2 years to tend to his estates in Antigua, and then the entire drama starts soon after, with the arrival of Henry Crawford and his sister Mary. Henry charms both Maria and Julia (specially Maria), and to Fanny’s distress, Mary and Edmund start getting closer (although Edmund is not sure about Mary’s true nature). However, in the midst of rehearsing for a play, Sir Thomas returns, and is not happy to see the ongoing rehearsal, effectively ending all thoughts of having a play. Henry and Mary leave for some time.
Henry, after returning, wants to amuse himself by charming Fanny, but finds himself falling in love with her instead. When he proposes marriage, and for a poor girl such as Fanny, this is a very good proposal, she already knows about his affairs with her cousins, and she declines. The entire family gets shocked, and she leaves Mansfield Park for some time. Soon after, there is another scandal, where Maria (who had married the rich but boring Mr. Rushworth) has an affair with Henry in London, leading to a divorce from her husband. At around the same time, Tom also falls ill, and Fanny heads back to Mansfield Park to take care of Tom. Edmund also realizes that Mary’s true nature is not acceptable to him, and he actually loves Fanny. Eventually, Edmund marries Fanny.

The movie was nominated for 5 Oscars,
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Hopkins),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Joan Allen),
Best Music,
Original Dramatic Score and Best Writing,
Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Richard Nixon was a complex personality. He did a lot for the United States, it was in his terms that the United States finally withdrew from the mess in Vietnam (although he also tried to succeed militarily, but finally gave up that strategy as flawed), he was the proponent of the immensely strategic opening up to China, it was during his term that a lot of the civil rights desegregation was enforced and the US became a lot less racially separated, he was the President under whom all the successful lunar missions took place. And yet, he was the President who was finally done under due to the arrogance of trying to believe that he was above the law when his involvement in the efforts to break-into the Democratic 1972 convention and then to try and brazen his way out of the investigations into the same incident. He eventually quit when it was clear that he was frozen out. He did a lot more after he resigned in terms of becoming a respected elder statesman, but in the end, Richard Nixon will be remembered for Watergate, the only President of the United States who resigned. And Anthony Hopkins did a great portrayal of this role.

The 2 main characters who are the focus of this book, include Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano. These are characters who have grown up as neighbors since they were children, have been very close, very good friends, attended medical school together, and start seeing the harsh elements of life. As medical students and doctors, they come to face an extremely tough education demanding huge amounts of study, face patients who have all kinds of illnesses, many of them tragic. They learn that apparently the medical profession demands that its practitioners should not get personally involved with the problems of their patients, because otherwise they will themselves start to get weak and affected.
The book also takes the lives of other students along with them, such as their brilliant but black colleague Bennett Landsmann, who faces the then huge issue of racism, and ultimately almost falls victim to it. They come face to face shocking problems in the medical fraternity such as misdiagnosis, colleagues who are not competent or indulge in conduct that offends them. The book traces their lives to the point where they have each had their relationships, but ultimately realize that eventually they are made for each other. The book is gripping, and is certainly worth reading.