Crash Dive (1943)

This entry is for the Power-Mad blogathon, celebrating Tyrone Power's 100th birthday!  Check out the link for all kinds of wonderful entries on Tyrone Power.

I opted to write about 1943's Crash Dive.  I'd originally watched this movie back in October of 2005.  At the time, I was in the midst of watching all of Dana Andrews' films.  While I knew Tyrone Power, I hadn't watched that many of his films at that time. So, the first time I watched this movie, I was mostly irritated at how much screen time Power got, as opposed to Andrews.  I have not watched this movie since gaining a big appreciation for Tyrone Power, so I thought it was high time for a re-watch.




Crash Dive is a WWII submarine movie, that works well enough if you don't think about it too much.  Power plays Lt. Ward Stewart, who gets yanked off his PT boat and returned to submarine duty.  He is assigned as Executive Officer on Dewey Connors' (Dana Andrews) boat, the USS Corsair.  Before they set sail, though, Stewart goes to Washington D.C. on leave and meets, purely by accident, Connors' girlfriend, Jean, played by Anne Baxter.  He has no idea she's dating his new skipper, she's just a very pretty girl he's attracted to, and so the movie heads into love-triangle territory.  The movie spends a large chunk of time ashore, attending to the romance angles of the plot.  The sub heads out on patrol, sinks a German Q-boat.  This sets up the last part of the movie, where the sub heads out to locate and destroy the German supply base that is sending out the Q-boats. 



This is a movie where if Ward Stewart was played by anyone other than Tyrone Power, I probably would not like him very much, the way he uses deception to get Anne Baxter to go out on a date with him.  Because she's already seeing Dana Andrews, she tells Stewart multiple times she's not interested, even stands him up on their second date, etc.  He refuses to leave her alone and ends up both helping her without her knowledge, while basically blackmailing her at the same time.  But at the same time, he's got that Tyrone Power smile going on, and I get the feeling he would back off if his scheme didn't work, and he does finally agree to leave her alone after one final date, if that's her wish.  Of course, by that point, she has fallen in love with him.

Back in the day, I was always mad that she chose Tyrone Power over Dana Andrews, but now... well, Tyrone's character pursues her, and Dana sits back waiting for the perfect time, and so this time around, it all worked for me.

The always charming Power

But the best parts of the movie are when the Corsair is at sea.  Its first mission has them locating, then playing hide and seek with the Q-Boat.  This is probably my favorite section of the movie. Submarines are one of my first loves, particularly WWII subs, and I never really tire of watching them at work, no matter the movie.  Both leads each get their fair share of the limelight.  Connors' possum tactics allow them to escape the Q-Boat's depth charge attack.  Then when Connors gets knocked out, Stewart takes over and sinks the Q-Boat. 

The second big action scene is when the Corsair follows a tanker into the secret German supply base, and the crew goes commando and blows the place to smithereens.  If you ignore the fact that a submarine crew wouldn't be trained for any of that, the ending is quite exciting.  Again, both leads get to shine.  While Stewart leads the commando team ashore, Connors torpedoes the German ships in the harbor.  Mission accomplished, the sub barely escapes the harbor's guns.  The effects are quite good for the time period, and this movie won an Oscar for them.  My favorite part of the finale is when the submarine sneaks into the harbor, which is filled with mines.  I'm a complete sucker for those tense moments when a mine cable audibly drags against the sub, the mine getting tugged closer and closer to the sub's hull, only to slip free at the last moment... 

As much as I love Dana Andrews, this movie is really Tyrone Power's.  There are few scenes without him, and it's his charisma that drives the romance subplot.  I also love the friendship that develops between Connors and Stewart, and the two actors seem to have a lot of fun when they're together.  They have a great scene after returning from their first mission where they go to the officer's club to share a giant plate of fruit and vegetables and a pitcher of milk.

This was Power's last film before going into the war.

Periscope ornamentation

Even better periscope ornamentation

I'm not sure you could have two more handsome men commanding a submarine!

My Foolish Heart (1949)

This movie reminded me that I am just not much of a straight romance person. This isn't a bad movie, there's nothing wrong with it, many other bloggers I know really really love this movie (coincidentally, Patti, from They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To just reviewed it very positively here)... it's just not for me. It simply doesn't offer me what I look for in my entertainment, despite Dana Andrews being in it. I was bored from the get-go. I never could relate or feel for the characters, the plot held no surprises and was very by-the-book, and... I found I'd rather have been elsewhere. Sigh. The only character I truly enjoyed was Robert Keith as Susan Hayward's character's father. He was great, and their relationship was refreshing.

Very glad I finally saw this one -- it's been on my to-see list for ages! -- but it's not one I'll be revisiting any time soon.

Listy things -- Dana Andrews

My favorite Dana Andrews' films:

1. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
2. Swamp Water (1941)
3. Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
4. Fallen Angel (1945)
5. Laura (1944)
6. Ball of Fire (1941)
7. State Fair (1945)
8. Night Song (1947)
9. The Frogmen (1951)
10. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

It's very hard to put Ox-Bow Incident on that list, because that movie is very painful to watch, but at the same time, he's so wonderful in it that it is one of my favorites. Actually, typing up this list really put me in the mood to watch most of these. I kind of wore them out a few years back, but now I'm fresh and ready to watch!


(next up... Joel McCrea, just in time for his birthday)

"You said no rules, Colonel."

Hollywood Dreamland just posted a marvelous series of posts detailing his ten favorite actors, all amazing actors with great films under their belts. He had a little segment in each where he listed the first movie he saw for each actor, and his favorite movies for each of those actors. Made me really curious which was the first movie I'd seen my own favorite actors in. So, I thought I'd jog my memory and record it for myself here. I'm woefully behind in posting movie reviews and other things, so I'll ease myself back into posting this way. Favorites are always interesting to me because they're so subjective, and sometimes quite fickle. It's always intriguing to see how lists change over time.

Writing these out also made me realize that with the exception of William Holden and Dana Andrews, the movies I love my favorite actors for are all made in the 1950's on. Which then naturally led me to contemplating which 1930's and 1940's stars would be my favorites, without considering any of their films made after 1949. I'm still thinking about that, actually, and will post a list of those later.

• William Holden

First Movie I saw him in: The Horse Soldiers when I was a kid. Really, if I'd never seen him in another movie, it wouldn't have mattered. This is the William Holden movie for me, the one that imprinted on me and gave me the cynical, charming, smirky William Holden I love above all his other characters.

Three Favorite Movies: The Horse Soldiers, Sunset Blvd., Alvarez Kelly
Honorable Mention: Texas

• Lee Marvin

First Movie I saw him in: No idea. This could be any one of a dozen when I was a kid. It was probably a Western like The Comancheros or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, or possibly Donovan's Reef. There's no moment where Lee Marvin's movies aren't in my memories, where his name wasn't known and his face and voice and swaggering walk not instantly recognizable. He always stood out from the crowd for me.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals, Paint Your Wagon
Honorable Mention: Cat Ballou

• Dana Andrews

First Movie I saw him in: No idea here either. Probably Battle of the Bulge or In Harm's Way or Airport 1975 when I was young... but he was just a guy with a name I really liked back then. The first movie I saw him in where I sat up and paid attention was Best Years of Our Lives in Sept 2005.

Three Favorite Movies: Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Swamp Water
Honorable Mention: Best Years of Our Lives

• Ralph Meeker

First Movie I saw him in: The Dirty Dozen when I was a kid. But I never saw him as more than the guy with the funniest, most-quotable lines in one of my favorite movies until I saw Kiss Me Deadly in April 2008. Then he leaped from the just plain cool balcony, to the oh wow, where have you been all my life center stage.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, Kiss Me Deadly, The Naked Spur
Honorable Mention: Jeopardy

• Sam Neill

First Movie I saw him in: The Hunt for Red October, 1990, which launched the biggest (and still unrivaled) movie actor crush of my life.

Three Favorite Movies: The Hunt for Red October, Dead Calm, Jurassic Park
Honorable Mention: Reilly: Ace of Spies

• Ewan McGregor

First Movie I saw him in: The Phantom Menace, 1999

Three Favorite Movies: A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Revenge of the Sith
Honorable Mention: Young Adam

• Joel McCrea

First Movie I saw him in: Sullivan's Travels, Sept 2008

Three Favorite Movies: Ride the High Country, Ride the High Country, and Ride the High Country. Really, I should drop McCrea off my favorite actors list, because despite the fact that I've been hunting down all his movies (a requirement to make my favorite actor list), really, no other movie of his has yet come close to matching his performance in Ride the High Country. In his early days, he made a ton of romantic comedy movies, and those just aren't my thing. They're fun for a one-time viewing, but they won't make a repeat viewing list for me, and favorite movies are ones you watch over and over.
Honorable Mention: Dead End - There I named something else!

• Aldo Ray

First Movie I saw him in: The Green Berets, sometime in childhood, but David Janssen was the guy who stood out at the time. First movie I paid attention to Aldo in was God's Little Acre, Dec 2005

Three Favorite Movies: Battlecry, We're No Angels, What Did You do in the War, Daddy?
Honorable Mention: Nightfall

• Richard Boone

First Movie I saw him in: It was either The Alamo or Big Jake, sometime in childhood. I remember waiting through The Alamo just to get to his big scene towards the end, cuz I liked him so much.

Three Favorite Movies: Big Jake, Have Gun-Will Travel series, The Alamo
Honorable Mention: The Tall T

• Vic Morrow

First Movie I saw him in: Combat! back in the early 90's. Not a movie, but that's okay. I knew his name because of his tragic death long before I actually saw him in anything. I didn't sit up and take notice until I started re-watching Combat! in 2004.

Three Favorite Movies: Combat!, Men in War, Cimarron
Honorable Mention: King Creole

Betty Hutton extravaganza

So, thanks to this really nice site, I've watched three Betty Hutton films I've never seen, each starring one of my favorite men:

The Fleet's In (1942) with William Holden
Somebody Loves Me (1952) with Ralph Meeker
Spring Reunion (1957) with Dana Andrews

Now, I have mixed feelings about Betty Hutton. Sometimes I really like her, and other times she's simply too loud and annoying for me. This goes for both her acting and her singing. My mileage definitely varies. For example, I don't particularly like Annie, Get Your Gun, but I do like The Stork Club. So, these three new films were an interesting mix.

My least favorite of the three... Spring Reunion. Sorry, Dana, but I did not like this film at all. This is like a chick flick from the 50's. I don't like current ones; I don't like old ones. Premise... the man and woman voted most likely to succeed in their senior year in high school meet again at their school's fifteen year reunion, find out they both have done nothing with their lives, and since neither's married, they fall in love in one day and run off immediately to get married because this will make their useless-to-date lives complete. *rolls eyes* Okay, now I'm not really arguing that a chick can't fall for and decide to marry Dana Andrews in one day, ahem, but really... it's just a completely nerve-grating movie where I want to slap all the characters at various points. Blech. But high points go to Jean Hagen -- always wonderful in whatever films she turns up in, and I loved Betty Hutton here. She's low key and very appealing, and she worked well with the material given. Dana... hm. His character was a very odd clash of opportunist and sincerity, with a bit of lonely desperation. Hard to get a fix on who he was really aiming to be here.

The middle-rated movie was The Fleet's In. Oh sigh. William Holden is absolutely adorable, Dorothy Lamour is sassy and snarky, and the premise simple, but cute. Navy sailor Holden gets photographed kissing a movie star (an accident of location) and his shipmates plug the naïve sailor as top wolf of the boat. A bet gets made that he can't get famous night club singer Dorothy Lamour to kiss him in public. That's it... simple and cute. I loved everything with Holden and Lamour. But unfortunately they're not the whole movie. And the movie was sideswiped way off track in the last half hour by a variety show put on for the sailors... the story ground to a halt, and every act in their show either creeped me out or was so far gone into slapstick I couldn't deal. Cut all that extra stuff out, and this would have easily been my favorite film of the three. And alas, this was also Betty Hutton quite loud and obnoxious (though she did have some very funny scenes), so I had a hard time getting through the parts minus Holden and Lamour. And oddly, this was another film with an overnight romance leading to marriage, but at least this one had the benefit of a WWII setting when men and women did need to act quickly sometimes. Spring Reunion had no such excuse.

And my favorite of the three films was Somebody Loves Me. I really loved Betty Hutton in this one. There's no brash hollering, no craziness; she's soft-spoken, emotional, pretty, and her singing is beautiful. This one's the story of the rise and fame of a real vaudeville singer and her husband, from 1906 to somewhere in the 1920s. It had a lot (a LOT) of songs, most as performances on stage, but I think with only one exception, I enjoyed them all. Ralph Meeker is at the beginning of his career and very young here. He's playing a character type he does very well... the scheming heel who ultimately redeems himself. Betty Hutton falls for him almost instantly, but his character simply uses her, her wealth, and her fame to get ahead in the show biz world -- until he realizes he's really in love with her. It's sounds a bit corny, but they play it straight and it never falls into yucky pretentiousness baloney sandwich material like Spring Reunion (no, I really didn't like that movie!). Only lousy part of this movie? Whoever they picked to dub Ralph Meeker's singing voice. I mean the voice itself is very lovely, it's just that Meeker has such a distinctive speaking voice (one of the things I love about him), the filmmakers couldn't find any baritone a little closer in quality than this? I mean, really?? Cuz it was such a bad match it yanked me out of the movie and just made me giggle every time he started "singing."

20... er 10 Favorite Actors

So a 20 favorite actor meme is now making the rounds, and since I'm about to head out on a business trip, I thought this would be a good way to cheer myself up.

As I did for the 20 fave actresses meme, I'm actually only listing 10. Not that there's a shortage of actors I adore. Quite the contrary, I could ramble on for hours on all my favorite men, but I'd rather keep it focused on the ones at the top, the ones who are little more special than the others. Of course, the word "favorite" can mean so many things, so what I did for this particular meme was list thirty or so actors that I really really loved, then I ranked them accordingly to how loudly I'd whoop and how widely I'd grin if they turned up unexpectedly as a guest star in a "Route 66" ep, then I picked the ten at the top. Seemed a fair enough way to figure out who was important to me. The results surprised me a little, as some I thought for sure would be on this list, when I put 'em to this particular test, I found I didn't care quite as much as I thought I would. And vice versa.

So...

1. William Holden -- said it all already :-D

2. Lee Marvin - Yep, Lee Marvin beats out everyone else for second place. Like William Holden, I've loved him for as long as I can remember. Nobody, but nobody can play mean quite like he can, or play a good guy, or do comedy, or sing -- all while keeping that wonderful sexy swagger, and with that wonderful voice. He elevates every movie he's in, and if he's around, he always has my full attention.

3. Dana Andrews - Ah, Dana. It's hard to articulate what he means to me. There are some people who change your life, even if you haven't met them, and he's one of them. He conveys so much with those handsome eyes of his, and he has that smooth voice that never fails to melt me. He gets my full admiration and respect like no one else. More than anything in the world, I wish I could have heard him sing opera. I don't even know which opera roles he studied and sang, which opera was his favorite. His daughter told me that at the end, when he was suffering Alzheimer's and couldn't remember anything else, he was still singing opera in Italian. That makes me cry from both sadness and a strange sort of joy, that he still had that. Because love of opera is something I understand with every fiber of my being.

4. Ralph Meeker - Yeah, he's way higher on the list than I thought he might be, but man oh man, do I love him. I've seen him play pretty much all types of roles, and I like him best when he's playing morally ambivalent characters. He does Grey oh so very well, and as we well know, I'm a huge fan of Grey!

5. Sam Neill - Sam Neill was actually my first true actor crush as an adult. The first time I saw The Hunt for Red October, he completely stole my heart. There's very few movies he's made I haven't seen.

6. Ewan McGregor - He simply can play any role and make you believe in him. I can't think of any current actor I love quite as much as him.

7. Joel McCrea - four things I've learned to appreciate from watching McCrea: 1 - How well some men can wear clothes. I used to think Dana Andrews was the best dressed man in a suit. Nope, I'm afraid McCrea cleanly stole that award away. I almost never pay attention to clothes, or how well a suit or tux actually fits a guy... until McCrea made me notice without even trying. 2 - How good a guy looks after getting dunked in a river. 3 - How important romance is. 4 - And how there's nothing quite as attractive as a truly good man.

8. Aldo Ray - I think he's my all-time physical ideal. If I was ranking actors solely by how lustworthy they were, he gets top slot. Love his brawny build, love his raspy voice, love how easily he laughs, love how often filmmakers get him out of his shirt...

9. Richard Boone - I was a little surprised at first to see him beat out so many of the others to make this list, but really, it's no surprise. I've adored him since the first time I saw Big Jake. Paladin is one of the coolest characters ever put on television, but he'd be nothing if he wasn't played to perfection by Boone. Richard Boone is a great combo of intelligence, honor, swagger, and meanness (when he wants to be). He intimidates the hell out of me, but there's nobody I'd rather have at my side in a confrontation. Like all the guys on this list, I think a movie is better if he's in it.

10. Vic Morrow - A good-looking, fine actor, but more than that... from watching him in films and on television, I've learned so much about how to write a story. That sounds odd, but it's true. There's a lot of acting in writing (at least for me), and Vic Morrow is one of those actors who, for whatever reason, I feel on a visceral level, and the things I've learned about acting from studying how he says his dialog, how he physically carries himself in different roles... he taught me, more than anyone else, how to completely become (and believe in) something I'm not, and that carries into my fiction writing every single day.

"Missing's the word."

18,000 words on the cursed fanfic story, just a few thousand words left to reach the end... and I'm stuck. I've outlined the whole thing up to present (after writing it) to make sure everything's in the right order (almost, but not quite). I've freewritten. I've daydreamed. I've played with the dog. I've read more of the novel I'm reading. I've watched half of Alvarez Kelly again (I've decided I think I need to own that one - the subject line is one of my favorite smug WH quotes from it, only I'm feeling anything but smug). I've done more freewriting but, mostly, I keep rewording the same damned question, the one I can't answer, the "why" question that's halted me in my tracks, hoping that maybe if I reword it just so, the answer will jump out at me.

Thinking about it now, I did let myself go slightly astray in the story, which might have been a bad idea. It gave me a new cool scene and direction, but I think all I did was complicate matters. And to go this direction, I had to throw out a scene that's been in my head from very early on... I'm wondering what might happen if I yank the new scene and re-write more along the original lines, might that eliminate the problem? No, cuz the nasty question still remains unanswered, and I can't move forward until I know the answer. Grrr.

Can't write a nice simple story, no... it has to have enough subplots, character arcs, and povs for a novel. Seems to be a commonality in my longer fanfic stories lately... and that makes them both logistical nightmares and, despite my frustrations, very fun.

(And I think I need to write a post sometime about the Movie Clothes I Wished I Owned. Like Dana's jacket in The Ox-Bow Incident.)

Mid-year review

We're halfway into 2008, and I was looking through all the films I'd rented from Netflix so far this year.

My favorites:

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
Kiss Me Deadly
The Professionals
The Naked Spur


The bottom feeders:

Zero Hour
Windtalkers

I don't think I wrote about it, but Zero Hour has to be one of the worst movies I've ever had the misfortune to sit through. Everything about it was terrible: dialogue, story, acting (even Dana Andrews was awful in this, and I thought Johnny Reno was a miserable film, I think this one is even worse). Windtalkers was merely eye-rollingly bad in comparison. Neither of them I ever want to see again in any way, shape, or form.

wacky phrase for the day

"kitchen tractor" = vacuum!!

still laughing. particularly as it was Dana Andrews who called it that. ahhhhh, I adore old movies.

"Why so gloomy?"
"I got a 48-hour liberty and four dollars. What am I supposed to do, get the hysterics?"

mmmmm, love when Dana gets all sarcastic. William Holden who?

Remakes

So, after recently reading about a potential remake of "A Walk in the Sun" is in the works, all I want to do is watch the original again. Hollywood and their stupid remakes. I'm sure when I'm a silver-haired old lady, I'll be reading about the remake of "Star Wars" that's in the works.

One of THOSE nights

A night of writing and deleting. First a huge long email. Delete. Then a long LJ entry. Delete. Then a shorter LJ entry. Delete. Then a super-short private entry just to mark today down so I don't forget it. And did I gain anything from all that writing and deleting? Yeah, actually, cuz they were things I needed to say to somebody, even if it ended up only being myself. And all that sounds depressingly angsty, but it wasn't at all. It was me being strong and fiercely happy and closing a door that's long needed closing.

Friday

So, I guess I'm still instinctively watching movies that match my mood. From the sheer desperate despair of "Ox-Bow" a few days ago, now modulated to the feeling unneeded, unable-to-fit-in depression of "The Best Years of Our Lives." Didn't realize that was where my mood had shifted until after I watched it and made the connection. But hey, as opposed to "Ox-Bow," "Best Years" at least ends on a note of hope. Things are improving around here, anyway. I'll work my way back up to "Swamp Water" yet.

And writing... is proceeding. One story goes well and has been easy to write. I've added over 2000 words to it already. The other... the one so close to completion, goes nowhere at all. I like the beginning, then it falls into a morass of unfocus. I think I just need to throw out the last half and start over. And the Garage Sale flash piece is just sitting in my brain, drumming its fingers impatiently.

Worse than unfocussed brain

Now, I have useless brain. It's forgotten how to put together a sentence and it's unwilling to work with me right now. Appeals to long-absent muses are going nowhere. I resorted to a movie.

Now, I was supposed to watch "Swamp Water," which is a HAPPY movie (well, mostly) and something to BREAK my mood. What ended up in the DVD player? "The Ox-Bow Incident." NOT a happy movie!! It didn't break my mood: it INTENSIFIED my mood. I haven't put that one on in several months, and I got the kicked-in-the-stomach reaction all over again. Now, I'm going to bed without a word written, more depressed than when I started.

I'm a bloody fool.

Running hot, straight, and normal

So, I've been challenged to come up with an entry for Anotherealm's "Garage Sale" flash fiction contest... and what does my mind do? Goes off on submarines. "Why, yes, those are Mark 18 electric torpedoes in the racks over there in the back of the garage... did you need one? Moat defense, perhaps?" er... maybe not.

do not underestimate the power of B&W movies

Brain has not recovered from last night's movie. Trying to edit novel today and, mid-sentence, brain drifts right off. Repeatedly. Brain is wearing dog tags, so if seen anywhere, please send home.

Well, I WAS on a roll until tonight

Did excellent writing work today, finally. Buckled down and tore the current chapter apart and put it back together. Worked hard and long and disciplined, and it felt GREAT!! Pretty sure the chapter now works the way I need it to, but time will tell.

So I rewarded myself with a movie, a nice short 97 minute movie. Figured I'd go right back to writing afterwards. Um, no. Emphatically no. See, there was this one scene...

Melted me like buttah in a saucepan... like chocolate chips microwaved for, well, I've forgotten the exact second count required to render it perfect, but just like that.

And I'm useless now, just utterly useless for writing. Worse, that thought doesn't seem to be bothering me any. Seems, once dropped into a high state of puddlization, you feel no pain. None whatsoever. Better than morphine.

Get those fingers typing

Wake up calls for writers come in all shapes and sizes. What jogs one into gear won't work on someone else. Today was an odd sort of wake up call day for me, a kick in the pants day, a get-the-lead-out-and-get-back-to-serious-writing day. Nothing important happened, no life-changing event or anything like that, just some emails exchanged with a friend regarding the sudden and ridiculous demise of Astounding Tales. But, sometimes, that's all it takes.

So, spending my lunch break, not writing like I meant to, but pulling a book off the shelf to check on one little tiny insignificant trivial detail -- and then spending the rest of the hour flipping through the rest of the book, mindlessly drooling.... bad, very VERY bad. (All right, all right, the book was The Complete Films of William Holden... and I can't help it if it's loaded with pictures and I'm a sucker for a handsome guy. If there was a matching book on Dana Andrews, I guarantee you I'd have to lock it up and mail the key to Rachel because it would be twice as dangerous to have just lying around.) Fortunately, that episode was BEFORE I got fired up, but it's a prime example of how NOT to "waste" my lunch breaks in the future. (yes, waste is in quotes because it may not have been a productive hour, but it was an awfully enjoyable one.)

Where do ideas come from, part II

So, I go three and a half months of working on novel with only one short story idea. It's been not even a week since its first-draft completion, and now in one day the short story ideas are piling up like the snow drifting outside. And I'm already working on another story that has nothing to do with these new ones.

So, after dinner, three things came together again. I was surfing the internet, following an online arc of links from "Sunset Boulevard" to a film noir page, which went through examples of all kinds of sub-genre noir, including Western Noir... and then two other things that had happened today sort of meshed with that and just like that I had another story idea. The other pieces were when I was taking a walk earlier through the snowy forest, listening with eyes closed to just how far voices can carry outside straight-line, and seeing an eBay item this morning with the title of "Lobby Card 1958 THE FEARMAKERS Dana Andrews roughed up." I know, I know, don't even go there... but it was less actually Dana Andrews as much as simply the title of the movie and the "roughed up" phrasing. It sent me off thinking about the various reasons people would get "roughed up." And the title of that movie is also the name of a "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" episode. The two have completely different subject matter, but since I know "Voyage" and have never seen that movie, my brain went off on futuristic submarines and scientific experiments gone awry. And a story was born. And it has nothing to do with Dana Andrews. Really. It's more like something out of "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," but all cold-dark-winter-noirish. And damn, I miss that show! Come on guys, release it on DVD already! Please? (And while you're at it, release "The Fearmakers" too so I can see why Dana Andrews is getting roughed up and by whom.)