Monday, 5 January 2015

Norman Wisdom Collection
(1953-1966)

RATING:100%
FORMAT:DVD

The quality of these movies is variable – both in content and form – but never falls below Good. At their best (ie, Trouble in Store, Man of the Moment, Up in the World, Just My Luck, Follow a Star & Stitch in Time) they show a clownish genius. An intensely visual humorist, Wisdom demonstrates what can be done with an intensely visual form like cinema: A clever mix of Jerry Lewis and Charlie Chaplin.

Norman Wisdom plays the gormless schoolboy who never grows up; hence, his great appeal to children everywhere and to all ages. Yet behind all this outlandish hilarity lies the obvious and sad story of an unloving childhood; explaining the often mawkish sentimentality of some of the plots, themes and events.

Nevertheless, this is some of the best clown and mime work ever recorded on film, aided by surprisingly literate screenplays.

Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 15:26
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No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)