Passage to Marseille (1943)

Charlie Chaplin and a Rack of Ribs

I was at a Grill/Bar of questionable respectability on Sunday evening. I enjoy frequenting such places because I can usually get a good drink as well as indulge in some people watching. This Grill/Bar features waitresses in themed attire, that evening it was Patriots themed, a full bar, booths and other dining tables, poker tables and a variety of flat screen televisions showcasing different cable channels on mute. After some socializing, a so-so appetizer and a fantastic personal sized pitcher of grapefruit sangria, we headed out when I spotted something. Above the bar there are 8 flat screen televisions, 4 on either side of the partition. One one side I saw 4 screens, 2 showing Sunday night's football game, one showing a music video and another showing a Charlie Chaplin movie. Charlie Chaplin?! I looked over on the other side and saw another screen showing the exact Chaplin movie! Wha?! At first I thought it was a clip of a movie that was being shown on some television program. So I stood there a little while watching. Nope they were playing the film. Then I thought, it might be TCM's Silent Sundays. TCM is a cable channel, perhaps they flipped the channels to the wrong one and left it on by mistake. The next day I looked up TCM's schedule for the previous evening. Not only was TCM not featuring a Silent Sundays line-up there was no Charlie Chaplin film on the schedule either. So then I looked up the local PBS station to see if they had shown a Chaplin film during prime time. Nope. I couldn't figure it out. Why would this Grill/Bar show a Chaplin movie?

This is what I have seen at this bar:

• a DJ playing 80s/90s dance hits
• a bartender in a hot pink outfit that barely covered her body which made me do a double take
• a man dunking his head into a vat of whipped cream while he fished for gum balls in the name of charity
• a random couple groping each other in front of the men's bathroom
• a cartoon of a woman holding up a plate of ribs while men check out her "rack"

What I don't expect to see at this bar... A Charlie Chaplin movie! For one thing, a silent film is perfect for a bar. Especially a funny one. All the TVs are on mute anyways and you don't need to hear dialogue when watching a silent movie like you would a TV show. You can guzzle your beer, nosh on your greasy hamburger AND laugh hysterically at Chaplin's hijinks. Plus plus plus.

Where is the strangest place you have seen a classic film movie or a classic film poster?

While you chew on that thought, let me leave you with a clip of the famous Chaplin dinner roll dance scene. Enjoy!

Action in the North Atlantic (1943)

A fine World War II movie, indeed.

What a superb war movie. It's got all the right elements: action, adventure, interesting characters, a couple of love stories, brains versus brawn, patriotism, etc. Plus, you have Humphrey Bogart as the effortlessly cool (I say that a lot huh?) Lt. Joe Rossi. That's delicious buttercream icing on an already fantastic cake. It does what a war movie in 1943 should do: make you hate the Germans and pump your fist in the air when the American prevail. Or in my case, make you clutch your soft blue blanket in fear when the German submarines DARE to fire off underwater torpedos at my beloved American ship. How DARE they?!

And now, a special message from Chris Rock:

(click on the image to watch the video. NSFW)

No matter what a stripper tells you, there's no Robert Mitchum in this Bogie movie.

IMDB and other sources claim that Robert Mitchum has a bit part and one line of dialogue in this movie. Mitchum? Really? I was so excited! I looked and looked and looked and looked for him. Couldn't find him. It was a big fat lie. Mitchum wasn't in the movie at all. I looked through Lee Server's bio of Robert Mitchum and Server devotes a section to 1943 when Mitchum was getting his start in Hollywood playing lots of bit parts. No mention of Action in the North Atlantic whatsoever. Again, it's a big fat lie. Unless you can show me proof, I'm calling this one's bluff. Moral of the story: don't believe everything that IMDB or Wikipedia tells you.