I reworked the synopsis for UG a few times and fussed about trying to understand why I can't send a word file of it out by .mac. I shifted it to Pages format and it went, fine. I shifted the pages back to docx...and it didn't, even though its code is different. No reason for this that I can figure out, whatsoever. What's even weirder is, I can send it out via any other email I have. So...some gremlin in Apple don't like my work.
I also did a lot of ironing after 3 weeks worth of laundry, so watched 3 different movie versions of The Seven Keys to Baldpate, which was the story I based The Lyons' Den on. The 1929 version was nice; it stuck to the story as written by Earl Derr Biggers and adapted by George M. Cohan, and Richard Dix was fun as billy Magee. The acting was a bit over the top, but it was early in the Talkies era.
The 1935 version with Gene Raymond as Billy was silly and, on occasion, so bad it was fun. They put in the original opening of the book to nice effect, but they changed the criminal nonsense to stolen diamonds and insurance fraud, had one character turn into a real detective and dropped the double-twist ending Cohan's famous for. However...Walter Brennan in a bit part and Henry Travers as the Hermit worked for me.
The 1947 version should have scrapped the title altogether. It was ludicrous, and the lead character was like Fred MacMurry-lite...and Fred's already a light actor. The only interesting aspect was having Billy overhear he's being set up to lose the bet so sticks around to play along. Then it goes totally off the rails and people are really killed and Billy...wait, they changed his name to Kenneth...turns into a coward of a hero and doesn't even get to work on the book he's supposed to write. The one saving grace was Arthur Shields, brother to Barry Fitzgerald, who's been in a number of John Ford films.
I haven't seen the 1917 version that actually stars George M Cohan as Billy, or the 1925 remake...and I definitely want to see the 1983 edition with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee...and Desi Arnaz Jr. in the Magee role (still Kenneth), but it's only available on either Amazon Prime video or some weird multiple format thing that I'm not sure about. Plus they moved the story to Wales. WALES!
I still think my version of the story's best.
The 1935 version with Gene Raymond as Billy was silly and, on occasion, so bad it was fun. They put in the original opening of the book to nice effect, but they changed the criminal nonsense to stolen diamonds and insurance fraud, had one character turn into a real detective and dropped the double-twist ending Cohan's famous for. However...Walter Brennan in a bit part and Henry Travers as the Hermit worked for me.
The 1947 version should have scrapped the title altogether. It was ludicrous, and the lead character was like Fred MacMurry-lite...and Fred's already a light actor. The only interesting aspect was having Billy overhear he's being set up to lose the bet so sticks around to play along. Then it goes totally off the rails and people are really killed and Billy...wait, they changed his name to Kenneth...turns into a coward of a hero and doesn't even get to work on the book he's supposed to write. The one saving grace was Arthur Shields, brother to Barry Fitzgerald, who's been in a number of John Ford films.
I haven't seen the 1917 version that actually stars George M Cohan as Billy, or the 1925 remake...and I definitely want to see the 1983 edition with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee...and Desi Arnaz Jr. in the Magee role (still Kenneth), but it's only available on either Amazon Prime video or some weird multiple format thing that I'm not sure about. Plus they moved the story to Wales. WALES!
I still think my version of the story's best.
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