Gene Wilder

The actor Gene Wilder passed away the other day.

I can't say that I knew much about Gene Wilder "the person", but I've seen a fair bit of his work over the years.

In the film Bonnie & Clyde as the neurotic Eugene Grizzard, he easily implanted himself into a film that wasn't actually a comedy, but with a very believable real world character, based on a true person!

Throughout the years since then, there were films that were benchmarks that he was a part of - The Producers (Mel Brooks' take on Broadway), Blazing Saddles (a great parody heralding a new style), Young Frankenstein, Stir Crazy (the start of films where real life situations were looked at from a comedic point of view, that brought films like 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, etc), and the still amazing Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

The latter is an absolute classic family film on my opinion! Beautiful songs, gorgeous sets, brilliant acting, and great writing that wonderfully captures the magic of the Roald Dahl novel Charlie & The Chocolate Factory! 

I've seen the Tim Burton version, which is okay I suppose, but that version with Gene Wilder had magic, and perfectly matched the book that I read as a kid!

Gene himself was a delight in the film, wonderfully capturing the eccentricity of the character.

Apparently, he kept his problem with Alzheimer's a secret, because he liked that children knew him as Willy Wonka, and he wanted the world "to smile with him," instead of feeling sorry for him. When children would call out "it's Willy Wonka," he would go into character and be that character for them!

A lovely man, and a loss to the world.

Rest in peace Gene, and thank you for the smiles and laughter xx 

Film - The Devil and Daniel Webster

Recently we got the film The Devil & Daniel Webster as a rental from Lovefilm (Amazon Prime), which is from 1941...

The film is actually about the farmer Jabez Stone who, after being in debt and having hardship with the farm, says that he would sell his soul to the devil for two cents to make everything better.

Suddenly the character Mr Scratch appears, who is obviously a human looking version of Satan himself!

He suddenly makes money appear from basically nowhere in the stables!  Infinite money.  Jabez accepts this offer!

The film then shows the gradual way that money can corrupt people, and in this case Jabez, who turns into a selfish egotist who builds power, whilst at the same time pushing away his wife.

There is a clause that the offer Mr Scratch makes is for a limited time, and Jabez tries at the end of this time to renege on this deal, to which Mr Scratch says that it was a contract signed in blood.

Jabez asks the politician Daniel Webster to stand as counsel in a trial on this matter, which the politician agrees to...

Now, I liked the film to a point, but I found it to take a long time to get where it was going, and the whole reasoning that Daniel Webster uses in the trial is incredibly irritating to me - "no American should be victim to such a contract," as if the fact that he's an American makes him more important than anyone else.  There needed to be more to it than this!  In fact, if I remember rightly, it was even said how he was more worthy than a common slave, which I found incredibly unsettling!

I'd have liked the argument to be more along the lines of "no one, no matter who, should be held to a contract such as this."  But it needed to be more than that even.  It was another case of a big build up leading to a damp squib ending!

Lengthwise, I thought the film would have made a fabulous Twilight Zone episode, but in this case it sort of drags, but that might just be me, and I was tired whilst watching it, and fighting dropping off! 

Decent film, but I'll just give it three and a half out of five!

Photographs taken whilst watching the film...