Long live King Kong!

 
Much before King Kong was made into a film on at least three occasions – the 1976 version starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, in my opinion, being more enchanting and engrossing than the 1933 and 2005 versions – English crime writer Edgar Wallace created the giant gorilla in a short story he co-wrote with Draycott Montagu Dell. Their story first appeared in Cinema Weekly in October 1933.

Interestingly, the first version of King Kong was directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack based on a story idea by Cooper and Wallace.

King Kong has lost none of its cinematic influence after scores of movies about beasts and monsters that followed the first version – originally titled The Beast: The Birth of Kong – over the past eighty years. King Kong still sounds better.

The movies spawned many comic-books with the 1968-published Gold Key cover of the mighty King Kong battling puny airplanes atop the Empire State Building being the most striking of all.

Stamp of a Writer: Samuel L. Clemens (MARK TWAIN)

"I have been an author for 20 years and an ass for 55."

"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

"I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience."

"We write frankly and fearlessly but then we "modify" before we print."

"You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by."

"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand."

The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it."

"If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them — you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea."

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English — it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice." 

"An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency."

"There is only one brief, solitary law for letter-writing, and yet you either do not know that law, or else you are so stupid that you never think of it. It is very easy and simple: Write only about things and people your correspondent takes a living interest in."

"Nothing in the world affords a newspaper reporter so much satisfaction as gathering up the details of a bloody and mysterious murder, and writing them up with aggravated circumstantiality."

"Classic — a book which people praise and don't read."

Ten most popular male-female duets

Some of my favourite songs are popular duets sung by male and female vocalists. Here are ten most popular make-female duets that I have been listening to for many years. They are in no particular order because I like them all. If I have missed any obvious duos and their duets, such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, which I haven't included here, don't hesitate to belt them out. 

1. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Grace Slick and Paul Kantner 

This hit song was a part of Jefferson Starship’s album No Protection and was also the soundtrack of Mannequin starring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall. Both song and film were released in 1987. The song has a terrific beat and effective lyrics.

2. Phantom of the Opera by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford
Of all the broadway and movie versions, the 2004-film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical starring Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler is, unarguably, the best. Listen to it today, if you haven’t yet. It’s powerful and magical and, to use a cliché, it will take your breath away.

3. Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno
This love theme from Footloose by Wilson, vocalist for the Heart band, and Reno, lead singer of rock band Loverboy, starts off slowly before the tempo rises. It’s a soft number that’ll stay with you long after you listen to it. 

4. (I've had) The Time of My Life by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley
If you’ve seen Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, then you’ve heard this song. It won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. What more do you want?

5. Summer Wine by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
The world discovered Lee Hazlewood’s baritone voice in 1967, the year he and Nancy Sinatra made this song famous. I discovered Hazlewood in 2010. Along with the Wild West Summer Wine, I also recommend Some Velvet Morning, one of many popular duets they sang. 

6. Up Where We Belong by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker
When I first heard this lovely number, some years ago, I didn’t know it was from An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982. I found that out this evening! Warnes and Cocker sing this number with a lot of depth and feeling.

7. Somethin' Stupid by Nancy and Frank Sinatra
The best father-daughter duet I’ve ever heard. It sits on the famous crooner’s album The World We Knew.

8. Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
I have been hearing this original soundtrack but haven’t seen the film, namely Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love starring Brooke Shields. Billboard has labelled it the “greatest song duet of all time” – it’s really nice, but I won't say it's the greatest.

9. Beauty and the Beast by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson
Beauty and the Beast is the first of four of the greatest Disney films I’ve ever seen – the others are The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Bambi. The movie is a classic, so is this song.

 
10. You're the One That I Want by Olivia Newton and John Travolta
While this song from the 1978 musical-hit Grease is quite catchy, it faces stiff competition from the many songs in Grease 2, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield, released in 1982.

FILM REVIEW

(Return to) The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

Which is your favourite kung fu movie? No prizes for guessing which mine is. It's always been Enter the Dragon which Bruce Lee never saw in the theatre — he died three weeks before the film was premiered in 1973. His death, at 32, wasn't just premature, it was profoundly tragic. There are quite a few unforgettable moments in the film — Lee's fair play, inimitable catcalls, unblinking eyes, lightning reaction, flying kick, amazing skill with nunchakus, duel in the Hall of Mirrors, and even one liners. In one scene, as Lee prepares to fight O'Harra (Robert Wall) and avenge his sister's death, O'Harra shows off by flinging a board in the air and smashing it with his fist. A grim-faced Lee retorts, "Boards don't hit back."

 
However, this post, which is offered as a part of Tuesday's Overlooked/Forgotten Films at Todd Mason's blog, is not about Enter the Dragon or the spate of martial arts flicks that followed, most notably, Drunken Master (1978), Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979), and Snake in the Monkey's Shadow (1979). It's about two other kung fu movies, the first of which is considered the greatest martial arts film ever made — The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) and Return to the 36th Chamber (1980) — directed by Chia-Liang Liu.

Last week, I watched both these films after a gap of nearly three decades. I remember, the first time I saw it I was awestruck by The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and the gruelling training that San Te (Chia Hui Liu) goes through. He might as well be training to become a Navy SEAL.

A still from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

San Te, wounded in an uprising against the brutal Manchu government, approaches the fortress-like Shaolin Temple and begs to be trained so that he can go back and avenge the deaths of his family and friends. The temple of peace-loving Buddhist monks run by a kind abbot is initially reluctant to accept him because he doesn't belong to their fold. Later, however, he is allowed to enter the monastery and trained in its famed martial arts technique. San Te trains long and hard and often fails, only to rise and excel in each department, and quickly make his way past the other disciples to reach the 35th chamber. After completing his training, San Te goes home to help his people bring down the oppressive regime. Mission accomplished, he returns to the Shaolin Temple where he opens the 36th chamber to train ordinary people in martial arts.

If director Chia-Liang Liu romanticises The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, he lends a comic touch to Return to the 36th Chamber which is not a sequel though it might seem like one.

In this film, released in 1980, Chao Jen-Cheh (Chia Hui Liu again) is hired by poor workers to reclaim their wages from the owner of a chemical factory where they are employed but ill treated. Jen-Cheh must pretend he is a Shaolin monk and kung fu expert but his impersonation, with a dose of slapstick, is soon exposed by the boss and his thugs. Filled with remorse, the well-meaning Jen-Cheh promises the workers that he will return only after he learns kung fu at Shaolin.

As in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Jen-Cheh tries to trick his way into the temple but with little success. He pleads with the kindly abbot who sees potential in the upstart and assigns him two tasks with a purpose only the monk knows.

A scene from Return to the 36th Chamber.

First, he must wash his soot-stained face at the well. In the absence of large wooden buckets, which are taken by the official pupils, he must tie one end of a rope to his waist and the other end to a rock which he must then lift and throw into the well and quickly try and wash himself when the water splashes over. Jen-Cheh masters the art of ‘drawing water’ with a rock after dozens of failed, albeit comic, attempts. He learns his first martial arts lesson. But he doesn't know it.

The second task is what makes this film worth seeing. The abbot orders Jen-Cheh to build a bamboo scaffolding all around the interior of the temple. As the young man goes to work on the scaffolding, he watches the pupils train under him. He begins to imitate their actions with little other than his bare hands and feet and bamboos and twine. Jen-Cheh takes a year to build the scaffolding — and train himself in martial arts of the Shaolin temple. But he doesn’t know it. When the abbot sees the scaffolding, he quietly tells Jen-Cheh to pull it down. Jen-Cheh can’t believe it, but the abbot knows that the young man is ready.

Jen-Cheh then returns to his hometown and takes on the factory owner and his thugs with a superb display of martial arts tactics (the start-stop-start-stop technique of fighting associated with most kung fu movies) which he learnt from the rooftops of Shaolin Temple. He even calls it rooftop kung fu.

Chia-Liang Liu, who directed the two Shaolin films and also directed himself in Mad Monkey Kung Fu, is average with comedy. The martial arts expert who brought comic timing to, well, martial arts films is Jackie Chan who acted in popular films like Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. His brand of slapstick is permanently etched on kung fu movies.

The Rushdie-Winfrey Show

© Wikimedia Commons

Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie did not attend the Jaipur Literature Festival but his long shadow hovered over the largest literary event in Asia-Pacific on all five days. The annual festival, held at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, the capital of the northwestern state of Rajasthan (the Land of Kings) from January 20 through 24, was in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The controversial author was keen to attend the festival but backed out at the last minute because of a perceived threat to his life from the underworld and possibly Islamic radicals. The writer's decision not to attend the prestigious event came in the wake of an "advisory" from the central (federal) government which its counterpart in the state took up in earnest. It concerned a possible law-and-order situation arising out of protests that might have greeted Rushdie on arrival, possibly leading to more serious consequences for the writer.

The Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, whose party heads the coalition government in New Delhi, denied there was a conspiracy to keep the author away. His government's feeble excuse was that it hadn't written to Rushdie, one way or the other.

Yesterday, Rushdie, who has been in the eye of a literary storm since publishing The Satanic Verses—a book banned in India—twenty-four years ago, claimed that he was "lied to" on the plot to kill him, which, on the face of it, appears to have been a political ploy to appease the Muslim community and keep the vote-bank of the ruling Congress Party intact. This is not the first time.

The author of Midnight's Children, which won the Booker in 1981, showed his anger on Twitter: "I've investigated and believe that I was, indeed, lied to... Don't know who gave orders. I guess the same police who want to arrest Hari (Kunzru), Amitava (Ghosh), Jeet (Thayil) and Ruchir (Joshi). Disgusting."

The four writers, who were participating in the literature festival, were asked to leave after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses, to show their solidarity with Rushdie. Several authors at the fest have now demanded lifting the ban on the book.

The controversy over Rushdie took the spotlight away from another high-profile visitor to the Jaipur Literature Festival—Oprah Winfrey—who was on a week-long trip to India in connection with her new TV channel, Oprah Winfrey Network.

© Hindustan Times

The talk show host, who is very popular in India, spoke about her love of books and how it helped her to become one of the most influential women of our time. "Reading is what I do for pleasure, what I do to relax myself," she told the eager crowd. "My ideal day is to spend a day reading a great book, and knowing I have another one to read... At school, I turned in assignments a week early to get another book. The other kids hated me."

Winfrey has some nine million followers on Twitter but it didn't stop her from expressing concern over the damaging effects of computers and social networking on reading habits. "I feel that, because when I am on it (Twitter), I feel I could be reading a book right now."

The literature festival had its lighthearted moments too. Like, when The New Yorker editor David Remnick was about to answer a question, a cow somewhere behind him mooed, prompting the American journalist to joke, "I deserved that!" Later, he told The Times of India, "A cow behind the tent made loud noises whenever I was asked a question. I don't usually get cows — I get hecklers." He also thinks Barack Obama is the best President in his lifetime of 53 years. Find out why here.

If you want to read more about the Jaipur Literature Festival, click here.

#6 Ode to (Eternal) Peace

Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949), known as The Nightingale of India, was a well-known poet and writer and freedom fighter and social activist. She was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress.

Men say the world is full of fear and hate,
And all life's ripening harvest-fields await
The restless sickle of relentless fate.

But I, sweet Soul, rejoice that I was born,
When from the climbing terraces of corn
I watch the golden orioles of Thy morn.

What care I for the world's desire and pride,
Who know the silver wings that gleam and glide,
The homing pigeons of Thine eventide?

What care I for the world's loud weariness,
Who dream in twilight granaries Thou dost bless
With delicate sheaves of mellow silences?

Say, shall I heed dull presages of doom,
Or dread the rumoured loneliness and gloom,
The mute and mythic terror of the tomb?

For my glad heart is drunk and drenched with Thee,
O inmost wind of living ecstasy!
O intimate essence of eternity!

Book Cover: © www.penguinbooksindia.com

Rip Kirby, private detective

These are two vintage covers of Rip Kirby comic-books published under the Indrajal Comics label by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd, publishers of The Times of India. Indrajal Comics stopped publication of Remington 'Rip' Kirby and other heroes like Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur (the brave), Flash Gordon, Buz Sawyer and Garth in late 1980. Kirby, the private detective created by Alex Raymond in 1946, wasn't as popular as Phantom, Mandrake and Bahadur but he had a small band of loyal
followers like this blogger.

The bespectacled and immaculately dressed private eye was largely known for investigating high-profile cases usually involving rich women and jewel heists. He carried a pistol but mostly used his fists and there was almost no violence in his comics. Kirby, who was ably supported by his faithful, albeit disconsolate, butler Desmond, was one of the earliest modern-day sleuths.

Now if I were making a movie on Rip Kirby, who would I cast in his role? It'd be Gregory Peck or Michael Caine.

Long out of print, Indrajal Comics today have considerable value, more so Rip Kirby whose titles weren't too many.