Small blessings

There's almost nothing in the national news that isn't totally depressing. Most of the time, another economic measurement is reflecting a state of collapse. And if there's no horrible economic news, some Republican (or group of them) is saying or doing something so outrageous that I have to go out in my car and yell cusswords. And if it's not the economy or the Republicans, it's some Democrat behaving so badly he or she seems to be trying out for a position in the Republican Party.

In the face of all this bad news, I'm finding little rays of sunshine peeking through the dark clouds. This is the month that Turner Classic Movies calls its "31 Days of Oscar." Every day they feature a schedule of movies that were nominated for Academy Awards. Maybe the nomination was for Best Picture, and maybe it was only for Best Screenplay or Best Editing, but it's still an Oscar nominee. As a result, they're showing lots of movies I've heard about but never seen and I'm finally watching some of them. Thank you, Ted Turner, for creating this channel.

Last night I saw The Life of Emile Zola, released in 1937 and starring Paul Muni. I was slightly familiar with Zola from the Classics Illustrated comic book version of his novel The Downfall, about the Franco-Prussian War. It was a treasured item in my comics collection back in the 1950s. The second part of the movie dramatizes Zola's involvement in the so-called Dreyfus Affair, a real blemish in the pages of French history. Anyway, I was captivated by the story. The Life of Emile Zola is highly recommended.

Tonight's cinematic treat was Pygmalion, released in 1938 and based on a play by George Bernard Shaw. Many people my age are aware that Shaw's play was the basis for the musical My Fair Lady. Having now seen both, I'll admit I prefer the 1938 version. Leslie Howard plays Henry Higgins, a man whose attitude about life resembles my own in some ways. Wendy Hiller, an actress whose work I first discovered when she was well into middle age, plays Eliza Doolittle, and she's excellent in the part.

At any rate, anyone who likes old movies could do worse than seeing The Life of Emile Zola and Pygmalion as a DVD double feature. And thank you, TCM, for giving me a chance to take my mind off reality for a few hours.