the week away

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Films I’ve seen recently: The Departed was gripping, well acted, but full of holes. All the Children, a Chinese movie, had wonderful performances and a very affecting story, but was nevertheless crude. Life With Father, from 1947, was silly in some places—and Father himself close to being obnoxious. Why wasn’t Myrna Loy in the Irene Dunne role, alongside Wm Powell? So people would see that it wasn’t a Thin Man movie?

Donald Ogden Stewart wrote the screenplay for Life With Father—a well-known writer. His son worked with me at a Ginzburg magazine years ago. Sunny disposition; not competitive, the way we other young men were. But he took a long time deciding which word to use in a “service” article; someone predicted that he wouldn’t last long, and he didn’t.

Arizona: Oh, a week of warm weather in the midst of a NJ winter is so agreeable! Singers from the Santa Fe Opera Company were surprisingly good, especially the dazzling soprano; the Rembrandt exhibit at the Phoenix Museum had few Rembrandts.