Movie Reviewed: A Royal Scandal, starring Tallulah Bankhead

Movie Reviewed: A Royal Scandal, starring Tallulah Bankhead

The Forbidden Paradise

This is a true classic film starring Tallulah Bankhead as the Russian Empress, Catherine the Great, and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The film was based on the play “Die Zarin” (The Czarina) by Lajos Bíró and Melchior Lengyel in which the Russian empress falls in love with a young lieutenant named Alexei Chernoff, and later she appoints him as the Chief of the Imperial Guard. This film is remake of the silent movie, “Forbidden Paradise” (1924), also directed by Lubitsch, and starred Pola Negri as Catherine the Great.

Tallulah Bankhead in the leading role is simple great. Her deep voice is well suited in her seduction scenes with sixteen years younger Chernoff, played by William Eythe. Bankhead's costumes are fabulous and the jewelry exquisite. I thoroughly enjoyed this film which has that “Lubitsch touch.” In supporting roles, Charles Coburn and Anne Baxter offer splendid performances. This is a true gem and I highly recommend it.

Book Reviewed: Galileo's Middle Finger, by Alice Dreger

Book Reviewed: Galileo's Middle Finger, by Alice Dreger

The society in conflict: Handling academic freedom and political correctness

In this book, Northwestern University Professor Alice Dreger tackles an interesting topic of academic freedom and social responsibility. She discusses three cases in particular. First, the work of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon for his long-term ethnographic field work among the Yanomamö, a society of indigenous tribal Amazonians, in which he used unconventional evolutionary theory and genetics to understand social behavior, especially violence. But he was too quick to offer biological explanations for the propensity to commit violence. Critics said that they were based on some questionable sociobiological methods, and the study was not exhaustive enough to make such key conclusions.

In the case of biologist E. O. Wilson, his views on religion and society were criticized as “right-wing.” Wilson says that he is not an atheist and he believes that faith in God and rituals of religion are products of evolution. He argues that they should not be rejected or dismissed, but further investigated to understand their significance. He suggests that scientists and religious leaders have to work together to understand this evolutionary significance of faith.

The case of another Northwestern University professor, J. Michael Bailey’s work on transgendered women is subjected to wide criticism both within academia and outside. Professor Dreger discusses this case with the “middle of the road” approach in a non-biased manner respecting the academic freedom of Professor Bailey and the rights of transgendered women he interviewed for his research work. She stresses the importance of rigorous truth seeking in research but the media and the activists also struggle under dire economic and political threats to skew their opinions. In this process, the freedom of speech is hurt deeply and the research findings that are going to be unpopular will have to remain within the confines of the academic world with little use for the society. That would a perilous state to be in.

Book Reviewed: A force for good, by John G. Taft

Investment strategies that beat the market

This is a well written book with several contributing authors who are leaders in the financial world. This will inspire anyone looking to make sense of our rapidly changing world, and how to grow and even thrive through any challenge. Problems require solutions and crisis creates an atmosphere for understanding the problem. After the market collapse of 2008, the trust between the financial industry and the investor was broken. Author John Taft brings some of the best minds in the industry to present their views. This list of authors includes; Robert Shiller (Financial capitalism and innovation); Charles D. Ellis (Restoring ethical standards); Sheila Bair (Regulatory reform); John C. Bogle and Mary Schapiro (Rebuilding investor trust); Judd Gregg (Long-term fiscal imbalances); Barbara Novick (The retirement savings gap) and David Blood (Sustainable finance). The ideas explore how Wall Street can harness the creative energy that invented credit default swaps and channel it towards the public good in the form responsible corporate behavior, ethics, integrity and client focus.

In a free enterprise, the public has the capacity to reward good behaviors and punish bad. However the public has been reluctant to use the full force to rid the Wall Street of its bad actors. Fear, greed and envy will not be kept in check by more rules and regulations. Legally defined standards of care such as fiduciary standard will merely define compliance requirements for a firm to conduct business. Such rules neither restore trust in the financial services industry nor deter bad actors. John Taft suggest that the most effective way of identifying good organizations is to look at how they demonstrate their capacity for authentic leadership, stewardship and governance. There are many good ideas incorporated in this book and I found it fascinating.

Book Reviewed: Israel since six-day war, by Leslie Stein

The triumph and tragedies of the Jewish nation

For six tense days between June 5 and 10, 1967, war raged between Israel and its Islamic neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and in this book, Leslie Stein, a widely published Israeli scholar and historian has knitted the diverse strands into a cohesive fabric that remains vital and relevant today. With authority and integrity, the author manages to sketch out historical facts and motives with the same intrigue as battles and strategies that made Israel a triumphant nation, the Jewish Promised Land. This book also discusses the tragedies the nation faced with the same intensity as its victories. Israel is at the forefront of a global war with Islamic terrorism and jihad which wants to establish a global Islamic caliphate. Israel’s arch enemies are the nations of Islamic Middle East. When Islamic imperialists are inching towards globalizing Islam, it is critical that Israel must win its war with its enemies.

It is noteworthy to recall that in 1948, at Israel’s beginnings, there were only 650,000 citizens, an irregular militia with no heavy weapons or planes and an economy with next to no foreign reserves. From such a parlous state, it fought for its very survival and then went to absorb displaced Jews from Europe, Africa and elsewhere. Today, Israel stands tall with diverse population of just over eight million consisting of about six million Jews. It is a viable open democratic state based on rule of law with high standard of living, enviable scientific and cultural achievements and a first rate defense force.


Peace is elusive in the Middle East. When prominent Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iranian and Palestinian Arab journalists write books critical about their own societies and those books are published and sold freely in those societies, then we can believe that peace is on the way for Israel and its neighbors. Anyone who wants to have a grasp of Middle Eastern politics or political tensions involving Israel must read this book.

Movie Reviewed: The student prince in old Heidelberg

Movie Reviewed: The student prince in old Heidelberg

The love story of 1927

This movie reminded me of films like Love Story (1964), starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw, and Romeo and Juliet (1936), starring Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer. This film is the movie version of the original 1902 play “In old Heidelberg”; the bitter sweet romance of a Ruritanian prince and an inn keeper’s niece. Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer have offered splendid performances under the direction of highly regarded Ernst Lubitsch. When filming started, Norma Shearer had problems working with Lubitsch and bitterly complained to MGM producer Irving Thalberg who would later become her husband. The problem was that Lubitsch thought Novarro and Shearer were not the ideal players for the role, but he was working with them when MGM convinced him that they are fine for the role. Eventually peace prevailed on the set and it went on to become a huge box office success.

This is no doubt a lavish production that illustrates the exquisite direction of Ernst Lubitsch and wonderful screen writing by Hans Kraly. The 1924 operetta with the same title was highly popular which helped MGM’s strategy of producing this movie and turning into a fine romantic tragedy. I loved this movie and I am sure you will too. A must have for all silent movie buffs and the fans of Novarro and Shearer.

Movie Reviewed: Scaramouche, starring Alice Terry and Ramon Novarro

Movie Reviewed: Scaramouche, starring Alice Terry and Ramon Novarro

Gone with the wind

Days leading to the French revolution, an orphan named André-Louis Moreau (Ramon Novarro) becomes an outlaw French revolutionary. His personal story is the focus of this movie. Andre falls in love with Aline de Kercadiou (Alice Terry), but her uncle would like her to be married the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr (Lewis Stone), an older French nobleman. When de la Tour kills André's friend Philippe de Vilmorin in a duel; André wages a duel. When authorities order for Andre’s arrest just before the duel, he flees and takes the identity of Scaramouche, the clown. This is partly a love story amidst a revolution, something similar to “Gone with the wind” but with a twist. It is not so much about infidelity but love and turmoil in France.

This movie was made in 1923 just before MGM Studio was created by the merger of three studios. MGM came to acquire many things; besides the studio equipments, but also stars, directors and writers and technical personnel of the three studios. MGM also inherited from its component companies like Metro studio, some valuable properties for re-use. One of them was the splendid productions Rex Ingram made for Metro. Although the newly formed studio lost the heartthrob Rudolph Valentino to the rival Paramount Studios when MGM refused pay him $100 raise in his wages. But it avoided other such costly mistakes by keeping Rex Ingram on its payroll. MGM also immediately replaced Valentino with Ramon Novarro as the studio’s Latin lover. Under circumstances, MGM made the best decision to keep Rex Ingram as the studio’s director. Because Ingram was not only valuable money making director but also married to MGM’s leading actress Alice Terry. Terry and Novarro made five successful movies together; “Lovers,” “The Arab,” “Where the pavement ends,” and “The Prisoner of Zenda” including Scaramouche. Novarro and Terry became great friends and dated platonically despite her marriage to Ingram. Ramon Novarro was gay and they generally hung out at speakeasies that catered to gay clientele.

Scaramouche is a good movie to watch because of its historical significance, and I am sure all fans of Alice Terry and Ramon Novarro would love this film.

Movie Reviewed: The Flesh and the Devil (1933), starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

Movie Reviewed: The Flesh and the Devil (1933), starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

MGM’s 1926 romantic drama

At the end of 1926, when this movie was released, it exploded the box office records not only because of the sensational stars but also due to the dazzling love scenes of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The rumor spread from the gossip columnists that they were real life lovers. The publicity was bigger than the movie itself. Clarence Brown who became Garbo s favorite director used the sensationalist story of this movie about a woman desiring only one man (Gilbert) despite she is a married woman.

The Garbo fuse had warmed by her movie "Torrent (1926)" and then fanned by the next film "Temptress (1926)," and finally reached the might of dynamite with "Flesh and the Devil." This is a wonderful pre-code era movie with a lot of “moral” issues. Hay's office would have frowned upon this film if this was produced after the codes were in force in 1933.

Greta Garbo paying for her sins by death on a floe is a dramatic moment in this film. She will be on her way in a hurry to stop the duel between her husband (and best friend of John Gilbert) Ulrich, and Leo (John Gilbert) who still loves Garbo. While racing to stop the duel, Felicitas (Garbo) falls through a layer of thin ice and drowns. The two friends realize that that their friendship is more important than Felicitas and reconcile their differences. This movies is based on the play "The Undying Past" by Hermann Sudermann, and in 2006, Flesh and the Devil was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Movie Reviewed: The Cat and the Fiddle (1933), starring Ramon Novarro and Jeanette MacDonald

Movie Reviewed: The Cat and the Fiddle (1933), starring Ramon Novarro and Jeanette MacDonald

A star is born at MGM

Jeanette MacDonald shines like a bright Northern star in this 1933 MGM classic also starring Ramon Novarro. Novarro was a matinee idol at MGM during the silent era; in 1922, after filming "The Prisoner of Zenda," MGM executives brought him into their studio as the Latin lover after the sudden and unexpected demise of Rudolph Valentino. Novarro had only two years in his contact with MGM when he did "The Cat and the Fiddle." Novarro offers a brilliant performance as Victor Florescu, a talented, Brussels-based composer of serious music under the tutelage of respected Professor Bertier. When he meets beautiful Shirley Sheridan (MacDonald), a New Yorker living in Brussels as a professional Opera singer, the two bohemians fall in love. The story is a musical comedy and the songs from the Kern-Harbaugh stage musical comedy is used largely intact. Jeanette MacDonald's "The Night Was Made for Love" later became a big hit. This pre-code film is not without controversy with regards to the moral codes, since MacDonald and Navarro are portrayed as live-in companions.

Many movie critics and fans were used to Novarro in silent movies and they were less enthusiastic about his talkie movies. In fact some of the greatest silent stars of MGM had difficulty making success when talkies came along. I for one enjoyed this romantic comedy tremendously. I thought MacDonald and Novarro made lovely couple and the story is full of warmth.

Book Reviewed: Fortune's Fool: The Biography Of John Wilkes Booth, by Terry Alford

Book Reviewed: Fortune's Fool: The Biography Of John Wilkes Booth, by Terry Alford

The Assassin

For 12 days in April 1865, when President Lincoln was assassinated, the nation was in a state of deep mourning. Thousands of federal troops, detectives, and police scoured the country in search of the assassin who shot President Abraham Lincoln. The assassins, John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirator David Herold go on the run through the Maryland countryside, across the Potomac River, and finally into northern Virginia.

In this book, author Terry Alford analyzes the troubled life of John Wilkes Booth responsible for the assassination of President Lincoln. Several authors have looked at the life of Booth, but Terry Alford says that few people close to Booth believed that he was not capable of committing such a crime. History has shown that Booth was a strong supporter of Confederate Army, and at the closing of the war in the spring of 1865, Booth considered his last option to assassinate the President to revive the conflict, by causing a state of panic and confusion in the country. Booth and his friends originally plotted to kidnap President Lincoln, but later abandoned that plan and planned to shoot him inside the Ford Theater, Washington D.C. John Wilkes Booth was a popular actor in his days and performed at the Ford's Theatre regularly, He was well known to its owner, John T. Ford, and he had given Booth free access to all parts of the theater.

John Wilkes Booth was not only a supporter of the Confederates but also strongly opposed to the abolitionists of the day. He even joined the Richmond Grays militia who had sent 1500 men to Harpers Ferry, WV to guard against any attempt to rescue John Brown from the gallows by his fellow abolitionists. Booth was wearing his militia uniform and standing near the scaffold as a key member of the militia.

Robert Redford revisited and reevaluated the historical facts about the life of John Wilkes Booth and produced the movie "The Conspirator" in 2010, starring Toby Kebbell as Booth. Redford's version of story has some differences with the story of Terry Alford. In 2008, the History channel tells the compelling story of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth based on the book by Michael Kauffman's "American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies."

Book reviewed: The Tyranny of the Meritocracy: Democratizing Higher Education in America, by Lani Guinier

Book reviewed: The Tyranny of the Meritocracy: Democratizing Higher Education in America, by Lani Guinier

The transformation of higher education in America (four stars)
In this book, Harvard University Law Professor Lani Guinier presents a simple argument in favor of collaborative models that strengthen higher educational systems. She calls for overhaul of the standards of merit based admission policies adapted by colleges and universities. The merit systems dictate the admissions practices that favor the select few; mainly the economically privileged, leaving behind the underprivileged families. The testocracy is a standardized quantifiable merit that values perfect scores but ignores character, says the author. In her law class, Professor Guinier gives the option of writing an exam in a group two or three. The upside of this task is that it tests one’s ability to implement ideas and commit to communicating one’s perspectives in a problem solving exercise.

She offers many examples of new collaborative initiatives that prepare students for engaged citizenship in our increasingly multicultural society. In the inner city neighborhoods of Chicago, residents participated at the community meetings because they saw that their participation made better schools and safer neighborhoods. The city also developed a curriculum for them to learn problem solving and collaboration skills; Archon Fung’s work in Chicago with police, community leaders, schools and city officials is a positive example. Several other examples include; Rail side and other public urban schools in San Francisco, Seattle and New York.

Lani Guinier is well known as President Bill Clinton's nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 1993, but later he withdrew his nomination, following a wave of negative press which distorted political and academic views of Professor Guinier. This work is certainly worth reading since it examines the responsibility of higher educational institutions in creating learning communities for tomorrow’s leaders.