Herman Bricks

Ruth Hussey (born in Rhode Island) next: a good choice to play a dishonest lawyer

Any Helen Merrill fans out there? I've listened to her first album, Helen Merrill (1954) a lot recently, it's now one of my favorites. Great band (led by Clifford Brown), great production. Very pure singing. As prolific as she was, IMHO she never matched this.

George Sanders next: born in South America

I'M NO ANGEL (1933) next: one of your father's favorite movies

Merle Oberon next: born in Germany

hint: it was on TCM this week

THE SUN ALSO RISES (1957) Next: a barrel, or barrels

Sam Levene next: played a lot of showgirls

Perhaps the most traumatic movies I saw in my monster-loving childhood were NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) saw it about age 10, drive-in double or triple bill. It was the most realistic horror I had ever seen at that point. The plot aspect of the zombies possibly being our deceased friends or loved ones worked effectively on my little mind. I remember looking at my mom and 13 year old brother in the car and thinking, wow I won't turn my back on these guys again. I have only seen it a couple times since, it's still hard for me to watch because of these memories. At about the same age I saw THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) on TV a few times and it filled me with dread. "Morgan...we're coming to get you Morgan..." Like NOTLD, very realistic for me at the time. Vincent Price's wife becoming a victim of the vampiric plague, again the idea of a loved one becoming a monster was very unsettling and traumatic. The scenes with the dog...OMG so dreadful and depressing. I still don't ever want to see it again.

Dramatic: Carl Weathers next: played a lot of cops

LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) next: hot buttered rum

THE BLACK CAT (1941) next: far-fetched

MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938) next: roasted meat

Franchot Tone, who in 1951 was beaten comatose by Tom Neal in a fight over the affections of Barbara Payton. "Franchot, in grave condition, was rushed to the nearby California Lutheran Hospital. Reporters who caught wind of the beating and hurried to the hospital waiting room were told that there was concern about blood clots and strokes and that this was essentially a “death watch.”The beating left Franchot with a shattered cheekbone, fractured upper jaw, broken nose, and concussion. His face was so damaged that the doctors performed emergency plastic surgery and warned that his face might never look exactly the same as the public remembered. Immediately following the fight, Barbara stated to the press that she planned to marry Franchot and called Tom a “vicious man.” https://franchottone.blogspot.com/2017/02/payton-tone-altercation.html next: someone who could chew up scenery

JAWS (1975) Gordon's Gin

Lee J. Cobb next: flamboyant

More celebrities (almost classic era) that I recall serving at The Russian Tea Room... A few that I annoyed: Jennifer Grey came in on a date with Johnny Depp about 1990. Every food course or beverage she ordered was very minimal. A waiter's job is to upsell, which I tried to do but she rebuffed me every time, gradually becoming increasingly curt with me as the meal progressed. Johnny Depp seemed to be amused by this, but did not comment. When I tried to hand them the dessert menus, Ms. Grey told me (paraphrasing) "no, no we don't want dessert, like I didn't want soup, like I didn't want another glass of Champagne..." In a slow flat monotone, I said something like, "Strawberries Romanoff are refreshing and light..." Jennifer Grey: "Just two double espressos!" As I walked away from their table I heard her imitating me, speaking to Johnny Depp (she affected a deep monotonous voice): "Strawberries Romanoff yecch yecch blah blah blah". From that point on, I pretty much shut up. Johnny Depp continued to look amused, he was pretty cool. Don Johnson came in for lunch in the late 80's or early 90's. He arrived first, and I recall I had to remove place settings from the table, or add place settings. Or some task that caused us to be close up for a minute or so. At first he was smiling, eye contact, cordial, how are you, etc etc. I asked him how he was doing, etc. etc. He had a movie out at that time (I wish I could remember which one but I can't, I did not know if it was flopping) and I asked , "How's the new movie, Mr. Johnson?" His smile turned to an severely annoyed look... 'Just get me a Diet Coke." Arnold Shwarzenngger (spelled incorrectly, who cares) came to the restaurant a number of times and each time left his mark, with some bad interaction with staff or with another customer. In my case, I was serving his group dinner and there was heavy business discussion going on. At one point I was refilling wine glasses at his table. So I hold the bottle over each guest's wine glass and each guest nods or shakes their head or in some way tells you non-verbally what to do. Schwarzenwhatever actually shoved my arm away to prevent me from pouring wine. Some that I did not annoy: Sigourney Weaver had lunch one day with mega-agent Sam Cohn. Ms. Weaver wore an awesome-looking white dress. When she sat at the table the front part of the dress bunched forward and exposed a lot of her...... self (I could look right down to her belly button). During the lunch I had to prepare a dish at the table for Ms. Weaver... Rather than cover herself up, she looked me in the eye and chatted while I was rolling her blini, or whatever I was doing. Very a propos by her, I thought at the time. Smart lady. E.G. Marshall, I recall serving lunch one day. I happen to speak with a slight Brooklyn/NY accent. Mr. Marshall, as lunch is concluding asks me if I was from Minnesota (he liked my accent). It was a good joke, my accent is a anything but Minnesotan.

Lucile Watson next: scene stealer

THE THREE AMIGOS (1986) next: Bushmill's Irish Whisky

unnamed giant octopus, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA next: smaller ringlets

Fair take Tom. Naish's makeup was subtle I guess. Not as extreme as Acquanetta's in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN. Too bad these films were from different studios. Acquanetta and Naish would have been very cute as a couple.

SEX IN THE CITY (TV), Kim Catrall's Mimosa can be seen at 0:00:12 next: a barrel of Malmsey

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) next: shallowness

Tom, I love SAHARA. For me the most enduring take-aways are the sympathetic portrayals of Naish as the Italian prisoner, Rex Ingram as the Sudanese soldier, and Louis Mercier as the Free French fighter. The scene between Bruce Bennett and Rex Ingram, where they clearly accept each other as equals, was quite progressive in its time. I wonder how it was received by the critics and public.

While pondering how about a great song about summer...