Miscellaneous

By Bill Altreuter

 There are some actors that there just isn't enough of. Last night I watched a movie with two of them. Moved by Dianna Rigg's death I wanted to watch an episode of The Avengers, but Amazon Prime, where the show can be found, told me that they are "Not Available At This Time", so I watched The Hospital instead. I am fond of The Hospital which also stars George C. Scott. There's a lot that dates it (the exoticization of Native Americans is troubling, e.g.) but the main thing that is wrong with it is also it's greatest strength: it was written by Paddy Chayefsky. (In fact, he won one of his three Academy Awards for the screenplay.) What this means is that every few minutes everything stops while one of the main characters delivers a scenery chewing monologue. In fairness, they are damn good scenery chewing monologues, and if you are going to have a movie constructed around such it's a fine thing to have George C. Scott and Dianna Rigg delivering them. Damn, they were great. 

One further thought on Dame Rigg: everyone all over the internet was writing about how sexy she was, which is true, and how they had huge crushes on her, which I certainly did, but I haven't really seen anyone talk about why she was sexy. She was the model of a self-assured, intelligent person is why.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on September 11, 2020 (boomark / email).