Movie Time: Female

My movie posts for November are focusing on films featuring female women of the opposite sex.

Today we're going back 93 years for today's movie!

The TARDIS takes us back to November 11, 1933.

And it's Movie Time! 

Female is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz who was a very prolific and talented director from the pre-Code era.

The film stars Ruth Chatterton and George Brent. 

I'll leave it to you to guess who has the lead role.   

Say hello to Alison Drake, the wealthy owner of a large automobile company she inherited from her father.

Allison is determined to be taken seriously.  She approaches her role as the car company's chief executive with a hard-driving, no-nonsense sensibility.

But it's not all work and no play for Allison Drake. She engages in a series of casual affairs with several men, including from among her own employees.   

Here's her standard playbook:

• Man enters her office with an idea about something.
• Allison professes to be too busy right now (she is working the phones really hard doing executive stuff) but...
• Invites man to her house for dinner and they can discuss it then.
• Man shows up at her house, Allison's in her sexiest negligee and... It. Is. On.  

If the man gets too serious about his "relationship", he's in for a bonus, a promotion and a transfer to another location.

If this sounds a bit shady, male executives have been pulling this shit on women employees for years.

Can Allison get away with this sort of thing because she's...  Female?  (Hey, that's the name of the movie!) 

Then Allison meets her match.

Escaping the burdens of being an executive and the trappings of wealth, Allison goes slumming it at an amusement park where she picks up a man at a shooting gallery.

They have fun together but refuses her entreaties to return home with her.

But what about the sexiest negligee? And... It. Will. Be. On? C'mon, dude! 

They meet again, the next day at her factory.

The guy is Jim Thorne, a gifted engineer Allison ordered her underlings to hire away from her competition. 

• Jim has some really cool plans for the company.
• Allison professes to be too busy right now but...
• Invites Jim to her house for dinner and they can discuss it then.
• Man shows up at her house, Allison's in her sexiest negligee and... It. Is...    
• NOT On? 

What the hell, dude! 

Allison is all, "Really.... want... to... get.... laid!"

And Jim's all proper and professional and some other 3rd thing and...

But Allison is all...

But it ain't happening, girl.  

So Allison tries a different tactic and tricks Jim into a picnic...

A picnic? Really? Eating outside on the ground with all the heat, humidity, dirt, pollen, bugs? A picnic?

Really?

Well, really and it works! 

Jim is all, "Well, fine! I guess I will have all the sex now."

Allison is happy! 

The next day, Jim shows up at the office with a marriage license.

Allison is NOT happy! 

Marriage license? Well, that's going TOO far!  That's a shame because Allison kind of really liked Jim but it's time for Allison's patented bonus/promote/transfer hoo-doo and...

Jim QUITS?

OK, that's NOT how this is supposed to work.

Also not working like it's supposed to is Allison's car company. Another company is working on an hostile takeover but Allison has an appointment with bankers in New York City to get the financing she needs to save the company and...

SHE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT JIM!!!

Tough, stern, cold executive Allison Drakes melts into a hormonal puddle of blubbering goo! And right in front of all the MEN on her company's board of directors. 

What the unholy fuck is happening to this movie?!?

Instead of playing beat the clock to get to NYC to save her company, she frantically chases down leads where she can find Jim.

She finds him at an amusement park at a shooting gallery where she passionately pleads that she will agree to legally sanction the hetero normative sexual intercourse and get married. 

Jim realizes they still have time to fly to New York City and save the company.  Allison's all fine, let's do that but decides Jim is going to run the damn thing and she's gonna stay home and pop out nine babies! 

NINE?!? Damn girl! That is a LOT of legally sanctioned hetero normative sexual intercourse!

And we've reached the end and I'll say it again:

What the unholy fuck happened to this movie?!?

Female went through three directors:  

• William Dieterle began work on the film but got sick so...
• William Wellman took over but studio head Jack L. Warner didn't like what he was seeing and wanted the film re-shot.
• So now Michael Curtiz was on board for the re-shoots and wound up with sole on screen credit.    

Despite the rotating directors, Female was able to turn a profit for Warner Bros. 

While movies made before the Hayes office production code could get away with a lot of things (like having a sexually active unmarried female as the lead character), studios still had to contend with a multitude of local movie review boards. Which may explain the abrupt shift in Allison Drake from tough as nails corporate executive with an active sex life to "please put NINE babies in me" in order to find happiness and fulfillment. 

Or it's just because a bunch of men were in charge? 

For whatever the reason, Female is an odd duck of a movie with a woman trying to conduct her business and her life like any male but is brought low by the inescapable reality that she is female and needs to make babies. 

That whirring sound is Gloria Steinem spinning in her grave. 

I will say that here in 2026, the white Christian nationalist movement would see this movie as a feel good experience and cheer Allison's "redemption" to seek prolific motherhood.

NINE babies? Really?!?! 

Your Friday Video Link: This (Non) Sporting Life - Corgi & Pigeon Edition

Last Sunday, Andrea and I were visiting her dad and we watched the Carolina Panthers take on the Denver Broncos.

From that football game, Your Friday Video Link#1 this week is 41 seconds of Corgi Madness!

The Panthers should sign up that Corgi! They need all the help they can get.  Taking the "L" against the Broncs, the Cats are now 3 - 5 on the season.

More sportsball! More animals! 

Your Friday Video Link#2 turns to college basketball with Virginia vs  Arkansas.... vs. Pigeons!

That is that for today's post. Until next time, remember to be good to one another and be kind to critters. 

Comic Book Retro Spotlight: The Vision in Avengers#194

While Andrea and I are watching VisionQuest over on Disney+, I thought I might take a look back at my first encounters with the Vision in Marvel Comics.

For most of Dave-El's kidhood, I was a DC Comics fan. But the DC Implosion of 1978 left me with more comic book coin than actual DC comic books to buy.

So I began sampling comics from Marvel. 

Below is my first issue of Avengers, issue#183 from February 1979 which would've been my first exposure to the character known as the Vision.  

But the focus of my post today is Avengers#194 by David Michelinie, George Perez and Joe Rubinstein from January 1980.   

What makes this issue so unique is that absolutely nothing happens.

I mean, nothing in the sense that there's a villain who poses a threat and the heroes have to fight the villain and stop the threat yadda yadda yadda.

This issue is what the title of the story suggests: an interlude between crises as the heroes who make up the assembled Avengers deal with life and stuff.

And nowhere is that introspection more deeply explored than with the Vision.  

What follows is an exploration of the Vision's vast and varied powers as well as an introspection on the meaning of life, identity and the concept of the self.

George Perez does such a great job delineating this sequence and Joe Rubinstein's inks are a perfect match for George's pencils.

Jocasta is part of the cast for VisionQuest and she was part of the narrative in the Avengers back in 1980 as well.  

It was about this time that my foray into Marvel began to wane as DC was beginning to recover from the desolation brought on by the DC Implosion. 

George Perez himself would be moving over the DC in a few months to draw Teen Titans and Justice League of America. 

Also I was now a somewhat older teenage Dave-El approaching high school graduation and with other things to spend my money on besides comics.  

The season finale for VisionQuest dropped yesterday but Andrea and I are about a couple of episodes behind right now. 

My write up on that will be in a few weeks in a Tuesday TV Touchbase.  

BLOG REDUX: "Oh My God, There’s Nothing There"

In the wake of last week's "blue wave" of Democratic victories in the 2026 midterm elections, one question that comes up a lot is what will the Democrats do with their new found power when they take office come January.

One idea is to investigate the hell out of all the shit Trump and his cronies have been up to.

And there is SO much shit to investigate! 

But we have been here before.  

Back on November 29, 2019, I wrote a post about reactions to how a Democrat led Congress was investigating Donald Trump.

One one hand, the Democrats found so much evidence of so much questionable shit that Trump was up to.

On the other hand, despite the overwhelming evidence of Trump's lack of ethics, there was the response, "Oh my God! There's nothing there!" 

Let's go back in time in the wayback machine to 2019 and take a look.

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"Oh My God, There’s Nothing There"

Friday, November 29, 2019

In article on POLITICO.com, writer Michael Kruse recounted a town hall held November 25^th in Whippany, N.J. with U.S. house Representative Mikie Sherrill.

The first question was from a woman about impeachment.

“We sent you to Washington to get work done, for us and for our country, and it appears that for the last couple years all that has been going on is investigations. We honestly, can’t trust Adam Schiff …”

“Do you have a question?” a man yelled.

“Sit down!” another shouted.

Rep. Sherrill admonished the crowd, “Excuse me! We agreed to be respectful!”

Then Rep. Sherrill answered the question that was not quite a question. 

“So, as most of you know here, I did not run for office to impeach the president. I ran on taxes and health care and infrastructure. However, as somebody who spent her life working on issues of national security, as someone who spent her life working with foreign governments and our allies across the world, the president crossed a line for me when it seemed as if he had withheld critical military funding from a security partner because he wanted them to investigate an opponent of his in an election.”

The response to her comments was a chorus of cheers and boos.

After the town hall, a Republican named Ruth Anne, thought Rep, Sherrill’s answer was “very disturbing,” adding “I thought, by now, after the two weeks of hearings, she would have seen, ‘Oh, my God, there’s nothing there.’”

And I might respond to Ruth Anne if I could, “And I thought, by now, after the two weeks of hearings, you would have seen, ‘Oh, my God, Donald Trump has so much to answer for.’”

How did we get here?

It’s like we’re a group of travelers meeting up in Oklahoma City and we all agree we’re going to follow Interstate 40 to the west coast. Then half of us wind up Barstow, CA and the other half winds up in Wilmington NC. And both sides insist they are right.   

Over the course of two weeks of hearings, we were all on the same damn road and wound up in two different destinations.

Are the facts of the matter that much open to interpretation?

To the woman who opened the town hall by says, “We honestly, can’t trust Adam Schiff”, who pray tell exactly is “we”?  It’s not everybody in attendance. There are people there telling you to shut up. And on what basis do you infer your lack of trust in Adam Schiff?  

To Ruth Anne, exactly how closely were you paying attention to “the two weeks of hearings”? What is your evidentiary basis for saying Oh, my God, there’s nothing there.’”?

I think the opinions of these women owes less to their own examination of the facts before them and more to the what they are told to believe. Trump and his sycophants tell them that Adam Schiff cannot be trusted. Li’l Donnie and his loyal Fox New lap dogs instruct them that “there’s nothing there.’”

We’re not just up against Donald Trump’s abuse of power. We’re also up against a concerted effort to defend him at all costs, facts be damned.

When two weeks of hearings produce copious amounts of support that Donald Trump abused and misused the power of his office, the real damage to America reveals itself in women like Ruth Anne who cannot or will not accept the proof before her eyes and will insist, “Oh, my God, there’s nothing there.’”

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Law & Order And Other Stuff

Ever since the O.G. Law & Order was revived a few years ago, my DVR dutifully records every new episode.

I do not watch every episode.

The relaunch of the original series was so badly handled, it put me off following the show on the regular. MAGA centric Det. Frank Cosgrove turned me against the show. 

The only reason I did not give up on the show entirely was due to Reid Scott as Detective Vincent Riley who replaced Cosgrove on the series.  

After the thick headed bully Cosgrove, Riley was a relative breath of fresh air. Yeah, he was an old school cop and an old school family man but he was capable of nuanced thinking and a level of compassion that eluded his dumb as a brick predecessor.

So when I heard Reid Scott was leaving Law & Order, I thought I would check out his last episode.

I thought we would get an episode of Riley, his partner Theo Walker and his boss Lieutenant Jessica Brady (the still magnificent Maura Tierney) working one last case with the episode ending with Riley making some life changing decision and leaving the NYPD's 27th Precinct one last...

JESUS CHRIST! Riley got SHOT?!?! Before the opening credits?!?!  What the hell, man?!?!

The poor bastard got shot trying to stop a plot to murder ADA Nolan Price.  

Vincent Riley is not the first detective on L&O to be shot and killed in the line of duty.  Phil Cerreta (played by Paul Sorvino) was shot dead in season 3 in way back in 1993. 

I'm not sure about the new guy, Det. Rob Calvino, played by James Badge Dale.  He's another old school cop with a sort of Joe Friday from Dragnet "just the facts" vibe going on but at least he's no Frank Cosgrove so that's a plus.  

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Other Stuff!

Andrea and I have made it to season 4 of Leverage.

We still haven't finished season 3 of Phineas & Ferb.

VisionQuest continues to be a wild existential ride. 

We're still getting the new season 9 episodes from Canada of Hudson & Rex.  Sarah is still keeping Charlie at a distance. She's using her position as superintendent of the Major Crimes Unit and Charlie's boss to avoid dealing with that emotional landmine field. 

I've got 3 episodes to go to finally finish season 2 of Batman: Caped Crusader. Andrea and I have NO social life. Why is it so hard to find time to fit this in our TV viewing schedule?

I'm recording Saturday Night Live so Andrea and I can watch the cold open and then fast forward to Weekend Update so Andrea can see her boyfriend Colin Jost.

We've had to admit that we can't stay up that late and this show is not made for us.  This week was hosted by some digital content creator named Druski.  Who the hell is Druski?!?!

The cold open this week was another James Austin Johnson's Donald Trump freezes a sketch to monologue about...  New Girl? Huh?

But the interruption gets interrupted.

Time to get your TALAFREAK ON, BABY! 

It's Texas Senator elect James Talafrico!

Next week, John Mulaney is back to host SNL so Andrea and I might watch all of that one.

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That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase:

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Midterm Madness Aftermath

CAUTION: Today's political post goes on a bit. Sorry but I had a lot of ground to cover. And even with all that is to come, I didn't cover everything.

On with the political purgatory.

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In last week's Midterm Madness post, I wrote:

Feeling assured America wasn't so STUPID to vote for a man so obviously STUPID...

in 2016, "America made me lie to my mother."

in 2024, "America made me lie to my wife."

As we sit here a day away from election day 2026, I wish I could assure myself that America isn't so STUPID to keeping voting for men and women who blindly support a man so obviously STUPID.

I'm afraid America might make me lie to myself. 

So Tuesday came and went and I was impressed.

America did not make a liar of li'l old me. 

It was a massive repudiation of the political right's obsessive cult of personality and the politics of hatred, cruelty, greed and corruption. 

In race after race, the better person won. 

In Texas, it was James Talarico over Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate. The GOP case against Talarico was he didn't like meat and may be low on testosterone? Paxton was a shallow man mired in corruption with only the endorsement of Donald Trump behind him.  

In Ohio, Amy Acton defeated Vivek Ramaswamy to become the state's first female governor.  Wow! It seems weaponizing a woman's childhood trauma as a sex abuse survivor was not quite the winning strategy Ramaswamy though it was going to be.  

AN "I THINK THIS IS COOL" FACT: When Vivek Ramaswamy called Amy Acton to make his concession call, she let it go to voice mail. Damn right! Let that asshole fuck right off! 

Right here in North Carolina, Roy Cooper annihilated GOP hired gun Michael Whatley.  Whatley told an interviewer he was running for Senate because Donald Trump asked him to. Guess what quote made it into a Roy Cooper ad?

Hey, Roy Cooper may have the friendly serene demeanor of Mister Rogers but our boy don't fuck around. 

Locally, there is a Congressional race that it still too close to call between Democrat Chuck Hubbard and Republican Virginia Foxx.  Hubbard at last report is holding a 99 point lead over the woman known as "Satan's mee maw".  

Foxx who normally coasts to her regularly scheduled election wins put up a shit ton of ads this year, promoting her grass roots origin as regular folks against a liberal Hubbard who doesn't understand you.  I saw no ads for Hubbard because I guess poor Chuck did not have access to Elon Musk money.

FUN FACT: Elon Musk spent nearly half a billion dollars on pushing Republican candidates and got fuck all for his investment. Maybe Musk isn't really a genius? 

SIDE NOTE: Elon's Tesla announced it will stop making Cybertrucks. Good! Their ugly and stupid, much like Elon! Who is most assuredly not a genius! 

For the North Carolina state legislature, the midterm election results marked a seismic shift.

The state house flipped to Democratic control for the first time in 16 years.  Republicans still have control of the state senate but by a reduced number.

And this is in a state with a electoral map gerrymandered into twisted pretzels designed to maintain Republican control of the North Carolina legislature.  

What we saw here in North Carolina and across the country was a something we thought might be long dead: the voice of the people actually fucking matters! 

Political trickery and chicanery? Fuck you! We can still vote! 

Billions of dollars to tell us the billionaires pissing on us is rain? Hell no! We can see you! We can smell you!  We didn't like it and we fucking told you so! 

What pray tell is behind this massive wave of discontent against the Republican Party?  

• The blind deference to the rich?
• The indifferent cruelty?  
• The complete disregard for the working class?
• The absolute disrespect?  
• The complete and total loyalty to a constituent of one?

The path of the Republicans' defeat on Tuesday leads to one man, the one man that candidates for elected office pledged their loyalty and support over the needs of the voters.

That one man who we all know as...

SAY IT WITH ME! 

A  lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit!

Say AMEN, my brothers and sisters! AMEN!  

Hey, speaking of der Führer, how did he take the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections?  

Li'l Donnie was strangely... calm.

No standard issue Trumpian temper tantrums.  

He was weirdly subdued as he focused on his most important issue, his goddam fucking ballroom.

Then....

Li'l Donnie fired Susie Wiles and promoted Stephen Miller to take over as White House Chief of Staff.

Stephen Miller seen here.... oops! I did it again! That's Nosferatu. Man, I'm always making that mistake.

Remember, Dave-El! One of them is a soulless bloodsucking evil freak. The other is Nosferatu.

Anyway...

Stephen Miller seen here wondering what time is the next cross burning is the primary architect behind Trump's most cruel immigration policies.

INEXPLICABLE FACT:  Latinos in Texas switched over in droves to support Donald Trump in 2024.

Republicans gerrymandered their districts in Texas to take advantage of this demographic shift to vote for Republican candidates in 2026.

FUN FACT: Latinos REALLY regret voting for Trump in 2024 due to his excessively cruel anti immigration policies (that quite frankly they should've seen coming) and switched over in droves to vote for Democrats in the 2026 mid terms. 

So follow this: an entire demographic that voted for Trump in 2024 switched over to the Democrats in 2026 in response to Trump's policies which were avidly encouraged by Stephen Miller. 

Miller contributes to the reason why Texas turned blue and Trump decides to promote this guy? 

The role of the White House Chief of Staff is to serve as a bridge between the President and Congress, to help negotiate for Congress to pass legislation in support of the President's agenda.

Negotiate? With Congress? Fuck that! Who needs that when Li'l Donnie Trump uses executive orders like a cudgel?

Who expects negotiation from a man whose world view is this: “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power."

Stephen Miller seen here watching an orphanage burn down is not expected to actually do the job of Chief of Staff.  Trump said of Miller "He gets it. He's a fighter."  With a Democratic controlled Congress coming in, Miller is a signal that der Führer does not give a fuck about so many things, including the will of the American people that voted in this Congress.

Miller as Chief of Staff is just another bully in a cabal of bullies run by the Bully in Chief.  

So where are we?

Well, congratulations to the American people for NOT being so STUPID to once again vote for men and women who blindly support a man so obviously STUPID.

Congratulations to the Democrats who fielded candidates of compassion, wisdom, intelligence and competence against a cadre of opponents who were none of those things.

But....

In the aftermath of the midterm election, the White House communications team put out this image.

Sadly, this lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit is still with us.

And he has no fucking intention of calmly accepting the will of the American people. 

Last week, the American people won a fight.

The war is still ahead of us.

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Travels By Toy Car 3

I'm still captivated by Cassie Aran and Lauren Lee and their world record seeking longest journey by toy car.

The goal continues to be to get to Niagara Falls but our toy car travelling gals have to still extricate themselves from New Jersey.

Navigating urban terrain can be quite a challenge with sidewalks blocked by random poles, fire hydrants and construction barricades. 

And there are equipment issues. Last week one of the cars broke some crucial support thingies underneath and needed to be welded back into place. 

Hooray for Dan the Welder Man!

The duo is now a trio with Jaden following on a support tricycle, ostensibly to carry extra batteries for the toy cars.

Except...

Except the ordered extra batteries have not arrived as of day 22 (Saturday) which delays making the big push on from New York City to Niagara Falls.  With longer stretches of less populated trails between the Big Apple and the Falls, having more batteries is essential for completing that part of the trip.  

Day 22 was a challenging day for our intrepid travelers.  Lots of obstructions, turning around to double back on the route, Lauren's car stops working for... some reason and then starts working again... for some reason? 

Just near the end of the day's journey with their Airbnb within sight, they're confronted by what may be an impassable obstacle.

And jeez! The cops show up?

Okay, I know the police may not have a good rep with some of you out there but damn, they do the toy car a gang a real solid by closing a bridge to traffic so they can zip across and make it to their shelter for the night.  

Their problems with sidewalk obstructions highlight ongoing problems for disabled people trying to frickin' get somewhere by wheelchair.  

I'm really pulling for this team to complete their mission and make it to Niagara Falls. But it is still so far away and at 2 or 3 miles a day, I don't see them getting there within the next month as planned.

But I'm guessing once they've navigated past the urban hellscape of the construction cluttered sidewalks of Jersey and NYC, maybe they can make better time each day.

The logistics of this enterprise are a nightmare and I would've given up by now. Thankfully, Cassie and Lauren have more fortitude than I.  

And remember they are not just doing this to enter the Guinness World Record books. They are also raising money for  the charity To Write Love on Her Arms to support mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Stay true to the journey and the mission, Cassie and Lauren.

And welcome to the team, Jaden.