GIVING THANKS

I stayed up late last night to watch one of those old black and white movies on TCM--Dark Passage, starring Bogie and Bacall--and I’ve got to say that this flick has the most implausible, crazily impossible plot that I’ve ever witnessed. And, of course, I couldn’t push myself away from the TV set and just go on to bed. No, I had to keep wasting my time and watching because the coincidences are so ridiculous.

Bogie, wrongly accused of murdering his wife, busts out of San Quentin, and just happens to be picked up by a rich artsy chick, Bacall, who thinks he’s innocent because her father died in prison, victim of a similar bum rap. Later that night, Bogie is next picked up by the kindest taxi driver in San Francisco who is tight with a plastic surgeon type who will transform the escapee’s face at 3 AM--for two hundred dollars. I’m not going to explain anymore of the plot because, for once, I’m wordless. Let’s just say it involves blackmail and a few more deaths, accidental and otherwise.

Anyway, the totally funny thing is that right after Bogie accused the real murderer and she fell out of a 7th story apartment window, a climax of all climaxes, I dozed off for a few minutes!! Just long enough to miss the entire resolution. I woke up to the TCM host wrapping it all up and introducing the next movie!

Of course, I had to rush on to the Internet to see how the movie ended. How is Bogie going to get out of this jammiest of jams? In Peru, of course, drinking cocktails with Bacall. The end. They don’t make movies like that anymore. ….And for that I am thankful.