Monday, September 21, 2020

Adventure Times

Began a beautiful morning with breakfast and Split Second. One of the two women pulled ahead in the second half after the man was ahead and won the Countdown Round decisively. For the second time in four days, the lady chose the car on her first try. Blockbusters started off with the new solo guy winner playing the Gold Rush bonus round. He had a shaky start, missing three questions before running through the rest in record time. He and an adorable father-daughter team were on their second round when the show ended.

Went online after breakfast to work on writing. Brett uses what's left of her magic to hold them onto Malade, while Charles sings in her ear. Brett's vines try to yank Malade to the ground...but Malade reveals she can absorb their powers, and have absorbed the powers she stole from them. She's just growing and growing, but Charles hopes he can gather enough good feeling to stop her...

Broke for lunch at 1 PM. Put on a second season episode of Wonder Woman while having leftover lasagna and broccoli with cheese for lunch. A broke college student (Gary Burghoff) becomes "The Man Who Wouldn't Tell" when he accidentally discovers a formula for a powerful explosive that blows up the lab where he's the janitor. He flees a company who wants the formula for nefarious purposes. The IRC is recruited to find him...but luckily, Wonder Woman gets to him first.

Headed out to work shortly after the episode ended. Work was quiet almost the entire afternoon. It got steady around rush hour, then went right back to being dead. I spent my first hour shelving a half-full cart of returns. It's still too nice for most people to be shopping! We were so quiet by 6:30, I once again left a few minutes early.

Match Game was just finishing when I got in. Jimmie Walker, of course, gave "Good Times" as his answer to "___ Times," and was thrilled when it turned up at the top of the list. The episode ended with jokes about what a strange cowboy did to cows in the middle of a stampede.

Had a simple yogurt and banana dinner while watching Sale of the Century. It was the most exciting episode of this series yet. One of the men would get an answer, and the champ would get the next one. The back and forth went on through the Speed Round, which ended with a tie. The younger man just buzzed in ahead on the last question and won. Like the lady on Split Second, he won a car on the "guess the prize" board on his first try. 

Finished the night with the 1939 version of The Man In the Iron Mask at ShoutFactory's website. King Louis the 13th (Albert Dekker) is shocked when two sons are born to the throne of France. He sends one away with D'Aragnan (Warren William), his most trusted soldier, for the boy's protection. 

Phillippe (Louis Hayward) grows up under the watchful eye of the Musketeers into a bold and sensible young man.  Louis (Hayward), the young prince, becomes a spoiled and selfish king who constantly raises taxes and cares nothing about his people's suffering. He discovers Phillipe when his guards raid D'Arganan's home in Gascony. Louis corrals Phillipe to take his place that day with lovely Princess Maria Theresa of Spain (Joan Bennett) and avoid an assassination attempt. He not only avoids it, but shows mercy to those who tried to execute it and charms Maria as well. Louis is boiling angry when he discovers this intruder is his true brother and has him locked in the dungeons in an iron mask. It's up to Maria Theresa and the Musketeers to free Phillipe from his prison and put the far more beneficial and just ruler on the throne.

Enjoyable bit of blarney with great costumes representing 17th century France and a nice supporting cast. William and Joseph Schildkraut are the stand-outs as the noble, elegant Musketeer whose first duty is always for king and country, and the scheme messenger-turned-minister whose first duty is always to his own interests. Hayward does better as obnoxious, slightly nutty Louie than as noble Phillipe; Bennett is mainly eye candy. If you're a fan of the Three Musketeers stories or a lover of swashbucklers like me, this is worth avoiding the dungeon to check out. 

No comments: