Winds of Fall

Got a quick start today with breakfast and Bluey. Bluey, Bingo, and their cousin Muffin is excited to get a "Horsey Ride" from Bandit and Uncle Stripe. Bluey's upset when their youngest cousin Socks grabs her favorite stuffed animals and chews on it, so the girls turn their horsey ride into a mock-wedding...much to the annoyance of their fathers!

I was late getting out again...and that was the worst thing that happened for most of the day. It was the same deal as Monday. It was only busy during the afternoon and evening rush hour, and just barely that. I didn't even have trouble with the carts. The wind picked up, but otherwise, it remains sunny and gorgeous here. 

I was annoyed when they called me to do cold returns ten minutes before I was supposed to finish. One of the older male customers threw a fit when the cashier didn't bag his order exactly the way he wanted it. He dumped the bags out in his cart, refused to buy any of it, insulted the lady at customer service who came to help, and stomped out. And I barely had time to put away all his meat before he went home, just because he had to have a childish tantrum. 

Hurried straight home after that and into Match Game '77. Roz Kelly, Gregg Morris, and Joyce Bulifant figured into all but one of the episodes I saw tonight. We first met a contestant in a German costume that inspired many German accent jokes, especially from Richard. "Werner __" on the Audience Match also brought out Richard's German as he recalled how Werner Klemperer from Hogan's Heroes brought his own uniform to the auditions. Anton Williams sitting next to Brett on the last episode prompted Charles to fuss about how much she was drooling over him.

Finished the night with something different on Kanopy. The Queen of Spades is a British horror fantasy from 1949. Captain Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) is a Russian officer who is normally against taking risks at the gambling table. He begins to wonder how risky it is when he hears stories about the aging Countess Ranevskya (Edith Evans) having sold her soul for the secret for winning at cards. Herman tries to seduce her ward Lizaveta Ivanova (Yvonne Mitchell) to discover the secret, but another officer, Andrei (Ronald Howard), who genuinely loves her, has gotten there first. He manages to get into the household, but when he scares the old lady to literal death trying to get the secret, Lizaveta rejects him. After a visit from the countess' ghost, he thinks he knows the secret, well enough to beat Andre in a card game...

This cold little fantasy is an odd one. It takes forever to get where it's going. Herman doesn't even make it into the house until well into the second half of the movie. Walbrook comes off best as the greedy engineer who becomes obsessed with the Countess' secret. It's not bad if you like British drama or fantasy or anyone in the cast.