Movie Night at the Ribalow Ranch

for Meir Ribalow


RIO BRAVO

Borachon.

 

 

Dino or Mitchum—who’s the better drunk?

   “Let’s see,” says Meir.  He plays Rio Bravo,

And we watch Dino’s Dude, all sweat and funk,

   A souse whose life ain’t worth a plugged centavo

Till he lifts himself up out of the stews,

   A feat which truly merits our acclaim:

The scene where Dude pours back his shot of booze

   Is right there in the Cowboy Hall Of Fame.

It’s Ricky Nelson who’s the weak link here.

   Saddled with him, Hawks did the best he could,

But every time he shows up, we can hear

   The film deflate from excellent to good.

      As for the Duke?  This role is, in the main,

      What people think of when they think “John Wayne.”

 

EL DORADO

 

He just needs another bar of soap.



 

Right off the bat, James Caan trumps Ricky Nelson.

   Plus John Wayne suffers the indignity

Of a back wound.  Is there anything else in

   Wayne’s films where he’s slowed down by injury?

(Meir says: “Wings of Eagles.”)  So we watch

   As Mitchum tramps down Cheap Drunk Avenue.

We see the height from which whiskey and scotch

   Will make him fall—and get him wounded too.

“Think baseball,” Meir says. “Here’s what you get:

   Dean Martin hits a home run—thus acquitting

Himself well—but! Mitchum’s the greater threat.

   He is to acting what Ruth is to hitting—

      He’s so good, Koufax wouldn’t want to pitch him.

      Mitchum’s the better drunk because it’s Mitchum.”

 

 

 

The Girl Who Comes In On The Stage

 The Oomph Girl at her ooomphiest

 

And then we speculate about the girl—

   The unnamed girl who comes in on a stage—

And with a look and the coquettish twirl

   Of a lace parasol, can run rampage

Over the hearts of men with hearts of stone.

   A girl whose mouth fires kisses like a trigger—

Whose touch can give you wings—and when she’s flown,

   You drown the loss with jigger after jigger

Of rotgut and regret and deep self-loathing.

   “She’s Death,” says Meir.  “That’s why you don't see her.

To give in to her is a dark betrothing.

   She steals your godhood when you deity her.

      And all those who drink deep of her seduction

      Thirst not for endless love, but self-destruction.”

OUT OF THE PAST

Build my gallows high, baby.

One night you take a swim in a dark pool

   And the whole course of your sad fate is set:

The future—life, with a sweet fresh-faced girl;

   The past—death, with a lush rotten brunette.

You wake up smitten with the Queen Of Bad

   Who says you’re King now, so of course you love it.

You’re smart enough to know you’re being had

   And dumb enough to want both barrels of it.

And when she shows her stripes, you’re out the door.

   You make a new life that will never last

Because she’s got your number, knows the score,

   And comes alive when you talk of the past:

      A dame who sees your need and strips it bare

      And makes you murmur: “Baby, I don’t care.”

 

Meir and I agree that there’s no doom

   That can compare to Jane Greer and her lies.

At which the woman in the living room

   Looks at the two of us and rolls her eyes

And says: “A guy would have to be a dunce

   To fall for bad girls.  That’s just lousy writing.”

“Are you kidding me?” we both say at once.

   “The bad is what makes bad girls so exciting!

Why would you fall under a safe girl’s spell

   When you can have the wild dangerous bitch?”

The woman says: “—Who drags you down to hell.”

   And Meir says: “Yeah; but that’s not a hitch.

      We all drive to an end no one deserves.

      It’s not the ride; it’s how you take the curves.”

CROSSFIRE

 

Paul Kelly as "The Man"

 

Ah, Meir.  “You can't leave,” you said. “Watch this.”

   Then you put Crossfire on, at the scene where

The young GI whose marriage is amiss

   Wakes up in Gloria Grahame’s pied-à-terre

And listens to the story of a guy

   (Paul Kelly) who remarks, when he is through,

“That story I just told you?  It’s a lie;”

   Then tells one more and says: “That’s a lie too.”

“This guy,” you said, “is noir personified.

   There’s always something in him you can’t see.”

I’ve watched that movie six times since you died,

   And bleed each time Kelly says casually—

      A lifetime in one sentence; sad but true— 

      “We had a lot of plans; they all fell through.”

Copyright 2014 Matthew J Wells