Ace Atkins came over and we watched the
Burt Reynolds movie SHAMUS. Finally! We tried to watch it several months ago but the
dvd turned out to be cracked. Then Ace went away on a huge book tour and the seasons changed and people grew old and we all thought it would never happen. But tonight it did! Was it worth the wait? Gee. I guess not. We were pretty excited because Morris the Cat is one of the stars of SHAMUS. He's listed by name in the credits and everything (though not above Dyan Cannon
as erroneously reported on the "blog"). And as you recall,
Ace has a history with Morris the Cat. When he was employed by a bookstore, he once hosted a book signing for Morris the Cat! But before the movie tonight, Ace dropped a bombshell on us: "It wasn't really Morris, you know," he said. "It was some orange cat." It gives me no pleasure to report that Morris the Cat was terrible in this movie! He doesn't even show up for the first half hour or more. And then he does nothing but sit around. We're an hour into the movie before we see him a second time. Then he shows up in the last scene, to eat. He's really overweight. It's a sad display. The plot of SHAMUS is almost impossible to understand. "And I do this for a living," said Ace.
Dr. Theresa claimed that the plot of SHAMUS did not put her to sleep, but her face was notably turned away from the television as she reclined on the love seat. She revived herself for
THE LONG GOODBYE, which we watched after SHAMUS as an antidote - to see a detective movie starring a cat who can really act! The cat in the first scene of THE LONG GOODBYE is magnificent. I can swear that a long time ago Ace assured me that cat was Morris. It is not Morris. I think SHAMUS and THE LONG GOODBYE came out within a year of each other. But the cat in THE LONG GOODBYE is lithe, active, and expressive. Nothing like Morris! He seems to have a real relationship with
Elliott Gould. "
Robert Altman probably made them hang out together," mused Ace. Later, in an emotional night scene at the beach, a
dog performs some dramatic business. "Where's that dog's award?" Ace demanded. Oh I forgot to tell you there's a character in SHAMUS named Lieutenant Colonel C.C. Hardcore. When the name first came up I thought it was some kind of obvious pseudonym that was going to be a clue. But it wasn't. That was just the character's name. And they weren't trying to be funny or anything. PS I
dvr'd something off of TCM but nobody wanted to watch it with me tonight. It's a movie about voyeurism starring Paul Anka. And look, one of his big hit songs was called "Lonely Boy." Is that funny? I can't tell anymore. I just picked the picture because it looked creepy.
