Day: October 9, 2006

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/Hobbit.mp3]

A couple of days ago The Boston Globe had an article about a new book that Christopher Tolkien has assembled, called Children of Húrin.  It’s based on fragmentary writings by his father, J.R.R. Tolkien.  If the link above doesn’t work, you can read the article by clicking here.

I have an LP that is unquestionably purely J.R.R. Tolkien.  His narration of “Riddles in the Dark,” from The Hobbit.  The recording provided here is from August, 1952 and it’s half an hour long.  It begins with the introduction of Gollum, and it ends with Gollum’s cursing of Bilbo (“Thief!”).

I mentioned the late British director Michael Powell again in a recent post.  Now I see another blogger has posted several items about Black Narcissus.

This inspired me to transfer two scenes from the movie and splice them together.  For myself, what makes Black Narcissus great is the always excellent Deborah Kerr and the absolutely breathtaking performance by Kathleen Byron.  A case can be made for this cat fight being melodramatic and over-the-top, but for me it’s mesmerizing.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2010/JAN/BlackNarcissus.flv 320 240]