My thoughts on Burnt Offerings

I just finished reading the book Burnt Offerings today and am up for discussing it! I know I said in the last blog post that this one would be about Cedarburg, but I'm doing some research about the town and its buildings first. This time I will be adding a little history to my photos.

So, onto Burnt Offerings. How about that cover? It's intriguing, right?

My Burnt Offerings adventure began when I watched the movie version of it a month or so ago. I saw it being advertised on the Comet channel as a movie coming up. Do you guys get Comet? It's a channel that plays old B-movies and Sci-Fi stuff mostly. It's good for a laugh and the occasional scare. If you'd like to get a glimpse into the kind of channel I'm talking about here:

Comet TV schedule 

So, Comet did a somewhat funny ad for the movie version of Burnt Offerings and I was intrigued. I always like a good haunted house story. But Comet being Comet, they only said the movie would be playing some time that month without giving an exact date and time. So I ended up renting it from the library.

The first thing I noticed before watching Burnt Offerings was that an older Burgess Meredith and Bette Davis were in it! I went in to the movie expecting to enjoy watching them and they did not disappoint. They were both perfect in their roles. But beyond that, I had some issues with the stiff acting in this movie. Actually, I had issues with the movie in general. I don't want to give too much away, but I don't think I will by saying that Burnt Offerings was disjointed in parts and not believable to me. I don't expect to believe in every event in a supernatural thriller, but I need to believe in the characters. If I don't think a person would act like what I'm watching, or if I can't connect with the characters,  it's hard for me to get into the movie as it goes along. I cared about Bette Davis' character (Aunt Elizabeth) but that's about it.

Watch out Bette!

OK, really quickly and with no spoilers... A couple (Marian and Ben) their son David and Ben's Aunt Elizabeth are staying for a few months of the summer in what is basically a run down mansion. They were looking for a place to get away, so when they read an ad for this place, which is of course way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere, their interest was piqued.

When they go to check out this big house, they meet an eccentric couple of siblings, who they'll be renting it from. One of these siblings is played by Burgess Meredith, who is hamming up his four minutes in this film big time. It was a highlight.

These two siblings offer Marian and Ben the house for the summer at an unbelievable rate. However, Ben assumes there must be a catch! The catch is, Marian and Ben must look after Mrs. Allardyce, the siblings' mother.

They are told that they must bring Mrs. Allardyce meals of food on a tray and leave it outside her bedroom door three times per day, every day they are there. The siblings tell the couple that they probably won't see Mrs. Allardyce. They say she is a frail 85 year old and just keeps to herself. OK, here is my major complaint (of many) with this movie. Why, oh why, would this couple not ask to meet Mrs. Allardyce before accepting this offer? They're willing to sign on to spend a summer taking care of a giant house and an old lady they haven't met?

Yeah, that's the house.

Well, Marian and Ben take the offer and move in for the summer. Keeping this spoiler free, let's just say things do not go well. There is a supernatural bent to this, and taking care of "Mrs. Allardyce" is the bad idea it sounds like. I'll also say that I'm 50/50 on the end of the movie. There is one moment at the end that is super for a ghost story and gives me the creeps as I think of it now. But then there is a lot of gratuitous gore, that just leaves you asking "Why?"

I listened to the commentary on this DVD, mainly to give someone a chance to explain why they went the way they did with that ending. The commentary was done by the director, the producer, and Karen Black who played Marian. Karen Black was a nice sounding woman with some stories she remembered from filming this. Here's one that stood out: there's a moment when Oliver Reed, the man who plays her husband Ben in this, keeps turning her away from the camera. It happened again and again, so only the back of her head showed, while he faced the camera. She decided that he wanted to be the only one getting camera time! So, eventually Karen Black asked him to stop so the audience could see her as well and his response was to say nothing and angrily stomp off for some time. And here, I thought their fighting in this movie was an act!

Are we having fun yet?

One thing made clear over and over on the commentary was how the director, Dan Curtis and Karen Black thought the Burnt Offerings book was the most boring thing ever and that this movie was a vast improvement on it. They said they couldn't remember a bit of the book, except for the ending which leaves you wondering what even happened. Well, considering how much I disliked a good part of the end of their movie, I decided to give the book a go. I figured "It can't be worse!" Well, guess what? The book was a ton better! I actually found myself being angry at those on the DVD commentary because of the wrong idea they gave. We're all free to have a different opinion on a book, but why would Dan Curtis want to produce and direct a movie based on a book that he found so forgettable? And why would some dialogue in the book and movie match word for word, if he spaced the whole thing? I actually felt lied to by a DVD commentary, which is pretty strange.

Burnt Offerings the book, by Robert Marasco, was so much more detailed and sensical. I understood the characters and their motives. Events were explained and wrapped up in ways that weren't even attempted in the movie. I liked the characters more and cared about what would happen to them. And far from boring, it was the kind of book that kept me up late at night, quickly turning the pages. Oh, and the end was completely clear! Much more clear than the end of the movie! You even get an explanation for the title in the book. I can only think the people on that DVD commentary were on some kind of ego trip, saying their movie was so superior. After finishing the book today, I wanted to get a time machine so I could go back and somehow get involved with the movie production and make the movie more true to form!

So, meh on the movie, but I recommend reading the book! But just so you know, this isn't a cheer-fest. This story is dark, but it makes you think. It makes you think about materialism and the priority money/things are for some people. In that way, it was a good follow-up to reading Jaws for me. Another book from the 70s that is about materialism and money being some people's main goal, even above their family and friends. Come to think of it, in both stories, some people die because of one person's greed.

An interesting piece of trivia is that Stephen King loves this book. Burnt Offerings was published in 1973 and The Shining was published in 1977. That's something to keep in mind when you notice how much these two stories have in common! (I'm talking about the book version of the Shining more than the movie.) I think Stephen King was pretty heavily inspired! Actually, I just looked that up and read that he was admittedly inspired. The Shining is much scarier to me, though.

So, have any of you read or watched Burnt Offerings? Or maybe both? I'd like to discuss the differences between the two with you guys. Some people say Burnt Offerings was the scariest movie they'd ever seen. I was only scared by that one moment I liked at the end, but the book had me on the edge of my seat. I'd call it a supernatural thriller more than a horror novel, though.

Speaking of the book, I took a few photos inside of it, to take you guys on a trip down memory lane. Well, this first one will probably take you down memory lane. Looks like after 1990, the librarian was scanning the books instead of stamping them. Either that, or no one has checked this out since 1990! I'm trying to remember when they stopped stamping them. You know, I kind of miss the date stamp. It seemed official somehow. 😉

This second photo goes with an older set of memories. Look at all these suggestions for what you could find at the library!

Phonograph Records! I wonder what kind of Government Documents they're talking about. And Sheet Music! I think you can still order that through the library, actually.

As I said before, I'll be working on that Cedarburg post. I picked up a few books about that town and have been enjoying looking at pics of it from the Civil War times! It's mind-blowing to look at photos of buildings from the 1800s that look the same today. To think, I've stood where a horse and buggy can be seen in some of these photos. So, I'll be researching and writing and hope to be sharing that one soon!

Light through the leaves

We can feel autumn changing to winter around here today. There isn't any snow on the ground, but there is a definite winter chill in the air! Not all of the leaves have fallen off the trees, but a number have. I took photos of the changing leaves throughout the fall, from the beginning of October until last week. I have been planning during that time to share a collection of my favorite photos with you guys. Now seems like the perfect time to do so, as we're transitioning from fall into winter.

I ran into some relaxing autumn music on YouTube recently, and I think it's a good fit for these photos. So if you'd like to have a little mood music while you scan through these, here you go!

A link to the music: Autumn | Ambient, Minimalism, Piano Music

I've been listening to this music for over an hour and a half now. It actually plays for two hours!

This would be a good series of photos to watch as a slideshow if you're able to. At least for me, after clicking on one photo here, I'm able to scan through all of them in a larger size.

A little closer:

I thought this was an interestingly shaped tree.

I picked a few favorite leaves and set them out ~ Small, medium, and large:

Ginkgo leaves:

This is a sight I've seen many times. There have been leaf prints on this piece of sidewalk for years. Pretty cool, hey?

These next two photos aren't of leaves, but they are of pieces of nature I saw during the last week. These will probably be the last dandelion seeds I see until Spring.

And these grasses, looking so golden in the late afternoon sun, say "autumn" to me:

This last photo is a preview for my next blog post, the one about our annual trip to Cedarburg. This was taken on an upper floor of an old mill that is now split into shops. I loved the way the light was coming through these leaves on its way into the window. They look almost lit up! This photo happens to be my computer's wallpaper right now.

Hopefully, I will get that Cedarburg post up soon! As you can imagine, I took tons of photos there. It might take a while to go through them. But I know you guys will still be up for some extra Halloween stuff, even if you see it in December! 

Watch out ladies!

Do you ever wander around the library, hoping just the right book or movie will jump out at you? I do that and have had pretty good luck! My latest random find was the movie The Ladykillers. I'm talking about the one from 1955, not the newer remake with Tom Hanks. I doubt I'll even watch the new one because I'm pretty sure it would pale in comparison to the original.

When I first saw the DVD case, I thought it was a movie about Nosferatu! Because there was Sir Alec Guinness, looking so gaunt and sallow, wearing what are clearly fake choppers. Next to Guinness with his Nosferatu look, is Herbert Lom. Doesn't he look like he's channeling Dr. Evil? This was clearly a DVD I needed to check out.

I loved The Ladykillers! It's super funny, and gets funnier as it goes on. Some might say it's funny in a dark way. I'll give you the basic premise, because I don't want to spoil any of the surprises. I'll just tell you more or less what you'd read about it on the back of the DVD case.

You can tell he's loving every minute of this.

For me, this is basically Alec Guinness' movie. I might watch some scenes of it again, just to see him in action. Guinness plays a character named Professor Marcus. The Professor is a deranged criminal who seems pretty confident that he's covering that up with his elegant, polite, professor act. While working on a bank robbery, The Professor needs somewhere to stay. He decides to rent a room from a sweet, elderly lady named Mrs. Wilberforce. He tells her that his musician friends will be visiting from time to time to practice. His friends carry instrument cases, but that's about as close as they get to being musicians.

It's implied that the other men are also criminals, although you're not told exactly what they've done in the past. I liked that their previous crimes weren't spelled out and that I was left to figure some of it out. I also liked that any violent moments were implied. You're able to put together what happened without seeing the details. That's something I like about older movies, that you're asked to use your imagination.

As I write about it now, it occurs to me that if I'd known what these guys had done in the past, they might not have seemed so funny. And I probably wouldn't be laughing as much if I'd seen the violence play-by-play. That would have broken up the mood for sure! Somehow this movie manages to walk the line of funny and dramatic without ever seeming uneven.

The "musicians" are all very different, as you can see. There's the nutty one, the tough guy, the one that could fill in as Watson in some Sherlock Holmes movie, the typical gangster, and the young, goofy guy. (Played by Peter Sellers!) This photo shows the characters' personalities perfectly.

I don't think I'm spilling the beans too much by telling you that the men carry on with the robbery they've planned and that Mrs. Wilberforce gets wise to it. Not that it took a whole lot of deduction on her part! After that, Mrs. Wilberforce is a problem for them, and you can guess how they choose to deal with her from the title of this movie.

I won't say anything beyond that, except to say that for me, that's when the movie gets extra funny and surprising. I'm really tempted to mention a few parts, but I'll make myself stop here.

I didn't manage to find The Ladykillers in its entirety online, not for free anyway. It's on one of those paid sites for $1.99:

The Ladykillers on YouTube Movies

I bet you guys could also find it at your local library. It stands a good chance of being at the library since it's been around for a while and it turns out a lot of people think it's a classic. If any of you have seen this movie already, I'm happy to discuss it in the comments!

I'll leave you a moment with Mr. Charming, himself:

"Such Pretty Windows"

Watching this again, I'm seeing several red flags with "The Professor"!