That’s for stopping in here at BCB After Dark: the grooviest get-together for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad.
Come on in and sit with us for a while. There’s no cover charge. We still have a few tables available. The hostess can seat you now. Bring your own beverage.BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party
started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night I asked you to give Javier Assad a progress report. Seventy-five percent of you gave him a strong “B.” Another 19 percent gave Assad an “A.”
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. You’re free to skip that. Or you can skip the baseball stuff.
Tonight we’re continuing to honor South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who died this week at the age of 91. Here is Ibrahim in Lugano, Switzerland in 1999 playing “Cape Town Flower.”
Night Must Fall, a 1937 psychological crime melodrama directed by Richard Thorpe, is the kind of movie they just don’t make anymore. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, even though it’s not a bad film. Night Must Fall is based on the Emlyn Williams play of the same name and it suffers from that static and claustrophobic feel that a lot of films based on stage plays experience. The plot also relies on the characters being idiots. However, despite that, the film works because of the terrific performances of the stars.
The film stars Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell and in her film debut at age 72, Dame May Whitty. Whitty plays Mrs. Bramson, an rich but miserable elderly widow who is supposedly an invalid. In reality, her late husband treated her badly and now she treats everyone else badly in turn. She pretends to be confined to a wheelchair so people have to wait on her. She uses her money as a weapon to keep everyone in line and serving her every need at her command. Whitty played Mrs. Bramson on stage in London and New York to rave reviews, so Thorpe and M-G-M just kept her on for the film version, despite her having never been in a movie before.
Russell plays Mrs. Bramson’s poor niece Olivia, whom she doesn’t much care for and the feeling is mutual. But Olivia lives with her and takes all the abuse from her aunt because she doesn’t have any money of her own. (And honestly, Mrs. Bramson probably enjoys having her around to abuse.) Mrs. Bramson’s lawyer Justin (Alan Marshal) is willing to marry her and take her away from all that, but Olivia explains she just doesn’t feel about him that way.
Danny (Montgomery) is a hustler who worms his way into this world by repeatedly offering to marry Mrs. Bramson’s maid Dora (Merle Tottenham) sometime. Not now, but sometime. In reality, he just wants to worm his way into Mrs. Bramson’s orbit to steal her money and probably kill her. Danny showers Mrs. Bramson with politeness and respect, gladly offering to wait on her hand and foot.
The gullible Mrs. Bramson gets completely snookered by the charming psychopath Danny, who is not only a thief and a con man but he’s probably also a serial killer. Olivia isn’t fooled by him at all and she strongly suspects that Danny murdered one of their neighbors who had recently disappeared. But she also finds herself attracted to the rouge. Olivia also knows that her aunt will quickly dismiss any qualms she might express about Danny, so she mostly keeps them to themselves.
The battle of wills and underlying sexual tension between Danny and Olivia is what makes the film work. Olivia has chances to run away from Danny and save herself (remember Justin would marry her in an instant), but she can’t fully pull herself away. The more Olivia spars with Danny, the more she transforms herself from a very modestly-dressed spinster to something looking like a young Rosalind Russell. Russell was the only one of the three leads to not get an Oscar nomination, but I think she had the toughest part and did the best job. She skillfully plays a character who is torn between her logic that knows Danny is dangerous and her repressed sexual desires.
Montgomery got an Academy Award nomination for playing the charming psychopath Danny. He’s quite good at capturing the utter narcissism of a character like that. Whitty also got a Supporting Actress nomination for the mean and gullible Mrs. Bramson.
The weakness of the film is the way that everyone has to be an idiot for it to work. Mrs. Bramson can’t see the con that Danny is running on her, despite ample clues. Danny’s arrogance becomes his downfall as he does stupid stuff because he thinks he’s too smart to get caught. And finally, Olivia consistently puts herself into unnecessarily dangerous situations even though she knows Danny is a killer.
Still, it engrossed me enough that I stayed up late and watched the whole thing in one sitting. Despite some of their dumb choices, the three main characters were engrossing enough to draw me in. And Russell, Montgomery and Whitty mostly turn in some terrific performances.
Here’s the trailer for Night Must Fall. It’s the most sensational drama since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, apparently.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
Ever since Joe DiMaggio insisted that everyone call him the “Greatest Living Ballplayer,” it’s been a question who the greatest living ballplayer is. Willie Mays certainly had the title until he died in 2024. Since then, no one has claimed the title with any sort of consensus. The obvious answer to the question is that the greatest living ballplayer is Mays’ godson Barry Bonds, but there’s an understandable reason that no one is calling him that which I don’t need to go into here. You know why. I think everyone is just waiting to bestow the title until it’s clear that Shohei Ohtani can claim it.
But who is the greatest living Cub? Until Ryne Sandberg died last year, I think the answer was clearly him. Since Ryno passed, there are seven living players on the list of Baseball Prospectus’ top 24 Cubs players. Some of them are obvious. Two of them are Hall of Famers. Only one of them has a World Series ring with the Cubs, however.
So who is your choice for the greatest living Cub? Here are the seven living Cubs in the top 24 with their Baseball Reference career WAR.
Billy Williams (61.7 bWAR)
Sammy Sosa (58.8 bWAR)
Fergie Jenkins (54.9 bWAR)
Rick Reuschel (49.1 bWAR)
Mark Grace (44.2 bWAR)
Carlos Zambrano (43.2 bWAR)
Anthony Rizzo (37.1 bWAR)
Of course, WAR is not a perfect statistic. It’s a good guide, but I don’t think we can just say the greatest living player is the one with the highest career WAR. Rizzo has the advantage of a World Series ring. Sosa won an MVP. Surprisingly Williams doesn’t, but that’s mostly because his best seasons coincided with Johnny Bench’s best seasons. He does have a Rookie of the Year award.
I don’t know how many of you will vote for Reuschel, but he is maybe the most underrated player in MLB history. I definitely think he’s the most underrated living Cub. Maybe the most underrated living ballplayer, period. No, he probably doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame, but there are far worse pitchers in Cooperstown than Reuschel. He got two total votes for the Hall in his only year on the ballot.
I don’t think I need to tell you much about these players. Which one do you think is the Greatest Living Cub?
I have to leave the Big Z off the voting, because the crappy polling software they are making me use now only allows for six answers. (I am searching for other options) I also won’t be able to give you an “other” to vote for. But if you want to vote for Zambrano or someone else, please tell us about it in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We’ve enjoyed having you. Please don’t be a strangers. Recycle any cans and bottles tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.
