strange and random happenstance: Coming to America

Evelyn Waugh's 1938 book Scoop was a parody of sensationalist journalism obviously inspired by the Spanish Civil War but more specifically Waugh's experience in Abyssinia covering the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The hyperbole of this kind of journalism has only intensified as time goes on. Just look to our twenty-four hours a day news cycle where the smallest thing is blown up and overanalyzed by talking heads. Which is what makes this adaptation just as relevant today as it was in the late eighties and early nineties. As I was watching this skewering of a phoney war in order for Herbert Lom to parachute in and secure Ishmaelia's mineral rights for himself the United States invaded Venuzula and kidnapped Maduro. Why? For the country's mineral rights of course. Because the more things change the more things stay the same. Though it's hard to get a "scoop" on what the United States government is doing until they announce it after the fact on Twitter. Scoop is more like a quirky independent British film of the day than an episode of Masterpiece Theatre. This is Dr. Strangelove meets The Wrong Box with a heavy helping of Moon Over Parador and Coming to America if Terry Gilliam shot it. The Brazil vibes are strong. In other words, if I had seen it when it first came out it would have been a seminal film in my life. In fact there's one person in this world that I think was strongly influenced by this film at a young age and that's Wes Anderson. He would have been in his early twenties when this was released and every single frame and setup made me think of him. So, if nothing else, because of this film we have a signature style that became the TikTok Wes Anderson trend. As it is I am more than a little obsessed with this movie now. London socialites? Decaying relatives at a decrepit country estate? Mistaken identities? Yes please! And more! Poor Boot, a corespondent for The Daily Beast, writes about country life. He is mistaken for a novelist named Boot who asked his lover to pull some strings for him to get sent to Ishmaelia. Needless to say, our Boot is in over his head but because he's not a typical reporter and because he is part of the old boys' network he is privy to actual information about Ishmaelia and not wild conjecture and therefore knows that the leadership of the country is sending the reporters on a wild goose chase. He just stays put and comes back a hero with the biggest scoop of any paper. What makes this so memorable is the actors. We have Nicola Pagett, Donald Pleasence, Denholm Elliott, Michael Maloney, the aforementioned Herbert Lom, and just oodles of British characters actors that understand the importance of timing and keeping a straight face. Denholm Elliott trying to deal with Boot's family at the ancestral estate could be added to the list of great dinner scenes that is obviously topped by John Gielgud in Brideshead Revisited. Seriously, just check out this undiscovered gem. If anything you will get an insight into what the inside of my mind looks like.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Africa, Brazil, Brideshead Revisited, Coming to America, Denholm Elliott, Evelyn Waugh, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Herbert Lom, Ishmaelia, John Gielgud, Journalism, Mineral Rights, Moon Over Parador, Scoop, The Wrong Box, War

My American Duchess by Eloisa James
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: January 26th, 2015
Format: Paperback, 402 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Perhaps Merry Pelford doesn't know what love is. Here she is questioning her betrothal to Cedric just minutes after accepting him. And Cedric's proposal is literally one she cannot break. She's told herself as much. After all, here she is, an American in England, because she has gained a reputation for breaking her promise back in Boston. In fairness, only one of her ex-fiances sued her and that was because he was obviously after her money and had borrowed against his expectations. Developing the nickname Mary Mary Quite Contrary left a bad taste in her mouth so her aunt and uncle bundled her off to the homeland of Merry's mother to make a match. That match is Cedric, not the enigmatic stranger she has just met on the balcony whom she is immediately drawn to. Cedric is her one true love. Cedric, Cedric, Cedric. If she says it enough maybe she'll believe it? But in a cruel twist of fate the man on the balcony is Cedric's slightly older brother and twin, the Duke of Trent. If he was anyone else perhaps there could have been a chance, but to jilt one brother for another? Even without her reputation Merry couldn't bring herself to do such a thing. But Trent is determined that his brother and Merry will not make it to the alter. He knew instantly that Merry was the woman he was to spend the rest of his life with. She is everything he never knew he needed. Therefore he starts a campaign against his brother. But Merry can not believe what Trent is telling her about Cedric. OK, so the engagement ring was actually a family heirloom that was intended for the next duchess, that could be an easy mistake. Be he's the brother of a duke, he has to have deep pockets, unlike her second fiancee, and as for his drinking? Merry doesn't believe that Cedric could possibly be a drunk, she would have seen the signs. Trent is just bitter. Or is Merry blinding herself to the truth because she is determined to go through with her marriage to Cedric? Because she is willfully blinding herself to the attraction she feels for Trent. Can she live a life of denial if it means she has a clear conscious? And will Trent let her?

My American Duchess works because of good characterization and humor in spit of it's flaws. Merry is a wonderful heroine because while she is actively on the marriage market marriage isn't the only thing that drives her. She is a fully rounded character with a mind and interests of her own. Often in romance the heroine might be a bit too much like Princess Imani Izzi in Coming to America. She likes whatever you like. Here Merry doesn't just have long lasting and loving attachments to the people and animals in her life, but she has a passion for landscape architecture. Of course she just refers to it as designing gardens, but seriously, she's a landscape architect who works with the land instead of doing a Frederick Law Olmsted and reforming it to be his Arcadia. She also takes great and delicious interest in the growing and eating of pineapple. But her flaw is her American exceptionalism. It's more acceptable when the heroine has direct connections to the founding of America and is proud of her fledgling country and how it differs from England, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. The problem with American exceptionalism is that by thinking we're the best at everything we've eventually become this country where we're always great and number one and anyone who doubts our greatness should be vilified. It's just too easy to see how we went from Merry to the insurrection and that makes me cringe. I also don't really see why Merry has such a problem with her jilting men. I agree with Trent who didn't care how many people she had jilted, she "would be considered an excellent prospect whether [she] had discarded three or thirty fiances." Because marriage is forever you have to make sure you've got it right. You have to make sure that person is the one. Which of course leads to Trent and Merry denying that love should enter into the equation and that marriage should be built on friendship and passion. OK, but isn't that the basis of love? And the continual denial from Trent that this is love drove me a bit batty. But then again he marries a woman who didn't realize he was her fiances twin. Were they not identical? Or did Trent look that different because of his brawny physique?