I went out for some paper towels, but WeHo Pavilions was fresh out. It was raining lightly outside. I was leaning against the car, and for a moment or two I pulled down the paper mask and my God, the whiffs of damp grass and rain-sprinkled sidewalk and a small cup of cookies & cream in my right hand. Mask-wearers like myself have been doing without gentle, spirit-lifting aromas these last few days, and it’s been a shame. We’ve all been doing without in different ways, and it’s likely to stay this way for months to come.

“…like Herbert Hoover again.”

Since we’re looking at months and months of coronavirus lockdown, I’m figuring I might as well wear a face mask with a sense of style. I’m thinking either (a) Jasper Johns American flag or (b) black with white polka dots.

I was reading yesterday about Los Angeles beaches (Malibu to Venice) being fairly crowded, and I noticed a fair number of people roaming around during a brief drive to Venice and back. People jogging, shopping, walking around. Families out for air, exercise. HE to Governor Gavin Newsom: A lot of people are observing your lockdown order but a fair number are ignoring it.

Honestly? If I was Newsom I would put armed troops and tanks on the street. I would not fuck around. He predicted the other day that over half of Californians will be infected. It could be higher than that if people continue to casually hit the beaches, etc.

Note: My little drive didn’t count. I was totally isolated in the car, and stepped out only once for three or four minutes, and never came close to anyone.

There are two reasons why I’ve never seen Anthony Mann‘s Raw Deal (’48), and why I’m not all that inclined to see it later today, despite the obviously high-quality cinematography by John Alton.

Reason #1 is that it’s never been a highly rated film — it’s basically regarded as a programmer and nowhere close to the level of Detour or They Live By Night or Gun Crazy. Reason #2 is Dennis O’Keefe, who plays the lead character, Joe Sullivan. O’Keefe was a decent actor but he simply didn’t have the X-factor — one look at the guy and you’re thinking “meh, second banana, doughy-faced, no snap.”

The most striking actors in Raw Deal are Claire Trevor and Raymond Burr.

John Alton‘s lensing achieved a certain elegance, for sure. The author of “Painting With Light” (’49), he believed that “studio lighting must always simulate natural light in texture and direction.” But he mostly shot programmers. Like O’Keefe, he was a respected second-tier guy. He worked steadily in the ’30s,’40s and ’50s (his last significant feature was Richard Brooks‘ Elmer Gantry) but he was a “house” cinematographer and not a name-brander.

When I think of Raw Deal, I think of the teaser-trailer for the 1986 Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. Opening copy crawl: “They gave Schwarzenegger a raw deal. (beat, beat) Nobody gives Schwarzenegger a raw deal.”

Lewis Beale says: “Last night my wife and I watched the 1948 Anthony Mann noir Raw Deal. Solid film, kind of over-heated plot, but what makes it more than worthwhile is the immaculate b&w cinematography by the great John Alton. Every frame of this film could be mounted and put in a museum.”

HE’s most beautiful b&w films (random order): Citizen Kane, Manhattan, The Silence, The Hustler, Out Of The Past, Hud, Cold War, Ida, Odd Man Out, Only Angels Have Wings, The Lighthouse, The Train, Wings of Desire, Schindler’s List, Wild Strawberries, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Grapes of Wrath, Ed Wood, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Big Heat, How Green Was My Valley, Rebecca, Psycho, Notorious, Stardust Memories, The White Ribbon, Hour of the Wolf, Raging Bull, The Elephant Man, Dr. Strangelove.

Others?

Idris Elba: “One of the upsides of this whole drama is [that] we are forced to think together as a race. We really are.”
Oprah Winfrey: “As a human race.”
Idris Elba: “As a human race, yeah. But also our world has been takin’ a kickin’. We have damaged our world. And…no surprise!…our world is reacting to the human race. It’s no surprise that a virus has been created that’s going to slow us down. And ultimately make us think differently about our world and ourselves. To me, that’s the stand-out thing that’s very obvious. This is like the world crying out….hey, hey hey, you’re kickin’ me. What you’re doin’ is not good so I’ll get rid of you, as any organism would do. To try and get rid of an infection.”

When Elba, 47, first announced on Instagram that he’d been infected with COVID-19, I was wondering if the young-looking girl sitting behind him was his daughter. (Her name is Isan, born in ’02.) She was actually his wife, Sabrina Dhowre, a 30 year old model-actress whom he married in Marrakech last April.