Day #22,232

Walk km 12,068-12,070: to T&T

Book #435: A Bridge To The Stars (1990, Henning Mankell)

So, where's the murder? The library had this one filed in with the adult books but it turns out to be a children's book. Our lead character, Joel, isn't murdered nor does he murder anyone else. He just has 12 year old type adventures that turn out to be just plain heartwarming.
Since this was written in 1990, it must have come before all those nasty murders took over Henning's mind.

Day #22,230-231

Walk km 12,048-12,053: False Creek
Walk km 12,053-12,068 (10,163 to go): Boundary Bay

 wetlands
approx km 12,058 Boundary Bay (Delta)

Movie #2134: Smashing The Rackets (1938, Lew Landers)
The only good thing about this movie is its title.
Run-of-the-mill fighting the mob flick made much worse by boring leading man, Chester Morris.

Day #22,227-229

Walk km 12,033-12,035: to T&T
Walk km 12,035-12,046: Joyce Station to T&T
Walk km 12,046-12,048: to T&T

Movie #2133: Conspiracy (1939, Lew Landers)

Linda Hayes (Rachelle Mendenhall of Sac City, Iowa)

Routine actioner concerning Americans (even tainted ones) coming together when the chips are down to thwart those evil furriners. Luckily, these foreigners are all as dumb as stumps so that isn't too hard. Alan Lane and Linda Hayes make an entertaining couple.

Day #22,226

Walk km 12,016-12,033: Meetup walk along Boundary Bay dyke

airplanes
approx km 12,028 Delta Heritage Air Park

Day #22,225

Walk km 12,005-12,016: along False Creek

Movie #2131: Les Femmes Des Autres (1978, Claude Bernard-Aubert)

Just 5 years earlier Claude had directed Gerard Depardieu and Jean Gabin in L'Affaire Dominici. It's now 1978 and he makes his living directing porno under a pseudonym.
Plotless but glossy. IMDB has this one under another title and 25 minutes longer. Did the original version have a plot?

Movie #2132: Initiation Au College (1979, Gerard Kikoine)

Since PokerStars was down due to a system restart it was a French porn double feature night.
This one was great! Why?
Maybe the high quality picture with the correct aspect ratio (widescreen).
The presence of Cathy Stewart?
Wonderful night scenes of Paris?
Wonderful direction and acting?
All those of goofy situations (loved the bubble gum scene)?
All the above? I think so. 
A regular "Gone With The Wind" of porno. IMDB rates it 41. Huh?

Day #22,224

Walk km 11,997-12,005: Boundary Bay Park

the yellowest house I've ever seen
approx km 11,998 Corbould Road, Delta (with the USA in the background)

Day #22,223

Walk km 11,988-11,997: every block walk

Movie #2129: Missing Witnesses (1937, William Clemens)

Dick Purcell has the honour of playing the stupidest policeman in cinematic history. Not only does he screw up everything he touches, he also gets the girl.

Movie #2130: Teenie Tulip (1971, Gerard Damiano)
After seeing Inside Deep Throat I figured I should see the original. However, the internet copies are all in pretty rough shape. So I looked in IMDB for other Damiano titles and was surprised that Deep Throat wasn't his first film. Teenie Tulip was made before Deep Throat and it was R rated not X rated. They did however add sex scenes later to cash in on Deep Throat.
The plot revolves around sex therapist Dr Love and his many patients. It's all rather humdrum until the big ending (which features dreams within dreams and an octopus). So, kinda dull but the last 10 minutes were so goofy it made up for it.     

Day #22,222

Walk km 11,986-11,988: to T&T

Movie #2128: Lena Rivers (1932, Phil Rosen)

Here's an interesting one. It appears to be about breeding.
In our story, Lena is a bastard. Or maybe not. Lena's grandmother claims she's not but her only proof is that Lena's mother claimed (on her deathbed) that she was married even though no husbamd could be found.
It appears that this is quite important! Lena gets shunned when she goes to live with her thoroughbred horse raising uncle. In fact the uncle and all his upper class neighbours are all horse breeders. In one scene, a stable hand explains to Lena just how important having a good pedigree is to a thoroughbred/race horse. In this movie, Lena is being treated like a race horse!
In the final scene, Lena's beau (who has decided to marry someone else - she's a jerk but she has a good pedigree) finds out she's not a bastard so he jumps out of his hospital bed and goes racing back to Lena. Lena now has a fine pedigree so all is forgiven.
Weird.
This was already the third movie using the Lena Rivers story. I wonder if they all had this horse racing angle.

Day #22,221

Walk km 11,975-11,986: Meetup walk from Boulevard Casino to downtown Port Coquitlam

a pedestrian bridge
approx km 11,980 Coquitlam River

Movie #2127: Inside Deep Throat (2005, Bailey & Barbato)

When Linda Met Harry

No, it has nothing to do with Watergate.
Interesting stuff:
Harry Reems never served any jail time even though he was convicted for acting in Deep Throat. He became an alcoholic and a panhandler. Now he's a born-again Christian real-estate agent in Utah. 
Linda Lovelace said she loved Deep Throat, then said she hated it and was forced to do it, then said that she loved it. Then she died in a car crash.
Even today, the people who made and distributed the film don't want to talk about where the money went. They're still afraid of organized crime.

Day #22,220

Walk km 11,962-11,975: Meetup walk around Stanley Park

Movie #2126: Crime Unlimited (1935, Ralph Ince)

Superior movie in every way except one: the plot. It's about a gang of jewel thieves. Ho hum.
It looks like a lot of talent was wasted on this one.

Day #22,219

Walk km 11,959-11,962: to T&T

Movie #2125: Double Agent 73 (Doris Wishman, 1973)

I tried to find a picture of Liliana wearing one of those goofy 70s outfits but for some reason all the pictures on the google search have Liliana wearing less than a full outfit.

I really couldn't watch one Doris Wishman/Liliana Wilczkowska epic without watching the other one. These things do come in twos you know!
This time Liliana is a secret agent taking pictures using a camera implanted in her breast (for obvious reasons).
The plotting is incredibly bad. The dialogue is atrocious: "the flowers are beautiful" "not as beautiful as you baby". But the worst thing of all: those 70s fashions. Last time I kinda felt sorry for Liliana but according to Doris Wishman, she could take care of herself: Doris didn't make any more movies with Liliana because she was a real prima donna. But she got back at her: the clothes that she has to wear in this picture are horrible. Were these clothes for some kinda clown costume? Nope, just your typical 70s fashion.

Day #22,218

Walk km 11,942-11,959 (10,259 to go): Deer Lake to Braid Station via Boulevard Casino

Halloween decorations
approx km 11,949 Holmes Street

Book #434: A Heartbeat And A Guitar (Antonio D'Ambrosio, 2011)

This one claims to be about the making of Johnny Cash's LP "Bitter Tears". However, there's not much about thae making of Bitter Tears here. D'Ambrosio has to stretch things out and wander far afield in order to get this to book length. Coulda made a good magazine article.

Day #22,216-217

Walk: km 11,926-11,929: along Coal Harbour
Walk km 11,928-11,932: to Chinatown
Walk km 11,932-11,942 (10,275 to go): Sperling @ Canada Way to Braid Station

Movie #2124: Deadly Weapons (1973, Doris Wishman)

Doris brings her usual "home movie" style to this tale of a mob hit and the victim's girlfriend who tracks down the killers. There's enough goofy stuff here to make this one entertaining.
However, a person's main concern while watching  is "what ever became of Liliana Wilczkowska (the lead actress)?"). She obviously can't act and with her rather pronounced physical deformity a person would think that she must have been looking at a rather bleak future. I wonder if IMDB can tell us what became of her?
IMDB just mentions that she was married to umpire Dick Stello. Wikipedia says that she is currently living in Florida. She would now be 75 so I assume that whatever profession she persued after acting, she is now retired from it.

Day #22,215

Walk km 11,924-11,926: to T&T 

Movie #2123: Death From A Distance (1935, Frank R Strayer)

A whodunit. Yawn.

Day #22,214

Walk km 11,908-11,924: Meetup walk from QE Park to Deer Lake

park trail
approx km 11,921 Deer Lake Park

Movie rewatch: The Born Losers (1967, Tom Laughlin)

As soon as it started I realized I'd seen this one before but I watched it again anyway. The Citizen Kane of biker flicks.

Day #22,213

Walk km 11,906-11,908: to T&T

Movie #2122: Destination Murder (1950, Edward L Cahn)

Joyce MacKenzie - a cross between Mercedes McCambridge and Barbara Hale

It's a film noir but with Edward L Cahn behind the camera you know it won't be a good one.
However, Joyce MacKenzie is quite an eyeful and the final scene is a real hoot.

Day #22,211-212

Walk km 11,876-11,881: running errands
Walk km 11,881-11,906: Meetup walk from UBC to QEII Park

sights of QE Park at night
approx km 11,904 (photo by Christina of the Meetup group)

Day #22,210

Walk km 11,876-11,878: to T&T
Walk km 11,878-11,881 (10,329 to go): to Safeway

Movie #2121: Flying Blind (1941, Frank McDonald)

I 'm always a sucker for a Las Vegas movie. There couldn't have been much in Vegas in 1941 but the plot involves a airline that specializes in flights to Vegas and Reno for quickie marriages. The Vegas scenes consist of a collage of neon signs (none of which I recognized). Oh yes the movie. It's pathetic. It's a comedy and a drama (well, actually neither if you know what I mean).

Day #22,209

Walk km 11,862-11,876 (10,333 to go): Mundy Park to Braid Station

group photo
approx km 11,870  near Colony Farm Road

Day #22,208

Movie #2120: Blood Thirst (1971, Newt Arnold)

Newt "Hands Of A Stranger" Arnold is back. However, the murder/voodoo plot is just too much to overcome. Newt tries to jazz it up by having the detective talk to himself (out loud), carry a dummy of himself around in a suitcase and lose fights to a one-legged man . It ain't enough.

Day #22,206-207

Walk km 11,833-11,836: running errands
Walk km 11,836-11,850: Meetup around Stanley park seawall
Walk km 11,850-11,862 (10,345 to go): Meetup walk Cleveland Dam to Dundarave

Book #433: Double Indemnity (1936, James M Cain)

This is one of the books I got in Winnipeg during last month's vacation. This appears to be a kind of pre-Jim Thompson. It's certainly sick enough: murderer starts dating his victim's daughter! However, the first person narrative doesn't really delve into just how sick this guy is - which kind of works because it's interesting how he's a slime-of-the-earth type character but he can't really see that himself. But, for 1936, this must have been rather strong stuff.

Day #22,204-205

Walk km 11,815-11,818: running errands
Walk km 11,818-11,833: Meetup walk from Cleveland Dam to Waterfront Station

Burrard Inlet
approx km 11,829  from Lion's Gate Bridge

Day #22,203

Walk km 11,804-11,815: Meetup walk along Mosquito Creek

Book #432: The Milkman In The Night (Andrey Kurkov, 2009)


A novel of imagination. Strange things are happening in Kiev. Sleepwalkers take over parliament. A killer cat patrols the downtown at night.
A pleasant read that generally kept the pages turning (all 474 of them) even though there was no standard plot structure. All the twists and turns in the plot didn't lead to a big climax at the end. They just led to the end of the book.
An interesting note from the video: I always thought that Kiev was pronounced key-ev but he pronounces it key-v. But then he's Russian - what does he know!

Day #22,202

Walk km 11,795-11,804 (10,398 to go): Capilano Park

Cleveland Dam
approx km 11,797 north end of Capilano Park