Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Let me tell you, this week was awful. Downright dreadful. Firstly, I was given a bath on Monday morning. I did not feel good at all afterwards. On Tuesday, I fell ill in the morning with a horrible upset stomach. I blame it on the previous day’s bath. Then on Wednesday, I was taken to the vet! The vet, mind you, where I was weighed, had my temperature taken, my nails filed, and my shots administered. Horrifying! I’ve had no time to deal with that wicked bobcat at all. All I could do after the entire debacle was curl up on my pillow by the window and shudder. You would think Halloween arrived early. That dismal time when small humans come to my door to upset me with their bizarre need for candy. Which my novelist gleefully reminded me is this Saturday.
The only solace I found the entire week came in the form of a phone call from Bernard D. Bunny and Sergio Squirrel. They asked me why I had not talked to them this week and I explained the entire kafuffle. They were most understanding and told me that the rain had kept the furry feline beast at bay. This brought me great relief. Apparently, she ate cat food that the neighborhood Felis catus provided her with and bothered none of the wildlife. Still, we are all on edge. One cannot trust a bobcat. I promised as soon as I felt better, I would contact Crispin Z. Coyote to arrange another forum in the park with Bebe per what we discussed at last week’s meeting. They agreed it would be for the best as none of us knew the shenanigans she might be planning to pull.
In the meantime, I must put up with my novelist carving a pumpkin. A dreaded tradition I suffer through every year. At least she uses a pumpkin carving kit and a paper pattern. I cannot imagine how horrific that activity would be without those implements. Not to mention, I am quite perturbed my novelist does not allow me to have Halloween candy. Those strange children come to the door in peculiar clothes, and they get candy but not me. I am not picky here. A few white chocolate chips would suffice but no. This is why I bark at the tiny urchins. This is why I detest the dratted Halloween. Perhaps you will enjoy the spooky holiday better than I. Until next week I bid you tricks or treats and adieu.
MY BOOKS
You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!
HALLOWEEN DOUBLE FEATURE STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE STEPFATHER (1987)-PLEX, PLUTO TV, PRIME VIDEO, ROKU, TUBI & THE CHANGELING (1980) PLEX, PLUTO, TUBI
This week on my continuing quest to find great, overlooked movies I am highlighting a Halloween Double Feature. Each of them happens to be set in the Pacific Northwest. The first film. The Stepfather is a real treat. If you are familiar with the television show LOST, then you know the wonderful Emmy Award winning actor Terry O’Quinn. I do wonder if his turn here in the title role may have intensified what viewers in the know may have suspected of his character John Locke when they first saw him on the island.
The movie, believe it or not, is based on a true story about a real sweetheart named John Emil List. He was the only child of German American parents which is probably a good thing, and not just because they were first cousins once removed. List was a devout Lutheran and Sunday School teacher. He also, low and behold, received a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in accounting and was a lieutenant in the ROTC. I am referring to this book which I encourage you to read: The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Dr. Kevin Dutton. Also, an eleventh occupation has been added to the list of occupations: Social Media Influencers. Think about that the next time you visit your favorite social media site.
The story starts out strong and is reminiscent of the great Hitchcock film Shadow of a Doubt. A fatherly looking bespeckled man with curly hair and a mustache cleans up in the bathroom. There is blood on his hands. He cleans up, cuts his hair, dons a suit, puts a stray toy back in a child’s toybox, shuts the lid, grabs a handled case and heads downstairs where the bloody mess of his slaughtered family lays. He leaves the house calmly walks down the street and gets on a ferry in the Pacific Northwest where he tosses the case overboard and watches it sink into the water.
One year later, we find the man has changed his name from Henry Morrison to Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) and has landed a job as a real estate agent. Jerry has remarried widow Susan Maine (Shelly Hack) who has a sixteen-year-old daughter named Stephanie Maine (Jill Schoelen). Stephanie does not like Jerry at all as she tells both her mother and her psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant (Charles Lanyer). Jerry, a big fan of order and the sanctity of the family unit, is displeased Stephanie is having discipline problems at school, and that she is suspicious of him.
In the meantime, the brother of Jerry’s slaughtered wife, Jim Ogilvie (Stephen Shellen), runs an ad in the newspaper about the murders. Jerry sees the article at a barbeque he throws for the people he has sold houses to, goes into the basement and begins acting erratically, which Stephanie happens to witness. She then sends a letter to the newspaper requesting a photo of the murderer.
In The Changeling, a unique twist on the haunted house story, John Russell (George C. Scott) is a successful music composer living in New York City. On a trip to upstate New York when his car gives out in the snow, he witnesses the death his wife and young daughter in an automobile accident.
Riddled with grief, he moves to the other side of the country and attempts to restart his life as a music professor at his alma mater, the University of Washington. While there he rents a mansion from Claire Norman (George C. Scott’s real life wife Trish Van Devere), an agent of a local historical society. First the place is a solace for him where he can teach and continue to work on his compositions. But shortly after moving in, he begins hearing an unexplained loud banging every morning. The banging gives way to other strange occurrences such as all the water taps turning on, his deceased daughter’s ball bouncing down the stairs after he’s dropped it off a bridge, and a music box he finds playing the same tune as the one he just composed.
Believing something in the house is trying to communicate with him, he enlists Claire to help him investigate the history of the house and the buried secrets it contains. Rounding out the cast is Melvin Douglass as Senator Carmichael.
