The African Queen

This wonderful old film (60 years old!) was showing at the Normal Theater last night.  After I took Mom and Dad out for their surprise meal at the Medici (grilled portabella burger for me, pesto seafood pasta for Dad, and some fancy salad with chicken for Mom) we strolled down North Avenue to the theater.

Last night they gave away 4 door prizes.  And just like every  other night I've gone to the Normal Theater for the past 10 years, I did not win one of them.  My green ticket with the number 333 was a big Loser.  But just getting to go to the Normal Theater is a prize all its own.  The restored theater I remember from my childhood charges 6 bucks to get it but popcorn and soda are a buck each.  The seats are comfortable.  There are no commercials and rarely previews.  The volume is perfect.  On the flyer you pick up at the door which tells you about the film it clearly states that if your cell phone goes off during the movie you will be ejectd with no refund.  Ha!  So there!

Last night we had a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon before the film.  It featured Tweety and his li'l-ol'lady owner on a river boat.  Perfect and very funny.  Poor putty tat!

I had never seen the African Queen on a big screen, nor in color.  I had forgotten a few of the fine facial expressions that Humphrey and Kate use to convey some of the best humor in the film.  (Poor Kate, after 10 years in the Congo, doesn't know the joke about Why Does the Chicken Cross the Road.)

I also had forgotten the scene in which Rose and Charlie are about to be hung by the Germans.  Charlie asks the ship captain to marry them.  He does.  And says "I now pronounce you man and wife.  Proceed with the Execution!"   For those of us who have been involved in less-than-happy marriages in our lives, that line reverberates a bit.  Yes indeed.

But they survived in the film, and the rest of us have survived our own challenges, exploding ships or tempers, and here we are...alive and well.