The Writer's Life 7/21 - Movie Folks

Last night I watched an independent film, Infinity Chamber (2016), courtesy of Netflix. It is quiet, cerebral sci-fi. The story is simple: a man awakens in a chamber with no recollection of how he got there. The computer that controls it has one goal - to keep him alive. Clues are dropped via flashback throughout the narrative, chiefly of the protagonist's encounter with the female proprietor of a coffee shop. He engages in a battle of wits with the computer, escape his goal. I was a bit baffled when the reason for his incarceration was revealed. I was wondering why his opponents hadn't simply killed him. I may have missed something. The movie was written and directed by Travis Milloy, only his second stint at the helm. He has greater experience writing and producing. I was not familiar with the actors, both of whom were fine. Christopher Soren Kelly has 43 acting credits, most of them in shorts, which he has also directed, edited and written. Cassandra Clark has 17 credits. Like Kelly, she has done several shorts. She also co-created and directed a TV series, Englishman in L.A., which shot nine episodes in 2014. 4700+ users at IMDb have rated Infinity Chamber, forging to a consensus of 6.3 on a scale of ten. I agree. Those who prefer slam bang action should pass, as there is virtually none here. It runs an hour-and-forty-three minutes at a leisurely pace. Here are stills of the leads in character:

Afterward, I landed on a PBS station that was airing Something to Sing About (1937), a musical starring James Cagney and Evelyn Daw, possessor of a big voice who acted in only two films before marrying and retiring. It was directed by Victor Schertzinger, who had an amazing career cut short by a fatal heart attack in 1941 at 53. He toured as a violinist and conductor before landing in Hollywood, where he directed 89 films, produced five, and worked on the screenplays of six. IMDb also lists 23 credits under his name as Composer, and his music has been used 117 times on soundtracks on the big and small screen, as recently as 2014 in a Glen Campbell documentary, I'll Be Me, and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Here's a pic of this gifted soul that includes a prediction that didn't come true: 

And here's Daw with her leading man:

It was an unusually cool afternoon for July. My thanks to Danny, who for the third straight week bought non-fiction in bulk; and to the gentleman who purchased the Paul McCartney and Wings pictorial; and to the elderly woman who selected a romance compilation; and to the woman who selected a book in Russian, and to the other who did a four-for-three swap in that category.

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