Charlie Chan and his number one son…Warner Oland & Key Luke respectively, (Sidney Toler on Charlie retiring his patrimony after somany “ Do you get the drift? of “ chin ling”detection.
II
Bloodhounds, greyhounds sniffing out those non- quality human beings who thought they could beat the system and go their own way.
III
“Number one son,” asked Charlie Chan
“Yes papa,” said Key Luke in to his chopsticks of chop suey, a kettle of hot water and tea bags to the hilt, comparable to those first Chinese tea rooms in Bensonhurst’s 86th Street, when our unc (Uncle Phil_) gave us a blood transfusion,(no penincilum in those yesterdays)after thirty days in a typhoid fever coma and we saw our soul ascending and coming back into our body.Unc’s jaded eyes, opening wide.
Jimmy Cagey of Red Hook, offering his farm… Free acres N.J. for our recuperation.
A rippling stream alongside, with squawking blue jays and flying squirrels. Hay wagons to the local village for a movie outing.
On recovery, a’33 Plymouth thru the pretzel vendor at the Holland Tunnel, thru the Dust Bowl,(Oklahoma and Kansas) the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Venice canals,California (the speedway… the bathroom out in the hall) where Charlie Chaplin found his persona-derby mustache baggy pants oversizedshoes and cane, on a roller skate rink, several blocks from muscle beach and the Aragon Ballroom, on the deep sea dive pier.
Casino Gardens and Jimmy Dorsey’s sound, the bingo joint, penny arcade on the Ocean Park boardwalk environs, off the sandy beach..
IV
Meanwhile number one son…. dangling the Chinese noodles on his chopsticks, taking his free hand and handed a crisp napkin to his father.
“Papa… prima facie evidence? ‘ Have a good day!’
‘HAVE A GOOD DAY!” number one son? What is the meaning of the meaning?
According to Confucious? Prima facie? twohard borne confederates serving time in a maximum security prison, for life…nothing like our Cultural Revolution, number one. Mao’s treasure trove of navigating his way back into power. ”
V
Charlie Chan made like a spit ball….’Have a good day’ flying through the air…“ But what they didn’t know that the Bronx born acrobat turned actor artist… Burtram Lancaster was into their imprisonment life style. Their twosome way of life. Taking my “Brute Force” and making it their very own, without giving their Yvonne de Carlo any credit for the power instruments and a getaway car..
“ That ain’t right!“
VI
“Brute Force” papa…..it beats Chaplin andBrando’s “Countess from Hong Kong”.
An inside caper, the Yvonne de Carlo role for Bertram’s aide de camp was Yvonne. The dynamite, nitro, blasting their way through the cement wall and those barbed wire towerwalls…under the turf, burrowing through theirtunnels and up to a sewer drain, the aide de camp’s car waiting.…..the Marquis d Sade never had it so good.”
“Have a good day, papa.”
VII
“You can squawk all you want about quality human beings. But these two middle aged career hoods are as smart as they get. High IQ’s into their ”Angels with dirty faces”repitoire.
Rehab therapeutic roles in the high securityfacility, located in the Adirondocks.
Wearing civvies in the honor program, theyenjoyed a measure of interior freedom. Like Cagney and Bogy’s “Angels with Dirty Faces”…..
Two desperados… outwitting Warden Lawsnumber one. Those “Sing Sing” radio dramas.
Only you number one, were too young to remember. Sitting in your yellow high chair inthe kitchen, above Dr. Jarvis’s dental office, two blocks from Kings Highway and that new high school Tilden, wasn’t that right? Number one?Am Sam Levinson, the maestro, teaching “Habla el Espnol” and on Sundays…. Ed Sullivan’s “60 minutes”
VIII
Key Luke, number one son, twirled his chopsticks…”Confucious says “Have a good day”, he taking a note from the two inmates breakout from solitary confinement, kindness getting to the lady employee who aided and abetted their bonding with the “power tools “ammo”tothwart the Warden’s hound dogs from getting their scent..eleven days on the lam.
Penitentiary convicts considered too tough for the ordinary run o the mill convicts, beyond redemption, number one..
“How could they make their way, without the aid and abetting of “the Countess from HongKong”, papa?.”
On his own Chinese noodle twirl, Charlie Chan reflected, off his cataract surgery at Dr. Marv’s empire in the balcony of the Avenue J MidwoodTheater on Avenue J…whence the thought. “Charlie Chan and number one son, living the good life in Brooklyn.
”Hardened opium inhaling Fu Manchu’s, could make their getaway without the Countess,number one.
As blind as I am from Dr. Marv’s cataract surgery…the cataract was ripe to beholden. Taken from obscurity, into his ophthalmogybalcony …”the latest state of the art”
Jack Benny’s “George Washington slept here” part and parcel of your adolescent teen age Midwood High School memory andmetamorphosis….part of your Art Carny fantasy in Dr Marv’s balcony, number one..
His Empire that the public perception was unaware of …until Charlie Chan go the call some twenty five thirty years later, number one.
Your papa, Charlie Chan, needed the cataractto be removed. The technology like stem cell therapy..into the future.””
“That’s your call” mumled the chief honcho,probing the retina, its iris, the cataract begging pleading to be removed. For the betterment ofaging vision…a three pointer from downtown.
The anestheologist and those vibrant nurses, clamoring their way ” latest state of the art” 0Jin the operating room.
“Your papa Charlie Chan, lives again, number one. His once cloudy vision, restored to days of yore. Like Jack Benny’s “George Washington slept here”..the Filipino yo yo contests between those Midwood double features.
IX
“Charlie Chan nd his number one son livedagain. A revival like the “Phantom of the Opera”, number one. My take on this Burt Lancaster Yvonne de Carlo “Brute Force” and the Birdman of Alcatraz” is that these desperados… if your papa Charlie Chan can use the expression….
”Have a good day” is an insult to Confucius. A quality human being. These escapees areoutcasts, indicative of their egotism in my non-cataract vision, masterminding their getaway. But the twist isn’t the lady providing the fuses,chisels, nitro, and fortunately she reneged on the getaway car, confessed to her Peter Sellers “Inspector”. Or Scotland Yard if you may,number one. Confessing to giving IDs…where in their guise, wearing civvies, they trumped Lancaster and his gun moll, Yvonne.
“For all we know ..bloodhounds, greyhounds, Lassie Rin Tin Tin…new dogs on the Dr. Marv balcony venue Midwoodmovie block…lost their scent.
The two. for all God knows, could be in Juarez, Guadalajara, Tiajuana Acapulco Encinada,,
A Chinese cuisine of noodles… the papa and number one son twirling their chop sticks into the chop suey.
X
Confucious says “Brute Force” and the “Birdman of Alcatraz” Burt Lancaster’s pivotal box office triumphs were too much of a model for the up state Warden Laws and the pen.
keeping a lid on the Sing Sing radio drama..But
it is to early to call the escape a triumph at the Sing Sing prison ….
The “Brute Force” revival is very much of of acyber space electronic dimension and configuration.….
Number one so Key Luke and his papa, Charlie Chan, tick tacking their four chopsticks, twirling their Chinese noodles into space…
”It’s your call, Charlie”.
Twiddle de twiddle duh ‘Have a god day’.
June 17, 2015 The City that never sleeps
