Post by bookrefuge on Oct 24, 2011 19:21:22 GMT -5
It has been said that “Life imitates art,” and vice versa. Let me say up front that I am not suggesting that Hollywood has given us any clues to the Lindbergh kidnapping. But I would like to muse on some parallels.
In 1957 Hollywood released its version of the famed Lindbergh transatlantic flight, Spirit of Saint Louis. Their choice to play the role of Lindbergh was Jimmy Stewart. Although too old for the part (he was 47, Lindbergh had been 25) Hollywood probably figured that, among its stable of actors, no one conveyed a clean-cut American better than Stewart.
I find it interesting that Stewart’s last previous role had been in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which he starred opposite Doris Day—sort of pairing Hollywood’s “Boy Next Door” and “Girl Next Door.” In the film, they played a couple whose young son is kidnapped. I’m sure that when Stewart played Lindbergh, this coincidence must have crossed his mind.
In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Stewart’s son is kidnapped by a deceptive British couple—wolves in sheeps’ clothing. While it was natural enough for Hitchcock to use British actors, thoughts of Whateley and Sharpe can drift to mind.
When Stewart arrives in England seeking his son, he rejects an offer of help from the police. This is because he fears their interference could result in his son’s death. And this is one place where I think we might take a cue from Hollywood, even though it was fiction. I have seen Lindbergh criticized for keeping the police out of the ransom process, even saying it helps prove Lindbergh was covering up culpability for killing his own son. To the contrary, I personally think Lindbergh was trying to ensure CAL Jr.’s safe return. When his son turned up (apparently) dead, he left the rest of the investigation to the police.
In the movie, the kidnapped son is kept in a church called Ambrose Chapel. Hitchcock portrayed the church in a dark, eerie manner—and one is easily reminded of the occultic Temple of Divine Power that seemed to connect so many LKC figures.
The Man Who Knew Too Much was actually a remake of an earlier version released in 1934—when the Lindbergh kidnapping was universally considered an open case. In that version, the chief villain was played by Peter Lorre—who, like Isador Fisch, was a Jew who had recently immigrated from Germany and was only a year older than Fisch. Lorre’s most famous role in Germany—and of his career—was in the unique film M, in which he played… a child murderer who completely eludes all efforts of the police to find him. (He is only caught when members of the underworld collaborate to catch him.)
Is there significance to this? No, but it is a reminder that sometimes coincidences do happen. And that is something I need to bear in mind as I join the ranks of those seeking the truth about the LKC. Some coincidences are clues to criminal activity. Others are merely innocent happenstance. Both are weaved into the LKC, and one of our tasks is to distinguish the two. That is a great challenge 79 years after the fact—but we do have advantages that were missing to investigators back then: new documents that have come to light, and an Internet that can, with lightning speed, connect dots in a way impossible in the 1930s.
In 1957 Hollywood released its version of the famed Lindbergh transatlantic flight, Spirit of Saint Louis. Their choice to play the role of Lindbergh was Jimmy Stewart. Although too old for the part (he was 47, Lindbergh had been 25) Hollywood probably figured that, among its stable of actors, no one conveyed a clean-cut American better than Stewart.
I find it interesting that Stewart’s last previous role had been in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which he starred opposite Doris Day—sort of pairing Hollywood’s “Boy Next Door” and “Girl Next Door.” In the film, they played a couple whose young son is kidnapped. I’m sure that when Stewart played Lindbergh, this coincidence must have crossed his mind.
In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Stewart’s son is kidnapped by a deceptive British couple—wolves in sheeps’ clothing. While it was natural enough for Hitchcock to use British actors, thoughts of Whateley and Sharpe can drift to mind.
When Stewart arrives in England seeking his son, he rejects an offer of help from the police. This is because he fears their interference could result in his son’s death. And this is one place where I think we might take a cue from Hollywood, even though it was fiction. I have seen Lindbergh criticized for keeping the police out of the ransom process, even saying it helps prove Lindbergh was covering up culpability for killing his own son. To the contrary, I personally think Lindbergh was trying to ensure CAL Jr.’s safe return. When his son turned up (apparently) dead, he left the rest of the investigation to the police.
In the movie, the kidnapped son is kept in a church called Ambrose Chapel. Hitchcock portrayed the church in a dark, eerie manner—and one is easily reminded of the occultic Temple of Divine Power that seemed to connect so many LKC figures.
The Man Who Knew Too Much was actually a remake of an earlier version released in 1934—when the Lindbergh kidnapping was universally considered an open case. In that version, the chief villain was played by Peter Lorre—who, like Isador Fisch, was a Jew who had recently immigrated from Germany and was only a year older than Fisch. Lorre’s most famous role in Germany—and of his career—was in the unique film M, in which he played… a child murderer who completely eludes all efforts of the police to find him. (He is only caught when members of the underworld collaborate to catch him.)
Is there significance to this? No, but it is a reminder that sometimes coincidences do happen. And that is something I need to bear in mind as I join the ranks of those seeking the truth about the LKC. Some coincidences are clues to criminal activity. Others are merely innocent happenstance. Both are weaved into the LKC, and one of our tasks is to distinguish the two. That is a great challenge 79 years after the fact—but we do have advantages that were missing to investigators back then: new documents that have come to light, and an Internet that can, with lightning speed, connect dots in a way impossible in the 1930s.