You Can't Stay Silent For Ever, And Sulking Is Such An Ugly Look

Despite all the assurances from my American friends that it simply couldn't happen, there is no going back now - President Trump will be a reality. It does though beggar belief. I will confine myself to the solace of his sounding (for the first time) at least vaguely presidential in his victory speech.

Some interesting figures to conjure with: Clinton will have won the popular vote by in excess of one million votes. Pretty good for a system allegedly rigged in her favour. Trump has won with fewer votes received than 'Loser' Mitt Romney four years' ago.

It's not enough to have every intelligent person in the country voting for me. I need a majority.    Adlai Stevenson

But hey. ho, life goes on. A distraction has been the melodramas of Bette Davis, specifically Mr Skeffington and Dark Victory. Melodrama is not, of course, purely a cinematic genre but it certainly enjoyed a jolly good run as such, not least with Davis as the star vehicle. At the core of technical success of these films was Hollwood's careful custodianship of the image of Davis herself as self-made, self-sufficient, the anti-glamorous if you will. These films are product but they are top-grade product. For collectors of such things Dark Victory includes a portrayal of a harmless lush by Ronald Reagan and a woefully miscast Humphrey Bogart as a stable hand.