Today in Supreme Court History: September 8, 1953

9/8/1953: Chief Justice Fred Vinson dies.

Chief Justice Fred Vinson

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Tuscarora Nation of Indians v. Power Authority of the State of New York, 79 S.Ct. 4 (decided September 8, 1958): Harlan partially grants and partially denies Second Circuit’s stay of condemnation of Tuscarora lands for power project; power authority says it can hold off on some parts of it without financial loss; notes that tribe’s separate action disputing the Power Authority’s license in the D.C. District Court would be heard by the D.C. Circuit, not the Second Circuit (the Power Authority eventually won, 362 U.S. 99, 1960)

[Mr. Bumble]

Unfortunately Vinson died too young (only 63) and led to Eisenhower’s worst mistake Chief Justice Earl (not the pearl) Warren.

[Magister]

You would have wanted Vinson to survive long enough to be replaced by whom, appointed by what president? Or did you just want Warren to have less time on the court?

[Dan Schiavetta]

today's movie review: Angel on My Shoulder, 1946

Another movie where Claude Rains comes to earth from the afterlife, only this time it's Hell instead of Heaven (as in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, 1941). In Hell, Rains ("Nick" -- or Beelzebub or Mephistopheles?) is freezing (the temperature is down to 180°!) due to not enough damned souls to work the furnace. Somehow a large number of the living have to be turned to the side of Evil. A recently arrived criminal (Paul Muni, as "Eddie") looks exactly like a living judge who is an exemplar of goodness and running for governor. If that judge could be turned, he could turn a lot of people with him . . . Eddie was shot dead by a partner in crime ("Smiley") and wants to get back at him. Deal: Eddie assumes the body of the judge and becomes a force for Evil, and meanwhile as a living person again gets to kill Smiley.

Things don't go according to Nick's plan.

Eddie (the judge) is about to speak at a rally of law enforcement men and Nick urges him to tell them off -- after all, they are his natural enemies. He's about to do it when the judge's political opponent dirty-trick men start throwing things. The "judge", showing surprising pugilistic skills, punches them out -- a hero! Next, he arranges a bribe from a couple accused of murder. Seeing that the "wife" is an old girlfriend who was unfaithful, he throws the money back at them -- just as a court officer enters the room. Refusing a bribe! Eddie is only cementing the judge's reputation for probity.

A lot of little Heaven-and-Hell jokes. Nick doesn't like flying in airplanes because they're too close to Heaven. When Eddie goes to get married Nick can't go near a church. Etc. Only one misfires to a modern audience. At the political rally there's a bunch of priests joking with little boys. Nick has to stay away from them. For us in the 21st century, we would think the Devil would find this fertile ground for his antics.

The movie has a 1940's sensibility which we have to make adjustments for. Only one scene really spoke to me, and it's because I'm in my sixties. Eddie, an accomplished safecracker, has no problem opening the judge's hidden safe to get the $ inside. Watching Muni lean close to the dial, turning it slowly and carefully, I was reminded of my experiences with the UHF dial on our TV. I think Eddie, unlike me, would have been able to get Channel 47.

The situation is confusing to the judge's fiancée Barbara (Anne Baxter), who thinks he's gone crazy but is oddly turned on by his bad-guy passionate embrace. The movie becomes serious when Eddie notices all the people who love "him" and feels accepted for the first time in his life. He has utterly failed to turn people toward Evil but Nick at least urges him to kill Smiley. But Eddie instead just tries to drive him crazy thinking he's seen a ghost. Conveniently, Smiley backs out of a window and falls to his death. The deal busted, Eddie goes to sleep and the judge re-enters his body as Nick takes Eddie back to Hell. It won't be so bad, because Eddie knows of Nick's embarrassing failure and will use it as blackmail to get a position in the Hell hierarchy. (Milton: "It's better to rule in Hell . . .")

"Smiley" is played by Hardie Albright who is always smiling, even when asleep, except at the end when he is frightened by Eddie's "ghost" and un-smiling is unrecognizable.

The great Claude Rains has lots of fun as Nick and he gets a lot of good lines, along the lines of "what fools these mortals be!" This is typical: in Good versus Evil stories, the bad guys are always the more interesting. Here the good guys (except for Barbara) are all bland stick figures. Muni's role is also something a great actor like him can sink his teeth into. We never get to meet the judge as the judge, so there is no opportunity to prove otherwise. It would have allowed Muni to show even more acting chops. But one guesses he would be bland too. Would Barbara really be happy with him? Has she admitted to herself that like a lot of girls she's attracted to bad boys?

The opponent's dirty-tricks gangsters are a fun crowd too. Being told that the judge wants a bribe for the accused couple, their leader says, "He's the biggest two-timing crook who ever ran for office! He's even worse than our own man!"

Of course, this "Hell" is not really Hell. Nobody would want to go back to actual eternal agony. One also wonders where the idea originated, that places below the ground must be hot. Geothermal heat was not yet discovered when the idea originated. Hell being full of fire is an ancient idea, and also since ancient times mining -- getting riches from tearing out the Earth's guts, as opposed to living off its fruit -- has been seen as somehow wrong. To quote Milton again, talking about one of the Devils (Mammon, I think):

Ransacking the Center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth
For Treasures better hid.

"Paradise Lost", I.686-688

Also one wonders where the idea arose that "Good" is "Up" and "Evil" is "Down". "Moral and spiritual worth being greater or less in ratio to the distance outwards from the earth's center, would certainly seem to be, if stated nakedly like that, an odd proposition." (Edwyn Bevan, "Symbolism and Belief", 1938 at p. 30)

I'm getting a little too thoughtful here.

Thanks to apedad for recommending this movie.

Best line:

Doctor (talking about the judge's recent behavior): "He should withdraw from the race. Voters don't vote for lunatics."

Barbara: "I haven't noticed."

[apedad]

THANK YOU!

I'll have to watch it again to see how your comments match up.

I also thought there was a "sacrifice for the people/things you love" angle.

[Dan Schiavetta]

True. I forgot to put that in. Though as noted this “Hell” isn’t too bad.

A real sacrifice (to save the universe from blowing up) is made by the “Good Lazarus” in the original Star Trek episode “The Alternative Factor”.

To be honest I found the twists and turns of the final 20 minutes pretty confusing. There must have been a lot of puzzled conversations outside the theater in 1946.

[SRG2]

But Satan isn't allowed a win - which is why the ending of "Alias Nick Beal" is a slight disappointment.

[Magister]

Not the worst episode in the original Star Trek series, but easily the most confusing.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Sloppiness of conception. The edge of the galaxy is the limit of where the Enterprise can go but Spock says the shock wave (or whatever it was) was felt “far beyond”. And if the universe winked out of existence for a moment one would think not only the Enterprise would be involved in figuring out what happened.

Worst of all, no inadequately clothed female aliens.

[SRG2]

As a public service...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/En013gyXYAEh97V.jpg

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks. A reminder of what real science fiction is like.

[Magister]

I'm not going to try to explain it, because it cannot make sense. But no matter how many female aliens and no matter how little clothing, the episode could not be salvaged.

[SRG2]

As far as the underworld being hot, there was enough vulcanism in the Mediterranean for the ancients to be aware of heat coming up from underground. Phlegethon, the river of fire in Hades, may have been inspired by observing streams of molten lava. But the idea of Hell itself being hot I think comes from the Ravings Revelation of St John. what with seas of molten brimstone (sulphur).

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks.

Titles of biblical books were added later by scribes for easy reference, and given the slow acceptance of some of those books, I think an early scribe, rolling his eyes, really did create that title. Ultimately changed to "Revelation" by St. Jerome.

[ducksalad]

Including that book in the canon was very bad judgment. A theological mistake since it's got lots of material unrelated to the rest of Jewish/Christian teaching, a literary mistake since it reads like a bad fever dream, and a practical mistake since it led to all kinds of harmful millenarian behaviors.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I agree!

[CJColucci]

Felix Frankfurter said Vinson's death was the first evidence he had seen that God exists.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Pleasant man.

He probably wished Vinson had lived, when the Warren Court came into its own.