Nick Cravat

On Tuesday morning I translated the second and third verses of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian.
            I finished working out the chords for “Joujou a la casse" (Dolly to the Trash) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and English and uploaded it to Christian’s Translations where I began the editing process before publication.

Around midday I started getting ready to go downtown to return the useless webcam to Staples and to shop for school books. Before leaving I checked my email and saw that the syllabus for Introduction to British Literature had been posted. The textbook for the course is The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume A. I looked for it on Library Genesis and they had every volume but the first.

I rode to BMV where they had the exact same hard copies of the anthology as the digital versions on LibGen, but no volume A. I did find Brother by David Chariandy, which I need for Introduction to Canadian Literature.

I went to the U of T Bookstore where because of the pandemic they’d changed the entrance to the one at the west end of the front of the building. There was a line-up, with one person ahead of me. Before the entrance was a woman in a kiosk telling people when they could go inside. First everyone had to read a list of symptoms and say they didn’t have them. I glanced at them briefly and said I’d read them before going in. The entrance was to the part of the store that sells the U of T branded clothing and accessories. I had to go upstairs to look for my books and found both The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline and Icefields by Thomas Wharton for Canadian Literature but the anthology required for British Literature hadn’t arrived yet. There’s a digital version available to buy online but I don’t have a credit card and so that’s not an option. I was told it might be there later in the week.

I rode to Staples and asked if they had any webcams that don’t require 64 bit computers but I was told they don’t sell those kind in the store. I returned the webcam I’d bought on Thursday and they refunded my bank account through debit.

I thought about looking elsewhere for a webcam but I knew I would need to pee soon and so I went home. I could check out the computer places at College and Spadina on the day I go back to buy the anthology.

When I got home I had a quick late lunch of watermelon, a cold pork chop and fruit bottom yogourt.

After a late siesta I got caught up on my journal.

            For dinner I had a potato, sautéed onion and orange pepper, a pork chop and gravy while watching two episodes of The Count of Monte Cristo.

            In the first story the count, Jacopo and Rico are just arriving home when Jacopo sees a gun aimed at the count through the crack in a doorway. Jacopo quickly pushes the count out of the way so the bullet only grazes his shoulder and then shoots the assassin. Before the shooter dies the count asks him who sent him and he replies, “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Later a banking official named Gabrier comes to see the count at his request but he expresses surprise that the count is in Paris since he recently instructed him from Albania to transfer eight million Louis to Tirana. The count looks at the signature and sees it is a clever forgery. The count and his friends travel to Albania. They first go to visit Baron L’Hota but find his house surrounded by soldiers and his daughter Maritza under house arrest. She has not seen the count since she was a child and does not recognize him but when he introduces himself she slaps his face. She thinks that he is the Count of Monte Cristo that is funding the dictatorship of Hassan Ben Ali, and who has imprisoned her father. The count calls Maritza "Ritza" which is a pet name for her that only her father and his closest friends use. Maritza has never seen the other count and she suddenly realizes that they took her father away because they know that he would expose the impostor. The count tells Maritza to call for the guards on her floor. Three of them arrive and are immediately knocked out. The count and his friends go to Ben Ali’s fortress dressed as his soldiers. Jacopo and Rico take out the two guards at the gate and replace them while the count goes inside. The count recognizes the man posing as himself as being in truth the Duke de Bonville who was banished from the court of King Louis several years ago. Still posing as soldiers the count and his friends go to a tavern. When some other soldiers come in to drink the count tells Jacopo and Rico that in order to rescue Baron L’Hota he needs the two of them on the inside of the prison. The count leaves and then Jacopo and Rico pretend to fight. When the other soldiers try to stop them they allow themselves to be arrested and taken to prison. Meanwhile Maritza is imprisoned for helping the three spies obtain soldier’s uniforms and for not revealing whom these men are. The count sneaks into the Duke of Bonville’s home and steals a ring with his insignia from his desk. He also uses the duke’s stationary to write a note permitting him to question Jacopo and Rico as the fake count’s representative. Once in the dungeon the count gets the jump on the guards and releases his men, as well as Maritza and her father. Next when the duke comes home the count is waiting for him. They begin to fight but then suddenly Ben Ali walks in with a gun. He is surprised to hear that his partner all this time was not the real Count of Monte Cristo. Hussan says he doesn’t care since the arms are arriving the next day he has no need of either of them. But the count informs Ali that his arms were intercepted and are now in the hands of L”Hota and his men. They hear the gunshots of Tirana being freed. Ali and the duke draw swords but after a fight they are defeated just as the count’s friends arrive.

            Maritza was played by Jean Quick, who was in “Com o Diablo no Corpo” and “Neapolitan Fantasy”.

            In the second story the count and his friends sail to Naples. That night a man with a knife in his back comes to them and dies. In his pocket is a watch with the insignia of the House of Savini, of which the count is co-owner. The count goes to visit Savini only to find that he died three days earlier and that he has arrived just as the will is to be read. The entire estate goes to Savini’s daughter Bianca, which surprises both she and her fiancé Vittorio whom Savini had groomed to take over the business. Bianca and Vittorio are engaged but as a matter of honour now Vittorio can’t go through with the marriage because he doesn’t want it seen that he married her for her money. The count notes that the will is dated from before Vittorio joined the company and wonders why there is not a later will. Later the count and his friends sneak into the lawyer’s home and steal his papers relating to Savini. The will is not there but there is a reference to a man named who may have been one of the witnesses to a second will. The count is visited by police inspector Questore who reveals that the stabbed man was named Bardo. Later the count casually leaks the false information to Brosa the lawyer and Savini’s former partner Durracq that the man who was stabbed is alive and being nursed on his boat. That night while the count and his friends pretend to have retired, a gang of four thugs arrive on the boat. The thugs are ambushed and the count learns they are to be paid at a certain tavern. At the tavern the count and his friends are ambushed by Brosa, Durracq and the witness to the second will. They fight until Durracq has an opportunity to shoot the count but suddenly inspector Questore arrives to shoot Durracq. Vittorio, inherits the estate after all and marries his second cousin Bianca.

            Questore is an interesting character because he pretends to be a bumbling policeman and yet he always knows what is going on and what to do about it. He was played by Philip Leaver, who also played Brosa.

            Bianca was played by Hildy Christian.

            Jacopo was played by Nick Cravat who had been half of a circus and Vaudeville acrobatic act with Burt Lancaster called “Lang and Cravat”. They met when they were teenagers in summer camp. After a few years Lancaster hurt his hand and couldn’t continue the act but once he was in films he and Cravat reunited. Cravat appeared in nine Lancaster movies. When he did period pieces such as “The Count of Monte Cristo”, he always played characters that could not speak because he had such a heavy Brooklyn accent that it wouldn’t have sounded right. He played the gremlin that terrorized William Shatner in the Twilight Zone episode “Terror at 20,000 Feet”.