Stafford Repp

            On Sunday morning I posted on Facebook the lyrics for “Come to Cannes if You Can”, my translation of “A Cannes cet été” by Boris Vian. I searched for recordings of his songs “Je vous ai vue un jour d'avril”, “Julia”, and “Martine” but no recordings seem to have been made of them. But I found a recording of his song “Rue Traversièr” and listened to it once. Tomorrow I’ll start memorizing it.

            I memorized the third verse of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think I’ll call my translation “Adonis on the Roof”.

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. I was still three days behind on my journal and so before lunch I worked on my review of the latest Doctor Who Special: "Joy to the World". 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before lunch. I had rice crackers with five-year old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            When I got up from my siesta it was raining but I brushed my teeth and got ready for a bike ride anyway just in case it stopped. But it didn’t stop and when I started riding I only got one block before I decided to turn around and go home. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos at 16:40, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since December 4.

            Being back from my bike ride early gave me a chance to work on my journal. I finished my review of Doctor Who before dinner. I had another quarter of the reheated lasagna and it was even better on the third re-heating. I added a bit of five-year-old cheddar to the mozzarella. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 31 and 32 of Batman. 

            In episode 31, an old silent film is being played for an audience during the opening of Gotham’s new art palace. The old movies were donated by the collector Van Jones, who is in attendance. After the ending the audience is gathered in the lobby when the Riddler comes in dressed as and imitating Charlie Chaplin. A woman in roaring 20s attire comes down the stairs and he flirts with her silently. Then three old style cops come after him and he evades them. While the audience is laughing he ducks into the box office. He gasses the clerk and knocks her out then steals the money. As the fake police are arresting the woman the fake little tramp gives himself up and they all leave, having successfully robbed the art palace, while the audience applauds. Later Commissioner Gordon realizes the Riddler was behind this and so Batman is called. When Batman arrives at police headquarters he is informed of a riddle that has been sent. “Why is a musician’s bandstand like an oven?” Robin says, “Because that’s where he makes his bread”. Batman concludes the Riddler intends to rob Mother Gotham’s Bakery, the biggest in town. At the bakery an old style movie camera is set up by Riddler’s crew before the robbery. he says he’s been commissioned by Van Jones to make a modern silent film featuring Batman. Riddler’s girl Pauline is wearing a short but patched dress. She pretends to be crying and knocks on the bakery door to beg. The baker is sympathetic and is about to give in when she says for him to take her shawl in exchange. Then she puts it over his head, then the Riddler and his men move in. The Riddler heads for the payroll office with a cart full of whipped sleeping cream pies. The guard gets one in the face and falls asleep. Inside the two accountants also are filmed having sleeping pies thrown in their faces. Riddler opens the safe with an explosive eclair. The place is robbed, then Riddler leaves a riddle on the wall in icing. Batman and Robin arrive and are filmed as they investigate the bakery. The riddle is “How do you make a dishonest shortcake?” The answer is out of lie-berry. They head for the branch library on Baker Street. The Riddler’s film crew are already waiting there. The door is locked but Batman gets in with the Bat key. When they enter, a giant book falls on their heads with the title A Pictorial History of Silent Films. Inside are two more riddles: “What do you find in a kitchen cabinet that is not alive?” and “When is a new car considered to be seedy?” They take the book back to the Batcave for analysis. The answer to the first riddle, fitting with the movie theme is “deadpans”. Meanwhile the Riddler’s new hideout is the abandoned cutting room of a bankrupt movie studio. The second riddle’s solution is a new car is seedy when it’s a lemon. Batman says Van Jones is throwing a party today and he is famous for being against the use of alcohol so he will be serving lemonade. Batman and Robin head for the party. Meanwhile Riddler plans to spike the lemonade with his special anger potion with his men posing as waiters. At the party the guests begin arguing, including Gordon and Chief O’Hara. Then the whole party breaks into a fist fight with the women throwing punches too. While Batman urges everyone to be calm, Robin is waiting in the Batmobile. Pauline approaches him dressed as Little Boe Peep and asks for his help. She says a man in green kidnapped her little brother and then asked a riddle: “When is a bonnet not a bonnet?” Robin answers it: “When it becomes a woman.” Then she gasses Robin and knocks him out. Batman sees the film crew filming the fight and chases them. Robin is abducted and tied to a log conveyor in an old lumber mill leading to a buzz saw which would cut him in two. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 32, while Robin comes closer and closer to the spinning buzzsaw blade, Batman leaves the violent party after giving everyone the antidote to the Riddler’s temper tonic. Batman sees that Robin is gone and has left his transmitter behind. When Batman starts the Batmobile the exhaust shoots a riddle in the air that comes down on a parachute: “Why is a bear like a fallen tree?” Batman says, “A bear lumbers and a fallen tree becomes lumber”. Then another one shoots and comes down: “Why is silk like grass?” Batman says you measure both by the yard. Batman concludes Robin is being held at the Gotham Lumberyard. When Batman arrives he is being filmed with an old style crank driven movie camera. Riddler, dressed as a villain in a silent film with a black top hat, a black cape, a black handlebar moustache and a whip, asks Batman “When is a man a stupid relative?” Then he points to Robin and Batman rushes to rescue him but the blade has already cut into his head. Batman sees however that Robin is really a mannequin because a man is a stupid relative when he’s a dummy. The Riddler is gone but Batman catches Pauline and takes her to police headquarters. She is uncooperative and so Batman drugs her to take her to the Batcave for his truth treatment and asks Commissioner Gordon to come along as a witness to keep his anger over Robin’s abduction in check. Pretty sure it’s illegal with or without a police escort. Gordon willingly submits to the Batgas as well. Once they are in the Batcave Batman wakes Gordon and then Pauline. Batman puts a Batmask on Pauline that basically looks like a plastic bag that she breathes into. He tells her there are those who came to the Batcave and never left. I guess that’s true since in the very first episode the Riddler’s moll Molly fell into the Batcave’s nuclear reactor and was apparently disintegrated. Pauline says she doesn’t know where Robin is but knows two more riddles: “Why was Flo Zigfield like a nearsighted man?” Batman answers, “Because they both put on spectacles”. The second is: “What kind of men are always above board?” Batman says, “Chessmen”. Batman removes Pauline’s mask and analyzes the oxygen she breathed into it during her answers. He mixes it with a clear liquid in a beaker, which turns red, to indicate she was telling the truth. Batman puts her back to sleep. Of the clues, since they are following a silent film theme during this caper, the spectacles represent the ones that Harold Lloyd always wore and he was often found precariously dangling from the ledge of a high building and so in this case Chessmen represents the Chessmen building. He puts Gordon to sleep again. Meanwhile the Riddler has Robin on the ledge at the top of the Chessmen Building. Riddler is about to push Robin when Batman appears at the top of the building. Robin is pushed and falls but Batman throws his Batarang with the Batrope attached and Robin catches it in his teeth. Robin is pulled up by his bite and is glad he takes care of his teeth. Batman says, “You owe your life to dental hygiene”. Riddler escapes in a helicopter and writes a riddle in the sky: “What kind of machine has ears?” Robin says a train has engineers. Another riddle asks, “Why does a cowboy wear a tight belt?” Robin says, “To hold up his pants”. Robin puts the two clues together and concludes that the Riddler plans to hold up the famous El Chief train that appeared in so many silent films. But as Batman and the police converge on Gotham Central Station, on the other side of town at the mansion of Van Jones, the film collector welcomes the Riddler. The Riddler has brought Van Jones what he commissioned, the only silent film ever made of Batman and Robin in action. They watch the film together and all the events of the last two episodes are shown in a silent epic. Van Jones prepares to pay the $100,000 he promised the Riddler. Van Jones opens his safe but Riddler pulls a gun and tells him he’s going to take all his precious films and then ransom them back to him. But Batman arrives because he knows the clues pointed to “The Great Train Holdup”, the only copy of which is in the Van Jones safe. The Riddler’s men attack and the final sound effects battle takes place. The Riddler and his gang are of course defeated again. 

            Chief O’Hara was played by Stafford Repp, who was already middle aged when he started acting on screen after leaving the US Army Air Corps following WWII. His Irish accent as Chief O’Hara was only acting. He acted in stage productions on the west coast before the war. His film debut was in Fireman Save My Child in 1954. His first credited role was in The Steel Jungle in 1956. His television debut was on Gunsmoke in 1957.