and yes, I suppose this does mean that I haven't seen two of the greatest movies of all time

I'm just ripe with confessions of cinematic ignorance today, I know, but Karl Malden died this afternoon and I was surprised to learn he had a career beyond Pollyanna. He was in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront and so many other movies, but I've only ever known him as Reverend Ford in the second-favorite Hayley Mills film of my childhood-slash-life (The Parent Trap being number one, obviously-- do you want to fight me on this?).

As Reverend Ford, Malden struck terror into my child-self, pure sweaty Protestant terror unlike anything I ever experienced in the mild Episcopal churches of my youth. But I watched the movie again recently (thanks, Kristen, for putting up with that) and was so struck by the transformation of his character. It was sparked by the unflaggingly cheery Pollyanna herself, of course, as are the film's legion of other sugary-sweet grump-conversions, but his is just so tortured and so radical. It's one thing to nudge a crochety old woman into donating quilts for the town bazaar. It's another to shake the core of the local brimstone monger so severely that he pledges to preach the gospel of gladness well into the unforseeable future. It's Disney at it's finest, of course-- and it takes place over the course of two scenes, which you can see below-- but Malden carries it off with a palpable anguish that makes me certain he was a real treasure in films not funded by the mouse.

He was also married to the same lady for 70 years. That's pretty great, too.