Music Monday: The 1943 classic movie “Watch on the Rhine” and 1982 song “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes
Posted By RichC on March 21, 2022
Old black and while films have never been top picks for Brenda and me when selecting a movie for the weekend, but as the Coronavirus pandemic shutdowns started, we decided to 
add a few classic movies as a way to broaden our life experience. Like reading classic literature as part of a higher education, 
watching a few early films and knowing the names of famous actors, producers and directors should be part of being educated, at least in my opinion. What started as a weekend “classic movie” educational experience, has now shifted to something we both look forward to and enjoy. For the last year, we’ve even planned a “dinner and a movie” for a Friday or Saturday night.
Last weekend, the movie pick was “Watch on the Rhine” from 1943 based on the screenplay by Dashiell Hammett. The movies of the time were often associated with World War II and that was also the plot of this movie.
Considering the war in Ukraine we’re dealing with in 2022, watching this movie has some similarity to the unrest in Europe in the late 1930’s and war in the early 1940s. The refugee situation and anti-Fascist response to Nazism in the movie plot is eerily similar to what we are experiencing today. We can only hope that we’re not on the verge of a World War III … this time with Russia’s Vladimir Putin behaving like last century’s Adolf Hitler.
As for Music Monday, I mentioned to Brenda that Bette Davis was the lead actress in the movie “Watch on the Rhine” and wondered if she remembered the 1982 song by Kim Carnes titled “Bette Davis Eyes” — it won Record of the Year. Of course after playing the YouTube music video … she did.
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