Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Thumbnails Nov 24

by Tony Medley

Conclave (9/10): 120 minutes. PG. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the world’s greatest bureaucracies. But talk about inscrutable, the Church takes the cake. While its Pope is represented as God’s agent on earth (“Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church”), the way a Pope is chosen is not waiting for a bolt from heaven indicating the chosen one. It is an arcane, secretive procedure in which the College of Cardinals gets together sequestered to make a choice. And the choice is made by semi-secret ballot. So, it’s a purely human endeavor but it is completely hidden from the public.

Now comes along author Robert Harris and his book “Conclave,” screenwriter Peter Straughan, and director Edward Berger to present their idea of what it might be like when one Pope dies.

What they produce is a bunch of politically motivated men put in seclusion until they reach a 2/3 majority vote. This film is a brilliant imagining of one such convocation after a beloved Pope has died. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is the dean of the college of cardinals and runs the election. This one is a contention between the liberals, led by Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) and the Conservative, Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), who yearns for the old days, when the question “is the Pope Catholic” was rhetorical. But Tremblay is so manipulative he would make a slimy politician proud. There’s not a dirty trick that is beneath him

The acting is superb, and the film’s first 115 minutes justifies a 10/10 rating. Unfortunately, it goes on for 120 minutes and I rate that final 5 minutes 0/10, which averages out to my final 9/10. All I can say about the ending is to quote Moss Hart’s advice to budding playwrights, if you want to send a message, use Western Union.

GOEBBELS AND THE FÜHRER (9/10): 135 minutes. NR. Without any peer, “Downfall” (2004) is the best movie ever made about Hitler. But this one comes a close second. It’s about Joseph Goebbels (Robert Stadlober) , an unappealing little wart (5’-5”) who was Hitler’s all-powerful Minister of Propaganda. This captures Hitler (Fritz Karl) as well as “Downfall” did, but it presents a view of the secretive Goebbels as a person and opens up unsuspected avenues of his personality. It’s a fascinating, not to be missed, movie. In German.

Stolen Time (8/10): 95 Minutes. NR. This documentary reveals the tawdry story about for-profit nursing homes in Canada. Canadian attorney Melissa Miller has been suing some of the largest for-profit nursing homes in Canada since 2018

Many knowledgeable people state their case, like Brent Rigby, a Private Investigator who was hired to investigate systemic negligence by Extendicare, Revera, Inc., and Sienna Senior Living. He says, “There’s essentially no regulatory oversight and no repercussions at all for the complete systemic failure across all the companies while they bring in record profits.”

The stain of corruption is obvious. Mike Harris was Premier of Ontario from 1995-2002. He was responsible for privatizing long-term care in Ontario.

Now guess where he is. He is Vice President of long-term care operations for Extendicare!

Ayesha Jabba, a social worker, at one of the companies, says, “if there was an individual with responsive behaviors and causing trouble, I had a lot of pressure to harass the families to change the facility…try to get them out, try to get them elsewhere. Try to pressure the families to agree to get them elsewhere. Even though families may be living close by and it’s convenient for them. My role was to try to pressure them into going to another facility and make it as appealing as possible to leave our facility and go elsewhere. Which made me very uncomfortable.”

This is a must see for anyone contemplating a nursing home.

Saturday Night (7/10): 109 Minutes.  R. This is alleged to be the story of Producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) in the 90 minutes leading up to the debut show of Saturday Night Live. That is, it is “based on” the story. Apparently, there was a lot of chaos, and the show almost didn’t make it to air. But what we see here on the screen is extremely hard to swallow.

Directed by Jason Reitman from a script by Reitman and Gil Kenan, it is populated by an ensemble cast, which includes Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J.K. Simmons in supporting roles.

It is amusing and well-acted, but it stretches credulity. For one thing, the timelines don’t make any sense. Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) leaves the studio 15 minutes before airtime and what he does in those 15 minutes is simply impossible to perform in 15 minutes and get back in time for showtime.

There are some outstanding performances. J.K. Simmons presents Milton Berle in an exceedingly unfavorable light (maybe it’s accurate). Ella Hunt is a good Gilda Ratner. But Matthew Rhys and Cooper Hoffman are nothing like the George Carlin and Dick Ebersol I knew from personal interaction.

The movie is interesting and humorous, but I don’t believe it. The night might have been chaotic, but what is presented here is hard to accept. As Robert DeNiro (as a character based on Irving Thalberg), said in “The Last Tycoon” (1976), “It’s the movies.”

Recommended Reading: “Restless” by William Boyd, a dual timeline WWII espionage thriller.