Jimmy!

Today would have been Jimmy Stewart's 100th birthday. It would have been my grandfather's 101st, but Grampa would have said let the young guy have his day. Here's a pretty good appreciation of Stewart -- you may or may not like Mark Steyn's politics, but few modern writers have a better grasp on the TCM period of movies, especially in their context with movies earlier and later than that era.

One of my favorite Stewart roles is Glyn McLyntock in Bend of the River. I'm pretty much a sucker for redemption arcs or storylines, which may or may not stem from my job. But I also love Stewart's speech to Arthur Kennedy's Emerson Cole after Cole has commandeered the wagon train they're leading and send Stewart out to fend for himself without weapons, a horse or supplies. Cole thinks he gives the bursh-off to his former partner, but Stewart turns it around for a top-level mind-game that leaves little doubt as to who's going to win, no matter what it looks like now:

Cole: I'll be seeing you, Glyn.
McLyntock: You'll be seeing me. You'll be seeing me. Everytime you bed down for the night, you'll look back to the darkness and wonder if I'm there. And some night, I will be. You'll be seeing me!

Kind of freaks you out to watch kindly Mr. Smith go psycho, but Stewart was that good, even if he was never flashy.

Steyn's article notes one of Stewart's most important roles, of course -- pilot during World War II, when he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. Not as big as an Oscar, but probably worth more in the end.