FAMOUS MUSICAL DUET FROM 1961--YOUTUBE

Found this video clip of a moving duet from 1961 and didn't realize who the actress was. Besides being an amazing hit song, even though I don't remember the story line well, it brings back memories because it was one of the songs we played on a memorable high school band trip to Europe in 1975.

They tried to ban the movie in 71/72, said it promoted gang violence.

They tried to ban a lot of things back then. I remember those years well as an exciting time of my life when I was 13/14; It's amazing I found this video last night-- I fell in love with Natalie Wood when I was 12 or so after I watched the silly movie, "Penelope." She is truly adorable on film, and she must have been lovable off-screen as well. This doesn't seem like the right forum for such a discussion, but, then again, maybe it's the perfect forum if you look at their relationship, and finding a marriage partner. I prayed a few weeks ago that God would help me solve the mystery, but, just spending a couple hours last night online it's not a mystery at all.
I don't want to read too much between the lines without actually knowing the people, but, there are some clear indications of unhealthy relationships.
She may have loved Wagner, but, my first impression of him was the opening scenes of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," where they both played leading roles. To be honest, for whatever reason, he looks a little scary. But, if you listen to the interview with British actress Stephanie Powers, who said she worked with Mr. Wagner on the 5-year series, "Hart to Hart," about a globetrotting detective couple who also solve murder mysteries, she says, they "adored each other," worked together for 14-hours a day for five years without any arguments. But, in the Larry King interview, he seems kind of stone-faced to me, while Ms. Powers seems, like Natalie, captivated by him. They seem very similar in their presence and styles, Stephanie and Natalie. In this photo, she looks exactly like a girl I fell in love with in elementary school in 1970, but, was too timid to buy her a ring, a couple years before my first girlfriend. That was a mutually consensual friendship at a hotel with an older foxy blonde "70's chick," in 70's slang, who lounged around the pool in her bikini and eventually taught a bored teen, who wouldn't go away, how to dive, to my dad's surprise.
I actually spoke with the first gal last year, and had a dream about her a few nights ago where she was getting married, and asked me to be her "wingman," which, in the dream, meant recording her wedding on a video camera. I take it to mean she wanted me to cover her wing, so-to-speak, which I'm transferring symbolically to Natalie Wood, which is what this post is about.

***Photo copyrighted to Wikipedia; Natalie Wood, a Russian-American actress, in 1973, (born "Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko,")

When the movie, "Brainstorm," was being filmed, a sci-fi movie about video-recording of minds, actor Christopher Walken, who co-starred with Natalie Wood as her husband, is said to have become "emotionally close to the actress and her real-life husband, Robert Wagner," (hollywood reporter, Nov. 18, 2011, Tim Apello), who also describes an "intense and troubled final shoot," (scene) with Ms. Wood, shortly before she died.
Some things to keep in mind are that Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner were married during the same time of the intense, close relationship between Wagner and Stephanie Powers, who played husband and wife in the series, (described below in the video-clip), and Walken and Natalie also portrayed husband and wife on-screen and were also emotionally close, at least from his view.

Walken, Wagner, and Natalie were all on-board the boat, along with the captain that night, and there was apparently heavy drinking going on, and a fierce, prolonged argument between Natalie and Mr. Wagner which apparently scared both the captain and Walken, the captain at one point asking Walken to intervene, and Natalie asking to go ashore. It isn't clear to me why she was not taken ashore. Walken refused to intervene. It sounds to me that both Walken and the captain, as well as Natalie, were afraid of Mr. Wagner, who at one point is said to have broken a wine bottle on a table shouting at Walken, demanding to know at one point, at least according to Walken, if he wanted to sleep with his wife. Vulgar language is said to have occurred.
Alcohol can change some people, but, it seems much more involved than that here.

One time I was renting a room at a relative of a friend's house, who was a good guy. There was a party, to which i was not invited, likely because I was new there, and maybe due to political differences (I was from Alaska, and they did not like Sarah Palin). But, after the party was over, the host kept drinking. He drank every bit of alcohol in the house, and even though he was an atheist, he hugged me and said, "praise JESUS!!" As he got louder and more boisterous, at one point he started throwing things, and I decided it was time to leave and drove off and slept in my car somewhere. The next day, he asked where I went and I said, "you were shouting and throwing things around, so I decided to leave." He just said calmly and very seriously: "good idea."

The point being that alcohol did not turn him into a murderer. Only someone who was loud and boisterous.

Since I fell in love with Natalie Wood at a young age, and her song from "West Side Story," rang through my mind for many years after the band trip to Europe in 1975, and because she appeared to be an adorable, vulnerable young lady who was possibly bullied into a second marriage by Mr. Wagner, not to mention that they also spent time on the same boat. It was at the least a severely co-dependent relationship, Mr. Wagner showing signs of jealousy for her spending time on the movie set with another man who portrayed her husband, and he must have picked up on the vibes that they were close, and he could certainly relate since he spent 5 close years with a lady who was not his wife, during the time he was married to Natalie. It seems like "projection," if that is the right psychology term, accusing her of what he had done, and when she tried to break away, in my opinion, the math clearly works that he could have killed her, with clear motive, or he may have failed to rescue her. His silence is also an implication of guilt, as well as Natalie's sister's statement that Natalie wanted to start a relationship with her current co-star. Both Walken and the captain should have intervened given the seriousness of the prolonged argument. The captain's statement doesn't fit well though that he "heard them arguing," when it was much more serious and prolonged. Wagner doesn't come across as convincing either in interviews.

Natalie Wood didn't freak out over Mr. Wagner's close relationship with Ms. Powers. It's just difficult to understand why she would stay with him knowing that, which is further evidence that he was controlling of her, and why he likely killed her to prevent her from leaving him, which sounds like it was developing into that night. To me, that's the smoking gun-- if his rage is described accurately, and breaking the wine bottle on the table, and shouting at her co-star to sleep with his wife, that describes someone about to commit a murder, in my opinion. The math works. His demeanor; the stone-faced control. The tumultuous relationships-defined by her last day at work. Her vulnerability and being controlled by his apparent dishonor of their marriage. "Hart to Hart," but, the wrong Hart, or the right hart and wrong marriage. Who is the real Robert Wagner?

Consider this a biased opinion. I fell in love with Natalie Wood at a young age, and her character "Penelope," and loved her innocent portrayal of "Maria," in the musical, even though I didn't make the connection between the two movies until now. Her innocence in her portrayal of someone named, "Maria," the Spanish/Hispanic name of Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Bible, is also another smoking gun from a spiritual view. The devil went after Mary, and, it appears went after the actress who portrayed the character "Maria," so beautifully.

What does this have to do with a singles forum? Like everyone is saying here-- choose your relationships carefully, and as one Catholic sister counselor told me once: "follow the path of peace." The same can be said of all relationships, beginning with the Lord. Can't go wrong there; He won't throw you overboard.
--Herald

Mr. Wagner also reportedly kept drinking for 90 minutes after her death. It could have been that he never intended for her to go ashore, because he knew she was leaving him. It sounds like pathological control of someone, who due to an underlying disorder, treated a vulnerable person as a possession, or a slave, purchased and owned by him, with the same perceived value. She likely ran from him, and either fell, or jumped to escape his rage, with one account describing him leaving her in the water to "teach her a lesson." Really? "Don't threaten to leave a pathological controlling drunk?"

I just read on the internet that there were reports of hearing her screams from the boat, which would be in keeping with everything else reported that evening.

I also just discovered that she had a Russian Orthodox Christian heritage, just like myself, except that I believe the teachings of the Church that include the Apostle Paul. Russian Orthodox is not to be confused with Jewish Orthodox. But, I also discovered that she may have had Jewish roots, according to the website: (pravda report; Nov. 28,2003).


This brings up another issue that I mentioned in an above post--the psychological syndrome of "obsession with the virgin Mary," which is an expression of obsession with the innocence of Christ, which in turn, as I found out this evening, is an expression of what one Christian writer called the Jewish "burden of God in history." (Edward H. Flanning); (quoted from Robert S. Wistrich's, "A Lethal obsession:" Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad). He says, "It was the Judaism that brought the concept of a God-given universal moral law into the world;" For which they are hated by the world, as a people with a divine calling not to assimilate, which fuels the world's "exasperation," with "Israel...is to be found at the very heart of the world's structure..." according to Christian writer, Jacques Maritain (quoted from Wistrich at books.google.com).

Wistrich expands this to include the totalitarian ideologies of Nazism (Germany WWII), Stalinism (Post WWII Russia), and Islamism (Anti-semitic/anti-American Islamist extremists) and how this relates to the anti-American and anti-Jewish fixations in the world. These are forces of evil, obsessed with monolithic, closed belief systems, that don't like freedom, or the divine revelation of Jewish and Christian history. Even though even some Christians have even hated Jews, Jesus loved his Jewish heritage and friendly Jewish leaders, just not the control freaks who used it to persecute people in the name of religious law, several times trying to put Him to death for miracles done on the Sabbath, which broke the law of Moses, according to them.

These are all expressions of "Xenophobia," which the Mirriam-Webster defines as: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign, similar to "Judeophobia," or "homophobia," or "Chineseophobia," "Black-African-Americanophobia," "adopto-phobia," "Islamophobia," and the list goes on and on.

This all causes me to love Natalie Wood even more as a Russian sister in many ways. I am hated and persecuted by family and others for being adopted for one, and, even though I admire my father, he did have a bit of an anti-semitic fixation, which leads me to believe I also have Jewish roots somewhere. The math works: If you are hated, you probably have Jewish ancestors. And as Christians, we all do, since we are considered adopted into the family of Jesus. Or if you dare to go against the cult-core of your belief system, your own, or a religion.

The Lord knew what He was doing when He said that the kingdom of Heaven is like a small bit of yeast--For us as Christians, that yeast is Jesus--and Israel. He also referred to the "leaven" of religion as something to avoid, and also the unhealthy ways of the world, and, conversely, I think that implies beware of the "anti-leaven," of anti-Semitism, or the anti-christ spirit.
I think the main lesson here, especially for those of us who identify as moderate Republicans, is to take seriously the commandment of the LOrd to "love your neighbor," including having compassion on those we perceive as different. In the past I've persecuted others in the name of religion, which is a serious offense. The Lord also taught to love ourselves, something that can become confused in strict religions such as Russian Orthodox.