did someone yell fire? (so must perish all troubling ugliness)

'the president of the firm's french arm, claude schmidt, told the grenfell tower inquiry his company did not warn about the use of polyethene (PE) panels, despite being alerted to a fire in bucharest, romania.' 

in 2009.

bucharest, romania  at 11:00 PM on june 26, 2009, the 18-storey high millennium business center, was engulfed in flames after a large billboard near the building exploded, most likely because it was struck by lightning. two hours later, at 01:10 AM on june 27, around 150 firefighters from sector 2 (bucharest) were still trying to stop the fire, although the main source of the fire had already been taken care of. there were around EUR 20 million in losses. 

10 years later, the building is in the same state. it seems that the owner wasn’t compensated by insurers because the investigation did not reveal the exact cause of the fire. 

but we do know the cause of the spread of the fire. composite cladding. 

2009. let's just let that date sink in a little. 

on 14 june 2017, a fire broke out in the 24-storey grenfell tower block of flats in north kensington, west london, at 00:54 BST; it caused 72 deaths, including those of two victims who later died in hospital.

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horsemouth has been watching loads of basil rathbone sherlock holmes  films. they are enjoyable confections, there's basil rathbone as the most serious  sherlock, and there's nigel bruce as a bumbling genial idiot of a watson. and yet it is watson's bumblings that often solve the puzzle ahead of holmes - though it takes holmes to realise it (in this way the british allow themselves to have a drama whose titular hero is an intellectual).  they are distinctly variable in quality, the lady in green (hypnotism), the pearl of death (rondo hatton) are high quality adventures (with functioning plots that don't rely on dr.watson's sudden quotation of dr. samuel johnson to save the day - as in dressed to kill). 

there are also the villains and their sidekicks. 

the most significant of these is rondo hatton or the creeper who ended up with his own series of horror films (the house of horrors, the brute man). 

in house of horrors, the creeper -  a giant of a man with giant features, strangles a number of women for being horrified by his appearance. he also strangles a number of art critics who have given poor reviews to his only friend the sculptor (who is french). in the end commercialised american art wins out over decadent european art, several art critics are murdered (no real loss there)  but sadly also some random street walking women and artists' models. the woman art critic gives up her job for marriage. 

oh. ps. the creeper is shot dead. so must perish all troubling ugliness. thoughtfully he even destroys the bust the sculptor has made of him. 

happy ending. 

the creeper's deployment in the pearl of death is considerably more accomplished making use of the full resources afforded by black and white as we watch his gigantic shadow ascend the steps as he steps into the light.  there is a distinct loss to cinema of the transition to colour, in the loss of the clarity of the vision and execution in black and white.

the brute man horsemouth has not yet found a decent copy online. one exists from a late night tv show where the presenter (and his idiot puppet chums) snicker at some b-movie. so perishes the work of rondo hatton. 

howard was a big fan of rondo hatton. horsemouth will have to ask him why. 

of the sherlock holmes films pursuit to algiers and terror by night  are the weaker ones (ship and train board dramas). the diamond from terror by night (like the pearl from pearl of death) are said to be cursed, there is a kind of colonial guilt here (voiced in the outdated vocabulary of the time). 

horsemouth has a few more to go.