The Changeling

I have travelled South with an overnight stop midway in A1, unfortunately on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, so I stopped at the Travel Lodge on my side of the Road and enquired. I have stayed that the lodge Grantham South Witham several times on my way home when visiting my mother and aunt, and then my mother, so when told to look out of the Red Fox Inn I knew the place well, with an American neon lit diner set back from the road together with a gas station, I was to take the road going left immediately on passing these establishments, even though there was no bridge over the roadway,

I followed the instructions and then took a left turn at the junction which took me under the A1M, something not visible in daylight let alone the pitch black unlit countryside. The next task was to move onto the traffic fast flowing motorway for just 100 metres before turning into the slip road for the Little Chef Restaurant behind which was the Travel Lodge.

I had an uncomfortable evening and night because the small heating radiator had not been turned on beforehand and it was an exceptionally cold night, no doubt because I had booked the room at the give away price of £9 and would eat into that with the lap top electricity, the lighting and heating, including bath, added to which was the cleaning of room, change of bed linen, the free coffee, tea, milk and sugar. I did sleep from about 10.30 to 4am but it was too cold to have a third sleep session so I got up did some writing and then returned to bed for a warm, almost fully clothed,

I was up clearing the windows and windscreen of the car of thick frost just after seven and then had an assortment of breakfast, a puff pastry mince pie and a pot noodle with coffee! I was away as the sun tried to rise before 8am. I continued travelling for an hour before taking the new motorway section of the link road to M1. It is 16 miles due East to reach the M1 at this point and until this trip, the first made on this route since 2004 it was necessary to travel single file through villages split into two by the constant traffic in both directions. Now for the first or nine miles there was a dual carriageway and which only came to an end because of the continuing need for a single each way passage over the railway line and where there were small lake from some previous workings on one side and a substantial industrial commercial estate on the other.

Instead of taking the M25 to near Purley and from there to Croydon my destination for the evening, I continued the length of the motorway which is been widened into 4 lanes each way before and after the M25 junction and at the end took the ring road past the new Wembley stadium and onto Hanger Lane, a notorious link road between the North and South circular routes which passes through Ealing Common, Brentford and Kew, a journey I made for three year each way from my home in Teddington to the Children’s Department in central Ealing. Kew Bridge is a wonderful Bridge over the Thames with a village type Green on the other side and some restaurants. Instead of taking the road to Twickenham or Richmond before Teddington, I turned westward towards Clapham and before then Wandsworth which was to be my lunchtime destination, Before then close the internationally famous Kew Gardens and I took a side road heading towards the National Archive and Family History centre, and before then a small area of out of town centre shops which included a large Marks and Spencer’s.

I enjoyed two salami baked cheese topped rolls and the last puff pastry mince pie, before heading for the store and its hoped for toilets. I was not disappointed and afterwards took the opportunity to visit the food hall where I bought another pack of rolls, two Danish pastries, a small carton of olives and two small packs of the finest Scottish smoked salmon which would serve me over the weekend supplemented by cooked meals eaten out.

Arriving at the one way system at Wandsworth I made an inspired guess took the first right turn, crossing over Wandsworth High Street, close to the Town Hall where I once played a chess match on behalf of Croydon’s County Borough’s chess club and earned a worthy draw, and into the road towards Tooting and Mitcham, a short distance along opposite Sainsbury there was the side road leading to the Southlands shopping Mall and recreation centre, my destination being the Cineworld multiplex. I was able to find a parking space on second level and made my way across to the marked doors leading to the stairs with the cinema third floor level, missing the adjacent lifts. The stairs came out next to the multiplex entrance where the choice was between the remake of The Day the Earth Stood still and the Changeling. I was more in the mood for the former but left the decision till later as there was nearly an hour before the choice had to be made, I adjourned to the nearby fast food outlet where I had a comfortable chair and an inexpensive but enjoyable cup of coffee for 95 pence while I read part of the first chapter of President Elect Barack‘s Obama The Audacity of Hope. He speaks as well as he writes, direct, honest, the ability to select the right word or phase to communicate his feelings or ideas. His speaking and leadership skills have become internationally known but what the first chapter reveals is a mind that understands what is wrong and what is right with bipartisan politics in a democracy and has developed an approach which is a genuine third way. What interests me is that he has the vision which is not dissimilar to that of New Labour in the UK although the starting positions are very different and the composition of the two nations of people was very different although with the growth of those from the West Indies and the Indian Sub Continent and then the dramatic combination of opening up our borders to students from around the world and to the whole of central Europe as the Community was quadrupled from its original 6 to 27 states all with the right to settle and work in the UK, our position has significantly changed, especially in London and the major cities and towns. The main reason for the one way influx is that recent British White generations prefer to remain on state benefits rather than take poorly paid work with unsocial hours and because the older generation of Brits tend to have one language English and therefore is not able to work in the rest of Europe and living outside the UK is problematic

The common feature of both approaches is the move away from polarization politics and to identify centre ground issues which can unite and where political progress is possible, However this can lead to a level of compromising to an extent where fundamental change does not take place and where progress becomes dependent upon sustained economic growth, However just from the first chapter, I also learnt that the President elect is a completer finisher in that having devised a plan he sets out to complete as originally devised. This does not mean rigid implementation regardless of change circumstances or that if experience demonstrates the need for changes, sometimes that substantial changes are necessary, these are not implemented, but it does mean not losing sight of what was intended and ensuring that the focus is kept and only changed with good reason. So I know from my own external assessment and my direct experience, the value of combining leadership and vision with being a completer finisher. However the third component of what can be an unstoppable and powerful mix is creativity. He has certainly been creative in his approach to fund raising, but was this his personal idea or was it an idea provided by a creative/creatives on the team? This I hope to find out because only through creative solutions can the natural impediments to making fundamental change be overcome. It is the role of Peter Mandelson within the Labour Party and of George Osborne and the Conservatives.

It was reading part of the first chapter with my coffee that decided me to go and see the series truth based film the Changeling rather than the science fiction entertainment of the Day the Earth stood still.

The Changeling is an important film and along with The Boy in stripped pyjamas the only two new films of great substance this Oscar year. First the film then the reality. In 1928 on March 10th, the son of single mother Christine Collins disappeared and after considerable national publicity over a period of three years the boy is found and reunited with his mother only for her to say it is not her son. At the time (only at the time?) The Los Angeles Police department was a very corrupt, with gun squads encouraged to kill criminals on sight but where the policy led to the police disposing of anyone who got in their way of own criminal enterprises and finding disappeared boys was not high on their priorities. A Presbyterian Minister Dr Gustav Breigleb led a general campaign against the immorality of Hollywood and the corruption of LAPD and commanded large audience for his Sunday evening sermon lectures which were widely reported in the media of the day. He takes up the case of Christine’s missing son warning that she risks trouble if she takes on the LAPD, but she goes ahead and provides dental records and a teacher who both are prepared to make affidavits saying that the child is not the real son. Christine is then committed to the County Psychiatric Hospital by the police on what is called Code 12, which enables them to imprison anyone who crosses their pathway and keep them treated unless they admitted the error of their ways and absolved police and the Hospital from civil claims.

Through the Minister and his friends she is rescued from hospital coinciding with the discovery of the systematic murder of kidnapped boys from the county. In the film a boy is fund who has run off from Canada and before being returned he confesses to his part in the killing the boys and identifies one of the victims as the missing kidnapped child Walter Collins, thus confirming mother’s story that the returned child was not her son. The man responsible for the killings tries to escape to relatives in Canada but is apprehended brought back, is tried and executed after two years of due process. During this same time Mrs Collins with the help of the Minister leads a campaign which successfully stops the use of police Code 12 and a number of other women are released for the county institution where electric shock therapy and sedation are standard punishments for those who continue to resist the system. The combined efforts with the help a leading pro bono lawyer results in an enquiry which leads to loss of office of the Mayor, and the departures of the City LAPD police chief and the head of the Juvenile Bureau. The fake boy admits the story was made up by the police and that he went along with the deception because he wanted to go to Hollywood and meet Tom Mix , the cowboy film star Several years after the execution one of the boys believed to have died at the farm is recovered having been too frightened to return home and he explains that he only managed to escape because Walter returned to help him and that while he then got away he was not sure if Walter has also escaped or had been recaptured, Mrs Collins continued to search for boy as the films ends

The film is a powerful heart rendering story in which the love and determination of one woman triumphs, with help, over a corrupt police department and brings about major changes. However we know that life is not like that.

It is true that in Wineville, Riverside county a man and his grandmother was convicted of what was known as the Chicken Coop Murders and he was executed with his Grandmother sentenced to 12 years. The man believed that the grandmother was his mother but in fact he was the product of an incestuous relationship between the grandfather and his daughter. They had escaped to Canada where they were apprehended and returned to the USA and after the trial the town changed its name. While some remains were found of the boys and identified, the number of victims and the location of their remains was not. The film hints at but does not elaborate that there was a sexual aspect of the abductions and it emerged that the murderer had been sexually abused by every member of his family during his childhood,

It is also true that there was a campaigning Presbyterian Minister and that one of his targets was the LAP and that he did speak of the missing Collins boy, the claims that the returned child was different and about the Chicken Coop murders. However I can find no information that he contacted Mrs Collins and that they campaigned together.

It is also true that someone other than her son was returned to Mrs Collins and that she was confined in the County Psychiatric hospital because she insisted the boy was not on her own and that she survived and her stay was limited because the murders were then uncovered, It is also true that the child in question did actively pretend he was her son because he wanted a better life and hoped to meet Tom Mix and that he had come forward after meeting up with a drifter and deciding on the deception. He grew up to live as he had started, marrying with a daughter and is one of the characters where we know something more about.

Like others I was not sure about the character of Mrs Collins played by Angelina Jolie. She is just too one sided heroic for my liking. It is true that she did successfully sue the LAPD juvenile Bureau chief although he never paid her and Mrs Collins disappeared into obscurity. Until then it is known that she did not give up, especially when one of the boys who had escaped did turn up and confirm that Walter had escaped with him but was likely to have been recaptured.

There is therefore sufficient truth not to discredit the main film story and it is likely that the film will be among the Oscar nominations and winners, John Malkovich gives a convincing restrained performance as the Minister and I though the performance of the murderer Gordon Northcott was also exceptional.

Leaving the film theatre although I reached the right car floor I could not find my vehicle so tried the first level without success and around the right level several times before I realised I had parked the car in the one place I had not looked, that is close to the stairway.

From leaving the M1 I had been on the lookout for a garage as I was getting low on petrol, There was no one garage on my side of the road, although I did pass two on the other side. I made my way from Tooting through to Mitcham and on to Wallington my former home town, although it was six miles longer from Croydon only to find the garage by the railway station closed and the other garage close two of my former homes, site demolished, There used to be at least four petrol stations around the town and now there are none. On the way into Croydon I did find a garage at Purley Way but this involved crossing to the other side and upon exiting I had to make my way across three busy lanes to ensure I was able to take the right turn along Duppas Hill and onto South Croydon,

I am staying at an Innkeepers Lodge which has the advantage of being a few yards from a railway station. The rooms are of a better standard than Travel Lodge reflected in the price although it is possible to reduce the cost at weekends and special times such as Christmas and New year with a three for two night offer. However it has introduced a key card system for added security but this leads to problems even when the cards have been charged up. In order to get into the room from the car park there is an entrance door, then a door into the accommodation corridor and then into the room. Flat screen TV’s have also been added since my last visit but the quality of the picture for terrestrial stations is appalling although there is a brilliant picture for Sky on and BBC sport channel 2. I divided the unpacking into three journeys with the final one after a meal in the Toby Carvery restaurant.. Here I made my mistake of the day. Before seven every day except Sunday there is a two course meal for £7 but I thought this included a choice of a starter or pudding so I ordered a starter of two fish cakes and salad, then had a reading break and then a large plate of beef topped with a variety of vegetables- broccoli, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, sage stuffing, parsnip slices and Yorkshire batter pudding. Having paid full price for the starter I was entitled to an ice cream or coffee but was too full for either! After the meal and unpacking I enjoyed extended highlights of the second day’s test in India where England took there overnight score to over 300 and then took five India wickets for half the score. I started to white but was too tired and went to bed and sleep.