Beware the Ides of March, or Put That Dildo Down Casca!

 Well, its the Ides of March, ladies, and gentlemen.  

It certainly wasn't a very good day for Julius Ceasar. The Roman Emporer met his doom on this day when he was stabbed in the back, and chest, and neck, and then the back again, and etc., etc., etc.

I understand that they never could get all of the blood stains off the marble.  Not even Bon Ami could work that kind of magic. 

The picture above is from Julius Ceasar, the 1953 movie that crowned Louis Calhern as Ceasar. Marlon Brando was Mark Antony, James Mason was Brutus, and wielding the knife character, Casca, is actor Edmond O'Brien.  The film even includes John Hoyt, the man in the lower right (face partially blocked) looking up at Ceasar.  Hoyt always looked very old and frail to me - he seemed to get more roles the older and trailer he got.  Flinty, and with the bluest eyes, Hoyt had an amazing build and tight muscled body into his early 60s.  

But let us take a look that that dagger about to be employed into Ceasar by Edmond O'Brien. It only appears in the briefest of flashes, and then it's die, die, my darling when it is plunged into Ceaser. 

But let us look really closely at that prop dagger:

It looks a bit like a dildo. 

Of course for safety's sake, it has to be rounded, and not something that can hurt a real live person.  I mean it is Julius Ceasar and not Rust thank God. 

This was first pointed out to me years and years ago when I was looking at a Hollywood prop auction catalog with a long-gone paramour. 

"If you squint, you can see the pee hole," said Jeff. 

But every time I see this showcase for Brando, the dildo knife makes me giggle.  Not his death, but the spring-loaded dildo-looking knife. 

I often wonder what happened to the dildo-looking knife, and if the person who bought it bought it because it was a prop knife, a prop knife that looked like a dildo. 

Well, I hope that nothing foul happens to anyone out there, today.  May cooler heads prevail. And look forward to this Sunday when we bid adieu to that old scorn winter, and the first day of spring follows on Monday. 

And we all know how Cookie revels in spring.