What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.

[Jeff Wrangler]

--Somewhere in Time

Another film with a rabid fan base, including me (or, maybe, I'm just sort of rabid). Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve were about the height of their beauty, and the score is great (Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is perfect as the love theme).

Now I guess I know which film I need to watch this Saturday evening!

[morrobay]

On my top 10 and on TCM now,The Best Years of Our Lives

Tue, 3/19, 7:00 PM 3 hrs
1946, Drama, Classic, Romance, War
Three American servicemen return to their hometown after World War II to discover that their lives are different, as one struggles to cope with a disability, another finds his family has changed, while the third is stuck in a failing marriage.
Credits: Myrna Loy (Actor), Fredric March (Actor), Dana Andrews (Actor), Teresa Wright (Actor), Virginia Mayo (Actor), Hoagy Carmichael (Actor)

[gattaca]

Another film with a rabid fan base, including me (or, maybe, I'm just sort of rabid). Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve were about the height of their beauty, and the score is great (Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is perfect as the love theme).

Now I guess I know which film I need to watch this Saturday evening!

^^^ Ditto.  LOVE “Somewhere in Time.” One of my absolute favorites.  I do not recall how many times I’ve seen it.  May be on par with BBM.   I was in HS when the film was release and was probably the only kid who saw it and could appreciate the story.  I have  an original hard copy of “Bid Time Return” which I got shortly after the film was released. It has been outta print for 30-40 years.

There’s a whole club of people around the film.  Much like us here.

I recommend reading the book if you have not.  There are differences between them.

Later, V

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Glad to see the affection for "Somewhere in Time."

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Chappaquiddick

This film is about the week that Senator Ted Kennedy had an accident, driving his car off a low bridge where his passenger,
a former female aide to his brother Robert Kennedy, drowned. Your first thought upon seeing the accident unfold and what
happens afterwards is akin to "What were you thinking?" The answer to that never satisfies. Since much of this whole event
played out in a sort of questioning mystery at the time, which happened to occur the week while the moon landing frenzy was
happening, it's hard to suddenly take for face value what happens in the film, but it certainly doesn't make anyone look good in
the matter. Something never mentioned or touched on at all that I'd always thought of from when this happened and something
I must've heard somewhere back then is that some thought Ted Kennedy had gotten this girl pregnant and the accident was a
way to cover it up. No mention of this at all in the film nor even hinted at, which brings up the personal notion of how we learn
things while growing up that are current events at the time, where we might hear one bit of information and not another. The
actor playing Ted Kennedy, Jason Clarke, is quite good at playing both sides of the drama here. As the Time magazine film critic
put it:  "Clarke makes us feel plenty of things we'd rather not. His eyes are shadowed with profound decency one minute, and
hollowed out in desperate calculation the next."

Kate Mara is in this film. She has the thankless role of playing Mary Jo, the drowning victim, a role I can't think anyone would really
have wanted.

It's always interesting to me to watch a movie about a subject that one has only witnessed through the news lens and see how it's
depicted playing out behind the scenes. But also there's the caveat that, as another critic put it, "In the end Chappaquiddick will have
to pass the same test as Kennedy's original version of the story-whether or not anyone will buy it." Frankly, there shouldn't have been
much mystery about this whole event if, as I believe, the people involved had done the right thing from the very start.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Bells Are Ringing

Judy Holliday has the lead in this musical about a phone service (Susanswerphone) where she starts getting involved
in the clients personal lives, trying to help them out. Dean Martin plays her possible love interest. While I liked the film,
it does try to sabotage itself with some plot points that go off mark and some period angst about doing the right thing,
but it's pretty likable. The widescreen photography is impressive in some numbers that show off the countless faces of
film extras and it has a few incredible sets built on the MGM sound stages. The musical highlights include Dean's song
"Just in Time," Judy's song "The Party's Over," and a delightful song at a swanky party where the guests "Drop That
Name."

The Susanswerphone company is headed by Jean Stapleton. In the party scene you can spot a glamorous Donna Douglas
parading around dressed to the nines, a year before she began her decade long run on The Beverly Hillbillies.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Call Me Madam

This is one of Fox's best musicals, based on the stage version, and it stars a never more attractive Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen and a singing George Sanders!  (Though he is often thought of as British because of the roles he played, did you know he was born in Russia?)

The plot is basically about a wealthy Washington, D.C., socialite, Sally Adams (Ethel Merman), who has cultivated political connections and is appointed U.S. ambassador to the tiny country of Lichtenburg. The inspiration for this character was the real life Washington insider and noted party giver, Perle Mesta.

The film boasts some wonderful Irving Berlin songs, the most notable being "The Hostess with the Mostest" along with "Can You Use Any Money Today," the delightful "It's a Lovely Day Today," "The Ocarina," and my favorite, the beautiful duet "You're Just in Love."  O'Connor also has an unforgettable dance number titled "What Chance Have I for Love,"  where having drunk too much and become tipsy. he dances about a balloon filled restaurant lamenting how he can compete for the affections of his love interest.

A bit of the humor in the film requires knowing President Truman and that he played the piano and that his daughter was embarking on a singing career, but was always getting pretty bad reviews.

I've never seen the stage version, but one always finds out some things that didn't make the cut in films because of the times they were made. There's an officious and pompous character in the film played by Billy De Wolfe and in the stage version there's a line where Merman says "And you're just one of the girls." Censors in the early 50's wouldn't allow it and it was changed to "the boys," though Ethel brilliantly pauses the line reading before she says "boys" which let's one think that anyway.

Also, they had to leave this verse out of The Hostess with the Mostest:

An ambassador has just reached the shore
He's a man of many loves
An important gent from the Orient
To be handled with kid gloves
He can come and let his hair down, ooh!
Have the best time of his life
Even bring his new affair down
Introduce her as his wife
But she mustn't leave her panties in the hall
Of the priestess with the leastest
Nor the hostess with the mostest
With the mostest on the ball.

[Jeff Wrangler]

--Call Me Madam

This is one of Fox's best musicals, based on the stage version, and it stars a never more attractive Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen and a singing George Sanders!  (Though he is often thought of as British because of the roles he played, did you know he was born in Russia?)

The plot is basically about a wealthy Washington, D.C., socialite, Sally Adams (Ethel Merman), who has cultivated political connections and is appointed U.S. ambassador to the tiny country of Lichtenburg. The inspiration for this character was the real life Washington insider and noted party giver, Perle Mesta.

The film boasts some wonderful Irving Berlin songs, the most notable being "The Hostess with the Mostest" along with "Can You Use Any Money Today," the delightful "It's a Lovely Day Today," "The Ocarina," and my favorite, the beautiful duet "You're Just in Love."  O'Connor also has an unforgettable dance number titled "What Chance Have I for Love,"  where having drunk too much and become tipsy. he dances about a balloon filled restaurant lamenting how he can compete for the affections of his love interest.

A bit of the humor in the film requires knowing President Truman and that he played the piano and that his daughter was embarking on a singing career, but was always getting pretty bad reviews.

I've never seen the stage version, but one always finds out some things that didn't make the cut in films because of the times they were made. There's an officious and pompous character in the film played by Billy De Wolfe and in the stage version there's a line where Merman says "And you're just one of the girls." Censors in the early 50's wouldn't allow it and it was changed to "the boys," though Ethel brilliantly pauses the line reading before she says "boys" which let's one think that anyway.

Lyle, you may find this funny, or even difficult to believe, but in my sophomore year in high school. Call Me Madam was the spring musical (it was spring 1974). I think the director, the head of the music department, chose the shows to fit the voices of his star pupils. The senior who played Sally Adams was no belter like La Merman, but she had a good voice and she was--how to put this delicately--kind of built like a middle-aged woman. ... Our pastor's elder daughter played the ingenue role.

I remember a line or two from "The Hostess with the Mostest," and also "Can You Use Any Money Today." (In the case of "Money," I think maybe it helps to "get it" if you know how, during the Truman years, the U.S. was pouring huge amounts of money into Europe for reconstruction after World War II.) "You're Just in Love" is a lovely song that still makes a nice duet. I actually heard it just recently, but I can't remember where. I'd forgotten the music was Irving Berlin, and also that the show includes "It's a Lovely Day Today."

This'll really get you: Small city in Pennsylvania, 1974, they left in the line I presume exactly how it was originally written: "I'm the madam, and you're just one of the girls!" The line had to be there because I've never forgotten it!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

That's great, Jeff!  I don't think I've ever heard of a high school doing Call Me Madam. As you say,
the director knew what he had to work with. I love this! I remember some years ago that Hollywood
High School was doing A Chorus Line. I remember thinking that high schools who want to do that
probably never do the "Tits and Ass" number, but I had read in the paper they did do it, but they
changed the title to "These and Those." LOL!

[Jeff Wrangler]

As you say, the director knew what he had to work with.

In spring 1976, we did Oklahoma! and Laurie was played by a brunette, so the line "her long yeller hair" in Jud Fry's solo had to be changed to "her long brown hair."

The brunette got another chance her senior year, as Marian the Librarian in The Music Man.

Interesting that in the movie versions, they were both Shirley Jones roles. The brunette had a nice voice, but she wasn't Shirley Jones.

(I'm not trying to protect her identity. In my memory I can still see her, but I can't remember her name to save my life. Same thing with the young woman who played Sally Adams.)

[Flyboy]

Jeff, that happens with AGE!! hahaha.......I have a 10 minute rule to remember names, and I start with the alphabet, true this, and it WORKS, almost every time I can FINALLY come up with name!! try it!! 

[tfferg]

Jeff, that happens with AGE!! hahaha.......I have a 10 minute rule to remember names, and I start with the alphabet, true this, and it WORKS, almost every time I can FINALLY come up with name!! try it!! 

Thanks for the tip. Jonn. I'll try it. (I usually finally remember names hour or even days later. Last week Phong asked me a question about a woman who was very important to me -she died two years ago -, but he mistakenly referred to her as Anne. I couldn't think who he meant. 15 or 20 minutes later it popped into my head - she was Julieanne !)

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Jeff, that happens with AGE!! hahaha.......I have a 10 minute rule to remember names, and I start with the alphabet, true this, and it WORKS, almost every time I can FINALLY come up with name!! try it!! 

Ten minutes is an awfully long time to do that!  Heh!

You mean you start with A then B etc.?

I don't know about doing it this way, but an interesting thing I heard once is that if you're trying to remember a name
and you come up with something at first like "Jules" say and you write down the words your thinking...when you come
up with the name finally and read the words you'll find that your mind was thinking of certain sounds or vowels that are
close and similar but not exact, until you hit it. (Does this make sense?)

[Jeff Wrangler]

I heard once is that if you're trying to remember a name
and you come up with something at first like "Jules" say and you write down the words your thinking...when you come
up with the name finally and read the words you'll find that your mind was thinking of certain sounds or vowels that are
close and similar but not exact, until you hit it. (Does this make sense?)

I think it does. Usually when I finally come up with a name I've had trouble remembering, I'll find that I've been close in some combination of vowels and consonants.

[Flyboy]

It works for me, but sometimes I just try to recall conversations I had with the person and that works too, eventually!! hahaha.........