Swithin

Singing in the Rain -- Dogway Melody (1930) Next: Sung in a movie with a ghost

Mais oui, Princess. Actually, the lyrics that most people are familiar with were written later, and I think don't have that much connection to the lyrics used in the movie. But if you know it in Greek, you probably know the original. The song represented the first time a song from a foreign film was nominated and won the Best Song Oscar. "Ta paidia tou Peiraia" was the original title of the song. In addition to Best Song, the film received Oscar nominations for Best Actress, Best Director and Screenwriter (Dassin on both counts), and Best Costumes (Theoni V. Aldredge). It was nice and appropriate that they engaged the Greek-born Ms. Aldredge for the costumes. She was nominated three times, winning once for The Great Gatsby. She was one of the top Broadway costume designers, with 15 Tony nominations. She won three times. The landmark film associated with Jules Dassin (who went to Morris High School in the Bronx) was Riffifi, which was noted for its near silence in a chunk of the film. It inspired many films and TV series. Other films on which Dassin and Mercouri worked together include Topkapi, Phaedra, He Who Must Die, and several others. Dassin left the United States (for France, later Greece) because he was blacklisted. Mercouri was quite active in Greece, politically, and became Minister of Sport and Culture. Your turn, Princess. (And although I won't ask, I am wondering why you know the song in two languages!)

A good guess, but no. (Kubrick went to my high school in the Bronx, long before I did. We were told he was a lousy student, so there's hope for us all!) But not that couple. However there is another similarity to Kubrick, in that our guy left to work in Europe (but not the UK). He was not yet married to the wife in question, when they made their most famous movie, a movie which was nominated for five Oscars (2 for him, one for her, two others, one of which won the Oscar and which sort of represented a first for the Academy in that category.) But think why it would be impossible for anyone to guess the answer the day after tomorrow!

"On the Banks of the Wabash" "sung" by Rita Hayworth in My Gal Sal (1942) Next: Song mentioning a neighbourhood (not in New York or London)

Hint: You may guess the answer today, or tomorrow, but you won't guess the answer the day after tomorrow!

On Svengoolie tomorrow, March 27, 2021: I didn't know this film, so I read a little about it. It sounds like a cheap version combining elements of The Most Dangerous Game and And Then There Were None. A superrich man invites a bunch of people to his remote estate, telling them that one of them is a werewolf and must be killed. Here's a quote from Wikipedia: "The only way to determine the identity of the werewolf is for a certain combination of elements to occur all at once, including a full moon and the presence of wolfsbane pollen in the air. When this fails to produce any lycanthropic reactions, Tom makes each of the potential werewolves grab silver objects to provoke allergic reactions, but this too proves unsuccessful." Evidently there are prints without the "Werewolf Break." I wonder which Svengoolie will show? I assume this photo was for publicity, or is there actually a scene where the dinner guests sit around, chatting with the werewolf (played by a big dog, evidently?): I guess this is one dog that's allowed on the couch: Spoiler: Although a few of the reviews online are positive, most are not. Here's a comment from one of the websites: "Now, it turns out that Tom isn’t a victim, of course. He’s the millionaire testing out his new Werewolf Security Defense System, a system that includes a whole bunch of armed dudes, a whole bunch of awkwardly placed cameras, and an honest to God attack helicopter. This isn’t a bad reveal at all, except that it feels like the scene itself goes on for about 80 YEARS. Tom is caught and let go by the guards not once, not twice, but three times. He’s running for his life in weirdly random giant boots, at the kind of pace you might expect from a small child casually frolicking after butterflies. We also zoom in on the “hidden” cameras at least five times. The whole thing is awkward and slow as hell."

I love these two hats, and the story and song that goes with them, from Make Mine Music (1946). The song is reprised in a scene in Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), but without the hats. Here's a brief clip from the original movie:

Thanks Lavender. This international couple consisted of a woman who was not born in America and a man who went to high school in the Bronx. She was an actress who later engaged in other pursuits; he was a director/writer who also acted on occasion. They made several movies together, a few well known, including one for which they were both nominated for Oscars. One of his greatest contributions may be another film, made without his wife, which included an unusual feature for its time. Name the couple, their most famous movie together; the other film referred to, and its unusual attribute; and name the wife's other activity.

Another of the great ladies of The Group (1966) has left us. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jessica-walter-dead-arrested-development-archer-actress-was-80-1262068

OK, that helps. Sterling Hayden and Madeleine Carroll. She was in The 39 Steps. She met Hayden when they made Virginia.

You would prefer, maybe, some Janet Maslin?

I think maybe that was considered an article rather than a review. His actual review (see link) appeared a few days earlier. Don't know why he felt compelled to write about it twice. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/10/archives/sarah-miles-stars-in-leans-ryans-daughter.html The Daily News was very popular in those days. It was conservative, just as the Post was liberal. Roles have changed! I think the News (which had the largest circulation in the country), was favoured by, among others, the large New York Irish-American community. I wonder if that had anything to do with the paper's love for Ryan's Daughter.

A House Is Not a Home (1964) Next: Neorealism

James Cagney was in The Roaring Twenties with Gladys George.

Cathleen Nesbitt

In one of his negative reviews (he seems to have written two) of Ryan's Daughter, New York Times critic Vincent Canby opened with: "IF it's true, as one reviewer has written, that every frame of David Lean's new film, "Ryan's Daughter," is "a work of pure and undiluted genius," there are, according to my calculations, approximately 276,480 works of pure and undiluted genius in the 192-minute movie, which should put "Ryan's Daughter" on a par with such other repositories as the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum and the Hermitage." https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/22/archives/thoroughly-romantic-rosythoroughly-romantic-rosy.html So who is the reviewer whom Canby is referring to? Possibly the Daily News critic?

That's so sad! But it's nice to see the young Melvyn Bragg, whom I listen to regularly whilst I'm on the treadmill. His "In Our Time" podcasts about every subject imaginable are great for passing the time.

A Zed and Two Noughts (1985) Helpful insect

No need to apologize, and irreverence is welcome!

I know Connie is still with us. My comment referred to the time I worked with her, which was many years ago.

"She Moved Through the Fair" -- Sung by Sinead O'Connor in Michael Collins (1996) Next: Song from a David Lean movie

Devil Bat (1940) [Best line, spoken by Bela Lugosi to Paul Ellis: "Now, rub it on the tender part of your neck."] Devil Bat's Daughter (1946)

I don't remember that the film was totally panned in New York. I think that the newspapers and magazines that still exist, like The Times and the New Yorker, were hard on it, but others were kinder. It's just that we had seven or eight dailies in those days, and many of them gone, and without web presences to preserve their reviews. The film must have been a hit with the public in London, to some extent, because it played at the huge Empire Theatre for more than a year.

I first saw Ryan's Daughter on the very big screen of the Empire Cinema in London's Leicester Square, in the Summer of 1971, days before I was leaving for my first trip to Ireland. That was a perfect time to see it, and I remember liking the movie very much. How it put me in the mood for my overnight crossing to Ireland, from Holyhead to Dun Laoighaire! I thought the sensuality of the film really worked. Christopher Jones and Sarah Miles were interesting actors who often played odd characters, and the chemistry between them really sizzled (as I recall, I was quite young and haven't seen the film since). Of David Lean's "big" films, I've never seen Zhivago, and, despite my affection for Lawrence, I still feel that Lean's masterpiece is A Passage to India. And speaking of the score, there are echoes of Jarre's score for Ryan's Daughter in his score for A Passage to India.