Swithin

So glad to see that *The Hypnotic Eye* has been added (March 23)! Is that a premiere? It has one of the great lines, which goes something like, "If you like my face so much you can have it!" Looking forward!

Oh, Meingast, if you had included the 551618 in the thread title, then of course I would have got it! (Sorry, just kidding). Thank you. And I apologize, too. I'm off shortly to see Golden Boy, a 75th anniversary production of the Odets play which opens this week on Broadway. I wonder how it holds up and compares to the film. Here's a link to the current production: http://www.lct.org/showMain.htm?id=211

I've never seen the whole film. It has a great score, but I don't remember much about it.

There's a line in a Phil Ochs song that goes "What's the matter, don't they watch Les Crane?" I'm not looking forward to the Carson stuff. I guess they think (to borrow a line from a song related to a show/film being discussed in another thread, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick..."

Merv's guests interacted with each other much more than Carson's did, which was fun. Also Merv had Arthur Treacher as his sidekick -- now there was a link to classic films!

I didn't mean she was a lousy actress, just not a very good one, particularly for film. In the theater, in the days of poor miking/sound systems, to be able to belt was very important. You must have seen her in films, such as There's no Business Like Show Business. Listen to her speech -- there's very little nuance there. She was super-famous for her portrayal of Annie Oakley in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun but was not seriously considered for the film role. It was just felt she was not right for film.

And let's not overlook Carson Daly, whom the youngest among us might have thought of first (although it's hard to believe he is pushing 40)! Maybe an interesting idea for a thread would be (since we seem to be getting more reflexive these days): "Threads I've never entered..."

The fact remains, the Carson on TCM thread didn't catch my attention; the other one, which was clear about the subject, did. By the way, Meingast, was that really you who posted the last post in this thread? There was no superabundance of links, so I didn't recognize you, despite the name!

I agree. It took time for Gypsy to achieve its place in the canon. Alot has been written about it. Superlatives began appearing in print about it 20 years after its initial run. At the time, I think it was seen as just another good show about show business, and those sorts of musicals were not given the credit that the more serious R&H musicals were accorded. But around 1990, Frank Rich wrote something to the effect that Gypsy was Broadway's brassy answer to King Lear ! The Sound of Music is not one of my favorites. I don't like the movie much. The show does get performed once in a while, e.g. in London next summer. I love the original Broadway cast recording with Mary Martin. Regarding Broadway revivals, there has only been 1 revival of The Sound of Music to 4 of Gypsy.

And of course no matter who plays Auntie Mame, the role will always belong to Rosalind Russell, as will the role of Ruth in Wonderful Town. The thing about Gypsy, though, was that, although it was a hit, it was not as big a hit as it is remembered to be, in retrospect. Alot of its fame came later. Despite many nominations, it won no Tony Awards. It ran for a respectable 702 performances, about the same as L'il Abner, and fewer than the roughly contemporary Fiorello and Bells Are Ringing. And, to quote the famous line from the latter show, "Mary and Ethel who?" Mary was Mary Martin, whose show, The Sound of Music, dwarfed Gypsy and every other musical that season.

That was just an example, it was way too vague. I actually was hoping that it was about Robert Carson, who wrote the great screenplay for The Light that Failed, but still didn't go in. I'm a HUGE classic film fan; tv names don't immediately resonate with me, especially just surnames.

Well, I agree with you to a point, but I still don't think she was a good enough actress to do the film. However when I was a very young teen, I was a volunteer for the Lindsay for Mayor campaign here in NYC (1965). Merman was a big supporter. I still have my "Lindsay Record," a recording of Merman singing, "Poor old New York, it used to be great, voters; in 1908 voters..." leading to "With Lindsay it's coming up roses!" I think to some extent, she's more associated with that song than with the role itself.

No, really, I'm not joking. I was never such an avid watcher of Carson that his surname alone in these threads would immediately confer familiarity with the content, and at any rate, was very non-specific. I don't go into most threads. The later Carson thread was very clear about what the topic was.

This thread has a better, more specific title. The other one, which I didn't look at, could be about Jack Carson, etc.

Carson was no Cavett!

Actually, I was very young at that time, but I don't think Merman was any more associated with the role than some of the other ladies were with their roles. Merman didn't even win the Tony Award -- Mary Martin did that year, for The Sound of Music. Alot of Gypsy's popularity came later on; when it opened, although it got some good reviews, it was just another good musical, in the golden age of Broadway musicals. The first (and only) time I saw it on stage was in London in 1973 or 4, with Angela Lansbury, who was very good as Mama Rose.

But I think that's the point. You can dub anyone's singing voice in the movies, but you need them to ACT well. Merman was never a very good actress -- listen to her in some of her films, she speaks in a monotone; Russell was a great actress. Relatively few of the actresses who created musical roles on Broadway got to play the role in the movies. Carol Channing (sadly) did not star in the film of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Hello Dolly, Julie Andrews did not star in the film of My Fair Lady, Mary Martin did not star in the film of The Sound of Music. It wasn't until Barbra Streisand starred in the film of Funny Girl that the tide changed a bit in favor of the original Broadway star. And some of the great movie stars who did get the gigs were dubbed: Deborah Kerr in The King and I; Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Denis -- Louis Hayward in *Anthony Adverse* (1936)

Not a very nice bloke, I've heard.

I love the film of Gypsy. I remember being annoyed, as a kid, that The Music Man won the best adapted score Oscar over Gypsy. Among its other nominations was color cinematography, but I guess it was understandable that Lawrence of Arabia won. Rosalind Russell was terrific as Mama Rose, although most of her singing was dubbed by Lisa Kirk, Russell was a better actress than Merman, I think. Merman had a voice -- but you don't need a belter in a movie.

I agree with you about that! I worked with Milo O'Shea a few times. I loved his performances in Barbarella (as Durand Durand, from which the group Duran Duran took their name) and as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses.

Not sure how I feel about this. I think I would prefer to see things like Mae West on the Red Skelton Show, or Sophie Tucker on the Ed Sullivan Show. Or even some of the "What's My Line" bits. Many of the classic movie actors made more interesting and fun appearances on "classic tv" than they did on the Carson show.

Glad you (and Miss W.) liked it. I hadn't heard it in years but was recently listening to an archived "Desert Island Discs" program on BBC Radio 4, over the Internet. The guest was Clarissa Dickson Wright, one of the "Two Fat Ladies" from the UK cooking show. She picked "Rasputin" as one of her pieces of music, that she'd want on her island.

It figures prominently in Animal Crackers.

Ra Ra Rasputin!