Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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I really have to agree with you about North by Northwest, TCM's favorite movie. Much as I love Hitchcock, I also don't like To Catch a Thief.
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I'm not crazy about Sondheim either, just used him as an example. He's so bourgeois in his attitudes, particuarly in Company and A Little Night Music. Brecht/Weill (e.g. The Threepenny Opera) is a much better example which is a little closer to Marat/Sade.
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MARAT/SADE was not a musical COMEDY. But no musical today is, either. None of those Sondheim shows is a comedy -- apart from A FUNNY THING. The most memorable musicals were about serious subjects -- even Rodgers & Hammerstein -- look at OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, etc. Probably Marat/Sade is more in the Weill/Brecht tradition of musicals.
Marat/Sade, a Royal Shakespeare Company musical about a group of inmates in an insane asylum putting on a play about the death of Jean-Paul Marat, was as much of a musical as any of them. Quite moving at times, and at the end, terrifying.
Judy Collins actually recorded a track from MARAT/SADE on one of her albums -- Four Years after the Revolution.
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i'd babble more but i find scrolling past all those big photos is exhausting. too hard to get to the last post. Sorry to be heretical but I wish we couldn't do photos here.
But to get back to musicals: doesn't anyone remember Marat/Sade?
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I wish TCM would show *Every Day's a Holiday*. It has a great cast - including one of Louis Armstrong's earliest appearances on film. I love the exchange when Mae reveals her disguise to villain Lloyd Nolan:
Mae: "You know me, take a good look. We've had dealings before."
Lloyd: "So, Mademoiselle Fifi is Peaches O'Day!"
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Congratulations! And they sang the same song -- "How to Make a Hit with Fifi." You can check out both versions on YouTube. *Every Day's a Holiday* is my favorite Mae West film -- it hasn't been on in years.
Your prize is the knowledge that you found an answer that's not that easy to research, if you didn't know it.
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Here's a little quiz -- what song/character does Carmen Miranda share with Mae West?
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I watched *The Happy Years* (1950) again recently, starring Dean Stockwell. It's such an enjoyable film with a great cast. Takes place in turn-of-the-century New Jersey. Directed by William Wellman, whose son has a very peculiar bit part as a church bell ringer. Would be perfect on a "double bill" with *Ah, Wilderness!*
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Amusing! One of Shelley Winters' crazier roles was as Auntie Roo in *Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?* Shelley plays, as I recall, an American widow in the UK -- a sort of American witch to young Brit Hansel and Gretels. Great British cast, directed by Curtis Harrington!
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Just watched Kim's ex -- Richard Johnson -- in a new Masterpiece Mystery: The Dead of Winter. Part of the Inspecter Lewis series.
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In any case, I'm not a big fan of Streisand. Maybe I liked her on stage because, 1) I was very young -- it was the second show I saw; and 2) I think her big personality requires a bit of muting, which perhaps she did in her young days.
But one atypical musical that has not been mentioned in this thread is one of my faves of that late 60s period: *The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade*. Great songs, a really fascinating plot. Sort of stagey for a film, but by the end, totally wrenching. And I believe the great Glenda Jackson's film debut as Charlotte Corday!
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I think the late 60s the style of musical film making just made the shows look silly on film. An exception was *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*. Although too many good songs were cut, Richard Lester did a great, innovative, job of directing. I've never liked the film of *The Sound of Music*, but I do enjoy the original Broadway cast album with Mary Martin. I like *Bye Bye Birdie* on film -- saw it at Radio City Music Hall. But some really good songs were cut. Maybe there's a problem with knowing the show too well!
Regarding Barbara as Fanny Brice, I recall -- it was a long time ago -- really liking her on stage. Brice was not so over-the-top in real life as the film portrays her. I once read some letters in the Library from Constance Collier to Katharine Hepburn in which Brice, who was a friend to both of them, was mentioned. Really conveyed the sadness.
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I grew up in NYC and started going to the theater as a young teen. Early on I saw Funny Girl and Hello Dolly on stage. Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand; Dolly with Carol Channing and, in 1967, Pearl Bailey. At the curtain call of the Pearl Bailey version, she came out and made some mysterious remark about the (all-black) cast discussing whether they should go on with the show. My friend and I went to the stage door to get her autograph. She told us that, during the show, the cast found out that Martin Luther King., Jr. had been shot.
Channing is the definitive Dolly; too bad she did make films. Bailey was great. And of course Streisand was terrific in Funny Girl. But I don't think the films they made of those musicals were very good, and I don't like Streisand as Dolly.
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I think Grant would be great as Higgins, especially if they got James Wilby to play Pickering. Grant's best roles, I think, were in *Lair of the White Worm* and *Maurice*, In Maurice, Grant and Wilby have a sort of Edwardian platonic gay love affair, which is never really consummated because of the times and Grant's fears. So, it would be great to reunite Grant with Wilby, since it's often suspected that Higgins and Pickering were lovers!
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I've been waiting for *The Light that Failed* for some time. It's one of my favorite films. Great cast, sad, romantic story, beautiful score.
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Favorites:
Astaire and Rogers musicals
Love Me Tonight -- love the songs and the way the they're filmed -- very interesting.
Busby Berkeley musicals
Of the Broadway musical adaptations, I like
Little Abner
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (though they cut too many songs)
Gypsy
I don't like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on film. Listen to the original Broadway cast with Carol Channing -- it's terrific. And I don't like the later MGM (Gene Kelly etc.) musicals much.
And Hello Dolly and Funny Girl were both way better on stage.
Strangest musical: Music in the Air -- all that cavorting in lederhosen when you know what is around the corner! But good score.
Camp-est numbers: Turn on the Heat, in Sunny Side Up; any song sung by Dennis Quilley in Privates on Parade. And, though not really in a musical, Lyda Roberti's song in Million Dollar Legs.
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Well, I like Irene Ryan, but I wouldn't go that far! I think there are similarities in many TV "old ladies," from Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Trumble (I Love Lucy) and Gertrude Hoffmann as Mrs. Odets (My Little Margie), to Granny to Estelle Getty as Sophia on Golden Girls.
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I particularly like Patsy in *Topper Returns*, the funniest of all the Topper films, filled with wonderful characters.
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Sounds like fun, I've got the TiVo set. I'm fond of the other version, *Satan Met a Lady.* It's alot of fun. I have to confess my heretical feeling that, although the "classic" version has its moments, and a great cast, but I'm not wild about it. I think John Huston's great films came much later, with *Wise Blood* and *The Dead*.
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I don't care so much that the Greer Garson *Pride and Prejudice* was less faithful to the novel than the later versions. If you want the most faithful, you can see the BBC miniseries adaptations -- all excellent and faithful. But the Greer Garson version has so many pleasures, including a portrait of Lady Catherine that is unfaithful to the novel but totally wonderful, played by Edna Mae Oliver. I'll overlook purity for well done innovation sometimes!
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Miss W., if I a book I love is being made into a film, I look forward to it. It isn't always a good thing, but one hopes for the best. I don't expect the movie to be just like the book. But I hope in some way that it will be true to the spirit of the book. One of my favorite books is E.M. Forster's A Passage to India. I was nervous about the film, but when I went to see it at the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC, I was ecstatic. Although David Lean was not always true to the facts of the novel, he was true to the spirit.
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Funny you should mention His Dark Materials. The Pullman book was adapted for the stage a few years ago, also for London's National Theatre.
The Calasso book didn't so much inspire Welcome to Thebes as it sort of showed how the Greek myths can continue to be used to interpret the contemporary world. Calasso uses an ancient quote at the start of his book: "These things never happened, but are always" -- Saloustios
I hope you enjoy The White Peacock by D.H. Lawrence, if you find it.
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Regarding D.H. Lawrence, his first book -- *The White Peacock* -- is the most beautiful novel I have ever read. What a great movie it would make! I am currently reading *The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony* by Roberto Calasso. I recently saw a play at the National Theatre in London -- *Welcome to Thebes* -- the author, Moira Buffini, wrote that the Calasso book inspired her. I loved her play and am enjoying Calasso's book.
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Jones played some interesting roles. In addition to Ryan's Daughter, he played Paxton Quigley in Three in the Attic and also starred in Chubasco, a film as I recall about Portuguese fishermen! I'd like to see those films again, don't think they've been shown.
ROBERT TAYLOR WAS A "SNITCH!"
in General Discussions
Posted
Robert Taylor was not only a snitch, he was also a lousy actor.