musikone Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 This is a movie intended to glorify the famous showman/entertainer who, incidentally, happened to play the piano. I would certainly not insult musicians by referring to Liberace as one of them! This movie is simultaneously entertaining, comical, nonsensical, bombastic and nauseating -- a truly delightful combination. I highly recommend it for all of these five solid reasons, notwithstanding the fact that *I* am a musician without any financial interest in music. That is, I have studied music practically all of my life for the love of it and all of the benefits that this love has provided, rather than for money. Note that Liberace in the 1950s was the multi-multi-millionare of today. There is an excellent and exquisitely detailed article about this person at the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberace Take a look back at a much different view of so-called "classical" music in the American culture of that time. musikone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Faiola Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Of course the biggest joke is that this picture is a remake of Warners' THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD, with Liberace sitting in for, of all people, George Arliss!! Even Dorothy Malone and Bill Demarest couldn't save this one. I have the original Columbia soundtrack LP. Regardless of the ridiculous histrionics and outlandish casting, Liberace and Ray Heindorf make great music together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Ahh Liberace. LOL. Has TCM ever showed this? I would love to see it. I remember his tv show as a kid with the candelebras on the piano (LOL).......Thought his name was odd! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyGeetar Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 came home for lunch yesterday, saw this was on, cancelled my noon. it was fabulous. the highlight of the movie is near the end where Liberace in a kind of Rear Window ish thing, is losing his hearing so he takes to peeping on people in Central Park with a telescope (comedy goldmine.) He oversees a mother and her frigid thirty-something daughter having a conversation on a park bench. It is obvious that the daughter has married a rich man and is too embaressed to have her mother meet her new family. the daughter leaves and Swchwoooooooooooooooooooosh in flies Lee on a pink cloud of romance to take the dowdy Thelma Ritter-ish mother on a Fabby Saks shopping spree, selecting a gown from a parade of models and hats and all sorts of feathery accutremont (Lee poo-poos some of the tackier choices, no doubt winking to the salegirl to have them delivered to his place later.) Y'know, just God Bless the fifties. Dorothy Malone was in this, she was perfect. Bill Demarest looked lost and afraid, kind of like Ward Bond in Johnny Guitar, wondering what the hell he did to deserve this. This thing needed Marjorie Rambeau or Marjorie Maine or the actual Thelma Ritter or even Miriam Hopkins as a daffy aunt instead of Demarest. Wouldn't have saved it, but it might've helped. ps- Mother f***er could play the piano like nobody's business. Edited by: JonnyGeetar on Mar 8, 2012 11:14 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicalnovelty Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 See Shemp Howard (in 1954) doing his Liberace imitation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sJX6Dm2bs&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyQ Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 My boyfriend loves the 3 Stooges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 You have my sympathy, LadyQ. As far as Liberace goes, of COURSE he was talented. Like me, he's POLISH! Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Damn! It was on yesterday? BUMMER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 So do I. (LOL) A guilty pleasure. Takes me back to my childhood when they were shown on tv all the time........(SPREAD OUT!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriegerg69 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Even funnier is the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hyde and Hare", where Bugs sits at a piano, pauses, then reaches down and places a candelabra on top of the piano, then imitates Liberace, saying "I wish my brother George was here!". :^0 Lee was fun to watch in whatever he did (loved him in a dual role on the Batman tv series, especially butching it up as the evil twin Harry, waving a cigar around while talking), but in much of what he did he almost seemed to be a parody of himself...certainly he appeared to poke fun at his image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Even funnier is the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hyde and Hare", where Bugs sits at a piano, pauses, then reaches down and places a candelabra on top of the piano, then imitates Liberace, saying "I wish my brother George was here!". :^0 Watching that episode was how I first came to know about Liberace, all those years ago! Ah, Bugs, my childhood guru... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriegerg69 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 It was the Batman episode that I first became acquainted with Lee. He's on the right as the good twin, Chandell, and on the left as the evil twin, Harry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 LOL. I'll never forget that pic of him in Hot Pants in one of his Vegas shows. Was in all the newspapers...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriegerg69 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 4 U, Hibi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I'm DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kriegerg69 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 LOL...I got the chance to see Liberace perform live once when I was young (I think Phyllis Diller was the opening act), and Lee came out (no pun intended) in a HUGE mink cape with two draw ties in front...from which two huge fur balls hung. He leaned over to an older woman in the front row to let her feel them, and he said "I'll bet you never felt ones made of mink before!" :^0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 ****! I remember that cape. Phyllis Diller and Liberace on the same stage. A press agents dream! LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phroso Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Krieger, the line "I wish my brother George was here," has become a favorite catchphrase of my three-year old grandson. He heard the line while we were watching another Looney Tune, (Friz Freleng's "Three Little Bops"), and now he watches the cartoon JUST TO HEAR THAT LINE. The fact that he doesn't understand the context just makes it funnier to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts