Procrastination In Swing Time

Downtime

2005-11-16T11:18:00.000+11:00

First things first - let me apologise for not updating this blog or the site at all for the past few weeks. This is a combination of uni assessments, work and laziness getting in the way.

At the moment I'm considering whether or not to expand Procrastination In Swing time - that is, by actually coughing up money to do so - and therefore I'm reconsidering the role of this blog. So if there's not much activity around here for a while, take heart in knowing it's in preparation for an eventual explosion of musical goodness :)

If you'd like to keep up to date with what's going on, you can always subscribe to the blog and you won't have to keep checking back here for news. And there will be news! Just not now.

For now I'm off to study for my English exam and maybe try persevere through The Ice Follies of 1939. Wish me luck!

Australian iTunes Open for Business!

2005-10-26T07:45:00.000+10:00

Good news for all of us in the Australian region - yesterday morning Apple finally opened an Australian iTunes store. I jumped online today to check it out and, while I've had a bit of trouble with navigation, I'm glad to say that many of the material from TCM and Rhino Records are available, just like with the US store.

The albums are generally $16.99 each and songs are $1.69 each. I haven't been able to find a way to bring up the entire TCM/Rhino catalogue available, but so far I've come across plenty of Rhino releases including the That's Entertainment CD (released in stores here as Musical Wonderland, but at iTunes it's under its US title), the American In Paris ST, Annie Get Your Gun ST, Silk Stockings ST and the Latin music anthology for all the Cugat and Miranda fans out there. Of course, aside from the Rhino releases there are other CDs from other labels like Fred Astaire's Finest Hour, a 17 song compilation from Verve, and plenty of Judy Garland songs and CDs on offer.

Unfortunately for Gene Kelly deprived me, I can only find songs from An American In Paris. Some people may be a bit disappointed at what they don't find, but at least our favourite musical performers are represented in some way!

So, get your credit cards ready, my antipodean friends, and head on down to... http://www.apple.com/au/itunes/music/

It took intellect to master my art: Pal Joey

2005-10-22T10:52:00.000+10:00

10 reasons why Pal Joey isn't as bad as you think it is:

The opening credits. Instead of the usual quick scroll on painted backdrop, the film opens with Joey (Frank Sinatra) getting thrown out of town. The credits play over the action of Joey travelling to San Francisco, eyeing off ladies, looking down in the dumps, and so on. It's a great way to start the movie, and a sequence that wouldn't be out of place in a film made today.

Frank Sinatra's performance as Joey. There a few performances that emanate... how can I put this? Randiness, as much as his performance here. Even in a Hays-code stunted script, his performance ensures much of the bite of the original stage play is not lost. Look at the way he eyes up the women he meets, how he delivers his lines, how he approaches people with that twinkle in his eye. How he subtly (ahem) kicks the bedroom door open with his foot while he's trying to seduce Rita Hayworth, and then try look nonchalant as he does it. This man was born to play Pal Joey.
Rita Hayworth's rendition of 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' is justifiably agreed upon to be a highlight of the film, and it's a gorgeous sequence, with a teasing shower scene at the end. But I prefer her other number 'Zip', a strip number where she never strips a thing. She pulls off her gloves, and then proceeds to mime zipping off the rest of her clothes, all the while playing with her dress (beautifully designed, one of the best she ever wore) and its two long trains. She flips the trains into Sinatra's face, wraps them around her, whips them about her body. Sinatra's reaction shots to all this are priceless, knowing what he's thinking of (and what most of the audience are thinking of). It's like a fun version of 'Put The Blame On Mame' from Gilda, and endlessly enjoyable.

Kim Novak's entrance at the nightclub. Her entrance is part of a dance number, where we are introduced to all the other girls in the chorus before Kim comes out at the last. It's like the opening sequence of Cover Girl, which I discussed in an earlier post. In that movie, the emphasis is on the girl's faces, and Rita's face, as the sequence is played out in close-ups on the girls faces as they emrege from the curtain. In this movie the sequence is in a mid-long shot, showing us all the girls' bodies, and the closeup on Kim when she appears is just as much on her body as on her face. Sinatra even asks his friend who the mouse with 'the build' is. It's a subtle shift (well, maybe not so subtle) that fascinates me.
Frank's rendition of 'The Lady Is A Tramp'. One of his signature songs, this is my favourite version of it as he sings it to Rita's Mrs Prentiss-Simpson. Wonderfully shot, superb reactions from Rita, and Frank's performance is swaggering and charming at the same time as he takes a few gentle digs at Rita's character. For some reason I adore how instead of just singing "Hates California 'cause it's cold and it's damp", he sings "'cause it's so cold and so damp." And look at that shrug he gives at the end as he states "That's why the lady is a tramp!" This number is unmissable for any Frank fan!

Kim Novak's strip number. So it starts a little badly with the whole crinoline and French maid thing (yawn), but it's great because it is such an amibivalent number. Like Joey, we don't really want to see her strip, because she's been established as the nice girl who's only doing the strip because he asked her to. We feel Kim's character Linda's nervousness as well, knowing how she feels about it. And we feel Mrs Prentiss-Simpson's shock when she finds out Linda has decided to stay at the club and do the strip, knowing what this may mean for her and Joey's relationship. And on top of all that, there's a certain voyeuristic urge to see Kim go on with the number, because, let's face it, who can take their eyes off Kim Novak when she's up there strutting her stuff?
Barbara Nichols as Gladys. And Frank's bickering with her. Proves that not all girls fall for Joey Evan's charms, and besides Joey's smart one-liners, she provides most of the comedy.
The music. Rodgers and Hart, you are my gods. Nelson Riddle, your arrangements are divine.
Watch Rita closely when Joey tells her he's leaving her. You've just seen all this character's plans fall apart. No matter how awful she's seemed up until now, there's someting in her expression in this scene that always wants to make me give her a hug.
The cinematography. Makes all those dingy little numbers in that dingy little nightclub look fantastic, and really adds something to Frank's numbers.

And 5 reasons why it is:

That dream sequence. The Dame song is completely overshadowed by the lameness of the... everything in this scene. Some men may find comfort in seeing Kim and Rita run around in leotards, though.
The ending. Completely takes away the bite of the movie when the two heroes walk off into the sunset together like any other lightweight romance.

It's loooonnnggg.
Is it just me, or does the sight of Kim Novak walking around San Francisco make you think James Stewart is poking around somewhere muttering things to himself about Madeleine? No? Just me? I've been watching Vertigo too much.
Songs are missing, other Rodgers and Hart songs are interpolated, lyrics are changed and censored. This may not be notable to those unfamiliar with the stage play, but to those who are, it can be very annoying.

The Other Fab Four

2005-10-08T17:55:00.000+10:00

Here we go with some shameless site promotion...

Here's a quick quiz for you:

Do you like Gene Kelly?
Do you like Frank Sinatra?
Do you like Marlon Brando?
Do you like James Dean?

If you said yes to any of these questions, then make sure you get on down to The Other Fab Four. It's like a shrine to the four boys. And make sure you leave a message in the forum to tell the webmistress, Lennon, what a great job she's done!

Get Thee Behind Me, Essay

2005-10-08T17:01:00.000+10:00

I've returned to an old template for the blog for the time being because the other one looked shocking on any Mac computers. Or maybe it was just the ones at uni. Anyway, this one looks bad on Macs as well, but slightly less so.

In an attempt to avoid my history essay, I've decided to do a picture post. Hooray, I hear you cry. Yes, we all like some good pictures every now and then. I've chosen some very random, very unrelated pictures. They're all part of my very favourites picture list though, and I'll explain why as we go along:

I don't remember where I found this one. I really shouldn't even have it here because it has nothing to do with musicals or film or anything at all. I don't even like her dress. But one day, a long time ago, a friend asked me to find a picture on my computer that I felt represented me the best, and I chose this one.

I loooove this portrait of Janet Leigh. I would have bought the book I found it in just for this picture. Stunning.

This is from the old faithful Gene Kelly Gallery. It's taken on the set of Invitation To The Dance. You can see Gene Kelly, the director, in the background. He looks exhausted.

This is a lovely picture of Margaret O'Brien and her little dog I found in a library book one day. To get her to cry for scenes, her mother or director would tell her that the dog had been killed. Gruesomely. That's something to think about next time you see one of her films. Here she's brushing the dog's teeth. I wish I could remember its name.

My favourite picture of Rita Hayworth ever. She's nothing like her sultry Gilda image here: just beautiful and lovely.

If that is what my lady adores: Cover Girl

2005-10-08T12:45:00.000+10:00

"So if you want to see me again Danny McGuire," Rita cries, " you can just come to Broadway! To a big show!" She bursts into tears and runs out of the room, knocking over a chair as she sobs. I, meanwhile, am rolling around on the floor laughing my head off.

Cover Girl has to be one of the most melodramatic musicals I've ever seen. I can't help giggling all the way through it, but most often I giggle in parts I don't think I'm supposed to be giggling in. Like Rita's tearful exit from the nightclub, described above. Or throughout the whole 'Long Ago and Far Away' sequence. Everyone says they absolutely love that number, and that it's fantastic. But while I love the song, I just can't keep a straight face throughout the whole thing. Why? I don't know, we'll have to get back to this in a moment to ponder it some more.

You'd think that given my undying-obsessive-love of Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth that I would love this movie to smithereens. But I don't. The first time I saw it I was decidedly underwhelmed. I think I expected more comedy and less drama. Gene and Rita just seemed to mope all over the screen, while Phil Silvers and Eve Arden did their valiant best to lighten the mood.

What is it that ruins this film for me? A number of things, firstly, the length. It's just too long. Secondly, the lack of chemistry between Gene and Rita. This is incredibly important, because it's what makes those dramatic moments between them seem ludicrous.

Take 'Long Ago and Far Away', for example. Gene, stacking the chairs, is moping (which he does a lot in this film). Rita comes in to tell him she still loves him. She's a little mopey too. It's Mopesville in there - even Phil, playing at the piano, is unusually quiet. now, of course, Rita and Gene start singing. Lovely song. Gene thinks she's singing about her dream of being a cover girl, but she's really singing about her dream of being with him. So far, so good. Gene starts singing, broodily leaning his head against one of the chairs. The Rita joins in again, looking misty eyed into some kind of far-off distance. They make a little attempt at a dance, complete with yearning and deadly serious expressions on heir faces. Gene does his usual "I'll lean against her cheek and take a deep breath in" that we've all seen in every single other film he's in. And Phil is still sitting at his piano while Gene and Rita play out this silly love scene behind him.

So I don't know what it is about all these elements, but for some reason I find it incredibly over the top. It would maybe have been alright if the chemistry between the leads was stronger - but its not. Whack Judy Garland in there with Gene and think of how different that would have turned out. Because I can't feel any chemistry between Rita and Gene, what could have been a beautiful love scene becomes melodramatic as there's no basis for the way they're behaving. Maybe if the film had provided some more background on their relationship and Gene's character's past we could then have more of a basis. Instead, I get the same feeling as when you walk in on the end of a dramatic chick flick. Everyone around you is bawling their eyes out, but because you have no real foundation of knowledge about the characters, and the plot, and their relationships, you find the whole situation ridiculous (or is this just me?)

One other part I always giggle in is at the very end, when Rita turns up to Joe's Place singing 'Long Ago and Far Away' again. You can see the spotlights, the fans to blow a breeze a through her hair, and there she is staring off into that goddamn distance again...

Some other things that don't impress me are the flashback scenes. That 'Sure Thing' song is one of the most boring numbers I've ever seen. It makes the later 'Poor John' number seem wonderful. And after a steady diet of Gene's grinning, scenery chewing performances in his MGM films it's quite a let down to have him so sulky all the time. I can see Rita's character Rusty's dilemma as she has to choose between Gene's Danny and Lee Bowman's Noel:

"Oh, I love Danny! He can dance, he can sing, he fills out a suit very nicely... but he's always brooding and sulking over me! That can really cramp a girl's style. Now Noel, he's always chipper. Plus he's rich, and a big producer, and he's a really nice guy. But he looks like a wet sock. Oh dear! What's a cover girl to do?"

Despite all of what I've just said, there are some things I love about this movie. Here's a rundown:

Rita and Gene together. So they don't have any chemistry, but they do make a lovely pair in 'Put Me To The Test'. And, given my obsessive-crazy-love for them, it's never a bad thing to see them both on screen.
The opening number, 'The Show Must Go On', is one of my favourite musical openings ever. Charles Vidor, the director, presents us with girls singing the lines of the song. They'r all very pretty, but not that stunning, if you know what I mean. But then - boom! without any warning! - there's Rita! And she just completely knocks you out of your seat because she's so beautiful. As the number continues, we see they're chorus girls in a run down nightclub, dancing in an act that isn't very good at all. As they start kicking their legs all out of time, we cut to Gene standing in the wings, shaking his head at the badness of it all. I always laugh at that bit.

'Make Way For Tomorrow'. It really is the highlight of the movie. I love it all, from the "Come on, pearl!" ritual, to the disapproving policeman, to the "yackety yackety yackety yack", to the drunk man leaning on the lampost. I sometimes find myself humming the tune as I walk down the street. Even yesterday as I walked through the park, I saw a couple making out under a tree, and I very nearly ran up to them and sang "yackety yackety yackety yack!" (Or is it "Yappity yappity yappity yap"?)

Gene and Phil reprising 'Put Me To The Test' while they entertain the soldiers. It's a chance for Gene to crack a smile and be a bit more like the Gene we all know and love, that is, making a lovely fool out of himself. And I'm not a big Phil Silvers fan, but I do like the two of them together here. Their routine here always makes me smile.
Rita's drunk scene. I think it's one of her best scenes as an actress ever. She's just brilliant.
Otto Kruger and Jess Barker as the old and young Mr Coudair. An example of perfect casting. Not only do Kruger and Barker look and act alike, but they're also able to make us not hate Coudair. While we don't agree with his actions, and we feel ashamed of him in parts (especially when he convinces Gene that he couldn't give Rita a good life), he's still a likeable character who redeems himself in the end. His actions and his behaviour are perhaps the most complex in the film, and Kruger and Barker's performances are suitably subtle and endearing.

The Alter Ego dance, in which a confused Gene dances with himself in the street. Who else but Gene would have the nerve and the ego to dance with himself? I know Fred Astaire danced with his shadows and projected self as well, but I don't recall him taking time out to have a chat to his other self, or chasing it down the street. At the same time, I'm not criticising Gene's ego. Without his drive and ambition, we wouldn't have such wonderful moments as these. Cyd Charisse once said that with Gene, Gene always came first. But she also said he was brilliant. That's evident here. What's not so evident is Stanley Donen's participation as well. Remember back then they were a team, so any accolades we give to Gene must also be given to Stanley. Three cheers, boys!

Cover Girl will never be one of my all time favourite films. But there are moments in it that I hold so dear that I don't think I'll ever stop watching it. There are certain movies that you may not love - that you might hate, even - but they can include certain moments, or scenes, that blow you away, or stir a certain emotion in you, or bring back vivid memories. This is what Cover Girl is for me. What movies are like that for you?

(All pictures in this post are from the Gene Kelly Gallery. Except the poster image of Rita. I don't know where that's from.)

Everything good is bad for you

2005-10-05T09:50:00.000+10:00

I sometimes think I take this procrastination thing too far.

I don't think there's any feeling quite like the one you get when you realise just how much work you haven't done and how much work is due in. Today. Very soon.

On one hand, I'm actually a bit proud of my amazing time wasting abilities. But then again, it's not exactly a very handy skill to have, is it? Whereas being able to write a 1500 word essay on early Australian feminism is slightly more constructive. Slightly.

In my panic this morning when I realised that my history consultation is at 3pm, I did what any conscientious history student would do. I read about the adventures of The Cad and The Harlot (aka Brad and Ange) in a tabloid magazine, brushed my hair, ate some rice, tried reading about changes to land valuations in the newspaper and ironed some clothes before chucking it all in and reading some of my history notes. After this I panicked again, because I realised once more how little I had done. So I went and put on my Bells Are Ringing soundtrack. As you do.

Anyway, Dean Martin's solo "Do It Yourself" came on. In the song he's trying to spur himself on to work and to end his boozy procrastination. Here's a taste of the lyrics:

You gotta do it, you gotta do it,
Gotta do it all alone,
No-one else will do it for you
You're on your own.

Do it.
It may be love or war or moppin' up the floor but just do it.
Don't send a friend who's true to pitch a woo for you or you'll rue it,
Do it yourself.
Don't fake it!
If you're a fake you won't make it,
Wait for your break and then take it,
For time and tide may wait for no man:
Go go go man!

Well, in the flurry of excited saxophones and half-soused crooning, I got caught up in the determined to work atmosphere and came on the computer to check if my reserved books at the library were available yet. Well, it was a noble effort. After the song ended I kind of lost the spirit and ended up here. Listening to more Dean Martin, but this time he's singing about when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, and it's not so conducive to studying. Bad, bad Libby.

It's times like these I think I should give up all the DVDs, videos, TCM, radio, CDs, records and internet. I'd go build myself a shack somewhere in the bush west of Cobar, taking with me my history books and a tape playing "Do It Yourself" over and over again. Maybe I'd bring a picture of Dean holding a martini and pointing his finger at the camera. I'd stick it on the wall and whenever I looked at it Dean would point at me and say "Now, Libby baby, you know you gotta do that essay. I'm not going to take my eyes off you until you write that first paragraph." And I'd say "Righto Dino." and - hey presto! - essays would ensue.

So my message for today is very simple. If you've got something to do, then do it. The power of Dean compels you!
Dean: "Do it, do it yourself!" *sips martini*
Libby: "It doesn't help when you're sitting there sipping martinis."
Dean: "Honey, I'm dead, I can drink as many martinis as I want. You get nothin' until you can tell me what the major inspirations of the 19th century feminists were."
Libby: "You could at least give me a few pointers."
Dean: "Do I look like I know anything about Australian feminists? This is all the pointing you'll get from me." *points finger at Libby*
Libby: *grumbles*

Updates

2005-10-03T10:39:00.000+10:00

It's been a long time since I've used that word in a post... but it's true, I've finally updated something. There's a new quote for the month, a new site of the week, and a new links page for Ginger Rogers. Hurrah! Now I better get back to that history essay.

Check it all out here.

Carried Away

2005-09-28T10:37:00.000+10:00

Right now my video of DuBarry Was A Lady is playing and I'm kind of watching, but kind of not. It's not a great movie at all, but perhaps the only musical I know of with a song about washing the king's face and where Tommy Dorsey wears breeches and a wig. And then there's those guys who sing out of their noses... but I think it's best we ignore those fellows for the moment. I could talk about the silliness of this movie all day.

Anyway, on to other matters. What have I been getting up to lately? Well, in the words of Adolph Green from the stage version of On The Town:

"When shopping I'm a sucker for a bargain sale,
If something is marked down upon a shelf,
My sense of what is practical begins to fail,
I buy one,
Then another,
And another,
Then another,
I buy the whole store out and I'm in business for myself!"

And so it was at Borders the other day. Firstly I bought the original studio cast recording of On The Town. That's with Betty Comden and Adolph Green and Nancy Walker, and Leonard Bernstein conducting. I've been salivating over it for ages, it was released years ago, but it was only the other day that I found it in the shop when I had money in my pocket. Oh, Comden and Green and Bernstein! they're like... my gods (and goddess).

Then I had a look at their DVD section. Most of their DVDs are sold at ridiculously inflated prices, but they normally stock movies that I would have to order online otherwise. I ended up skipping out with copies of Take Me Out To The Ballgame and Leave Her To Heaven under my arm. At last my video copy of Take Me Out To The Ballgame can have a rest, and I can now enjoy the Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly goodness fully on DVD. (as I already have Anchors Aweigh and On The Town on DVD - so collection completed! It gives me a warm, happy feeling to know this.)

In other unrelated news, there's been a long-awaited addition to The Love Goddesses site. So she wasn't in any musicals (or was she? It would be interesting to see if she was) but, come on! It's Sophia. Check her out here. It's a very well written and engaging article, and the accompanying pictures are simply gorgeous.

Pardon me if I stare: Astaire and Hayworth

2005-09-26T09:59:00.000+10:00

On Saturday I was finally able to cross off one of the items on my to-do list - that is, I saw Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth together for the first time in You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier.

This morning I skimmed through some of the user comments at IMDB for the films. They were generally favourable, though they admitted they weren't the greatest of all greatness. One comment I particularly liked for YNGR was this one:

This under-rated film in the Astaire canon deserves another look. Not for its mediocre merits as a musical comedy or its sparkleless gaucheness as a romantic comedy.

No.

This is one of the great explorations of the Astaire persona. Mr. Top Hat and Tails is put in a squalid army environment, and roundly subverts it with lies and disguises, injecting the surreal, and having startling homoerotic dreams. Furthermore, the 'gentleman' persona is exposed in primitive conditions, exposed as mendacious, cynical, cowardly, downright unpatriotic! Extraordinary.

(Read more IMDB comments for You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier)

Alan Vanneman at Bright Lights is not so enthusiastic, however. He raises some good points in his very entertaining reviews, though lovers of the Astaire Hayworth pairing may disagree with him at times. Read his reviews for You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier.

As for myself, being a big fan of Rita and Fred, I thoroughly enjoyed the movies. I love random, silly musical plots - the sillier the better, I say - so the army hijinks in YNGR amused me no end. Yes, I even loved the 'spy' under the hat, Robert Benchley's back scratcher (Ming dynasty, you know) and Fred's double speaking sidekicks. Two things that I particularly enjoyed were:

1. Fred's dream. He dreams that he's taking Rita for a walk and giving her flowers (he wearing a smart boater hat, her wearing pigtails and puffed sleeves). Until Rita's pitchfork wielding brother sees them and chases Fred away, getting close enough to poke his fork where, ahem, the sun don't shine. At the same time we see Fred in bed, reacting to the dream and thrashing about yelling "Ouch! Ouch!" It is absolutely hilarious, both in its parodic sweetness (pigtails!) and silent film slapstick. It could even be part of an old Mack Sennett or Charlie Chaplin short.

2. The guardhouse. Nice and airy, with big windows and a resident jazz band to conveniently break out into song when Fred gets the dancing urge. With all of Fred's snappy solos and those comfy looking cots where the men sit and smoke while Fred completes aforementioned solos, you'd think the best part of being in the defense forces was getting thrown in the brig.

The rest of the movie is pretty silly, but if you enjoy silly plots, you won't mind it at all. There's the chorus girls who are always handily available to send Fred off with a song, the ridiculous wedding ceremony/showstopping jazz number, the wrapping up of the entire plot within 3 seconds at the end of the movie... perfect for a lazy afternoon's entertainment.

But the one moment that really thrilled me was very early in the film. Fred is a choreographer, Rita a chorus girl. he pulls her up and tells her she's not doing the step right. She says she doesn't know how to do it, he offers to show it to her... and bam! They just start dancing. No fanfare, no chorus girls, no spectacle or fancy dresses - just Fred and Rita suddenly turning to the camera and tapping their little hearts out. It doesn't last very long, but it's the most delightful moment in the film - perhaps one of the most delightful movie musical moments of all. In my humble opinion, of course.

I even preferred that little tap routine to the big romantic duet 'So Near and Yet So Far'. The tap routine seemed spontaneous and was bursting with energy, but I think the romantic duet will take a while to grow on me.

I found the same thing with You Were Never Lovelier. When everyone describes the Shorty George number as the best - they're right. It's again bursting with energy and is incredibly fun to watch. Rita really gets to show off her skills here too. She's so vibrant, it sometimes seems she'll jump off the screen at times.

The plot is slightly less silly, and a bit more wooden. At least Xavier Cugat doesn't get to hog so much camera time as he got to do later on at MGM. And Fred gets to hit Adolphe Menjou on the head with a cane, and shake his bon-bon a bit in his solo. And Rita... well, she's just Rita, and she's lovely. So lovely we get to hear Fred sing the beautiful 'You Were Never Lovelier' to her (which, unfortunately, is not followed by a dance).

I did love the ending, with Fred grinning like a schoolboy from his suit of armour. And then big smoochies (which is what we were waiting for all along, wasn't it? No? Just me then...).

One of the best things about these films is not just Fred's comedy (and I had a grin from ear to ear whenever he came on the screen), it's also one of the few times we get to see Rita do some comedic scenes of her own. I laughed out loud at the end of YNGR after Fred has married Rita against her will and she declares "I'll have this marriage annulled tomorrow and then I'll have him arrested!" (I know it doesn't sound funny on paper, but she delivers it so well, you gotta love it)

Or how about her scene in YWNL with Adolphe Menjou when she decides that Fred is in love with her? "He's the one!" she cries. "He's the one who's in love with me!" And when she tries to call Fred's room and Adolphe exclaims "Nice girls don't act this way." she replies, with a wicked look on her face, "Nice girls don't feel the way I do."

All in all, who could resist a movie with both Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth? Even if you hate musicals, hate the plots, think Ginger was better, think Fred couldn't handle Rita... whatever. They were two of the biggest stars of all time. It's worth it. Trust me.

Lovely Rita, Junkie Frank

2005-09-24T13:14:00.000+10:00

Here's what has happened in the past two days, in very basic plot points:

1. I got paid.
2. I bought a new dress.
3. I went into JB HiFi and bought... The Man With The Golden Arm ST and, finally, The Rita Hayworth DVD Collection.

The DVDs are sitting in my room now, begging to be watched. (Rita: "Libby! Watch me and my musical, hair flicking adventures!") But I'm saving them for Monday. So I'll write more about them later. Obviously you realise this is a momentous occasion for me. I have to take them in slowly, one at a time, you know.

I did listen to the MWTGA soundtrack, which was divine. I'm not a fan of the movie itself (a bit overblown for me, but those credits are a knock out and Frank Sinatra gives a fantastic performance). I am a fan of the music though; Elmer Bernstein is a genius. There are parts, however, where you can just imagine Elmer at the conductor's stand, crying out "Listen! Jazz can be dramatic too!"

My new dress was $6 at a second hand shop. Unfortunately, it's made of polyester (being from the 70s). This means it's probably not best to wear it during Sydney summer weather on trains with no airconditioning, which I discovered yesterday. Who was the smart alec who decided selling polyester dresses to Australian girls was a good idea?

On that note, I'm off to try start an inventory of all my musical tape, DVD and soundtrack holdings. I should be doing my history essay in this weeklong break from uni, but there's a big pile of videos in the corner of my room waiting to be sorted. And that's an important priority.

Birthday: Joe Pasternak

2005-09-20T10:22:00.000+10:00

When people try to decide what the best musicals made by MGM were, they inevitably include many of Arthur Freed's productions on their list. Movies like Meet me In St Louis, Singin' In The Rain, The Bandwagon, The Wizard Of Oz... the list could go on and on. But it's also imporatant to recognise the productions of the other giant musical producer at MGM - those of Joe Pasternak. Born in Austria-Hungary, he first started producing musicals at Universal, most of them starring Deanna Durbin. These films helped revitalise Universal's fortunes, and made Durbin into one of the biggest musical stars ever. And when he moved to MGM he didn't do too shabbily either. He went on to produce films starring Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Jane Powell, Mario Lanza, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, Ricardo Montalban... just about all the stars on their musical roster.

His films may not have always had the consistently good scripts, directors and stars of the Freed musicals. Some of them are pretty awful, in all honesty. They can seem sentimental, schmaltzy and overlong to most modern audiences. But they did make an awful lot of money for MGM. I reckon that the Freed budgets couldn't have been supported without the profits that came from the Pasternak movies. Then again, Pasternak's budgets weren't anything to be scoffed at either. How expensive would Anchors Aweigh, for instance, have been to make with that cartoon sequence?

What point am I trying to make? I think it's great that the Freed musicals are so celebrated. But it's about time we appreciated the Pasternak unit's output as well. And what an output! Here's a quick run down of some of his hits (and misses). Musical tragics may not love 'em, but we all know them!

Some of his Deann Durbin films:
Three Smart Girls (1936)
Mad About Music (1938)
That Certain Age (1938)

And some of his MGM productions:
Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
Thousands Cheer (1943)
Two Girls And A Sailor (1944)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Two Sisters From Boston (1946)
This Time For Keeps (1947)
Three Daring Daughters (1948)
On An Island With You (1948)
The Kisssing Bandit (1948)
A Date With Judy (1948)
In The Good Old Summertime (1949)
The Toast Of New Orleans (1950)
Summer Stock (1950)
The Great Caruso (1951)
Skirts Ahoy! (1952)
The Merry Widow (1952)
Small Town Girl (1953)
Athena (1954)
The Student Prince (1954)
Hit The Deck (1955)
Meet Me In Las Vegas (1956)
Please Don't Eat The Daisies (1960)

And so on and so forth. What was the secret to Pasternak's success? Perhaps we can tell from this quote...

"Never make an audience think. It always worked for me."

Today TCM in Australia's plying Pasternak musicals all day (his birthday was yesterday, the 19th). I just sat through The Opposite Sex (which is worth it for June Allyson. Joan Collins, however, ain't a pip on Joan Crawford in the original movie), and Two Sisters From Boston is on now (June again!). Later on I'll be watching Looking For Love and Anchors Aweigh (for the, oh, 200th time, is it?).

Just a quick line from Two Sisters From Boston. Jimmy Durante is trying to rehearse some dancers and he yells: "Why don't you do that step as is?"
Dancer: "We are doing it as is."
Jimmy: "Then why don't you do it is as?"

Pretty chuffed

2005-09-15T09:16:00.000+10:00

Mickey: "No Junie! I can't treat you rough now, I have these essays to finish!"

June: "Pshaw. Essays are no fun. Let's go!"

Mickey: "Well, if you say so..."

Good news, folks! After a week of battling my time wasting instincts I have finally finished all my assessments that are due in today. Aren't you proud of me? I'm pretty proud of me too.

Of course, it was not all easy going. Here's some of the ways I've kept myself distracted over the past few days:

Browsing through every single forum I'm registered with at least three times a day.
Being alternately shocked and amused at some particularly naughty Gene Kelly fanfiction I found. I won't give you the link, but all I could think was "Bad fangirls! Bad!"
Having Jo hurl Swing Time videos and Marlon Brando pictures at me constantly. I can't decide which one of us is the worse procrastinator. I think we're just bad influeneces on each other.
Making up some videos of my own, which you can find here. I'm certainly no Spike Jonze, but do you know how addictive Windows Movie Maker is? Even if it does crash regularly, and has numerous flaws and glitches. It still provides hours of shameless fun.
Watching Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Lover Come Back obsessively.
Wishing I hadn't lent my Pillow Talk DVD to my friend so I could watch that obsessively too.
Eyeing off the video copy of Daddy Long Legs my father found in a library for me. I played the first half hour of it to see if it worked and it does! I'm so excited, I'm going to finish it tonight. I would have finished it last night if my mother hadn't been glaring at me and muttering things about girls who have essays to finish.
Creating a playlist on my media player that consists of 60s pop medleys, Kate Bush, Carmen Miranda and Elvis. In my experience, late nights spent in front of a computer trying to create coherent conclusions to essays result in some eclectic music sampling.
Baking chocolate cakes.
Going for very long walks and listening to Judy Garland songs on my walkman.
Finding batteries for my walkman after too many long walks with Judy Garland.
Finally getting to see Leave Her To Heaven. One of the best movies I've ever seen. My mum thought Gene Tierney was the biggest bitch she'd ever seen, but even after she let Bobby drown, killed her baby and framed her sister for her death I still had a strange soft spot for her. She just loved too much... (and oops, I just gave away the whole story. Sorry! *sheepish grin*)
Bemoaning the fact that the final episode of Dead Like Me is on Monday. And then the dreaded summer season on TV starts. Ugh.
Oh, and the most important of all! I GOT A JOB.

*waits a minute for reader to register their shock*

Now, if you've been following my musical adventures, you'll have known that I regularly whine about my lack of money due to my lack of job. But last week I had an interview, and I had training and I have my first shift tomorrow night. It's for a telephone market research company. I might get lots of work, I might not. I might make my three months probation or they might quickly decide to fire me one day. But all that shall come later. I'm working three shifts this week and I'm already planning what I'm going to spend the money on.

I guess in the coming weeks we'll see whether I'm a saver or a spender :) Place your bets now!

Some Of These Days (I'm going to finish my essay)

2005-09-07T21:26:00.000+10:00

You think they're two random images, with no connection to each other at all. Well... you'd be right. Can you see where this post is going?

Ho hum. Trying to avoid my English draft essay, I have ventured over to the blog to say a big good mornin' to all who are reading (or not). But it's not morning. It's 9:30 at night and my English consultation is 12 and a half hours away. Eegah!

So I've naturally been browsing the old haunts: forums, blogs and the like. I came across the lovely picture at the Gene Kelly photo blog, and even with the watermark it's pretty groovy. If I had photoshop I'd get rid of it for you, but alas, I do not.

Fans of the Little Girl That Could, Shirley Temple, are rejoicing this week as the first Shirley DVD collection has been released. It includes Heidi, Little Miss Broadway and Curly Top. I know you can get Shirley movies on DVD already but... it has a pretty cover! And it's a 'Collection', which makes it sound more official.

In saying that the cover is pretty, I must admit it has an awfully grotesque amount of pink. If you're not the type to burst out, Kay Thompson-style, into renditions of 'Think Pink' on a regular basis, it may not be for you. Perhaps you could paint over the cover design? Or hide the DVD in a dummy cover? It would shade the alarming pinkness from your eyes, and no-one would ever know you were a secret Shirley fan.

So, if you are a secret Shirley girly (or guy), you probably already know about on of the best sites for her fans online at Shirley Temple Fans. If you're not a fan... well, you can just amuse yourself with the Frank and Gene picture, can't you?

A fine way to waste time

2005-09-02T10:29:00.000+10:00

Good news, buckerinos. I've found a great new way to waste my time and yours. Thanks to Jo, I've been using her footage from her Fred and Ginger videos at Lunchbox to create some vids of my own. This has resulted in countless hours of procrastination, all of which makes me feel very happy and a little guilty for neglecting my studies so much.

You can see what I've been up to here.

In site news... there is no news. No updates as of late because I'm either much too busy or much too lazy. You decide.

If silly videos aren't to your taste in ways to bide away the afternoon, why not check out Lennon's brand new site dedicated to Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and James Dean? It's half musical at least, and that design is a knock out. It's at http://fabfour.applescruff.net/

I Can Dream, Can't I?

2005-09-02T09:58:00.000+10:00

After spending most of my money at a 50s fair last weekend (dresses! magazines! vanity cases! telephones! aprons!), I've resigned myself to the fact that it'll be a long time between DVD purchases. So here's some things I've had my eye on for a while, and I like to imagine I have already:

The Astaire and Rogers Collection (Amazon link)
When Robert sent me the link to the Amazon entry for this I nearly fell off my chair as I was so overwhelmed by the extras. I had known about the DVDs coming out for ages, but the extra shorts and cartoons are such a grand bonus.

The Cole Porter Collection (Amazon link)
I do love a bit of Cole before supper. Dig this spread: Broadway Melody of 1940, Kiss me Kate, High Society, Les Girls and Silk Stockings. Go to the link at Amazon to see the extras you get with it. I swoon, I melt. But why isn't The Pirate included, why Warner Home Video, why?

Silk Stockings Soundtrack (Rhino Records link)
I've been eyeing this one off for a very long time now, but due to my lack of finances my sister has agreed to get it for me for Christmas. So it will be a bit of a wait, but it will be here! And then I'll listen to All Of You and Stereophonic Sound and The Red Blues over and over and over and I will be the happiest girl in Sydney.

The Rita Hayworth Collection (Sanity Australia link)
The best news about this is that it's available in Region 4 and is easily found in most stores here! But that makes it harder for me to walk away from it every time I see it in the shop. I probably would have bought it this weekend if it hadn't have been for that 50s fair. It includes The Lady From Shanghai, Pal Joey, Miss Sadie Thompson, They Came To Cordura, You Were Never Lovlier, You'll Never Get Rich, Cover Girl and Gilda. I wish Down To Earth was included, or Affair In Trinidad or Salome or... hey, why don't they just bring out another Collection as well?

And here's some products that I wish would be released (or are released in my dream-land):

The Andy Hardy Collection
Come on, this series is just crying out for a nice box-set release. And they better hurry up with it, because Mickey might not hang around much longer to help them out with it.

The Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly Collection
I know you can get their movies seperately, but if I ever get to heaven, and they have a DVD library there, then this is going to be there. With extras aplenty. And a pretty box. I want it all - docos, shorts, audio tracks - because, let's face it, I love the boys to bits.

More Danny Kaye movies
Right now the only ones you can get in Region 4 are White Christmas and Hans Christian Anderson - neither of them my favourites. Where's Wonder Man or The Court Jester or The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty? How about his later dramatic films as well? Huh?

That's just a condensed list. I could go on and on and on... but I have to study for my Spanish exam on Monday. Bah!

An Invitation...

2005-08-23T09:40:00.000+10:00

Today is Gene Kelly's birthday. Yay! And to celebrate, TCM in Australia is playing Gene kelly all day. Double yay! Right now the 1977 special 'An Evening With Gene Kelly' is playing (which I'm taping). Also showing today is DuBarry Was A Lady, It's Always Fair Weather and Invitation To The Dance. I just finished watching Invitation, and thought I might give it a little attention here.

It opens with a sequence I like to call 'The Dramatic Circus Of Unrequited Love and Long Blue Sleeves'. I don't actually know what it's called, because I missed the credits. But it opens in a little 'medieval' village. A troupe of actors are playing what looks like Commedia Dell'Arte, and Gene is playing the clown in love with the ballerina in the play. He's wearing a strange pyjama/sleeves combo made out of a fabric disturbingly close to chiffon and has his face painted white. You can see this in the poster shown, and yes, it is a bit strange seeing the normally sexy Gene running around in blue chiffon and mascara. Anyway, as the actors take their bows, we see Gene make a little sideways glance at the ballerina - dangnabbit, folks, he's in love with her in real life! But she doesn't give a sous for him and is having it off with the tightrope walker. Poor Gene.

After a rollicking dance number with the other clowns (this time wearing striped socks and a mask that makes him look like he has feathers coming out of his nose), he changes back into his blue pyjamas (why, Gene, why?) and mopes about the pretty soundstage. As he's cleaning up the set, he sees the ballerina and her toyboy tightrope walker meet for a secret rendexvous. They kiss, they dance, they prance around the stage and then head off down a dark alley while Gene weeps, a bit embarrasingly, behind a curtain.

But - what's this? - she's left her cloak behind, so Gene picks it up and swears his love to it (and, by extension, to her) through dance. As you do. Alas, the girl sees this, and Gene gets a bit moody, gesturing wildly out of shame. She comforts him, and gives him a hug, until her boyfriend walks in on them and, assuming the worst, storms out. ("How dare you cheat on me! I'm at least three times sexier than him!" he yells. Then I invision a dance off between Tightrope and Gene... chiffon and balletic leaps everywhere!) The girl starts crying, so, to prove his love, Gene decides to walk the tighrope. He's not the smartest clown, is he? He falls off, of course, and dies dramatically on top of the girl's red cloak. The other actors all stand around a bit shocked at the stupidness of it all, and we watch thinking "Mate, you didn't have to go that far, did you?"

The second act is called 'Ring Around The Rosy' and involves something about a bracelet and cheating lovers... ah, it's not important. What is important is that this is much funner than the silly circus before it. I liked the model who eats a sandwich as she dances, Tommy Rall as the tap dancing sharpie, the crooner who croons trumpet (you'd get it if you saw it) and the girls who go wild for him. And we get to see Gene in a marines uniform, looking very cute indeed despite a bad toupee job. He dances with The Girl On The Stairs (and what she's doing hanging around a staircase at night and flirting with passing men is anyone's guess). Gene looks very cute while he watches The Girl twist and turn a bit, and even gets in on the dance himself - using some moves that look suspiciously similar to some from On The Town. He ends up walking off broodily into the distance... mmhmm, nice view. I liked the sets in this section, and the music. Very 50s, y'all. It does end strangely though - the guests at a party playing ring around the rosy, all falling down and then having the set crumble around them. I'm sure that served a purpose, but from where I was sitting it just looked a bit pretentious.

The third section is the funnest of them all - 'Sinbad The Sailor'. It opens with an all too short appearance by Carol Heney doing something with a lantern. And, lucky us, we get to see Gene in a sailor suit again. Now, I love Gene best when he's in a sailor suit. But here he's got another bad toupee (had MGM lost so much profit by this time that they couldn't afford decent toupees for its aging stars?), and he's missing the most important ingredient of all - Frank Sinatra. I'm so used to seeing the both of them running around in sailor suits that seeing Gene in uniform by himself just isn't very fun. So throughout this whole act I get a whole lot of Anchors Aweigh flashbacks. Bear with me.

Gene ends up buying a magic lantern, and out of it pops a boy genie. (Oh dear, I think, he's going to be dancing with kids again. And this kid ain't half so cute as Dean Stockwell. Oh Dean, where art thou?) He tries to lose the kid, but when Boy Genie saves him from a 'cobra' (it could be just a hose with a funnel attached, it looked pretty crappy), he decides he's alright after all, and uses the magic lantern to dress him in a little sailor outfit. By this time I'm having major Anchors Aweigh flashbacks, and am scanning the background anxiously waiting for Dean and Frank to pop out from behind a barrel.

And, as I suspected, they start dancing. I really start enjoying myself at this point, because it's a lovely little dance, and that Boy Genie has got his Gene Kelly impersonation down. "Why, you strut even better than me!" Gene exclaims " But it'll take you a while to get the cute and goofy smile, buddy."

Boy Genie decides to take Gene on an adventure and before we know it, Gene and Boy Genie are standing in front of a large prop book. "Come, Gene!" says Boy Genie "Let us use bad 1950s special effects to climb through this portal to magic and animated fun!"

Animated fun it is. The first thing they encounter is a ferocious dragon. Boy Genie uses his jazzy clarinet to turn this bullying reptile into a sashaying sexy reptile. Now wearing a veil, the dragon and Gene perform a hip swivelling dance that ends with Dragon giving Gene a big smoochy kiss on the cheek. "Um... where's Kathryn Grayson?" Gene whimpers.

Later on Gene is accosted by two burly looking guards and taken to the sultan's temple. I half expect to find Jerry the mouse (or is it Tom?) lounging on the throne ready to break out into 'The Worry Song', but it's just a sultan with his bevy of beautiful daughters (or wives, sisters or good friends, they never make this clear). Gene is quite smitten with one quite fetching girl, and a short time later, they're dancing on a watercolour field, leaping in slow motion and surrounded by animated butterflies and leaves. Some of you may think this is romantic, and some of you may be rolling around on the floor laughing at this point.

Thee burly guards soon find Gene again. "We were going to kill you, sailor," they remark "But we've decided we should dance around a bit first." I don't remember much about what comes next, but Gene dances on some knives (which is very cool) and gets the guards trapped in some vases... and proceeds to dance with the vases. It's all a bit silly, but at least the guard's enormous moustaches take some of the attention away from Gene's horrendous toupee.

I'm not quite sure what happened to the guards, but I think Boy Genie dispatched them with his jazzy clarinet. Somehow the girl reappears; "My Cartoon Lover!" Gene cries, and runs into her arms. Boy Genie does a little magic and dresses the girl in a navy uniform too. Well, don't they all look spiffy now? They all strut off into the animated distance as The End title comes up. Hurrah.

And to think it was a flop at the box office... 1950s audiences just didn't recognise the fun of long blue sleeves, tightrope walkers with tight thighs, sailor strutting and belly-dancing cartoon dragons.

Whee! Big screen high kicks!

2005-08-09T14:56:00.000+10:00

So. Yesterday I planned everything I was going to do today. My Spanish tarea, my history and performance readings, breaks mapped out and timetabled... oh yes, you would have been proud of me. That is, until I checked the film listings and remembered Castle Hill had started the new classic film festival, and Tuesday would be the last chance for me to see West Side Story at the cinema before The Sound Of Music starts on Thursday.

And where do you think I ended up today? Yep, cinema 13 at Castle Hill, watching a very scratchy print of West Side Story with eight old ladies and a few giggling twenty somethings. It was lovely! I don't really have the time to describe the experience because I really do have to do my work today because my assignment is due in tomorrow. But it was lovely.

My Rita Hayworth funds are now well and truly gone after finding the Anchors Aweigh and Top Hat/Flying Down To Rio soundtracks at the CD shop today. I couldn't pass them up... so sorry Rita, you're gonna have to stay locked up behind the counter at JB HIFi for a little while longer yet. My saving plans look set to run completely off the rails ove rhte coming weeks as I immerse myself in the pleasures of the film festival. Next week I'll be seeing The Sound Of Music (not a favourite, but I want to check it out anyway), then 42nd St and Willy Wonka and His Chocolate Factory (shamless promotion of new Johnny Depp film).

I'm listening to the Anchors Aweigh soundtrack right now. Ah, lovely. This whole day has been lovely. But now I have to start my tarea, it's all downhill from here. maybe I'll jkust stay here and listen to 'What Makes The Sunset?' a little longer...

Quick notice

2005-08-06T22:42:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note before I log off...

You may have noticed that the blog's template has changed again. Hooray for you. You are very observant.

Once again, it is a free one I have modified slightly. You can find the designer's link in the 'choice links' section.

In this new and improved blog there is the same old blog, a seperate section for my own profile (yes, the narcissist in me has taken over), a section for links to blogs and bloggish sites, and the archives and links back to the other site are in their own sections too. The only real differences are the profile, the new lack of comments (because no-one comments here anyway) and the difficulty in accessing archives because of the design. Don't fret dears - just click on the archive you want, and it will take you to the front page again. Just click on 'blog' and voila - your month of choice will be there. A bit fiddly, yes, but if I can get the hang of it, so can you. Another funny thing - some pictures get a little orange-tinged now. Curiouser and curiouser. I don't know why it does it, but I didn't design it so don't get angry. Breathe, baby dolls.

So I hope it all works and everything looks fine and dandy. I'm not sure about the Fred and Vera-Ellen picture. It was too big so I made it smaller but now I think it's too small. And now I'm slightly confused. Meh. I'll worry about it later.

There might not be any updates on the site for a while because of my uni studies. I will keep up the blog though, and will add little things to the site every now and then as I can, and will check all the links are working when I get the chance. After all, I'm still on the computer most of the time for uni anyway, so while things won't be updated, hopefully everything will be maintained. This is my plan, anyhow. Things will lie dormant for the semester then - bam! - summer holidays will start and I can begin working on all the cool ideas I've got running around in my head. Looking forward to it!

For now though, guys and dolls, I'm off to bed. I'm listening to the Brigadoon soundtrack and (just like the movie :P) it's making my eyelids feel very heavy...

On The Level: Broadway Melody and Two Girls And A Sailor

2005-08-06T22:02:00.000+10:00

This week I managed to fit in two musicals, both revolving around sister acts (and no Whoopi Goldberg in sight): Bessie Love and Anita Page in Broadway Melody and June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven in Two Girls And A Sailor.

First of all, let me say how much I'm in love with Bessie Love. I've read so much about Broadway Melody and her performance in it that I sometimes knew certain moments better than other moments in other films that I have seen many times. But all the critics are right about Bessie - she's the best thing in it. I also love the effeminate costume designer, the bitchy backstage antics, and the animation and liveliness of the film compared to what had come before it. (I really hate The Jazz Singer. I'm not afraid to say it either. I hate the whole damn thing. Bored the socks off me. But I respect it for it's talking initiative. Props to WB for that one.)

Some bits of Broadway Melody dragged, but it was made up for with snappy lines like these (quoting from memory):

Producer/someone man to conductor about the singer's complaints: "Are you trying to drown him out?"
Conductor: "We're trying our best."

Singer: "I can't sing without a spotlight!"
Lighting man: "You couldn't sing with a searchlight!"

And Bessie wondering why Mr Zanfield (a name suspiciously resembling another very prominent theatre identity) called her and Anita The Maloney Sisters when "everyone knows our name is Mahoney!"

Also, after years of Hays Code musicals, it was quite surprising to have Bessie and Anita undressing all the time and running around in their slips (made funnier by Anita's complaint when a stagehand tries to get her into a costume quickly, she says "I've never gotten undressed before!"). And the overtly sexual nature of some scenes was strange for a girl used to movies where holding hands is an issue.

So from the raucous Broadway Melody I went to the sugary sweet Two Girls and A Sailor. June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, Van Johnson and Tom Drake - how sweeter could it get? By having Jimmy Durante as a loveable old friend helping out around the place and doing his usual 'everybody picks on me' schtick, that's how. I'm not complaining, of course not (you just keep on inka dinka dinking Jimmy, I say), but it was so different from the film I saw beforehand it was a bit of a jolt.

That said, it was a honey dipped jolt. I love Gloria's singing - of which there was plenty - and Lena Horne's 'Paper Doll' number has always been one of my favourites. I even enjoyed Gracie Allen's 'Piano Concerto for the Index Finger', and laughed all the way through. I fast forwarded the Harry James and Xavier Cugat interludes, because I wasn't in the mood for them, but on any other day I would relish them. I quite liked the soldier who follows Gloria around for the whole film - what a great dancer! And what a cute grin at the end!

And I have to cheer for Junie. What can I say about her? She was just lovely. I especially liked 'The Young Man With The Horn' number. Wow! It was a stunner. And so funny too. When the soldier jumps over her head, and she stumbles around a little in surprise... oh, it made me fall in love with her all over again.

I had no idea Ava Gardner had a bit part in this film, so I was pleasantly surprised when she popped up. She had a little role, but she still managed to charm the socks off me.

Speaking of Ava, I got a chance to hear her recording of 'Bill' from Show Boat. In case you didn't know, she was dubbed in the film, but her singing voice was fine by itself. I've had her recording of 'Can't Help Loving Dat Man' for a long time, and now listening to this other recording has further cemented my view on this matter. MGM was crazy to dub Ava. She sung the songs beautifully, and I actually prefer them to the versions used in the film. So, yes, they were crazy. Absolutely doggone crazy!!!! If you listen to Ava's recordings you'll hear what I mean. Isn't it a pity they decided not to use them?

Hmm... not much else doin' lately. The work is steadily piling up. I'm supposed to be doing my Spanish listening, but it's a bit late now so I think I'll go to bed instead. Yawn. Me so sleepy, can't possibly concentrate on reflexive verbs, not at all. Nuh-uh. G'nite.

So tired yet so happy

2005-08-06T21:37:00.000+10:00

OK, there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the money I've been saving over the past few weeks for the Rita Hayworth DVD collection is now mostly gone... but that's because (and this is the good news) I bought 3 new books at the second hand bookshop in Parramatta today! Peruse my purchases once again:

A UK 1959/60 Film Review. Unlike my 1955 Film Show Annual which was just a fluff piece for MGM, this involves all the films that were on general relase in the UK during 1959-60. It has some lovely colour portraits including Shirley Maclaine and Maurice Chevalier and plenty of full page and smaller movie stills. And the book is in excellent condition as well. Not so much musical content other than Gigi, because let's face it, it wasn't a great year for musicals anyway.
The Films Of Frank Sinatra. I opened this book right onto a full page portrait of a young cute Francis in his sailor's uniform for On The Town. Mmm.... 'nuff said. Lots of pictures. Lots of nice pictures.
A Fred Astaire book... I've forgotten the title and author (the books are in the other room at the moment and I can't be bothered getting them as I'm in an extremely lazy mood). Anyway, more groovy pictures including a two page spread of Fred and Cyd striking a pose in The Bandwagon. It's not the best Fred book ('Starring Fred Astaire' is better), but fun nonetheless. In fact, with all these books I didn't even think of the text... just the pictures. I'd love to find an early 50s or 40s film annual (because I know I have no chance of happening upon an earlier one), or some more star scrapbooks. But these books are going to keep me happy for a while. And the pictures! When I set up some galleries for the site I'll have lots to put up.

I've spent the past two days getting some certificates so I'll be able to work in a bar or gaming room. I now know how to spot problem gamblers and intoxicated persons, the legislation involved with pubs and clubs in relation to alcohol service and gaming machines. Hooray for me. Now I just have to go get a job. Hmm.

Mix tapes, yay!

2005-08-02T10:01:00.000+10:00

I spent the weekend doing something a lot of people thought died when the iPod came on the scene - I made mix tapes! Yay! And instead of just making musical or swing tapes, I mixed up all my CDs and picked out tracks at random. So here's a sample of what I ended up with:

1. The Three B's; Nancy Walker, June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven from Best Foot Forward
2. Grace; Jeff Buckley
3. Numb; Portishead
4. Isn't This A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain?; Fred Astaire from Top Hat
5. Carioca; Artie Shaw
6. Shee-lan-a-gig; PJ Harvey
7. They Say He Ought To Dance; The Nicholas Brothers
8. There But For You Go I; Gene Kelly from Brigadoon
9. Music To Watch Girls By; Andy Williams
10. Shut Your Mouth; Garbage
11. Girl; The Beatles
12. A Felicidade from Black Orpheus
13. You Could Drive A Person Crazy from... some Sondheim play, maybe Company?
14. There There; Radiohead
15. Le Vent Nous Portera; Noir Desir
16. Sleigh Ride; Ella Fitzgerald
17. Zero Point; The Rogers Sisters
18. Bess You Is My Woman Now from Porgy and Bess
19. Jaan Pehechaan Ho; Mohammed Rafi
20. Bathwater; No Doubt
21. Lazy; Bing Crosby

And so on and so forth. Is not my music collection infinitely cool? (Well... to my ears it is anyway)

At least now I have something to listen to on the train to uni, hooray! *does a little dance* I'm actually listening to one of them now. The last song was Doris Day singing Anyway The Wind Blows, now it's Run-D.M.C.'s It's Like That. Odd, yet strangely satisfying, juxtapositions. The next song is a Serge Gainsbourg number... Comment Te Dire Adieu. And then Jeanette MacDonald singing Lover Come Back. Ooh, this is fun!

Seen Any Good Films Lately? Part 4: Goldwyn

2005-07-30T10:00:00.000+10:00

This is the last in the Zinsser series of posts, because I had to return the book to the library. That, and I satarte running out of extracts short enough to put up here. This one is about Zinsser's meeting with the famous Samuel Goldwyn:

Goldwyn, a cordial old man, was in the process of squiring 'Porgy and Bess' to the screen, and he chatted with affection about Dubose Heyward's book and George Gershwin's music. So fluent was his recital that I saw another Hollywood legend evaporating before my eyes - the legend of the 'goldwynism'. This could not be the man who added to our folklore such phrases as 'in two words, im-possible' and 'I won't believe colour television till I see it in black and white'.

When we rose to leave, Goldwyn pointed to a painting on his wall of an intense man whom I recognized as the young Gershwin. 'I'm very proud to own that,' Goldwyn said. 'It's a self-portrait that George did of himself.'

Seen Any Good Films Lately? Part 3: Quick! Bring hot water!

2005-07-26T18:24:00.000+10:00

Of all the chapters in this book, my favourite so far is the chapter devoted to screen cliches and stereotypes. Here's comments by Zinsser on two of these cliches - one found in all movies featuring childbirth from the earliest films and even to today (but the first one that came to my mind was Seven Brides For Seven Brothers), the other a peculiarly 1950s predicament (I imagine June Alyson and Glenn Ford in these parts, but there's also William Holden, Jean Hagen... oh, plenty):

1. In the wondrous world of pregnancy and childbirth, Hollywood... has its automatic vocabulary. Pregnancy is announced by the momentary dizzy spell. Our heroine is going about her chores when suddenly - why, what can be the matter? She raises the back of her hand to her brow (it must be the back of the hand) and leans against a chair.
"Harriet! Is anything wrong?" her husband asks.
"No, it's nothing, really... I'm fine - just fine," Harriet says, straightening up like a little soldier and returning to the vacuum cleaner. But you and I know what's wrong, even if that stupid husband doesn't...
As for childbirth, who doesn't know that birth in the films is heralded by four words: "Quick! Bring the hot water!" It's always hot water, never anything as explicit as pains. Everybody carries hot water to the back room of the little log cabin, and soon there is a telltale squeal. A fat midwife waddles in, beaming as if she had given birth herself, and tells the husband, "You've got a fine new boy, Mr Smathers." He smiles weakly and goes for a quick belt at the whisky jug. Hot water has no other use in the Hollywood lexicon. Never, for instance, has the dialogue gone like this:
"Quick! Bring hot water!"
"Why?"
"The Browns are coming for tea, and they'll be here any minute."

2. Jim Trueblue, handsome, eager and thirty-two, has just taken a job with Consolidated Cookies, the huge Madison Avenue firm run by John J. 'Iron Jack' Magoon, scourge of the cookie field, who once told the press, "I eat junior executives alive." After his first day, Jim is met at the Darien station by his vivacious wife, Brenda.
"I thought you might be tired, dear," Brenda says, "so I brought a thermos of martinis. They're in the glove compartment. How did it go today?"
"I got off on the wrong foot with old man Magoon. He called me in and said 'Trueblue, you've made quite a name for yourself in cookies out West. Now I want your honest opinion on this new campaign I've been noodling. I think it's a humdinger, frankly, even though I thought of it myself. I want to come out with a new line of square cookies.' "
"But Jim," Brenda protests, "you know that's wrong. People want round cookies - that's the American tradition. Nobody will buy a square cookie."
"I know, Brenda. But what could I say? There's a vice-presidency opening up in the macaroon division, and I think the Old Man likes me. It pays eighteen thousand a year."
"Jim, that's like selling your soul."
"God knows it is. I never thought I'd see the day when I knuckled in on square cookies. But you know we can't make ends meet on my present salary. Eighty-four hundred after taxes doesn't go far in Darien, with four kids and the mortgage and the dog and the down payement on the combination dishwasher-television set. And you keep saying we should buy a house over in the Snob Acres of town."
"If only Granny hadn't left her twenty room mansion to her upstairs maid. Maybe we could burn it down and collect the fire insurance."
"I think that's pretty risky, Brenda."
"Oh, Jim, you've lost your guts. Something happened to you during the war."
This is the time for a flashback. We see Jim as a lieutenant leading a night patrol at Cassino. His men are cold and hungry. Suddenly they come upon a dozen Germans eating their rations - cookies. Jim runs amok. He kills all twelve Nazis and brings the cookies back to his men.
"Gosh, thanks lieutenant," they say, wolfing the cookies. "You'll get the Medal of Honour for this." Dissolve back to Jim, sitting in his Darien home, stunned by the memory. "I killed men for cookies," he murmurs to himself. "How can I ever explain that to Brenda?"
The next scene is two months later. It is the cocktail hour, and something is troubling Jim. At last he says, "Brenda, I don't know how much longer I can go along like this."
"What happened today, Jim? By the way, that's your fourth martini."
"The Old Man blew a fuse in the group-think conference this morning. Said he wants to put raisins in the new cookies."
"Raisins! That's going too far!"
"That's what I thought. But then I remembered little Bobby's dental bills and the lawyer's fee for suing Granny's upstairs maid."
"Yes, but raisins, Jim..."
"I know, I know. Stop nagging me. But all the boys told the boss they thought it was a great idea - all except Gribsley. He's the old V.P. who has been so nice to me. Gribsley got up and told the Old Man it was raisins over his dead body. I had to admire him."
"So you came to his defence?"
"No, I didn't. You see, Gribsley is retiring soon, and I think I'm in line for his job. Still, it was a pathetic moment. He kept looking at me, like he was pleading with me to speak up. He knew how I felt about raisins."
"What did you do?"
"I said I had to go to the bathroom, and I walked out. Gribsley fell over dead right after I left."
"Jim, what's happened to you? What was it that changed you during the war?"
"Brenda, I can't keep it from you any longer. It was an Okinawan girl. She told me an old Taoist maxim that impressed me deeply: 'If you don't fight for what you believe in, you'll live longer.' "
"I knew something happened! Jim Trueblue, you listen to me. You killed Gribsley just as much as Iron Jack Magoon. Is that the way you want your vice-presidency? Doesn't honour mean anything?"
"Holy cats, Brenda, I never thought of it that way before. How could I have been such a fool? Tomorrow morning I'm going to walk right into the Old Man's office and say 'See here, Magoon, either those raisins go or I go. Take your choice. When it comes to cookies, no man is going to corrupt my values."
"O, Jim..."
They kiss.

Sugar Daddy?

2005-07-26T17:44:00.000+10:00

Allow me for a moment, dear reader, to take a detour from my usual journey of musical discovery and relate to you one of today's decidedly non-musical incidents.

First of all, let me say I firmly believe everyone should take at least a half hour walk every day if they can. It's good for your health, and you sometimes have some great stories to tell especially if, like me, you're the type of person who says "g'day" to the people you pass on your way.

I have a regular walking route that takes me around a couple of the neighbouring suburbs. First I walk up the hill and past the construction sites full of wolf-whistling builders (great for those days when your self esteem is a little low). Then I go through the playground, past the community centre and up another hill. I then follow into a little side street in order to avoid the house where the magpie swooped at me last year (I have a deathly fear of birds, you see, and I never remember when the magpie swooping season starts and ends, so I keep away from that house out of irrational fear). I stroll along a pretty tree lined gravel path that takes me past the lake and the primary school. I continue along past some houses until the high school, where I sometimes take a shortcut home through the shopping centre. Most of the time, however, I like to take the longer way home, past the farm, the Sikh temple and the place where they're building the new motorway. I then go past some abdandoned houses that get smellier and more decrepit each time I walk past (one of the hobbies of the local junkies is to smash the windows of these houses, so when it's windy you can hear the glass tinkling along the floor and the blinds lashing against the windowpanes). Shortly after these houses there is a set of traffic lights that are so big and have so many cars passing through them that, as a pedestrian, you feel as if you don't belong there. But I pass through them, avoiding the gazes of the inconvenienced drivers, and continue back over the hill and - ta da! - I arrive home.

But this has nothing to do with my story. I took my walk this afternoon, wearing my jeans and a pink cardigan, and as I was nearing the high school I walked past an old man, well into his 60s, walking two greyhounds. He moved over to his left to let me by, and as I approached him (ready to say "good afternooon" as usual), he exclaimed: "Doesn't she look pretty in pink!"

Here's how our conversation went, as I remember it:

Old man (with a friendly smile): "Well, doesn't she look pretty in pink!"
Me (smiling back): "Thank you... (searching for a compliment) those are lovely dogs."
Old man: "Yeah, they're retired now."
Me: "How old are they?"
Old man: "This one's eight and this one's twelve. They're starting to catch up with me now!" (chuckles)
Me: (polite laugh, one of the dogs approaches me and I start to pat it)
Old man: "How's work?"
Me (slightly taken aback, as I'm expecting more friendly dog banter): "Oh... I don't work. I'm a student."
Old man: "What's that, love? You'll have to speak up, I'm a bit deaf."
Me: (repeat myself)
Old man: "Oh, alright, where do you study?"
Me: "New South Wales uni."
Old man: "And where do you live?"
Me: (I tell him my suburb. I'm about to ask him the same when he says- )
Old man: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Me (Playing along, as I assume this is just incomprehensible old man humour, like that of my Uncle John): "Um... no, not at the moment."
Old man (now leering slightly): "Got any sugar daddies?"
Me (smiling nervously): "No... no."
Old man: "No...? Well, can I have your number?"
Me: "Oh... um.... (not knowing what to say) no. I think my father would have something to say about that!"
Old man: "Well, how old are you? Nineteen?"
Me: "No, eighteen."
Old man: "That's alright. There'd be no sex or anything, we could just go out and have a good time and, you know, have fun."
Me (now slightly confused): "Oh, nah, not this time mate."
Old man: "Oh, come on, what's your number?"
Me (trying to edge away now): "Maybe some other time..."
Old man: "Yeah, well, think about it, and if I see you again..."
Me: "Yeah, I'll think about it."
Old man: "Alright, I'll see you later."
Me: "Yeah, bye."

I spent the rest of my walk home feeling both puzzled and amused at this little incident.

But I think we should go back to the musicals now, don't you? Today I added an Eleanor Powell page on the site, as well as adding a couple of new articles and some more film links. I should have been revising Spanish reflexive verbs, or perhaps starting some of the readings for tutorials next week, but I found myself unsurprisingly reluctant, and was quite happy to spend the morning browsing through the Google search results for Eleanor. Tap-a tap-a tap-a!

Seen Any Good Films Lately? Part 2: Gigi

2005-07-23T15:37:00.000+10:00

More from the pages of William K. Zinsser's 'Seen Any Good Films Lately?' (BTW, this illustration from the book is by Robert Day.) Today - Zinsser visits MGM and encounters Andre Previn working on the music for Vincente Minelli's 'Gigi.'

We spent an afternoon in the music department of M-G-M, where a seventy-five piece orchestra was playing one of the numbers from the score of 'Gigi', by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Conductor Andre Previn and ten engineers, at a panel of dials that looked like the control board of a stratocruiser, tried to synchronize the music with the actions of Leslie Caron that were being projected on a vast screen. The film had been made in Paris the preceeding summer.

The process was incredibly complex, and I asked Previn why they hadn't recorded the score in Paris so that Miss Caron could dance to the music, instead of vice versa.

"Well, of course that's ten thousand times easier," Previn said, mopping his brow, "and it's what we intended to do. But unfortunately we arrived in Paris right at the beginning of August, and August is holiday month for the musicians of Europe. It is a very old custom.

"I went round to the Opera and said to the manager, 'Can't you persuade your orchestra to stay in Paris three more days and record this score? M-G-M will pay them for a full week's work.' The manager shrugged and said, 'But m'sieur, it is the holiday.' I went round to the symphony orchestra and asked the same question, and they laughed. 'M'sieur, you do not understand - it is the vacances.'

"I went back to my hotel and announced that I would hold auditions for musicians. For three days they came to my room, and it was the three most horrible days of my life. They were the fiddlers who fall into your beef stroganoff, horn players whose horns should have been made into lamps..." He threw up his hands. "So we made a simple piano soundtrack, and Miss Caron sang to that. Now we are doing it the hard way. How was it that time?" he asked the chief engineer.

"Out of synch by one frame after the sixteenth bar", he replied. Previn climbed back on the podium, put on his earphones to hear Miss Caron singing, looked at the score with one eye and the screen with the other, raised his arms and set out to do the impossible.

NB: Leslie Caron was eventually dubbed in 'Gigi' by Betty Wand.

Seen Any Good Films Lately? Part 1: Not the boiler!

2005-07-23T15:25:00.000+10:00

I discovered the most brilliant book in the uni library a few weeks ago. It's called 'Seen Any Good Films Lately?' by William K. Zinsser, a former film critic for the NY Herald Tribune. It was published in 1960 (Hammond, Hammond and Co., London) and is both informative and hilarious. I'll post a few excerpts from it in the coming week. (BTW, Copyright 1958 William K. Zinsser.) Here's the first installment from pp 22-23, about the effects the constant reviewing of films had on his life:

I also reached a stage where I could only talk in cliches, and at such times my wife and I had a conversation that ran along these lines:

"We can't go on this way."
"You don't mean..."
"I'm afraid I do."
"Then... it's true?"
"Yes, Hildy. The boiler is broken. There won't be any hot water for three days."
"Why did it have to happen to us?"
"Sometimes it makes you stop and wonder what God had in mind."
"Land sakes, it don't pay to talk like that. What's eating you, Joe? You can tell me."
"If only I could make you understand. Maybe when you're a little older you'll see that... things happen, things that we can't always explain."
"Just tell me that you still love me. Nothing else matters."
"I'll speak to the plumber tonight. I know he'll see it our way - he's got to."
"We'll stick it out together. The West wasn't built by quitters."
"You're a funny kid."

When this sort of thing goes on for a couple of hours, I know it's time for a holiday.

Back to proper procrastination

2005-07-23T14:51:00.000+10:00

The first day of semester two looms menacingly over this weekend. I realised about two weeks ago I should start revising my Spanish, and then.... forgot about it. So this weekend I decided to get back into the swing of things. I logged on to the computer but then instead of going to the Spanish website I came here. Ah, the guilt and delight of proper procrastination, how I've missed you during these listless holidays!

Anyway. Musicals.

Last night I watched 'A Hard Day's Night' with my sister. It's not a musical like the Elvis or Cliff Richard musicals - but that's a good thing. And it's kind of not a musical - but it kind of is. Either way, I love The Beatles and it's an absolutely hilarious film.

"What do you call that haircut?"
"Arthur."

"Are you a mod or a rocker?"
"I'm a mocker."

Ringo's 'parade', the jumping dancer, John in the bathtub, stop being taller than me, he's clean isn't he?, you look like him, you're a swine... :)

Yesterday I also watched 'There's No Business Like Show Business' again - armed with my remote to fast forward through the slow bits (and oh boy does it get slow). I was watching the 'Lazy' number (which, by the way, is the best number in the whole film, I love you Marilyn/Donald/Mitzi) when my sister walked in and suggested it was a perfect song for me and that if I was a TV show it would be my theme song. I couldn't be bothered arguing with her about it. Ha!

I remember the first time I saw it and I thought how awful it was - too long, too overdone, too boring. But there are some standout numbers - 'Lazy,' of course, Marilyn's 'Heat Wave' and Donald's dance outside Marilyn's house (the statues and fountains at the end are a bit much, but Donald shines through all the broohaha). Still, I couldn't help laughing at the usual 50s spectacular-ness of it all (you know subtlety ain't gonna be the keyword in a film starring Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and Cinemascope). I like to think of it as a 1950s 'Ziegfeld Follies': yeah it's bad and I couldn't watch it without the modern marvels of fast forward, but it's so camp and over the top it grows on you after a while. Oh, but this is from the girl who thinks 'Marjorie Morningstar' is the one of the funniest movies of all time.

I just finished watching 'Les Girls' on TCM. Again. And not in widescreen again. I always feel a little ambivalent when I watch 'Les Girls' on TV - on one hand I love the whole movie to bits and pieces, but then I'm always upset that they won't show it in the proper aspect ratio. It just makes me eye off the US DVD even more... and then remember I'm trying to save for the Rita Hayworth Collection. Lying in bed last night, I made a mental list of all the things I want to get once I have the cash:

1. The Rita Hayworth DVD Collection (want it, need it, gotta have it)
2. The Cole Porter DVD Collection (with Kiss Me Kate, Les Girls, Silk Stockings, High Society and another I forget)
3. The 'Silk Stockings' soundtrack (because the more I listen to Andre Previn's orchestrations - or at least I think they're his, I should check the credits again - the more I fall in love with them)
4. DVDs of Meet Me In St Louis, Easter Parade and Good News, because my video copies are going to give out any day now, I can see it coming.

Recent updates!
Dick Powell
Good News 1947
Readings are up
The Wizard of Oz
New Fred and Ginger links in the Fred Astaire section (a Ginger section coming soon, I hope)

Computer, how I hate you!

2005-07-20T17:39:00.000+10:00

I just spent half an hour writing out an exciting new post, full of adventure and saucy details... and then my internet connection cut out. I tried to post but - curses! - the bad connection meant my beautiful blog entry was not able to be posted and now it is lost forever.

So screw it. I'm not going to tell you about the recent updates, my trip to see 'Top Hat' at the cinema or my first Shirley Temple experience. I'll leave it up to you to imagine what I've been up to.

To keep everyone happy, here are some pictures I've found at Doctor Macro's. Go check it out while I fume madly and try not to make an abusive phone call to Ozemail or Telstra or whoever is responsible for this s***** connection. Aargh!

Frances Langford

2005-07-12T18:01:00.000+10:00

Latest news is that Frances Langford, she of the Bob Hope USO tours, I'm in the mood for love and various musicals of the 30s and 40s has died. I've been listening to my Born To Dance soundtrack this afternoon becaus eit's the only Frances recording I have. Right now Swinging the jinx away is firmly lodged in my head and refuses to stop singing itself. But I don't mind. Frances Langford was one cool lady, and if there's any voice to have stuck in your head all afternoon hers is one I don't mind.
This is the report from The New York Times... (hang on, wasn't she 91?)

Frances Langford, Trouper on Bob Hope Tours, Dies at 92

By RICHARD SEVERO
Published: July 12, 2005
Frances Langford, a mellow contralto who ventured into combat zones with Bob Hope's troupe during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars to serenade tens of thousands of servicemen with ballads that reminded them of the girls they left behind, died yesterday at her home in Jensen Beach, Fla. She was 92.

Her death was announced by her lawyer, Evans Crary Jr., The Associated Press reported.
Although she regarded herself as more of a singer than an actress, she appeared in roughly 30 films and was half of the successful radio comedy duo "The Bickersons," in which she and Don Ameche played a mismatched, querulous couple. He was devoted to ignoring her and concentrating on sleeping, the only time in the day, he said, when he felt alive; she was an insomniac who needed him as a refuge because she couldn't get to sleep. The show became so popular that it received a Sunday night spot of its own.
But among radio listeners, moviegoers and later a vast audience of G.I.'s, Miss Langford was known for songs like "I'm in the Mood for Love," "You Are My Lucky Star" and "Hooray for Hollywood."
Mr. Hope thought of her as one of his three gypsies - entertainers who were willing, like him, to travel all over the globe to entertain the troops. The other two were Jerry Colonna, a bulgy-eyed comic who liked to sing "On the Road to Mandalay," and Tony Romano, a guitarist who sang, arranged and accompanied other talent.
Mr. Hope recalled her with characteristic snip: "She knows just how much sex to pour and still be dignified." The troops frequently asked Miss Langford to sing "I'm in the Mood for Love," a ballad by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, her hit record from an otherwise forgettable 1935 movie, "Every Night at Eight," which was mostly a vehicle for George Raft and Alice Faye.
"The greatest thing in my life was entertaining the troops," Miss Langford told The Palm Beach Post years later. She said she was fascinated as well as frightened by being in or close to combat zones. On one occasion, near Bizerte in North Africa, she saw six planes shot down. On two occasions she was in planes that developed engine trouble; one of them crash-landed in New South Wales, Australia, on a flight from Guadalcanal. The other plane landed safely, but not before Miss Langford volunteered to don a parachute and jump.
Frances Langford was born April 6, 1913, in Lakeland, Fla., the daughter of Vasco Langford, a carpenter, and his wife, Anna, who was an accomplished pianist. She attended music college briefly but dropped out and began to work in vaudeville. Her first big break came after her mother drove her to Miami and convinced Rudy Vallee, then a popular star of stage and screen, to listen to her. He liked what he heard, asked her to sing on his radio show and even helped her get a start in New York. A small part in a Broadway musical led to radio appearances and a string of movie musicals.
In 1941, Miss Langford made her first appearance on Mr. Hope's radio show, and the visits to the troops started shortly thereafter. She also wrote a column for Hearst newspapers, recounting some of her experiences as an entertainer in wartime.
After the war, she was featured on a radio variety show and returned to nightclub work. She was married three times, first to the actor Jon Hall, from whom she was later divorced, and then to Ralph Evinrude, the manufacturer of outboard motors. They settled in Florida and started a marina, restaurant and gift shop near her 400-acre estate at Jensen Beach. She became more interested in sailing and fishing than singing, but on occasion she would sing at the restaurant.
Mr. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994, she married Harold Stuart, an assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Truman administration, who survives her.

Find more on Frances' USO work here
Learn more about her film and television work at her IMDB Entry

In other news: I looked at this page on a Mac computer today and realised the template doesn't work properly on Macs. Oh well. If you have trouble, buy a PC. I'm also going to redesign the index page, as there are too many pictures on the site at the moment. I know that's not very interesting. Why don't you go watch a movie wtih Frances Langford in it today instead of reading my boring ramblings?

Oh my, it's an update!

2005-07-11T16:24:00.000+10:00

Adele: Oh! The blog's template has been changed! Who's going to notice my silly dress now?

Without much happening lately to talk about, I thought I might just wow you all with a new look for the blog. Which was a free template. That I just added pictures to. And looks completely different from the rest of the site. But it filled up the afternoon.

Haven't watched that much lately. I did settle in front of the TV last night to watch Rita Hayworth in Salome and Alice Faye and Don Ameche in Hollywood Cavalcade. The Rita movie had to be one of the more odd films I've seen. My sister was disappointed Salome didn't cut off John the Baptist's head like she does in the Oscar Wilde version, and I have to say it was a rather long and tiresome affair in all, but the climactic dance with the veils compelled me to forgive everything as it was so so so so good. So good. I love you Rita.

What else... I got around to seeing The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. I didn't like it as much as I liked Wonder Man and The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, but it was so much fun anyway. It was the first time I've seen Glynis Johns away from Mary Poppins and she was wonderful (what a voice! It's so warm and nice, like a great big hug). And I'm very smitten with Danny Kaye. Even if he did spawn such evil comedic children as Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. I'm annoyed though that I didn't tape his other films off the TV when I had the chance. I just hope they get released on DVD in region 4 soon. Eventually. Hopefully. Please?

And on to the site. New pages include (drum roll):

Rita Hayworth
June Haver (recently late, in case you didn't hear. Cheers, Junie)
Plus some new sites for the Actresses and some new fanlistings in the Community section.
I have two weeks left of the holidays, so hopefully I can get the Films and Readings sections up and running and get some more Actors up.

Site of the week is Jael's site featuring the Jeanette MacDonald Scrapbooks of Winifred Lawrence. Lots of pretty pictures to ooh and aah over. Also for fans of Jeanette and Nelson Eddy, there is a petition you can sign for the DVD release of the films of Jeanette and Nelson. It will be sent to Warner Home Video. Good cause, musical buffs. After all if Fred and Ginger are getting one, shouldn't the MGM duo get a box set too?

Buckle That Swash

2005-07-01T07:52:00.000+10:00

My father has borrowed a book from the library on swordplay. It's called 'By The Sword' by Richard Cohen, and has a fantastic chapter on swordplay in films. Cohen writes about Errol Flynn, Doug Fairbanks, Scaramouche and more, but of course I was really interested by the slightly more musical related films, 'The Court Jester' with Danny Kaye and 'The Three Musketeers' with Gene Kelly. So here's a little extract, from Cohen via me to you:

ON DANNY KAYE: (pp 229-30)
During his years in London Basil Rathbone had been a pupil of both Felix Grave and Leon Bertrand. He could be generous to fellow actors. Discussing 'The Court Jester' (1956), in which he played opposite Danny Kaye in a deliberate spoof of medieval melodramas, he wrote in his autobiography, "We had to fight a duel together with sabre. I don't care much for sabre but had had instruction in this weapon during my long association with all manner of swords... After a couple of weeks of instruction Danny Kaye could completely outfight me! Even granted the difference in our ages, Danny's reflexes were incredibly fast, and nothing had to be shown or explained to him a second time." Rathbone put Kaye's aptitude down to his being a brilliant mimic... but his memory played him false: at the insistence of the production heads Kaye's fencing was doubled - partly because Rathbone was then sixty-four, partly for the timing of the comedy effects, and partly for Kaye's own safety, as he had to parry a number of cuts to head and legs with his eyes closed.
Later, after his success in 'The Court Jester', Rathbone was at his Hollywood club taking a foil lesson watched by two old fencing hands. Each time he neared them they would intone, recalling the famous exchange that runs through the film, "Get it? Got it? Good." Finally Rathbone could stand it no longer. Flinging off his mask he turned and seethed, "Please stop it!"

ON GENE KELLY (pp 237-8)
'The Three Musketeers' was given a budget of nearly $3 million, almost a record for a nonmusical. It starred Gene Kelly, who threw himself into the role of D'Artagnan so completely that when Lana Turner, playing Milady de Winter, broke a rib after an overvigorous bedroom tussle, he happily used the period of recovery to take extra lessons with Heremans (fencing instructor).
Kelly at one point argued that 'The Three Musketeers' should be made as a musical so he could use his singing and dancing skills. His ballet training, he reflected later, had special value when it came to swordfights. "In both," he said, "the feet are always placed outward, making it possible to move quickly from side to side and use your body to the full. Unless your toes are turned outward, period costumes made it very difficult to move easily in a duel. So when I first started fencing I had no problem in moving around but the difficulty was to train my reflexes to deflect with speed and then come back at my opponent." (He failed to mention that he was extensively doubled in the film in both the fencing and riding sequences.) Of all his nonmusical films, 'The Three Musketeers' was Kelly's favourite. His enthusiasm for swordfighting made him keen to play the hero in 'Cyrano de Bergerac', which had never been filmed in English. Louis B. Mayer, the studio head whom he approached, told him outright that just one false nose would ruin his career. It was left to Jose Ferrer, another able fencer, to make the picture two years later.

In other news, the links site continues to grow. I've now put up a little Kathryn Grayson page (disappointingly, there aren't that many sites dedicated to her). Find it here.

Les Girls, Les Bandits and Les Lucilles

2005-06-30T14:08:00.000+10:00

This morning I had a lovely little Technicolour marathon. 8:25am I watched 'Les Girls' on TCM (why oh why can't they show it in letterbox? And why oh why can't they release the DVD in Region 4? Why oh why oh why....). 'Les Girls' is one of my favourite Gene Kelly movies - which is strange because it's one of his lesser films. But I adore all the numbers in it (though the one with the rope is, um, unusual) - especially when Gene and the magnificent Kay Kendall sing 'You're Just Too Too.' I'm hanging out for the day when the soundtrack is released properly. A few songs can be found on Rhino's Gene Kelly compilation CD "'S'wonderful", but this film needs a comprehensive soundtrack.

After 'Les Girls' I watched another musical considered one of the lesser films of Kathryn Grayson and Frank Sinatra - 'The Kissing Bandit.' Again, my soft spot for films that flop rears its pretty little head. It's my favourite Kathryn film. Actually, up until I saw it last year I never really liked Kathryn besides her fabulous performance in 'Kiss Me Kate.' But, oh my, she's so beautiful in this one and she gets to sing some great songs - my favourite being 'Love Is Where You Find It.' And who can hate the dance between Ricardo Montalban, Ann Miller and Cyd Charisse? It's like dying and going to dance heaven - stunning choreography with some hilarious slapstick thrown in. I love so much about this movie - even the comic Mexican accents ("Aiiieee!") - that I can almost ignore Frank's alarmingly skinny frame (those leggings don't help much). My favourite scene though would have to be the following exchange between Frank and Kathryn:

Ricardo (Frank, running into Kathryn's room as she's getting changed): "Don't scream!"
Theresa (Kathryn): "I never scream. What are you doing here?"
Ricardo (striking a heroic stance): "I've come to take you away with me, to carry you over the border some place where we can be together."
Theresa: "Do you mean you want to abduct me?"
Ricardo: "Yes, we've dilly dallied long enough!"
Theresa (slightly breathless): "But this is so unexpected and, well, I have other things to do. My father's downstairs waiting for me and we have a lot of guests..."
Ricardo: "But in an abduction these trivial things don't matter!"
Theresa: "But I'm not dressed - look!"
Ricardo (now getting quite flustered and backing away): "Oh, I beg your pardon, I had no idea, I mean, I'm sorry! But may I see you about this later downstairs?"
Theresa: "Oh, maybe."
(After Ricardo leaves, Theresa looks in the mirror and sings happily)
"There's nothing wrong with me, he tried to abduct me!"

At 12:30 'Best Foot Forward' was showing on TCM, and i was very excited about it because while I have the soundtrack I've never seen the movie. I enjoyed it, especially the music scenes with Harry James. Lucille's comedy was restricted to snappy one liners, my favourite being this little exchange:

Lucille to cadet whose name I've forgotten and who is trying to dance with her: "Did anyone ever tell you that you're brilliant and charming?
Cadet: "Why, no."
Lucille: "Then whatever gave you the impression?"

There was a nice little part where Lucille is trying to run after Virginia Weidler with a baseball bat and while she's yelling her manager calmly tells her that she is holding the bat upside down. Lucille says "Oh," turns the bat the other way round and proceeds to start yelling again. It sounds silly when I describe it, but of course when Lucy does it she's oh so funny.

I have the Donald O'Connor page up at the links site, by the way. You can find it at http://au.geocities.com/procrastinationinswingtime/actors/
donaldoconnor.htm

I'm also playing around with the index page design. While I can only rely on my rudimentary paint skills (oh photoshop, if only you too came free with the computer, things would work out much better), it's looking kind of groovy at the moment, if I do say so myself. If you like it, you could leave a little comment saying so... and make me feel loved...

While we're vaguely on the subject of Gene Kelly, I'd like to refer you to a little French/Spanish blog where the content each day consists entirely of Gene pictures sourced from all over the internet. Could there be anything better than a daily dose of Gene? http://fotosgene.canalblog.com/

Ho hum.

2005-06-28T16:54:00.000+10:00

Life is not very eventful recently. I've been watching a few movies this week, and browsing the net for random sites. Today I watched Spellbound with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman and now I'm trawling for Donald O'Connor online. Apart from a few very good fansites, the majority of what I find are obituaries from 2003 when he died.

I did chance upon an online copy of Anchors Aweigh on the Lux Radio Theatre, which I downloaded quicksmart and have been listening to religiously since. While you can't enjoy Gene's dances, most of the songs are included. Frank and Kathryn sing their solos, Gene talks to Lola (and it's just as good as in the movie!), and even Dean Stockwell shows up. I think the only cast member missing is Jose Iturbi - but no big loss there, hey? It's very interesting to hear the numbers performed live on radio. Right now I'm listening to Gene and Frank sing 'I Begged Her.' Sighing, swooning... Funnily enough, in this version of Anchors Aweigh, Frank (Clarence Doolittle, pardon me) knows an Iturbi in Brooklyn, which leads Gene (sorry, Joe Brady) to tell Kathryn (Susan Abbott) that Frank can get her an audition with Jose Iturbi. It's only after Gene says this that Frank tells him that he doesn't know a Jose Iturbi, but a Max Iturbi - a butcher! (cue laughter from audience)

Two of my favourite songs are missing in the radio play too - 'We Hate To Leave,' where Frank and Gene tease the other fella on board the ship about not getting shore leave, and 'Susie,' the song Frank and Gene sing to scare off one of Kathryn's suitor's.

"S is for sincerity - which she's got none of.
U is for... you know what I mean.
S is for...um... sincerity! Which she's got none of!
I is for the Irish in her smile.
E is for her eagerness to please us -
That is how she won her navy E!
Put it all together, they spell Soo-oo-oo-sie..." (Forgive me, I watch that movie too much)

I will have a Donald O'Connor page up on the links site by tomorrow, and then I can start someone else. I'm not sure who though. I know I'll end up having to do Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, but I'm loathe to wade through the trillions and gazillions of sites mentioning them. I've been thinking baout doing Kathryn Grayson next - but I know there is a serious lack of Kathryn online, which sucks. But I'll have a look around anyway.

On my travels, I've come across some other interesting sites. May I refer you to Arabella and CO Online Magazine? It's all musical, and it's behind an issue, but well worth reading. There is a Baritone's Corner, Star Spotlights... oh, plenty. Get thee to http://arabella-and-co.com/index.htm

A funny little story about Oscar Levant

2005-06-22T14:12:00.000+10:00

It's well known that Oscar Levant was just as big a hypochondriac and nervous wreck as the characters he portrayed onscreen (notably, The Bandwagon and An American In Paris). I've been reading Vincente Minelli's autobio, and came across this funny story:

"...1958...

I'd returned from work early one evening when I received a call from Oscar Levant.

"I'm leaving the house," he said. "Can I come over?"

"Sure!" I anticipated sharing a quiet drink or two with him. Since he was so busy with his television series I didn't see him as often as I would have liked.

Oscar arrived. He'd said exactly what he meant. He certainly was leaving his house, since he arrived with two suitcases.

"I've left June," he said. His tone informed me that the parting was absolutely final... as it had been the countless other times Oscar and June had bickered.

Oscar settled in immediately, calling his doctor to come over to give him a sedative. Before he drifted off, he called the housekeeper and informed her of when he would want his meals.

Over the next several weeks, he made tentative reunion feelers in June's direction, but she seemed quite resigned to survive without him.

Though he was wonderful company even in his darkest moods, I was beginning to wonder how long I could put up with his smothering prescence.

He'd come into my bedroom late at night and wake me up. He had to talk to someone. he'd tell horendous tales of misadventures and describe the demons who plagued him, who by this time were so familiar to him that he called them by pet names. Once he'd unburdened himself, he'd take a pill and go off to sleep in his room. I, of course, stayed wide awake.

I don't suppose any advice I could offer would be of any help. Once, my impatience with Oscar got the better of me. I blurted out a not-so-novel observation. "I think it's all in your head."

He looked terrified. "My head? What a terrible place for it to be!"

Updates: Fred, natch.

2005-06-22T14:07:00.000+10:00

I've put up the Fred Astaire page on the links site - http://au.geocities.com/procrastinationinswingtime/actors/
fredastaire.htm

I have to apologise now for the stupid long title of this blog and the site. It takes so long to write, I know, especially when you have to keep linking back to it for every page you do... *sighs* I thought about making initials for it, but then realised 'PIST' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Today I also defined what the word 'natch' means after hearing Liza Minelli use it a few times. It's like 'naturally,' see, but shortened to 'natch.' Aaah... So it's my word of the day. Natch.

Tuesday Jumps

2005-06-21T22:00:00.000+10:00

I am in the middle of a mammoth site compilation for Fred Astaire. Out of the 600, 000 or so pages mentioned on Google, I've been through about 650 today and I've written down about 3 and a half pages of sites worth a visit. Phew.

Why am I doing this? For my winter holidays project, the links site I've put up at Geocities. So far I've got Danny Kaye and Cyd Charisse up (though I could easily expand those, and hope to do so soon, especially Cyd), and I'm finding new sites to link to every day. If I worried about being bored these holidays, that problem is certainly fixed now! For now you can check out the Cyd page at http://au.geocities.com/procrastinationinswingtime/actresses/
cydcharisse.htm

So at the moment it looks like the next page I put up will be the Astaire one - with plenty of links for you to scramble your way through. Along my travels I've stumbled upon some lovely other sites for Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Donald O'connor, The Wizard of Oz... by the end of these holidays I will definetely know my way around the net, that's for sure.

I'm logging off soon, but I'm going to listen to some of these songs I've found a few more times before I do. There's a brilliant site for anyone interested in listening to old 78rpm recordings at http://www.78rpm.hovers.nl/index.html You can find recordings by Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodamn, Elvis Presley and a host of other bands I've never heard of, but make for mighty fine listening. So get your realplayer out and head on down. Right now I'm quite enamoured with a recording of 'Civilisation (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo) by Svend Asmussens Orkester from Denmark. A very dark and mysterious arrangement - that I've had on repeat for about half an hour now and am reluctant to leave... Best bookmark that site then!

Spotlight: Brigadoon

2005-06-20T15:01:00.000+10:00

Gather round, and hear ye all a story about a blessed place, shut off from the rest of the world, populated by kilted men playing with bagpipes, found amongst the mists and the brogue and the loch lomond and aye, other Scottish things, lad. Och!

Right, that's enough of that. One viewing of Brigadoon provides enough bad Scottish accents to last a life time. Made in 1954 at MGM it starred Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse. Directed by Vincente Minelli and adapated from the stage hit with a score by Lerner and Loewe, it seemed destined to succeed with its mix of whimsy, stunning dances and decorative mists. Alas, 'twas not to be. Here's the story of ye olde Brigadoon... cue the mists, Vincente, and the mysterious chorus ("Brigadoon, Brrrrrreeeee-ga-doo-ooo-on," etc).

The story, in short, is this. Gene Kelly and Van Johnson are two Americans lost in a pretty Scottish wood before, gasp! They stumble upon the village of Brigadoon, which sleeps out most the century but appears in the middle of said pretty wood one day every 100 years. There they meet a large array of people with twee Scottish accents, they dance a little in the village square and then they come across a comely Scottish lass, who we know better as Cyd Charisse with a terrible accent (I prefer her slight Russian accent in Silk Stockings). Gene and Cyd proceed to fall in love while gathering heather on the hill (as you do). When Gene has to return to his life in New York, he can't get Cyd and Brigadoon out of his mind. Van thinks he's nuts, but off they go back to the pretty wood and, lo and behold, the love between Cyd and Gene has created a miracle - Brigadoon reappears for a couple of minutes so Gene can be reunited with his lovely lassie. He stays with the village and - poof! - they all disappear, leaving Van alone in the pretty wood looking pretty confused. And so are we. But anyway...

Brigadoon started out as a hit on Broadway. Much of its score was praised (and much of it derided too, I'm sure), with particular standout songs being 'Almost Like Being In Love', 'Come To Me, Bend To Me', 'There But For You Go I' and the sword dance. Singled out for most of the praise was Agnes De Milles' choreography, the sword dance especially being a real highlight. If you can imagine it, the whole thing would have been like Oklahoma, but, ye know, Scottish, aye.

Rumour has it MGM bought the rights to the play thinking it would be a dandy vehicle for singing stars Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson, but that it was dropped for them when they realised Kathryn only had one solo spot (surely that couldn't have been a problem in those days. If a play didn't have a solo for Frank Sinatra, for example, they'd just whip one up for him. And with Lerner and Loewe co-operating with the film, they could have easily... oh never mind. Back to the story, lassie). Anyway, the rights were bought and it was handed over to Gene Kelly and Vincente Minelli to do something with.

At first they planned to shoot the whole thing on location in Scotland. The studio however was in the middle of a budgetary crisis (as were most studios at the time) and insisted the whole thing was ludicrously expensive, a point Minelli and Kelly eventually agreed with. Then they thought maybe they could shoot it in North California, it looking slightly Scottish, but the studio said no to this too. So filming had to be done on a soundstage, and the studio artists and designers went about creating a picture book Scotland on the lot. On top of that, the studio thought it would be a fabulous idea to shoot the whole thing in breath-taking Cinemascope.

In putting together the dances, Kelly decided that all of De Mille's Tony-winning choreography shouldn't be used because the choreography needed his understanding of film and dancing for the camera. Looking back and noting that De Mille's dances were integral to the stage show and its success, this doesn't seem like a good idea. But off he went, assured by the studio that all the theatres were being fitted for Cinemascope, and created some lovely, pretty dances that filled up the whole screen. Minelli, meanwhile, hated the Cinemascope and tried his best to make the the soundstage sets look whimsical and romantic. Unfortunately the set designers, in aiming for a realistic/picture book feel ended up with an odd that-floor-looks-like-plastic-and-what-is-that-sheep-doing-there feel instead. All the decorative mists in the world couldn't hide the fact that those painted backdrops, while lovely, are painted and not a far off loch/brogue/whatever they have up there in good old Scotland.

It's often been said that the mistake with Brigadoon was that it was a singing musical starring dancers and set in Scotland but played by Americans. Kelly's voice got weaker as he got older, unfortunately, and he struggles a bit. Cyd Charisse's dubbing by Carole Richards is unusually bad, and those twee accents have been known to drive people running and screaming out of the room (well, my sister at least). At least it was a relatively easy shoot, with everyone working as a nice happy team and the studio tossing money at the thing like crazy.

And then (och aye, the problems grow grrreater and grrreater, wee ones), after taking the trouble of shooting the film twice in both Cinemascope and the usual aspect ratio (for those cinemas that didn't have Cinemascope), the filmmakers found out that most of the cinemas hadn't been fitted with Cinemascope, but had been given the Cinemascope print to play anyway. This mutilated the dancing, destroyed the impact of the whimsical mists in the pretty woods and, in short, was an act of vile musical heresy.

Audiences were not impressed with the execution of the film, and wondered where De Mille's sword dance was, as well as other songs they missed from the stage show. 'Come To Me, Bend To Me' was recorded but cut, as was Kelly's 'There But For You Go I.' Though both were included on the soundtrack album, their presence was sorely missed on screen. The film, to put it nicely, was a bomb, a disaster, a fine mess.

In his autobiography, Minelli tells how he was 'frustrated' with the film, but didn't know what to do about it besides his usual visual prettifying. Gene, he says, was on a slow decline in popularity and though he gave it all he had, he didn't light up the screen in the way he needed to be able to convey his character's wonderment at Brigadoon.

Over the years Brigadoon has been available on video, but often in its truncated version. Luckily (or not, depends on you viewpoint), Brigadoon was one of the first films to receive the DVD treatment and is now widely available in a proper letterbox format - with extras, if you're lucky.

Despite its faults, there are many things I enjoy about Brigadoon. The dance between Gene and Cyd is lovely, of course. Van Johnson, the shameless mug, gets so many good lines he steals the show and has a much more interesting character than Kelly's. The scene in New York, where Gene tries to readjust to reality but keeps hearing Cyd singing in his head is very effective and a dramatic highlight. The ending grows on you after a while. 'Almost Like Being In Love' is a divine song that can get stuck in your head without a moment's notice. And you have to hand it to the artists and designers who put together those sets - once you get past the unreality of it all they really are quite an achievement. Minelli's films always look stunning and this is no exception.

But there's only so much romantic mists and pretty woods this lass can endure. There are better Minelli films, a better dance between Gene and Cyd (in a superior movie, Singin' in the Rain), and there are better showcases for Van's talents. Brigadoon may one day make a great film - but this one, despite its charms, is not it.

And on that, me laddies and lassies, we depart from the whimsical world of Brigadoon. Aye, the mists are fading, the accents returning to normal, and the echoes of the mysterious chorus are growing quieter... "Brigadoon, Brrrrreee-ga-doo-oo-oon..."

And if ye'd like to continue on home to Bonnie Jean, or swim Loch Lomond, or if you're still waitin' for ye dearie, make ye way to IMDb.com's entry on Brigadoon at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046807/maindetails

Btw, I promise never to try write in a Scottish accent again. Apologies to the Scots! I figure everyone else mangles the Australian accent, so I have a right to mangle somebody else's.

Wonders of the wireless

2005-06-20T14:48:00.000+10:00

I've had an absolutely lovely morning today. My dad drove me into uni so I could pick up my history essay, and what do you know? I got 84%, a distinction for your humble narrator, and a very good mark for me (if you're sitting there laughing and saying to yourself 'well I get at least 90% in every essay I do, on a regular basis, in fact I get upset if I get below 89%', well keep it to yourself, mate). On the way home my dad bought me a Wagon Wheel (mmm chocolatey-strawberry jammy-biscuity goodness) and then while driving over the Harbour Bridge he started playing around with the AM dial on the radio. It just seems to be one of those days where everything goes right... because we landed on 88.5 am 2RRR and found an old man muttering to himself and playing Bing Crosby records. All Bing, for three hours straight! Of course, he did forget sometimes what he had played and started playing one record all over again. But what a day... good grades, a Wagon Wheel, sunny weather and an old man playing Bing all the way home.

Danny Kaye Trivia

2005-06-20T14:42:00.000+10:00

After the mega-hyper-fun-packed Danny Kaye weekend on TV last weekend, I thought I might relate two little bits of trivia that Bill Collins, the presenter, gave out:

In 'The Kid From Brooklyn' the credits list Kay Thompson as the Matron. What I was wondering - who is the matron? And is this the same Kay Thompson who worked at MGM as a vocal arranger, wrote the Eloise books, co-starred with Fred Astaire in Funny Face and had one of the most successful nightclub acts of the fifties? If so, I can't find her in the film. Do you know where she is?
In 'Ziegfeld Follies' (not a DK film) take a look at the backgrounds in the 'This Heart of Mine' number. You may notice some statues that look remarkably like the costumes used in the Bali-esque number Danny and Vera-Ellen do early on in 'Wonder Man.' Apparently (apparently, folks, according to my man Bill), these statues were built for the 'Wonder Man' number but never used, and they got recycled at MGM in 'Ziegfeld Follies' instead.

Hmm. 'T'is interesting, no?

The Love Goddesses

2005-06-19T16:21:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago I came upon this site examining how the pin-up system furthered and hindered particular actresses careers. This is well worth a look in, with many classic and musical actresses represented. It also gives a slightly different perspective than your average fan site. Also included are some interesting essays about pin-ups and how they were and are used.
The site can be found at http://www.lovegoddess.info/index.html

Here's a token list of some of the women on the site:

Rita Hayworth: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Rita%20Hayworth%20revised.htm

Esther Williams: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Esther.htm

Ann-Margret: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Ann-Margret%20revised.htm

Cyd Charisse: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Cyd%20Charisse%20revised.htm

Ava Gardner: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Ava.htm

Elizabeth Taylor: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Elizabeth%20Taylor.htm

Kim Novak: http://www.lovegoddess.info/Kim%20Novak.htm

Birthdays: Jeanette MacDonald, Louis Jourdan, Errol Flynn

2005-06-19T16:06:00.000+10:00

Lots of birthdays around this time of year...

18th June 1901 (or 1903): Jeanette MacDonald born. Don't know who she is? She was the prima donna of the 30's, starring with Maurice Chevalier in classics Love Me Tonight and The Love Parade before embarking on a succesful series of films at MGM with Nelson Eddy. Think Ah Sweet Mystery of Life, Indian Love Call, etc, etc.

19th June 1919: Louis Gendre, ahem, Louis Jourdan born. French lovely, remembered best today for his role oppposite Leslie Caron in Gigi. Not a musical performer really, but Gigi has kind of cemented an image of him in the public's mind as a kind of spunky French Rex Harrison type. Or something along those lines. James Bond fans will know him as a villian in Octopussy, or one of those films with the silly names (can you tell I'm not a Bond fan?)

20th June 1909: The Tazzie Devil himself, Errol Flynn, is born. This is the day to run around town in your best green tights, preferably with a short fat sidekick dressed as a monk, swashbuckling your way to some fair maiden's heart. Or, alternately, you can just sing that Errol song in tribute. "Oh, Errol. I would give anything just to be like him..."

Weekend Update: Updates, Acquisitions and Reappraisals

2005-06-19T15:50:00.000+10:00

UPDATES: The past few days have been busily spent working on the new site. So far I've put up some must have links, am slowly expanding the community section and, despite my better judgement, have put up a lovely little gallery that is taking up a lot of space. I've also added the first performer, a links page for Danny Kaye, and hope to get Cyd Charisse up today. More to come, of course.

Go to the Gallery
Go to the Actors (link to Danny Kaye page)

ACQUISITIONS: I've also been using my break form uni to make the rounds of all the local libraries. I've borrowed a compilation cd of songs from the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy films, the Brigadoon soundtrack and Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story (more on that in a moment). I've borrowed books such as Vincente Minelli's autobio, a book on the RKO girls and Arlene Croce's brilliant and much raved about The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book. Needless to say, I'm having a fun time!

REAPPRAISALS: A while ago I talked about the documentary of Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story and said that while I found Kiri Te Kanawa's work beautiful I didn't really like Jose Carreras' work. Scratch that remark from the record - I've been listening to this gorgeous recording and have fallen in love with his version of Maria. In fact the whole album is so good I've been listening to it all week. An added bonus is the Suite from On The Waterfront. This film was made in 1953 with Marlon Brando, and I love my Marlon, so it's a very favourite film of mine. What I loved most about the film (besides Marlo, of course!) was its gorgeous score - written by Bernstein, another artist whose work I admire and love. This suite was put together by Bernstein using music in the film and other parts that couldn't be added. You don't have to know the film to listen and love this suite - it's absolutely stunning.

OTHER BITS AND PIECES: This weekend has been practically saturated with Danny kaye. Yesterday I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (again) and The Kid From Brooklyn as well as putting up the Kaye page on my site, and then this afternoon Wonder Man was on TV. My, it's been fun! I also discovered radiolovers.com which has two episodes of Kaye's radio show which had me in hysterics last night. Check these out here.

Corns For Your Country

2005-06-18T18:22:00.000+10:00

If you're a fan of the 'canteen' films made during WWII, you'll enjoy two recent articles from the Port Halcyon Press. Written by Chris Bamberger (the lovely woman behind the Fred Astaire Mailing List), the articles look at the actors and the dancers involved in the films, including among many others my favourites John Garfield and Joan McCracken. Well written, and very informative, you can find them here.

I've only seen one of the two films Chris writes about - Warner's Hollywood Canteen - about a month ago on TCM. Not knowing much about it other than that Bette Davis sang 'They're either too young or too old', I was pleasantly surprised to find Garfield, McCracken, The Andrews Sisters, Eddie Cantor and plenty of other great WB stars on the roster. I've been wondering for a while now if McCracken did any other film work besides MGM's Good News (1947), so you can imagine the shock I got when she was announced then suddenly started mugging ballectically all over the screen. Oh, it was lovely! Chris devotes a part of her article to Joan, so if you want to know more it's a definite must read. Sad to find out that Hollywood Canteen was her only screen appearance apart from Good News, though I knew her output wouldn't be big. Her best work was on stage and... well, for more read the article!

Why Daddy, what long legs you have

2005-06-17T11:45:00.000+10:00

If there's one movie crying out for a DVD release (and there are many), it's 20th Century Fox's 'Daddy Long Legs.' Starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron, I've been searching for it for a long time. Then, a couple of days ago in the local library, I found it. Oh, rapture!

But when I got home and tried to play the video, the whole exercise turned into a farce. I had expected it to be a pan and scan version of the original Cinemascope print - it's infuriating, but I've gotten used to it - as other fans I've talked to who have seen it have all commented on how it is devilishly hard to find in its original aspect ratio. Unfortunately, on top of that, the video was made in 1983. Even my 3 month old VCR with the best tracking in the neighbourhood couldn't keep the jumping down. It was near unwatchable, with the sound cutting out and the picture leaping all over the screen. I think I saw more static than film! I fast forwarded it to later in the video, but the problem was still the same. when I had borrowed the video I was disappointed that it was a version with closed captions, but it was only that text at the bottom of the screen that helped me figure out what was going on.

Needless to say, I'm not very happy, especially since I've been looking forward to seeing this film for yonks. A 22 year old rotten video tape is no way to experience Fred's History Of The Beat number for the first time. Unfortunately, many classic films are only available to most people on ancient videotape. Unless you're lucky enough to have your own print or a video that has rarely been played, there's little chance of seeing the film for yourself. Luckily there are many sites that deal with hard to find films. Amazon, of course, Movies Unlimited (which has a great line in out of print titles)... there are many but I haven't checked them out. And no matter how great it is to find a video copy of a film, I feel some studios just aren't exploiting the DVD medium to the full. I love that many of the MGM films are being released, but what about the other great musicals from other studios? I've seen Shirley Temple and Rodgers & Hammerstein films - but what about Deanna Durbin? Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan? Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler? Irene Dunne? Alice Faye? Betty Grable? Danny Kaye? The many great 30s musicals are languishing in studio archives along with precious remains of shorts, outtakes and B movies.

Partial relief is on the way. The date most musical fans are looking forward to is August 16th when the first volume of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Collection of DVDs comes out in the US. This set will include Top Hat, Swing Time, Follow The Fleet, Shall We Dance and The Barkleys of Broadway. It can be pre-ordered at amazon.com

Also in the works (or so I am led to believe) are two more box sets - A Busby Berkeley collection (about time, I say) and a set featuring Three Little Words, It's Always Fair Weather (another cinemascope film that pan and scan does no justice to), Summer Stock and others I don't remember and can't find my original source for. Oh well, that's the buzz anyway, so keep an eye out for 'em.

After the disappointment of my Daddy Long Legs experiment, I watched another video from the library - this one, thankfully, in good condition. It was the 1947 Italian film 'The Bicycle Thief.' This isn't a musical, but it's one of those films I've heard so much about I simply had to watch it - and it was well worth it. This classic helped establish the neo-realist tradition of the 50s in Italian cinema (later taken on, and then turned on its head by such famoud directors as Federico Fellini). The print was a clear one, though dubbed with some actors indulging in comical Italian accents ("What-a you wanna do dat for?" etc). The back of the video case had a brief blurb by Arthur Miller, and he wrote:

"The Bicycle Thief is Everyman's search for dignity - it is as though the soul of a man has been filmed. The Bicycle Thief is about a man, a worker, who must have a bike in oreder to work at his job. He is desperate, pawns everything to regain his machine, goes to work, has the thing stolen from him while his back is turned, and then goes on a search through Rome to find it. That is about all there is to it. But it happens to be very close to a lyrical masterpiece.

And this is not because we see Rome as it is, or poor people, or rags. It is because these actual details are organized by a humane view of life. The film is unafraid to examine openly, straightforwardly, the terrible distorted, destructive world which Man has made for himself.

It has a point of view. It is genuinely angry, in fact, ferocious. And this anger is not cloaked (angled), got at by indirection and ladies' magazine plot masquerades, but is expressed by means of a head-on collision with the facts of life as they exist.

For many years, while writing my plays, I had tried to find means for expressing my ideas about life. It is the central process of every writer's development. I came, painfully, to the area where there was nothing left, no plots, no cagey angles, but only the possibility of saying openly and clearly and simply what I had in mind to say, uncloaked, naively. The Bicycle Thief is especially dear to me - as it will be to many others - because it is so sweetly naive."

I can't explain the appeal of The Bicycle Thief to me as eloquently and clearly as Miller. But those images of bicycles gliding down the street, the scenes of searching in the marketplace, the nearly comical church sequence, and that final haunting scene... these are things that will stay with me for a long time. I have no idea whether this film is on DVD yet, but if it isn't it really should be!

More Procrastination?

2005-06-14T00:25:00.000+10:00

These holidays I've got a few projects in the works, and one of these is the expansion of my vast multimedia empire - mwa ha ha. I've set up a page at, ahem, Geocities called - what else? - Procrastination In Swing Time (inspired, aren't I?). I plan to get all the links in the sidebar over there to be nicely organised and expanded upon. What does this mean, you say? It means more links, suitably categorised for your convenience, that will take you all through musical cyberspace. Hopefully. I have some websites I've found up my sleeve to add to the site and if I can fit it in, I may add some other things that aren't links... but I don't know what they will be yet. Maybe pictures? *ponders her rather smallish picture collection*

It will take some time to get it the way I want it, but you can see what I've put up so far at http://au.geocities.com/procrastinationinswingtime/index.htm

Why the Australian domain name? To make it just a bit more tricky to remember, dear ones. Probably not a smart idea, come to think of it... but I do have an account under the US Geocities as well, so if I do outgrow the Aussie one (an event far off in the horizon, I can safely assume), it's there waiting for me.

Slowly you will find the links on the sidebar shrinking... but I'm going to add a big-fat-can't-miss-it picture link to the new links site so you'll know where to go. So be prepared.

Now I have to find dozens of new links to fill up the joint. "Be vewy vewy qwuiet - I'm hunting winks!"

Weekend update: Plaza oh, double four, double three

2005-06-12T16:08:00.000+10:00

This weekend...

WATCHED: Marjorie Morningstar with Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood. Wonderful cheesy 50s melodrama that's all about sex, losing your virginity and coming of age - but put in nicer words and with a swelling musical underscore. Gene actually had a few moments of really impressive acting, and Natalie looked beautiful as always. What I really loved was the Hays-Code-skirting-around-the-sex dialogue. Lines about girls giving away "free samples" before they get married, and Gene being astonished at Natalie not knowing what's "keeping" her friend from meeting her on time. hehe.

Summer Stock with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. About the fiftieth time I've watched it, but it's a lovely unpretentious musical with fantastic dancing and performances from gene and Judy. I still get shivers up my spine when Judy sings Get Happy and can't help singing along with Gene and the chorus to the dig for your dinner song.

Bells Are Ringing with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. I love anything by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and this is one of their best. I even got my sister to watch it, and by the end she was laughing out loud with me! Hooray, spreading the muiscal fever...

BOUGHT: Ah, I've been out on the town again. Peruse my purchases -

Bells Are Ringing soundtrack (on vinyl). Heehee, I got carried away with the Comden and Green goodness.

Bye Bye Birdie Original Broadway Cast (on vinyl). A pretty battered copy, but I loves me some Chita Rivera so I thought "Why not?" I wouldn't recommedn you buy the original record, but rather the Columbia Broadway Masterworks edition. Their releases are top rate and the best on the market. No doubt their Bye Bye Birdie will have extra goodies not found on my record. Check out the link to the Broadway Masterworks site on the link list in the sidebar.

Rose Marie/Seven Brides For Seven Brothers 2 set (on vinyl). The fifties Rose Marie which I haven't seen (but would prefer the 30s version with Jeanette and Eddy) and, of course, my darling 7BF7B. "I'm just a lonesome polecat..."

At the record shop I also saw origianl issues of the Gigi and Brigaddon soudtracks. The collector in me was saying "Buy, Libby, buy!", but my wallet was crying "No, Libby, no!" Alas, I left them behind.

At the cd shop I bought Fred Astaire: The Complete London Sessions. Includes recordings with Adele from the 20s (swoon!) and Bing from the 70s (swoon again!) plus solos from the 20s, 30s and 70s.

I could write more, but I can't be bothered... very lazy today. I have one assignment due in on tuesday which I haven't started. I could start it now - I should start it now - but somehow... can't find... the will... to think about... semantics... or... syntax... phonetics too much... to bear... must... watch Bells Are Ringing... again...

West Side Review

2005-06-09T11:44:00.000+10:00

Ah, the world of musicals. Where street gangs substitute drive-bys and shoot-outs for high kicks and sassy leaps. Mambo!

I know I promise lots of things – exciting articles, interesting news, regular posts – but I hardly make good, do I? Well, now I’m going to fulfil at least one promise, which was that I’d post some articles I found in old issues of Films and Filming. So – cue drum roll please – here I present, for your entertainment and consideration, an April 1962 review of West Side Story. I don’t know who the author is, but his/her initials are P.G.B…. if that helps.

Produced by Robert Wise. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman. Associate producer, Saul Chaplin. Choreography by Jerome Robbins. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Arhur Laurents. Production designed by Boris Leven. Music conducted by Johnny Green. Director of photography, Daniel L. Fapp. Costumes designed by Irene Sharaff. Assistant director, Robert E. Relyea. Editor, Thomas Stanford. Photographic effects, Linwood Dunn. Titles and visuals, Saul Bass. Production artist, M. Zuberano. Set decorator, Victor Gangelin. American. United Artists. Panavision 70 – Technicolor. Cert. U 151 mins.
Maria, NATALIE WOOD; Tony, RICHARD BEYMER; Riff, RUSS TAMBLYN; Anita; RITA MORENO; Bernardo, GEORGE CHAKIRIS; Anybodys, SUE OAKES; Lieut. Schrank, SIMON OAKLAND; Officer Krupke, WILLIAM BRAMLEY; Doc, NED GLASS; G’ad Hand, JOHN ASTIN; and Madam Lucia, PENNY SANTON.

The Bernstein-Robbins collaboration began in 1944 with a ballet commissioned by the Ballet Theatre which took America by storm – Fancy Free. Making use of contemporary American idiom in both sound and movement, it evolved an art form that lent itself simultaneously to the popular musical stage and cinema. (Fancy Free itself was the basis of On The Town and the forerunner of a dozen or more, often less talented shows, of the genre.)

Some fifteen years later the same partnership was still at the translation of the American idiom to ballet. West Side Story, with its ingenious use of the Romeo and Juliet structure against a setting of racial prejudice an dpoverty, made its impact by being the first ‘anti-musical’. Its impact was not in the romanticism of the music (hardly a song to remember) nor the lyrics (Lerner and Loewe could knock them up overnight); but Bernstein’s astringent writing and Robbins’ vital choreography combined to bring the whole show nearer the mainstream of Stravinsky and Diaghileff than the established confections of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The Cinema has seldom had the courage of its convictions, even if it has allowed artists to convince it of anything. So it is not surprising that West Side Story is a sad shadow of what it might have been. We know that Jerome Robbins started to direct the film, disputed with his employers, and eventually handed over to Robert Wise with whom he now shares a screen credit. My assumption may be wrong, but nevertheless I assume that had Robbins seen the production through from start to finish it would all have been as dazzling and as exhilarating as the first ten minutes.

The opening gang dances are filmed in real streets, on real playgrounds, across real tenement areas. The camera sweeps with the vitality of the dance, the editing is snip-sharp, and the spectator is compelled to be a participant. Then bang, the reality dissolves into studio whimsy, the streets are platser paved, the tenements soot-free, and the gangs stand out for what they are – a talented group of dancers pretending to be gangs.

The dancing has been limited, the dialogue emphasised, the music glamourised by Johnny Green’s conducting, and the whole design tarted up with optical tricks that would do justice to a re-make of the crazy-coloured South Pacific.

In the sense that no performance can utterly destroy the grandeur of a Beethoven symphony, the film version of West Side Story still contains some things of beauty. At least three good dance routines remain. George Chakiris (who has changed sides in the transition from stage to screen) gives a performance that makes him a welcome film discovery, and Rita Moreno is an exciting and at times moving Anita.

Natalie Wood is adequate as Maria, but Richard Beymer, as Tony, seems to have been thrown by the technicalities of the part (his dancing is never bang-on and his voice, presumably dubbed, suffers from some excruciating insecurities). Indeed, all the singing suffers from the present vogue that appears to find pitch expendable to sex.

Unlike many big-screen pictures, West Side Story moves with pace. It is never a bore. Doubtless it will delight the indiscriminating; but Bernstein and Robbins, if not their audiences, deserve better. P.G.B.

On a personal note, I have to say this is the general consensus among film reviewers of West Side Story. While I would disagree with the unmemorable songs comment (ah, if I had a dollar for each time Maria has been stuck in my head), I wholeheartedly agree with the criticism of Beymer and the praise of Chakiris and Moreno.

Interestingly… George Chakiris had been in at least one film before West Side Story that I have seen. He plays a very small yet pivotal role in the Cyd Charisse film Meet Me In Las Vegas (now how would I know that?). Made at MGM in 1956, he was billed as George Kerris. As Kerris he also appears in Song of Love (1947, as a choir boy), The 5000 Fingers of Dr T (1953, as a dancer) and Under Fire (1957, as Private Steiner). Another name he used as a dancer in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) was George Dee. Other films you can see him in as an unbilled dancer include The Great Caruso (1951), Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), Give A Girl A Break (1953), White Christmas (1954), The Country Girl (1954) and There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954). Wow! I had better keep my eye out from now on.

As for the singing, Beymer was dubbed, but I could never tell until I got the DVD and found out about it in the included documentary. Wood, of course was dubbed by the infernal Marni Nixon (not a fan, I’m afraid). Oddly, Russ Tamblyn was dubbed for The Jets Song when he could have sung it just as well himself (but then Tamblyn was dubbed in most of his films). The most complicated dubbing was of Rita Moreno – she sang herself in America, was dubbed by Betty Wand in A Boy Like That and has a few lines dubbed by Marni Nixon in the Tonight Quintet. When I think about it, it was like an orgy of dubbing, if I may say so.

But whatever the film’s faults, the Prologue makes up for them all. Never mind that my sister breaks out into giggles when the mean gangs start their balletic leaps and triples – it’s brilliant!

Hooray for Holidays

2005-06-09T11:28:00.000+10:00

It's finally here - end of session! Stretched out in front of me are weeks of musical watching, discussing and obsessing. I am jumping for joy just like Cyd, above.
The last few days have been hectic - studying for tests, the completing of tests, the barely passing of tests. In the mornings I've been listening to Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam to get me into a happy mood, while at night I come home and put on the beautiful Carousel soundtrack to lull me to sleep.
Yes, that's right, I bought the Carousel soundtrack - my first ever Rodgers and Hammerstein purchase. Kathryn and Pam, if they're reading, will remember how much I am emphatically not an R&H fan. Up until now the only R&H in our house have been an ancient Sound of Music record and a copy of Carousel that mum bought in a moment of 30% off passion. But I feel I'm slowly being converted - unable to resist the lure of the Carousel waltz and If I Loved You, I fear that some day I'll find myself watching The King and I and actually enjoying it... or I'll start watching Oklahoma for more than just the fineness of Hugh Jackman or Gordon Macrae. Maybe I'll even start sitting through the entire song of Climb Every Mountain in Sound of Music - gosh, I may even start looking forward to it! I think some desperate Rodgers and Hart is needed to cure this sudden affliction - now, where's my recording of We Wish We Were In Love Again?

Born To Spend, Baby!

2005-05-30T19:44:00.000+10:00

"The book, le livre."
"Oh Junie, let's give the French lesson a rest. Can I buy these books off you instead?"
"But Peter, you spent all your money already buying la plume, la chaisse, le crayon, le cahier, le papier..."

As you may have deduced from the caption above, I have again been throwing my money around town as if I actually earned it. The two hour break between French and history on Mondays has so far been filled with distracting homework or, as is most likely, listing around the library lawn aimlessly. But today I caught the bus into the city to find decent food, and along the way dropped into Red Eye Records. I should know better by now... but anyway, I picked up a limited edition soundtrack of Born To Dance and a 4cd Irving Berlin pack. Born To Dance has been sitting on their shelves for months and no-one has ever bought it, so I decided I simply had to buy it and make Eleanor Powell and company feel loved. I'm listening to it now, and it's a very good album - right now James Stewart is trying to croon it with the best of them in Easy To Love. He doesn't do too well, of course, but that's why I love it. And I've seen the Irving Berlin pack there before and decided to bite the bullet and get it. Anything by Berlin can't be bad, can it? I was also tempted to buy the Mame soundtrack and Can Can soundtrack, but decided to leave them alone for now. I'd like to see Can Can first before buying the soundtrack (I've heard mixed reviews of it, but Maurice, Frank and Louis Jourdan in one film - sounds heavenly!), and I'd prefer to get the original Broadway cast recording of Mame with Angela Lansbury.

Ah, Angela Lansbury, how I adore thee. When I was little I loved her as Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast and knew her from Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Murder She Wrote. Then as I got older and saw her in Gaslight, The Harvey Girls, National Velvet and other films I realised there was so much more she did that shows how versatile she is. Now, when I think of Angela I not only think of Mrs Potts, but I also think of her vicious Eleanor in The Manchurian Candidate and her hilariously diabolical Mayoress in Anyone Can Whistle rounding up all the cookies. My sister, however, cannot stand her because of Murder She Wrote. When I say the name 'Angela Lansbury' she can only think of a doddering old lady solving crimes in between cups of tea. But I digress...

Earlier today I had a French grammar test. Yikes. And now it's coming into the last two weeks of semester, more tests await me. Every day. Sigh... at least in two weeks I'll be on holidays! Hooray! But it also means I won't post much the next two weeks because I'll be studying. Or not. Then there will be many posts moaning about how I ought to be studying and how stressed I am. And then you'll roll your eyes and groan and say "Well, Libby, if you actually did some work and studied you might not be so stressed and you might get marks that you're proud of." And then I'd ho and hum and run away to a cd shop to drown my scholarly sorrows in a plethora of Broadway cast recordings. Then I'd come back and poke my tongue out at you and say "Well, I may be failing French, but lookie what I got today..." hey, isn't that what I've been doing all year so far?

*Libby ponders her increasingly reckless spending habits. Shrugs, and goes back to listening to her shiny new soundtrack*

During the test I tried to get a suitably Frenchy musical song in my head - all I could think of was The French Lesson from Good News, above, and wondered if it could be made into a blues song, as in I've Got The French Lesson Blues. After much consideration (when I was supposed to be putting sentences into the past tense) I decided it wouldn't work, and just changed the lyrics to St Louis Blues instead:

"I've got the French lesson blues,
This conjugation's got me down..."

That's as far as I got - think you can add to it? As much as I tried to keep it in my head, I somehow had Alexis Smith pop up singing Could I Leave You from Follies instead. Which didn't help with les interrogations at all. And for the rest of the day all I could think of was Hooray For Hollywood from Hollywood Hotel. Why, why, why? I only know one line and that's the title. Do you know how annoying it is to have that one line going through your head for hours? I'll give you a taste:

"Hooray for Hollywood. Hooray for Hollywood. Hooray for Hollywood. Hooray for Hollywood. Hooray for Hollywood. Hooray for Hollywood..."

So I didn't finish my blues masterpiece. Maybe I'll think of some more soon. But for now Frances Langford is Swingin the Jinx Away on my media player and I have to make my way through the mountain of emails that have arrived in my mailbox before dinner.

I'm Young and Healthy (cough splutter sneeze)

2005-05-27T14:50:00.000+10:00

Not much doin' this week, except a lot of sneezing and groaning as I tried getting all my assignments in and actually turn up to French while battling a little flu. To make myself feel better, I've watched 42nd St twice this week, as well as some Andy Hardy, Fred and Ginger and Carousel thrown in for variety.

I realise I'm very emotional when I'm sick, so it was probably a good thing that I watched Carousel when no-one else was at home. I sobbed for about half of the whole thing. Anything would set me off - the Carousel theme, a wistful look from Shirley Jones, the last few lines of Soliloquy, any time If I Loved You could be heard in the background, What's The Use of Wond'rin', etcetera... by the end of it I had tears rolling down my cheeks and my eyes were as red as a baboon (odd simile, but my brain isn't working properly yet, cut me some slack). My mother came home shortly after it ended, and she saw me with my puffy eyes and runny nose and said "You really are sick!" I blurted out, "No, Gordon MacRae just told Shirley Jones that he always loved her and then Shirley started singing..." Mum just rolled her eyes and walked away. I didn't want to cry, but when they sing that You'll Never Walk Alone song, you can practically hear the film yelling "Cry! Cry now, dammit!" and when you've been sick all week and just handed in all your assigments and you're lying on the couch exhausted with your nose running away from you and your defences are down you must comply with its wishes and bawl like a baby who's just fallen down a staircase (I know, I should give up the whole simile thing now before it gets any worse).

Today I have the day off uni and I watched Ginger Rogers in Tom, Dick and Harry. Thankfully, it didn't make me cry, I instead sat there laughing for 90 minutes. It's very funny. Highly recommended, five stars, must see, blah blah blah. I'm tired. I'm going to take an afternoon nap. Has this post been completely nonsensical? My nose has returned to me but my brain is still muddled, or maybe it's because I'm playing the Kiss Me Kate soundtrack, and writing and listening at the same time is just too much for my poor addled brain at the moment. The song playing right now is From This Moment On - the cool bit that Bob Fosse chorographed. But no, that's finishing up now, and we're going into..... wait for it.... Where Is The Life That Late I Led. Howard Keel going through his little black book. "Where is the life that late I led? Where is it now? Totally dead."

My God, I've heard this song at least four times today. I think it's time for that nap.

Hanging on the ropes

2005-05-20T17:28:00.000+10:00

-"Baby, you knock me out... now go do your Spanish homework! Your marks are miserable!"
-"What was that, boys? You want me to break out into song and dance? Well sure!"
-"Here we go again... someone knock her out!"

Had to write an essay today. Didn't do it. Had to do my Spanish tarea. Didn't do it. Had to write a letter for French. Didn't do it. Had to read my notes on the Franco dictatorship. Didn't do it. Had to read that book on 16th century European economy. Didn't do it. Had to download trial version of photoshop thing but STUPID INTERNET CONNECTION KEEPS CUTTING OUT so... didn't do it. Had to call my friend about a train timetable. And I did!... no, that's a lie. Didn't do it.

Tomorrow I'm going to The Producers and then the day after that is my birthday, so I don't see much getting done this weekend either. Next week should be nicely hectic, I think.

Ooh, I did scan pictures from the liner notes of my It's Always Fair Weather soundtrack. You likey? I loves me Cyd and I loves me Fair Weather. I'm listening to the soundtrack now. "One two three four five six seven eight nine ten boing - I'm beat!"

The Rise and Fall of the Musical

2005-05-17T08:16:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, while raiding the film studies section in the library again, I came across some old editions of British magazine Films and Filming. I photocopied some articles and, without having much to say myself, I decided to post some of them here.

So first up is an article from January 1962 (Vol 8 No 4) called The Rise and Fall of the Musical from an interview with director Vincente Minelli (who directed some of Hollywood's best musicals, including Gigi, above):

"Hollywood has certainly lost confidence in musicals. The world market for them is more limited. I think because during the last few years the style of musicals has altered and the lyrics of the songs are written as part of the dialogue. That makes them very difficult to translate for foreign audiences, whereas a film such as An American In Paris uses songs that every country is familiar with, and so in most cases the film was translated into Italian, French, German and so on... but the songs were kept in English because it didn't matter. If you take, say, an Alan Lerner musical, the lyrics and dialogue have all to be translated with great care.

When musicals were at the height of their popularity they follwed a formula; but in recent years they've become original and individual things. For instance, I've heard a great deal about West Side Story and I think that if it's done as well as it should be - and I hear it is - then it will be marvellous for any audience with its brilliant and barbaric choreography, and the graphic background of New York with its gang warfare. This is a wonderful subject; but I don't think it will start a new style in musicals, because it's hard to find subjects to fit natural locations. You can't keep telling the same story. The natural backgrounds are so right in telling the story of West Side, but you couldn't use 'realism' as a style for a series of musicals. Unfortunately that's exactly what usually does happen, but the copies are never quite as good as the original, because they don't have the vitality and the reason for doing it. A musical must have its own importance and reason, unless it's a period thing like Gigi.

Usually the enterprise itself dictates how you will do it. You find a style that suits the subject. Gigi dictated its own style by its period and by being from a Colette story.

BREAKING IT UP

A musical has to be approached as individually as any other kind of story. There is no particular way of doing it.

Actually, I've made more dramatic and comedy films than I have musicals. What I don't like is doing the same kind of picture all the time. I like breaking it up and doing other kinds of pictures in between...

STUDIO FREEDOM

I find that the studio gives me as much freedom as I need, and as far as I am concerned I am as free as if I worked independently. Of course you make a lot of compromises, as you do in any case, but I am able to work right through from the writing stage, to the cutting and final preview print. One of the difficulties is choosing a star. A great many things enter into this. I like to know from the studio whom they feel should be cast as the star, and pretty generally we agree on it. But it is very difficult to cast these days because of actors' commitments. It isn't like the old days when the studios had twenty or thirty great stars right on the spot. It is always very difficult to get actors' commitments to work out so that you can have the kind of cast you want. So here there are bound to be a lot of compromises.

That's only an extract - the rest talks of his work on Lust For Life, The Cobweb and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which he was working on at the time of publishing. If you'd like to read the full article, you'll have to contact me or find it yourself (I'm too lazy to type the whole thing up, you should know that).

The other articles I photocopied were a contemporary review of West Side Story and a story written by Cary Grant on life as a star. The latter piece is a bit long, but it's very interesting if you're a Cary fan, so I'll see what I can do.

Don't feed the plants!

2005-05-13T10:56:00.000+10:00

"Take back your mink..."

Oh dear. I think I've had another budget blow out. I should know by now not to hang around in the city with my EFTPOS card!

I started off innocently enough in Borders with a $14.95 copy of Guys and Dolls on DVD (speaking of which, how I would love to get my hands on a copy of this Life magazine, with a 10 page spread on the movie...sigh). But then I found their musicals cd section... oh boy, check this out:

Call Me Madam Original Cast Album with Ethel Merman (and selections from Panama Hattie, ooh, how exciting!): $25.95

Follies Original Broadway Cast ("I've got those God-why-don't-you-love-me-oh-you-do-now-beat-it-will-ya blues"): $21.95

Two On The Aisle Original Cast Album with Bert lahr and Dolores Gray (never heard of it before, but hey, I was on a roll): $25.95

Bloomer Girl Original cast Album with Celeste Holm (I'd heard of this before while I was researching Celeste Holm, so when I saw it I snapped it up immediately lest I never see it again): $31.95

Wonderful Town 2000 Cast Recording with Donna Murphy (which I've been listening to this morning and it's quite good - with bonus tracks sung by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, yay): $30.95

Total: $151.70 (Ouch ouch ouch)

But the real (and cheaper) highlight of the day was dragging my friend along to see the Uni theatrical society's production of Little Shop of Horrors.

"Feed me, Krelborn!"

The cast was only very small, but they were all so good (well, for a uni production). My friend spent the whole first act picking out which members of the cast had had ballet training, opera training and tap training. The two actors who played Seymour and Audrey were lovely (with Audrey the only one to keep up her Skid Row accent all night - and it was a good accent too), and the guy who played the dentist was hilarious (especially when he took one of the doo-wop girls and started extracting her molars and she screamed in time to the music)! For a uni production, the puppets for Audrey Two were effective - with a little slide for the actors to slip down when they got eaten, which looked fun :)

Some song lines that played in my head all night afterwards (and got big laughs from the mainly strangely dressed drama students audience):

"I've given you sunlight, I've given you rain, looks like you're not happy, 'less I open a vein..."

"I have so, so many strong reservations - should I go and perform mutilations?"

"And the plants proceeded to grow and grow- and grow
And begin what they came here to do
Which was essentially to
Eat Cleveland...!"

Find out more about Little Shop Of Horrors!

Get the lyrics and sing along to Suddenly Seymour or any of your other favourites (bop sh-bop!)

Synopsis and info on the original Broadway production.

The differences between the stage show and the film are interesting and significant - click here to see how the musical was transferred from stage to screen.

Check out the website for the 2003 Broadway production - it's very good looking, with all the internal links hidden inside little AudreyII plants. There's also a fan arena with a forum, shop and free screensaver (have your own little Audrey II on your screen - I wonder if you can feed it?)

You too can be a horticulturalist expert like Seymour - with your own carnivorous plants too! Order plants online and learn to look after them at a real Little Shop Of Horrors.

If you think you'd make a swell Seymour or Audrey or Mr Mushnik, check out this rundown for performers on what vocal range, dancing ability and age range is required for each character. Also contains a link to the play's sheet music online.

Or, if you want to learn more about my uni's theatrical society, NUTS (which I doubt you do, but hey, I gotta plug it, uni pride you know), go to www.nuts.org.au

Birthday: Fred Astaire

2005-05-10T08:39:00.000+10:00

It's the 10th of May and that means it's Fred Astaire's birthday. I'm celebrating by listening to all my Fred cds and watching all my Fred movies. Well, maybe just one. I have to go into uni today and that's going to take up a lot of time, so I'll just sing songs from Top Hat all day and annoy my friends.

This above picture is from Second Chorus - hmm, maybe I'll give that a go today as well...

Continue your celebrating by going to the Ravin' Maven's Fred site - with an excellent multimedia centre (make sure you have Real Player). It's called Fred Astaire - Dance On Air (Ooh it rhymes).

And, by the way, on the 3rd of May I forgot all about Bing Crosby's birthday. Silly me! I don't have any nifty links for him yet, so I'll just recommend you watch Holiday Inn instead and that way you can watch Bing and Fred together - with a rendition of White Christmas and a groovy firecracker dance thrown in.

Have a fun day!

Links beget links

2005-05-03T18:43:00.000+10:00

I have posted some new links on the sidebar. They lead to some Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly sites full of pictures and links and are much fun. They are all hosted by Nancy Paulette, and are part of the Greatest Entertainers and Classic Hunks webrings. They aren't very active, and have been around for ages, but are always a good place to visit. And I love a good links page. I link there, then they link elsewhere, and then they link somewhere else, until you've linked yourself all over the net and you're back where you started!
You may have noticed that I keep putting more links up - I've started obsessively searching for musical related websites instead of doing my homework, my housework, and any kind of work really. I've found quite a lot, but I just haven't gotten around to putting them up. Maybe I should give up the blog business and go into compiling links instead?
Well anyway, here's the latest. I can practically hear them screaming "Click on me!"

Fred Astaire Slap Those Feet!
Gene Kelly
Fred and Gene Links

Weekend Update: Sigh

2005-05-01T18:27:00.000+10:00

A quick rundown of my weekend...

I was supposed to write an essay, finish my French listening assignment and study for my Linguistics exam, but I... haven't started any of them. Oops.

On Friday I watched Please Don't Eat The Daisies with Doris Day (catchy, catchy songs). On Saturday I watched Cover Girl with Rita hayworth and Gene Kelly (oh the musical melodrama!) and Funny Face (for the millionth time I think, and I still don't feel any chemistry between Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Oh well, it looks pretty). Today I saw and taped Guys and Dolls (the second time I've seen it, and the second time I've missed A Bushel and A Peck, Marry The Man Today, My Time Of Day, I've Never Been In Love Before and all the other great songs they left out from the stage version. The Adelaide ballad Frank sings is one of my favourites though, and slightly makes up for missing songs). And I saw the last half of Paramount on Parade, which was a real treat! I haven't seen any of the early revue-style movies the studios did in the early days of talkies so it was great to find. Especially when it has Maurice Chevalier dressed as a French gendarme singing in the park and Helen Kane boop-oop-a-dooping.

What else...? Saw a little bit of Idiot's Delight with an overacting Norma Shearer and a dancing Clark Gable. Saw a biography of Ricardo Montalban on the Biography channel, which was impressive. I was very impressed by his work with Nosotros and trying to combat Hispanic discrimination in the entertainment industry. Um... oh, and I thought I'd lost my West Side Story DVD, but I found it underneath a pile of clothes.

Sigh. I should be doing my essay, but I'm so lost and have no idea what to write. And I missed all the lectures on syntax and haven't read the chapter on morphology for linguistics, so my prospects for Wednesday's test don't look good. And I never do any Spanish or French homework, which is bad, and leads me to barely pass a thing. I have two French listening assignments this week.

Kill me now and send me to glorious Technicolour, breathtaking Cinemascope and Stereophonic sound heaven, please!

Mmm... photos

2005-05-01T18:13:00.000+10:00

At the moment I am experimenting with Photobucket. I've put a few pictures in and plan to do more. However, most of the ones there right now are ones I've found on other websites and I haven't acknowledged these sites, so in the future I think I'll put in scanned images from my own books and brochures. You can check out what I've uploaded so far here.

The image above may be familiar to fans of Funny Face. It's the model Dovima posing with the comic book she reads in the film. Dovima was a quite famous model, memorably being photographed by Richard Avedon (who was also visual consultant to Funny Face) with a group of elephants in a piece called, um, Dovima with the elephants.

Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story

2005-04-29T12:48:00.000+10:00

Leonard Bernstein in a red jumper, jumping around a recording studio yelling at Jose Carreras and smoking many, many cigarettes. What fun!

I saw this documentary on TV last night and had to hop on to the net as soon as I could to wax lyrical about it. It's basically Bernstein conducting a recording of West Side Story and using real opera singers for the roles, including Kiri Te Kanawa and Carreras, sometime during what looks like the 1980s (big glasses and bad hair... yep, that must be it).

Highlights for me were the recording of The Dance at The Gym with its beautiful sexy brass, Kiri Te Kanawa's absolutely beautiful voice and seeing a 55 year old man sing Gee Officer Krupke!

I've always loved Bernstein's music, especially his musical theatre scores, and above all, West Side Story. I don't know much about music, but I've always found the West Side score more exciting than a Madonna song and sexier than a Neptunes produced track. Today the music doesn't sound all that out of place or inventive as it did back in 1957, but it's still breathtaking and still sends shivers down my back, especially here where it is conducted by Bernstein himself. Te Kanawa says it's like having Handel come back and conducting his own music - it's so exciting! Even when Jose Carreras can't get the notes right in Something's Coming or Maria and Bernstein is going off his nut at him, he still make it known how much he loves West Side Story and how honoured he feels to be working on the recording.

Mind you, The Jet Song just doesn't sound right when sung by an opera singer, and in Officer Krupke all operatic notions are thrown out the window. I didn't particularly like Carreras as Tony, as I don't particularly Carreras in general. I still prefer the first version of Maria I ever heard, and that was in the movie. Maybe it's because the only other person I've heard sing Maria is Mandy Patinkin, and I can't take him seriously because I always imagine him swaggering about, a la Gene Kelly in The Pirate, saying "My name is Inigo Montoya (?), you killed my father, prepare to die!"

But I loved Te Kanawa's renditions of Somewhere and Tonight. She even made I Feel Pretty sound majestic.

One review at amazon, however, says Carreras did a brilliant interpretation of Tony and Te Kanawa merely overdoes her Puerto Rican accent. Maybe I missed the final rendtion of Maria that blew evryone away because in the last half hour I kept flicking between that and the latest episode of Lost on Channel 7 (hardcore musical fans would not forgive me for this, but Charlie and Claire had been kidnapped by Ethan and Sawyer found out Said was back and then that mysterious bit of steel was found..! oh never mind).

Turns out the reason Carreras was so tense was because he just found out he had leukeamia, and the picking apart from Bernstein wasn't helping.

Watching Bernstein conduct is the real treat of this doco though. He conducts with so much authority thta it's thrilling to watch. Sometimes he looks so tired and just slumps in his chair and gets angry at the recording men who couldn't pick up the bass line, then other times he conducts with his whole body, dancing around, mouthing the words to himself and moving his shoulders to the beat. And he smokes a lot too. Like, in every scene. Sometimes with a fancy cigarrette holder.

The documentary is on DVD, and it's a must for any self-respecting Bernstein fan. Buy it at amazon.com
Or visit the official West Side Story site for more info on Bernstein, the show, the movie, and other things that are cool but I don't remember what they are.

Spotlight: Vincente Minnelli and Yolanda and the Thief

2005-04-25T12:41:00.000+10:00

Last night I saw Yolanda and the Thief (1945) again. A lot of people don't like this film, and for a long time I was one of them. The first time I saw it was a few years ago when I didn't know much about musicals at all. In fact, it was the first Fred Astaire film I ever saw besides snippets from the That's Entertainment! series. So I came to it not knowing anything about the Minnelli or Astaire aesthetic. I didn't know who Lucille Bremer was and had no idea there was a ballet in it. I remember being slightly bored at the start, though found Fred amusing as the con man. I thought the leading lady couldn't really act and didn't laugh at any of the jokes. And that national anthem! Urgh!

The basic story is that Lucille is a young, naive heiress just out of a convent. Fred is a con man who pretends to be her guardian angel to steal her millions (amazingly, she takes his line without batting an eyelid). Complications arise when her real guardian angel steps in. It's all a bit silly, and Fred seems a bit old to be romancing a convent girl, but illogicality prevails, as always. I kept watching though, hoping for someone to start dancing.

But then the dream ballet started. Fred left his hotel room and walked down the street we'd seen him walk down before. Suddenly the man who asked for a cigarette earlier now had six arms! And Fred started dancing with women and sheets on the side of the river! And those silly costumes... I admit I spent the whole time wondering 'what the hell is going on?'. I enjoyed the Yolanda and Coffee Time numbers, but it was the ballet that I kept thinking about later. While I didn't think the film was entirely awful, I didn't have anything very good to say about it either.

Looking back, I can understand how the 1945 audience would have felt. Ballets in films weren't the norm then and only started to become popular after The Red Shoes and Gene Kelly's films.
So this time, knowing more about Minelli's use of colour and his influences for the film, as well as having a better kowledge of the historical context the film was released in, I was able to appreciate what was going on. What struck me this time (probably thanks to the digital upgrade we got through our cable operator) was the beautiful colours. The film looks wonderful, and the ballet is one of the more visually impressive ones done at MGM. It's a prime example of the mid 40s over the top visual aesthetic. You can see the same style in Minnelli's Ziegfeld Follies (where I still can't stand those dancers with branches in their hats and the silly Limehouse Blues costumes) or The Red Shoes, the British ballet film (one of my favourites, the ballet's sets were designed by a painter. I think it uses the aesthetic much better than Follies or Yolanda). Most people prefer the more modern 50s visual style that characterises the Girl Hunt ballet in The Bandwagon, for example (also a Minnelli film), but the 40s style is so delightfully over the top at times I find it hilarious (especially those awful cat women in Follies)!

So today I've been looking over the net for sites on Yolanda and the Thief. There aren't many at all, but my search led me to a few interesting things on Minnelli, which I've included. You can find heaps of reviews (most of them unfavourable) through Google. Unfortunately most of the photos I've found are black and white. If you see Yolanda I recommend you see it in colour, and in the best condition you can. My digital satellite service really sharpened the colour from the first time I saw it on analog. I don't think it's on DVD yet, but you can find VHS copies. The soundtrack is part of a double with the Three Little Words limited editon soundtrack, which you can get through Rhino.

Two reviews ---- one bad at http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/45/yolie.htm ---- one good at http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,24010%7C24026%7C%7C,00.html. Believe me, most of the ones you'll find are of the former opinion!
See an ad for the movie in a Woman's Day magazine from 1945.
An interview with Vincente Minnelli from 1977/78. He briefly talks about Yolanda, as well as most of his other films. A must for Minnelli fans.
Analysis of many of Minnelli's films, including Yolanda. I didn't read much, but if you like to know about camera angles and what this means for the character development of so-and-so, check it out.
An essay called 'Queer Modernism: The Cinema Aesthtics of Vincente Minnelli'. Not your average read, but it should be interesting.

Some factoids: The little girl who we see in the convent is Gigi Perreau (I think), who has quite a following among child star fans. I plan to post some links to child star sites soon, so keep in touch. Also, Lucille Bremer's voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin. Erwin dubbed Bremer again in Till The Clouds Roll By. More dubbing links and info coming soon - promise!

The star shaped spotlight you can see briefly in the ballet was used again by Minnelli in The Bandwagon, when Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse try to dance to You And The Night And The Music with fireworks all around them. He probably used it in other films too, so keep a look out for it. It appears in other MGM films as well, such as during the cat burglar dance in Lovely To Look At.

The photo above is from the Yolanda number. Fred plays the harp and does a short soft shoe shuffle. It's the most charming moment in the movie. And lucky me, I have the song on my Fred Astaire at MGM CD - also available through Rhino. Other songs in the film are This Is A Day For Love (the awful anthem of made up country Patria - it really is awful), I've An Angel (which Bremer sings as she gets dressed to see her guardian angel Fred), Will You Marry Me (the theme for the ballet, and quite a nice song), and Coffee Time (hypnotically good dancing, the best number in the film).

Melbourne, Melbourne, it's a helluva town

2005-04-23T22:24:00.000+10:00

Just got back from Melbourne...
Came back with a much heavier suitcase and some long desired purchases. My ears still feel funny from the plane. But let's get straight into what I found:
There are planty of second hand record stores in Melbourne, which I didn't get a chance to visit for the most part. I did spend money in two fine stores. The first was The $10 Music Man at 358 Bridge Rd, Richmond. This shop specialises in budget classical, jazz and nostalgia releases, as well as a few musicals. In the window they had cheap versions of some MGM and Fox soundtracks, but I already had most of them. I spent about $50 on sets of Artie Shaw, Django Reinhardt, Big Band compilations, early modern jazz compilations and a 50s compilation. Great value for money, and if the guy doesn't have it he'll track it down. We also visited JB HiFi on Bourke St, which we also have in Sydney. They had a brilliant range of cds and dvds. The conscientious collector would probably have most of it, but they have most of the latest studio releases. I picked up DVDs of The Bandwagon, On The Town and Anchors Aweigh (my old video tapes will now get a well deserved rest!). i also got a DVD full of trailers from filom noirs and a copy of The Night Of The Hunter (the creepiest film I've ever seen....Leaning, leaning...). They also had a good musical cd collection, comprising mainly of Columbia Broadway Masterworks. I had to toss up between original recordings of Mame, Bye Bye Birdie, Annie and lots more before settling on Anyone Can Whistle. They also had imported Rhino releases including the 'S'wonderful Gene Kelly collection, but after a painful culling process I decided to take the double Fred Astaire cd with his MGM recordings instead. I also picked up a cheap Doris Day double with the Calamity Jane and The Pajama Game soundtracks on it.
I was excited to find my favourite second hand bookshop still open at 118 Swanston St, Flinders Books. This time I rifled through their collection of old theatre programmes and sheet music. I bought some 1940s opera programmes and some original WWI sheet music for my aunt, and a programme from the first performance of the Australian Ballet for my friend. For myself I got a lobby brochure for the Fiddler On The Roof movie and the programme for the 1957 staging of Cole Porter's Can-Can in Melbourne, pictured above. They also have a good cinema and theatre book collection, though most of it is biographies. I was tempted to take the Shirley Temple and Gloria Swanson autobigraphies, but chose an original version of the Charlie Chaplin one instead. The best thing is that none of what I bought was over $8! There are some real finds there. If I could go back I'd get the Runyon on Broadway book of stories in the theatre section, simply because there is a song in Guys and Dolls named after Runyon the author and the stories are full of, well, guys and dolls. And I'd pick up some more programmes too!
We visited the Australian Centre For The Moving Image at Federation Square which was fantastic for a little film freak like me. It deals mainly with contemporary production and innovation, but they have cinemas and festivals which screen older films. At the moment they are having a festival focussing on Female Gothic and I was very upset to miss a Gene Tierney movie tonight when we had to leave Melbourne. It was Leave Her To Heaven, a kind of Technicolour noir, and it would have been divine to see...
Today to bide time before going to the airport we went to Borders and I spent a good hour or two reading Classic Images from the US. It had lovely features on Cyd Charisse and Robert Mitchum with great photos, and in general is a fantastic paper. But it cost $11.50 and by that time I only had $5 left for lunch, so had to leave it reluctantly behind.... :(
So that was the extent of my musical adventures in Melbourne. If I could go back I would explore more second hand record stores, and try catch a good movie at the ACMI. I consoled myself with my walkman on the plane ride home, obsessively playing The Donkey Serenade and Whatever Lola Wants over and over until we reached Sydney.
Three little notes to add:

The Can-Can programme is very interesting to me because it talks about the next show the producers were to put on, The Pajama Game. This was an important momnet in Australian musical theatre because though it was a US show the cast was primarily Australian. Up until then most of the big Broadway shows exported to Australia brought US actors along wiht them. For Can-Can the two female leads were Americans Sheila Arnaud and Eleonore Treiber. But this time Toni Lamond and Bill Newman, two Aussies, were to star (though the director, Fred Herbert was American). It was a massive hit and according to my slight knowledge of Australian theatre started off the now very much established trend for having Aussies star in local productions of Broadway shows instead of touring Americans. For example The Producers, which is to open in Sydney shortly, stars Aussies Reg Livermore, Tom Burlinson and Bert Newton (believe me, they're big in Australia!).
Listening to Gwen Verdon singing Whatever Lola Wants from Damn Yankees reminded me of a moment in the Broadway documentary I recently saw. Verdon talked about how Bob fosse would give her strange images when she danced and when rehearsing Whatever Lola Wants, he told her to be a 'fat girl'. Then he told her to be a 'flirty fat girl'. The question he wanted to explore was why would Lola sell her soul to the devil? Now when I listen to Whatever Lola Wants I still giggle at Verdon's cute accent and delivery (I'm irreseeestable to you!), but I feel kind of sad as well.
Melbourne has a better theatre scene than Sydney! Opening there soon are productions of Dirty Dancing and The Lion King. You can also get cheap tickets to plays at Half Tix. I advise all visitors to check it out. I didn't get to see anything because my family aren't great theatre fans, so I'm telling everyone else to go so they don't miss out!

Spotlight: Celeste Holm

2005-04-17T20:48:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow I have to hand in all my assignments before I go away to Melbourne. I really should finish my French listening and shade that map for history, but instead I've been trawling the net for interesting sites on Celeste Holm. Holm was a star of film, stage and screen. Her big break came on Broadway where she created the role of Ado Annie and sang the unforgettable I Cain't Say No. She was under contract to 20th Century Fox from 1946 to 1951. It was here she performed in Gentlemen's Agreement (1947, dir. Elia Kazan) and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Movie musical fans would remember her best as Liz Imbrie in High Society (1956, MGM) where she sang Who Wants To Be A Millionare? with Frank Sinatra. She starred with Frank in another MGM film, The Tender Trap, also. I started thinking about Celeste again when I saw her in the Broadway documentary, and then The Tender Trap played on TV that same night. I wouldn't mind tracking down other films of hers, especially a TV version of Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella in which she played the Fairy Godmother. And I'm going to have to watch All About Eve again - she has a role in that too!
Here are some sites about her that are interesting (well, more interesting than that history map anyway!):

The Official Celeste Holm Website. A great starting point with heaps of info, a store, and fan club. The best site I've found so far on Celeste.
Celeste at imdb. Details of her film work at 20th Century Fox, MGM and other studios.
Celeste at ibdb. Best site for a rundown of her Broadway work.
Celeste at reelclassics. Great bio and pics.
Teaser trailer for High Society. You'll need Media Player or Real Player to view this.
All About Eve at Filmsite. Plot, themes, character analysis, other stuff I don't remember.
Playbill news article on Celeste's latest marriage. Read this. It sounded like a ball!
Celeste on co-star Frank Sinatra after his death. Short, but interesting, especially for Frank fans like me :)
Smoking sides dossier on Celeste Holm. Detailing all the naughty smoking Celeste did on film. She was even in a cigarette ad! Bit of a laugh, but it's not meant to be.

Bank Balance Goes To The Buskers!

2005-04-12T18:42:00.000+10:00

This will be a long post. The past two days have been almost hectically musical, though I never intended them to be. In fact, I'm trying to get all my work finished before I go to Melbourne next week. So far, however, I've just done a lot of organising to do work - no work has actually been done as of yet. But I have perfectly good musical excuses! Excuses that I believe are legitimate! But I don't think my teachers will see things my way :(
It all began yesterday when I got off the train in the city and there was a busker playing the saxophone. I love buskers, I think they're the best thing about the city, so when I heard him I was very happy. But then I realised he was playing Over The Rainbow! One of my all time favourites! So I listened until the end of the song, then gave him a dollar of my hard-earned cash (actually, the money was my mother's which I had acquired for myself).
Later that day I was in the library looking for some history texts when I passed the dangerously distracting film studies section. After a brief search, I found the screenplay for Goldiggers of 1933 (the above still is from the Forgotten Man number that serves as the film's finale) and the bfi film classics books on 42nd Street and The Manchurian Candidate (Not musical, I know, but it's a fantastic film featuring paranoid Frank Sinatra, brainwashed Laurence Harvey, eerie Janet Leigh, incestuous Angela Lansbury and solitaire as a Cold War WMD. Brilliant!).
At lunch I bought some new batteries for my walkman, and celebrated by listening to my taped Guys and Dolls soundtrack on the train ride home. I listen to a walkman because I am too cheap to buy an ipod or even a discman (and, in fact, the walkman was my mother's that I also acquired for myself).
Today I went to see the documentary Broadway: The Golden Years. Unfortunately, one of my classes finished very early so I found myself in the city with nothing to do for an hour. I was walking down George Street and passed Fish Fine Music, the resident classical/jazz/nostalgia store. Hmm, I thought to myself. I have nothing to do, why not see if they have anything new in?
Not the smartest move I could have made. Maybe I felt bolstered by the fact I had been in a music store on Sunday and hadn't bought anything. Maybe I thought I could convince myself that I didn't need any of the albums inside. Whatever I was thinking, I walked in anyway and immediately began my spending rampage. I left AU$93 poorer. Ouch.
Actually, come to think of it, I've done worse. The most I've probably ever spent in one go was when I bought two limited edition soundtracks (The Pirate, It's Always Fair Weather) and a French issue of The Night of the Hunter soundtrack at the one time, which was about $150. I'm sure others have done worse, of course, but I am unemployed, remember. It's criminal for me to throw around money like that!
To mark this momentous occasion, my first spending spree since early February, I shall write down the names and track listings of the CDs I bought. I'll also list the performers, but not the composers because I can't be bothered:

On Your Toes 1954 Broadway Recording. Not the original 1936 version, this was the version that flopped. But the songs are written by my fave duo Rodgers and Hart, so I took the $23 plunge anyway. The tracks are: Overture, Two A Day For Keith (Jack Williams, Eleanor Williams, David Winters), The 3 B's (Bobby Van and chorus), It's Got To Be Love (Bobby Van and Kay Coulter), Too Good For The Average Man (Elaine Strich! and Ben Astar), There's A Small Hotel (Bobby Van and Kay Coulter), The Heart Is Quicker Than The Eye (Elaine Stritch and Bobby Van), Quiet Night (Joshua Shellay and Chorus), Glad To Be Unhappy (Hay Coulter and Joshua Shelley), On Your Toes (Kay Couleter, Bobby Van and Joshua Shekkey), You Took Advantage of Me (Elaine Stritch), Slaughter on Tenth Ave, Finale. It was released 1997 on MCA Records.
Tap Dancing: Harlem-Broaway-Hollywood is a $10 compilation released 2003 on saga records, which I think is a French label. The album was put together by French people, and the liner notes are primarily in French. The tracks are: Doin the New Lowdown, Ain't Misbehavin, Just A Crazy Song, Living In A Great Big Way (all Bill Robinson), Bashful Baby (Buddy Rich), China Boy, Keep A Twinkle In Your Eye, Wrap Your Cares In Rhythm And Dance, They Say He Ought To Dance (all The Nicholas Brothers), Jig Time (Cora LaRedd), nagasaki (The Four Step Brothers), About A Quarter To Nine/Shine (Tip, Tap and Toe), You've Got Something There/Love Is On The Air Tonight (John W Bubbles), Black Dance Rhythm, Beatin The Board, Groove Juice Special (all Slim Gaillard), Ray's Idea, Ornithology (both Ralph Brown), Got A Bran New Suit (Eleanor Powell), Bojangles Of Harlem, Just Like Taking Candy From A Baby, The A-stairable Rag, I Wanna Be A Dancin Man (all Fred Astaire), and Moses Supposes (Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor).
Hollywood's Best - The Thirties. Released 1997 on Rhino, the tracks are: Hooray For Hollywood (Dick Powell, et. al.), We're In The Money (Ginger Rogers), Night and Day (Fred Astaire), The Donkey Serenade (Allan Jones), Jeepers Cree[ers (Louis Armstrong, of course), I Only Have Eyes For You (Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell), Begin The Beguine (Artie Shaw and His Orchestra), I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues (Cab Calloway and His Orchestra), You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby (Dick Powell), Temptation (Bing Crosby), Cheek To Cheek (Fred Astaire), Easy To Love (James Stewart and Marjorie Lane for Eleanor Powell), San Francisco (Jeanette MacDonald), Let's Face The Music And Dance (Fred Astaire), Over The Rainbow (Judy Garland, sigh), Lullaby Of Broadway (Winnie Shaw and Dick Powell). I could talk about this CD forever, but I'll leave that for some other time.
Hollywood's Best - The Forties. Unsurprisingly, also released 1997 on Rhino. The tracks are: Paper Doll (Lena Horne), Inka Dinka Doo (Jimmy Durante), Don't Fence Me In (The Andrews Sisters), The Trolley Song (Judy Garland), This Heart Of Mine (Fred Astaire), Baby It's Cold Outside (Ricardo Montalban, Esther Williams, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett), Walter Winchell Rumba (Xavier Cugat and his orchestra), The Last Time I Saw Paris (Ann Sothern), They're Either Too Young Or Too Old (Bette Davis), Star Eyes (Bob Eberly, Helen O'Connell and Jimmy Dorsey), It's A Most Unusual Day (Jane Powell), One For My Baby (Fred Astaire), As Time Goes By (Dooley Wilson), You're A Grand Old Flag (James Cagney).
Carmen Miranda - South American Way: Original Recordins 1939-1945. Cheap compilation that doesn't include Lady With The Tutti Frutti Hat but does have: Bambu-Bambu, Mama Eu Quero, O Que E Que a Bahiana Tem, South American Way, Co...Ro, Touradas Em Madrid, I Yi Yi Yi Yi (I like you very much), Alo Alo, Chica Chica Boom Chic, Bambale, cae Cae, Arca de Noe, Diz Que Tem, Rebola a Bola, Nao Te Dou a Chupeta, Chatanooga Choo Choo, Boneca de Pixe, Tic Tac do Meu Coracao, O Passo do Kanguru (Brazilly Willy), Upa Upa, Tico Tico. There has been a phone ad playing here using I Yi Yi Yi Yi, and it has been stuck in my head for days, which is probably what compelled me to buy this album. That and the fact I love Mickey Rooney's impersonation of her in Babes On Broadway!

Phew, that's quite a lot! I haven't even gotten to the main feature of my day - the Broadway documentary.

After I bought my ticket I picked up the lobby brochure and saw a picture of Ann Miller on it and nearly cried I was so happy. I love Annie Miller, and there was some interview footage with her as well as some footage from George White's Scandals of 1939 which she appeared in. It was so lovely!

There were also some interviews with Jane Powell, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, John Raitt, Janis Paige, Elain Stritch, Bea Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Farley Granger, Betsy Blair, Carol Burnett, Betty Garrett, Celeste Holm, Nanette Fabray, Fred Ebb, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Eva Marie Saint, Arthur Laurents, Karl Malden, Shirley Maclaine, Gwen Verdon, The Nicholas Brothers, Diana Rigg, Chita Rivera, Gena Rowlands, Stephen Sondheim, Fay Wray, Gretchen Wyler... so many! I loved Celeste Holm, she spoke so softly and gently I wanted to give her a hug. Nanette Fabray has lost much of her nose for some odd reason. Shirley Maclaine did not start talking about mysticism and stuck to her Pajama Game anecdotes. Julie Harris started to cry when she talked about seeing Laurette Taylor (I'm sure that's not her name, I've forgotten it already! And she was so brilliant!) on stage, and the audience started to tear up as well. There was some fantastic footage of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon performing Whatever Lola Wants from Damn Yankees, some clips from West Side Story, a grainy portion of Ethel Merman in Gypsy, some Carol Channing in Hello Dolly, a bit of betty Comden and Adolph Green in On The Town and a fantastic audio track of Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire. There were some fantastic anecdotes and showcases on actresses whose names I, and everyone else, have forgotten. And at the end there were little clips of the interviewees singing old songs like Adelaide's Lament from Guys and Dolls (which a couple of people in the audience sang along with!).

It was a fantastic documentary. I felt sad at the end that Broadway is so different now. Imagine being able to see a show for 15 cents, or spend a night on the town for two dollars! Now tickets go up to US$480! Holy Toledo! Stephen Sondheim talked of how with prices like that, a show can't be allowed to flop. The audience pay so much, he said, that they will always give a standing ovation to kind of justify spending that much money on a possibly crap show. Or something like that. I don't remember quite so well.

Anyway, I think I'll sign off for now. But just to check if anyone is reading this, I want to ask you a question. Scroll back up to where I've listed the tracks on the Hollywood's Best CDs. What films are these songs from? You can leave an anonymous comment if you want, you don't have to be a member of blogspot to leave a message. I want to see who knows their musicals! But I wouldn't be surprised if no-one answers, just like I wouldn't be surprised if no-one is reading this. If no-one is reading this, then I can make as many obscure references as I want and write about as many embarrassing incidents as I want to without worrying about embarrassing myself or confusing the heck out of you!

But if you know what films they're from... leave a message. Your reward will be my hearty congratulations and the resulting prestige ;)

Choo-Choos and Chorus Girls

2005-04-09T12:42:00.000+10:00

I have spent the past week obsessively listening to my Ethel Merman Gypsy soundtrack as I try to get my head around all the work I have to do this weekend. And that's not just work I'm meant to do, either - I actually have to finish all my assignments this week because the week after I'm going to Melbourne. I have planned a little procrastinisational (a new word I have just made up) interlude for the week, though. A documentary on the golden years of Broadway has opened in the city, so after class on Tuesday I willl go check it out. Apparently it has audio of Brando's performance in Streetcar Named Desire, as well as footage of Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Bliss! The above picture, by the way, was taken for last year's Broadway production of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters (I think. I can't be expected to get these things right all the time, I am quite far away from the lights of 42nd St, aren't I?)
I'm a bit beat this weekend. Not from too much work (heaven forbid!) but because of the long time it takes to get to and from uni each day. It takes about two hours each way, involving a bus, a 30 minute walk and a particularly late and smelly train. Trains in Sydney are the worst. They're always late and full and have suspicious odours. I don't understand why people in the innercity get the nice new trains when they have a 30 minute journey, while out in the west we get the 25 year old tin cans when we travel much further. All the government seems to do is build freeways. They say that everyone likes their cars too much to use public transport, so why not tear down all that spare bushland and build another motorway? Stupid government.
But of course this has nothing to do with procrastination or musicals, so I shall break up the proceedings by bursting into song and dance:

Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo
On Track 29? Boy won't you give me a shine!
I can afford to take the Chattanooga Choo-Choo -
I've got my fare, and just a trifle to spare...
When you hear the whistle blowing eight to the bar,
Then you know that Tennesee is not very far!
Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep it rollin'
Woo-woo! Chattanooga, there you are!
Chattanooga Choo-Choo, won't you choo-choo me home?

(Much tapping, leaping and tumbling ensues at Central Station as a train actually pulls in on time - despite the fact it is going to Tennesee and not Blacktown. The commuters marvel at the technological wonders of the steam engine, and rejoice when they realise this train might actually move along the track, instead of derailing or inexplicably stopping 10 metres out from the platform or creeping along at a snail's pace over a 70 year old bridge the government is too cheap to fix! And from deep down in the bowels of Town Hall Station, the refrain is heard - )

Oh, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, won't you choo-choo me home!

(The government responds with a daring 17 minute ballet in which burly ballet dancers in sexy blue singlets and fluoro yellow vests build another freeway. The transport minister emerges from Parliament House and sings - )

Some people can get a thrill,
Riding buses and trains, but still;
That's ok for some people who don't know they're alive!
Driving cars is the Australian way,
We're turning Sydney into L.A.
Public transport is for some people,
For some hum drum people I suppose.
But I don't care about those!

(The minister then gets into his chaffeur driven car and goes home. Meanwhile, the 60,000 commuters pile into the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. As the train pulls out, they cry out in harmony - )

S'wonderful! S'marvellous! That the train should be on time!

(Unfortunately, the train makes the mistake of turning a slight curve. It derails, of course. In a musical extravaganza - complete with tap dancing PR advisors - the transport minister blames the crash on the driver, who was driving the train at the ridiculously high speed of 5km per hour).

Hmm, I think I should end my transport mini-opera here. Maybe next time I'll bring in some scantily clad chorus girls like those in the picture above. They can do a dance about buses crashing in the Harbour Tunnel, or about that funny smell in the third carriage on the way home.

It's a veritable stairway to paradise!

2005-04-03T15:48:00.000+10:00

"S'wonderful, Oscar! There's a whole online gallery full of pictures of me! It's called the Gene Kelly Gallery! Who could ask for anything more?"
"You could get off my piano for a start, Gene."

This gallery is very huge, with DVD captures, publicity photos, cartoons and candid snaps for your viewing pleasure. A lot of them have been copyrighted though, so are strictly for your viewing and not downloading pleasure. Certainly the best collection I've found so far, with plenty of links as well. Pages and pages of Gene... it's enough to make you want jump on a piano and sing 'Tra-La-La".

weekend Update: Playing the particularly lazy host

2005-04-03T14:52:00.000+10:00

I designated my week off for studying. "Libby," I said to myself, "This week you will not watch old musicals that you have watched 50 times before. You will do something useful!" I cleaned my desk off, organised my books neatly and sharpened my pencil. "From here until Sunday you will immerse yourswelf in phonetics, phonology and the correct use of complementary pronouns in French!"
That was on Tuesday. It is now Sunday, and while I may have a better grasp on the use of the 'schwa' vowel in Australian English and the difference between direct and indirect articles, I'm afraid the rest of my week has been a blur of Myrna Loy, William Powell, Esther Williams, and the headpieces in 'Sweet Charity'.
In fact, I don't remeber much from this week. I remember Natalie Wood in a pretty black dress and a silly name in 'All The Fine Young Cannibals' while Robert Wagner mimed playing a trumpet. I walked into a bookstore one day and spent half an hour reading a Truman Capote article on Marlon Brando before the storepeople looked at me funny and I decided I should leave before I felt pressured into buying multiple copies of Breakfast At Tiffany's.
One of my mother's old school friends came down and stayed with us for a few days as well. She talks a mile a minute and is one of those people who are always restless and must do something all the time. Naturally, I find her exhausting when all I want to do is listen to my Guys and Dolls soundtrack. So on Friday, with the rest of my (also lazy, unrestless) family away at work/school/doing more productive things than me, I was stuck in the house with Crazy Restless House Guest.
When I woke up and got breakfast she sat down with me and said "Today we're going for a bike ride."
I looked up from the newspaper. "We are?"
"Yep, I decided we'd go for a bike ride when I saw those bikes in your yard yesterday," she chippered. "It'll be fun, you know, it will give us something to do."
I gulped my milk as I looked out the window. I saw the two bikes leaning against the wall, covered in a thin layer of dust and cobwebs. We had got them for Christmas, but we live in a hilly area and I've never had a bike with gears before. Not to mention that the last time I had ridden a bike anywhere was when I was visiting my grandmother in Wagga Wagga about three years ago. I tried riding one of the new bikes to the shops once, but after nearly collapsing when I got home I had decided to get a bit fitter before trying that again. Of course, my instinctive laziness had impeded me also. A long bike ride with Crazy Restless House Guest did not seem to me to be the best way to ease myself back into general fitness. I compared House Guest's almost daily exercise, healthy diet and clean country lifestyle to my sleepy suburban existence and sighed with trepidation.
"Yeah, that would be fun..."
Suddenly I had a thought. Wasn't I meant to be studying? And wasn't my cupboard groaning with the weight of unwatched movies taped off TV?
I shrugged my shoulders. "But you know, I have a lot of studying to do for my test on Monday. And I have to watch some movies I've taped so I can tape over them tonight."
Crazy Restless House Guest sipped her coffee. "Oh. You have a test?"
"Yes, a very big one," I nodded. "I have heaps of French exercises to do. But first I'll watch my movie. Would you like to watch it with me?"
By offering her a choice in the movie I didn't feel like I was so rottenly inhospitable. She agreed, and we watched 'The Thin Man' together. It was actually very fun watching it with House Guest, because she liked criticising all the 30s outfits Myrna Loy swans about in. She particularly liked Loy's dressing gown with the very long fur lined sleeves. She drew the outfit on a notepad and wondered aloud whether she could do a similar thing for her daughter's dance costume she was making.
She had left herself wide open! I had found an angle to use in my favour! I took my chance and ran with it:
"I have heaps of other old movies with good ideas for costumes. You'd like some of the things they wear in my musicals."
Her face lit up.
"Really? I'd love to see them."
Score.
We settled in for a day full of 'Sweet Charity' headpieces, 'Les Girls' dress trimmings and House Guest's critique of the 40s silhouette and Leslie Caron's dresses in 'An American In Paris'. Costume designing turned into dance criticism as we watched clips from 'The Bandwagon' and 'West Side Story.' All memories of bike rides and French homework evaporated as we got caught up admiring the length of Cyd Charisse's legs in 'Silk Stockings' and discussing the disappointingly small amount of dancing or swimming spectacles in 'Fiesta'.
By the end of the day, Crazy Restless House Guest was blissfully busy making a catsuit for her daughter's contemporary dance. And I was blissfully unbusy doodling lyrics to 'You're Just Too Too' in my French workbook.
I looked out the window to the still dusty bikes and felt proud that my laziness and musical obsessiveness had not only distracted me from my study yet again, but also that I had distracted House Guest from her insanely active plans. It was another win for procrastination! Even my mother congratulated me :)

Fanfic seems to be a hit with the mouse

2005-04-03T14:50:00.000+10:00

I finished reading the Anchors Aweigh fanfic. Do you ever get that feeling when you watch a tv show or read a book that you absolutely cannot wait until you find out what happens in the end? I started by reading two chapters, then literally lay awake that night wanting to read the rest! First thing the next morning I got online and read the rest (thank goodness I'm on a break from uni!). It was absolutely gripping. I laughed, and gasped, and tears welled up in my eyes when... oh, go read it yourself. That's an order, sailor!

Hooray for Easter breaks!

2005-03-29T13:08:00.000+10:00

I just got back from a few days in Wagga Wagga in the country visiting family, so not only haven't I watched any movies or musicals for a while, I haven't done any homework either. Luckily I have a week off uni so I can catch up on my phonetics and French grammar as well as some cheap $4 dvds i bought on the weekend. My mum and I spent a day exploring the main street of Wagga Wagga and discovered Easter sales :) I got:

Scarface with Paul Muni, not Al Pacino.
Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, where Mickey Rooney hires Kathryn Grayson to keep his hectic social schedule in order. Funnily enough, there was a picture of Judy Garland on the cover, though she doesn't appear in the film. This has happened to me before - I bought Second Chorus with Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard once, with a picture of Rita Hayworth on the front. Odd... and deliciously cheap.
Two Ed Wood films - The Bride of the Monster and Night of the Ghouls. These will join the Wood films I already have, Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space. I can't explain my fascination with Ed Wood. It's either because Johnny Depp played him in 1993, or I just love lame 50s horror films. Maybe both.
Two Hitchcock films made for David O Selznick: Rebecca and Spellbound. I've seen Rebecca before and loved it, but I haven't seen Spellbound so I'm looking forward to it. I've discovered films Hitchcock made for Selznick or in Britain are cheaper to get than the ones he did for Universal/Paramount/I don't remember in the late40s/50s/60s. Though you can get Rope and The Trouble With Harry pretty cheap, though they're put out by Universal exactly the same as more costly films like Vertigo and The Birds. Well, that's how it works here anyway, I think it's just a case of more demand=pay more. I did find one very interesting DVD: a double bill of the UK and US version of Stranger on a Train. I didn't get it though, which I'm starting to regret.
My mum bought An Affair To Remember, which I got excited about because of Cary Grant.

We got home yesterday. Mum and I watched An Affair To Remember and decided Cary Grant was just too gorgeous. I haven't seen it since I was little, so it was fun to watch it again. I also love how they never once said the word 'wheelchair' - like it was a dirty word or something. Grant blabbering "And she was... she was..." and then getting all shocked when he realises she hasn't gotten up... sigh. It's all a bit silly, isn't it? Still, it's well done melodrama, and Cray is quite dashing and Deborah Kerr was funny. Could do without those bloody children though.

Later I stayed up late to watch Kitty Foyle on the ABC. It started out alright with a funny montage on women in 1900, but then Ginger Rogers started talking into a mirror and had to choose between Dud #1 and Dud #2 and it all got a bit awful. Some of my favourite lines included:"How did you find me?" "I followed my heartbeat!" and "Are we in heaven?" "No, we're in love!" Cue rolling of eyes and checking of watch to see when this rubbish will end. Luckily I like Ginger Rogers, else I would have turned it off straight away and gone to bed. She was pretty good, but saying those awful lines must have been difficult. I kept wishing Fred Astaire would burst in, sing a few bars of Night and Day and whisk Ginger away to an art deco nightclub to do a tap dance or two.

I'm over the melodramas now, and this afternoon will trawl through some other movies I've taped but haven't seen. I've got Tarzan The Ape Man and Meet Me In Las Vegas somewhere, so I might break those out. At the moment I'm listening to my Swing Time record and wondering what I will have for lunch. I haven't even looked at the French grammar exercises I have to do. My test is on Monday - 6 days away. Plenty of time to study (or plenty of time not to study, take your pick)!

If only we could all have sailors to sing us to sleep...

2005-03-23T22:15:00.000+11:00

I'm pulling a late nighter to finish my Milan history assignment due in tomorrow. But my efforts are seriously impeded by the Anchors Aweigh website I found yesterday. It's amazing and wonderful: it has fanfiction! I've never seen fanfic for a musical before and after I read the Anchors Aweigh fanfics there is a link to a Singin in the Rain site with more fanfic!
I'm not a fanfic obsessive, but I've never seen them for musicals before, so this is all very new and exciting. Not so exciting for the grade I'll get for my rushed-at-the-last-minute assignment though...
The site also has some very interesting trivia, links and a critical analysis of why Joe and Clarence's friendship was meant to be.
Procrastination through musicals is so much funner than procrastination through Solitaire and Minesweeper!

Now you has jazz!

2005-03-22T09:26:00.000+11:00

I'm not going to class today. Instead I'm going to catch the bus to the cinema and see High Society. They've been having a classic film festival there for senior's week and this is the last one they're showing. It finishes tomorrow but I can't go then because I have an assignment due in. So today I'm gonna skip my French tute and spend the day with Bing and Frank. Oh yeah, and try finish that assignment for tomorrow.

Laziness uber alles

2005-03-21T19:27:00.000+11:00

Last night I tried to do my history readings for this week. I started with a description of 16th century Venice, but started to fall asleep due to the boringness of it all. So I got out my new Roger Ebert book and flicked through it. It's pretty interesting. It's basically about interviews he's done with famous people during the 70s and early 80s. I liked the episodes where Robert Mitchum can't find the location he's meant to be shooting at, Tony Curtis invites a girl from the street in Cannes up into his room and Groucho Marx reveals himself to be quite the dirty old man.

Later on I realised Metropolis was on TV and spent two and a half hours glued to the screen. From almost the opening shot I decided my TV screen is a woefully inadequate size to play a movie of such wonderfulness: so I urge anyone reading this to see Metropolis on a proper screen! Do yourself justice! Luckily it was a brilliant restoration, though of course many sequences are lost. The soundtrack was a good one as well, which really helped. I saw The Cabinet of Dr Caligari once on a 20 yr old videotape with an old piano straight from a 1920s country musichall for accompaniment. It kinda diluted the whole experience.

So by the time I got to uni this morning I hadn't done any of my history readings or French exercises I had planned to do. I had a lecture about the Spanish colonisation of the Americas but the lecturer was particularly boring today, so I wrote the lyrics to 'I Lost my Hat In Haiti' from 'Royal Wedding' all over my book. I even drew little music notes and pineapples and hats to go with it. I tried drawing Fred Astaire dancing with the monkey but that was too much of a challenge for lazy ol' me, and I gave up quite quickly.

I had a break between classes so I went to library to try find some info on an assignment on early modern Milan. Well, I got about as far as the film studies section. I found a book called 'The Movie That Changed My life' (1991 Viking Penguin) and it's pretty much just a whole lot of people writing about, well, a movie that changed their lives. I only had time to read two: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers by Francine Prose and gilda by Leonard Michaels.

Prose argued that7B7B was essentially a glorification of rape. She made few amusing notes, looking back on the film from the more jaded 90's:

Even after washing their underwear, teaching them manners and taking them dancing, Millie is shocked when her brothers in law steal the girls. "Unsurprisingly, Jane Powell is horrified to realise that her clean-underwear regime has failed to change her brother-in-law's primitive behaviour'
'In one scene, a roomful of girls in revealing camisoles and ruffled pantaloons writhe on their beds and express their longin through song, a sort of frontier 'I Feel Pretty'
'And so our story ends in ajoyous sextuple wedding that may remind the jaded, jumpy, and by this point frankly appalled nineties'' viewer of those creepy mass marriages staged by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon...'

Well, being a naive sort, I'd never actually thought about the film as about rape before. Admittedly I get a bit freaked out when Maurice Chevalier eyes off little girls in Gigi, but 7B7B fits into the 50's don't-give-out-till-he-gives-you-a-ring moral so prevalent in films of the time. I have a habit of settling into an ask no questions, accept illogicality and enjoy the dancing mind frame when I watch a musical. Though everyone knows the Plutarch story is about rape. And this has to be the only musical which quotes a story about rape in one of its most popular songs. This, as you can see, provided me much time to think about things that had nothing (much) to do with the history of Milan :)

The Gilda article was less fun, discussing the humiliation of the Gilda character. In particular, Michaels remebers the scene where Gilda asks Macready to undo her zip as she lies on the bed. 'I saw Rita Hayworth request her own humiliation' he says, claiming the scene inspires feelings of disapproval and pleasure. He goes on:

'Only an instant of zipper business, yet it coloured my love for Rita Hayworth with pity and grief. She lay there, utterly still and vulnerable, and Macready leaned over her the way kids play doctor, an eerily erotic game.'

Admittedly, taken out of context of the article it doesn't make much sense, but if you ever see the book I suggest you read it.

This has been a long post so I will wrap it up now. I'm actually trying to print some lecture notes off, but it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe I'll just give up. I still haven't read my history readings, but my tutorial is in two days so why do it now when I can do it later?

Who, what, where, when and why.

2005-03-20T19:45:00.000+11:00

Welcome to Procrastination In Swing Time, a little blog that combines my two great loves - procrastination and musicals.

This year I started studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. It's a very technology-driven learning environment, which means the amount of time I spend on the net has increased dramatically. I've found that even after only three weeks I've been spending more time exploring musical sites online than actually doing my homework. So I figured, if i'm going to procrastinate, I'm going to do it well - hence my very own blog to detail the various classic films I see on TV and the cinema when I'm, you guessed it, trying not to think about my studies.

I love musicals made between about 1929-mid 1960s (this does not include rock operas or 80's films with a bit of dancing in them). Think Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Cyd Charisse and the rest. I also love other films made in this period, particularly film noirs like Kiss Me Deadly, Night of the Hunter and Criss Cross. Still, my favourite movie is Singin in the Rain - not an exceptionally interesting choice, but it's called the best musical for a reason. I love to regale people with obscure trivia about these films, stars and studios. And I'm just as big a fan of stage musicals, too, mostly those from the 40/50/60's but I also love Stephen Sondheim's work and have already bought my tickets for The Producers when it comes to Sydney in May :)

So if you feel like indulging me in my laziness, visit every now and then and see what I'm buying or reading or seeing or meant to be studying.

Cheap trashy books for me

2005-03-20T14:08:00.000+11:00

I popped into the local library yesterday while waiting for my doctor's appointment and found that they were having a book sale. For $3 you could stuff a plastic bag with as many old books as you wanted. It took a lot of trawling through books on macroeconomics, Russian politics, how to cope with diabetes and how to play hockey, but I found a few interesting things:

A trashy 1990 biography of Elizabeth Taylor. I suspect half of it is made up and the other half is pseudo-psychoanalyst garbage, but I've loved her since I was a little girl because we had the same name. But anyway, malicious gossip and quotes from unnamed 'friends' and 'insiders' is always fun.
A biography, sorry, a 'tribute' to Fred Astaire. Another unauthorised one, but I think this one will be more reverential than the Liz one. I might get some good trivia out of it.
A book by Roger Ebert, film critic for the masses. I don't know what it's about but the title is a quote from Casablanca so it should be diverting enough (which is of course all it needs to be).
A little book full of stills from old Australian films with 'funny' captions. I don't get much of it because I haven't seen any of the films and the jokes are all about 1980's politics. Unfortunately, old Aussie films don't get much of a run here anymore. While C grade 40's comedies from Hollywood are repeated three times a month, it's a challenge to track down good classic films made here. And the book doesn't say what films each still is from. But it's a nice oddity and there is one amusing joke about John Howard (our venerable, cowboy-boot licking prime minister) in there.

So, lots of fun trashy reading for me. Hooray!

Cheers for the Musical Lady!

2005-03-20T13:53:00.000+11:00

If you want to read a better blog about musicals and the acquiring of them, check out Kathryn's musical blog called Musicals In My Head. She details the movies she's watching and buying and singing along to. She has also set up a musicals wiki, where you can read more about musicals and post some stuff of your own. This is only new, so there's not much up. I posted an article on Good News, which filled up some valuable French grammar time. I figured that because Peter Lawford sings in French in the movie, it counted towards my grammar exercises anyway ;)

Cheers to Kathryn for providing me with much material for procrastination!

Fred and Ginger help distract me from history homework

2005-03-20T13:43:00.000+11:00

"Wanna break out into song and dance?"

I have found that forums are a particualarly good way to waste time. My favourite right now is a new Fred and Ginger one called Cheek to Cheek. Discuss the films they made together, other costars they had, whether Fred could sing or not and anything else that comes to mind. Check it out at http://s9.invisionfree.com/Cheek_to_Cheek/index.php