Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) grows bored with her studies when she sees the White Rabbit (Bill Thompson). Curious, she decides to follow him down the rabbit hole. Thus begins her Adventures in Wonderland.

Loosely based on both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, it features the most characters of any Disney cartoon. It also differs from many Disney animated films in that there is no romance element. Nor is there really a hero’s journey. It’s just a series of crazy adventures. I found this refreshing.

Truth be told, I never read any part of Lewis Carroll’s books, so I can’t speak to how faithful the movie is in tone nor content. I do understand the doorknob character was invented by Disney. I started reading about Carroll's life but it went down a dark path rather quickly.

Ed Wynn is quite memorable as the Mad Hatter. The character’s likeness was modeled on him. His line “Mustard? Don’t let’s be silly!” was ad libbed and Disney liked it so much he had the animators add it in. Later in his career, Wynn's son Keenan convinced him to move to dramatic acting.

Alice in Wonderland is a fun film. As someone who is less than enamored with Disney, I found this unconventional classic most enjoyable. AMRU 3.5.

South Pacific (1958)

On an island in the South Pacific during World War II, pretty nurse Nellie (Mitzi Gaynor) falls in love with a rich French expatriate. He would be instrumental in a dangerous mission that could turn the tide of the war. I hope he agrees to help.

But this is a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical so there is a whole lot more going on, not limited to tedious musical numbers. There’s sexy lieu-tellen (John Kerr, no relation) who’s not on a mission, who says he is? And my favorite maritimer Billis (Ray Walston) who wants to visit the island Bali Ha’i for, you know, women. Jersey girl Juanita Hall reprised her role from the stage as Islander Bloody Mary. Figuring she was too old to sing, they dubbed her singing voice. In fact many of the actors had their singing voices dubbed, sounding comically different than their speaking voice.

The theme here is prejudice, highlighted by the song “You've Got To Be Carefully Taught”. The film features references to two interracial relationships, quite progressive for the fifties. Unfortunately, the depiction of south pacific natives was very 1950’s. You win some, you lose some.

Silly and dated, South Pacific is a somewhat amusing romp that holds your interest, particularly if you are a fan of musicals. It was as huge a success on the screen as it was on the stage. I found it a bit tedious at times, but it was nice to learn the origin of the songs my mom used to sing when she was being silly. AMRU 3.5.

The Broadway Melody (1929)

The Mahoney Sisters, Harriet and Queenie (Bessie Love and Anita Page), move to New York to take their chances on old Broadway. Love will bloom.

We are introduced to the sisters while they move into their new apartment and get partially undressed. Harriet, oddly called Hank, gushes to sister Queenie about how beautiful she is and how much she loves her, punctuating with kissing her square on the lips. I’m not sure what the filmmakers were trying to communicate outside of standard pre-code titillation.

This seems to be the spiritual godmother of the “young women trying to make it big on Broadway” trope that was so popular in the 1930’s. This prototype isn’t as interesting as some that came later. The musical numbers are a bit tedious and the melodrama is laid on a bit thick, but it does have one thing: a Best Picture Oscar.

Young Queenie succumbs to the advances of Jacques Warriner (totally not Jack Warner) to the dismay of big sis Hank, who knows he is only interested in one thing. More interesting is that Anita Page revealed much later in life that she left Hollywood because she refused sexual advances from studio big-wigs Irving Thalberg and Louie Mayer. Life imitates art?

Broadway Melody was a huge success and spawned three sequels, not to mention inspiring Warriner Brothers' five ‘Gold Diggers’ films. (Yes, I know the Gold Diggers films were actually a remake of a silent film, but I'm building a narrative here!) And despite this being the Best Picture progenitor of the genre, it stands as the lowest rated of the lot. Tedious and melodramatic at times, but despite its flaws, it's amusing enough. AMRU 2.5.

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Hot shot race car driver (Elvis) needs cash to buy a motor for his race car so he can compete in the Vegas Grand Prix. He gambles and actually wins the money, but instead of returning to Los Angeles, he decides to harass a pretty woman (Ann-Margret) whom he had been stalking. He inevitably loses the money and gets a waiter job so that he can continue harassing her. Deus ex machina and everyone lives happily ever after.

A script was quickly cobbled up to tie the musical numbers together and it shows in the finished product. It is a cartoonish boy-meets-girl love story with Las Vegas and car racing as the backdrop. But when you make three films a year you can’t expect the best scripts. He made 31 films in fourteen years, all variations on a theme. He was the star in each and top billed in all but his first.

Because of Elvis’ still impressive star power and Ann-Margret’s up-and-coming status, Viva Las Vegas was the biggest hit of his career, out earning A Hard Day’s Night released the same year. A bigger studio and Technicolor might have helped. Both stars began headlining in Las Vegas due to the film’s success. They would date for a while but his marriage to Priscilla would put an end to that. His view that wives are for making babies and not performing in large venues may have played a part in that decision.

At only twenty nine, Elvis looked out of place and out of time, doing his 50’s swagger and snarl while Ann-Margret did her freaky 60’s dance moves. It is said she came the closest to matching his on-screen charisma, but frankly even William Demarest had the better of him. Elvis could perform on stage and read lines on camera, but let’s be honest. Unless you are a rabid fan, he didn’t exactly sizzle out there. Case in point, the title number. Shot as one long take and I wonder if he refused to perform a second take. It was a laughably poor lip sync job.

Likely because the soundtrack was never released, only the title song was familiar. Here’s some fun stuff. In one musical number both Teri Garr (Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters, et. al.) and Toni Basil (Mickey) appear as extras.

Rife with plot holes, like how he must work as a waiter to pay his hotel bill, but has a helicopter he can fly on weekends, but my expectations were appropriately low. And even though the abrupt magical conclusion is annoying, it’s still an amusing watch, even if you are not a fan of the man. AMRU 3.

Royal Wedding (1951)

Famous brother-sister dance team (that’s a thing) are hired to perform for the Queen’s wedding, so they hop on a ship and set sail for a caricature of Merry Old England. On board playa sista (Jane Powell) meets up and falls in love with fellow playa and rat-packer Peter Lawford, who in this context is a British Lord. Brother (Fred Astaire) must wait until England before he falls for … Winston Churchill’s daughter? Ok, so that happened. Will love bloom? Right, we addressed that.

Jane Powell playing Astaire’s sister defied credibility as she was and very much looked thirty years his junior. She acted in only twenty two features, of which I’ve only seen the problematic Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Here she used a vocal technique called screeching. She passed away only last fall.

The only thing I knew about Peter Lawford is that he was in Frank Sinatra’s rat pack. Was, as in, was kicked out because of something to do with the Kennedys and Sinatra's ties to the mob. Probably more to it than that. Peter's career would falter and would die at 61, because of drink, I’m guessing.

Old buddy Keenan Wynn has a vaguely amusing double role. He has appeared in a ton of things, both great and terrible. I’ll always remember him as Winter. But let’s talk about Mae Clarke. She was a natural for sexy pre-code roles but personal problems and a car accident put her career on the skids. When sexy roles dried up during production code enforcement, she was relegated to B pictures. I suspect, however, that her slide had more to do with personal issues than production codes. Here, she earned the role of “Telephone Operator #1 (uncredited)”.

Astaire dances with a coat rack, on a rocking ship, and finally on the ceiling, using the rotating set originated by my buddy-pal Buster Keaton. If that is your thing, likely you will more than tolerate Royal Wedding. I’m sure it represents Astaire’s latter career just fine. For me, the song and dance numbers were tedious, the chemistry unconvincing, the story paper-thin, and the comedy incidental. AMRU 2.5.

Guys and Dolls (1955)

Gangster Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) is trying to organize an underground poker game, but for some reason can’t afford the rent on a location. So he makes a bet with high-roller Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can’t go on a “date” with a woman of his choosing. Sky agrees and Nathan chooses  the prudish do-gooder, Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons).

What is hyper-realistic, non-singing Marlon Brando doing in a hyper-stylized musical? I understand Sinatra was annoyed at losing the lead to Brando, whom he called Mumbles. I’m strongly in Sinatra’s camp here. Brando seemed like he was in a different movie.

Old friend Sheldon Leonard is here. I have realized that his and the other gangsters’ non-use of contractions is used by the legitimate businessmen in The Simpsons. In fact, Fat Tony is a dead-on impersonation of Sheldon’s Harry the Horse. Jean Simmons is new to me and I found her quite charming.

Guys and Dolls is has a pretty nonsensical story. Some of the musical numbers were tedious and I found the distinct and unique style was a bit off-putting, but in the end I came around, mostly. The numbers that worked, worked. I find my view softening the more time that passes since I watched it. I really want to give it a 3, but, what the hell. AMRU 3.5.

The Big Store (1941)

Tommy Rogers (Tony Martin), an aspiring singer who owns shares in a department store, wants to sell so he can fund a music conservancy in the neighborhood where he got his start. But the bad guy doesn’t want him to sell for some reason and hatches a plan to kill him for some reason, but the Margaret Dumont character (Margaret Dumont) hires a detective (Groucho) for some reason.

Is Tommy a big star or trying to get his start? Are his shares valuable or almost worthless? Doesn’t matter because we get the deal. The Brothers clown around ostensibly trying to protect the cartoon good guy from the cartoon bad guys, roll credits. The plot isn’t secondary, it’s irrelevant. Truth be told the bits aren’t that bad, but the trouble begins with the inclusion of pointless musical numbers.

Chico does the same piano number as always and Harpo his harp number as always, just in case we haven’t seen it a dozen times already. To make matters worse, the story (such as it is) halts in the second act for a ridiculous swing number that went on forever. But it gets worse. There is a big finale that Groucho called “The most godawful thing I’d ever heard”. I tend to agree.

There is a big chase scene near the end that is a bit unusual for a Marx Brother's film. It was silly without being particularly funny, and I found it odd to see the boys, now in their 50s, behaving like 20-somethings.

Here is the eleventh of the twelve Marx Brother films, and it only took me a little over ten years to see them. The final is the somewhat hard to find Love Happy (1949) which was disowned by Groucho. So, yay. It has the lowest IMDb score of the lot and hopefully I can finish off the set this year.

I began the night with the intent of watching a Buster Keaton talkie but quickly aborted that plan. As disappointing as The Big Store was, there are worse films. To see Keaton, who should have been at the top of his game, in such a terrible production was heartbreaking. I saw maybe fifteen minutes before declaring it unwatchable trash. The Big Store, as uninspired as it was, was still watchable. Well, most of it was. AMRU 2.5.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Genevieve and Guy (Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo) are young lovers wanting to be married. Unfortunately, life gets in the way. The TCM description included a second act spoiler, but I won’t go any further. Other films deserve to be spoiled, but not this one.

Umbrellas of Cherbourg is referred to as a “sung-through” musical, meaning 100% of the dialog is sung. Not like a song, just sung. Quite frankly this irritated me a bit early on. It’s not an efficient way to tell a story. Plus reading subtitles draws your eye from the visual side of the story, which is a shame. Cherbourg looks terrific.

I needed to watch something different. Too many generic old-Hollywood comedies and lower-tier genre pictures, I was in a rut. I think I’ve been too focused on checking boxes rather than watching films I would actually enjoy. I immediately turned to foreign film, of which I have a few at my disposal. To this day I haven’t seen a Sophia Loren film (for the blog, that is), something I must rectify. TCM doesn’t run her films very often, but that’s no excuse. Catherine Deneuve is also underrepresented and I heard good things about Umbrellas, so there it is.

And the nineteen year old Deneuve was fantastic. A very mature and convincing performance. Those expecting to be overwhelmed by her charm and beauty may be disappointed. Be prepared for serious acting. As serious as it gets in a musical, that is. If only TCM would play Belle de Jour.

Umbrellas is a film about young lovers being separated, growing up, making choices, and what comes of it all. It’s a rather touching film. If you are turned off by all of the dialog being sung, well, get over it. The movie deserves a little effort. The story isn’t complicated but it bears rewatching. Once familiar with the story, and a few French phrases, the watcher can concentrate on the cinematography and mise-en-scene, which are spectacular. I will rewatch it, if I can find someone to watch it with me. AMRU 4.

Road to Utopia (1945)

Vaudevillian con men Duke and Chester (Bing Crosby and Bob Hope) end their partnership when Chester decides to return to New York. But Duke sees fortune in Utopia, that is, Yukon Territory. You know, because of the gold. Chester is tricked into coming along and on their way they lose all their ill-gotten money. But they steal a map to a gold mine from thugs who stole it earlier in the film. They pretend to be the thugs and the rightful owner of the mine (Dorothy Lamour) tries to steal it from them.

This is the fourth of seven so-called “Road Movies” that Hope and Crosby made together and arguably the best. I was unimpressed with their first one, but felt I needed to give them another chance. Results were mixed.

The film is told in flashback. We begin with Hope and Lamour (Chester and Sal, that is) as an elderly couple who get a surprise visit from Bing/Duke. After a few gags Duke proceeds to explain what happened to him when they last saw each other. This builds anticipation for what happened that fateful day, except we forget the premise by the time it’s resolved.

The big attraction to the Hope and Crosby Road movies is their breezy, lighthearted comedy and a story that doesn’t tax the brain very much. They don’t take themselves or the film very seriously, often breaking character and the fourth wall. The story is occasionally interrupted by a narrator cracking wise about the current action. As such we don’t take them or it very seriously, and it’s a formula that does work.

Just not for me, on this particular day. I can’t explain why many scenes annoyed me, but they did. Maybe it was something I ate. A bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. I like the actors fine, and I enjoy light comedies. And it’s not like I have high standards.

Road to Utopia won’t have you rolling on the floor. Genius comedy it is not. But it is very likable and easy to watch, personal experience aside. I will force it to an AMRU 3 because I think under normal circumstances it deserves it.

"And I thought this was going to be an A picture.”

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Showgirl Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) is engaged to a millionaire dork and for reasons of the plot goes on an all-expense paid trip to France without him. Co-star Dorothy (Jane Russell) goes along as chaperone because if there is any hint of scandal, sugar-daddy’s daddy will forbid the marriage. Once embarked, Lorelei proceeds to look for another millionaire to milk. Hint, hint.

Arguably the film that made Monroe a superstar, it’s not exactly a story of women’s empowerment. Lorelei is an unabashed gold digger, obsessed with diamonds. Dorothy, meanwhile, just wants to ‘make love’, money be damned. Lorelei’s target is the ruddy and bloated Piggy Beekman (ruddy and bloated Charles Coburn). Piggy owns a diamond mine and likes to court the young ladies, once he gets away from his shrew of a wife.

Everything starts to unravel as the ship approaches Europe, but song, dance, and musical comedy magic solves everything. But let’s focus on a particular phrase that struck my attention: Make Love.

In modern parlance, making love directly means the physical act of sex. Not so in old movies, where it simply refers to the act of courtship. Dorothy makes reference to another character making love with her, but there is no inference to the modern sense. Just dinner, drinks, and dancing. This also tames down the line from The Inspector General (1949) where the Mayor famously exclaims: “... he even made love to my wife! How could I doubt that he was an Inspector General?”

So this begs the question, when did the filmmakers recognize the changing meaning, and could they have been using it to imply scandal with a wink and nod to a younger audience? Seriously asking.

Technically Russell is the star, but Monroe steals the show. If you remember a single song from the film, it’s hers. And you just can’t take your eyes off of her. The studio hired a coach to adjust the sexiness of the actresses' movements: tone Jane’s upward and Marilyn’s downward. They didn’t do enough because next to Marilyn, pretty Jane looked almost manly. Marilyn may have been the Blonde that Gentlemen Prefer, but she was paid $500 a week compared to Jane’s $150,000 total. So, who's the gold digger now?

The film’s message seems to be that it's fine for pretty women to play dumb and use rich men for their money. Of course I may be reading too much into this piece of fluff. Its 1953 and Howard Hawks was no feminist, after all. It was amusing enough with maybe a few too many songs. Not my kind of film but a worthwhile watch. AMRU 3.

Go West (1940)

It’s the old west and singing cowboy Terry wants to marry pretty Eve, but grampy forbids it. Terry’s pappy sold gramps Dead Man’s Gulch, and wouldn’t you know, there ain’t a lick of gold on it, the swindler! Terry tries to set things straight by convincing the railroad to route their line through there making it valuable. Unfortunately, there are bad guys who want to swindle him, but the boys are there to help. Kinda.

Pretty standard fare at this point in their career. Some witty lines but not quite as clever as the early years. Tedious musical numbers nobody asked for, Chico gets his piano solo and Harpo his harp. Do they even do different songs from movie to movie? I can't even tell. No Margaret Dumont, but don’t worry. She comes back for one more. Only novelty here is seeing the boys in a western. Is it a western? I suppose so.

Like most of their films, the plot is little more than a premise around which the boys frame their bits. Only now the bits are sparse and uninspired. Perhaps the songs returned to pad the runtime. What we end up with is a watchable, vaguely amusing hour twenty. Groucho gets in a few good cuts, but not like in the earlier days. AMRU 3.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

The Smith family lives in idealistic 1903 St. Louis, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have problems. Serious problems like how can Ester (Judy Garland) get the boy next door to propose if they haven’t even been introduced? And can sister Rose get her boyfriend to propose over that new-fangled tele-phone contraption? Also, where has Tootie buried all of her dead dolls?

Meet Me in St. Louis is a nostalgic, feel-good, high production piece of fluff. Therefore, it was a huge success. The big song is Judy’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas which, unlike the others, has real meaning in the story. Here also is where The Trolly Song comes from, later made famous by the Sweeney Sisters.

The inciting incident comes past the halfway point. With a variety of personal issues in play, dad announces that they will move to New York City. Why live in a gorgeous Victorian in picturesque St. Louis when you can live in a Manhattan tenement? It’s a great opportunity, after all. Everyone must come to terms with this change while celebrating their last Christmas in St. Louis. This is the context of Judy’s song. Tootie doesn’t respond well.

Mary Astor plays Mom and she was hard to recognize, both in appearance and manner. Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle) played the maid. She wasn't hard to recognize. June Lockhart and Hugh Marlowe had tiny roles, but we must talk about Tootie.

Margaret O’Brien at 6 was already an established child star, so her momager decided the studio should pay her accordingly. The studio immediately responded by announcing that the part would go to the daughter of an electrician. The O’Brien’s held out and ended up with the contract they wanted. The electrician responded by dropping lighting equipment from a catwalk near where Margaret was standing. Hollywood is such a warm and inviting place.

The investment in O’Brien certainly paid off for the studio. She just about steals the show and was awarded a juvenile academy award. The same movie framed around her character would have been very interesting. The Halloween segment was, well, quite unexpected. The kids of the town are left to their own devices where they build a bonfire with stolen patio furniture, and throw flour in the face of adults they hate. The talk of hate and blood and murder from the youngest two Smith daughters was delightfully out of place.

But this is Judy’s film and a big hit for her, despite her hairstyle looking like she is hiding horns. And her acting ... wasn’t terrible. Perhaps the lack of gravity in her performance was masked by the mannered style of period costume dramas. The film has only slightly more realism than Oz. Her difficulty on set is an early example of the pill problem that would eventually take her life. At 22 the lines in her face were starting to appear. In the end she pulled out some pretty good performances and would go on to marry the ugly director, twice her age.

Meet Me in St. Louis is the kind of film that it is. Everything is perfectly lit, the colors supersaturated, and all characters, regardless of the circumstance, are impeccably costumed, styled, and made up. But the morbidity of the two youngest sisters is shockingly out of place. Out of place, but oddly not unwelcome. Were it all glitzy confection, it would have less appeal. As such, AMRU 4. It is a delightful piece of fluff.

“It'll take me at least a week to dig up all my dolls in the cemetery.”

At The Circus (1939)

Zeppo-analog disinherits himself so he can run a circus with his horse singing love. He is robbed of the ten grand he needs to buy it outright and Antonio (Chico) enlists the help of a lawyer (Groucho) to save the day.

I am growing tired of bits where Chico and Harpo just clown around with no real comedic inventiveness. Here, the boys search for the money in the strong man’s quarters while he sleeps. Nothing particularly funny happens and it doesn’t advance the story. Along with the reintroduction of musical numbers, At the Circus tends to be a little tedious.

That said, it does bring back a little of what Room Service lost. Margaret Dumont for one, if in a lesser capacity (and past the 50 minute mark), and Groucho is his wisecracking self, at least to a degree. Room Service was a non-Marx Brothers film starring the Marx Brothers, and it was clear how well that worked. Circus felt like it was their film, though you can sense that their heart really wasn’t into it anymore.

A young Eve Arden has a sizable role. Older audiences will remember her as Miss Brooks, but she will always be Principle McGee to me. Famous gorilla performer Charles Gemora played a gorilla. He had a thirty year career mostly playing apes or ape-like monsters, including The War of the Worlds and Island of Lost Souls.

While At The Circus does not stand with the best of the Marx Brothers films, it’s not among the skippables either. It contains no fondly remembered comedic bits, but it’s funny enough and very watchable. Cut a couple of the songs and it would be more so. AMRU 3.

Gigi (1958)

Gaston (Louis Jourdan), a fabulously wealthy man about town, is bored with the Parisian nightlife. He goes to fabulous parties with fabulous women (Eva Gabor) whom he showers with fabulous gifts, and is simply bored with it all. His creepy uncle (Maurice Chevalier) has no such problem. Thank heaven for little girls ...

He is friends with an older woman of Paris (Hermione Gingold) who is training her granddaughter (Leslie Caron) for the same … profession? As Gaston grows closer to Gigi, well, let’s just leave that here.

In a modern context, maybe Madame Alverez would be picked up by the FBI while Gaston would have been suicided in prison. But Gigi has a moral out. Set in 1900 Paris, the setting is distinctly not here and not now. This passes the judgement off to another culture. And as we are further from 1958 then 1958 was from 1900, another separation is in place. Should we judge the film harshly?

Leslie Caron was absolutely charming as the playful teen. The ripe old age of 26 while filming, she was entirely believable as a teenager. This is no small feat. Her body language was spot on. And this presents a problem. Is the character fifteen? They never say, but she is in the source material and seems every bit of it. So what we are left with is a budding romance between a teenaged girl and a rich, bored man pushing 40. And this is all ok because her grandmother (and great aunt) were training her to be a courtesan all along. It’s ok to feel dirty here.

Much of the descriptive dialog is intentionally vague, clipped and stilted to appease the production code. The audience is forced to make up our own mind what the situation is. Maybe Gigi is being groomed to be a proper lady rather than a woman who shares a rich man’s bed in exchange for lavash dinners and fancy jewelry. But, nope. The latter.

I find myself comparing this film with My Fair Lady, which has a similar theme of a old rich man grooming a too young girl. A big difference is that both characters here are more likable than in Lady. While Lady’s Higgins was unkind and lacked a proper character arc, Gaston was clearly a good person. He is looking for someone who is interesting and fun to be around. Someone who doesn't bore him. He is kind to Gigi and when he realizes his feelings, the moment is impactful.

I am somewhat embarrassed to say I enjoyed Gigi. I liked the characters and rooted for them. I can't side step the grooming of an underage girl aspect (and a family friend, no less), but my reaction is what it is. The musical numbers, while not super memorable, were much shorter than in Lady. AMRU 3.5.

My Fair Lady (1964)

A cockney flower girl (Audrey Hepburn) overhears a linguistics professor (Rex Harrison) boast he could teach her to speak proper enough English to work in a regular flower shop. The following day she arrives at his home to take him up on the offer. He bets his colleague that in six months he could pass her off as a lady at a royal ball. The game is afoot.

Audrey Hepburn was charming as hell, but wow was she miscast. I don’t believe her for a second as a cockney. Harrison reprised his role from the Broadway musical but the studio felt Julie Andrews was too much of an unknown to play Eliza on the big screen, which wasn’t wrong. Even if asked, she was busy working on her first feature film. One complaint about the 35 year old Hepburn was that she was too old for the role. Again, not wrong as Eliza was twenty one. Nobody seemed to bat an eye, however, at the borderline elderly Harrison as the leading man. Ah, Hollywood!

At two hours fifty, My Fair Lady wasn’t too much of a chore to sit through. The only parts that dragged were the songs. I recognized some not realizing where they were from. Not being my thing, cutting ninety seconds from each song might be a good way to take ten or so minutes from the runtime.

In the end I was charmed by My Fair Lady. That’s not to say I don’t have my issues. Harrison’s Professor Higgins has no character arc. He starts as a pompous, self important ass and ends the same but “accustomed to her face”. Can you think of anything less romantic? The story is about social mobility. Eliza Doolittle is a misfit and knows it. This bothers her, but our professor is also a social outcast and is oblivious. His wealth, education, and position forgive his lack of social grace. He treats people poorly and doesn’t understand why that’s a problem.

The story in my head is of Eliza realizing she need not covet the respect of the idle rich and come to accept who she is. She needs diction but it’s Higgins who requires the personal growth. But that is not our story and it’s no use criticizing a film for its source material. But I still chafe at a young woman returning to the embrace of a jerk for him to treat poorly. Besides, Colonel Pickering seemed to be his true love.

My Fair Lady was a fantastic success. A big production movie with some genuinely good moments. It made a ton of money and earned eight Oscars, including best picture. Not for best actress, though. That went to Julie Andrews. AMRU 3.5.

In The Good Old Summertime (1949)

A remake of The Shop Around the Corner (1940), now set in an 1890’s American music shop, and with color, songs, and Judy Garland! What could be better? The original, in every way.

Let’s make a few things clear. Technicolor does not necessarily make a film better, the songs were tedious, and Judy was a poor actress. But let’s give it some credit. The change of setting was a good idea. A music show makes sense given that it’s now a musical. It’s nice to see the older Buster Keaton get a paycheck. Van Johnson wasn’t a terrible substitute for Jimmy Stewart and Judy should have been an improvement on the forgettable Margaret Sullavan. So what went wrong?

It is an almost scene by scene remake of the original excluding the most dramatic parts! The tone was all wrong giving it a more comedic, almost slapstick quality. We are not charmed when the love interests are introduced. I was annoyed. We are left with the formula of add nothing except forgettable songs, subtract much of the charm and drama, and replace actors with poor substitutes. Cuddles Sakall might work in small roles but he was not up to the task of taking on Frank Morgan. And let’s face it. Ernst Lubitsch was the master.

In The Good Old Summertime is not remembered as one of Judy’s best, but fans will like it because that’s what they do. Given my druthers I would have watched Meet Me in St. Louis this season but a DVR issue sabotaged that idea. And after watching this and The Clock, I think I’m done with Judy for a while. If anything good came from this experience, it’s realizing how much I actually like The Shop Around the Corner. AMRU 2.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)

A radio station is looking for a Little Miss America, a girl to sing while pitching bran flakes, and little Rebecca (Shirley Temple) is exactly who they are looking for. But step-dad Uncle Charlie thinks they are passing on her so he deposits her with her dead mom’s sister who will have nothing to do with this show business talk. There she learns to love country life and becomes friends with the neighbor (Randolph Scott!) who is searching for that little girl his incompetent assistant allowed to leave the studio before signing a bran flakes contract.

Our incompetent assistant is played by Jack Haley, whom some may remember as the Tin Man. Haley himself said that if it wasn’t for that role, nobody would remember him at all, and I tend to agree. Gloria Stuart played the ingenue/love interest. She was also Old Rose in Titanic. She lived to be a hundred. Also here is dancer Bill Robinson. Bojangles was a great and innovative tap dancer prior to making films. He was paired with Temple for three movies and eeked out a modicum of Hollywood fame.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a remake of the Mary Pickford film of the same name. I understand many of Temple’s films were Pickford remakes. Pickford, who frequently played roles much younger than she, was 25 years old when making the original version compared to ten for Temple. Temple was up for the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but didn’t get it. She remembered that as a lost opportunity to step out of Pickford’s shadow and do her own films. I wonder if Pickford auditioned.

Early in the film there was a sassy receptionist that I thought was going to be a major character. She wasn’t but I found out why all her scenes were sitting down. At 4’11 she was actually shorter than Shirley. I thought step-dad was going to be a gruff but amiable character but they went in the opposite direction with him. I forget that Demarest didn’t play likable much prior to My Three Sons.

I was looking for another film to see and I wasn’t motivated by anything on the DVR or streaming. I popped on TCM just before the beginning of Rebecca and decided to give it a chance. I Hadn’t seen a Shirley Temple film front to back, maybe ever, so I gave it a try. No part of it was terrible so I ended up seeing the whole film.

Maybe sacrilegious to say but little Shirley was charming, kinda cute, but only talented because she was young. Nobody marveled at her skill and as she matured she outgrew her specialness. Hollywood didn’t turn its back on her any more than she had nothing left to offer. In the end Rebecca was upbeat, well composed, and somewhat charming, but I won’t go out of my way to see another. Well made cotton candy is still cotton candy. AMRU 3.

“I never get nervous. I'm very self-reliant.”

Kismet (1955)

A sharp-tongued poet (Howard Keel), who somehow made it to adulthood before learning you can’t make money from poetry, is mistaken for a beggar. He goes along with it. A notorious thief mistakes him for the man who put a curse on him that lost him his son, so he cons his way into being paid to release the curse. Things are going great but soon he is arrested by the Great and Mighty Wazir (Mr. French), his daughter (Ann Blyth) falls in love, and coincidences keep us all so very entertained.

Kismet is the forth and best remembered version of the 1911 play of the same name. Stylistically it falls in line with a great many musicals made around that time. Brightly colored, expansive sets, heavily rehearsed period pieces with family friendly stories that also border on the naughty. See Seven Brides, Kiss me Kate, Brigadoon. Grand spectacles, if you’re into that sort of thing.

If you’re vexed by all the honkies in Arabia remember that this is 1955 and suspension of disbelief rules the day. Particularly out of place is the Grand Caliph and teen heartthrob Vic Damone. Why he wasn’t in more films is wondered by nobody. But don’t judge him too harshly. He’s just a teenager in love.

Old friends Monty Woolley (The Man Who Came to Dinner), Jack Elam (Kansas City Confidential and just about every low budget western imaginable), and Jamie Farr make appearances. This is first film I’ve seen directed by the guy who gave Liza her last name.

Not a bad thing if you’re into the genre. I tolerated it well. I expected an “Oh, that’s where that song comes from” moment but there was none. People who whistle show tunes will be more familiar. But for me, AMRU 3.

White Christmas (1954)

After the war, army buddies Bob and Phil (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) start a song and dance act. Ten years on they become quite successful. So successful that Phil wants to marry Bob off to floozy dance girls with poor diction in hopes that it would keep taskmaster Bob occasionally occupied. When another army buddy writes asking them to give career advice to his performing sisters Betty and Judy (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen), Phil gets the idea of matching Bob up with Betty, as her diction is perfect. They land in the non-snowy Vermont inn owned by their old commanding officer, who is struggling financially. Let’s put on a show!

Christmas Musicals are inevitably romantic comedies, this being no different. Boy meets girl, boy and girl like each other, misunderstanding, grand gesture, happy ending. Only variation here is that the grand gesture IS the misunderstanding. Also with Christmas Musicals, the plot is frequently paper-thin. Again, same here.

White Christmas is a slight retooling of Holiday Inn (1942). We have Bing, tried to have Astaire but was unavailable, reused the song, and even reused the country inn set, this time located in Vermont. They even do a minstrel number, but at least had the decency to lose the blackface. Baby steps.

I remember Rosemary Clooney from her old and fat days, wondering why she was famous. Not a classic beauty, she was certainly charming. And at 25 she was definitely good enough for the 50ish Crosby. Oh, and she was George’s aunt. Her little sister was played by the anorexic Vera-Ellen. Anyone who danced next to her was paled by her energy and skill. Clearly it wasn’t food she was getting her energy from. She had to be dubbed for the singing parts.

Except for the benefit of color (and lack of blackface color), we essentially have the same movie as Holiday Inn. Many musical numbers if you’re into that sort of thing, witty and charming dialog, simple story with low-stakes consequences. AMRU 3.5.

Holiday Inn (1942)

A song and dance team breaks up because Jim (Bing Crosby) wants to run a country inn in Connecticut. Lila and Ted (Fred Astaire) decide not to retire along with him because they are in love. Jim’s plan for his inn is to be open only on holidays. Thus, Holiday Inn.

Lila goes off and marries a millionaire so Ted shows up drunk at the Inn and sees his future dance and maybe love partner performing. But sneaky Bing … I mean Jim tries to keep her secret and all to himself, so let the conniving begin.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas was written for the movie and fast became the number 1 selling single of all time. Bing would sing it in a Christmas musical two more times. Director Mark Sandrich called it the ABC of American musical comedies: Astaire, Berlin, and Crosby. All three were and would continue to be on quite a tare.

The characters say that there are fifteen holidays but they show only eight or nine. But it’s Lincoln’s Birthday that garnished the most praise. No, praise isn’t the right word. What do you call it when white people sing in black face? Whatever that is, it garnished the most of it. To be fair the intent was to be respectful and it made sense in context. The scene is frequently removed from TV airings but TCM showed it uncut.

The song and dance numbers could be tedious and the story is paper thin, but the charming on-screen chemistry and witty banter pulled it through. If the musical numbers are your thing, then you’ll love it. AMRU 3.5. Oh, and yea. The hotel chain stole their name from this.