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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 31, 2023 21:23:24 GMT
Disappearing idioms: fixing sandwiches.
Now we just make them.
I prefer fix. My Dad was 40 when I was born. I grew up in the '70s with '30s idioms as the norm. Our refrigerator was called an icebox, sandwiches were fixed and we turned up the steam to make the house warmer are just a few of many, many examples. ROTFL! My grandmother always asked for the register (heat/thermostat) to be turned up! Loved it.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 31, 2023 21:24:33 GMT
Beautiful stars. Beautiful movie.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 31, 2023 21:24:46 GMT
The scene upstairs in the bedroom, where Barbara apologizes to Mary...this is the scene Selznick had George Cukor reshoot.
They wanted Ginger to be the one shedding the tears. They told Shirley to dial down her emotions and act more restrained and grown up.
Very interesting. I don't suppose the original take still exists. Before they knew to save everything from the cutting room floor for the DVD release.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 31, 2023 21:26:49 GMT
My Dad was 40 when I was born. I grew up in the '70s with '30s idioms as the norm. Our refrigerator was called an icebox, sandwiches were fixed and we turned up the steam to make the house warmer are just a few of many, many examples. ROTFL! My grandmother always asked for the register (heat/thermostat) to be turned up! Loved it. That's great.
Very topical to us, my grandmother called the movies, "the moving pictures," as in, let's go to the moving pictures tonight.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 31, 2023 21:29:11 GMT
Great choice, Topbilled, I really enjoyed today.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 31, 2023 21:29:57 GMT
ROTFL! My grandmother always asked for the register (heat/thermostat) to be turned up! Loved it. That's great.
Very topical to us, my grandmother called the movies, "the moving pictures," as in, let's go to the moving pictures tonight. Not so great to my Dad - he wished she would put on a sweater and stop running up the heating bill.
The moving pictures is wonderful. What a great memory.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 31, 2023 21:30:38 GMT
Great choice, Topbilled, I really enjoyed today. I am glad the Home Front melodramas that were selected this month, were enjoyable to everyone.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Dec 31, 2023 21:30:49 GMT
Barbara opened her big mouth.
I was kind of surprised disappointed that Aunt Sarah wanted to suppress the truth. That is just me and my presentism again I think. I thought Mary should have told him, too, it was the only way they could have a future together.This is my favorite of the month, I just loved it!
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 31, 2023 21:31:22 GMT
And for once we know they will likely live happily ever after. The post-war boom were some of the best years of our lives.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 31, 2023 21:32:28 GMT
And for once we know they will likely live happily ever after. The post-war boom were some of the best years of our lives. Well said.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 31, 2023 21:33:41 GMT
That's great.
Very topical to us, my grandmother called the movies, "the moving pictures," as in, let's go to the moving pictures tonight. Not so great to my Dad - he wished she would put on a sweater and stop running up the heating bill.
The moving pictures is wonderful. What a great memory. I grew up in a world of "turn off that light," "put on a sweater," "close the door, we're not heating the outside," and on and on. I know it well.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 31, 2023 21:34:14 GMT
Where did 2023 go???
Thanks for a fun year of Sundays.
Next month Andrea's hosting melodramas based on Somerset Maugham stories.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 1, 2024 0:41:50 GMT
I'll Be Seeing You from 1944 with Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Tom Tully and Spring Byington
Feel-good Christmas movies are tricky as they can easily slip into mawkishness, yet if the movie has too-much conflict, it risks losing its Christmas magic. I'll Be Seeing You does a good job balancing those competing forces with its biggest flaw being a few slow scenes.
Joseph Cotton plays a soldier who fought at the grueling Battle of Guadalcanal and now is in a military hospital recovering from physical injuries and what was called battle fatigue then, but is what we call post traumatic stress disorder now.
While on a train during a Christmas furlough, he meets a pretty young woman, played by Ginger Rogers, who is on her own furlough of sorts. She's been given a Christmas pass from prison to visit her aunt and uncle, played by Spring Byington and Tom Tully.
Cotton gets off the train at Rogers' stop on the pretense of meeting his sister there, but really so he can spend more time with Rogers. She's told him she's a traveling salesperson as, well, who wants to tell the handsome man one just met that she's in prison?
Rogers' aunt and uncle are all wholesome middle America with their charming house, cute teenage daughter, played by Shirley Temple, and welcoming arms to both niece Rogers and her new friend Cotton.
For a sense of the family, look for the scene where the women go dress shopping. Rogers doesn't want aunt, Byington, to overspend on the dress she's buying her niece, Rogers, and Byington doesn't want Rogers to worry about the price.
Being good people, they both quietly palm money to the very confused saleswoman to bring down the price. If you've ever been in a similar situation, you'll appreciate how well the actresses and directors William Dieterle and George Cukor captured the scene's nuance.
There is tension in the house, though, as Temple, who has to share a room with Rogers, is outwardly nice to her, yet she has all but quarantined her possessions in the room as if she's afraid she'll catch "prisonitis" from Rogers.
Back in his hotel room, we see that Cotton is fighting his own demons as, like many PTSD sufferers, just making it through the normal ups and downs of a day is hard for him. But together, he and Rogers seem to help each other.
Surprisingly though, even with the war still raging, the movie doesn't shy away from showing the severity of Cotton's mental challenges.
He shakes, sweats and experiences fear from small noises or minor confrontations. The movie was introducing the public to what would become PTSD.
Most of the picture is Cotton coming over to Rogers' house and spending time with her family or with Rogers alone. The idea is that normal life is helping both of them to heal their wounds. A message America wanted to hear in 1944 with the war's end in sight.
While Cotton openly admits his problem to Rogers early on, Rogers, under the pretext of not wanting to burden Cotton, asks the family to keep her situation a secret. That sets up the final climax, no spoilers coming, of Rogers having to reveal that she's a prisoner.
Her explanation, in today's terms, is that in fighting off a man attempting date rape, she pushed him, causing him to fall out of a window and die. Then or now, the challenge is that there were no witnesses. But like with PTSD, the movie was putting out new ideas.
It's 1944 and it's a Christmas movie, so you can all but guess the ending. The hidden value in this one, though, is the surprisingly modern take on "combat fatigue" and date rape. Despite those tough issues, the movie is still heartwarming overall.
All the actors - Rogers, Cotton, Temple, Tully and Byington - know how to create likable characters. It's fun to see a now young-adult Shirley Temple show that she was more than just a child-acting sensation.
Owing to a thin story, the movie has a few slow scenes and some treacly Christmas dialogue. Yet with its forward-looking social messages and talented cast, I'll Be Seeing You is an engaging, albeit sentimental, Christmas wartime homefront picture.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 1, 2024 1:12:15 GMT
That's such a great review, Fading Fast. I especially like how you identified the scenes involving PTSD and date rape. Also I had to chuckle at your made-up word prisonitis.
I enjoy how likable the characters seem. Obviously they are not all wholesome and some have experienced things that have changed them in profound ways. The slow scenes don't bother me so much, because it's like eavesdropping on a real-life family where not everything is always action packed, loud or full of drama. But even in the quieter simpler moments there are conflicts bubbling just under the surface.
We see this in the outdoor scenes at Big Bear Lake. At first glance, it looks like Rogers and Cotten are just walking and talking about nothing really. But then you realize what is not being said...especially on her part, concealing her prison sentence...and his worries about readjusting post-battle.
Speaking of Cotten's character, my initial feeling at the beginning of the movie was that he seemed a little stalker-ish. I guess after having recently seen SHADOW OF A DOUBT, I expected him to be villainous or a bit unhinged. Particularly when watching him talk to himself inside his room at the YMCA; and then wasting no time looking Rogers up at the home of her relatives.
If he hadn't met her on the train, would have met someone else and followed them off at their next stop..? In some ways he is targeting her and needing her too much. But then we learn she needs him just as much in return. It's an interesting story with moments of melancholy AND joy.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 2, 2024 0:08:35 GMT
Thanks for both excellent reviews! I'm still thinking about it today, a sign that it was more than just an entertaining story.
Just think how people must have been influenced by movies back when almost everyone went at least once a week, all saw the same films, and there was no internet or TV with conflicting messages. From this one movie they found out what a panic attack was and young women learned to be careful about going to men's apartments alone. I was surprised at how violent the scene was with Ginger and the man whose face we didn't see.
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