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Post by I Love Melvin on Feb 18, 2024 0:01:03 GMT
Brrrr. I don't know about where you are, but it's r-e-a-l-l-y cold here, so I'm going to turn to Betty again to heat things up. "A Hot Night in Alaska" from Meet Me After the Show (1951).
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Post by I Love Melvin on Feb 22, 2024 22:54:09 GMT
Betty Grable being naughty prompted me to finally post this number from The French Line (1953), an RKO film executive-produced by Howard Hughes, who still held her contract. Hughes loved to use Jane and her "assets" to draw audiences for what weren't always sterling films in and of themselves. It was also filmed in the new 3-D process, using the tag line "She'll knock both your eyes out". Subtle, Howard. Naturally, he was delighted when some conservative groups (I won't name any.) objected to this dance and costume in particular and created censorship problems in some markets, which was paradoxically good for box office. The costume seems acceptable enough to the modern eye, but this was back when a woman couldn't even show her navel, a ban which lasted into the 1960's. Ways around that included the old jewel-in-the-navel trick and the kind of cris-crossing straps linking the panels here, which cover the offending body part. The film is a musical, but without any real standout numbers other than this one. I think of Jane as a skilled musical performer, but too often she wasn't given material which was up to her level of ability. "Looking for Trouble". Howard made the most of the controversy by plastering it on a poster, and on another that promise of knocking out both eyes. It's called showmanship.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Feb 23, 2024 0:05:41 GMT
Actually, I spoke too soon. There's another decent number too, with Mary McCarty as her girlhood friend who has now reinvented herself as a high class couturier in New York. They're enroute to Europe and put on a show on the ship because....Well, who needs a reason to put on a show, right? A definite point of interest is Kim Novak as one of the showgirls on the stairs, I guess before her contract with Columbia. "Any Gal from Texas".
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Post by I Love Melvin on Feb 28, 2024 15:34:51 GMT
More Betty from Meet Me After the Show (1951). Choreographer Jack Cole later drew on this number, "No Talent Joe", for the "Isn't Anyone Here for Love?" number with Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), using the muscle guys as support for the female star. At least this time the guys didn't knock Betty into a swimming pool. Also on hand is Jack Cole's frequent collaborator and muse, Gwen Verdon, as one of the two women introducing the number. Gwen was all over this movie in particular and the fantastic number she did with Betty ("I Feel Like Dancing") was posted here earlier.
Gwen and Betty also sang and danced together in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953), but only this short snippet is available on YouTube. It's maybe the least seen of Betty's films, but it has a lot to recommend it, including at least a dozen songs written by Harold Arlen and Dorothy Fields and Jack Cole's choreography. Dale Robertson was the male lead opposite Betty, not exactly known for musical roles, so that may have been a problem. Thelma Ritter is also in the cast, this being at a time when her home studio Twentieth Century-Fox liked to sprinkle her here and there to add a little comic flavor to their movies. I don't believe Thelma ever sang but I'd love to be corrected on that.
LATER EDIT: OMG, I stand corrected. I'd forgotten that Thelma piped up in this number from The Farmer Takes a Wife, with Eddie Foy, Jr. Just for a brief moment but, yes, Thelma Ritter sings! Thelma comes in at 1:20.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Feb 29, 2024 22:12:00 GMT
Boy, do I have a lot to learn. Only a little bit of sleuthing revealed that, yes, Thelma Ritter made her mark on musicals in a big way, sharing a Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award with Gwen Verdon for their work together in the Broadway show New Girl in Town (1957), a musicalized version of O'Neill's drama Anna Christie. She's all over the cast album and I'm going to go outside the lines and include a number. The show never made it to the movies but I can't not post something here in Thelma's honor after I underestimated her so egregiously. Love you to bits, Thelma.
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Post by Fading Fast on Feb 29, 2024 22:24:52 GMT
Boy, do I have a lot to learn. Only a little bit of sleuthing revealed that, yes, Thelma Ritter made her mark on musicals in a big way, sharing a Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award with Gwen Verdon for their work together in the Broadway show New Girl in Town (1957), a musicalized version of O'Neill's drama Anna Christie. She's all over the cast album and I'm going to go outside the lines and include a number. The show never made it to the movies but I can't not post something here in Thelma's honor after I underestimated her so egregiously. Love you to bits, Thelma. I love her as an actress, but can't say her voice here is doing much for me. But kudos to her, she's winning awards and I'm not.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 5, 2024 15:04:13 GMT
An American in Paris (1951) was on TCM last night and I should admit that I've seen it enough times that I tend to bypass showings. I wandered in after it was well under way, but just in time to catch this fun number with Gene Kelly and Oscar Levant. Oscar wasn't right for every environment so that may have limited the number of his movie musical roles, but he fit in beautifully here as Gene's cranky pianist neighbor and I love their odd-couple pairing.
It also featured one of those wonderful ladies-in-plumage-on-a-staircase numbers which had been a staple since at least the Ziegfeld days. Vincent Minnelli's previous life in New York theater really showed and the technical aspect of lighting those stairs in time to the music and dancing amazes me, considering this was before (I'm assuming) computers would handle something like that.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 8, 2024 22:08:21 GMT
It's an interlude in a non-musical movie, but this song from Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head (1959) got a lot of attention, winning an Academy Award for Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen. It's more static than what I usually post, but it's such a charmer. Eddie Hodges seemed poised to have the career that Ron Howard eventually had, so I'm not sure what happened there, but he sure held his own with a pro like Sinatra. It seems as though the number was shot live rather than sung to playback; I don't detect any lip-syncing and there's even a moment early on when Eddie (I think) flubbed the lyrics a bit, which wouldn't have been planned.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 8, 2024 22:56:33 GMT
Jukebox musicals have become a big thing in Broadway theater and, after working on Broadway projects like The Lion King, director Julie Taymor tried the jukebox concept on film with Across the Universe (2007), using Beatles songs to advance plot elements in the fictional story of an English kid moving to America in the 1960's. Producer Robert Stigwood had tried something like it in 1978, creating a jukebox musical around the Bee Gees using Beatles songs, without a whole lot of success. The genre had lain dormant for quite a while, so it was ambitious of Taymor to try to revive it. This number, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", uses Taymor's talents as a choreographer and makes special use of the love of puppetry which was on full display in The Lion King. Some numbers were performed by cast members, others by guest artists, like Joe Cocker and Bono. Eddie Izzard takes the lead here.
In some ways the movie hearkens back to Ken Russell's Tommy (1975), especially in "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", using masking and exaggerated imagery. Joe Anderson plays the American friend faced with the draft.
And another cameo for "I Am the Walrus" by Bono.
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Post by kims on Mar 8, 2024 23:08:23 GMT
The Georges Guetary number is my favorite in AMERICAN IN PARIS. A HOLE IN THE HEAD is a favorite film. And what did happen to Eddie Hodges?
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 9, 2024 0:16:52 GMT
Re: Across the Universe, you can see some influence from Tommy (1975), particularly in this Eric Clapton number, "Eyesight to the Blind".
I don't know that I would say that there was ever a totally successful jukebox rock musical on film, though I'm sure others would disagree. (Grease should probably be considered a book musical with a rock score.) But there have been a number of brave attempts and I always fall for the allure every time they come around. Hope another comes around soon.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 9, 2024 0:37:53 GMT
The Georges Guetary number is my favorite in AMERICAN IN PARIS. A HOLE IN THE HEAD is a favorite film. And what did happen to Eddie Hodges? Interestingly, Hodges had an early role in The Music Man on Broadway, playing the role Ron Howard eventually played in the film. I don't know why he wouldn't have done the film, especially since he had already proven himself on film in A Hole in the Head. He only made just over a half dozen films total, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960) for Michael Curtiz and a couple for Disney. He had a recording contract with Decca and actually had a Billboard-charting hit, but the contract prevented him from being on the recording of "High Hopes" on Capitol Records with Sinatra. He was drafted into the Army in the late 1960's at the height of the Vietnam War and decided when he got out that he couldn't relate to Hollywood anymore. Wiki says he went on to higher education and became a mental health counselor. He's still living but I don't think he's ever been tempted to go back to show biz. Very talented young actor, though. I can't resist passing this along to you, kim. Especially note Carol Burnett taking part in the number. She was part of the resident comedy troupe on The Garry Moore Show at the time.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 9, 2024 13:35:04 GMT
A drastically overlooked movie is Pennies from Heaven (1981), based on the work of Dennis Potter, also responsible for The Singing Detective BBC TV project, which was also turned into a feature film. It's chockfull of great musical numbers. Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters starred, with a great supporting cast, though the recordings of numbers from classic musical films were used, so we don't get to hear Bernadette sing. I think that suited her because she was trying to branch out career-wise. "Love is Good for Anything that Ails You". Edit: Ida Sue McCune and Billy May seem to be the original source.
And I love this number by Vernel Bagneris, as the hapless guy who can't catch a break. He's so loose-limbed and I wish we'd seen him more in films. It's relatively new to YouTube and I was glad to find it. Edit: Arthur Tracy did the vocals.
And here's Christopher Walken showing off his considerable dancing skills. "Let's Misbehave". I don't still have my copy of the soundtrack album and IMDb didn't say, so I can't credit these numbers to the original artists. From a YouTube search, this seems to be Irving Aaronson and His Commanders, but the naughty dancing is all Walken's.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Mar 9, 2024 13:46:22 GMT
My mistake. To be reposted in the Movie Theme Songs thread in the Music forum. But thanks for responding, Fading Fast. I agree that it's a relic of 1950's attitudes, which had no place even then.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 9, 2024 14:07:10 GMT
Avert your eyes, kim, because this innocuously hummable tune by the pop group The Turtles was commissioned for A Guide for the Married Man (1967), basically a compendium of stories about cheating husbands who did or didn't get away with it. The title sequence gives the game away with Walter Matthau visually surveying the women around him, with plenty of camera shots on butts and elsewhere. Gene Kelly directed it, but that doesn't prevent it from being somewhat distasteful even by 1960's standards. There's a great cast but it doesn't seem to get shown much today and I don't wonder why. Like the tune, though. Music by Johnny Williams. Sound familiar? That movie was made ten years after it should have been as the whole '50s battle-of-the-sexes movies that pivoted on the man wanting to cheat or have premarital sex was insanely dated by the late 1960s, plus as you point out, this one pushed the sexist stupidity further than most. I haven't seen it in years, but I remember thinking it might be an intentional parody of those '50s movie, if not, it was just dumb and tasteless. The song, like the movie, seems bland and a bit dated - generic earlier rock and roll.
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