Comedy, Romance, Cross-Dressing, and Mafia in Miami

One of the my favorite romantic comedies about music, love, cross-dressing, and the mafia definitely has to be Billy Wilder's 1959 film Some Like It Hot. With the stellar cast of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, it is easy to see why this steamy film is on top of so many film lists and continues to delight and entertain nearly fifty years after it was made.

After being witness to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, saxophonist Joe (Curtis) and bass violin player Jerry (Lemmon) try to hide from the mob by disguising themselves as Josephine and Daphne and joining an all-girl band headed by vocalist and ukulele player Sugar Kane (Monroe) headed for a rich resort in Miami filled with millionaires. Joe falls in love with Sugar and pretends to be a rich millionaire (when he's not in drag as Josephine). Meanwhile "Daphne" is being chased around by real millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown), who's yacht Joe conveniently uses to keep up his charade with Sugar. When the mob comes for a convention in Miami to deal with the two missing witnesses from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a whole new dimension of comedy ensues.

For a more detailed synopsis and review, you can click here, thanks to filmsite.org. Legendary costume designer Orry-Kelly designed the dresses worn not only by Monroe but also by Curtis and Lemmon when they were dressed up as their female alter-egos. The cast in this film is not the original cast Wilder and the studio intended at all. Danny Kaye and Bob Hope were considered for the roles that went to Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Mitizi Gaynor was wanted for Monroe's role of Sugar Kane and director Billy Wilder originally wanted Frank Sinatra as Jerry/Daphne. Of course, the roles being assigned as they were have made the film that much more memorable.

In fact, this film is #81 on IMDB's list of 250 Greatest Movies, made Time's list of 100 Greatest Movies, and AFI voted it #14 on its list of top movies and #1 on it's list of top comedies. Premiere Magazine also voted it as the #1 comedy on its list of 50 Greatest Comedies of All time and Entertainment Weekly voted it 9th on its list of Greatest Comedies of All Time. For more info and reviews on the film, you can check out this article at Frank's Movie Log. For a more in depth look at the filmography, you can check out this site, thanks to film.u-net.com. Screensavour.net has this site, which focuses on both the history and the humor of the film. Finally, a brief overview can be found here, thanks to 1001flicks blogspot. As a special treat, here is the original trailer for the film:

Singing, Dancing, and Talkies

Though it is usually categorized as a musical, the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain has all of the elements of a classic romantic comedy film. Co-directed by Stanley Donen and song and dance man Gene Kelly, the film is a great example of a Hollywood movie that parodies Hollywood as well as the politics of falling in love on a Hollywood set.

Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are the on-screen romantic duo of Lockwood-Lamont, whereas off stage, they detest each other. When Hollywood suddenly goes from silents to talkies, studio head R. F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell) decides the next Lockwood-Lamont should be a talkie. Unfortunately, Lina talks like a sqwaking bird not a swooning starlet. Enter Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), a young actress who is struggling to make it but can sing, dance, act, and is the head of the Don Lockwood fan club, unbeknownst to Don himself. Don and pal Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) conspire to have Lina's parts dubbed over by Kathy, but when Lina and friend Zelda Zanders (Rita Moreno) feel threatened by Kathy's presence, they attempt to ruin the whole scheme. Don has to prove his love for Kathy and Lina's sham in the midst of several colorful and catchy musical numbers.

The acclaim of this film is known far and wide. Singin' in the Rain is a definite must see for any film fan, buff, or viewer. Time voted it one of the 100-Must See Films of all time. It was on Entertainment Weekly's list of 10 Best Films and #8 on Empire Magazine's list of 500 Greatest Films of All Time. It made severeal AFI lists including #1 Musical, "Singin' in the Rain" as #3 song, #10 in the 100 Years...100 Movies List, and #16 in 100 Years... 100 Passions.

For a review and history of the film, you can look here at the mardecortesbaja blogspot. Roger Egbert's review of the film can be found here and a review from decentfilms.com can be found here. Noripcord.com has also done a review, as has leftfieldcinema.com.

For more information on the film, you can check out this page at filmsite.com or you can read this hypertextual reading of the film, thanks to Project Muse.

Mary Poppins Lives On

The 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins is not only a great movie for people of all ages, but a cinematic treasure with amazing effects for its time. The film won five academy awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews, Best Music and Best Special Effects. No Disney film has won that many awards before or since. It was the top grossing Disney film of the year as well as the top grossing Disney film for the next twenty years. As you can see, it was worth being the most expensive film Disney had produced at the time.

CNN has just produced this great article, an interview with Mary Poppins cast member and funny man Dick Van Dyke about working on the film and the longevity of the movie. It is revealed in the article that Van Dyke's TV show a personal favorite of new first lady, Michelle Obama as well as new information about what it was like working on the Mary Poppins set.

The film is a very condensed version of the book series written about Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers and it was made even shorter by the deletion of dozens of songs. Following in the literary traditions of her famous character, Julie Andrews wrote a book of her own, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

Its hard to believe its been forty-five years since the original release of Mary Poppins. The film which helped pioneer the fusion of real-life and animated scenes in a spectacular fashion has gone on to influence generations of films after it.

Wanna See Some Great Movies?

For the month of February, Turner Classic Movies puts together perhaps one of the best themed film marathons, in my personal opinion. From February 1st until March 3rd, they put on their 31 Days of Oscar Marathon, saluting some of the most award-winning films, actors, and directors to grace the silver screen.

Rather than dividing the films up into Oscar category, such as Best Director or Best Cinematographer, TCM has come up with a more creative approach. The films are divided into themed or genre segments. For example, the segemnt called "The Southwestern United States" features the films Tulsa, Oklahoma!, and Cimarron. Each day is divided up into "departments", like a college, and the various departments have name like "The Education Department", "The Law Department", and "The Philosophy Department" and each "department" is subdivided from there.

For example, "The Foriegn Language" Department features segments entitled "Introduction to Italian" and "Intermediate French", including foriegn movies like The Four Days of Naples and Mr. Hulot's Holiday whereas the "Dance Department" features segements like "Advanced Tap" and "Introduction to Choreography", featuring various musical and dance films like Royal Wedding and 42nd Street. I'm not sure if this schedule will be better than the old standby, but it may help group together movies that will attract viewers with common interests in all of them.

For more information about what to expect with this year's 31 Days of Oscar, you can read this article twitchfilm.com did with Robert Osborne, who will be emceeing the majority of the event. Monstersandcritics.com has more on the set up of the marathon along with a schedule that will be more easy to access than downloading the pdf schedule from the TCM website. For those of you interested, here is TCM's press release about the event.

So, crack open those schedules and cancel all your plans for the rest of the month because some great films are coming to a television near you!

Backwoodsmen, Barn Raising, and Shotgun Marriage

When the 1954 classic musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came on TMC tonight, I knew I had to watch it. I am one of those people that falls into the category of musical-lovers. This is a film I have heard a lot about but never personally seen until tonight.

Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel), a backwoods lumberjack, comes to town in the spring for supplies and to bring home a wife/maid to help take care of him and his six brothers. He finds and meets Milly (Jane Powell) in town and then brings her home to meet his brothers. Milly is startled to meet Benjamin (Jeff Richards), Caleb (Matt Mattox), Dan (Marc Platt), Ephraim (Jacques d'Amboise), Frank (Tommy Rall) and Gideon (Russ Tamblyn). Milly straightens the boys out and then they fall in love with six girls at a barn raising. The boys realize how lonely they really are and its up to Milly and Adam to help the boys win the girls over by kidnapping them. Interwoven in the plot are timeless songs and energetic, acrobatic dance numbers.

The artistry, talent, and importance of this film has been widely recognized. The National Film Registry selected the film for preservation in 2004. It was ranked #21 on AFI's list of best musicals and made Entertainment Weekly's list of Top 25 Musicals.

MGM released Seven Brides and another musical Brigadoon both in the same year, 1954. MGM thought that Brigadoon would be the commerical success and relegated Seven Brides to b-movie status. Vincent Minelli's Brigadoon was given the money and the real location sets while Seven Brides was given only painted backdrops and limited funding. Ironically for MGM, Brigadoon became technically a commerical flop whereas Seven Brides was a commerical success.

Personally, I found the film to be full of talent with great muscial numbers, a great cast, and amazing dance routines. The dancing in particular use a plethora of equipment and props to enhance and make the moves seem more difficult. All of the dances are very acrobatic in nature as well as fast paced. The entire film is extremely colorful, from the costumes to the scenery. Despite the plot device of women being kidnapped, the film actually gives more power to the women in the film. Milly is the boss and what she says goes.

The film was based on Stephen Vincent Benét's short story "The Sobbin' Women", which was based on the Plutarch myth "The Sabine Women". For a history of this film, you can read here or you can read more history and a history of how the movie was made here. History and synopsis of the film can also be found here, courtesey of Classic Film Guide. You can read reviews of this movie here, thanks to rambles.net, here thanks to This To Say blogspot, and this one thanks to the BBC.

When All Else Fails, Rob a Train

The 1965 film Cat Ballou is one of those films that has it all. Though the genre it settles into is definitely Western, Cat Ballou has elements of comedy, drama, and still remains a family film. Directed by Elliot Silverstein, the screenplay for the film was written by Walter Newman that was based on a novel written by Roy Chanslor.

The film stars Jane Fonda as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, who is traveling home to Wolf City, Wyoming after spending time at teacher's college. She is going to meet her father Frankie Ballou (John Marley), a rancher, but on the train there, she aids in the escape of Clay Boone (Michael Callan) from the sherrif transporting him while Boone's Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman) distracts the sheriff. When Cat arrives home, she finds out the local government is trying to take away her father's ranch, which her father works with the help of Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini). The goverment has sent out a murderer-for-hire with a silver nose name Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin). Clay and his Uncle Jed come to help Cat and she also hires legendary gunfighter Kid Shelleen (also played by Marvin) to help. Unfortunately, the years have not served Shelleen well and he is down a drunken mess who can't even hit the side of a barn when he shoots. When silver-nosed Strawn kills Cat's father, it is up for her and her four accomplices to bring justice to Wolf City before the noose literally tightens around their own necks.

The film's plot is narrated by two "Shouters" known as Professor Sam the Shade and The Sunrise Kid, played by Nat 'King' Cole and Stubby Kaye, who with their banjo, guitar, and Western ballads, serve as a sort of Greek chorus for the movie, laying out the plot and mixing in a little of their own opinions about what is going on. Cole died of lung cancer before the film was released. Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his part in the film, mainly do to a comedic rough riding scene in the film. When he accepted his award he thanked "a horse someplace out in the valley".

Though this film is not particularly well-known or high on the popularity meter, it did manage to rank #10 on AFI's List of Greatest Western films. An article you can read here talks about a group who tried to track down the filiming locations for this movie and their own adventures in the American West. The blogspot No Smoking in the Skullcave has a review of the film, which can be read here. All in all, Cat Ballou is a great film full of comedy, suspense, and all of the horseriding, gunfighting action a good Western requires. As a special treat, here is a trailer that gives a brief synopsis of the film:

Disney, Annette Funicello, and Babes in Toyland

Disney’s 1961 musical adaptation of the classic Babes in Toyland is a Technicolor wonderland filled with the classic cast of Mother Goose characters. However, Disney changed up the film a lot to make it its own. The plot and the songs for this version are pretty much unrecognizable from the classic operetta by Victor Hudson or the more popular 1934 Laurel and Hardy version. Directed by Jack Donohue, you can find the entire film here, though it is divide up into several 9 to 10 minute increments.

The difference in plot from the other versions become apparent early. The film begins with Mother Goose (Mary McCarty) inviting everyone to Mother Goose Village, where dwell characters like the Toymaker (Ed Wynn), Grumio (Tommy Kirk) and Simple Simon the Pie Man (Jerry Glenn). This time, it is Tom the Piper's son (Tommy Sands) and Mary Quite Contrary (Disney poster-girl Annette Funicello) who are to be married in a ceremony that has all of Toyland abuzz. However, the evil Barnaby (Ray Bolger) won't let this happen. He orders to have Tom kidnapped and killed and drives away Mary's sheep, which are tended to by Little Bo Peep (Ann Jillian). Without Tom and the sheep for income, Barnaby thinks he has Mary where he wants her. But his henchmen go behind his back, selling Tom to some gypsies who allow him to escape. Reunited, Mary and Tom must band together with the other characters of Toyland to defeat Barnaby once and for all.

The Disney version of Babes in Toyland is only the second film version, the other being the Laurel and Hardy version. This was the first Babes in Toyland in color, Technicolor to be precise, and was the most elaborately created. The costumes are unique and the stage play like setting with colorful set design is very cheery and Disney. It was the first live-action musical Disney produced and another wasn't made until the release of Mary Poppins in 1964. Disney was perhaps a little reluctant to produce a live-action musical after Babes in Toyland, which bombed at the box office despite heavy studio promotion. Despite this, Annette Funicello says that Babes in Toyland was her favorite film that she made.

A good article with extra links on this film can be found here, thanks to Nationmaster.com. Another basic analysis of the film can be found here, thanks to epinions.com. Also, the New York Times review of the film can be found here.

Laurel and Hardy in Toyland

Based on the classic operetta by famed composer Victor Herbet, the 1934 musical comedy Babes in Toyland, also known as The March of the Wooden Soldiers takes the original operetta, everyone's favorite nursery rhymes, and adds in Laurel and Hardy for extra hilarity. The original music is included in this film along with great production and the great comedy of Laurel and Hardy. To see this classic film in its entirity, you can watch it here from Classiccinemaonline.com.

The film opens with a scan of Toyland, a magical realm where the characters and stories of nursery rhymes, folk stories, and fairytales come to life with an intro by Mother Goose (Virginia Karns). Evil Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants to marry Bo Beep (Charlotte Henry), the beautiful eldest daughter of Mother Widow Peep (Florence Roberts), aka the Little Old Woman who lived in a shoe. When Bo Beep refuses to marry the creepy old guy Barnaby, he calls in Mother Peep's mortgage on her shoe. Mother Peep's two inept lodgers Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dum (Oliver Hardy) find out Mother Peep's mortgage is in trouble and help her pay for it with money they have gotten from their boss the Toymaker. Meanwhile, Bo Beep looks for her lost sheep and falls in love with the helpful Tom-Tom Piper (Felix Knight). When their plan to help Mother Peep fails, they switch Stannie Dum with Bo Beep at the marriage ceremony, infuriating Barnaby who then sets loose boogeymen to destroy toyland. It is then up to Stannie and Ollie to save Toyland.

This film features some amazing costuming, makeup effects, and set design, creating a realistic looking Toyland using the techonology available at the time. A lot of accidents happened during the making of this film. Stan Laurel fell of a platform and injured his right leg. Assistant Director Gordon Douglas fell from the Old Woman's shoe and injured his left leg. Kewpie Morgan, who played Old King Cole, ruptured muscles in his stomach because of his character's laughter. Hardy had to have his tonsils removed after filming wrapped and producer Hal Roach developed appendictis after filming. Early on, their is a monkey dressed up a lot like Mickey Mouse in the film. During the 1961 Disney remake of this film, two comedians impersonate Laurel and Hardy

More info on this film can be found here thanks to Clown-ministry.com. A filmsite for March of the Wooden Soldiers (Babes in Toyland) can be found here, which gives some info on the film. Also, you can check out the Laurel and Hardy Fansite for more information on the comedic duo as well as their homepage.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

A remake of Holiday Inn, the 1954 film White Christmas borrows a lot of the same plot, the same lead actor, the same writer/composer, some of the same set, and a few of the same songs as the previous film. Fred Astaire was retired at this point and Bing Crosby's foil was set to be Donald O'Connor, but at the last second, O'Connor was replaced with dancing man Danny Kaye.

The begins with a scene from the final days of WWII where Captain Bob Wallace (Crosby), who is a famous decision, has his life saved by private Phil Davis (Kaye). Post-War, the two them rise to the top as a song and dance duo with their own show and national fine. They recieve a letter from an old army buddy asking them to check out his sister's act. Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera Ellen) have a good night club act. Judy and Phil scheme to get Bob and Betty together so Judy can get away from her henpecking sister and Phil can get a few moments of R&R from his uptight partner. The group winds up in Vermont at an inn run by General Waverly (Dean Jagger), their old army general. The general is in trouble and so Phil and Bob stage an act at his inn to draw in customers. Betty begins to doubt the meaning behind why Phil and Bob are helping out the old general and leaves on the eve of the big act, casuing everyone to wonder if the show will go on.

The film went to number one the year it was released. Vera Ellen's voice was dubbed over for most of the songs by Trudy Stevens, except for during the song "Sisters", where both parts of the song were sung by Rosemary Clooney. Most of the dialog for the movie was ad-libbed or improvised. Director Michael Curtiz also directed more than 100 films, including Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Marsaw.com gives a great synopsis, analysis, and review of the film, which can be read here. A brief history of the film can be read here and a timeline for the making of the movie can be read here. I have found two reviews for this movie, this one at Blogcritics.com and this one from FilmForager.com. If you want to test your movie knowledge about White Christmas, you can take this quiz.

A Musical Romantic Switcheroo for the Holidays

Often times considered the first movie made as part of the Christmas genre, designed to target holiday audiences, the 1942 film Holiday Inn has become a holiday film classic. Written by Irving Berlin, the film has an amazing cast of Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Virginia Dale and Marjorie Reynolds.

When the act of crooner Jim Hardy (Crobsy) and dancer Ted Hanover (Astaire) breaks up, Ted steals Jim’s fiancée Lila Dixon (Dale) and the two run off to pursue an act together. Jim retires to Connecticut. He comes up with an idea to open a nightclub that is only open on the holidays, called the Holiday Inn. Jim goes to visit Lila and meets shopgirl Linda Mason (Reynolds). Lila abandons Ted for a Texas millionaire and Ted turns to drinking. Jim persuades Linda to marry him, only for his new girl to be stolen by Ted with hopes of a Hollywood career. Joe closes the Holiday Inn and mopes around. Not to be defeated, Jim follows the advice of his housekeeper and goes to Hollywood to get back his girl.

The Thanksgiving sequence in the film is a reference to President FDR trying to change the date of Thanksgiving, which happened around the same time the film was made. The Holiday Inn chain, which was founded in 1952, took it’s name from this film. Irving Berlin was inspired to write this film while writing the song “Easter Parade”. The film White Christmas, based off of the “White Christmas” song originally written for Holiday Inn, is based off of this film. Holiday Inn and White Christmas both were written by Irving Berlin, staring Bing Crosby in the lead role, and involved performers entertaining crowds in inns open around the holiday. The same inn was used as a set in both moves. In Holiday Inn, the film is set in Connecticut whereas White Christmas is set in Vermont. During the 1980s, the “Abraham” musical sequence was cut during showings of the film because of the controversy surrounding the use of blackface. You can still see this sequence DVD and when the film is screened on Turner Classic Movies.

For some fun facts on this movie, you can read these, thanks to Mahalo.com. More more information on the film, you can read this article, thanks to classicmoviemusicals.com. Several good reviews of this film can be found online. Eyeforfilm, a UK website does a review that can be read here. Another review can be found here, done by Bright Lights Film. The Foster on Film blog does another review as does Classicfilmsuite.com, which can be read here.

Where are all the musicals?

Are musicals a dying film genre or are they just now making a come back? Sometimes it seems that in early film you couldn’t have a movie unless that movie had a song in it and movie musicals were one of the sure-fire moneymakers for the big studios. Every one of the Marx Brothers' movies have a song in as to the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Road Movies. There are so many famous movie musicals, most of them adapted from Broadway musicals.

A very short list of my personal favorites are Singin’ in the Rain, Porgy and Bess, Carmen Jones, Guys & Dolls, The King and I, The Jazz Singer, Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, My Fair Lady, No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Gypsy, and Show Boat. The list could go on and on, but I won’t fill up an entire post with a list of great musicals. The point is that old movies are chock full of musicals or at least song. Sometimes its hokey, sometimes its too sugary sweet and upbeat, but it always adds humor to a comedy or sadness to a drama. I still tear up every time I hear the strains of “Ol’ Man River” from Show Boat.

Of course, the popularity of musicals seemed to taper off in the late Eighties, and Nineties. Sure, there were such classics as Evita and John Waters’ Cry Baby and the Original Hairspray (which I find far superior to the current version. Just saying), but musicals were nowhere near as dominate on the film screen as they have been in the past. Of course, nowadays, musicals seem to be making a comeback. We have Chicago, Moulin Rouge, The Producers, and Sweeny Todd, all movie versions of Broadway plays (or in the case of The Producers, a version of a Broadway play that is a version of a movie). Still, musicals are not as prominent in our culture sphere as they once where.

I have a lot of remaining questions about what happened to the good old-fashioned movie musical. Why is it that studios don’t seen musicals as the seat-filling blockbusters they used to? What about our culture doesn’t seem to enjoy musicals as much as we used to? Did the musicals change or did we?