I missed all the good stuff
Well, probably not anymore than they were like 7 years ago when Chicago came out, but still, I enjoyed the musicals tribute on the Oscars last night mostly because it involved more than one Judy Garland clip!
I also enjoyed Queen Latifa's performance for the In Memoriam segment. It was painful to think that I may be responsible for at least three of these deaths.
If you haven't seen Sunset Blvd., I strongly recommend that you do. Yes, it's really weird. Yes, that Gloria Swanson is a total nut-job. Yes, it's awesome. I watched it for the second time ever last weekend for Old Movie Night, and it was better than I remembered. And it was especially fun to watch with a group of 20-somethings who were completely disturbed by most of it.
If you don't know the story, which you should, it opens with a dead man in a pool. That's how you know it's going to be great. We then go back some time to find out how this fellow ended up in the pool. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a handsome, young Hollywood hopeful narrates the story of his accidental meeting with the insane, washed up movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). For whatever reason, he gets sucked into her weirdness and things spiral out of control from there. It slowly builds as Norma gets more and more crazy and poor Joe tries harder and harder to get away from the madness.
(Sidenote: Is it just me, or are there a lot of crazy movie characters with a variation of the name Norman? Norma Desmond, Norman Bates ... Hollywood has doomed the name!)
Also adding to the insanity is Norma's creepy butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). He's always lurking in the shadows and seems to have some weird, unhealthy obsession with Norma.
Clearly, it has the makings of a great film: A big old mansion, an insane old actress with crazy eyes, a dashing young man trapped by the old lady, and a creepy butler who plays the organ.
The group at old movie night seemed to enjoy it. Despite some mocking laughs at Norma's weird facial expressions and some plain old corny dialogue, it seemed to go over really well. It's definitely a film that holds up. As my insightful (and cute!) boyfriend said, it's kind of like a really long episode of The Twilight Zone. It's plenty creepy, but not really a scary movie.
We were so inspired by Norma's crazy eyes that we took a Norma-inspired group photo:
To make things even more interesting, check out the imdb.com trivia for the movie. Good stuff. Also, take a look at their trivia for Gloria Swanson. And Carol Burnett's parodies of the movie is always entertaining.
I stayed home sick from work today and finally got the chance to look through the Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney boxed set I got for Christmas. It includes 4 movies—Babes in Arms, Strike Up the Band, Babes on Broadway, and Girl Crazy— plus a while disc of bonus material, PLUS these fancy little behind-the-scenes photos. I'm not sure what one would ever do with them, but they're still great!
Today I watched Babes on Broadway which is my favorite Judy/Mickey movie. Then I moved onto the bonus disc, which turned out to be awesome for one reason: The Judy Garland Songbook, "A Chronological Cavalcade of Musical Numbers." Yeah, it's basically like Judy Garland music videos which is kind of a dream come true for me considering I generally just fast forward straight to the songs in most Judy movies. I'd say the entire set is worth it for this feature alone, especially when it's only like $30 on Amazon.com.
The curious thing about this Judy Garland Songbook is that they failed to include "Over the Rainbow," the most famous Judy song EVER, but chose to include "Friendly Star" which I believe to be one of the worst songs in the history of the world. I mean really, if they're going to include a lame song from Summer Stock, there's no doubt it should be "Howdy Neighbor, Happy Harvest." But apart from that one strange oversight, all the other songs are quality and they range her very first short film at MGM to "Born in a Trunk" from A Star Is Born which opens and closes the entire set of songs.
The bonus disc also includes the TCM's Private Screening interviews with Mickey Rooney which I have yet to watch, but I'm sure are everything one would expect from a crazy old Mickey Rooney. I'm looking forward to checking that out!
I watched the Grammys last Sunday night for three reasons: Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Diamond. (Yes, I like Neil Diamond. I've come to terms with it and you can too.)
I was pleased that they chose to bring back some of the oldies for those of us who have no idea what these new songs are. I kissed a girl and I liked it?! No, give me Neil Diamond. I was a little concerned that they stuck poor Stevie Wonder with those Jonas Brother kids, but I think it turned out to be one of the best performances of the night. Stevie can make anything amazing.
Paul's performance was decent. Not amazing, but Paul is always cool.
Neil Diamond started off a little questionable. I was worried he was going to do that weird talk/sing business for the entire song, but luckily, things got better. The crowd was very into it and it was overall a pretty good performance for a corny old man.
And here's Stevie and those Jonas kids.
It's been awhile since I've posted about an Old Movie Night viewing! Last weekend we watched The Lady from Shanghai. This wasn't necessarily my first choice, but a friend had been wanting to watch it for quite some time. I was a bit hesitant since we'd watched another Orson Welles movie, Touch of Evil, last year and it didn't really go over that well. Actually, I have no idea what it was even about. Luckily, The Lady from Shanghai turned out to be better.
In it Orson Welles plays a sailor, Michael O'Hara (with a painfully fake Irish accent), who meets a really hot chick, Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth), in Central Park, I believe. When he's later approached by her old, creepy husband to work on his yacht, Micheal can't refuse. While working, he of course gets just a little cozy with Elsa. Soon he finds himself mixed up in some crazy murder plan involving Elsa, her creepy husband, and this crazy weird man, George Grisby, culminating in an interesting scene in a fun house involving guns and a lot of mirrors. I won't give away the end.
So if you're a fan of Orson Welles or murder mystery type movies, I'd definitely recommend this one!
I can't believe I've never written about this movie. It was #1 on my Top Ten Judy Garland Movies list, and even though I made that list 2 years ago, I still have to say Summer Stock is my favorite.
This movie is great for a few reasons:
1. Judy wears overalls in it and rides a tractor ... all while singing! It doesn't get much better than that.
2. There's a character named Orville and he's everything you'd hope for in a character named Orville.
3. Gene Kelly.
I'm the first to admit that the movie is extremely corny and kinda lame. I mean really, it's about Judy running a farm and her flakey sister who invites her theater friends to put on the show in their barn. It's basically a Judy/Mickey movie with 30 year olds. Also, most of the songs are pretty lame, except of course for Get Happy, which is pretty popular, I think mostly because Judy doesn't wear any pants during the number. (Sidenote: when I was a kid watching Summer Stock, I was very confused as to why Judy was rather heavy (for her) through most of the movie, but then in Get Happy she was quite thin, as usual. I came to find later in life that Get Happy was filmed a couple weeks after regular filming ended and after Judy was back on a regular diet of pills and booze and whatever else it was that made her too skinny.)
Anyway, I recommend Summer Stock if you're a fan of MGM musicals. It's silly and overall a good time.
And now, my favorite Summer Stock moments:
- Judy singing on a tractor (of course). Especially when she's holding a note at the end and makes some insane face. I'd like to note that one of the lyrics in this song (Howdy Neighbor) actually goes, "and if the weatherman won't upset us, mister you can bet us you'll have lots of crispy lettuce in your jeans!" This has always baffled me. Crispy lettuce in my jeans?? Doesn't sound appetizing. I'd also like to point out that I just quoted that line completely from memory.
- When Marjorie Main (who plays Judy's hired help, as usual) is in the barn with the sleeping actors and she attempts to wake them up at the crack of dawn by ringing a large bell. The bell ringing itself is not terribly funny (just a little), but she starts to ring violently and it is then that her hair, in a bun on top, flies back and forth on her head like I've never seen before. It's a small moment, but amazing.
- The Portland Fancy. My cousins and I watched The Portland Fancy so many times that the tape got fuzzy. Stupid VHS. But anyway, some great dancing from Judy and Gene. It's worth watching the movie just for this part.
- When Judy and Gene sing You Wonderful You alone in the barn. So cute.
- When Judy tells off Orville, particularly when she tells him to "Go away!" and "Go home!" with crazy eyes.
Since Summer Stock is a pretty cheezy old musical, it also has a number of cringe-worthy moments:
- Any scene with Phil Silvers
- Most of Judy's outfits.
- The terrible, terrible, song at the end with the dogs. I don't think I've ever actually watched that part so I have no idea what the song is. I just know that Gene sings it with Phil Silvers and they're dressed like mangy old farmers, they're missing teeth, and I think they have sweat stains on the fronts of their shirts.
- Everyone's outfits in the final song.
- "Friendly Star." I believe this is my cousin's favorite song in the movie, but I'm not sure if she's joking or not. Plus Judy's wearing a dress with snowflakes on it while she's singing and it's clearly not winter.
This turned out to be a long post and I'm slightly disturbed that I have this much to say about Summer Stock.
Good news, it seems that my reign of terror may be coming to an end. Last week Van Johnson died and I had absolutely nothing to do with it! I'm thrilled. I mean, about the fact that I didn't cause it ... not Van ... yeah ...
Meanwhile, poor Van Johnson. However, he was like 92 ... a good long life. Anyway, I've only seen 2 Van Johnson movies in my life: In the Good Old Summertime and Yours, Mine, and Ours.
In the Good Old Summertime is one of my favorite Judy Garland films ever. The teaming of Judy and Van is a little strange, I admit, but it's never bothered me too much. He's no Gene Kelly, mind you, but he was pretty funny and entertaining.
I think that's all I really have to say about him. There are some actual good articles about him here and here
Posts
All Comments
