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Author Topic: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017  (Read 14978 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #50 on: May 11, 2017, 09:54:49 AM »

1SO

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #51 on: May 11, 2017, 10:06:52 PM »

There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low.
Even with a turkey that you know will fold, you may be stranded out in the cold.
Still you wouldn't change it for a sack of gold, let's go on with the show.

The title tells you exactly what you're in for, lots of songs and dances and backstage drama and romance. Story-wise, the film builds slowly introducing us The Five Donahues through epic numbers that would be the climax of a more modest movie. First up are the parents, played by Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey. Of course I know of Merman and expected her because of the title song. She's a Broadway belter, but does a serviceable job in a "stage to screen" manner. Same with Dailey, who I didn't recognize but IMDB says I've seen him before. They can sing and dance, but there's not enough star power with just them.


Next the film adds Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor, two of the greatest dancers ever, and I emphatically disagree with anyone who says different. They can also sing and act, just all-around solid entertainers and the film gets a lot more lively once they enter. The 5th Donahue is played by singer Johnnie Ray (not pictured) who can't act or dance and sings in a different style. Seems like a nice fella but a drag on the film. Thankfully he gets the least amount of screen time.


The movie has one more big name in the cast, Marilyn Monroe, who needs no further comment. She's every inch a superstar here, performing three songs from the Irving Berlin book, including "Heat Wave" and "Lazy" which Crosby sings in Holiday Inn. That might normally be a problem for me, but Monroe does it in a completely different style and it's accompanied by some fantastic dancing by O'Connor and Gaynor.


O'Connor gets a show-stopping, elaborate solo dance that's right between the grace of Fred Astaire and the athleticism of Gene Kelly. A Merry Musical Moment to be sure, but my eyes were really opened to the work by Gaynor. The image above is from "A Sailor's Not a Sailor ('Til a Sailor's Been Tattooed)", by Gaynor and Merman and it's arguably the highlight of the film. Not Hall of Fame material, none of the film is, but for the past couple of years I've been digging deep into the Hollywood Musical barrel. This is one that's worth the watch, but I wouldn't call it a discovery.
Rating: * * * - Okay

oldkid

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #52 on: May 12, 2017, 02:21:35 AM »
Sounds like it's right up my alley.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

1SO

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #53 on: May 12, 2017, 08:02:30 PM »

The Seven Little Foys (1955)
"I love him when he gets angry. And he gets angry all the time.
How many women can love their husband all the time?"


Biopic of famous vaudevillian Eddie Foy starring Bob Hope in his most dramatic role ever. This was designed to be Oscar bait for Hope. I've read that Hope campaigned hard to get an Oscar nomination and when it didn't happen the film - which was far from a flop - became known as an embarrassment. Recent years have been more kind, probably because in a ranking of Bob Hope films this falls around the middle, with a number of late career choices to be ashamed of. The problem with Hope playing dramatic is one of his main comedy gears is a dramatic set-up followed by an absurd punchline. You know his seriousness is just part of the joke, so here, when he's playing serious for real, it still comes off as comic. Some moments work, but overall Hope would need to learn a different style of drama if it was to be believable.


"I know every routine you ever did. I did them first."
"And I did them right."

The film has two saving graces. There are a small amount of good laughs, moments where Hope is in his element, both in and out of the spotlight. The big ace in the deck is a sequence with Hope and James Cagney, who reprises his role as George M. Cohan. (See for yourself.) They trade jokes and dace moves, including some of the most complicated work I've seen Hope perform. It's Merry Musical glory, and even though I knew about it going in it, it's the clear highlight of the month.
Rating: * * 1/2

Sandy

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #54 on: May 12, 2017, 10:24:50 PM »
 :D

That puts me in a very happy mood!

Junior

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #55 on: May 13, 2017, 02:13:56 AM »
I've got just the thing to bring you down.

What Happened Miss Simone?

I've gotten a little more into Nina Simone in the past year. She's such an interesting person, a life full of turmoil based on complicated relationships with her husband/manager (does that ever work out well?) and the civil rights movement. Her songs are undoubtedly central to that movement, and this doc does a pretty good job with her developing interest in the issues that the movement brought to national attention, in part thanks to songs like "Mississippi Goddamn." She was already dealing with her husband/manager overworking her, and after she became the "patron saint" of the civil rights movement she basically worked herself to the bone. Her daughter, interviewed extensively for the film, points to the stage as the only place where she might truly be happy, if only for a moment. It's sad, because she's obviously super talented and a person who feels deeply, and that seems like it quickly became both a gift and a curse.

The problem is, the movie isn't great at explaining exactly how all this stuff works. I know we got in a few arguments here about whether Amy (the Winehouse doc) was exploitative, but at least that film accomplishes what seems to be its goal. If this movie was supposed to answer the question it poses in the title, well, fission mailed. Around the halfway point things get hazy, and it's not on purpose as far as I can tell. It just feels like the doc runs out of steam. Maybe that's the form following the function as Nina herself becomes kind of unraveled. Maybe it's about seeing and feeling what happened to her. But if that's the case, generously, maybe it's also not the best choice. I came in wanting to know more about Nina Simone. I still do.

Also, I'm kind of tired of the old "keep the most famous song for the credits" thing in movies like this. It feels like there's a hole in the center of this movie named "Sinnerman" and then when they play it over the credits as if in a wink to the audience, saying, ha, you thought we forgot this one! But really you did forget this one. Imagine how much more powerful this song playing over the stuff about her husband might have been. Or maybe even just a full performance in the middle. Could have been, you know, movieish. Not this tacked on hunk of nothing.

Bleh. C.
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oldkid

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #56 on: May 13, 2017, 08:22:42 PM »
The Red Violin

The Winchester '73 of music movies.

The life of our violin begins in Italy in 1681, where the pregnant wife of a violin maker has her fortune told, but the fortune teller mixed up and mistakenly told the future of the violin instead.   I'm sure that happens all the time.   And so we bounce around from time to time, from continent to continent, with five separate stories being told.

Some of the stories are quite good, but the real issue is the story in Montreal, which acts as the framing device. Frankly, it's dull, overlong and predictable, but this is the story that is repeated from different perspectives, which colors the rest of the film.  Frankly, almost any of the other stories are more interesting.  The greatest feat of this movie is that this framing device makes Samuel Jackson boring.  Time for a nap boring.  That takes talent.

But the movie has a lot going for it.  The Italy segment is broken up through the film, but pretty good.  The Oxford segment, about a mad genius violinist who gets his inspiration from intimate times with this one woman is fantastic.  The segment in Vienna about a young orphan who is a prodigy heading toward high society was also great.  But because they are all so short, we don't have enough time to let any of the characters grow and strengthen.  There is no character arc.  There isn't time for any, as the characters slip through our fingers like sand.

3.5/5
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oldkid

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #57 on: May 14, 2017, 01:25:10 AM »
Calamity Jane

I've been listening to the podcast Scene on Radio, and they replayed a This American Life episode about the 1962 war between the US and the Sioux, which caused Minnesota to be pretty much rid of all Native Americans, as well as the fact that up through the 70s that war was whitewashed by the generations who lived in that area.  As usual with stories between Natives and settlers, it is the settlers that win and make up history the way they like it.  So much so that musicals can be made to make light of massacres and genocide.  Just the same, sexism dressed up as women getting who they wanted, even if they didn't know it, is still sexism.

Oh, yeah, I enjoyed myself.  Some good songs, a lot of people having fun, but mostly Doris Day in her tomboy best, yelling and shooting up a storm is a sight to see.  We don't need to see Canary the prostitute, where the years roughened her appearance.  Musicals aren't about truth, but a glorious fantasy with an uplifting score, made to hide the history we don't like.  And this is a great time with a number of laugh-out-loud lines and jaunty tunes.

But it is sad that we have to cover up our history.  Sad that we have to make a history of horror and rape and murder into a funny dance fest.  I love musicals, you know I do.  I just don't know that this is the tone to set such a story to.  I know, it's the fifties, and perhaps I should just enjoy myself and leave the guilt behind.  But today, I don't feel like it.

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PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #58 on: May 14, 2017, 04:29:22 AM »
the 1962 war between the US and the Sioux,
That should be 1862, right? A sad statement on US race relations that I may be 99% sure, but can't be 100% sure.

Quote
Musicals aren't about truth, but a glorious fantasy with an uplifting score, made to hide the history we don't like.
Nah, those are the worst musicals. The best musicals are grounded in truth, even if they take flights of fancy. They can be uplifting by painting a rosier picture of the present and/or future following from a tumultuous past, but the ones that just make everything rosy by ignoring that bad stuff even happens/happened aren't worthwhile. And if you're a musical director and really don't want to deal with pesky reality then at least have the decency to set your musical in a place removed from everyday reality, a royal hall or upper class neighborhood or something.

It's perfectly fair to criticize Calamity Jane for it because it goes out of its way to court that perspective on its content, especially the sexism part. Also it's a bad movie with terrible writing.

oldkid

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Re: Merry Music of May Marathon 2017
« Reply #59 on: May 14, 2017, 01:50:49 PM »
the 1962 war between the US and the Sioux,
That should be 1862, right? A sad statement on US race relations that I may be 99% sure, but can't be 100% sure.

Quote
Musicals aren't about truth, but a glorious fantasy with an uplifting score, made to hide the history we don't like.
Nah, those are the worst musicals. The best musicals are grounded in truth, even if they take flights of fancy. They can be uplifting by painting a rosier picture of the present and/or future following from a tumultuous past, but the ones that just make everything rosy by ignoring that bad stuff even happens/happened aren't worthwhile. And if you're a musical director and really don't want to deal with pesky reality then at least have the decency to set your musical in a place removed from everyday reality, a royal hall or upper class neighborhood or something.

It's perfectly fair to criticize Calamity Jane for it because it goes out of its way to court that perspective on its content, especially the sexism part. Also it's a bad movie with terrible writing.

Yeah, 1862.  That nine just slipped out.

I think I'm being soft on my criticism because: a. There were things about the movie I liked, especially Doris Day and b. It's a favorite of my sister-in-law and I told her I was watching it and I'm going to have to say something about it to her.  But as I get further from the film, the less I like it.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

 

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