BEFORE: I'm always on the look-out for actors and actresses with very long careers, because they help me link between newer films and the classic ones - anyone who appeared in films during the 1950's or 1960's and still was acting after 2000 is of great use to me, especially if I'm going to link back and pick up some of the older films that I haven't seen yet. I've used Michael Caine as a bridge back to the 1960's several times, anyone like Warren Beatty or Goldie Hawn or Diane Keaton could easily link back to the 1970's, and so on.
Now, last year I watched a ton of Fred Astaire movies. OK, 14 of them, but that's nearly a ton. Since then another 5 or 6 have aired, and when I was putting together this year's February chain (assuming most classic Hollywood song + dance films are romantic in nature) I didn't know if I'd be able to find a link back to those early days, Hollywood's "Golden Years", because I've just about used them all up. But then I saw Leslie Caron was in the 2003 film "Le Divorce", and there it was, my link to tonight's film from 1955, and therefore the other 4 Astaire films. I can get back to the 1950's, and that sets me up for the next 10 days or so - only I can't link back. So at the end of this run, I'm going to hit a dead stop, and no amount of shifting films around is going to help with that. I followed every lead, checked out every obscure actor appearing in the next 10 films, and nobody links back to a modern-day movie with a romance theme.
So, it is what it is, but at least with 5 Fred Astaire films, followed by 5 Howard Keel films, I'm going to clear away some of the classic films and still stay on my theme.
Tomorrow, February 14, on TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", it's Valentine's Day! Also, the nominees and winners for Best Adapted Screenplay. But again, I can see the scheduling genius behind putting these love-based films (some of them, anyway) here on this day. Also, two films with Leslie Caron, and I'm watching two different films with Leslie Caron! So clearly, TCM and I are on the same page.
6:45 am "Random Harvest" (1942)
9:00 am "Great Expectations" (1946)
11:00 am "Brief Encounter" (1945)
12:30 pm "Lili" (1953)
2:00 pm "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941)
4:00 pm "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944)
6:00 pm "Wuthering Heights" (1939)
8:00 pm "Gigi" (1958)
10:15 pm "Little Women" (1933)
12:30 am "Doctor Zhivago" (1965)
4:00 am "Tom Jones" (1963)
I've only seen 4 out of these, but hey, that's better than yesterday. I've watched "Meet Me in St. Louis", "Gigi", "Doctor Zhivago" and "Tom Jones", so another 4 out of 11 brings my total up to 53 out of 153. Up just a bit to 34.6%
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Funny Face" (Movie #2,571)
THE PLOT: On a trip to France, millionaire Jervis Pendleton sees an 18-year old girl in an orphanage. Enchanted with her, but mindful of the difference in their ages, he sponsors her to college. She writes him letters, which he doesn't read - after three years, he goes to visit her at a dance, not telling her he is her benefactor, and they fall in love.
AFTER: I just have to keep reminding myself, this film was made during a different time. 1955 was so long ago, that a millionaire was considered very, very rich. Who had a million damn dollars back then? Thanks to all the inflation over the last 6 decades, the average suburban American today would probably be worth at least a million if he or she sold the house and all their possessions and cashed in their 401K. (But then, where would they live?) Or if someone told you back then that you inherited a million dollars, man, you'd be set for life. These days, if someone told you about a million-dollar inheritance, while it would still be nothing to sneeze at, it might keep you afloat for a couple of years, but then what would you do when the money ran out?
It was also a different time where relationships were concerned - Jervis Pendleton is told here that he just can't travel from country to country adopting orphans whenever he wants. (That would become acceptable later on with Madonna and Tom Cruise...) Because the U.S. Ambassador has a feeling that Pendleton's motives are less than honorable (which they kind of are, I mean, he's smitten with Leslie Caron as an 18-year old orphan...) so Pendleton sets up an anonymous scholarship for her to attend the fictional Walston College, where he also happens to be a benefactor. And he makes sure that her roommate is his own niece, so he's got a built-in excuse to come and visit her.
I remember what I learned from watching all those Fred Astaire movies last year - nearly all of them had some kind of mistaken identity or identity deception in them, and this one's no different. When he visits as "Uncle Jervis", he dances with young Julie Andre and asks questions about her progress, but does not reveal his identity as her benefactor. Because the situation's already pretty creepy and stalker-ish as it is. This guy basically BOUGHT a French orphan, sent her to school to be educated and made her write letters to him once a month, so he'd be the unattainable mysterious father figure that she'd hopefully crush on via the Elektra Complex.
(There used to be a thing called "dance cards", at a formal dance party each girl would have an index card or something, and it would get filled with the names of the eligible men in the room, or at least those that wanted to dance with her, and then she HAD TO DANCE with those men, she couldn't say no. It sounds innocent enough, except that the whole situation favored the men, and the girl's consent wasn't even anywhere in the picture. Clearly part of the unfair patriarchal system.)
(Oh yeah, there used to be another thing called "dance crazes", back before everyone was popping and locking, or doing the "Running Man" or twerking it, every few months there would be a new dance that simply everyone had to learn how to do, because it looked really cool in a movie that everyone knew the same dance step. This film featured "The Sluefoot", and I know even less about dancing than I do about boxing, but this was a ballroom dance that featured a fan step back, then a step-step in place, then this was repeated on the other foot. Astaire added some shuffling and some arm jabbing, or so I'm told.)
This segment of the film produces what's probably the film's best/funniest moment, with the older Astaire (32 years older than the female lead here) attending the college dance, and none of the college-age boys think of him as competition, and the young women don't expect him to dance very well. OK, but dancing against Fred Astaire is a bit like challenging Mike Tyson to a fight, or going up against Tom Brady in a backyard football game. Astaire might have been 56 at the time, but he smoked these college kids at dancing...
Pendleton later invites both his niece and her roommate (his sponsored orphan) on an all-expense paid tour of New York City - and when his niece fails to show, he instead escorts Julie, his orphan, to every dance club in town. They totally connect on the dance floor, however coincidence demands that their conversation in the hotel room about "having the best night of her life" would then be overheard and taken out of context. For fear of the relationship seeming tawdry or inappropriate (umm, which it kind of happens to BE...) Pendleton breaks off the budding relationship and breaks Julie's heart. Fortunately, this leads her to seek romantic advice from her benefactor, not knowing that her dancing partner crush and her benefactor crush are in fact the same person.
Yeah, romance may win out in the end in this one, but the way we got there stills feels a little icky. The rich American man in power ends up getting what he wants, and the young French girl comes to America and learns that nothing moves you forward in society faster than being a pretty girl and a good dancer.
Also starring Fred Astaire (last seen in "Funny Face"), Terry Moore (last seen in "Gaslight"), Fred Clark (last seen in "Bells Are Ringing"), Thelma Ritter (last seen in "Rear Window"), Charlotte Austin, Larry Keating (last seen in "Who Was That Lady?"), Kathryn Givney, Kelly Brown, Ray Anthony, Ann Codee.
RATING: 5 out of 10 tour guides
No comments:
Post a Comment