Well, dear readers, I must hurry along because I ended up having a late meeting last night regarding our upcoming benefit, and I didn’t get to your excellent questions until this morning, hence it is getting late and I must get these here notes up and posted, because I have a morning meeting shortly. My goodness, that was a long sentence, wasn’t it? How can one hurry along and write short notes with long sentences?
Last night, prior to and after my meeting, I watched two count them two DVDs – Send Me No Flowers with our very own Doris Day, and The Countess from Hong Kong, the final film of Mr. Charles Chaplin. I’ll start with the latter. When I saw the film on its release, I was actually a fan of it. I knew it was old-fashioned and corny, but despite it’s failings as a film, I just liked it and saw it a few times. Unfortunately, it really is quite awful. Oh, it has occasional moments where it comes to life, but Brando is really not suited to this sort of thing. Miss Sophia Loren, on the other hand, does quite well. And if you’ve ever wanted to see Mr. Sydney Chaplin, the star of the stage versions of Bells are Ringing and Funny Girl, well, here’s your chance. Every single shot in the film could be trimmed by a few frames and that would help the pace immeasurably. Still, it was fun to see it again.
Send Me No Flowers is a lovely comedy, with Miss Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, and, of course, Edward Andrews, who I believe appears in every comedy made in the 1960s. The DVD looks gorgeous, as does Miss Day. In a small role is Mr. David Willock, one of my favorite character actors, and the father of my friend Margaret Willock Jones, who is the person who keeps me on track when I am writing those novels. There is a little dance sequence in the film which is choreographed by Mr. David Winters, who I would later work with on The Donny and Marie Show and in his film, Racquet. And the perky title song is by none other than Bacharach and David.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t I have excellent questions to answer? I say we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst eating some curds and whey.
Curds and whey? Has anyone here ever had curds and whey? I personally have never had curds and whey, nor have I ever had whey and curds. Oh, let us get on to your excellent questions, shall we?
Jrand52 asks which organization will come to its senses and honor Miss Doris Day for her body of work – AFI or the Academy. I think they’ve tried and I think she’s said no.
William E. Lurie asks if the Leona Helmsley trial is getting as much coverage on this coast as it is on the East coast. Do I think the jury was right in finding her guilty and do I think the eleven million dollars they awarded the man she fired was justified? What older actress should play Leona in the inevitable movie of the week. I don’t know from Leona Helmsley – I haven’t seen a newscast in months, and the coverage on this coast, at least in papers and the Internet hasn’t been all that much. How about Suzanne Pleshette as Leona Helmsley? I have no idea if that’s good or bad casting.
Ben asks if I’ve ever had a surprise birthday party. Yes, many and I was always surprised – they always ‘got’ me. Did I do anything special for my 50th birthday? I believe my friend Nick threw me a big bash at the Beverly Garland Hotel. It was quite festive.
Michael Shayne asked for a bunch of the Vinnie quotes, but since that will take some time to cull together, I’ll merely answer his last two questions: What would Vinnie’s quote have been if I hadn’t been precluded from thanking people on the Beyond Therapy album? Most likely Vinnie “after all this I NEED therapy” Cirilli. Where does Bacharach: The Instrumental Side fall into my producing cycle? Oh, I suppose with the instrumental albums of show music and film music and such. It’s really good, too. Grant Geissman, who did all the arrangements has played guitar for Mr. Bacharach quite often.
S. Woody White asks of the films I’ve seen in the last year (not many) are there any that I think could be made into interesting musicals? If so, who would I want to write them? Well, of the few films I’ve seen I can’t imagine any of them as musicals, except Chicago which is, of course, already a musical.
William F. Orr asks how Molly is. I wrote about my Molly decision earlier – she’s a great dog and we had a blast but I decided not to keep her because I realized how much I was going to be out of town this year and I didn’t think it would be fair to either of us.
Jason asks if I were to hear auditions for the role of Mary Sunshine in Chicago, what would I want to hear them sing. Only one song – the title song from Little Mary Sunshine. Actually, the best song to sing would be hers from the show, because they will want to know that you can handle it.
Td asks what magazines I read on a regular basis (besides Scarlet Street, of course) – I only read genre magazines – Video Watchdog, Outre, Filmfax and the like.
Jose asks do I watch late-night talk shows. Oh, I occasionally watch a bit of Letterman, but that’s it. In the old days, I used to watch Johnny Carson every night without fail. And I used to be quite fond of Merv and Mike, too. What TV show from the past or the present would I have liked to have been a regular on? Well, given the salaries they pay today – Friends. I’ve only seen the show once, but they all make over a million dollars an episode so I should think that would be a fine show to be a regular on. There were several series where I came close to getting the lead, and one that I would have enjoyed doing was called Richie Brockleman, Private Detective. I think Dennis Dugan played it. And I would have loved to guest on any The Name of the Game episode or any Twilight Zone episode or any Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. And any of the great variety shows, especially Jack Benny. Do I have any lucky numbers? Yes. Ten and five.
KT asks when I will tell all about the upcoming film project. Is it a musical, since I already mentioned hiring a choreographer? Is it for TV, video or theaters? Am I the writer and/or the director? Within the week I will have complete film details, but for now I can answer your questions – it is sort of a musical in that there are many songs. The intention is for a theatrical release first (after hopefully doing some festivals around the country). I am the director, and I have culled together the material.
What is my favorite color to wear and to look at? Oh, I tend to like beiges and browns and greens to wear, and I like to look at any saturated color, such as bright red. I also like the color of autumn leaves (I like the song, too).
Stephen asks how I chose the songs for the Sherman Brothers Album? Did I review all of their output or just stick to the ones I was familiar with? Did the Shermans have any part in the prep work for the album? Dick Sherman gave me several LPs and songbooks, although I was pretty familiar with their output. I definitely chose some songs I’d not been familiar with before. But I went through everything and then made my choices. He loved every choice I made and felt it was a good sampling of their work. My delight, of course, came in the two long medleys I did – one of their teen love songs, and one of all their nonsense word songs. Of course, I get no credit for those arrangements, but I think anyone who knows my work at all will know from whence they came. Dick was at the sessions in LA, too, and had a ball – he loved all my casting choices and he was like a little kid when he heard our wonderful orchestra and the great charts of David Siegel. I’m fairly certain they consulted him on the finished product, probably enlisted his help I would imagine. I have no idea if they mixed the tracks from scratch (doubtful) or if they used the rough orchestra mixes that I used to record the vocals to.
Matthew asks if I’ve ever seen a production of Sunset Blvd. and if so with whom. I saw it when it premiered here prior to Broadway, with Glenn Close. I enjoyed it very much. If there is a screen version, who would I like to see cast? Oh, Glenn could certainly do it, so could Meryl Streep. And I’ll bet Babs would be awfully good, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must have meetings and make phone calls and finish doing the corrections to the book. Today’s topic of discussion: Well, it’s time – what are your favorite films of the 90s? This is when I began to think cinema was going in the toilet, so I am very interested to hear your choices. I will withhold mine until later. Now, you people, post away, post often and definitely have some curds and whey whilst doing so.