Well, dear readers, the Labor Day weekend has ended and now we must buckle down, Winsocki, and get back to work. I do hope that everyone had a nice, healthy, and safe long weekend. Certainly it was the berries around these here parts. We partied all weekend long, and on Sunday we even had a lively and sparkling live chat, our first in quite some time. I slept late every day, and I now feel refreshed and rarin’ to go. In fact, I feel like the berries. Yesterday, for example, I felt like the berries and I, in fact, had some berries. Otherwise, I just sat around the home environment and did nothing but write a couple of pages. They were the berries, too – I was very happy with a surprise direction the story took. I sat outside for a while – I really like sitting outside by Ye Olde Pool, it’s really the berries. Then, last night, I attended a Labor Day partay given by neighbors Tony Slide and Bob Gitt. It was their usual delightful gathering of neighborhood folks and old Hollywood. The food was excellent, as were the conversations. I spent most of my time hanging out with cousin Alan and his ever-lovin’ Dee Dee. Dee Dee had brought her famous fruit, which included the berries. Also in attendance were actress Marsha Hunt, Mr. Norman Lloyd, Mr. Curtis Harrington, composer and pal John Scott (whom I’d just seen on Friday at The Smoke House), and quite a few others. I was a very good boy, food-wise – only one helping (and nothing very fattening), and then a slice of yummilicious Coconut cream pie. With John Scott were two young French fellows who are in town finding films for a film festival they do in France. We had a nice chat with them, and they were most impressed with my knowledge of French cinema, especially Patrice Leconte, and the newer films like L’Appartement and Read My Lips, as well as French film music composers. Both gentlemen are huge soundtrack aficionados, and they were delighted to hear that I had helped start Varese Sarabande and then worked there. Mr. Slide and Mr. Gitt were their usual charming selves and perfect hosts. I was there three hours and then I came back to the home environment, where I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Swing Time, starring Mr. Fred Astaire and Miss Ginger Rogers. It is, as I’ve said before, my favorite film of theirs, and one of my favorite films ever. I don’t find the plot as silly as most of their films, and everything just works – plus it has an absolutely perfect song score. In one film you get Pick Yourself Up, A Fine Romance, Never Gonna Dance, and The Way You Look Tonight. It doesn’t get better than that. If I had to choose one Astaire/Rogers number to have with me on a desert island it would be a very tough decision between Never Gonna Dance and Pick Yourself Up. They are both absolute perfection. I suspect that Never Gonna Dance would win out. After watching the film, I put on the “documentary,” which I knew I would hate, but I’m ever hopeful that someone will say something of interest. No such luck. On the Top Hat “documentary” everyone said that Top Hat was the pinnacle of their films. On Swing Time they say that Swing Time was the pinnacle of their films. I think you can only have one pinnacle, yet they have two pinnacles. And again we are subjected to the awful Jeffrey Denman and his co-star in some Astaire/Rogers tribute review they did that didn’t go anywhere. This guy just makes with the pronouncements, and in this particular “documentary,” he actually has the temerity to do some dancing with his co-star. Mr. Denman is no Fred Astaire – let’s just leave it at that, and hope that I never have to see him or listen to his insipid ramblings in a supplement again. Whoever put these “things” together should be ashamed of themselves for cheapening it with these people who have no business being there. End of rant. The transfer is fine, the source material isn’t. It’s soft a lot of the time, has much damage, and even has two jump cuts where frames are missing. One little section of the film, the A Fine Romance sequence, looks great (except for the frame moving around as if it were trying to outdance Fred) – good contrast, sharp and rich-looking. That is short-lived, however. If any other studio had issued this box set, you’d be hearing shouts of horror from every DVD site. But, because it’s Warner Bros. we’re supposed to forgive it, saying “that’s probably the best they could do with the materials they had.” They wouldn’t and don’t allow that excuse for any other studio, but for Warner Bros. we have to kiss the ground they walk on. Not me, bucko. While I am grateful for their fine work on many titles, I don’t know why excuses work for them on their lesser efforts and not for others. Fair is fair. In any case, Swing Time is an absolute must, no matter what.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because there is a lot happening this very day, and I feel like this day could be the berries, frankly.
Before we get to this very day, don’t we have an Unseemly Trivia Contest to provide answers for? I’m a bit surprised that many of our regular contest players have been sitting out the last few weeks – each of those contests was not as difficult as contests past. Are we now bored of the contests? Should we have a little break? In any case, here was this week’s question:
In this interesting theatrical season, one author had two plays on Broadway. One was a flop, one was a hit. Despite that, both plays were turned into films. One was quite successful, the other less so, but both were high profile. One film version kept the title of the play, and one did not. The cast of the flop was very interesting. Its female lead would go on to appear in a famous director’s film, one of his most interesting and beloved. She would also go on to appear in a very big hit television series. The male lead had appeared in at least two classic films prior to the play, and would go on to appear in a brief role in another classic film. The stars of the hit would not repeat their roles on screen. The stars of the flop would not repeat their roles on screen. The film version of the flop featured a hugely successful and popular movie star, and also starred someone who was not only a movie star, but a theater star as well. That same season, another play opened one month after the flop. It, too, was an even bigger flop, lasting only a little over a week. The plot of the play was extremely far-fetched, although over a decade later, one of its aspects proved not to be far-fetched at all. Its author would make several peculiar films. Its cast featured an actor who had co-starred in one of the most beloved and popular films ever made, and also in the cast was a gentleman who would go on to star in one of the best-loved sitcoms ever done. Also in the play was an actor who would go on to star in a hugely successful motion picture musical. The play’s director went on to direct a few classic films in a long and prolific film career. Are you with me so far?
Name the hit play and the flop play by the same author, and name the author.
Name the title of the film version that did not keep its play title.
Name the female lead of the flop play, the famous director’s film she would soon thereafter appear in, and the TV series in which she starred.
Name the leading man of the flop play.
Name the two stars of the film version of the flop play.
Name the second flop play and its author.
Name the actor who was featured in one of the most beloved and popular films ever made.
Name the gentleman who would go on to star in one of the most beloved sitcoms ever made.
Name the actor who would go on to star in a hugely successful motion picture musical.
Name the director who would go on to make several classic films.
And here are the Unseemly Answers:
Separate Tables, The Sleeping Prince – Terrence Rattigan
The Sleeping Prince became The Prince and the Showgirl
Barbara Bel Geddes, Vertigo, Dallas
Michael Redgrave
Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe
Night of the Auk, Arch Oboler
Claude Rains, Casablanca
Dick York, Bewitched
Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music)
Sidney Lumet
And our winners are: JMK, FJL, and Robert Armin. Our Electronic Hat has chosen completely at random this week’s High Winner: JMK. If he will send his address, he will receive a sparkling prize.
I am hoping that this very day runs smoothly. In fact, I hope this day will be the berries. That will all depend on whether the Harvey Schmidt CD is ready this morning, as promised. I told my contact person at the pressing plant that I didn’t want to be told morning, then noon, then three, then five, as happened on Friday. If they are indeed ready in the morning, then I’ll go pick them up, come back here and package them up and put them in the envelopes that already have the Stages CD in them – that shouldn’t take too long, and then I shall head directly over to the post office, even though I know it will be very busy because of the holiday. Then I have a potential lunch meeting, and then a dinner at Musso and Frank, which I’m really looking forward to. I’m also in the last third of the new short story, and I’m going to try to bash out a few pages. And I must make arrangements for the food platters for our CD launch party on Saturday night.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must ship CDs, I must pick up packages, I must do errands whilst driving about in my motor car, and I must sup at Musso and Frank. Today’s topic of discussion: We haven’t done our desert island lists in a ‘coon’s age. So, what five films would you want with you on a desert island. And what five books? And what five CDs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s have all the posts be the berries.