Well, dear readers, it is quite late and I am quite tired and therefore I shall keep these here notes quite short and that’s all there is to it. These here notes will have brevity and, as we all know, brevity is the soul of wit, or so some wag said. And that wag was William Shakespeare and the character of Polonius uttered the now immortal phrase in the now immortal Hamlet, but I digress and I need to only gress and write these here now immortal notes. But I have to keep these here now immortal notes interesting and memorable or else they will be forget-me-notes. We don’t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com. In any case, I had a not quite decent night’s sleep because I was awakened by the ringing of the telephonic device at 8:45. I got up, answered e-mails and did some rewriting. Then we had our little mini-rehearsal with Kim Huber. She couldn’t be with us yesterday, so we ran her three songs – she’s just a wonderful singer and such a pleasure to work with. Then the thirteen-year-old arrived and we ran her song again, since she can’t be with us on Friday, as it’s her brother’s graduation ceremony. As I mentioned yesterday, we had a bit of trouble with this number and she really wasn’t comfortable with it, since the mp3 she was learning from was in a horrible key. This morning our MD sent her an mp3 plunking the melody in the key we’re using. And guess what? With the exception of a little roughness in the first verse (where she’s accompanied only by a bass line), she nailed the damn thing. This girl is really a pro and that’s the kind of person that I love working with. In order to give her security on the first verse, I asked the MD to forget about the solo bass line and play accompaniment, and that did the trick.
After that, I was really hungry, so I went and had a bacon cheeseburger and some onion rings for my meal o’ the day. Both were yummilicious. I then went to the mail place and picked up one package and no mail. Then I came home, jogged, and did some music writing for about two hours (this all has to do with my mystery solo project). Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled Hotel. I gave my history with this film in yesterday’s now immortal notes, but to reiterate, they don’t make ’em like this anymore and it’s a real shame no one has a clew how to make glossy soap operas. But then again, today you would not have anyone near the likes of Rod Taylor, Melvyn Douglas (so great in this as a cantankerous hotel owner), Kevin McCarthy, Karl Malden, Merle Oberon (who is really touching), Michael Rennie, Catherine Spaak, Richard Conte, not to mention such stalwart character people as Harry Hickox, Roy Roberts, William Lanteau, Alfred Ryder, Al Checco, Ken Lynch, Clinton Sundberg, not to mention the great Carmen McRae singing a few tunes. Richard Quine’s direction is terrific as is the script by Wendell Mayes, the set design is brilliant and very old-fashioned, the costumes by Edith Head and Howard Shoup are wonderful (one suspects that Miss Head only did the Merle Oberon gowns), and an absolutely fantastic score by Johnny Keating. The soundtrack LP was one I played over and over again – it’s filled with memorable themes – haunting and beautiful and pulsing – it’s one of my favorite 1960s scores. Gorgeously photographed by Charles Lang – well, it’s just a gem in every way. The Warner Archive homegrown DVD is pretty nice – while it doesn’t quite have the luster of the IB Technicolor prints, the color’s pretty nice and I just loved seeing it again.
I then watched a second motion picture on DVD entitled The Prize, starring Mr. Paul Newman, Miss Elke Sommer, Mr. Edward G. Robinson, Mr. Kevin McCarthy, the delightful Leo G. Carroll, Miss Diane Baker, and many others. I saw The Prize at a sneak preview at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood (now the El Capitan) and I absolutely loved it. If you had to have a Hitchcockian thriller sans Hitchcock then this was a reasonable facsimile. Of course, the reason it reeks of Hitch is because the screenplay is by Ernest Lehman, writer of North By Northwest. In fact, Mr. Lehman rather shamelessly lifts entire scenes from North By Northwest and without much change transplants them wholesale to The Prize. The dialogue has some very witty things and the film is still entertaining, but some of it simply hasn’t worn well, whereas North By Northwest remains an all-time classic. Director Mark Robson gets the job done, the cast is fun, and there’s a terrific Jerry Goldsmith score to boot. This is, surprisingly, the film’s first time on DVD – before purchasing I looked at the clip on the Warner Archive site and that clip looked great and led me to purchase. I wish I could say the entire transfer looked as good as that one clip, but it’s not the case. Much of the transfer is simply to warm – too much brown and purple and not enough blue. And yet, it’s wildly inconsistent and you’ll occasionally get scenes that look very good, color-wise. So, it’s a little baffling, frankly. Still, if you like the film, it’s nice to finally have it on an anamorphically enhanced DVD.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and need to continue these now immortal notes in the next section.
Today, I will hopefully sleep at least until nine, after which I shall arise, do some writing, and then have an eleven-thirty meeting. After that, I have to visit Mystery and Imagination Books to set up my book signing, and then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, do errands and whatnot, and then get some writing done on the Wechter/Kimmel project.
Tomorrow is our second rehearsal, and prior to that I’ll be doing a lot of writing and trying to finish all the scenes that are mine to do. Saturday, I have a work session and then dinner, and Sunday I’m trying to figure out – I know there will be a meeting at some point, and as soon as that’s set, if the timing works then I’ll be taking dear reader Jeanne out for her birthday meal.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do some writing, have a meeting, go to a bookstore, do errands and whatnot, pick up some packages, eat, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite glossy soap opera motion pictures from the bygone era? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland having posted these now immortal notes.