Cinco DeNio

Jane was married three times but only divorced once. Her first husband was Bob Waterfield, a star football player (so she definitely liked the Olympian type). She was married to him around 25 years when they divorced. Her other two husbands died but her third marriage was also around 25 years. No fly-by-night type, she. (She herself passed just 6 years ago.)

Question: How much of "Piggy" was a ruse? Was he really Lord Beekman, or Mr. Finch, or someone else?

I loved when Jane discovers the Olympic team, starts "salivating" and Gus reminds her she's the chaperone. "Now let's get this straight, Gus. The chaperone's job is to see that nobody else has any fun. But nobody chaperones the chaperone. That's why I'm so right for this job." [media=''] [/media]

THANK YOU! It's always bugged me that they took a boat trip and Gus seemed to do so later when he shows up at the club but Gus' dad flies in. I forgot Lorelei and Gus were supposed to go on vacation together.

Triple also! Years ago my family went to The Second City in Toronto (with Mike Myers and Ryan Stiles!). One of the bits was a musical number "Condoms are a girl's best friend" and the singer tossed out condoms to the audience.

Nitpick time: The Olympians that surround Jane sure didn't look like the team boarding the boat.

The movie staging is where Madonna got the inspiration for her Material Girl video. [media=''] [/media]

I liked that line too. Just for some reason the other one weirded me. I realize that the character HAD to be a kid to show that all Lorelei's scheming could still have unintended consequences.

That didn't squick me out as much as the kid helping Lorelei because she had a lot of "animal magnetism". Not to mention Piggy holding the kid's hand.

I think it's a British boarding school thing. Two other movies, Ocean's 13 and Dressed to Kill, reference it. In Ocean's 13 Eddie Izzard's character is named Roman and his adversary's first name is Greco. George Clooney goes "Greco. <pause> Roman?" (referring to Greco-Roman wrestling) and Eddie replies "You've obviously never spent time in a British boarding school." Dressed to Kill is a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie. In there Dr. Watson meets an old classmate and they immediately greet each other with their school nicknames. The classmate's is "Stinky" and Dr. Watson's is "Fatso". I guess it's a thing where they take a hurtful name and try to make the best of it?

So I watched the knock-off version, Gentlemen Prefer Blinds. I can now talk about the merits of Venetian blinds vs. curtains all week. (I'd already watched the other version where ugly guys prefer blind women.)

I really liked her in His Girl Friday.

I've been listening to the Repo! soundtrack incessantly since we discussed the movie. Listening to the album brings up lots of points I missed in the viewing. I'll have to write up my thoughts and post them in that thread.

I just saw Some Like It Hot for the first time in June and it was hysterical! I haven't watched it since but GBP has lots of rewatchability for me.

I sense a pattern. Anita Loos did the stage production of Gigi and wrote the book of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

I've loved Jane Russell for a long time myself.

Hey! I've actually seen this one and a bunch of times! Great pick!

ETA to clarify about Leslie Caron: I liked her very much as a lady. I could see the attractiveness and she was amazing. She was also good as Gigi up to the point where she and the two aunts went to the dress shop. Once she started dressing in those elaborate dresses (and her whole mannerism changes) I had trouble believing her when she went back to being Gigi the teenager. Especially when Gaston was wooing and dumping her.

Thanks. I need to start watching the movies early in the pre-week instead of waiting until just before that Monday.

Cameron H., I just posted my Gigi notes in that thread. Apologies that it took me so long but I watched it over the weekend.

Apologies it took this long but FINALLY watched Gigi. I am very glad Cameron picked this as I'd heard about it and that cover art is definitely eye-catching. My thoughts: 1) I thought it was Honore goading Gaston that made him break up with the suicide lady so publicly. Gaston was just going to walk off but was prodded into making a spectacle of it. 2) I do agree that the suicide was handled badly by "society". Even if a person is known for multiple attempts they ARE attempts! In the movie Harold and Maude all Harold's "attempts" aren't real. He rigs the noose like it would be on stage, his immolation is of a dummy, etc. In Gigi the paramour's attempts are real attempts. She really does try but believes she hasn't taken enough, cuts "across the stream" instead of "down the river", etc. Yet one of these days the attempt will go wrong and she WILL die. I've been depressed enough to think about suicide but never attempted. Even the thought of attempting it scares the hell out of me. 3) I had trouble with all the casting (except Hermione Gingold - I've only seen a few movies of hers but this is the first sympathetic character I've seen her play). I couldn't believe Louis Jourdan whether he was angry or loving. Maybe, as others have noted, the ADR was so off that I had trouble suspending disbelief. Oddly though I only had ADR issues with Gaston and Honore. I never noticed it with the ladies. I was a little taken with his turn at the end but was surprised he jumped all the way to marriage. As others have said better, Maurice Chevalier was unnecessary. I would have liked him as a "chorus", showing up at the beginning and end, but not as a player throughout the movie. There's another movie I recently watched where one of the main actors shows up throughout but in a variety of roles. It's fun to watch the actor's virtuosity in taking on each character but I was aware I was watching the actor play a character instead of watching the character in the movie. 4) I liked Leslie Caron through most of the movie. I was surprised to read in this thread that she was 27 at the time of filming. She seemed much younger, especially near the end (more on this in a moment). Since the thread mentioned she was a dancer I thought they had picked someone very close to the character's age since that person would already have been used to performing, rehearsals, etc. Having seen the film now I'm not sure anyone else could have played her. IMDB and Wikipedia note she'd been living in England for so long that she'd lost her French accent so her songs were dubbed. I find it hard to believe she couldn't have put on a French accent for the part and the songs. The DVD has a sample of her singing so if anyone has that please let me know how she sounds. The part I didn't like her in was near the end where she started actually acting as a lady. Maybe it was the contrast between the teenager and the lady but she seemed even more "childish", almost like she was pulling a face to show she was back to Gigi. 5) I am very surprised that Lerner and Loewe didn't make a stage show out of this first in order to work out the kinks and storyline issues. According to IMDB Lerner had one more film to make for MGM (in what capacity it isn't clear - I assume screenwriter since Lerner & Loewe weren't originally going to write the music & lyrics) so he picked Colette's novel. IMDB also notes the entire film preproduction process took only four-and-a-half months. If they'd had more time maybe things would have worked better overall. They had also just opened My Fair Lady so all the comparisons in this thread are very apt. I also think they had a "We're successful so anything we do will be good" mindset where a little more constructive criticism would have served them well.) They adapted one song from a show 10 years prior that Lerner had written the script for. The song "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight" was supposed to have been in My Fair Lady.

Are you saying to Taylorannephoto, "Hit me, baby, one more time!"?

I also had no idea Chevalier was a painter. How did we miss him in the painter pun thread?

OK I can be the butt of jokes. I had NO IDEA Maurice Chevalier is actually in the movie! I looked on YouTube to try and compare/contrast him with Louis Jourdan and then I found out.