Musical Mondays Week 69 High Society

[Cameron H. 23786]

I...haven’t had time to watch it yet, so just imagine I wrote some clever, movie related quip here  

We watched:

Next week: theworstbuddhist’s first pick.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

You know how screenwriting 101 says "Don't tell it, show it."?  Well this movie doesn't show it, the movie tells it AND sings it!

We watched

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I don't want to say too much but I liked it overall.  I had never seen Louis Armstrong as a young man and he's in full effect here.  I don't think it's a spoiler to post the opening of the movie but it was charming.

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Well, I just learned something.  I thought the closed captioners had messed up.  Shortly after the opening Louis is referred to in the captions as "satchel mouth".  I thought I had heard "Satchmo" on the audio so I figured the captioners were wrong.  (It's happened once or twice before. ;-))  Nope!  "Satchmo" is a shortening of "satchel mouth", a reference to Louis' wide mouth when playing the trumpet.  I remember Dizzy Gillespie's cheeks.  I didn't know other performers had unusual characteristics.  (Honestly, until the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, I never thought of Freddie Mercury as having an odd mouth.  I just knew he had extended range but didn't know the mouth made that happen.)

[gigi-tastic 2322]

3 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

You know how screenwriting 101 says "Don't tell it, show it."?  Well this movie doesn't show it, the movie tells it AND sings it!

We watched

Are you telling me you don't like when a movie literally tells you when it starts and ends?

[gigi-tastic 2322]

So I'm starting to realize I might have gotten Bing confused with Fred Astaire in Funny Face.  Which I also haven't seen in a while but he's in his late 50's while Audrey Hepburn is in her mid to late 20's. Maybe it was because I myself was much younger when I last saw them but it *felt* like they were both so much older than their costars. 

I still stand by the fact he was way too old for the part of Dexter though.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

So the music is by the great Cole Porter. Did anyone else find that the style of music didn't feel like a Cole Porter song? I love his music and I don't know if the songs were written in the same time period or what but you can tell that Dream A Little Dream Of Me, Delovely, Your The Tops, Lets Do It( Lets Fall In Love),  Love For Sale, and Night and Day are all by the same composer. Not that they sound alike exactly but there's... I don't know they have a flow to them? Maybe this is just his lesser work. I know that besides the opening, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,and What A Swell Party( mostly because it was two greats together than the actual song) I was more interested in the speaking parts of this musical than the songs which was not a great sign.

I did enjoy Samantha but that felt more like a song for radio than a musical because it was literally just a single refrain or two. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

Fun fact time! As previously mentioned in the preview this was Grace Kelly's last movie before marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco. +They actually met because of movies, when Grace was the U.S delegate head for  Cannes .) The STUNNING engagement ring she wore in the movie is her actual ring. The film's costume designer Helen Rose is the person responsible for her iconic wedding dress as well! 

Her wedding was the first media frenzy royal wedding and we wouldn't see anything like it until Diana and Charles. 

I know too much about this woman, and yet not nearly as much as I know about Audrey Hepburn.

[tomspanks 9039]

I’m only about 20 minutes in and I can already tell you I prefer Philadelphia Story. And the age difference between the leads is jarring.  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

27 minutes ago, gigi-tastic said:

So the music is by the great Cole Porter. Did anyone else find that the style of music didn't feel like a Cole Porter song? I love his music and I don't know if the songs were written in the same time period or what but you can tell that Dream A Little Dream Of Me, Delovely, Your The Tops, Lets Do It( Lets Fall In Love),  Love For Sale, and Night and Day are all by the same composer. Not that they sound alike exactly but there's... I don't know they have a flow to them? Maybe this is just his lesser work. I know that besides the opening, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,and What A Swell Party( mostly because it was two greats together than the actual song) I was more interested in the speaking parts of this musical than the songs which was not a great sign.

I did enjoy Samantha but that felt more like a song for radio than a musical because it was literally just a single refrain or two. 

I agree that it didn't feel like a Cole Porter musical (except for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (sic)).  My only other immersion is with Kiss Me Kate.  Those songs pop and these are languorous.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I've only ever seen John Lund in one other movie, The Perils of Pauline with Betty Hutton, but he was completely wooden there as well.  His IMDB page only has a few roles.

My other note for now is that all the characters seemed to be too broadly drawn.  Everybody played their role but you knew what their role was and would be as soon as they were introduced.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

43 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

I've only ever seen John Lund in one other movie, The Perils of Pauline with Betty Hutton, but he was completely wooden there as well.  His IMDB page only has a few roles.

My other note for now is that all the characters seemed to be too broadly drawn.  Everybody played their role but you knew what their role was and would be as soon as they were introduced.

If I had a dollar for every time a man in this movie told Grace Kelly she was " Cold " and " not a real woman" because she was pissed her father has a mistress and has standards, I would have lots of money now.  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I really need @Cameron H. to stop reading this thread until he's seen the movie.  Spoiler alert!!!

I found the identity mix-up completely implausible.  I wish I could think of the other movie where something similar happened but wouldn't the reporters know what their target looked like, especially because there was a galley of an article about him?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Was Spy Magazine a thing?  All I can find is the real magazine started in the '80s.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I thought Uncle Willie was Keenan Wynn originally.  After I looked him up (it's Louis Calhern) the voice still sounded familiar.  Any ideas?  I thought maybe Bullwinkle and Rocky but the Narrator and the Fractured Fairy Tales guys aren't him.

ADDED ON: It turns out this was his last film as he passed the same year the movie was released.  So it is both his and Grace Kelly's last film.

ADDED-ADDED ON: The only IMDB credit I recognize is Duck Soup.  I would have to watch that again and see if that's where I remember his voice from.

[Cam Bert 8145]

I went to watch this last night but accidentally rented the Japanese dub which was somehow the default. I didn't realize it at first because they don't dub over songs so I was a bit in before it clicked. I kept watching anyway and I watched about 30 minutes. I then realized I would have not much to add outside of "What was with Bing Crosby's super deep voice and Frank Sinatra sounding so young?" So going to watch it tonight. 

[Cam Bert 8145]

Okay, here's the thing. I liked Bing, he has a certain amount of charm even though he was an awful man and he has some fun songs. Grace Kelly is beautiful and charming and wonderful. Frank Sinatra though... ugh. Like he brings the movie down so much for me. I wanted to like the story more but having seen The Philadelphia Story and I knew where it was going (for the most part) and watching Frank "act" for the first half of the movie was insufferable to me. The only person he seemed to have any patter or chemistry with was Bing and then the bad drunk acting... ugh. Overall, I want to like this movie more than I did but I think I'll just rewatch The Philadelphia Story again.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Also which movie has a better "white man explains jazz scene", High Society or La La Land?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

19 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

So I'm starting to realize I might have gotten Bing confused with Fred Astaire in Funny Face.  Which I also haven't seen in a while but he's in his late 50's while Audrey Hepburn is in her mid to late 20's. Maybe it was because I myself was much younger when I last saw them but it *felt* like they were both so much older than their costars. 

I still stand by the fact he was way too old for the part of Dexter though.

I love the movie White Christmas but it has the same problem, with both male leads.  I can better understand Danny Kaye with Vera-Ellen but not Bing with Rosemary Clooney.  It's especially glaring when you see Danny trying to fix Bing up with showgirls from his own show!  (I bet they think it's a casting couch experience and going out with him would help their careers.)  On top of that, Danny's dancing was in no way up to Vera-Ellen's level so they had to bring in another dancer to keep up with her.  He looks much more the part.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

1 hour ago, Cam Bert said:

Also which movie has a better "white man explains jazz scene", High Society or La La Land?

I was about to knee-jerk say La La Land just because the white man "mansplains" it more but honestly now I'm not sure.  I think I like Bing's better.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

On 7/15/2019 at 10:27 AM, Cinco DeNio said:

Well, I just learned something.  I thought the closed captioners had messed up.  Shortly after the opening Louis is referred to in the captions as "satchel mouth".  I thought I had heard "Satchmo" on the audio so I figured the captioners were wrong.  (It's happened once or twice before. ;-))  Nope!  "Satchmo" is a shortening of "satchel mouth", a reference to Louis' wide mouth when playing the trumpet.  I remember Dizzy Gillespie's cheeks.  I didn't know other performers had unusual characteristics.  (Honestly, until the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, I never thought of Freddie Mercury as having an odd mouth.  I just knew he had extended range but didn't know the mouth made that happen.)

At the risk of being another white man explaining jazz, Satchmo is a nickname that Armstrong didn't care for. His preferred nickname was and still is Pops. (I mean, he is dead obviously, but jazz fans call him Pops, or, you know. His name.)

6 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

Okay, here's the thing. I liked Bing, he has a certain amount of charm even though he was an awful man and he has some fun songs. Grace Kelly is beautiful and charming and wonderful. Frank Sinatra though... ugh. Like he brings the movie down so much for me. I wanted to like the story more but having seen The Philadelphia Story and I knew where it was going (for the most part) and watching Frank "act" for the first half of the movie was insufferable to me. The only person he seemed to have any patter or chemistry with was Bing and then the bad drunk acting... ugh. Overall, I want to like this movie more than I did but I think I'll just rewatch The Philadelphia Story again.

Fun fact, Sinatra and Crosby were both terrible people who liked to beat their wives and kids, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it.

On 7/15/2019 at 2:16 PM, gigi-tastic said:

So I'm starting to realize I might have gotten Bing confused with Fred Astaire in Funny Face.  Which I also haven't seen in a while but he's in his late 50's while Audrey Hepburn is in her mid to late 20's. Maybe it was because I myself was much younger when I last saw them but it *felt* like they were both so much older than their costars.

Pretty much all of Audrey's early films have this dynamic. She wasn't thrilled about it according to her biographer but it was how Hollywood rolled. Check out later stuff like Two for the Road or Robin and Marian for some more realistic(ish) relationships.

I do love Funny Face, but mainly for Audrey and Kay Howard, who is amazing. And I quite enjoy Paris When it Sizzles, which re-teamed her with her ex-lover William Holden in a more mature kind of relationship, and has a hilarious running gag with Tony Curtis making fun of Marlon Brando. (Edited to add: it occurs to me now that maybe the main thing I love about these films is Paris.)

[tomspanks 9039]

Guys, I think my favorite pairing from this movie is Grace Kelly and her hooded coat.  It has a whimsical hood and a white exterior, while the inner lining is Joseph's coat of many colors.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

On 7/14/2019 at 11:49 PM, Cameron H. said:

Next week: theworstbuddhist’s first pick.

Oh ho! Should I tell you what it is so you can make one of those announcement threads? Not sure what the process is. Also I'd better check and see if anyone has already done it and if it is available anywhere...

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

1 minute ago, tomspanks said:

Guys, I think my favorite pairing from this movie is Grace Kelly and her hooded coat.  It has a whimsical hood and a white exterior, while the inner lining is Joseph's coat of many colors.

I admit the hooded coat made it kind of obvious they were in a studio in front of a screen.  There wasn't nearly enough wind as there would have been if they were in a towed car.  Her hood probably wouldn't have stayed in place.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 minutes ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Oh ho! Should I tell you what it is so you can make one of those announcement threads? Not sure what the process is. Also I'd better check and see if anyone has already done it and if it is available anywhere...

Wait until Monday.  That's when the announcements are made.  Cameron or someone will create a thread for it.  I will find the link for the rotation list.