Day 43: My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady: 1965: Winner of the 37th Academy Award


Starring:

Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins

Audrey Hepburn (Marni Nixon, singing) as Eliza Doolittle

Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle

Wilfrid Hyde-White as Colonel Hugh Pickering

Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Higgins

Jeremy Brett (Bill Shirley, singing) as Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Theodore Bikel as Zoltan Karpathy

Mona Washbourne as Mrs. Pearce, Higgins' housekeeper

Isobel Elsom as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill

John Holland as Butler

From the memorable first scene where Eliza is selling little peonies for men’s coats to the last scene. My fair lady is the utmost example of Cinderella. Eliza has nothing in the world, the gentleman has too much money and too much time , so he bets he can make Eliza a woman and not some bedraggled forgotten girl selling flowers. Her transformation is astonishing but so is the process behind the scenes. He begins to love this creature he has created, love her because even though she has become a lady she is still Eliza but like a mature version now. This movie made me love Audrey Hepburn. Audrey is good example of someone going from a rough and tumble beginning and ending at the top of the ranks despite all odds. The rags to riches story that e all hear off and secretly dream of. Hollywood has this ideal close to heart because any movie with that premise and with the right actors are almost guaranteed an Oscar. For example, “Million Dollar Baby” “Rocky” and “Gi-Gi” to some extent are movies that have one on that premise with some boxing thrown in. I like this movie and it has been on my to get list for quite some time. If you love Audrey Hepburn you will love this, and who doesn’t love Audrey Hepburn?

It also won awards for;


Academy Award for Directing - George Cukor

Academy Award for Best Actor - Rex Harrison

Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Harry Stradling

Academy Award for Sound - George R. Groves, Warner Brothers Studio

Academy Award for Original Music Score - Andre Previn

Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins

Academy Award for Costume Design - Cecil Beaton

Day 42: The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music: 1966; Winner of the 38th Academy Awards

Starring:

• Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp


• Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp,

• Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler,

• Eleanor Parker as Baroness Elsa Schraeder,

• Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp,

• Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp,

• Heather Menzies as Louisa von Trapp

• Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp, the fourth child

• Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp,

• Debbie Turner as Marta von Trapp,

• Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp,

• Peggy Wood as Mother Abbess,

• Anna Lee as Sister Margaretta,

• Portia Nelson as Sister Berthe,

• Daniel Truhitte as Rolfe,

• Ben Wright as Hans Zeller,

Oh Julie Andrews I love you so. You and that stupid song that once started I can’t get out of my head. “You are sixteen going on seventeen” That song is way catchy. Ok I love the idea of a nanny/nun going to take care of six crazy ass brats, but then she forgoes her vows and falls in love with the count. But wait it isn’t finished then they get married and have a wonderful life but they do not like the Nazi’s so they preform and they try to escape and wait there is more, the young man who falls in love with the oldest daughter is a German officer and he is not in love with the girl enough to not let the official’s know they are escaping, so he gives them out. Now it’s done. Apparently they escape, but still you never will be quite sure. The whole story is beautiful, even though it is inexplicably long. The songs are very catchy and you can hear them in many other movies, this is a classic example of epic movies making a mark in American History. Even though the leads were British. This joined the ranks quite quickly with “Gone With the Wind” “Wizard of Oz” and “Ben-Hur” A staple of American Media that you just had to watch if you wanted to be considered anyone in the Cinema Industry. Personally I watch this movie every Christmas with my Grandmother, she loves it so I know it by heart, but I also understand how it can get tiresome. Furthermore I really hate Lisel’s boyfriend. He’s a real jerk. If you don’t like musicals I don’t recommend this.

It also won awards for:

Best Sound (James Corcoran, Fred Hynes)

Best Director – Robert Wise

Best Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment

Day 13: An American in Paris

An American in Paris: 1951: Winner of the 24th academy Awards

Starring:

Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan

Leslie Caron as Lise Bouvier

Oscar Levant as Adam Cook

Georges Guétary as Henri "Hank" Baurel

Nina Foch as Milo Roberts

What to say about yet another musical? I didn’t like this one quiet so much as I like every other musical. I am in generally a fan of all movies musically inclined, but An American in Paris was far below expectation. Firstly it had thee most ridiculous plot lines ever! Some painter dude is randomly picked up by an artisan collector, but falls in love with a perfume sales-lady and some 3, 17 minute dance sequence later they are relinquished to fall in love together, happy forever and ever? Please! Furthermore, I saw Leslie Caron in another Academy Picture “Gigi” and she was like wayyy prettier. In this movie I swear I thought she was an alien, those teeth were protruding put of her tiny mouth and her eyes so slanted and wide at the same time it was like alienish and her hair was butchered, I didn’t like the way she looked and think they should have tried harder to make her look prettier. The dance numbers were incredible but not worth the time to watch, the movie “The Red Shoes” is a particularly a beautiful movie with much better dance sequences. Sidenote, this movie won “A Streetcar Named Desire”, why academy why? You failed me when you choose Hamlet over last said movie but this is beyond an oversight this is glitz and glam over talent!

 

It also won awards for:
 
 

Academy Award for Best Art – Set Decoration, Color: E. Preston Ames, Cedric Gibbons, F. Keogh Gleason, and Edwin B. Willis

Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color: John Alton and Alfred Gilks

Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color: Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, and Irene Sharaff

Academy Award for Best Musical Score: Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green

Academy Award for Best Writing, Scoring and Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner

Day 10: Gigi

Gigi :1958: Winner of the 31st Academy Awards

Starring:

Leslie Caron as Gigi

Louis Jourdan as Gaston Lachaille

Maurice Chevalier as Honoré Lachaille

Hermione Gingold as Madame Alvarez

Isabel Jeans as Aunt Alicia

Eva Gabor as Liane d'Exelmans

Jacques Bergerac as Sandomir

I liked this movie. It was cute and funny and it was kind of like watching to stubborn people fall in love. I wasn’t entirely sure whether Gigi was being raised to be a rich man’s wife or his mistress, but it all worked out in the end. I think Leslie Carron was by far one of the prettiest actress ever and I was totally smitten by Gaston. Angry man, I swear some men were just made for marriage and he was one of them. All he needed was a little vivacity in his life. And Gigi was the one to bring the spunk… pun… get it? Nvm anyway the point is that I liked it and it was one of the first musicals to ever win 9 oscars. I loved it and couldn’t get “The Parisians” song out of my head. Watch it as a date movie or on a rainy day with cocoa. It’s totally worth it.

 It also won awards for:

Best Director :Vincente Minnelli,

Best Adapted Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner

Best Art Direction: E. Preston Ames, F. Keogh Gleason, Henry Grace, and William A. Horning

Best Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg

Best Costume Design: Cecil Beaton

Best Film Editing :Adrienne Fazan

Best Original Score :André Previn

Best Original Song :"Gigi" by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Day 8: The Great Ziegfeld

The Great Ziegfeld:1936:Winner of the 9^th Academy Awards

Starring:

William Powell as Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

Myrna Loy as Billie Burke

Luise Rainer as Anna Held

Frank Morgan as Jack Billings

Fanny Brice as Herself

Virginia Bruce as Audrey Dane

Reginald Owen as Sampson, Flo's frequently-nervous bookkeeper

Ray Bolger as Himself

Ernest Cossart as Sidney, Billing's valet, who is hired away by Flo

Joseph Cawthorn as Dr. Ziegfeld

Nat Pendleton as Eugen Sandow

Harriet Hoctor as Herself

Jean Chatburn as Mary Lou

Paul Irving as Erlanger, Billing's later partner

Herman Bing as Costumer

Buddy Doyle as Eddie Cantor

The Great Ziegfeld is a stunning masterpiece! I truly mean it! I was so awed by the stage show that I wish I had a transport machine to take me to the 20’s and be present to one of his shows. The Ziegfeld Follies and to have been able to see them in their hayday! Ahh what a wish, however I could have done without the back story. Ziegfeld going up, Ziegfeld coming down… blah blah blahitty blah. I did like Fannie Brice’s bit though she was funny. Truthfully this is  the movie I thought I would like best from the three and since one I haven’t seen and one I think is kind of awesome “The Broadway Melody” I say watch this only for the shows. Skip the talking and the politics … unless you like to be bored. What I can also say is this, half of the “Wizard of Oz” is in the movie. The Wizard Oz, The  Scarecrow, and The Good Witch of the North. But seriously, this film bleh!

It also won awards for:

Academy Award for Best Actress - Luise Rainer

Academy Award for Best Dance Direction - Seymour Felix - For "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody".

Day 7: The Broadway Melody

The Broadway Melody:1929: Winner of the 2^nd Academy Award

Starring:

Charles King  as Eddie Kearns

Anita Page as Queenie Mahoney

Bessie Love as Harriet (Hank) Mahoney

Today was the first time I  have seen a movie that old since “Diary of a Lost Girl”, it was pretty good. The plot since I know most people won’t bother to watch , is about two sisters in the era of the two-bit sister act. Hank the older sister is more talented than Queenie but not half as pretty. They are in New York to make it big in the city. Eddie, Hank’s boyfriend, has promised them promising spots, considering he is a sing and dance guy. Zenfield, the head of the department is enchanted by Queenie’s beauty and is happy tp put her in the show despite her lack of talent. Hank has the talent but not the face and is dismissed by Zenfield, however Quenie talks him into hiring them both, so he agrees. Eddie has fallen in love with Queenie and she with him, but they do not dare to carry on with their love because it would hurt Hank. Queenie was raised by Hank and so she knows how disastrous this may seem to her. To dissuade her feelings she starts to go out with a “stage door Johnny” named Jock Wernier. The tension rises because Queenine and Eddie are always fighting about Jock and Hank gets thrown in the middle. After the shows first performance a couple of weeks later Hank realizes that her sister and her fiancé have the hots for each other and decides to step down and let them be happy. A couple of months later, they are seen coming back from their honeymoon and they insist that Hank live with them (as if pfft.) and she politely declines. The last scene is split between Queenie telling Eddie that she is sad that Hank never catches a break and that she took him from her. The other half is Hank in the train car looking dejected but trying to motivate herself.

So this movie was good but fuck that bitch Queenie. I hate her. How dare she steal her sister’s man! How could she, I know the saying goes, “the heart wants what it wants,” but goddamn , Hank has given Queenie everything and Queenie took it away . Her spot in the show, her man  and her chance at happiness. Come on, can Hank please meet a fabulous guy to make up for what Queenie has done! Why is it that its ok for a decent looking girl to lose the love of her life to the prettier girl? I really was burned by that, and I hated Eddie for not being able to look beyond the looks and for falling in love with the “kind and gentle beauty.” *Sigh* It was totally unfair and I have a slight with Queenie, and Hank wasa bigger person for forgiving them and for allowing their love to blossom. I just wish that she had some recompense in return, you know. I liked it well enough the songs are annoyingly catchy,(although not as catchy as a Bollywood song)  and the dance numbers are supreme.  Furthermore it kind of reminds you of a lighter hearted Chicago. Although shit, Vilma Kelly had it right .. do the crime, do the time but get even.