A Movie Scene Quiz

I rather miss the excitement of those pre-VCR days waiting anxiously for a favorite movie to show. (lol) I missed seeing Yankee Doodle Dandy on TCM on the Fourth this year. Forgot all about it, but it's on a tape somewhere. My mother had an album of 78's (you probably don't know what they are - those heavy scratchy records) with a baritone named Morty Baum singing songs from that movie). I loved his voice and never heard of him doing any other recordings. Anyway, one of my favorite selections from that album was Cohan's "You Remind Me of My Mother", but I can't remember whether Cagney sang that in the movie. I was thinking about that song last night.

I'll be back in a flash with a new scene.

Hurry back, Raggedyaggie!

Hello GORGEOUS! (Gus). Nice of you to stop by.


Oldie:

Her husband might not have died if the resuscitator had been available, but it was rushed to the playboy millionaire who was in a boat accident caused by his reckless speeding.

Magnificent Obsession?

Cagney doesn't sing "You Remind Me of My Mother" in Yankee Doodle Dandy, but that reminds me of a piece of trivia that you probably already knew: Rosemary Decamp, who played Cagney's mother in the movie, was 11 years younger than he was!

And I do too remember 78's -- we had a bunch of them when I was a kid, and for all I know they may still be in my sister's basement (where most of the contents of my mother's house ended up).

No, I didn't know about the age difference between DeCamp and Cagney. Good piece of trivia! I haven't found my singer Morty Baum yet, but I did find this listed for the restored version of the Yankee Doodle Movie Soundtrack:

"Also included are four bonus tracks that remarkably survived the film's preproduction, including an outtake of "You Remind Me of My Mother" and voice-and-piano-only rehearsal versions of "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "You're a Grand Old Flag" that further underscore Cagney's deceptively effortless ability to sell a song despite his limited
musical gifts.

Yes to Magnificent Obsession. What I loved about that remake was the soundtrack. Mainly, "No Other Love" by Chopin throughout. I have the piece on several Chopin CDs, but I can never remember which (don't laugh at me, Bree) Etude/Opus? it is. The same goes for "We Have the Right to Love Again" from The Eddy Duchin Story movie.

I'm not laughing at you, because I have no idea what Chopin piece "No Other Love" is based on, either! This obviously calls for some internet research, but at the moment, alas, work calls.

Oh hang work! Anyway, I'm playing my CD now:

No Other Love (have I but you) - Chopin's Etude Opus 10, No. 3

We Have the Right to Love Again - Chopin's Nocturne E flat major Opus 9, No. 2, Andante (featured in The Eddie Duchin Story with Tyrone Power - lots of good music in that one for a pianist, Bree )

Questions for the day:

Mac: Have you seen De-Lovely yet?

Bree: Did you enjoy the Barrie plays?

De-Lovely still hasn't made it to Houston! If it opens tomorrow, I may go after work...

Good Mac. I'm anxious to read your opinion of it.

I promise to tell you all about it - unless you'd rather I leave you some surprises, of course.

No surprises, Mac. Tell it all. (lol) By the time I see it, there will be a remake in progress.

I loved the Barrie plays (The New Word and The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, presented as an evening called Echoes of the War). The New Word is about a father trying to find the words to say to his 19-year-old son, who is about to leave for the front -- a process made difficult by the fact that both men are reticent Englishmen who are horrified by the thought of any display of emotion. In the course of the half-hour play, the father and son come to an accommodation in which everything that needs to be said between them is said, without violating any of the rules of decorum they live by.

The Old Lady Shows Her Medals is about a charwoman (beautifully played by Frances Sternhagen) who has no children, but who wants so badly to feel that the war is "her war" too, she tells her friends that a soldier with the same last name (whom she has read about in the papers) is her son -- and then has to deal with the consequences of her lie when the soldier comes to London on leave, and a well-meaning friend of hers runs into him and brings him to "his mother's" home.

Not only were the plays themselves good, but, as an added bonus, the costumes were designed by a friend of mine (a fact that I wasn't aware of when I bought the ticket). She's a very accomplished designer who -- the vagaries of life in the theater being what they are -- hadn't gotten any work for a couple of years, so it was a pleasant surprise to pick up the program and see her name -- and an even more pleasant surprise when, as I was leaving the theater, she came out from the back of the theater to greet me.

And as if that weren't enough to make a rich full evening, there was one more interesting thing that happened that night: when I handed my ticket to the usher, she looked at me and said, "You must be an inveterate theatergoer -- I think I've seen you somewhere else recently. Were you at Fabulation last week?" Well, as it happens, I did see Fabulation (another off-Broadway play) last week, and the same usher who was working at the Mint (where the Barrie plays were) on Tuesday was working at Playwrights Horizons (where Fabulation was) last week, and remembered seeing me there. Don't ever let anyone tell you New York is a big, impersonal town!

Great story, bree! I've run into people I know a couple of times at the theatre in NY. And neither of us was local - talk about synchronicity...

I love Frances Sternhagen. I'd love to see her on stage. <sigh>

Thanks for sharing your experience with us so we can continue to live vicariously through you.

Thanks for the great run-down, Bree.

At one time I was considering posting a movie scene from a 1930 Gary Cooper/ Merle Bercer film, Seven Days Leave.
A Canadian soldier, member of the Black Watch, gets into a fight with three British soldiers who taunt him about wearing kilts. He almost deserts, but an old lady convinces him not to.

But - I decided that movie was too old for anyone to remember unless they had TCM. I remembered hearing that story on radio, probably Lux Theater, with my mother many many years ago and always had a soft spot for that story. Do you know that there was also a Spanish film, Señora Ana Luce sus Medallas, La (1967) (play The Old Lady Shows Her Medals).

I'm so glad that was one of the plays you saw.

Yes, it is a small world after all.

Oh, and, Bree, is today your Birthday? Was the lunch in your honor?

No, not my birthday, but thanks for asking. The lunch was for a co-worker. We (my friends from the office and I) go to the same restaurant for every birthday lunch, and the people there know us so well by now that they always give us a huge plate of antipasto and several extra desserts, on the house. (Another "New York is really a small town" story.) As a result, we always eat and drink so much that we stagger back to the office afterwards in need of a nap.

Raggedy, have you ever seen a 1943 movie called Holy Matrimony? The Film Society of Lincoln Center is going to be showing it next month, and the description of the movie on their website makes it sound intriguing. Here's what it says:

Monty Woolley is best known for playing the cantankerous radio celebrity in The Man Who Came to Dinner, but as the world-famous painter and recluse Priam Farll in Holy Matrimony, he has more charm and less bombast. Nunnally Johnson wrote and produced this sly comedy based on Arnold Bennett's novel, Buried Alive, set in 1905 England. The bearded comic actor is perfect as a celebrity whose art is prized and face virtually unknown due to the fact that he lives and paints on remote islands with only his faithful manservant Henry (Eric Blore) as companion. When the servant suddenly dies, the master capitalizes on a doctor's error and assumes the identity of his servant, who is ceremoniously buried in Westminister Abbey as Farll. Enter Gracie Fields, a charming widow who assumes Farll is the servant with whom she has been corresponding - object matrimony. Complications? Yes, indeed, but watch the confident Fields sort them out!

I've not seen Holy Matrimony, Bree. But I remember Monty and Gracie in a movie called "Molly and Me" and they were great together. It's odd Holy Matrimony has never been on TCM. It does sound intriguing.

Speaking of Monty, did you know that he played himself in the Cary Grant "Night and Day" movie about Cole Porter?

I saw De-Lovely after work. I had a grand time. I can't say it's a great movie, but the music was wonderful, and it was lovely to see Kevin Kline (and most of the rest of the cast) singing and dancing. I may go see it again, and I definitely want to buy the CD.