Movie #219 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes *1953*

Marilyn Monroe - Lorelei Lee
Jane Russell - Dorothy Shaw
Elliott Reed - Malone
Howard Hawks (Director)

I might be the first person to ever make this claim, but Marilyn Monroe is sexy as all get out.  That's a bold statement I know, but I feel like her breakout performance was in this raunchy musical.  The film is about two women that set sail to France.  One (Marilyn) is a gold digger and the other (Russell) is a tramp to be blunt.  The two of them sail to France, along with the men's Olympic team [what a coincidence].  The bill for this trip is picked up by Monroe's lover.  He is supposed to marry her in Paris but his father won't let him marry her due to her money hungry ways.

The father hires a private dick to follow the girls on the trip to see if Monroe will behave herself or fall for the first guy that flashes a $100 bill in front of her eyes.  She does of course.  She flirts heavily with a married diamond tycoon and gets him to give her a tiara that belongs to his wife.  Russell is there to watch her friend and make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble.  But then she falls for Malone before finding out what he does for a living.  Of course all sort of antics happen and hilarity ensues.

I was amazed at how filthy this script was.  I know this film was made during the Hayes code and they had to insinuate the sex and imply and use suggestive language.  But man, this film was near perverted both in script and in costumes.  Example: During one of the musical number Russell was singing while the Olympic athletes worked out in flesh colored short shorts.  Both Monroe and Russell spent the majority in outfits that made their waists thinner than their wrists and made their boobs stick out like torpedoes.  I'm not complaining, but I have seen more subtly in soft core porn.  There is another musical number in a Parisian cafe where Monroe dances around.  This may have been the beginning of modern stripping.  The only thing missing from a dance like that is a pole.  I swear I have been to a gentleman's club or two where there girls dance mimicked Monroe's all the way down to the hair tease.

I should mention that I thought Monroe was a far better actor in this film than Russell, who was considered more of a serious actor.  The man who played Malone did a good job too.  He reminded me a lot of a young Jimmy Stewart.  Both in personality and in his voice and tone.  I would rank this as one of Hawks minor films, but it is a solid movie and worth the time.  There is a great line in the movie: "I want you to find happiness and stop having fun".  This is a fun movie.  I give Gentlemen Prefer Blonde's ★★★.

Movie #203 Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench *2009*

If a bunch of hipsters tried to make a mash up of French New Wave movies and Hollywood musicals (which the FNW borrowed tropes from anyway) the result would look a lot like Guy and Madeline. 

Guy and Madeline is film about a couple who meet and begin dating.  Things seem to be going swimmingly, but then there is a tonal shift in the relationship.  Guy doesn't seem to be as into it as Madeline and troubles begin to arise.

I liked this movie quite a bit.  I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact the I enjoy jazz music, in particular traditional New Orleans jazz, and Guy in the film is a jazz trumpet player.  There are several performances of his ensemble and a few more musical-esque singing and dancing in the streets scenes.  I like how the film sort of commented on the nature of performance art as an attribute to jazz.  There is a scene in the film at a party where out of nowhere a hipster begins talking.  Then he starts pacing his phrases with the live band.  Then he jumps out of nowhere and beginning tap dancing.  Then the wallflower female gets into the action and they have a tap-off.  The singing was not good, but the dancing was very sharp.  Now that I think of it, Guy's music was all part of the story.  Madeline's songs were interjected old school Hollywood style.  I'm not sure what that says, but it may serve to further distance the characters.

This movie reminded me a lot of the FNW.  I don't think you could watch the scene in the apartment towards the beginning of the movie and not think of Breathless.  Later in the cafe A Bande Apart came to mind.  Also, not a FNW film, I thought this movie addressed a lot of the music in the same manner that the film Once did.  It was a musical, but the songs were organic and grew from the story.  Guy and Madeline does the same thing a lot of the times.

One scene that I liked, but I thought really stuck out from the film was the shower scene.  Up until that point you knew you were watching a movie.  Although the camera was largely hand held, people don't burst into song in the street and dance with umbrella's in real life.  At least not my real life.  But the scene where Guy and Madeline are showering together we are presented an almost documentary like filming style.  I felt that the scene was intrusive and voyeuristic.  It really didn't fit in with anything else in the movie.  There was another scene that I liked but felt not forced, but separated from the rest of the movie and that was when Madeline hangs out with the old guy.  That was really uncomfortable.

Speaking of discomfort, the movie ends in a very ambiguous way.  I thought the final scene did a great job of making me uncomfortable.  Much like a scene on the subway early on in the movie was extremely touching and sincere. 

I guess my biggest beef with the movie was that it was supposed to show this deteriorating relationship, but we never got to spend much of anytime with the happy couple.  I could have used a few more moments of the two of them in love.  Or at least the cutsie side of the first few weeks of dating someone.  I feel like that would have created a lot more emotional connection to the characters and therefore I would have been all the more sympathetic to their romantic struggles.  I give Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench ★★★.

Movie #183 All That Jazz *1979*

Roy Scheider - Joe Gideon
Jessica Lange - Angelique
Leland Palmer - Audery Paris
Bob Fosse (Director)

I really enjoyed this moive.  However, I feel like being lazy so here are my 3 Reasons:

Reason 1.  Roy Scheider in sequin jumpers unbuttoned to his navel.

Reason 2.  Fantastic dance/music numbers that really express feeling and emotion.

Reason 3.  The movie is 8 1/2 meets Cabaret.

I give All That Jazz ★★★1/2.

Movie #56 Singin in the Rain

There seems to be a natural aversion built into the human psyche to anything that your parents thought was cool.  That is what I am blaming my stubbornness when it comes to seeing classic movies from the 50's.  It is either that or a feeling that these movies have been built up too much.  Movies like Singin in the Rain, Vertigo, On the Waterfront and Some Like it Hot are all movies that I waited far too long to watch.  I think a good deal of it has to do with not wanting to be let down.  I am glad to say that in none of those cases was I ever let and with many of them my expectations were far surpassed.  Singin in the Rain was one of those films.

If you are unaware of the plot for Singin, it goes like this:
Set in Hollywood in the late 20's, right on the preface of the introduction of movies with sound and vocals (talkies) Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont (played perfectly by Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen) are silent movie stars at the height of their popularity.  There is only one problem, movies are adding soundtracks and Lina has the voice of a castrated Jersey chihuahua.  Don on the other hand is a wonderful singer and dancer.  Don, who solely for publicity purposes, is alleged to be romantically involved with Lina has meet a woman he quickly falls in love with.  Debbie Reynolds plays the love interest (Kathy Seldon).  Kathy has a beautiful / young face and singing voice to match.  The plan is to have the unknown Kathy dub over superstar Lina's voice.  Hy-jinx ensue. 

Singin is rightful considered one of the best movies about the movies.  There are so many great things to talk about in this movie.  First off would be the singing and dancing by all parties.  Donald O'Connor play Cosmo Brown, Don's best friend and sidekick.  He is amazing to watch.  His dance move rivals and I would say sometime surpasses Gene Kelly's.  Next is the acting.  There is a realization from the page to the screen that you rarely see now a days.  I felt like the script had came to life.  It is silly and touching.  It is a romantic comedy before that became a dirty word. 

One of the things that I never realized was how many of the songs from this movie are in my common knowledge.  Obviously there is the title song, Singin in the Rain.  I think most people would recognize the song and scene even out of context.  Then there is Make 'em Laugh, Good Morning, Fit as a Fiddle and You were Meant for Me.  It was fun to see the root of all of these songs I have been singing most of my life and never knew where they came from.

Another thing that I found interesting was the way the Hollywood was dealing with the introduction of sound into their pictures.  It reminded me a great deal of how Hollywood of today is coping with the introduction of the new 3-D technology.  Example: In Singin, it appears that every studio is running around like crazy trying to adapt this new technology to their current productions.  Don and Lina were filming a silent swashbuckling movie called The Dueling Caviler when The Jazz Singer premiered.  The studio then insisted that the sword fighting film be a talkie.  Remind you of anything?  Maybe Avatar blowing the roof off the box office and Hollywood scrambling to post-convert all their films to 3-D?

I want to mention the sets and costumes.  Really the entire production staging.  The directors Stanly Donen and Gene Kelly himself must have been well versed in traditional studio settings.  Singin has both homages to those silent pictures as well as using some of the same techniques of capturing a mood or location all while being shot entirely on the lot.  Some of the sets and action-esque sequences were stunning.

You really can't talk this movie up too much.  Which is a little ironic that I didn't see this films sooner because I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to it's hype and here I am saying that it is underrated.  It is pretty obvious that I loved this film.  i now consider it to be among the greatest American movies of all time.  It gets a 5/5stars from me.  I will link the Singin in the Rain dance sequence in the Trailer Park. 

Guest Blogger!!! You Can't See Them All

I read on Facebook the other day that a friend of mine saw and enjoyed the new Christina Aguilera vehicle, "Burlesque".  I sent her a message asking if she thought I would enjoy it.  In response to that she sent me a full review of the movie.  I thought it was very well written so I got her permission and Jennifer will now become my first ever Guest Blogger!

My guess is to answer your question - no, you won't be very impressed.

The dancing was really good. And any numbers performed by Christina Aguilera (Ally) completely showed off her vocal skills and made me love her voice that much more. She's an awesome singer and that carried her through the movie. Her voice also overshadowed her dance skills, which are less impressive than her vocals and her not-so-great acting skills. I do think her acting could be developed, but she really is a singer first. There were a few songs performed by by Cher (Tess), but were just okay and not fantastic. She's seen her better singing and performing years in her 50s and 60s. Her acting, was normal Cher in my opinion. It was just okay; not impressive and felt forced. Sean, Tess's best friend, played by Stanley Tucci, and Jack, the bartender, played by Eric Dane were the comic relief through the movie. Eric had a little bit of physical comedy towards the end of the movie that had some similarity to Jim Carey style comedy. And Stanley Tucci just does well in the supportive comedian actor role.

The plot was disconnected and had too many sub-plots inner-laced into it. A country girl from Iowa wants to make it big. She leaves Iowa, moves to L.A., finds an apartment, then looks for a job that includes singing and dancing. She ends up at Burlesque and gets turned down by the owner to dance, so she basically takes it upon herself to replace the current "bad" waitress, the same day she walked in. Within 48 hours, she develops a mother-daughter relationship with Cher's character. Within Burlesque, she's the enemy of the star of the show, of course, and is the apple of the engaged bartender's eye. And then there's also another story line of financial problems for the club. I'm sure I'm missing another theme in there too. It's just too many plots and unfortunately, they're all diverting attention from the main attraction of the movie, Christina Aguilera. After two hours nearly of dancing and singing, all problems are resolved and of course, Christina's character fixed nearly all of them.

However, I went for the main attraction, Christina.  And I left feeling inspired to plug in more to my own talents and to start going to see Vegas Shows, the Rockettes live, and possibly see a show at the ShadowBox in Newport, KY.


And that, my friend, is Burlesque, in my opinion.


Wonderful review Jen!  I love it that the film inspired you to further your interest in musical theater.  Thank you for allowing me to post your review.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2r_8l1c2nQ