Cult Flops - Going Hollywood

MGM/Cosmopolitan, 1933

Starring Marion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, and Patsy Kelly

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Music by Nacio Herb Brown; Lyrics by Arthur Freed

Of course, not every story about Hollywood ends with show-must-go-on heartache and tears. For over a hundred years, Hollywood, California has mainly been a place of adventure and dreams, where a little teacher from the hinterlands can wind up a star in pictures when she was really following the man of her dreams. Marion Davies was a talented mimic and comedienne, but her sponsor and lover William Randolph Hearst was determined to shover her into whatever type of film was popular at the moment...and in 1933, that was Busby Berkley-style backstage musicals. How well did he succeed? Let's start at a private school for girls in New York, where French teacher Sylvia Bruce (Davies) dreams of falling in love, and find out...

The Story: Sylvia's real interest is in handsome crooner Bill Williams (Crosby), whom she fell in love with the moment she heard him sing on the radio. She's so smitten, she follows him cross-country to Hollywood on the same train, and even briefly becomes a maid for his French fiancée Lili (D'Orsay). Lili is supposed to be starring in Independent Art's next big musical, but she's temperamental and not really much of a performer. Lili and Sylvia cat fight when Lili overhears her rival doing a dead-on impersonation of her. After that, producer Ernest Pratt Baker (Stuart Erwin) gives her Lili's role. Bill's starting to fall for her, too, but he's moving a little too fast for Sylvia and ends up leaving for Fifi. Now it looks like Sylvia may be ready to really go Hollywood...but maybe not for the advances of her leading man.

The Song and Dance: Marion Davies may have top billing, but Bing's the one you'll remember. He sings most of the songs, including two of Brown and Freed's bigger hits, "After Sundown" and "Temptation." Even at this early point in his career, he's relaxed and charming, even projecting a little hint of danger. MGM's shiny production values shows with huge sets depicting Grand Central Station and a major movie studio, huge ruffled gowns for Davies and feathered ones for D'Orsay, and some large-scale production numbers.

Favorite Number: The song that makes Sylvia to fall for Bill is "Our Big Love Scene," which we hear her listen to on the radio in the girls' dormitory. Considering Bing's sexy and vibrant performance of that song, you really can't blame her for falling for a voice. The title song covers the move crew leaving for LA, as Bing sings to everyone that he's "Going Hollywood" and they all do some nifty choreography on the massive Grand Central Station set.  He performs "Beautiful Girl" at a radio station in the morning while half-dressed and shaved. 

"We'll Make Hay While the Sun Shines" is Sylvia's dream sequence midway through the film, as she imagines herself and Bill riding through a bucolic country setting, with farmers tossing their daughters in hay and bizarre scarecrows dancing. Bing sings "Temptation" while getting increasingly drunk after Lili leaves him and he's walked out on the studio. The song has some fairly absurd lyrics, but Bing's slightly menacing take helps put it over. "Our Big Love Scene" turns up again in the finale, as Davies, clad in fur and silk, is to perform for the cameras...but is really missing her Bill...

What I Don't Like: Davies comes off as stiff and dull in her own vehicle. No matter what Hearst wanted or believed, she was never comfortable in musicals. She wakes up when called on to do her genuinely funny imitation of D'Orsay and in a few scattered moments played for comedy, but she's hardly Ruby Keeler. Her dancing mainly consists of her watching her feet, and her singing is good but not great. 

The movie is one huge cliché, and nothing you haven't seen in backstagers from The Broadway Melody  to Dreamgirls. Patsy Kelly does get some good lines as Sylvia's best friend who offers her a room in her boarding house, but Erwin and Ned Sparks as a frustrated director have very little to play. 

The Big Finale: This one is mainly for fans of Crosby, Davies, or the big 1930's backstage films. All others are advised to look up the dance routines and "Temptation" and skip the rest. 

Home Media: On DVD from the Warner Archives; can be found streaming at HBO Max with a subscription.

DVD

HBO Max

A Star Is Born (1954)

Warner Bros, 1954

Starring Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, and Charles Bickford

Directed by George Cukor

Music and Lyrics by various

Garland hadn't done a movie since her aborted attempt at Royal Wedding in 1950. This was advertised as her comeback after she focused on a series of concert tours. Warners threw everything they had and more into this huge production, from authentic location shooting in LA to tons of costumes and three large-scale musical numbers for Garland as the singer who becomes a star, with British action favorite James Mason as the husband whose popularity eclipses as hers rises. How does this massive and troubled production look now, after two more remakes have come and gone on the big screen? Let's start at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, where movie star Norman Maine (Mason) is late for his appearance in a charity show, and find out...

The Story: Esther Blodgett (Garland) manages to bail Maine out of a jam when he drunkenly disrupts a number she's performing with the orchestra during the show and she makes it look like part of the act. He goes to see her sing at a club, and impressed by her talent, offers to get her a screen test. Unfortunately,  he can't remember where she lives, and she thinks he's joking with her. They reconnect after he hears her singing in a TV commercial and finally gets her that test. She lands a small role under the name Vicki Lester, then a bigger one in a major musical when studio head Oliver Niles (Bickford) finally hears her. 

She's a smash success, with the filmgoing public and with Norman. They get married, but Norman's life of drinking and carousing is starting to take its toll. His movies aren't making the money that they did, and studio publicity man Matt Libby (Carson) is tired of covering up his shenanigans. Norman is more devastated than he'll admit when the studio drops his contract. He disrupts his wife's acceptance of an Academy Award and winds up in jail after he goes on a binge when Matt says he's living on Esther's money. Esther thinks she can help him, but Norman doesn't want to be saved. He does want his wife to continue the work she loves, and making sure the public sees not only her incredible talent, but that she remembers how he felt about her.

The Song and Dance: Garland made a sensational comeback and earned her Oscar nomination as the singer who loves her career, but wishes she could get her husband to love himself more. Mason more than matches her as the washed-up star who can't handle that his career is in decline or that he's perceived to be riding on his wife's coattails. The supporting cast also rises to the occasion, with Carson the stand out as the caustic studio publicity manager who is tired of trying to get Norman to behave. Warners' unstinting production showed in those huge, detailed sets for Norman and Esther's home and the shooting at real locations in and around LA and Hollywood. 

Favorite Number: We open with the dance routine that Norman blunders into, "Gotta Have Me Go With You." Garland pours so much raw emotion into the big Ira Gershwin-Harold Arlen torch song "The Man That Got Away," you understand why Norman was impressed (and why it later become one of her most-performed standards). The long "Born In a Trunk" number, filmed by Roger Edens after the rest of the movie was finished, echoes the scrapbook of her life Esther showed Norman earlier and Garland's own rise to success, making use of the songs "Swanee," "I'll Get By," "The Black Bottom," "Melancholy Baby," and the Rogers and Hart standard "You Took Advantage of Me" as Garland goes from child in a vaudeville act to stage stardom. 

Two other long ensemble numbers anchor the second half. "Lose That Long Face" has newsgirl Garland dressed in a straw hat to dance with two kids and a group of pedestrians as she encourages them to dance away a rain storm. Garland is a one-woman tour guide in her own living room as she describes her big "Someone at Last" world tour number to an amused Mason, with her playing everything from can-can dancer to African game hunter. 

Trivia: The movie premiered at almost 3 hours. Warners, afraid they wouldn't sell as many tickets at that length, cut nearly 40 minutes. It was restored in 1983, but they still couldn't find a few minutes of footage. That's why there's two sequences in the first half, notably when Esther is a carhop and Norman is looking for her, where you see still photographs instead of actual film. 

Among the leading men considered were Humphry Bogart, Cary Grant (who turned it down), Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Richard Burton, and Lawrence Olivier. 

Garland and Mason were nominated for Oscars; neither won. 

What I Don't Like: Warners does have a point about the length. This movie is just too darn long, especially for a relatively intimate melodrama. This did not need to be three hours. Of the extended numbers, "Born In a Trunk" fits thematically and "Someone at Last" shows Esther and Norman happy at home, but "Lose That Long Face" isn't really necessary to the plot other than showing Esther at work. 

The Big Finale: Necessary for fans of Garland, Mason, or the big musicals of the 50's and 60's if they have time on their hands. 

Home Media: Easy to find in all formats; Blu-Ray is Warner Archives. HBO Max has it with a subscription. 

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Blu-Ray

HBO Max

Family Fun Saturday - Freaky Friday (2018)

Disney, 2018

Starring Cozi Zuehldorff, Heidi Blickenstaff, Jason Maybaum, and Alex Desert

Directed by Steve Carr

Music by Tom Kitt; Lyrics by Brian Yorkay

Freaky Friday has a long history at Disney. The original book was written in 1972 by Mary Rodgers, who also did the music for Once Upon a Mattress. It became a non-musical film three times, most recently and successfully in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as the mother and daughter who learn to appreciate each other when they magically switch bodies for the day. How does the Disney Channel's retelling fare? Let's begin on a hectic morning with Ellie Blake (Zuehldorff) and her friends as they discuss her disapproval of her uptight mother Katherine's (Blickenstaff) wedding and find out...

The Story: Ellie's been angry ever since her father died. She thinks her mother is trying to replace him with her fiancée Mike (Desert) and wans her to forget him. Katherine just wants her wedding to be photographed by a national magazine, so she can sell the article and save their home. Ellie's livid when her magic-obsessed brother Fletcher (Maybaum) runs off with an hourglass her father gave her. It was one of a pair that he also gave her mother. She's even angrier when she finds out her mother sold the other hourglass to finance her current catering business. 

This becomes an even bigger problem when they're fighting while holding the hourglass and magically switch bodies. Now Katherine has to navigate the ins and outs of high school, and Katherine has to raise Fletcher and figure out how to deal with the wedding. They think it'll be a piece of cake. It's far from it. Ellie doesn't have the patience to deal with Fletcher or the wedding planners, and Katherine can't handle the snobbish school bully Savannah (Dara Renee) and her crush on Adam (Ricky He). Turns out Adam's in charge of "The Hunt," a school-wide scavenger hunt. Katherine convinces him to add the hourglass to the list. Now they have to find that hourglass before the wedding, and teach mother and daughter a lesson in how hard it is to walk in another person's sneakers or high heels in the process.

The Song and Dance: If nothing else, the hourglass is a lot less stereotypical than the fortune cookies that switched mother and daughter in the 2003 version and makes more sense than them just waking up in each other's bodies in the book and original 1976 film. There's some nice dance ensembles here, notably "Oh Biology" and the big wedding finale. Some of the supporting characters are surprisingly well-fleshed out. I like Ellie's two best friends (who are a lot more relatable than she is), and for once, both teen and adult love interests come off as actual characters and not merely something to moon over. Adam even figures heavily into "the Hunt" part of the plot. 

Favorite Number: We start out with a fairly creative animated credits sequence depicting how Ellie feels in her mother's shadow, "What It's Like to Be Me." "Just One Day" has a frustrated Ellie complaining about how her mother doesn't understand her, and Katherine trying to deal with everything and just wanting to spend more time with her family. "I Got This" has the two claiming they can easily handle the other's life, because, hey, how hard can it be to attend high school and run a catering business? 

Katherine's now-teenage hormones has her thinking "Oh, Biology!" as the rest of her class dances along when she spies Adam for the first time. Ellie sadly explains to her brother, who admires her mother, that "Parents Lie," but they do it to protect their offspring. "Today and Every Day" is mother and daughter worrying they're stuck as an adult and a teen forever. The movie ends with a rather random but nicely-choreographed group dance routine at the wedding reception to "At Last It's Me."

Trivia: This is the first Disney Channel musical to be based after one of Disney's stage productions. The stage Freaky Friday has played regional theaters, but has yet to try Broadway. 

What I Don't Like: Frankly, neither mother nor daughter are terribly pleasant or fun to be around, no matter whose bodies they're in. Katherine is a whiny witch who should have been a lot more respectful of her daughter's grief; Ellie is a spoiled, mouthy brat. You never feel any chemistry between the two or like they're actually mother and daughter, making their overwrought reconnection at the wedding in the finale fake and tacked-on. The "Oh Biology!" number comes off as more creepy than amusing despite the good dancing, what with Katherine being in her daughter's body and lusting after her teenaged crush. The songs are dull and silly, and the wedding dance party ending comes out of nowhere and has nothing to do with anything.

Oh, and I want to hear more about "The Hunt." That honestly looks like fun. I'm surprised more schools don't do something similar. It's a heck of a lot interesting than Katherine's dropped-in-from-nowhere "we gotta save our house with this wedding" plot. 

The Big Finale: Dull music and obnoxious leads makes this my least-favorite Disney Channel musical to date. No wonder the stage Freaky Friday hasn't made it to Broadway. Hopefully, it's a lot more fun than this. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming; Disney Plus has it with a subscription.

DVD

Disney Plus

Sweet Dreams

Columbia, 1985

Starring Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Ann Wedgeworth, and David Clennon

Directed by Karel Reisz

Music and Lyrics by various

Coal Miner's Daughter was well-received enough for Patsy Cline to get her own full-on biopic five years later. Even more than twenty years after her tragic death, Cline's albums continued to be big sellers. Several country singers (including Lynn) made their own tribute albums to her. No wonder she and Lynn became friends. They had similar lives, including turbulent marriages to abusive men who didn't like their success. To find out just how turbulent it was, let's begin at a bar in Virginia, where tough guy Charlie Dick (Harris) catches her act for the first time...

The Story: Patsy (Lange) is unhappily married to Gerald Cline (James Staley) when she catches free-wheeling Charlie's eye. They're crazy about each other from the moment he sees her, and they get married shortly after her divorce. Patsy makes waves with the bouncy "Walkin' After Midnight" on the TV talent program Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, but is devastated when Charlie's drafted. Her subsequent tour is cut short when she learns she's pregnant. Six weeks later, she's back in the recording studio. Nothing can stop Patsy from achieving her dreams of stardom, even a nasty car crash. Charlie wishes she'd stay at home more and takes to seeing other women to make her jealous. He regrets his behavior when Patsy goes on one more tour...and never comes home...

The Song and Dance: This one is all about the performances. Lange earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination as the fiery singer who is determined for her music to be heard one way or another. Harris nearly matches her with his strutting rooster of a husband who loves his wife, but wishes she'd pay more attention to him. Ann Wedgeworth is also excellent as Lange's feisty and caring mother, who is her biggest support and greatest confidante. Lange is lip-synching to Cline's recordings, but she does so well imitating her mannerisms and voice, you mostly do believe it's her singing.

(And kudos for Patsy for being the only lady we've seen this month who actually called the cops on their abusive spouse!)

Favorite Number: We kick off with Cline's intentionally cheesy "San Antonio Rose" at the bar where her lively performance catches Charlie's eye. Their dance to the Sam Cooke standard "You Send Me" outside of the bar is what makes them realize they're deeply in love. She records the old Hank Williams standard "Your Cheatin' Heart" right after mentioning she wants to be Hank Williams...and realizing Charlie's not exactly being faithful. We get to see "Walkin' After Midnight" partially in blurry black-and-white on Charlie's TV and realize just how much of a hit Cline was. She's not crazy about "Crazy," her first song after her big car crash, until she encourages the musicians to rearrange it in a slower tempo. "Sweet Dreams" shows Patsy's hit the big time. She's backed by a full orchestra and clad in an elegant sequined suit. 

What I Don't Like: Even more than Coal Miner's Daughter, this is your standard soap opera that hits all the usual up-and-down beats of musical biopics and adds nothing new to the table. They don't even mention Loretta Lynn or her strong friendship with Patsy, probably to avoid comparisons to the previous film. In fact, I really wish we spent more time with Patsy and her music and her super-cool mom and less with Charlie and their off-and-on marriage. Charlie is an abrasive jerk who got what he deserved with that jail time. We get to know him better than Patsy and her ambitions.

There's problems with historical accuracy, too. Neither of the accidents are shown as they happened. Patsy was getting her mother fabric to make her costumes before the car crash, not beer, and she was thrown from the windshield. The plane made an emergency landing in the woods and was torn apart by trees, not a mountainside. Also, it's obvious this was a cheaper production. It lacks the gorgeous location shooting of Coal Miner's Daughter and frankly looks like a mid-80's TV movie. 

The Big Finale: Fans of Cline, Lange, Harris, or vintage country music may find a lot more in this one than I did, if they can handle the melodrama. 

Home Media: Easy to find on DVD and streaming. HBO Max has it for free with a subscription, and it runs on the cable channel as well. The DVD can frequently be found for under $10. 

DVD

HBO Max

Coal Miner's Daughter

Universal, 1980

Starring Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Levon Helm, and Beverly D'Angelo

Directed by Michael Apted

Music and Lyrics by Loretta Lynn and others

This week, we dive in to the world of honky-tonks and heart-felt ballads as we cover biographies of two of the most influential women in country music. Loretta Lynn had been the "First Lady of Country Music" for two decades when she penned her autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter in 1976 with George Vecsey. She personally chose Sissy Spacek, known for her portrayals of delicate-yet-strong women in movies like Carrie and Badlands, to play her. The two even became friends, and Spacek recorded her and studied her mannerisms and vocal patterns. How well did she do? Let's begin in the coal mines of Butcher Hallow, Kentucky, as Lorretta Webb helps her father Ted (Helm) with digging, and find out...

The Story: Loretta is only 13 when she falls for and marries returning soldier Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn (Jones), despite him being almost a decade older. She's pregnant with their first child when he moves the family to a logging community in Washington state. By 19, she has four children, whom she sings to while Doo is at the logging camp. He buys her a guitar and encourages her to sing at local bars. She goes over so well there, he gets her radio appearances, and they cut the single "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" for a small Canadian record company.

Loretta is devastated when her father dies, but her fortunes increase significantly when "Honky-Tonk Girl" becomes a surprise hit. She's even called to play at the Grand Ol' Opry and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop Midnite Jamboree. It's at the latter when she plays one of Patsy Cline's (DiAngelo) newest hits, "I Fall to Pieces." Cline is so impressed, the two become best friends and even do a show together. Their friendship ends tragically when Cline dies in a plane crash, but by that point, Lynn is already a sensation. Her success, however, is taking its toll on her and her already-strained marriage with Doo. Doo is the one who finally takes her their new ranch after a breakdown onstage...and encourages her to return to touring with fresh material.

The Song and Dance: Lynn was absolutely right to want Spacek to play her. She nailed a deserved Oscar as the sweet young hillbilly who goes from being too timid to sing for anyone but her children to strong enough to play on tour and stand up to her husband. Speaking of, Jones does nearly as well with Doo, the roguish former soldier who pushes his wife towards greater success, then has trouble dealing with it when she becomes famous without him. DiAngelo is also excellent in her brief but memorable role as fellow country legend Patsy Cline, who becomes Loretta's best friend and mentor. The movie was filmed on location at real locations in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennesee, and it looks gorgeous, with the black coal hills against the glowing greens of the mid-south woodlands. 

Favorite Number: Helm gets "Blue Moon of Kentucky" for his family while Loretta tries to decide how much she really loves her new, older beau. "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" is performed several times, notably at the recording studio when it's about to become her first hit. Her "I Fall to Pieces" at the Midnight Jamboree is so heartfelt, it moves even its originator Patsy Cline. Wish we could have seen more of Patsy and Loretta's charming "Back In Baby's Arms," performed together under umbrellas at a local fair. After Patsy's death, she admits on tour that "One's On the Way"...or two, as she ends up having twins. 

We also hear two of Lynn's bigger hits, "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" and "You're Lookin' at Country" during the montage of her late 60's success. She finally performs the title song in the finale for a sell-out crowd that spills over into the credits, were it plays against scenes from the movie. 

Trivia: Spacek and DiAngelo are excellent singers in their own right and did their own singing. 

Leon Helm was originally a drummer with The Band; this was his first acting role.

What I Don't Like: While it's more realistic than most of its brethren, this is still a biopic and does hit all the standard beats of the genre. As well as she does later in the film, Spacek is obviously not a teenager in the first half when Lynn is supposed to be between 13 and 19. What's with all the makeup on Jones? He wears more than Spacek does. Harrison Ford was apparently the original choice for his role, and he is made up to look a lot like him. 

The Big Finale: This is a truly touching biopic and is highly recommended for fans of either leading lady, Jones, Lynn, Cline, or the country music of the mid-20th century. 

Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, often for under 10 dollars. 

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Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Family Fun Saturday - The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking

Columbia, 1988

Starring Tami Erin, Cory Crow, David Seaman Jr, and Eileen Brennan

Directed by Ken Annikin

Music by Misha Segal; Lyrics by Pat Caddick and Harriet Schock

Pippi's initial big-screen debut was in a Swedish film in 1949, but the best-know screen adaptations to this point were a series of movies made in Sweden in 1969 and 1970 that were actually edited-together versions of a Pippi TV show. This would be the first Pippi movie that was intended to be a film from the outset, and the first movie about Pippi's adventures filmed in the US. How does it look today? Let's once again begin on the high seas with Pippi (Erin) and her father Ephraim (John Schuck) and find out...

The Story: After Pippi's separated from her father and his ship during a storm, she, her monkey Mr. Nillsen, and her horse Alfonso make their way to Villa Villekula. They befriend the kids next door Tommy (Seaman) and Annika (Crow) and charm their mother (Dianne Hull) as well with their wild antics. Their father (Dennis Dugan) isn't nearly as happy with his kids spending every day with a rambunctious little girl who has no parental supervision. Miss Bannister (Brennan) thinks Pippi should go to the town's orphanage, and obnoxious Mr. Blackhart (George DiCenzo) wants to buy her home. Miss Bannister does convince Pippi to live at the orphanage after she gets into trouble running away with Tommy and Annika, but Pippi's indominable spirit can't be contained there for long...

The Song and Dance: This used to be one of my little sister's favorite movies when it played frequently on cable in the late 80's-early 90's. She loved watching Pippi's wild adventures and as she outwitted one adult after another, and then on her attempted escape from the orphanage. For the most part, it's held up better than I figured it would. Erin makes an especially energetic Pippi, and she plays well off persnickety Brennan. I also like that, as in the original books, the social worker isn't played as evil, just well-meaning and overly fussy, and Mrs. Settigren actually approves of Pippi as long as she doesn't put her children in danger. 

Favorite Number: "Pippi's Coming to Your Town" is heard three times, in the opening credits over children's book-style artwork of Pippi and the many countries she's visited, briefly when Pippi and the kids head into town to buy a piano, and over a montage of sequences from the film just before the credits. The song is so incredibly catchy, I can still sing the whole darn thing over 35 years later. The first proper number is "We Live On the Seas," as the crew on Ephraim's ship explains about their lifestyle and what they do. "Scrubbing Day" also lodges in the brain as Pippi and the kids tie scrub brushes to their feet and do their best skating number to get Villa Vilekula clean. They're "Runnin' Away" twice, after they get Pippi's "autogyro" into the air, and later after Tommy and Annika lose their clothes when they march down the road. 

What I Don't Like: Unfortunately, this shares some of the same problems as the animated version. Pippi's adventures can sometimes be funny, but she can also come off as obnoxious or bratty, especially to the adults. Tommy and Annika are once again so dull, they fade into the woodwork, especially compared to noisy Pippi. The very 80's special effects haven't dated terribly well, either. The "Sticky Situation" number is likely just Erin standing on a floor turned to the side in the editing room, and anytime Pippi jumps or throws someone and we see obvious wires. 

Just where and when is this supposed to be set? The costumes, cars in town, and hairstyles on Miss Bannister and Mrs. Settigren indicate that this takes place when the books were written in the late 40's-early 50's, but it's never specified. If that's true, the tinny synthesizer music is extremely out of place, no matter how catchy it is. The subplot with the goons and Mr. Blackhart is not only not as interesting as Miss Bannister's meddling, but isn't resolved. They say in the end that they'll keep trying, probably setting up for a sequel that never came. 

The Big Finale: This seems to be one of those movies people either really have fond memories of, or don't get and think is too childish, annoying, or far from the books. I'm going to say this is a great choice for families with little girls who will enjoy the music and Pippi's antics as much as my sisters and I did in 1988, or those who loved those cable broadcasts like we did. 

Home Media: Easy to find in all formats.

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Blu Ray

Amazon Prime

Happy St. Patrick's Day! - Little Nellie Kelly

MGM, 1940

Starring Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winninger, and Douglas McPhail

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music and Lyrics by George M. Cohan and others

We leap from 1860's Siam to early 20th century Ireland and New York for this year's bit of St. Patrick's Day blarney. The Wizard of Oz wasn't the biggest hit in 1939, but Judy Garland did receive an honorary Oscar as Dorothy. MGM was happy enough with her performance to put her into this movie as a "test" to see how well she'd do with audiences in a more realistic setting. For Garland, it was her first adult role, even giving her a chance to do what would be her only death scene. How well does this tale of three generations of conflict in an Irish family work today? Let's begin in the Irish countryside, as Nellie Noonan (Garland) waits for her out-of-work father Mike (Winninger) to come home, and find out...

The Story: Nellie loves her father dearly, despite his insistence on never taking a job, but she also loves Jerry Kelly (Murphy). Mike disapproves of anyone taking his daughter from him, let alone Jerry, but they get married and take him to America anyway. All three eventually become American citizens, and Jerry becomes a police officer like he always dreamed. Alas, he does it without his Nellie. She dies in childbirth, leaving a daughter, Little Nellie (Garland), behind. Years later, Nellie falls for Dennis (McPhail), the son of a local contractor (Arthur Shields). Mike doesn't approve of this romance, either...but Jerry is determined to let his daughter have her beau.

The Song and Dance: Garland revels in her first real adult role, especially playing the elder Nellie in the first half. The sequence where she discusses going to America with Murphy is genuinely touching and sweet, and her death scene is genuinely effecting. Winninger hams it up as Nellie's father, and then grandfather, who loves his women but would rather spend his time with his buddies in the local saloon than pursuing work. 

Favorite Number: Garland sings "Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow" three times, notably and touchingly in the beginning after Jerry proposes. Roger Edens wrote "It's a Great Day For the Irish," which Nellie sings while marching with her grandfather in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Garland did so well with it, it became one of her earliest hits. She performs "Singin' In the Rain" a decade before Gene Kelly did it to a rapt audience at the Policeman's Ball. We finally hear Cohan's title song in the finale, as Dennis, Jerry, and every policeman in New York dances with Jerry's enchanting daughter. 

Trivia: Little Nellie Kelly originally debuted on Broadway in 1922. Nellie did have an Irish cop for a father in the stage version, but there, she was a modern Cinderella looking for her wealthy Prince Charming and involved in a robbery plot. Only two songs, "Nellie Kelly, I Love You" and "Nellie Is a Darling" were retained from the original. 

What I Don't Like: On one hand, I actually kind of prefer MGM's more interesting story to the Cinderella fluff in the original...but I do wish they kept more of the original songs. It might have been interesting to hear what Cohan's full score sounded like. Winninger is the only one who manages to get anywhere near Garland, with his over-the-top histrionics. Neither Murphy nor the supremely dull McPhail make as much of an impression. 

Wish they'd given more of an explanation as to why Mike is so against Jerry marrying his daughter, other than he intends to move to America with her. You can at least somewhat understand his objection to Dennis, since his father has tried to convince him to work with his construction company, but his trouble with Jerry is a lot less obvious. 

The Big Finale: Mainly worth checking out on St. Patrick's Day if  you're a fan of Garland. Everyone else could probably look for the "Singin' In the Rain" and "Great Day for the Irish" numbers and skip the rest. 

Home Media: Currently DVD-only from the Warner Archives. 

DVD

The King and I (1956)

20th Century Fox, 1956

Starring Yul Brunner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno, and Terry Saunders

Directed by Walter Lang

Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Anna Leonowens was, in fact, a real person who was indeed the governess for the King of Siam in the 1860's. Though the truth of her encounters with the King of Siam are called into question today, they did inspire a semi-fictional novel in 1944, Anna and King of Siam. The book had already been made into a black-and-white drama in 1946, with Rex Harrison as the King and Irene Dunne as Anna, when Gertrude Lawrence's agent thought she would be perfect as a musical Anna. 

Lawrence did ultimately go over well in the part, but she passed away before the end of the show's run. Yul Brunner was even more of a sensation as the King and was called on to repeat his Tony-winning role. Joining him was Jerome Robbins recreating his award-winning choreography. How does this story look nowadays? Let's begin as Anna (Kerr) and her son Louis (Rex Thompson) as they arrive in Siam and find out...

The Story: Anna immediately clashes with King Mongkut (Brunner) over his not building her a promised house. He convinces her to remain once she meets his many charming children, who she's to teach. She's also to teach his wives English and becomes friends with his head wife Lady Thiang (Saunders). Romantic Anna encourages his newest slave Tup Tim (Moreno) to meet her lover Lun Tha (Carlos Rivas), who brought her to Siam, in secret. 

Mongkut is more interested in proving to the rest of the world that Siam is a modern, scientific country. He and Anna set up a banquet and ballet for the visiting English consulate to prove that Siam isn't the barbaric country many in the West see it as. Things go swimmingly, until Tup Tim runs away. The King wants to punish her...but to do so would truly make him a barbarian in the eyes of the only person in Siam who ever dared challenge him. 

The Song and Dance: Kerr and Brunner put in some of their best performances as the strong-willed teacher and ruler whose constant battle for control eventually mellows into something like respect...and maybe more. Brunner won an Oscar to go with his Tony, making him the first person to win a Tony and Oscar for the same role. The stunning and elaborate period-accurate costumes and sets also won Oscars. Those heavy hoop skirts Kerr wears were so period-accurate, in fact, she lost twelve pounds by the end of filming. 

Favorite Number: We open with Anna teaching a nervous Louis to "Whistle a Happy Tune" as they step off the boat and into a new land...at least until they meet the imposing Kralahome, the King's prime minister. "The March of the Siamese Children" is too adorable as each child impresses Anna in their own way in time to the music. The kids also join Anna as she explains in the school room while she's glad to be "Getting to Know You." 

Lun Tha and Tup Tim meet secretly under the moonlight, admitting that "We Kiss In a Shadow," but love each other no matter what. All of this romance and talk of the Bible and creation is "A Puzzlement" to the amused King. Lady Thiang explains why the King is "Something Wonderful," even if he's also stubborn as a mule. He and Anna do better when he says "Shall We Dance?" and convinces her to teach him a western polka. 

The major set piece is "The Small House of Uncle Thomas Ballet." Actual Asian theatrical tropes are used to bring Tup Tim's version of Uncle Tom's Cabin to delicate life. It seems more Thai than almost anything else in the film, with its brilliant costumes and Asian-tinged re-write of the famously controversial novel. (In fact, to date this is the only theatrical sound version of Cabin, though it has turned up on TV.)

Trivia: Three of the songs cut from the show, Anna's "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" Tup Tim's "My Lord and Master," and more of "I Have Dreamed" were recorded; the first two were filmed, but the footage has since been lost. All three are on the soundtrack LP. "Western People Funny," a song for the ladies before the ball, can be heard briefly in underscoring. 

This was a four-year hit on Broadway in 1951 and also did well in London. Revivals in 1977 (with Brunner in his original role), 1985 (once again with Brunner), 1996 (with Donna Murphy and Lee Diamond Phillips) and 2015 (with Kelli O'Hara and Ken Wantanbe) were all fair-sized hits in their own right, with the latter two winning Best Revival Tonys. 

Paramount announced last year that they're currently developing a remake. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, Kerr, Moreno, and Rivas were all dubbed, Kerr infamously by Marni Nixon. Second, every version of Anna and the King is banished in Thailand for a reason. King Mongkut, his court, and their culture aren't always shown in the most flattering light, and can even be see as annoying stereotypes today. Doesn't help that none of the Thai characters are played by Asians (the lovers are actually Latin American). Those massive sets also feel a bit stagey nowadays, making the movie look more like a filmed play. Not to mention, there's all those cut songs that could have fleshed out characters other than Anna, the King, and Lady Thiang.

The Big Finale: Highly recommended for Kerr and Brunner's sparring and the musical numbers alone if you can deal with the dated portrayal of Thai culture.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats.

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Animation Celebration Saturday - Pippi Longstocking (1997)

Nelvana/Warner Bros, 1997

Voices of Melissa Altro, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, and Wayne Robson

Directed by Michael Schaack and Clive A. Smith

Music and Lyrics by various

Swedish author Astrid Lindgren wrote the Pippi Longstocking books in 1945, based after tales she told her daughter about a lively little girl when she was ill. They made their North American debut in 1950. The stories of the rambunctious little girl who takes care of herself, her pets, and her two best friends in a rambling old house and wards off burglars and snooty old ladies have been beloved by children for seven decades. This is the first animated version of the books and Nelvana's first venture on the big screen since their Babar: The Movie flopped in 1989. How well does it capture the whimsical spirit of the novels? Let's begin at sea, with Pippi (Altro) and her father Ephraim (Gordon Pinset) at sea and find out...

The Story: Pippi returns to land with her monkey Mr. Nielssen and her horse after her father is washed overboard. They settle in at the rambling old Villa Villekulla across the street from Tommy (Noah Reid) and Annika (Olivia Garratt) Settegren and their parents. They're delighted by Pippi's freewheeling antics and her ability to pick up anything, but their neighbors aren't as pleased. Their teacher (Carole Pope) and mother Ingrid (Karen Bernstein) wish Pippi would learn proper manners, and social worker Mrs. Prysselius (O'Hara) is determined to send Pippi to a children's home. Two bumbling thieves (Thomas and Robson) are equally determined to steal the chest of gold Pippi keeps at her home. Pippi has a grand time outwitting them all, and proving that she can take care of not only herself, but her friends as well.

The Animation: Pretty much on par with what Nelvana was doing in its TV shows by 1997. The backdrops are colorful but static; the characters move well enough and have appropriately cartoony designs, but they all have two expressions with little variation. It's good enough to get the job done with a simple and action-packed story.

The Song and Dance: Given neither Warners nor Nelvana have the best reputation with releasing animated films, this is much better than I thought it would be. O'Hara, Thomas, and Robson do especially well as the stuffy social worker who is absolutely convinced Pippi needs supervision, and the bumbling thieves who are terrified of whomever "Mr. Nilssen" is. Some of the songs are catchy too, and unlike some other adaptions, it does more-or-less stick to the first book. 

Favorite Number: We open with Pippi and the crew of her father's ship wondering "What Shall I Do Today?" as she proceeds to show them just what a nine-year-old can do at sea. Pippi introduces the townsfolk to her unusual friends as they travel to Villa Villekula with "Hey Ho, I'm Pippi." She teaches Annika and Tommy about her "Recipe for Life" as she makes pancakes for them and shows off all the treasures she and her father picked up on their sea voyages. The thieves Bloom (Robson) and Thunder-Karrisson (Thomas) hope to get "A Bowler and a New Gold Tooth" if they can get that chest from Pippi.

What I Don't Like: The story comes more-or-less from the book, but the characters are too over-the-top. Mrs. Prysselius was well-meaning in the book and live-action films, but not a villain, and the cops and thieves were still comic but played with some menace, rather than flat-out bumbling idiots. Pippi's bad behavior can be less charming and more plain annoying, especially at school and the tea party. No wonder Ingrid doesn't want her around Tommy and Annika. And speaking of the other kids, they're so dull as the "normal" children caught up in Pippi's lunacy, they pretty much fade into the woodwork.

The Big Finale: Nifty introduction to Pippi and her world for younger children who won't mind her noisy antics and will enjoy the music and action sequences. 

Home Media: Out of print and expensive on DVD. Your best bet is streaming. It can currently be found for free with ads on Pluto TV.

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Pluto TV On Demand

Interrupted Melody

MGM, 1955

Starring Eleanor Parker, Glenn Ford, Roger Moore, and Cecil Kellaway

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Music and Lyrics by various

Our next opera diva also came from humble beginnings...and faced even stronger obstacles on her way to the top. Marjorie Lawrence was a singer from Australia who wrote a best-selling autobiography in 1950 about how she managed to continue her career despite being stricken with polio. MGM initially wanted Greer Garson; Lana Turner was also suggested. By the time filming began in 1954, Garson was gone from MGM, and Parker now had the role. How well does she pull this off? Let's begin on a farm in Australia in 1932, just as Marjorie (Parker) is leaving for a singing contest that could launch her career, and find out...

The Story: After winning a trip to Paris to study voice in a contest, Marjorie boards with a family and nudges her way into lessons with renown teacher Madame Cecile Gilly (Ann Codee). She's ready to give up after a year, but Gilly manages to net her a role as Musetta in La Boheme. She's such a sensation, she's now in demand with all the major European and American opera companies. At this point, she also reconnects with and marries Dr. Thomas King (Ford), whom she initially met after her triumph as Musetta in Paris. Their marriage proves to be difficult, thanks to her traveling and his patients...until she's stricken with polio during a tour of South America in 1941. Now he's the only one who can convince her to start moving again and show her that she may be in a wheelchair, but her voice is hardly disabled. 

The Song and Dance: Parker earned an Oscar nod as the determined, strong-willed soprano. She's as dynamic riding a galloping  horse into the flames onstage as she is fighting with Ford over her inability to move. The scene where she's forced to move in order to stop a recording of her singing opera from playing is a bit over-the-top, but it's also an incredibly intense portrait of a woman learning that disability need not be an impediment to her life. Ford nearly matches her as the medical man who becomes both her biggest supporter and greatest critic when he tasks himself with restoring her mobility. MGM's unstinting production, including gorgeous costumes and accurate representations of the operas Lawrence appeared in, lends an air of class to the proceedings. 

Favorite Number: Our first major sequence is a charming and lively "Musetta's Waltz" from La Boheme, with Parker resplendent in emerald green as she dances with the students onstage. The big "success montage" showing the shows Lawrence starred in includes he "Un bel di" aria from Madame Butterfly and a very sexy "Habenera" from Carmen. The Immolation Scene from the Gotterdamrung is far from Looney Tune nuttiness as Lawrence really does ride that horse right into the flames, making it as thrilling of a moment on film as it must have been in the theater. 

Lawrence performs a touching "Over the Rainbow" for the soldiers recovering in a hospital, many of whom are in wheelchairs without the use of their limbs, too. Another montage of her singing for the troops ends with a rousing "Waltzing Matilda" for Australian soldiers on their way to the front. The film ends with Lawrence proving she can perform opera just as well standing up or sitting down with a thrilling sequence from Tristan und Isolde. 

What I Don't Like: Once again, the biography is relatively accurate, but that doesn't make it any less cliched. This is your standard melodrama that hits a lot of the same beats as So This Is Love, including the disability that temporarily sets back the career and the triumphant performance/debut at the Met. This also has the same leading man problem. Roger Moore is supposed to be Lawrence's younger brother and manager who is grief-stricken when he's the one who suggested the fatal South American tour, but he's only slightly more interesting than Mel Griffin. Not to mention, he disappears for most of the movie after she comes down with polio, only to reappear in the last few minutes. 

And while Eleanor Parker could sing and actually studied for the role, she was ultimately dubbed by another soprano, Eileen Farrell. Oh, and though the movie is supposed to take place in the 30's and 40's, you'd never know it from the costumes and hair. It looks like 1955 for the entire film. 

The Big Finale: If you want to catch a biography of an opera diva, make it this one. Highly recommended for opera lovers, soap opera nuts, or fans of the stars. 

Home Media: Once again, easily found on streaming and Warner Archives DVD.

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Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - So This Is Love (The Grace Moore Story)

Warner Bros, 1953

Starring Kathryn Grayson, Merv Griffin, Joan Weldon, and Walter Abel

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Music and Lyrics by various

We continue our celebration of famous musical women with biographies of opera divas. Grace Moore is best-known today for the series of operettas and opera-based backstage films she made for Columbia in the mid-30's, but she began as a singer on the stage and in nightclubs. Her real ambition was to sing grand opera...and we see how she finally got there in this biography featuring another popular movie soprano. How does Grayson do with the life of the mercurial music star? Let's begin on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee as the circus comes to town and find out...

The Story: Grace Moore (Grayson) has always had a beautiful voice...but it goes hand in hand with a rather nasty temper. She makes use of that temper to get herself singing lessons in Washington DC, where she meets chipper Buddy Nash (Griffin) at a nightclub. She manages to get a job singing there, but the combination of that and a poor teacher has damaged her vocal chords. A trip to a cabin in the country and not speaking for three months restores her voice, but it loses her Buddy, who marries before she returns.

Grace has far more luck with her career. She's hired as the understudy for star Marilyn Montgomery (Marie Windsor), then takes over her part when she's sick. That makes her a star on Broadway and nets her another boyfriend, Bryan Curtis (Douglas Dick). It doesn't impress the Metropolitan Opera, who find her too youthful and inexperienced for their stages. Moore, however, will become a star no matter what...even if she has to sacrifice her relationships to become the next great diva.

The Song and Dance: Whatever faults the movie had, it's not with the central performance. Grayson makes a wonderful Moore and does very well showing off her charm and her operatic temperament. She's equally adept at handling both the operatic solos like "The Jewel Song" from Manon and "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate." Walter Abel and Rosemary DeCamp are the only other cast members who make any impression as Grace's blow-hard father who just wants her to behave and her doting aunt. 

Favorite Number: Little Grace (Noreen Corcocan) wows a crowd of black churchgoers with "In Dat Great Gitten' Up Morning." As an adult, she gets her first job singing "Ciribirin" onstage, only to be drowned out a man announcing the end of World War I. Grayson has a great time swinging her black beaded dress to "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate," but her family is shocked at the lewd song. Merv Griffin gets to show off his other talent besides producing game shows with the lovely ballad "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame." 

"Oh Me, Oh My!" is one of Grace's numbers for the show she's supposed to be understudying. The other is the movie's sole major production number, "Time On My Hands." Grayson sings it as a bride before a ballerina in a magenta tutu and her partner in a tux take over, dancing off of what looks like a giant wedding cake. Grayson looks radiant in a frilly yellow gown and parasol for the romantic Irving Berlin ballad "Remember." The movie ends with Moore's Met triumph in the opera La Boheme, singing Mimi's solo "Si, mi chiamo Mimi." 

What I Don't Like: Though the movie is actually pretty accurate biography-wise, you really don't get to know Moore as a person beyond her ambitions...and you only get half the story. Hollywood took note of her success with the Met and called her to make two operettas in 1930. She returned to movies in 1934, doing a successful series of operettas and opera backstagers at Columbia. Even after her film career ended, she continued appearing on records and in radio, then entertained the troops during World War II before dying in a plane crash in 1947. We see none of this, probably because Warners didn't own the material from her MGM and Columbia movies, and it might have been a lot more interesting than her dull attempts to get into the Met. 

Casting is the other problem. Everyone else pales besides Grayson. Jeff Donnell and Joan Weldon are funny as her loyal buddies, but they really don't have much to do beyond a few gags. Griffin and Dick are so colorless in boring love interest roles, you understand why Griffin gave up any ideas of being a movie star and opted for hosting talk shows and producing game shows instead. 

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of vintage opera, Grayson, or Moore. Everyone else is just advised to seek out Moore's films or recordings. 

Home Media: Easily found on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives.

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Amazon Prime

Animation Celebration Saturday - The King and I (1999)

Warner Bros/Rankin-Bass, 1999

Voices of Miranda Richardson, Martin Vidnovic, Ian Richardson, and Allen D. Hong

Directed by Richard Rich

Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Warner Bros has never had much luck with their animated features. They distributed three independent animated films from 1990 to 1994, all of which underperformed at the box office. Their breakthrough came with Space Jam in 1996, which wound up being one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Neither the medieval fantasy Quest for Camelot nor the musical Cats Don't Dance from the newly-acquired Turner Animation, both released a year later, came close. 

They tried again with another independent company, Morgan Creek Pictures. Producer Arthur J. Rankin Jr. convinced the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization that animated family-friendly versions of their shows would expand their audiences, and even got Richard Rich, whose Swan Princess failed at the box office but did well on video, to direct. How did the first animated Rodgers and Hammerstein musical turn out? Let's begin at sea, as Anna Leonowens (Miranda Richardson) and her son Louis (Adam Wylie) travel to Siam (present-day Thailand) in 1862 and find out...

The Story: Anna's ship is battered in a fierce storm that nearly washes Louis overboard. They're attacked by a sea serpent, but manage to escape thanks to Captain Orton (Ken Baker). The serpent was sent by the Kralahome (Ian Richardson), who intends to use his magic to overthrow King Mongut (Vidinovic) and make himself king. Anna nearly leaves when she sees the king accept a gift of a slave girl from Burma named Tuptim (Armi Arabe) and realizes he hasn't built the house he promised. She finally decides to stay when she meets the king's adorable children, especially his teen son Chulalongkorn (Hong). 

Kralahome is still determined to get rid of her and get the kingdom, and he sends his lackey Master Little (Darrell Hammond) to eliminate her son and the other kids. The arrival of the British, however, may do more damage than the Kralahome ever could when Sir Edward Ramsay (Sean Smith) arrives to see how "civilized" the King is.

The Animation: Full of the rich colors of Siam, with glowing golds, greens, and reds creating a splendid backdrop for Anna and Mongut's adventures. The rest of the animation was farmed out to companies in 24 countries...and looks it. The lighting is terrible, the characters that are supposed to look Thai don't (except for Master Little, who falls a little too far into stereotypes territory), and there's scenes where characters barely move at all. On the other hand, they actually manage to nicely integrate the CGI and 2D animated effects, something you don't always see even in Disney movies during this era. 

The Song and Dance: For all the problems, Richardson and Vidnovic put in surprisingly convincing performances as Anna and the King, and Hong isn't bad as the young prince torn between his duty to his father, what he's learned from Anna, and his feelings for Tuptim. We even get a song for Anna, "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?," that was cut from the 1956 live-action film. When the songs are blended well with the concepts, as with the elegant "Shall We Dance?," the movie almost works. I also like that, for all they whitewashed, they did keep the sequence with the King threatening to whip Tuptim and even make it fairly suspenseful. 

Favorite Number: "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" makes its screen debut as Anna rages and trips and kicks over the King telling her he won't build the promised house. For his part, the King wonders what all the fuss is about. It's "A Puzzlement" to him. Anna and the kids are "Getting to Know You" as they explore the markets and streets of Bangkok. Master Little's not far behind, but he's not terribly good at trying to catch her and the children. Tuptim and Chulalongkorn get a fairly romantic "I Have Dreamed/We Kiss In a Shadow" when she points out that their romance is forbidden. "Shall We Dance?" is just lovely, both when Anna and the King dance along to it in a fantasy world, and in the finale, when it's finally just the two of them and the music.

What I Don't Like: You can tell this was adapted by the same team that mangled Quest for Camelot. Why on Earth did Rankin Jr. think this particular Rodgers and Hammerstein property would make a great 90's animated fantasy musical? The Kralahome wasn't a pleasant person in the original show, but he wasn't Scar or Jafar, either. There's enough comic relief animals to fill the Bangkok Zoo, none of which add anything to the film but a few gags. Combining the eldest Prince with the slave who falls for Tuptim just makes that side-story even more cliched than it can come off in the actual show. Master Little is also unnecessary comic relief, and badly stereotyped comic relief at that. 

This also has the same problem as Camelot with inappropriate musical numbers, or numbers where the song doesn't really match the visuals. Why is "I Whistle a Happy Tune" done during that huge storm with the dragon? It sounds and looks utterly ridiculous. The otherwise well-sung and thought out "Getting to Know You" is mangled by Master Little and his ill-timed slapstick that's more suited for a Looney Tunes short than a major animated musical. And giving the story a happy ending doesn't make it any less dated or show the culture and history of Thailand in a better light. 

The Big Finale: I'm afraid even some good performances and songs can't save this one. No wonder the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization banned any further animated retellings of their shows. Only for the most ardent fans of theirs or for families with indiscriminate younger children who may enjoy the animal antics and songs. 

Home Media: Easy to find on all formats; it's currently free on Amazon Prime with a subscription.

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Respect

United Artists, 2021

Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forrest Whittaker, Marion Waynas, and Audra McDonald

Directed by Lisel Tommy

Music and Lyrics by various

Aretha Franklin has a lot in common with Tina Turner. She lost a parent as a child, had an abusive marriage, fought back when she found religion, had her initial success in the mid-late 60's, made a comeback in the 80's. In other ways, Aretha was a very different woman. How different? Let's begin in Detroit, Michigan, as the young Aretha (Skye Dakota Turner) sneaks into a party held by her pastor father CL (Whittaker) and find out...

The Story: Aretha loves performing more than anything, especially with her singer mother Barbara (McDonald). After her mother dies young of a heart attack, Aretha refuses to speak for a year. CL finally goads her into singing for the church choir. That not only restores her voice, it gives her the impetus to focus on music. 

Though she marries young and has two children before even being out of her teens, her father still gives her tickets to New York to meet with Columbia Records executives. She sings jazz standards for them, but as her family friend Dinah Washington (Mary J. Blige) reminds her, she needs to find her own style. She does find a manager and a second husband in Ted White (Waynas), a charming old friend. Her father doesn't approve, but Ted does get her to Atlantic Records after Columbia drops her.

Franklin finally finds her own sound - and a hit song - in "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You)." She and her sisters arrange the Otis Redding song "Respect" into an even bigger hit. She's even raising money for civil rights causes, getting an award from none other than Martin Luther King Jr. (Gilbert Glenn Brown) himself. Ted, however, is causing trouble behind the scenes, fighting with the musicians and beating Aretha. Aretha does leave him, but she overworks herself into a drunken stupor...until a vision of her mother reminds her of what she really loves to sing most of all.

The Song and Dance: Hudson's incredible performance as Franklin, including a couple of great numbers, and the period-perfect costumes and sets are reason enough to see this one. She really tears up the floor getting into Franklin's signature style and her elaborate feather-and-bead gowns. Whittaker is the only one who gets near her as her gruff father who is determined that she become the star his estranged wife never got the chance to be. And as harrowing as the story is, for the most part, it steers clear of over-the-top melodrama. (And good for Aretha for realizing what a jerk Ted was and getting out of her bad relationship quicker than Tina did hers.)

Favorite Number: We open with young Aretha singing "My Baby Likes To Be-Bop (And I Like to Be-Bop Too)" at her father's party. Clad in her white night gown, she still manages to deliver a marvelous performance. "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood" takes us from Aretha's childhood to adult self singing in the church choir as she regains her voice. The Nat King Cole standard "Nature Boy" is one of the jazz songs Aretha recorded, but it's also her feelings on Ted when he reenters her life. 

After false starts (thanks to a jealous Ted), Hudson finally gets through her searing version of Franklin's first major hit, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You)." "Respect" carries us through a montage of Franklin's success in the mid-60's. "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" likewise shows us a stronger Aretha as she pushes the abusive Ted out of her life. The movie ends with her throbbing performance of "Amazing Grace" live at her church, which apparently became her biggest-selling album.

What I Don't Like: While it's a bit easier to take than What's Love Got to Do With It, it's still a standard biographical melodrama that hits all of the up-and-down beats without adding much that's new to the table. It's also way too long at two and a half hours. A lot of the slow middle before she finds religion and decides to do a gospel album probably could have been trimmed. It's not as violent as What's Love, but there's still some violence (including one scene of abuse), bad language, and many nasty racial slurs. Once again, this one isn't for children. 

The Big Finale: A must if you're a fan of Hudson or Franklin, or are interested in the history of rock or soul or the civil rights era. 

Home Media: As one of the newer movies I've reviewed, it's easily available on streaming and disc. 

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What's Love Got to Do With It

Touchstone Pictures, 1993

Starring Angela Bassett, Lawrence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, and Vanessa Bell Calloway

Directed by Brian Gibson

Music and Lyrics by various

We segway from Black History Month to Women's History Month with our first two reviews this week. Tina Turner was one of the first women I remember admiring who wasn't my mother. Mom bought her Tiny Dancer album when it came out and told me how she made a huge comeback after leaving her husband Ike. It wasn't until this movie came out and I became interested in classic rock that I learned more details about exactly what happened to break up their act. What did happen? Let's begin at a church in Nutbush, Tennesee, where young Anna Mae Bullock (Ray'ven Larrymore Kelly) raises the roof with her improvised "scat" vocals, and find out...

The Story: Anna Mae (Bassett) was largely raised by her grandmother after her mother Zelma (Lewis) abandoned her. As a teenager,, she moves to St. Louis to live with her mother and her sister Aline (Phyllis Yvonne Stickney). Her sister takes her to a bar, where she meets Ike Turner (Fishbourne) playing with his band. He's impressed with her after she gets a chance to sing with him and offers to mentor her. That mentorship blossoms into love, to the horror of his girlfriend and the wife of his children Lorraine (Penny Johnson Jerald). They marry, have two children together, adopt Ike's two from Lorraine, and become one of the most prominent R&B duos of the late 60's and 70's as Ike & Tina Turner.

All is not well behind the scenes. Jealous of Tina's success and plagued by his own demons, Ike turns to drugs and becomes abusive. Tina loves him, but after her best friend Jackie (Calloway) turns her to Buddism, she finally finds the courage to defend herself. Their divorce leaves her with nothing but her pride and her stage name. Ike still wants to worm his way back into her life, but Tina's learned a few things, and this time, she's the one who's going to come back a star.

The Song and Dance: Wow. Powerhouse performances anchor this searing drama. Bassett and Fishbourne got Oscar nominations for their work as the troubled Turners. Fishbourne is magnetic as Ike, turning him into a portrait of a man who thrives on control and can't deal with anything when he loses it. Bassett ably show's Tina's ferocious stage presence and her less-strong offscreen marriage to a man who will own everything about her, or else. Love how Ike and Tina's costumes and hair perfectly show the transition from 50's romance in a bar to 60's R&B mop-tops to 70's Afros and shag cuts to Tina's infamous huge blonde 80's wig and tight leather dress. 

Favorite Number: We open with Young Anna Mae rocking the church in "This Little Light of Mine." She's supposed to be singing along, but even then, Anna Mae was destined to stand out. "Darlin', You Know I Love You" is the number onstage that convinces Ike to let Tina join their group. Even with her 50's curls and Peter Pan collared blouse, she oozes raw intensity. "A Fool In Love" is Tina's first major stage performance with Ike, and their first huge hit. Tina and the Ikettes show a group of teens in the mid-60's how to "Shake a Tail Feather" on a very typical dance show. 

"Proud Mary" covers a montage of Tina having increasingly more success, while Ike feels like he's being shoved ever more into the background. Tina's recording "Nutbush City Limits" when her husband literally attacks her after he claims her performance lacks passion. The movie ends with Bassett doing "What's Love Got to Do With It" onstage...and the real Tina Turner performing it in actual concert footage from the 80's.

What I Don't Like: First of all, violence, heavy swearing, drug use, sexuality (including a rape), and harrowing scenes of physical abuse makes this absolutely not for children. The sequences with Ike beating Tina until she's a bloody pulp may not sit well with people who were abused in real-life, either. There's also the fact that a lot of this is fictional or over-dramatized. The scene with Ike shoving a cake at Tina is often discussed as being a bit too much, but there's also the rape sequence and Ike showing up with a gun when Tina's about to go on near the end. Apparently, something similar happened with a cake, but a few years earlier and not quite that noisy. Ike's depicted as such a terrible person, it damaged Fishbourne and the real Ike Turner's careers. 

The Big Finale: Worth seeing for Bassett and Fishbourne alone if you're a fan of them, Turner, or classic rock and R&B.

Home Media: Easy to find on DVD and streaming, often for under five dollars. It's currently free for streaming with a subscription at Amazon Prime. 

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Amazon Prime