From, of course, the inimitable “Auntie Mame” (1958, dir Morton Da Costa). Well, it was justghastly. Joanna Barnes as the out-of-her-depth debutant Gloria Upson, trying desperately to play catch up with Mame Dennis. Watch out for the film-buff favorite Lee Patrick (“Well, it was amusing.”), an actress woefully under appreciated today, if remembered at all.
The ever-delightful Jean Arthur delightfully conveys to tyro Senator James Stewart how a bill is introduced to the US Senate. From, of course, “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” (1939, dir Frank Capra).
Chiefly because every video collection should include something from “Auntie Mame” (1958, dir Morton da Costa), but here the estimable Rosalind Russell is upstaged by Joanna Barnes as Gloria. The very semi-finals, mind you.
Again, in Shakespeare’s Henry V (1989, dir Kenneth Branagh) we see the brilliant wordplay that Shakespeare introduced into the English language. While staged here as a semi-comic device (the long list of descendants required a massive understanding of history available to the literate only), there is the nice mirror effect of the twists and turns the Tudors (the then-present monarchs occupying the throne) took to justify their sovereignty.
In Henry V (1989, dir Kenneth Branagh), the toll of war is an innumerable factor. Director and star Branagh shows exactly how exhausting even a glorious war can be. Note the peasant woman who seeks personal revenge on the king who dares to set foot on her soil. Nice touch.
The slattern. Of course she doesn’t, but she does it anyway. Here, the estimable Ginger Rogers does the infamous Black Bottom in Roxy Hart (1940, dir William Wellman), the basis for the musical play and Oscar-winning film Chicago.
The great Carol Haney (see elsewhere on this site) does the remarkable “Steam Heat” number from the fair-to-middlin’ adaptation of Broadway’s “The Pajama Game” (1957, dirs George Abbot & Stanley Donen). While Gwen Verdon usually gets the attention, the coulda/woulda/shoulda story of Haney trumps all else in this poignant screen farewell. (She died soon thereafter, a victim of bum lungs.)
Of which I am one. “The Chalk Garden” is a very odd movie (1964, dir Ronald Neame) but it features great performances from all involved, especially EE, who was nominated for an Oscar. “The flaming impudence!” — don’t you wish you could use that retort in your life?
In 1948’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (dir, John Huston), Walter Huston does an inspired bit of business to accentuate his contempt for his fellow gold hunters, played by, of course, Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt. Walter and John won Oscars for the film, and moviegoers everywhere still enjoy that dance.
Maggie Smith in her Oscar-winning role of an Oscar-losing actress. The sole bright spot in an otherwise dismal movie (“California Suite,” 1978, dir Herbert Ross).
