What We're Watching

I have some new Pork Boys pictures of recent dinners to post, but just haven't got around to doing it yet.  I plead heat exhaustion:  it's been over 100 degrees down here every damn day since the middle of May, most unusually.  

But we don't always dine in state at the dinner table; in late years, we've developed a custom of sometimes watching old movies on my laptop while we eat dinner in the kitchen.  Here are three comedies from the Golden Age of Hollywood that we enjoyed this week - maybe you will, too.

1.  A Night to Remember, 1942 (Not to be confused with the other Night to Remember about the Titanic, made in 1958.)

Starring suave and studly Brian Aherne and gorgeous Loretta Young as a young married couple who move into a Greenwich Village apartment house that turns out to be a comic hotbed of blackmail and murder.

 

2. A Woman of Distinction, 1950 

Starring our gal Rosalind Russell (later "Auntie Mame"), Ray Milland, and Edmund Gwenn (aka Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street), in a collegiate comedy about a busy dean who says her career is more important than romance - until a tall, handsome visitor who won't take no for an answer brings her lofty ideals down to earth with a bump and a splash. Includes delightful cameos of Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon, who at the time were stars of the radio sitcom My Favorite Husband (the forerunner of I Love Lucy). 

 

3. It Grows on Trees, 1952 

Starring the delightful Irene Dunne and Dean Jagger in a whimsical laugh riot about a middle-class couple struggling to raise a family on a tight budget until a couple of newly planted trees begin to bloom, causing wonderment - and a national scandal.  This was Miss Dunne's last film role before she retired from acting.

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Russ Recommends: Three Comedies

More lighthearted movies from the golden era of Hollywood, with nary a hint of the ugly, vulgar modern world to be seen or heard. We often watch such things while eating our weeknight dinners.  Here are three films we especially enjoyed recently.

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Starring James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Rita Hayworth.  Supporting players include studly Jack Carson, handsome George Reeves (later Superman), Alan Hale (who looks a lot like a stranded skipper), and George Tobias (later neighbor to a witch). Available as a $2 rental on YouTube.

 The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) 

Starring Bette Davis and James Cagney, supported by George Tobias again, Jack Carson ditto, William Frawley (later Fred Mertz), Eugene Palette (the eternal blowhard), and Harry Davenport (Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind). Another $2 rental on YouTube.

 

 My Sister Eileen (1942) 

Starring our gal Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, and Janet Blair (who looks a lot like Janet Leigh). Ubiquitous George Tobias plays the artistic landlord.  Roz later won a Tony starring in the musical version on Broadway.  The film was remade in Technicolor in 1955, starring Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, and Jack Lemmon, with a young Dick York (later married to a witch) as the athletic upstairs neighbor.

 

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Russ Recommends: Life with Father (1947)

What may be the beginning of a semi-regular series, featuring lighthearted movies from the golden era of Hollywood, without even a hint of the ugly, vulgar modern world to be seen or heard. We often watch such things while eating our weeknight dinners.

Trailer:

 

Life with Father is based on the memoirs of Clarence Day, Jr., published in 1936,  The book was turned into a smash hit play that ran for more than seven years on Broadway.  The movie was a big hit with critics and at the box office, and was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, who also directed Casablanca (1943).

The players include William Powell, perfectly irascible in the title role;

The beautiful, always delightful Irene Dunne as the long-suffering Mrs. Day;

Jimmy Lydon, who was also the teenage star of the Henry Aldrich series (still alive and living in New Jersey at 98 years old);

Edmund Gwenn as the Reverend Dr. Lloyd - also known as Kris Kringle;

Veteran comedienne ZaSu Pitts, always amusing; and

15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, already gorgeous (when was she not?).

Music by the brilliant Max Steiner, who also scored Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and A Summer Place, to name but a few of his film credits.

Full movie (public domain):

 

Sidelights:  

Mr. Day's frequent expostulation in the play, "Oh, God!" was changed to "Oh, Gad!" for the movie version.  

Actor Edmund Gwenn shared his Beverly Hills home with a former Olympic silver medalist, Rodney Soher.

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