F&C1946: Night and Day

Eek! Colour again! Techni!

The film is allegedly (very!) based on Cole Porter’s life, so there’s lots and lots of Cole Porter songs. In 40s close-harmony sentimental versions. Which is totally fine by me. Somebody should bring back that singing style.

It may not be high art or anything, but it’s a quite enjoyable film, even if it does start dragging a bit in the last half hour.

Night and Day. Michael Curtiz. 1946.

Opera

Palm Beach

This post is part of the F&C series.

F&C1947: Song of the Thin Man

Two Myrna Loy films in a row! Yay! She’s great.

The first Thin Man film is brilliant, of course. I think this is the last one? I’ve just seen the first two. Anyway, this is plenty amusing, but it’s not much like that first film. That film had witty repartee coming out of its ass. This is a much calmer, sensible film.

Boo! Sensible!

Song of the Thin Man. Edward Buzzell. 1947.

Nightwatch

(but I used less absinthe than in the recipe)

Brandy Crusta

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F&C1948: Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House

It’s very enjoyable, of course. I can’t really point to anything annoying about the film. However, for some reason or other it didn’t seem as swell as it should have been…

Perhaps I was just distracted or something.

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House. HC Potter. 1948.

Morris Cocktail

Nacíonal

This post is part of the F&C series.

F&C1949: On the Town

By Emacs! There’s something strange happening on my TV! The pixels! Instead of just showing luminicity, they’re also showing… Hue! How is that possible!? What strange innovation is this!!!

Was New York really smoggy in the 40s?

I mean…

See? Smog?

Or just foggy? For the entire shoot?

Whenever I see Frank Sinatra in one of these sort of films, I think he looks like he’s more than a bit embarrassed. Gene Kelly, of course, is never embarrassed. He commits totally.

The sap.

Scenic…

So that’s what makes the smog…

This is a fantastic film. It’s so funny. And I’m guessing that the choreography is Gene Kelly’s, since it’s so muscular. Nothing understated at all.

I don’t think there was a single nanosecond of watching this film where I wasn’t smiling.

If it hadn’t been for the slightly unfortunate Miss Schmeeler sub plot, and the really weird “stage fantasy” at the end (featuring Gene dancing a lot (and where I was thinking “is Frank the one to the left? Or the right? Gee, he’s dancing a lot better now…” until I realised that the two other ones were professional dancers)), it would have been the perfect musical comedy, but this is the rating I’m gonna give it anyway:

On the Town. Stanley Donen. 1949.

Morning Cocktail

This post is part of the F&C series.