The Best Things...

Since it’s Friday and the weekend is mere hours away, I’m very excited, I almost feel like dancing! This feeling quickly brought to mind one of my favorite musical sequences and I wanted to share it! So, even though Christmas is still three months away (exactly three, as of today), here’s the adorable Danny Kaye and the lovely Vera-Ellen showing us why “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” from White Christmas (1954).



Talk about dancing with the stars!

“Wait…I know that guy!”

The other day I was watching The Long Night (1947) and my friend, who normally shies away from black & white/classic films, stopped when she saw Vincent Price on the screen. She turned and said, “Wait…I know that guy! What other movies has he been in?” I proceeded to name a few of Vincent Price’s credits that I could recall, but I finally saw the light bulb come on when I told her he narrated Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and played the elderly Inventor in Edward Scissorhands (1990).

Sometimes it’s hard to be a twenty-something classic film lover when many of your friends and contemporaries have an aversion to films made prior to 1980. Trying to convert or expose them to the great many films that came before their time can be a trying experience. Yet, when you can help them make connections to the Golden Age of Hollywood, like tying a classic actor to more modern movies, you may be able to pique their interest and open their horizons.

Vincent Price is a good example of this. Though his nearly 60 year career had its share of ups and downs, he remained active as an actor and achieved a sort of cult following. He gained recognition early in his career with such films as Laura (1944), A Royal Scandal (1945) and Dragonwyck (1946). In the fifties, Price, known for his low-pitched, ominous voice, began to star in low-budget horror films like House of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958) and House of Usher (1960).

As Price aged and became ill, he again relied on the talents of his distinctive voice, for which more people of my generation might recognize him. Aside from his menacing narration of the wildly popular “Thriller” video, Price also lent his voice to Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective (1986) as Ratigan, along with a series of Scooby-Doo cartoons.

So Vincent Price, the “Merchant of Menace,” might now be a window into the classics for my friend. As an admirer of campy horror movies, she seemed willing to seek out more of Price’s films. I’m trying not to get overly excited, remembering that things are better in moderation, but with Halloween right around the corner, some eerie Vincent Price movies might be just the ticket!

Great Music, Great Films

This week I will start the next course toward my Language of Film Certificate through the University of Chicago’s Graham School. My anticipation and excitement grows with each class I take (having already taken the Language of Film and History of Film classes, which were both great). This fall I’ll be taking a “Point of View” course taught by Chicago Tribune film critic, Michael Phillips entitled “Great Music, Great Films.” When I read the course offering for the fall term, this course immediately leapt out at me!

Over ten weeks, we’ll explore an integral part of movies that is rarely analyzed or discussed: the relationship between films and music. During the first five weeks, we will focus on music, examining famous uses of music in films, including Bernard Herrmann’s collaborations with Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Nino Rota’s indelible Fellini scores, and the symphonic raptures of Eric Korngold.

In the last five weeks of class, Mr. Phillips will showcase films that use music in extraordinary ways, including full screenings of Laura, King’s Row, Spartacus and Vertigo.

During the 10 weeks, we’ll explore and discuss such master film composers and films (in addition to those mentioned above) as Elmer Bernstein and The Magnificent Seven; Miklós Rózsa and Ben-Hur; Ennio Morricone and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Maurice Jarre and Lawrence of Arabia; and John Williams and Jaws.

One of the more interesting classes on the syllabus will have us delving into the uneasy times many film composers faced in the 1960s, when scores by Bernard Herrmann (for Torn Curtain), Alex North (for 2001: A Space Odyssey) and William Walton (for Battle of Britain) were largely or out rightly rejected and replaced. The class will listen to the original scores and the music the films ended up using, and make our own comparisons.

I find this course and its topic so appealing, because a movie’s music can enhance the tone of the film, the emotional impact of the audience and greatly affect the overall movie experience, as with the shrieking violins in Psycho or the mystifying theremin in The Lost Weekend. Through this course I hope to gain a greater perspective and appreciation for film scores and a better understanding or their relation to what is seen, as well as the influences of film music on viewers’ responses to cinematic situations.

The film geek inside me is just shrieking with anticipation!

Who are some of your favorite film composers or your favorite pieces of film music?

Harvey (1950)

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, so I pulled my Harvey DVD off the shelf and sat down for a viewing. This 1950 comedy was my grandfather’s favorite movie starring his favorite actor, James Stewart, of whom he could do a spot-on imitation. The film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play by Mary Chase, follows lovable boozer, Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) who lives with his sister, Veta (Josephine Hull) and her timid daughter, Myrtle Mae (Victoria Horne). The two women detest Elwood’s drinking, but what irritates them more is his faithful companion, a six-foot, three and one-half inch-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. When Elwood's embarrassing imagination begins to damage Veta and Myrtle Mae’s social status, Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a local mental institution. But when she confesses she's seen Harvey herself, the doctor institutionalizes Veta instead!

While Harvey seems like a run-of-the-mill screwball comedy, it’s actually a very touching film filled with pathos and heart. Elwood, Veta, Myrtle Mae and the rest of the cast find themselves involved in plenty of slap-stick moments and caught up in a string of amusing farces. But, as past New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther so eloquently put it, “the real virtue of this picture is its wonderfully warm and sympathetic presentation of character and its wistfully sweet appreciation of the innocence of a benevolent lush. As Elwood P. Dowd, Mr. Stewart is utterly beguiling and disarming of all annoyance. A faint touch of seeming imbecility, which is somewhat distasteful at the start, is quickly dispelled as Mr. Stewart makes Elwood a man to be admired.”

Elwood’s ability to capriciously charm and befriend those around him is most evident in this remarkable scene where he explains his extraordinary friendship with Harvey (one of the best-acted scenes I’ve ever seen on film):



James Stewart delivered innumerable amazing performances in his nearly 60 year career, but the part of Elwood P. Dowd was among his own personal favorites. During the introductory commentary on the DVD, Stewart recounts his memories of playing the role of Elwood on stage (on London’s West End, not the Broadway production) and in the film and the subsequent joy it brought to him and his many fans over the years. The appeal of Harvey, Stewart presumed, stems from the common regard for a dear friend (whether real or imagined) that one can always turn to for advice and encouragement. Stewart also pays tribute to the delightfully hilarious Josephine Hull, who originated the role of Veta Simmons on stage. Her brilliant performance as the batty and finicky head of the family brings a certain veracity to the film and also won Ms. Hull the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1951.

Ultimately, Harvey delights because of its good-natured humor and its gentle knock at those who automatically condemn ideas outside of socially acceptable norms without thinking for themselves.

It was recently announced that this enduring classic will soon be re-made with Steven Spielberg directing. While I’m skeptical about most remakes of classic films, the one redeeming quality is that they inevitably bring awareness to the original.

In any case, next time you see Harvey, give him my regards, please!