A Fine Bromance - Part I

I first fell in love with The Voice when I was thirteen.  I was lying on the floor of my grandmother's living room, propped up on my elbows with my feet lazily kicking in the air as I flipped through her collection of cassette tapes, records and CDs.  I put on something that looked good and soon the sound of Frank Sinatra's voice filled the room.

Watch the trailer on TCM.com

It wasn’t long afterward that a string of new loves came along – first the Rat Pack, then Dean Martin, then all those old movies.  I can’t quite remember when I first saw Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly together, or which movie it was, but I remember thinking those guys really had a great relationship.  They were quite a force to be reckoned with, as both men were at the top of their game in singing and dancing, respectively.  I learned much later that the two had made a total of three films together from 1945 to 1949, but had remained friends for the rest of their lives, appearing on television specials and staying in touch.  It gives me a bit of hope to read about their lasting friendship, and makes the films themselves even more enjoyable.  As I had already watched two of the three films for my post on Betty Garrett, I decided to watch the third (and earliest) one this weekend to round out this trio.

I know the term “bromance” only originated in the 1990s, but I feel like it can be dully applied to the Sinatra-Kelly friendship.  Frank and Dean Martin were certainly closer and more deserving of the term, but the affection between Frank and Gene comes through in their characters.  So perhaps it would be more apt to say the bromance was between Gabey and Chip or Eddie and Denny or the earliest (and sweetest) between Joe and Clarence.

Joe and Clarence – Anchors Aweigh (1945)

MGM had signed both Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra by 1944, and decided to put the two forces together for a big, colorful musical along with another great star, opera-trained Kathryn Grayson.  Frank had, up to this point, only made a handful of movies, all of which were short, B-list productions (side note: Higher and Higher from 1943 is one of my guilty pleasure movies and one you should definitely check out – not only is Frank adorable, but he stars alongside Jack Haley, Mel Tormé and Victor Borge).  The film was Anchors Aweigh, a musical that followed a lot of wartime pictures in tone – innocent, upbeat, fun and a good distraction.  But unlike some of those wartime films (I’m thinking of Thousands Cheer from 1943), this one is of a far better caliber.

The story is pretty simple – two sailors get a four day leave in Los Angeles.  Joe Brady (Gene Kelly) is notorious for being a “sea-wolf”, the kind of guy with a list of girls in every port.  He’s trying to get to a hot date with someone named Lola, but he’s trailed by his shipmate, shy, awkward Clarence Doolittle (Frank Sinatra).  He agrees to get Clarence a date with a girl just to get rid of him, but the two are sidetracked when the police ask them for help with a little boy who has snuck out of his house and run away to join the Navy.  They take the boy home and meet his aunt Susan (Kathryn Grayson) and instantly Clarence falls for her.  There are a lot of problems that the pair of sailors has to overcome to get the two together, most notably a blatant lie that they can get her an audition with famed band leader José Iturbi (she’s been trying desperately to become a professional singer).  To make things even more complicated, Iturbi seems impossible to find, and Joe finds himself falling for Susan.  Does it all work out?  It’s an MGM musical from 1945 – you better believe it has a happy ending, complete with a big brass band!  Gene Kelly years later summed up Anchors Aweigh like this: “It was about two sailors trying to win the war by singing, dancing and getting José Iturbi to play the piano.  But it must have worked – we won!”       

As I mentioned, Frank had never made such an in-depth movie before.  He said in an interview that pictures he had done prior to Anchors Aweigh had taken six weeks of filming total.  This one took six weeks just for one dance routine.  Now Frank had never danced before, so to be dancing for the first time with a master like Gene Kelly was a daunting challenge.  But Sinatra trained for it and his hard work shows, particularly in the film’s most memorable dance routine with the two sailors jumping on the beds at the boarding house.  It took Sinatra so long to do that routine because he kept missing the beat on the jumping, and then had to land in time with Kelly and go immediately into a new step.  It’s a difficult dance, but sure looks great on screen!  And you can tell the two guys enjoyed it too (not to mention they also look so relieved in that final close-up!).  What impressed me was that the two men remained friends after all that; Gene Kelly had a bit of a reputation as a demanding teacher with a bit of a temper – you’d dance till your feet bled until you got it right.  But Frank was just as stubborn and had a temper too, so I think maybe they just made a good match right out of the gate because they were so similar. 

There are so many things I love about Anchors Aweigh – the music, for one thing, is wonderful.  The orchestra directed by Iturbi is sensational, plus we get Kathryn Grayson’s beautiful voice.  She’s a wonderful star on her own, and to pair her with these other two legends just makes it more enjoyable.  Her numbers showcase her operatic voice (she was a coloratura soprano, according to her biography on imdb.com).  We also have Sinatra, who during his downtime was still wooing all those bobby-soxers at sold-out concerts.  His Technicolor debut introduced everyone to those legendary blue eyes and attached scores of viewers.  He doesn’t have many songs in this film, but those he has are beautiful.  “I Fall in Love Too Easily” is one of the saddest, most bittersweet songs ever, and “What Makes the Sunset?”, an equally poetic song.  Then there’s Gene.  Gene Kelly has some great dances in this film, aside from those with Sinatra.  His Mexican hat dance is hilarious, and his “dream sequence” with Kathryn Grayson reminds me a lot of his later film, The Three Musketeers (a film which he’d wanted to do for a long time, probably even as this one was being shot).  But the most well known is his dance with Jerry the mouse (of Tom & Jerry fame).  Gene had been consulting with animators to try and do a number like this, but Disney refused to discuss it, so they couldn’t use Mickey Mouse.  I bet Disney regretted their decision after seeing how well Gene’s performance went!  As lovely as it is, what I always go back to in Anchors Aweigh is that dance scene at the boarding house.  The heart of the film is the relationship between Clarence and Joe.  Clarence starts out as a bit of a nuisance for Joe, but through this unforgettable four day leave, they become best friends.  It provides a solid foundation for the film and opens the door to future movies. 

To be continued….

Betty Garrett: 1919 - 2011

Betty Garrett in On the Town

I read about Betty Garrett's death on Valentine's Day; she passed away at the age of 91 last Saturday, Feb. 12.  I knew her from her work in two MGM musicals from 1949: Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town, both with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.  Sadly, I never got to see her on the television shows she later worked on, like Laverne and Shirley.  I think what I liked best about Betty Garrett was her charm - even before I read about her life story, her gumption and cheerful confidence made her the kind of woman girls could admire.

I was surprised to learn that Betty Garrett had been blacklisted in Hollywood along with her husband, Larry Parks.  He had been called in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee because of a past membership in the Communist party.  Although Garrett wasn't asked to testify, both she and Parks felt the backlash of Hollywood's black list.  But Garrett persevered and made herself a whole new career on television in the seventies.

I’ve loved Betty Garrett from the first time I saw her on film.  I’m not sure if my initial admiration sprang from her comedic timing, great singing, or the fact that she always got her man (and her man was Frank Sinatra!).  As I rewatched these two films again, I realized that another aspect of her character is probably what drew me – Betty Garrett was a strong woman and her character comes out in the kinds of characters she portrayed.  You won’t find her as the helpless, fragile opera singer.  She’s the kind of woman who knows what she wants and goes out to get it.  I think my favorite line in On the Town is when the boys approach her cab and ask for a fare.  They’re shocked to find that the driver is a woman (Garrett). 

Chip (Sinatra) asks, “What’re you doing driving a cab?  The war’s over.” 

“I never give up anything I like,” Garrett says, her voice cool but sassy. 

She definitely switches up the whole gender role process in the dating game, usually in contrast to the very traditional love story enacted by the two leads (Gabey and Ivy in On the Town; Eddie and Katherine in Take Me Out to the Ball Game).  Let me do this movie by movie.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game was made in 1948 and released in 1949.  It was the first time Garrett had been paired with Frank Sinatra, but he was not unaccustomed to being cast as the shy, nervous, inexperienced guy.  But Betty is the powerhouse.  From the outset we see her in the company of some big spenders (guys who turn out to be crooks and possibly mafiosi), where she holds her own.  Then she falls for scrawny Dennis Ryan, the second baseman for the Wolves (nice play on words, by the way).  She calls him a skinny little runt, but takes a kind of motherly interest in him when he gets hurt.  After the game, they have a great duet when she chases him through the grandstand.  “It’s Fate Baby, It’s Fate” is a great song that’s even better when Betty sings it.  As Shirley, she knows at first sight that Denny is the guy for her, even if he hasn’t yet realized it.  And I definitely didn’t catch the implications of this line until now:

"It's Fate, Baby!"

Shirley: [to Dennis] You bad boy, I've got a good notion to take you on my knee.

Eddie: You mean over your knee, don't you?

Shirley: I know what I mean.   

If anything, Shirley knows exactly what she means and what she’s after.  That same spirit followed Betty Garrett into her next role as well, the one for which she is probably the best known – cab-driver Brunhilde Esterhazy in the 1949 musical On the Town.  Brunhilde (or Hilde for short) sets her sights on Chip immediately; in fact, she probably only takes on the fare despite being off duty just because she likes how Chip looks in those fresh Navy whites. 

"Come Up to My Place!"

The more I watch On the Town, the more I love it.  It’s really an ensemble film, with great performances from all of the players.  Sure, Kelly and Vera-Ellen are the standout leads, but you can’t deny the funny and sweet romance between the innocent Chip and the wolfish Hilde.  But she’s never too desperate or threatening.  She’s just a woman who knows what she wants.  There’s an undeniable chemistry between Sinatra and Garrett in this film, perhaps because it’s their second time working together.  I adore their duet, “You’re Awful” as well as the classic “Come Up to My Place” (yup, that’s right – Garrett is the one trying to seduce Sinatra).  What’s great is that Betty isn’t just there for comic relief or to overplay that stereotype of a woman-wanting-to-be-a-man.  She’s playing a girl like any other, though more independent and forthright.  Better still, she doesn’t want to do all the chasing, leading to a sort of give and take with Chip.        

Although I have yet to see the film, I really want to watch Neptune’s Daughter.  If you haven’t heard of it, I guarantee you know a song that was made famous in the picture.  It’s a little duet called “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”  Now, in the movie, the male lead (Ricardo Montalban) is trying to seduce a woman he fancies (Esther Williams), and each takes the appropriate role (the script labels the parts as “wolf” and “mouse”).  However, the song is later reprised with the second couple (Betty Garrett and Red Skelton), but with a role reversal where Garrett is again the wolf. 

I think what it all really comes down to is charm and confidence, and Garrett has plenty of both.  Her obituary called her a sunny singer and actress; sunny is definitely the word I’d pick too.  I like this idea of a woman so self-assured that she has no problem doing the chasing.  Her gumption reminds me a lot of Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Hepburn, and reading further about her life makes me admire her more.  I guess we’ll always be left wondering what would have happened if her career hadn’t halted in the 1950s, but I still feel very lucky to have grown up watching her in these films and hope to find more of her work soon.  If you haven’t yet seen her, I recommend starting with On the Town and letting yourself enjoy the talent of such an extraordinary actress.    

Betty Garrett and Esther Williams in Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

Images are from Take Me Out to the Ball Game ( dir. Busby Berkeley, 1949, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and On the Town (dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Loew's Incorporated).  All rights belong to MGM.

Book Review: The Film Club (2009)

I've been offline for awhile not because I've lost my love of film, but because life seems to have gotten in the way.  It's the same story we all have - after a long day at the office, there are so many projects greeting me at the door, I often feel like I have to placate them before I can even cross the threshold, like giving biscuits to a flurry of excited puppies dancing around my heels.  There's also that awful blank screen facing me whenever I try to write something new or insightful.  I sit here and look at the screen and think, why am I doing this?  What gives me the right to tell anyone what I think about movies?  Why am I wasting space online?

So instead of spending time here, I've been giving in to those barking puppies by losing myself in other things - going to the gym, taking a dance class, spending time with friends and family.  None of these are bad things; in fact, it's what you need for a good, balanced life.  I've also been reading a lot too.  A few weeks ago I found a book recommendation on Better Living Through Beowulf for a book that piqued my interest.  It's a book called The Film Club.  After reading the good review on the Beowulf site and another by my favorite author, Richard Russo, I decided to get a copy and have at it.  I'm so glad I did.  In fact, it has rekindled my love for film and my investment in this little movie blog.      

From Amazon.com

"Picking movies for people is a risky business," Gilmour explains in the book, "In a way it's as revealing as writing someone a letter.  It shows how you think, it shows what moves you, sometimes it can even show how you think the world sees you.  So when you breathlessly recommend a film to a friend, when you say, 'Oh, this is a scream -- you're going to really love it,' it's a nauseating experience when the friend sees you the following day and says with a wrinkled brow, 'You thought that was funny?' " (pg. 174)

I loved this passage in Gilmour's book.  It's exactly how I feel about my recommendations too.  His book focuses on his true story of how he let his teenage son drop out of school if he agreed to watch 3 films a week with his father.  Jesse, the son, agrees excitedly and as he works through some very tough teenage years, his only constant is this bond he makes with his father, David.  David tries to choose movies that will give Jesse something to think about or something to distract him from heartbreaks or disappointments.  It's fascinating to see which films he chooses and why, and just as he starts to think the club is a bad idea, Jesse starts responding to the lessons.  In the end, the film club provides the kindling for a strong father-son relationship that rarely forms in those turbulent puberty-ridden years.  Not only is it a great coming-of-age story for both father and son, but there are plenty of film nuggets too, including why Gilmour loves Jack Nicholson, why Dirty Harry is a great movie, and a funny interpretation of Breakfast at Tiffany's.  He also gives us the best description of Robert Mitchum I've ever read: "as time goes by, Robert Mitchum seems to get better and better -- that barrel chest, the deep voice, his way of drifting through a movie with the effortlessness of a cat wandering into a dinner party."

At first, I had trouble liking this book.  I really wanted to like it (I mean, come on, 3 movies a week would be my dream job!), but I had my doubts.  Letting Jesse leave school at 15 seemed foolish and irresponsible (Jesse doesn't even have to pay rent!).  But then something incredible happened - David admits to his readers quite openly that he was afraid he had made a horrible choice and was about to ruin Jesse's life.  That kind of honesty is what kept me reading.  Jesse does make some poor decisions, but he learns from them and more importantly, because of the film club, he knows that he can talk to his father about anything.  Their relationship is at the heart of this story, and it's well worth reading just to watch it develop.   

Gilmour does a good job of conveying his own passion for films.  A film critic and novelist, he has to take these lessons and recommendations and share them with his son, which in ways is much harder than sharing them with strangers, as he explains in the passage I quoted.  I found myself agreeing with some of his reviews, and disagreeing with others.  Some of his choices bothered me (really, Marlon Brando is the greatest actor?) but as I kept reading, I thought about something my film professor once said.  We had been talking about how different kinds of horror films attract different kinds of people - what scares you?  What attracts you?  The kinds of films you like is just as telling as a personal letter, like Gilmour says.  I hadn't thought of it quite that way before, even though I am often reluctant about some film suggestions.  Unless I know my friends very well, I try not to tell them what films I love and recommend.  Like Gilmour, I have some fail-safe films that I can recommend to everyone (Some Like It Hot tops the list).  I also have a few I only recommend to people I know very well, and even then only after some explicit forewarnings (like The Last Picture Show).

One of the reasons I could write this blog last year was because I was reviewing films I had never seen before, so I had no previous investment or attachment.   This book has made me want to go back and revisit some old favorites, to see what exactly it was that drew them to me.  I also find myself watching people on the train in the morning or waiting in line at a take-out restaurant and wondering, "what's that person's favorite movie?"  Awhile back, I was talking to one of my friends about books that have had an impact on us.  I told her that possibly one of the reasons I so intensely hated Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward was because I had to read it for school while my grandfather was dying from cancer.  She told me flatly that I get too emotionally involved in books and take them too personally.  Maybe she's right; it certainly wasn't just Solzhenitsyn's confusing writing style that frustrated me.  But isn't that the power of films, and of art in general?  Hasn't there ever been a movie, a book, a song that's made you cry?  Certainly I know the difference between film and reality.  But for me, films can help ease some of the pains of real life.  They help me forget a bad day or a broken heart.  I'm not ashamed to say that I've cried along with Pruitt when he plays taps in From Here to Eternity or that I've fallen off the couch laughing at Tony Curtis imitating Cary Grant in Some Like It Hot.  I came away from reading The Film Club with a new admiration for Gilmour.  He not only opened up his heart to his son, but also to his readers.  Maybe that's why I'm writing this blog - to share in this collective love of movies.  So I'll leave you now with a few films from my own personal library and invite you to please share yours:

1)  My fail-safe films to recommend: Some Like it Hot (1959), Rear Window (1954)
2)  Movies critics love, but I don't: Cabaret (1972), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
3)  Classics I'm ashamed I haven't seen yet: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Citizen Kane (1941 - I've seen most of it in parts, but not all together or all the way through)
4)  My role model: Katharine Hepburn
5)  My movie star boyfriend: Robert Mitchum (like you didn't know that already)
6)  My current all-time favorite movie: Sunset Boulevard (1950)