My Favorite Movies: This Could be the Night

I used to go to Media Play (do you remember Media Play?) years ago and just browse through their VHSs (do you remember VHSs?). I loved finding obscure old movies, buying them, and finding out if I'd purchased a dud or a gem. One of my best finds was a 1950s black and white film called This Could Be The Night.

Jean Simmons plays Anne, a young woman from Massachusetts whose first job out of college is teaching elementary school in New York City. She realizes that she won't be able to make ends meet with just the one salary, and she finds an evening job as the secretary for Rocco (Paul Douglas), a nightclub owner. She gets off on the wrong foot with everyone working at the club from her first night working there, except for Rocco, who is happy to have someone with class and tact answering the phone for him. She especially clashes with Rocco's partner, Tony (Anthony Franciosa), who thinks she is just a goody-goody snob who knows nothing of the real world. Soon she becomes so involved in the lives of the nightclub staff that they don't know what they would do without her, except Tony, who does all he can to not fall for the "nice" girl.

Simmons' "good girl," character is similar to her role as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. Paul Douglas plays the older father-type figure who wants to keep Anne protected from the roughness of the nightclub scene. However, judging the characters by our culture's modern standards, there really isn't any one you would think could corrupt Anne.

There's Patsy, the nightclub's stripper (who really never does), who just wants to cook. There's Crystal (played by the wonderful Joan Blondell), Patsy's mother who is the typical stage mother, who doesn't want to accept the fact that her daughter is an adult and doesn't need her anymore. There's Hussein, the busboy, who is teased about his name, and whose father says he can change it if he passes algebra.  There's Ivy  Corlane, the world-wise torch singer, who has a couple of great songs, including  "I'm Gonna Live 'Til I Die."

This Could be the Night is an interesting look at how movies that were made when the Hays Code was enforced portrayed the "seedy" side of New York in the late 1950s. If this movie were ever remade, it would be a very different film. It alludes to Anne being a virgin, but can never say the word. The way they do say it is much more creative than saying the actually word. Ivy tells Tony, "It's a good thing you didn't take that bet, Tony baby. That's right - no hits, no runs, no errors."

This was just a little film directed by Robert Wise who later went on to direct West Side Story and The Sound Music.

Quotes:

Ivy: Friends and neighbors, the time is right. This could be the night.

Anne: My name is Anne Leeds, you can call me Anne, Miss Leeds or hey you, anything but Baby.

Patsy: Oh boy, four burners, two ovens and a spit. The way other people want diamonds, that's how I want that stove.

Smash: Pilot

Finally, a show for me and mine. I've been looking forward to this show for so long, and I was afraid I would be disappointed. I am happy to say I was not.
 
Smash takes an inside look at the making of a Broadway musical. I've created a musical that has been produced. It hasn't gone to Broadway. Yet. I've auditioned for musicals (and plays). I've cast musicals as a director. I feel like I know so much about this world. I just haven't done it in New York City. Yet.
 
Smash is what Glee wants to be when it grows up. The baseball production number is what some Glee numbers have been in the past, but they seem to miss the mark lately. The number was fun, and well written. The dancers were great, as was the choreography. And Megan Hilty's performance as Ivy playing Marilyn was a home run.
 
Speaking of Megan, for as much publicity that Katherine McPhee (Karen) is getting, I would say that, although she is likable, and there's no doubt she can sing, this is entirely Megan Hilty's show.
 
The rest of the cast is great too. Debra Messing plays Julia, the second half of a composer/lyricist team. She still has a little of her manic personality like she did in Will and Grace, it's just a bit more controlled, and focused toward writing musicals - my kind of manic. Jack Davenport as Derek, the director, is great at being a bit likable, and then turning on the sleaze. When Karen goes to his apartment and makes a move on her, and it looks like she’s walking out, I thought, “Good for you, you're leaving!”  When she didn’t leave, but came out of the bathroom wearing almost nothing but his shirt I wanted to yell at her and say, "Don't stoop to that!" But then, when she told him, “Not gonna happen,” I thought, "Good for you!" You just didn’t need to do it in that skimpy shirt showing your bra.

The Broadway actors are great. Brian d'Arcy James plays Julia’s husband and Christian Borle plays Tom, the other half of the composer/lyricist team. Brian has been in many Broadway productions, most recently playing the title role in Shrek. He was also in Titanic (the musical, not James Cameron's tear-fest). He has a wonderful singing voice and I hope we'll hear him sing in future episodes. Christian was in Legally Blonde and Spamalot. I also have a new favorite actor: Raza Jaffrey (playing Karen’s boyfriend, Dev). He was in MI-5 (aka, Spooks, in England), and he’s done a lot of theatre in London. I want to see more of him! When Karen imagined she was singing to him in her audition for the Marilyn role, I thought, that will get you through, girl.

Angelica Huston plays Eileen, the producer. She didn’t have much to do this episode other than fight with her soon-to-be ex-husband over what she’ll get in the divorce, and then try to convince Julia and Tom to look at Derek to direct the workshop of the musical. I like Angelica, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.

Judging by the musical numbers, the show is taking a lot from Rob Marshall’s Chicago-style of musical. Most of the numbers will be in the characters’ imaginations. I like that because it can lead to more over-the-top production numbers. And I am so looking forward to all of the original songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman (Hairspray).

I’m so glad they are filming the show in New York City. I’m sure it will be a nice boost for NYC tourism. Watching Derek and Eileen walking in Times Square, the city seemed to say, “Don’t you want to be here?” They could have called the show, Theatre and the City.

 Observations:

The opening with the audition was great, and took us into the world of the theatre immediately. However, no director should ever, and I repeat EVER, have their cell phone on when they are in auditions! I feel very strongly about that. It’s so disrespectful.

I love Julia and Frank's Brownstone. I want it.

I didn’t particularly like Karen’s observation that you can’t be sexy and fat. Did these writers even look at Marilyn Monroe? She was not a size 2, or 4, or even 6. As sexy as she was, in today’s world she would not have been considered skinny.

It’s so cliché that every wanna-be actor has parents who don’t support them in their dream. For every non-supportive parent I’ll bet there are 10 supportive parents.

Watching the first wanna-be Marilyn auditioning, hearing the director's response, “Thank you. That’s great, uh, Lisa,” and seeing the auditioner leaving the room upset, brought to mind every insecurity I’ve ever had at an audition.

After hearing Katherine McPhee sing “Beautiful” at her Marilyn audition, and seeing the response of the production team, I can’t believe that Karen got the response she did at the audition at the top of the episode. With her voice, she would have at least gotten a callback, I would think. Or maybe she just sang the wrong song? .

Everything happens so quickly. They get the idea, and the next thing you know, they have a rough draft of the script, the first song is written, a demo is made, a producer wants in, a big production number is written, a director has choreographed that number to audition to direct the workshop, and auditions AND callbacks are held. How do I get in on that timeline?

I’m not sure that Marilyn: The Musical is such an original idea. I’ll bet there’s a writer (or writers) out there who has started (or has written) a Marilyn musical thinking, “No! That’s my idea!”

Given that Marilyn Monroe was not a good singer (especially not a musical theatre singer), I’d rather that songs sung by “Marilyn,” the character, be sung more like the actress herself, not by the actress pretending to sing like Marilyn. Case in point: did you hear Ivy belt the first song they were going to demo? I liked that so much better than the breathy “Marilyn” singing she did in the actually demo.

Did I say I love Julia and Frank's Brownstone? Well, I do.

Quote:

Ivy: I'm not complaining.
Tom: Just dreaming.
Ivy: Like everybody.

Grimm: Organ Grinder

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this episode of Grimm. It was just so-so for me, although it did have some good moments, mostly with Monroe, of course.
 
The episode opens with two older boys running through the woods being pursued by, well, we don't know yet. One boy gets away and immediately falls into the river. The other boy is caught by their pursuers. The bad guys take the boy back to the bad place, and we discover that they throw bodies into a pit of fire. Now, I'd call that a pit of despair (random Princess Bride reference). The other boy's escape really wasn't much of an escape. The next we see of him, he's floating down the river belly-up, and a crow is picking out his eyes.
 
Nick and Hank are called to investigate that same body when it washes up on the river bank. Later, the coroner tells them he has had an extreme loss of blood, and he has two puncture marks on the side of his neck. What? Is this going to be Hansel and Gretel meet Dracula?

No, it is the story of Hansen and Gracie meet the Geiers.
 
Nick finds out from the "Book of Shadows" (I mean the book Nick's aunt gave him) that Geiers are some of the vilest creatures. They remove human organs while the victim is still alive and harvest the organs to sell them to other creatures for medicinal purposes. Not someone you’d want to run into in a dark alley, or a white van.
 
Eventually the Geiers get Hansen and Gracie (siblings who have no parents and are living on the streets selling puka shell necklaces), and take them to their compound. Hansen breaks one of the puka shell necklaces, leaving a trail of “breadcrumbs,” which eventually leads Nick and Hank to the right place just as Gracie is about to be sawed open - alive. I wish that the writers would have thought of a more clever way for the kids to lead them to the compound, but they probably believed it was clever when they thought about it.

There are two great bonding moments between Nick and our favorite Blutbaden, Monroe. The first bonding moment is over coffee. Nick wants Monroe's advice on whether or not he should tell Juliette about his "family secret." Monroe doesn't think it's a good idea. I don't think it is either. It isn't close enough to the season finale yet. The second bonding moment is over dinner. Nick wants to get information about Geiers, and Monroe just wants to have a normal conversation. Monroe truly wants to be Nick's friend, and he's already proven his loyalty by not ratting Nick out to the other creatures. It's sad that all Nick wants is for Monroe to be his informant to catch the bad creatures. Come on, Nick, don't you know what a great friend you have in Monroe?

I expected more from Grimm, and I was really looking forward to this episode, maybe that's because I enjoyed Once Upon a Time’s Hansel and Gretel episode so much.

I am, however, looking forward to next week’s episode. As much as I hate spiders, this episode looks great.

Pic of the Week: Sail Boats

A Matter of Plagiarism

I have been robbed. Someone has stolen my joke; a joke I made up over 10 years ago.

I started writing a play many years ago ( that I never finished - go figure). In the play the main character tells her friend that she has been dating a new guy. Her friend's response is "Seriously?" Her daughter responds, "Yes, we're pretty serious."

I thought it was a great comic line. I told my friend the line to see what she thought of it, and she didn't think it was funny. Her mother, however, thought it was funny.

So, there it's sat - in my notebook, never being spoken by an actor - my great joke.

Fast forward to a few months ago.

I was watching an eSurance commercial. A member of the Support team tells a customer on the phone that the customer can thank the Tech team for being able to see eSurance rates compared with other insurance companies. When the call ends, a member of the Tech team rolls his chair over to the Support guy and asks, "Anything you wanna share with the Tech Team?"

First guy, "I'm dating that girl in accounting."

Second guy, "Seriously?"

First guy, "Yea, we're pretty serious."

That was my joke! More than 10 years later, and someone steals my joke!

Well, at least someone else thought it was funny.



Side note: Actually the joke in the commercial isn't exactly like mine, because the mother in my play would have said, "Seriously," as if saying, "I can't believe you're dating someone." The way the Tech Team guy in the commerical says "Seriously" is like "you're seeing someone seriously?" So, the Support guy is really answering his question. It's all in the delivery.

Doctor Who: Goodbye Amy and Rory

Amy and Rory will not be traveling with the Doctor in season 7 of Doctor Who. I am sad to see them go, especially Rory, but I think they need time away from the Doctor to build their life together as a newlywed couple (look at me, writing about them as if they are real people. Well, that's how fans are.). I am looking forward to a new companion for the Doctor, and for new adventures. I'm excited to see what is in store for us for the 50th anniversary of the series.

I hope the new season will have more stand-alone episodes than they had in season 6. I enjoyed season 6, however, I enjoy the stand-alone episodes better where the Doctor takes his companion to a new planet, or to the past or future, or where the Tardis leads them to a specific place. I don't feel like Doctor Who should be so complicated. I know many people enjoy the seasons that generate lots of questions throughout the season, but I'm not one of them.

I read that Amy will be in a few episodes in Season 7, so we'll (the Doctor and you and I) be able to say goodbye. I hope we'll get to say goodbye to Rory too. I will miss them.

More News about Les Miserables, the Movie Musical

According to Internet Database (and this could be wrong) the original Jean Valjean and Eponine will have cameos in the new film. The former as the Bishop of Digne (a pretty important part), and the latter as a whore (in Pretty Ladies, I'm sure).

This news will make the die-hard fans very happy, I'm sure. I think it's great news. Now that the major roles have been cast, they can fill the rest of the movie with great singers, hopefully stage performers, to help make filming the singing live more rich sounding and make a great film.

Can't wait for December!