Upon watching Holiday Inn...

[ceebeegee]

...Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds have absolutely NO chemistry whatsoever in the scenes after they first meet. They're cute enough when she comes to the Inn and they do the "I'm Linda Mason!" "Alright, you're a fake and I'm a phony" exchange. But once they sing "White Christmas" in the first reel, they're just not interesting together. But she's great with Fred Astaire (who, for a dancer, is a damn good character actor). I love his delivery on this:

Lila Dixon: [about Jim] He gets a look.
Ted Hanover: He always has that look! It's nothing. It has something to do with his...liver.

And this:

Ted Hanover: I like it here...with you and Linda.

He just sounds so deliciously smarmy on something on the last phrase.

I'm surprised they didn't do St. Patrick's Day--they do three February holdiays but nothing for March. I'd've traded Washington's Birthday out for that one--they could've had a theme of "I Just Got Lucky" or something.

*Sigh* What a great movie (minus the, uh, unfortunate staging of the first February holiday which is usually cut when it airs on TV). So cozily perfect for the holidays.

Comments

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Actually you got away with a LOT more in the '70s because almost always it was spoofing or implicitly criticizing that attitude. Remember the Chevy Chase/Richard Pryor SNL skit (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75ginterview.phtml) where they threw out not only the N-word but a bunch of others? You could *never* get away with that today, even if it was meant as parody or criticism. And what about Blazing Saddles? The '70s were just different.

If Archie was dressed that way, then it was seen as bigoted, because Archie had been established as a bigoted character. But Ricky was a much more sympathetic character, so it's worse that he's dressed like that--they really did know better in the '50s.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're absolutely right. I think the late 60's/early 70's was a zenith time for American comedy. People were more willing to look for the meaning behind words and actions rather than to just condemn them in any context. People began understanding what Lenny Bruce was saying about not giving words the power to hurt us.