Somethin' about a sailor, somethin' about a sailor...

...but a soldier ain't so bad!

Okay, this next film in our nautical month was one of my favorites growing up. Sadly, it's relatively unknown by most people. I find that too bad because it's such a cute movie! It's a little odd - a discovery I've made only recently - but it's really fun. The movie is:

Two Girls and A Sailor (1944)

This one features June Allyson, Gloria deHaven, Van Johnson, and Jimmy Durante. Like many movies made at the time, a host of random stars make cameos throughout the film: Harry James, Jose Iturbi, Gracie Allen, Lena Horne, Xavier Cugat, Virginia O'Brien, and Ava Gardner. I had to rewatch the movie to find her. As a kid, I had no idea who she was or that she was someone famous.

The movie focuses on a pair of Vaudeville sisters, Patsy and Jean Deyo. Patsy (Allyson), the older sister, is very protective over her romantically inclined younger sister, Jean (deHaven). She constantly has to pull her out of different romantic entanglements, convinced that Jean hasn't found the right man yet. But, when Jean starts to receive orchids from a secret admirer, the two girls start to search for "Somebody." As they try to solve the mystery, they find themselves falling in love... unfortunately with the same man, a sailor named Johnny (Johnson).

It's a very fun movie and one of my favorite deHaven roles. Probably one of my favorite June Allyson roles too. But, oddly enough, their roles were originally meant to be reversed. In her autobiography, June Allyson explains about how she got the part. When June Allyson got offered the part in the film, she sought the advice of Dick Powell, who later became her husband. He read the script and advised her to pursue the role of the plain sister. He argued that no one would believe Gloria deHaven to be someone who could be out-shined and overlooked. He had a point; I think Gloria deHaven was one of the most incredibly gorgeous actresses ever. She followed his advice, won the role, and I'm pretty sure this film helped shape the rest of her movie career.

 

Like many '40's musicals, this one is chock-full of songs and there are some pretty amazing ones too. The selections vary from classical to big band and you're sure to find at least one that you really like. This movie was my introduction to Lena Horne, Jimmy Durante, Harry James, Tom Drake, and Van Johnson. It might have been my first time watching June Allyson and Gloria deHaven too. Oh, and some of the dresses in this one are simply divine! My sisters and I watched this movie together for years. I can't tell you how excited I was when I found it on dvd in the Warner Archives Collection! It is, sadly, pretty hard to find, but I highly recommend checking it out if you can. It's a wonderful film.



Be sure to swing by my Facebook page to see more pictures, video clips, and quotes from the film!

My heart won't let my feet do things they should do

Another comparison post! I really love these! I'm afraid that I'll eventually run out of songs but when that happens, I guess I'll just think of something else to write about! Plus, after I've written a post, I'll often discover another version of the song, so that's always an option too.

Anyway, the song for today's discussion is "I Won't Dance" by Jerome Kern. Now, the obvious choice is to, yet again, compare Roberta and Lovely to Look At, which are actually the same story, so that's almost cheating. But I do like comparing remakes. And this song happens to be pretty popular in other movies too. Take a look:

from Roberta (1935), we have Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:



then there's Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) with Lucille Bremer and, of all people, Van Johnson:



then, of course, there's Lovely to Look At (1952), with Marge and Gower Champion. I'm sure I've said this before but I do think it's a pity that this movie was a remake simply because the Champions were fantastic dancers in their own right. Obviously no one can compare to Fred and Ginger but they had their own style and spark. I really do enjoy watching them a great deal.



Now, we come to the contemporary portion of our discussion. There are several movies post-1980's that use this song. Love's Labor's Lost, Warm Springs, (both which have Kenneth Branagh, oddly enough). I wanted to show you the former one here but it's not on YouTube, so you'll have to take my word for it that it's pretty cute. The second one is a TV movie that I'd never heard of but looks way too sad for me to actually watch so I won't bother putting it in here. Now, what I will post here is a movie that I don't really have any interest in watching all the way through, but I find this dance sequence quite intriguing. Take a look:



Despite the fact that Gene Kelly never (to my knowledge) sang this song, I think it's fascinating how much this scene pays homage to him. Running through the taxi cab and dancing with trashcan lids are both used in It's Always Fair Weather and then, of course, rolling over a couch is totally Singin' in the Rain-ish. He even jumps up on a lamppost! It makes me wonder how many other musicals they're referring to throughout the scene.

And what did we see? We saw the sea.

So, I'm sick. I've actually been sick but now it's moved to my nose and chest where all I do is sniffle and cough. The only good thing about being sick is that it gives you an excuse to relax. This said, I'm having a movie marathon. I love movie marathons. I think it's so fun to have a theme and plan a whole line-up of films (hmm. new blog post series?). Today, I decided to go for a theme of... well, I'll let you figure it out. Here's the line up:
Follow the Fleet (1936)
Born to Dance (1936)
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
On the Town (1949)
Hit the Deck (1955)

And because movie marathons are no fun alone, I'll let you join me (without having to get sick too). Ready? Here we go:

I hope you enjoyed the movie marathon!

It's not that I don't like your charms but I'm liable to like 'em too much!

After my whole Gloria de Haven-related post, I decided to continue the theme in a 100 movies post. Yes! The 100 movies list is back!

#31 Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)


The film tells the story of two vaudeville actresses, Patsy and Jean Deyo (June Allyson and Gloria de Haven) who hold canteens in their apartment for servicemen. When a secret admirer, "Somebody," starts sending Jean orchids and, later, buys her the deed to an abandoned warehouse, Patsy sets out to discover his identity. Complications arise, however, when the two sisters fall in love with the same guy, a sailor named Johnny (Van Johnson).


In typical '40's musical fashion, this film is chock-full of songs, most of which have nothing whatever to do with the plot. There's a host of great actors making cameo appearances, which is a lot of fun: Jose Iturbi, Gracie Allen, Lena Horne, Harry James, and Xavier Cugat to name just a few.

This movie is tons of fun. There are lots of great lines and great songs. It's hard to find, unfortunately. I got ridiculously excited when I discovered it was offered in the WB Archives collection. I highly recommend it.

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies.

Today for my post on Old Hollywood and New Hollywood I want to talk about influences. Namely, which is better: replicating an old classic or modernizing one? I'll add a poll about it.

There are arguments to be made for each. To make immediate examples: Usher performed a tribute to Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain." Now, on the one hand, it's pretty incredible that Usher learned all of the choreography and did the exact same blocking and everything. However, one could argue (and I've heard one do it), what's the point of replicating something that's already amazing? On the other side, inspiration can be a tricky line to toe as in Katie Holmes's rendition of Judy Garland's "Get Happy." On the one hand, Katie Holmes modernizes an old number and lends it her own spice of individuality and personality; on the other, she changed a classic!

Now, to take this debate to films, I'm going to discuss one of my favorite contemporary films: You've Got Mail (1998) which is a film based on The Shop Around the Corner (1940). (Warning, I have a few spoilers in here.) The modern version covers the same story: two penpals who despise each other even though they have unknowingly fallen in love through correspondence. You've Got Mail changes the story, however, when the guy and girl are not coworkers but competitive bookstore owners. The shift from written mail to email is an easy transition with the growth of technology, but I find that the change in relationship makes a significant difference to the storyline. Their animosity is a good deal more understandable: he's putting her out of business - of course she hates him! And she says nasty things about him in public - of course he hates her! Joe Fox's later wooing of Kathleen Kelly is a little more gently done, as well, as he doesn't manipulate her as much as Kralik manipulates Klara. He suggests that her penpal is fat, married, and many other things but it's mostly done as a joking matter - she never feels crushed by the loss of an ideal. Now, don't get me wrong: I just rewatched The Shop Around the Corner and I love it! I think James Stewart is incredible in it and Margaret Sullavan is adorable. But I found myself feeling sorry for Kralik (and also getting incredibly mad at him at the end) and sort of disliking Klara, whose meanness isn't explained until the final scene of the film. In You've Got Mail, I like both of the characters and I understand each's frustration. Joe Fox does not elicit the same kind of sympathy that Kralik does, but then the characters are completely different. Kralik is a clerk who loses his job just as he is about to propose, and we see his vulnerability peek out as he reads his recommendation letter. Joe Fox, on the other hand, is a multimillionaire who loses very little throughout the film. The basic plot is the same and there are many entertainingly replicated bits of dialogue, but I find that the overall feeling of the film, the characters and their relationship are very different. It seems as if the writers of You've Got Mail loved The Shop Around the Corner and wanted to pay tribute, and improve upon it at the same time. Which brings up some controversy.

Now, looking at the other form of flattery, you have the musical rendition, In The Good Old Summertime (1949), which is essentially The Shop Around the Corner with musical numbers thrown in. What's the difference? Do we watch the musical because we like Judy Garland and Van Johnson more than James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan - or vice versa? Do we watch one or the other because we prefer musicals or straight comedies? Or do we watch both because we love the story and the dialogue and the characters so much that we can't get enough of them? This is something I've wondered with a lot of the musical remakes - High Society (1956), Easy to Wed (1946), Silk Stockings (1957), to name just a few. There are so many of them and I can't decide how I feel about them. In some cases, it's nice to see a change in casting and if the music is great then, hey! Why not? But sometimes I wonder why they couldn't leave well enough alone and let some of those good non-musical films stand on their own feet. It's a tough call to make.

What do you think about the issue? Should we replicate the things that we love or change them to fit the changing times? Or should we just leave movies that we love alone and leave it at that?