I idly picked up an old copy of the magazine "Evergreen" this morning and came across an article about Danny Kaye, and then a short piece about Humphrey Bogart and all of a sudden I was taken back to my childhood, when old - often black and white - films were shown regularly on tv. Recently I have had a huge urge to watch them all again: the "Road" films with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour; Bob Hope in The Paleface with Jane Russell, where he accidentally inhales laughing gas (used by dentists then); Danny Kaye in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Hans Christian Anderson and White Christmas (did you know the MGM made him dye his hair red after he refused to have a nose job? They wanted him to look less Jewish . . .); Donald O'Connor and Francis the Talking Mule, dancing up walls and over sofas and co-starring with Fred Astaire in Singing in the Rain. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - need I say more? I am just enjoying them in Too Hot To Handle over on YouTube, but I appear to be too dozy to give you a link . . . Gosh but they could dance . . .
Then there was my favourite, Gone With the Wind with the stunning Vivien Leigh as Scarlett and rogueish "I don't give a damn" Clark Gable; June Allyson as tomboy Jo in Little Women and Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett and the odious Charles Laughton as her father in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and their servant who goes across behind the sofa as if she is on wheels! Bogart and Hepburn in the African Queen, Doris Day in Calamity Jane (we still have that on video) and of course the incomporable Bogart in Casablanca (I have that too). Play it again, Sam . . .
Many thanks to the Doris Day website from which I copied the photo at the top.
Its so different today when we have 'celebrities' instead of stars..........
ReplyDeleteI loved that swift travel through time, to see all those wonderful movies in fast forward!
ReplyDeleteLittle Women would be my favourite, must admit Gone with the Wind would be too long to sit and watch now.
ReplyDeleteCalamity Jane was the first film I ever saw, my mum and dad took me to see it when I was 7 and I've loved the songs from it ever since - The Deadwood Stage especially. Ilove Casablanca and The African Queen too and as for Astaire and Rogers - pure magic.
ReplyDeleteHand Christian Andersen was the first film I ever saw. I was staying with my Aunt Mary in Haslemere and she took me to the cinema one afternoon. It was wonderful and I still remember some of the songs.
ReplyDeleteCalamity Jane- I remember that one too. On the small black and white screen of our first television , back in the 1960s.
I came to admire Casablanca, African Queen and Brief Encounter much later.
Those titles brought back memories ...watched them all on the good old black and white.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many great films that never dated, I loved some of the later ones such as 7 Brides ....maybe I was in love with Howard Keel lol
ooooh now I'm Humming "Deadwood stage...." love Fred and Ginger, Bogart, Jimmy Stewart..Mr Gable...also Robert Donat, Kenneth More, Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Margaret Rutherford... I could keep going!
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't even get around to mentioning all the Westerns I cut my teeth on! John Wayne was THE only cowboy as far as I was concerned. I am trying to think of the little chap with the squeeky voice who was the chuck wagon driver in one (or more?) films. Argggggggh!
ReplyDeleteAs I am Officially Poorly I think I may watch Casablanca this morning or even Gone With The Wind . . . . or perhaps a wet shirt moment with Mr Darcy . . .