drednm
Joined May 2000
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A musical biography about Cole Porter and his wife.
Ill-conceived from the get-go, it starts with old Cole watching his life as an on-stage flashback. Kevin Kline plays porter and Ashley Judd plays the wife, Linda. In real life the wife was 14 years OLDER than Porter; in this film, she's 20 years YOUNGER. Or at least Judd is 20 years younger than Kline.
We get most of the Porter's best-known songs but they are sung by a parade of modern-day singers in modern styles even though they're supposed to be in the 1920s or 30s. It doesn't work. There's also a mix of real people (like Gerald and Sara Murphy) and fictional characters based on real people. And we get a bunch of British actors doing their best flat American-accent-free accents.
The single worst bit may be the sequence where Porter is at MGM in the 1930s and he gets to do a production number with Louis B. Mayer set to "Be a Clown." That's followed by the absolutely worst impersonation of Nelson Eddy you'll ever see, singing "I Love You."
For a show-biz story, they certainly go out of their way to NEVER name any of the stars associated with Porter's song or shows. And when they do, they give woefully awful impersonations of Irving Berlin or Monty Woolley. In real life Porter was friends with and rented a Hollywood house from William Haines where he (Porter) gave all-male parties.
ANYWAY, it's a long and dreadful film and the modern-day yodeling just doesn't fit Porter's classy music and clever lyrics. Produced and directed by disaster movie maven Irwin Winkler.
Ill-conceived from the get-go, it starts with old Cole watching his life as an on-stage flashback. Kevin Kline plays porter and Ashley Judd plays the wife, Linda. In real life the wife was 14 years OLDER than Porter; in this film, she's 20 years YOUNGER. Or at least Judd is 20 years younger than Kline.
We get most of the Porter's best-known songs but they are sung by a parade of modern-day singers in modern styles even though they're supposed to be in the 1920s or 30s. It doesn't work. There's also a mix of real people (like Gerald and Sara Murphy) and fictional characters based on real people. And we get a bunch of British actors doing their best flat American-accent-free accents.
The single worst bit may be the sequence where Porter is at MGM in the 1930s and he gets to do a production number with Louis B. Mayer set to "Be a Clown." That's followed by the absolutely worst impersonation of Nelson Eddy you'll ever see, singing "I Love You."
For a show-biz story, they certainly go out of their way to NEVER name any of the stars associated with Porter's song or shows. And when they do, they give woefully awful impersonations of Irving Berlin or Monty Woolley. In real life Porter was friends with and rented a Hollywood house from William Haines where he (Porter) gave all-male parties.
ANYWAY, it's a long and dreadful film and the modern-day yodeling just doesn't fit Porter's classy music and clever lyrics. Produced and directed by disaster movie maven Irwin Winkler.
Bette Midler stars in this production of the much loved musical that starred Ethel Merman on Broadway and Rosalind Russell in the film version.
Everyone knows the plot. Mama Rose (Midler) is the ultimate stage mother who pushes her two daughters onto any stage she can find. Eventually Baby June becomes a Vaudeville star with sister Louise in the background. Years later and with Vaudeville dying, June runs off, leaving Mama and Louise to fend for themselves.
After years of being a flop, they land in Burlesque and Louise reinvents herself as Gypsy Rose Lee and becomes a star stripper. But the mother never lets go, living her dreams through her kids. Baby June, by the way, went on to become June Havoc.
Midler is terrific as Mama Rose with Cynthia Gibb as the grown Louise and Peter Riegert as Herbie. The bawdy strippers played by Christine Ebersole, Linda Hart, and Anna McNeely shine in the "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" number.
There's also Edward Asner, Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, Michael Jeter, and Jeffrey Broadhurst as Tulsa.
It's a show biz world that doesn't exist anymore, and this great show with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim immortalizes it with much love. The show is gritty and grimy and ballsy and a pleasure to behold. And brava to Bette Midler!
Everyone knows the plot. Mama Rose (Midler) is the ultimate stage mother who pushes her two daughters onto any stage she can find. Eventually Baby June becomes a Vaudeville star with sister Louise in the background. Years later and with Vaudeville dying, June runs off, leaving Mama and Louise to fend for themselves.
After years of being a flop, they land in Burlesque and Louise reinvents herself as Gypsy Rose Lee and becomes a star stripper. But the mother never lets go, living her dreams through her kids. Baby June, by the way, went on to become June Havoc.
Midler is terrific as Mama Rose with Cynthia Gibb as the grown Louise and Peter Riegert as Herbie. The bawdy strippers played by Christine Ebersole, Linda Hart, and Anna McNeely shine in the "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" number.
There's also Edward Asner, Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, Michael Jeter, and Jeffrey Broadhurst as Tulsa.
It's a show biz world that doesn't exist anymore, and this great show with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim immortalizes it with much love. The show is gritty and grimy and ballsy and a pleasure to behold. And brava to Bette Midler!
Excellent 1-reeler from 1910, directed by Larry Trimble, who was Jean the Vitagraph Dog's owner/trainer.
Story has a childless couple (Leah Baird, William Humphrey) pampering Jean while they long to have a child. On the other side of town poor little Adele DeGarde is forced to slave in a boarding house owned by a cruel old woman.
When Adele runs away in a snowstorm, she happens to enter an open door in a building and finds Jean asleep in bed and so crawls into bed with Jean. When the couple returns, they find the two and there's a happy ending.
The detail in this film is great. Watch carefully when Adelele wakes up and talks to her ratty paper doll. When she runs away, watch carefully to see what she wears for gloves.
Such attention to detail in a 1910 film!
Story has a childless couple (Leah Baird, William Humphrey) pampering Jean while they long to have a child. On the other side of town poor little Adele DeGarde is forced to slave in a boarding house owned by a cruel old woman.
When Adele runs away in a snowstorm, she happens to enter an open door in a building and finds Jean asleep in bed and so crawls into bed with Jean. When the couple returns, they find the two and there's a happy ending.
The detail in this film is great. Watch carefully when Adelele wakes up and talks to her ratty paper doll. When she runs away, watch carefully to see what she wears for gloves.
Such attention to detail in a 1910 film!