One of my favorite feel-good modern romantic comedies is The Holiday (2006). I initially watched it for Jude Law but came away from the film loving the story between Iris (Kate Winslet) and Arthur (played by the adorable Eli Wallach). There is a scene in the movie where Iris meets Arthur for the first time and he explains what a "meet-cute" is. Watch the sweet scene below:
I always wondered whether the film he describes existed and so was very excited when TCM aired a film called Blackbeard's Eighth Wife (1938) in which two people meet while purchasing pajamas (It's switched in the movie though - Cooper buys the top and Colbert the bottom). Unfortunately the scene is only on YouTube in Spanish.
I even liked Jack Black in this movie!
Anyway, this film gave me the idea for this blogathon and I thought, what better day to host this than on Valentine's Day! And, since there are unlimited films to choose from, I have decided to make it an annual event (hopefully lots of you will sign up). Films from any era will be allowed (and I guess if you really want to do a TV show that would be okay too) but since there are so many films featuring "meet-cutes" I ask that there be no duplicates. Please comment with your film choice and LINK TO YOUR BLOG and grab one of the banners below to advertise!! Looking forward to seeing what everyone picks!
Doris was everybody's darling and I wish I could have done fifty more pictures with her.
~ James Garner
Doris Day (whose birthday is April 3rd) and James Garner (whose birthday is April 7th) made only two films together in 1963, but they remained friends until Garner's death in 2014. The films, The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling, are not as famous as Day's film pairings with Rock Hudson, but they were extremely successful at the box-office due to the wonderful on-screen chemistry between Day and Garner. This chemistry stemmed from their off-screen friendship and respect for the other's abilities as an actor.
In their autobiographies, both Day and Garner had only nice things to say about each other, despite the fact that Garner (accidently) broke Day's ribs during the filming of Move Over, Darling.
Jim and I worked together only twice, in Move Over, Darling and The Thrill of It All. He's so good at what he does... I felt married. We didn't see each other much over the following years, but we've stayed friends because we talk on the phone regularly. I don't know how, because Jim hates the telephone. I usually have to call him. "Can't you pick up a phone?" I say, but he just grumbles.
We had fun. He's a marvelous actor. He's very real when he talks to you. He's so funny and so nice, I just love him. Even though he broke two of my ribs. Jim, if we don't speak for a while, I forgive you for breaking my ribs. Both of them. Don't give it another thought.
~ Doris Day, The Garner Files.
Doris didn't play sexy, she didn't act sexy, she was sexy. And then she could take a sexy scene and make you laugh. Which is better in the bedroom than a lot of things. And Doris was a joy to work with. Everything she did seemed effortless. She's so sweet and so professional - she made everyone around her look good.
~ James Garner, The Garner Files.
Garner was also known to say that Doris had the "best tush in Hollywood." In an essay included in Day autobiography, Garner goes on in depth about his love and admiration for her, as well as her "girl next door" image:
I think Doris is a very sexy lady who doesn't know how sexy she is. That's an integral part of her charm... I don't think she could have had the success she's had if she didn't have this sexy whirlpool frothing around underneath her All-American-girl exterior.
I remember the first time I saw her on screen. I was just a regular moviegoer then, hadn't turned to acting yet, and here was this new girl, Doris Day, on a train with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson [It's a Great Feeling (1949)], singing a song, and I looked at her and said to myself, "Oh, God, ain't that beautiful, and listen to that voice!"
I've had to play love scenes with a lot of screen ladies, but of all the women I've had to be intimate with on the screen, I'd rate two as sexiest by far - Doris and Julie Andrews, both of them notorious girls next door. Playing a love scene with either of them is duck soup because they communicate something sexy which means I also let myself go somewhat and that really makes a love scene work.
One other thing about acting with Doris - she was the Fred Astaire of comedy. You know the way Astaire used to change partners but the dancing was always uniformly spectacular because Astaire just did his thing and anybody who danced with him was swept up by it. Well, same thing about Doris. Whether is was Rock Hudson or Rod Taylor or me or whoever - we all looked good... I used to come to the set with a preconceived notion of how I was going to play a particular scene, but when I saw what Doris was doing in the scene, her tempo, her feel for the scene, 99.9 percent of the time I'd toss my pre-conception away and play it with her. Making a movie with Doris was a piece of cake - a sexy ride on her coattails all the way.
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The two films that Day made with Garner are very similar to the films she made with Rock Hudson. The main difference is that in both of them they are already married with children at the beginning of the film (Day's character is only married to Hudson's character in their third and final film together, Send Me Know Flowers, made the year after her films with Garner).
In The Thrill of It All (1963), Day plays a normal housewife who is offered a job as the spokesperson of a soap company after she is overheard telling a story about how their soap, Happy Soap, saved her life. Her doctor husband (Garner) is less than thrilled when she signs a one-year contract that keeps her away from the home and her wifely duties. Here's a good synopsis of the film.
In Move Over, Darling (1963), a remake of the 1940 Cary Grant/Irene Dunne classic My Favorite Wife, Day plays a wife who has been lost at sea for five years and been declared legally dead. Upon arriving home, she discovers that her husband, Garner, has remarried just that morning. She heads to the hotel where he is going to be staying with his new wife (which happens to be the same hotel THEY stayed at on THIER honeymoon) to try to stop him before he makes the marriage "official." You can read more about the two films in the post I wrote for my Remakes blogathon.
I highly recommend both films. Not only are they fun to watch but Day and Garner are very convincing as a married couple and evenly matched as comedians.
If Doris Day was the national symbol for the All-American girl, then Jim was her male counterpart - somewhere between a steelworker and a Saturday afternoon football hero.
~ Raymond Strait.
~ Sources ~
Considering Doris Day. Tom Santopietro. 2007.
Doris Day: Her Own Story. Doris Day and A. E. Hotchner. 1975.
The Garner Files: A Memoir. James Garner and Jon Winokur. 2011. James Garner: A Biography. Raymond Strait. 1985.
This post is part of The Doris Day Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood in honor of Day's birthday on April 3rd. Be sure to read all of the other posts celebrating this icon of Classic Hollywood!
Recently for the first time I watched The Long, Long Trailer (1954) & Forever, Darling (1956). Both films star real-life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, popular from the television sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-1957). Both are about a couple who gets married, has some difficulties, and reconcile in the end. Both use Yosemite National Park as a filming location. And both feature gorgeous 1950s lace wedding gowns (they are also in color but I was unable to take screenshots from either movie).
Left: The Long, Long Trailer; Right: Forever, Darling
As you can see, both dresses have a strapless bodice with a lace overlay featuring a high stand-up collar and long sleeves. They also both have a lace apron-like skirt over a full skirt of another type of fabric. Helen Rose designed the gowns for the first film and Eloise Jenssen designed those of the second. Both are ultra-glamorous and chic, as only the fashion-conscious Lucille Ball would have it. While the dresses are both featured somewhat briefly in the films, there are several lovely promo shots that show much more detail.
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The sketch by Jenssen (note how the veil is different) and the gown as seen on a model.
Lucy in the dress with a matching doll
The veils are tulle attached to a cap-like headpiece made of lace. While the one from The Long, Long Trailer sits on the back of the head and is a very typical 1950s look, the headpiece from Forever, Darling is much more over-the-top and falls well onto the face.
William Powell is one of my top three actors, along with John Wayne and Cary Grant. However, unlike the other two who I grew up watching, Powell came along later.
The first films I saw of his were on a dvd from the dollar store, a double feature: My Man Godfrey (my first introduction to Carole Lombard) and Life with Father. I found Godfrey to be a bit too crazy for my tastes at the time, but my entire family loved Powell's Oscar-nominated performance in Life with Father. A couple years after that I saw the first four Thin Man films and I know I enjoyed them but I didn't go crazy over them. Then, a couple of years ago, I rewatched the Thin Man films and realized just how brilliant Powell and Loy were as a comedy team. It didn't take me long to try to get my hands on all of the other films they made together, as well as watch as many of Powell's films that I could find (thanks TCM and YouTube!). Since then I have watched almost all of Powell's "talkies." I think I just have around a dozen films left. I just discovered a couple of them here and keep hoping TCM will air some of the others.
Narrowing down my favorite ten William Powell films is pretty much next to impossible. Just presume that all the rest are Honorable Mentions ;)
1. The Thin Man (1934)
2. My Man Godfrey (1936) - Carole Lombard
3. Libeled Lady (1936) - Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy
4. After the Thin Man (1936)
5. Double Wedding (1937) - Myrna Loy
6. Another Thin Man (1939) - Myrna Loy
7. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
8. The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) - Myrna Loy
9. Life with Father (1947) - Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor
10. Mister Roberts (1955) - Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, James Cagney
When did you discover William Powell? Have you seen all of his pairings with Loy? What's your favorite Powell film outside of the Thin Man series?
Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh are one of my favorite on-screen couples. I saw Curtis first in The Defiant Ones and Leigh first in Psycho. Then I saw several more Curtis films before seeing the two of them in either The Perfect Furlough or Who Was that Lady?. The only film of theirs I haven't seen is The Black Shield of Falworth.
1. Holiday Affair (1949) - Leigh & Robert Mitchum
2. Confidentially Connie (1953) - Leigh & Van Johnson
3. The Defiant Ones (1958) - Curtis & Sidney Poitier
4. The Perfect Furlough (1958) - Curtis & Leigh
5. Some Like it Hot (1959) - Curtis & Jack Lemmon & Marilyn Monroe
6. Operation Petticoat (1959) - Curtis & Cary Grant
7. Who Was That Lady? (1960) - Curtis & Leigh & Dean Martin
8. Sex and the Single Girl (1964) - Curtis & Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda & Lauren Bacall
9. The Great Race (1965) - Curtis & Natalie Wood & Jack Lemmon
10. Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966) - Curtis & George C. Scott
Honorable Mentions: Angels in the Outfield (1951), Houdini (1953), and Psycho (1960).
Screwball and Romantic Comedies are my favorite movies. They are usually the kind of films I find myself watching over and over. To read more about the differences between Screwball Comedy and Romantic Comedy, check out my post here.
9. Sunday in New York (1963) - Jane Fonda & Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson
10. Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) - Tony Curtis, George C. Scott, Virni Lisi
Honorable Mentions: Double Wedding (1937), The Lady Eve (1941), Princess O'Rourke (1943), Two Guys From Milwaukee (1946), Never Say Goodbye (1946), The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949), The Thrill of it All (1963), Send Me No Flowers (1964), Sex and the Single Girl (1964).
I had Roman Holiday (1953) on here but when I looked it up it said Drama/Romance so I took it back off. It's one of those movies that fits under several genres and defies categorization. What would YOU put it under?
As any movie fan knows, choosing just a certain number of favorite films is both agonizing and fun. Agonizing because there's so many you want to choose (not counting that it depends on your mood) and fun because... well it's just fun that's all!
When making such a momentous decision such as choosing five movies to watch for who know's how long (remember how long it took to get off Gilligan's Island??), one must have some sort of criteria. Here is what I have come up with:
1. The films must leave you with a "feel-good" feeling, you certainly don't want to be sad or scared on you're island!
2. They must be films that stand up to the test of time - you can watch them again and again.
3. It would be good to have happy memories associated with the film, such as the annual family Christmas movie.
4. It should be long - why waste a choice on a film that only lasts 80 minutes!
5. At least one should have some great songs in it.
Notice I did not say it should have helpful hints on how to survive. The Swiss Family Robinson is ok, but not anywhere near the top of my list of favorites!
Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N. (1966)
Now that I have my criteria, here are my five films in order of release date (pre-1970s):
The Thin Man (1934)
William Powell & Myrna Loy
Because I HAVE to have at least one Powell/Loy movie! The mystery may not be all that exciting, but their on-screen chemistry is! Need proof? Click here!
Ever since I discovered Powell a couple years ago, I have been hooked. That man is an amazing and often overlooked actor. I have seen almost all of his "talkies" and I can honestly say he's great in all of them. The Thin Man is the film that boosted his career and made him a top box-office draw as a romantic leading man (this to a man who had played mostly villains in his silent career). This film also made Powell and Loy every movie fan's favorite couple and put the fun back in marriage. I could quote the series all day and look at gifs for hours. I adore these two together.
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Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant
This movie is just flat-out, laugh out loud, funny. Hepburn's fast-talking may take a couple viewings to get used to but once you've got it, it just gets better and better. Practically every line is "quote" worthy and THAT HOUSE is to die for. And since on an island I'd most likely be living in a hut I need a house I can dream about.
My absolute favorite line in this movie is when Susan (Hepburn) and David (Grant) are out in the woods looking for Baby (the leopard) when they suddenly fall down, breaking David's glasses and Susan's heel to her shoe. In a completely ad-libbed looking moment, Susan begins walking around and says laughing in that funny laugh of hers, "I was born on the side of a hill." I. Love. That. Line. Luckily it's on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
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Rio Grande (1950)
John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara
I have always loved John Wayne. I have never known a time without John Wayne. It is therefore no surprise that a John Wayne film should show up on this list. In fact, I could easily choose ALL John Wayne films for this list and be very happy on my island. But I limited it to one (if you were wondering, my other four would be Donovan's Reef, The Quiet Man, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Searchers).
Reasons I love this particular John Wayne movie the most:
It has a fantastic cast: Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., and a host of other familiar "Ford" faces.
It has a great soundtrack (yes we have the cd): the soft, heart-stirring instrumentals, the beautiful theme of "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" running throughout, and the melodious harmony of the Sons of the Pioneers (watch above).
It has some of the best on-screen chemistry in the entire history of film: John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara... need I say more? The Duke really knew how to kiss a woman so that she'd never forget it and if you all alone on that island, well... you need something to never forget either.
Lastly, everything else! The directing by John Ford, the majestic vista's of Monument Valley, the action, suspense, romance... how could it NOT be on my list??
Just LOOK AT HIM!!!
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Roman Holiday (1953)
Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck
Roman Holiday is the most beautiful romantic comedy of all time. Not only is it pretty much everyone's introduction to the magic of the bewitching Audrey Hepburn, but it's filmed in the Eternal City itself. Upon finishing it I always want to start it over and watch it again.
Both Hepburn and Peck are perfect in their roles of European Princess and American newspaper man. And I love Eddie Albert as Irving, the photographer. He brings the perfect amount of humor to the film. And of course I HAVE to mention the award-winning costumes by Edith Head. One day I WILL go to Rome and I WILL be wearing an outfit like Hepburn's as I go on my own "Roman Holiday" (I would say I WILL eat gelato on the Spanish Steps but I don't want to be arrested - I don't think I could get out of it like Hepburn and Peck did).
And yes, I'm so obsessed with this movie that I MADE MY OWN TRAVEL BROCHURE tracing all the locations they visited IN ORDER.
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White Christmas (1954)
Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, & Vera-Ellen
I have watched White Christmas with my family every year for as long as I can remember. I know all the words to almost all the song (Mom always fast-forwarded "Mandy"). I would say more about this amazing film but I'm writing about it next week for the Gotta Dance! Blogathon. I will say that, for me, this movie embodies Christmas and because we only watch it at Christmas, we look forward to it all year long (it's really unbearable around July - one is always ready for Christmas in the heat of the summer).
Two more things that are a PLUS in this movie: VistaVision & Technicolor :)
To satisfy you until next week.
There are so many more I could choose, but these are tried and true favorites that I will NEVER tire of. My last word to you is, go, watch as many of your favorite movies as you want and be thankful that you will never have to actually make this decision!
In case you were wondering what my post-1970s list would look like, and you probably weren't: Rocky (1976)...... Moonstruck (1987)............. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)...................... You've Got Mail (1998) and................................ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) - man was that agonizing!!!
UPDATE: Let's hope that if this ever DOES happen, it's on the TCM Cruise and then we can watch each others movies!!!
