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Saturday, April 23, 2011

'You Gotta Stay Happy' Open Thread





Did you have a little fun?


12 comments:

  1. Look at that Joan Fountaine, flopping on the bed. It's a troublesome kind of runaway that needs help getting to sleep. The blue pill sure seemed to work. Bullets finding her in Marvin's room the next morning was a bit of a surprise, but when he exclaims: "You doped her?!" it just killed me!

    And look at those two boys. This looks like hi-jinks and capers to me!

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  2. Oh, I enjoyed this! Finally got to watch it late in the evening, and went to bed happy. Everybody is wonderful in it -- I'm watching it again today, and I'll come back with my favorite bits.

    But I'll tell ya, there's a lot of wisdom in ol' Bullets' admonition about finding ways to infuse your life with fun and joy. Even is he is kind of a nut. :)

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  3. It's a simple show, but I just love it. I love all the wry looks that Bullets gives to Marve. And the comical characters, the Southern love birds

    "Din din, Sugar Love?"

    "Uh-huh, din din, Lover Man!"


    The farmer and his family, his dealings with the indians, the frustration Marve had in dealing with "Joe", especially with the contrasted ease which Dee Dee manages him, and the fun that Bullets is ready to have at the drop of a hat, dancing up a storm with a young gal he just met, just a few moments after nearly dying in a plane crash.

    Yeah, it was good fun.

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  4. Well I have actually earned admittance into the society of such great minds as Darrell, and that guy that thinks Ryan wants to blow up buildings.

    I'm not on my regular computer, and was INSANELY FOOLISH enough to be typing my comment directly into the Comment box. Which is, no doubt, the reason that when I tried to post it, it went away.

    I realize that you really don't need to know all this, but I am trying to expend some of the energy that would otherwise be going into the shouting of some very. bad. words.

    Bother.

    ;)

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  5. Well, David Cay Johnston doesn't really think Ryan wants to blow buildings up, he just wants you to think that.

    Sorry about the comment drop. It is annoying, to be sure. Frustrating situations brings to mind old Marve, when all he needs to get his aircraft towed out of the muck is to get "Joe" to smoke a cigar. Simple. Joe loves to smoke cigars! That mumbling delivery and agitation in Jimmy Stewart's voice, that look of exasperation his on face.

    Too funny!!

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  6. "I wanted to tell you about it myself... so you would understand..."

    Who hasn't wanted, desperately, to be able to tell someone important a painful truth before they hear it from someone else?

    I like that this wasn't a screwball comedy. I know it has many of the elements of one, and perhaps had the potential to be one, but I'm glad it isn't.

    Jimmy Stewart's character has to resolve one challenge after another, from dealing with the extremes of what can be defined as cargo, to having to land a plane in a violent storm with no airport close at hand -- and he does it as a man who has grown somewhat accustomed to unexpected conditions in his chosen world.

    "Marv" is a man who has tried to keep a very disciplined approach to life, but he is not so foolish as to turn away from love when when he finds it unexpectedly. He's a still-waters-run-deep sort of fellow -- not a caricature of one.

    And Eddie Albert makes "Bullets" feel like a real person. Determined as he may be to find ways to keep life amusing, he has real affection and appreciation for the friend and partner he cajoles, and teases, and admires. (I loved the scene where he points out to Marv that they could be charged as accomplices to the crime it appears "Dotty" has committed, suggests they strap a parachute on to her and throw her off the plane, and then turns back from Marv's dismissal with a satisfied grin.)

    Joan Fontaine's "Deedee" is charming and sweet -- and blessedly free of Madcap Heiress Syndrome. She may be neurotic... or she may simply have been sheltered from any challenge that might have stirred the imagination. As have all the appropriate suitors she has tried so very hard to fall in love with.

    (Her bolting from the hotel room on her wedding night may seem the stuff of farce, but this was the 40's, and she knew that spending the night with her new husband would make getting that annulment a lot trickier!)

    As for that tall drink of ditch-water she let herself be talked into marrying, he is fairly farcical -- who could possibly imagine that a successful plea for reconciliation could be contained in those four little words, "What will people think?"

    The embezzler was a hoot ("But when I held that baby... sniff," and I would have liked to have seen more of his secretary/partner in crime, but I really liked that big, affectionate, farm family, and the dignity with which they were depicted, especially the wife. Like in that scene in the kitchen, the children having been sent to bed, and the three women falling naturally into finishing the cleaning-up -- Deedee open to what she can learn from this older woman.

    (Did you not love the expression on Deedee's face when she determines to look into this business of "knowing" when a man is "the one"?!)

    And you know I adore Roland Young, whether he's Cosmo Topper, or Uncle Willie, or simply the agonized straight man to an embarrassing young relative.

    I so liked the change in Deedee, the quiet determination with which she pursues what she finally knows she wants. And that scene at her aunt's, uncle and husband storming around her, while she sits at the center, smiling a bit sadly, but unmoved. (Until, of course, Marv shows up to give her the When-my-kids-want-ice-cream-cones speech, and she passes out again!)

    Oh, sweet and funny. Good, as they say, Stuff!

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  7. Oh, I feel much better now. :)

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  8. great minds as Darrell...

    Hey! I always believe things will work they way they are intended to work. And you can tell from my comments, they are always prepared fresh right before your eyes, mistakes and all--always in the comment box! No imports here or outsourcing. I love how strange breaks appear after hitting "post" when none were present right before. I consider this all part of the adventure of the web. Besides I can always blame Jim if things really go wrong.

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  9. As usual, Cathy has written some very fine comments on the show, which really captured what I liked about it. Very nice.

    I just loved all the exchanges between Eddie Albert and Jimmy Stewart, the little facial expressions and knowing glances. It was a lot of fun to see good friends interacting like that. They really struck me as a couple of guys that had already gone through the ringer together, and had an appreciation, implicit trust and deep friendship for each other, each being "a fella you knew you could count on", as Al Stevens said in The Best Years Of Our Lives, and in fact both these guys were just that.

    There was all kinds of humor through the show, like when they land in Chicago and Bullets comes out of the cabin just as the newlywed gal jumps across the isle to sit in her young husbands lap, and the nod of the head that Albert gives, you just know what he is thinking... and really that's all we need, isn't it? Like when Jimmy Stewart is carrying Joan Fontaine across the muddy field, and he looks down and says with a slight smile:

    "A hundred and ten?"

    and she replies innocently enough

    "A hundred and eight, but that's dry.. and no clothes on."

    To Jimmy's cautious look. Yes, that was good fun.


    Well Cathy, it's your world. Pick us out a good one!

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  10. Well, I've been thinking a lot about comedies, and there are several I haven't seen for a long time, that I'd like to watch again, so I'll leave you the final choice:

    Beverly Hills Cop

    Trading Places

    Shanghai Noon

    (All 3 are just for fun, and all are DVD-able from Netflix.)

    Thoughts?

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  11. I've never seen Shanghai Noon. How about it?

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