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Friday, September 7, 2012

'Three Coins in the Fountain' at Movie Club



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18 comments:

  1. Wonderful!
    Then perhaps Matthew Coniam can deliver his long-promised review of Possession along with his wife's comments. I saw that he is taking a break over at his digs, but still-- I wouldn't want to see him receive an "incomplete" in the course. 'Twould be a shame that.

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  2. A challenge, eh? I thought you'd forgotten... Life has got very busy lately, hence the hiatus on Facebook and blogs, but if my word means anything around here any more I promise most solemnly to get on to this asap!!!

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  3. Elephants have a saying, "Darrell never forgets."

    It helps that I want to hear what you and your wife thought of it. And hearing that you both fell to sleep trying to watch it the first time got my interest as well. It's the curse of you being a good and interesting writer. Readers want to read what you write.

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  4. Darrell never forgets is right! That might be a big job, Matthew. Possession was a very enjoyable film, and I loved the ending, but textured and layered, and complex. Now Three Coins in the Fountain, on the other hand, takes us to the other extreme. It is beautiful to look at and almost annoying to watch, in terms of these three girls and their adventures off in sunny Italy. But Louis Jourdan will charm the socks off you, and Rossano Brazzi is great fun as well. The wife might enjoy it, but only if she knew up front that most of the fun is in the beauty of the scenary, a fun little trip to Italy, and to be had for just a few dollars for the movie ticket. There's a girl that hangs around here sometimes and I wanted to get her opinion on all the scheming and so forth, just for the fun of it. Maybe we'll see her.

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  5. Somewhat off topic, but have either of you seen Foreign Correspondent? The Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller that he did the same year he did Rebecca? I had never seen it before but somehow thought that I had. I happened to pick it up for the weekend. My word, that was a good show! The dialogue was very sharp and at times had a fun humor, the story seemed to move along very fast, and I loved the cast. I had never even heard of Joel McCrea, or the female lead, Laraine Day. They were both very good.

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  6. Yes, one of my absolute favourites, and I speak as one who can basically take or leave Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds ...
    Perhaps his only American film that captures the flavour of his 1930s English films: great dialogue, suspense highlights, exciting climax and superb cameos from Sanders and Bob Benchley. Top of the Hitchcock tree.
    And you simply must see more of McCrea: one of the great American heroes, and a good guy all round.

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  7. I last saw it shortly after high school, so it's worth a revisit. I remember that it's complicated but not very much more than that. Joel McCrea I do remember, ever see Sullivan's Travels? He was one of my mom's favorite actors so I have an advantage there. He also used to make the talk show circuit in the 1960s (Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas) along with his wife, Frances Dee, a few times. Laraine Day I remember from those old Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayres) movies.

    McCrea was on of those stars like Fred MacMurray and Merv Griffin that made more money in real estate than showbiz. While he was still be offered romantic leads he started to turn them down believing those Hollywood pairing of older male stars with twenty-something young pretties was silly and a bit creepy. He also bucked the Hollywood trend by staying married to Frances Dee for 57 years, dying on his anniversary even. What a man!

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  8. Okay, well, don't go in the windmill. That's a pretty creepy place. Oh, and don't wear any loose clothing.

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  9. Superb ending, as well, designed as a rebuke to American isolationism. Still eerily powerful, I'd say.

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  10. Did you see the cartoon of Hitler in the upper right of the skylight window frame on that windmill?

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  11. Loved 3 Coins in the Fountain despite the rather wooden performance of Jean Peters. Who would have thought she'd later become Mrs. Howard Hughes?

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  12. Acting chops... yes, well, Jean Peters brought certain other valuable assets to the table that I believe Mr. Hughes found appealing.

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  13. Sunday is a good day to remind everyone how wonderful Cathy is, and to keep her in your prayers always. It wouldn't be Movie Club without her spot-on analysis and humor.

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  14. Aw, shucks. :)

    Thank you, Darrell.

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  15. Hey Darrell, I did just watch Sullivan's Travels ... loved it. Good stuff. I really like that Joel McCrea. And Veronica Lake was a lot of fun too. I'm on a good little roll here.

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  16. Oh, man, I haven't even finished Foreign Correspondant yet!

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  17. Joel McCrea was offered some other plum movie role (I forgot which) where Veronica Lake had already been cast and he turned it down. He explained himself later by saying something like life is too short to do two movies with Miss Lake. She had a reputation as being a bear to work with. Nice looking, though. Especially that war time magazine cover (Picture Post?). People weren't looking at the "listening to Churchill" text, I imagine given what was above it.
    http://midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Veronica-Lake-Picture-Post.png

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