I love the dress Kathryn Grayson is wearing--classic 1940s.
She and Howard Keel always impressed me as singers in the same mold as Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Appears they sang in a couple of the same musicals. And how ironic, the second film Jeanette MacDonald made was, The Vagobond King.
Agreed, although I hope they liked each other more than Nelson and Jeanette, who apparently HATED each other at least by the end of their run together. (Gable didn't like her much either.)
Kiss me Kate is one of my all time faves, and I think probably their best performances. It's amazing how long the studios made operetta type musicals up to the Mario Lanza period.
I'd like to love Anchors Aweigh, but there are some cringe-worthy moments, much as I adore young Gene & Frank together.
My friend in Pacific Heights was a big Jeanette MacDonald fan. He had all kinds of trivia on her. Let's see... --She was quite vain. Did not like the veins showing on her hands, so before a take she would raise them over her head until it was time to say her lines. There are outtakes somewhere of this. --Unlike her hands, she was quite proud of her small feet and liked scenes where she was putting on shoes. --While Eddy had a strong singing voice, MacDonald did not. She could not sing on the stage. --There are strong rumors that JM and NE were in love with each other while making their films. Her husband, Gene Raymond looks uncannily like Nelson Eddy.
(hope I didn't bore you.) ***My favorite of Grayson's is Kiss me Kate. She came alive in that movie. Not so much in Show Boat. I prefer the Irene Dunne version
( ... )
We can ship Frank and Gene in all their movies. I mean MY GOD, in Anchors Aweigh it practically screams slash, at least from Clarence's side, which is why it's so hard to sit through
( ... )
Definitely her best movie. Since she wasn't trapped in the conventions of an operetta or just being the idealized ingenue, she was able to shine considerably more.
PS: Cliff and The Shadows? Awesome! Will totally be doing a post, am exhausted, but I loved it. I'm only sad that it's actually his farewell tour (I didn't know before) because I'd adore to see him again.
Also I didn't know that Bruce Welch was a Shadow and Olivia's ex-fiance! Also he wrote my favourite of Olivia's pre-Physical (the album rather than the song though the song is fun) songs - Please Mr. Please. I found all this out just because I thought he was kind of hot and... um, may be shipping him with Cliff...
You didn't know Bruce Welch was in the Shadows? I did, probably from reading a lot of books about that period in British Rock. Some mention of the Shads always comes up in Beatles books. I also used to have a really good Cliff and Shadows concert video, the same concert the "Thank You Very Much" album is from, which mentions all of them by name. Cliff teases Bruce and Hank A LOT.
However I didn't know he wrote Please, Mr. Please, which strangely enough my friend Jim sang at Karaoke last night.
Kathryn was awesome, but I think is under-rated in retrospect, because aside from Kiss Me Kate, most of her films just don't hold up. The operetta musicals just don't have the panache of the classic stuff like Bandwagon and Singing in the Rain etc.
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She and Howard Keel always impressed me as singers in the same mold as Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Appears they sang in a couple of the same musicals. And how ironic, the second film Jeanette MacDonald made was, The Vagobond King.
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Kiss me Kate is one of my all time faves, and I think probably their best performances. It's amazing how long the studios made operetta type musicals up to the Mario Lanza period.
I'd like to love Anchors Aweigh, but there are some cringe-worthy moments, much as I adore young Gene & Frank together.
Reply
--She was quite vain. Did not like the veins showing on her hands, so before a take she would raise them over her head until it was time to say her lines. There are outtakes somewhere of this.
--Unlike her hands, she was quite proud of her small feet and liked scenes where she was putting on shoes.
--While Eddy had a strong singing voice, MacDonald did not. She could not sing on the stage.
--There are strong rumors that JM and NE were in love with each other while making their films. Her husband, Gene Raymond looks uncannily like Nelson Eddy.
(hope I didn't bore you.)
***My favorite of Grayson's is Kiss me Kate. She came alive in that movie. Not so much in Show Boat. I prefer the Irene Dunne version ( ... )
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I remember her most from Kiss Me Kate. Her rendition of "I Hate Men" was awesome.
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PS: Cliff and The Shadows? Awesome! Will totally be doing a post, am exhausted, but I loved it. I'm only sad that it's actually his farewell tour (I didn't know before) because I'd adore to see him again.
Also I didn't know that Bruce Welch was a Shadow and Olivia's ex-fiance! Also he wrote my favourite of Olivia's pre-Physical (the album rather than the song though the song is fun) songs - Please Mr. Please. I found all this out just because I thought he was kind of hot and... um, may be shipping him with Cliff...
Reply
However I didn't know he wrote Please, Mr. Please, which strangely enough my friend Jim sang at Karaoke last night.
Kathryn was awesome, but I think is under-rated in retrospect, because aside from Kiss Me Kate, most of her films just don't hold up. The operetta musicals just don't have the panache of the classic stuff like Bandwagon and Singing in the Rain etc.
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