Sunday, May 18, 2025

Vital Viewing (Preach Therapy Edition)

 


 
Not to be confused with a one-time cast member on Law and Order, screenwriter and director Richard Brooks was born on this date in 1912 (he died in 1992.) Among several well-known movies that Brooks wrote and directed were Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), In Cold Blood (1967) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), all worthwhile films, but the one I want you to recommend to you today is this 1960 adaptation of a best-selling novel of the Wild (Mid)West: 



Academy Award voters of the day seem to second my recommendation. But first a word from Bob:



I like Kitty's gown, but that's neither here nor there. What IS here or there is the trailer for the movie, a movie that also won Oscars for leading man Burt and the future Mrs. Partridge:



Elmer didn't get to become Pope either.

13 comments:

  1. Oh my god, and Patti Page! I have never seen the movie and now I want to (if only to see the old-fashioned pencil sharpener).

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    1. Mitchell, do you mean to say there's a new, technologically advanced way to sharpen a pencil, or just that nobody uses pencils much anymore?

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  2. In those times Australians had quite different accents to how they now speak, and clearly so did Americans. Both were less identifiably Australian and American. The couple in the first clip have beautiful diction. It is a pleasure to the ears.

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    1. Andrew, Moss Hart grew up poor in the Bronx and originally had a thick accent that he worked hard to rid himself of in adulthood (as he relates in his memoir Act One.) Kitty Carlisle spent part of her childhood in New Orleans, until her status-seeking mother sent her off to European finishing schools in her teens. By the time she appeared with the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera, all trace of a Southern accent was gone. Later on in her life she was a mainstay in New York City society, where I imagine the perfect diction came in handy.

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  3. "Elmer Gantry" is a great movie, definitely worth seeing! I read the book back in the day too.

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    1. And both movie and book are more relevant than ever, Debra.

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  4. The answer to his question is circus side show.

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    1. Mike, I agree, though these days it looks like it might move to center ring.

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  5. I don't know him Kirk and don't know the book or film Elmer Gantry. Bob Hope's little bit made me laugh, him I do know!

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    1. Well, Ananka, one out of--let me count--four ain't bad.

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  6. A rare sight now in offices I would think. Also, electricity!

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In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.