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| If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 08:03 pm EST 01/20/18 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:57 pm EST 01/20/18 | |
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| TCM is showing it again tonight, and once again, I've tried to wish it to be better than it is. The book of the initial iteration was ambitious, but the 2nd act -- with all new characters, all new locales, and the emotional suspense built around the obligatory scene that gives the show its title -- but on film, it's just not much of a story. It keeps re-asserting the same obstacle, hard-wired classism against newly monied Molly's rise, without finding enough ... enough ... what? ... good scenes. The Europeans, royalty always wearing jewels and attitude to make sure we appreciate the imprimatur they bestow, are dragged in to issue withering comeuppance. And when we get to that obligatory scene, it has one of the most earned reprise triggers ever conceived. Molly tells a boat full of weeping upper class women she'll teach them "Belly Up the the Bar, Boys," and then ... then ... we cut away. Reynolds is actually at her very worst in that scene, phony, arch, screechy (if brief) which is painful. She doesn't know how to play it, and it's a moment that might've had real drama, had Molly actually been shown teaching a vulgar ditty to a boat of pampered women whose PTSD is already present. No one knows what to dramatize, what's relevant, what is the center of the story, other than the marriage. It's just great character in search of a worked-out story. It's a show about an idea, which gave musical theater a helluva title. Oh, and the great score is gutted. Yeah, there's too much of everything in the Willson original. But the film takes 4 songs and reprises and recycles the melodies incessantly. |
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| re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... | |
| Posted by: BillEadie 03:26 pm EST 01/21/18 | |
| In reply to: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... - Delvino 07:57 pm EST 01/20/18 | |
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| When I was in high school, my father took us to “Family Day” at MGM in Culver City. It was a day when the employees could bring their families to see where they worked, and my dad, who represented a supplier, also received an invitation. One of the highlights of the day for me was seeing the dressed set of Molly’s cabin in the woods, along with some production stills that were being displayed there. I was impressed with the detail and how realistic it looked. I remember being motivated to see the film and then only liking it somewhat (though, at that point, I could never have offered Delvino’s level of critique of it). Never saw the film again after that one time. I do retain a fondness for the musical, and I hope that recent attempts to revive it (with Beth Malone, an ideal choice, I think, in the title role) will come to fruition. Bill, in San Diego |
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| re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 03:16 pm EST 01/21/18 | |
| In reply to: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... - Delvino 07:57 pm EST 01/20/18 | |
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| They should certainly have used more of the score, especially "Are You Sure?" and "Dolce Far Niente." | |
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| re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 07:07 am EST 01/23/18 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:07 am EST 01/23/18 | |
| In reply to: re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... - keikekaze 03:16 pm EST 01/21/18 | |
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| It's a startlingly truncated score, so oddly dependent on reprising the same melodies. I personally think "Are You Sure" is one of Willson's finest numbers. It also deepens Molly at a point in the show when she's been rather one note. The Grimes recording of the song is just sublime. And it has a genuinely powerful spiritual component, again, that makes Molly more compelling. But this film settles for a lot of surface stuff that showcases a Reynolds not entirely comfortable with it. She feels so ... Burbank. Too bad. I wonder how Shirley MacLaine would've fared. She was the studio choice. |
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| re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better...He's my Friend! | |
| Posted by: bmc 12:46 am EST 01/23/18 | |
| In reply to: re: If only the "Molly Brown" film were just a little bit better... - keikekaze 03:16 pm EST 01/21/18 | |
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| I thought the "He's my friend number was wonderful, especially fine ,& especially when Debbie did that wild Irish jig with Grover Dale and Gus Trikonis,... But I thought they could have squeezed in "My own Brass Bed, It's a short song, one of my favorites in the show. | |
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