It's too late to say good night, so good mornin'...

[icepixie]

Vacation + Netflix instant watch feature + parental ownership of a Blu-Ray thingy that plays them ON THE TV, FROM THE INTERNETS, OMG, I AM SO LIVING IN THE FUTURE = lots of classic movies.

First, Singin' in the Rain, which I had somehow missed for all these years. I don't even know. I think I spent most of my childhood off the planet or something.

I have mixed feelings about it. Really liked the background of the switch from silent movies to talkies, and the gently satirical tone they took in approaching it (the "100% All Talkie" on the credits screen of the Lockwood/Lamont film made me giggle a lot). I've only seen one or two silent movies, mostly for the film comedy class I took at Exeter, but I nevertheless enjoyed that aspect from a historical perspective. I adored, adored, adored "Singin' in the Rain" (which I had at least seen clips of; I'm not that out of it pop-culturally); liked "All I Do Is Dream of You" and "Good Mornin'" (although man, is it earwormy); liked Don and Kathy's meet-cute in the car; liked Cosmo in general and all of Kelly's dancing.

However. Once they started actually liking each other, Don and Kathy immediately became completely uninteresting as a couple. There was just nothing there. (The set up and staging of "You Were Meant for Me" was awesome, though.) And I thought the treatment of Lina bordered on mean-spirited; yeah, she was a ditz, but I'm not sure public humiliation fit the crime of being, basically, annoying. Plus the whole denoument was orchestrated by men, acted out on/with women's bodies and voices, and that kind of thing tends to make me see red. Yes, yes, I realize it's something I should learn to turn off for two-hour stretches if I want to watch many more classic films without developing an ulcer, but...RAGE. Grrr.

So, final thoughts are: mixed bag, but "Singin' in the Rain" makes up for pretty much every bad part.

Second, It Happened One Night, which, aside from Peter's infantilization of Ellie and the intimations of spousal abuse, I loved. Er. I'll just keep telling myself that it was 1934, not that this excuses the line about Ellie needing to be socked every day whether she deserved it or not, OH MY GOD. But anyway, other than that, it was hilarious! Gable and Colbert were perfect together, I really liked Ellie, and both the hitchhiking scene and the "Wall of Jericho" made me grin. (Especially the trumpet at the end. Ha! For all its failings, the Hays Code did at least encourage innuendo as everyone tried to get crap past the radar, and I appreciate a good innuendo. I like it more than I do an...outnuendo?) Plus, you know, marriage of convenience = bulletproof narrative kink, etc. I was fated to love this one.

Ooof. And now I must go to bed.

Comments

[munditia.livejournal.com]

...the line about Ellie needing to be socked every day whether she deserved it or not.

Wait. What? WHAT?

[vallentine.livejournal.com]

I love Singin' in the Rain. And in defense of the public humiliation - Lina was far more than just ditzy and annoying. She was completely self-absorbed, mean to people unless it was good for her career, and completely incapable of being decent to people she considered lesser. So, while the humiliation may be over the top, and perhaps a bit sexist, it was far from being over Lina being merely "annoying".