Welcome Me
Posted: January 30th, 2014, 9:35 pm
(Sung to the tune of “Heil to Me!” from that great musical play and terrible musical film, “The Producers.”)
Greetings from the Golden Gate, home of “Vertigo,” “Dark Passage,” “What’s Up, Doc?” and a few hundred other films.
I’ve decided to make my first post a long one. That way, no one will be surprised if my future posts tend to the garrulous, an old man’s privilege. Young people are supposed to learn from their elders (even if the only thing they learn is how to be bored to tears).
I have always placed a high premium on well-written scripts. Any really talented director and/or actors can make a pretty good script better than it deserves, but it takes a near-perfect script to produce a true destined-to-be classic. Hollywood has never given the writers the credit they deserve. I’m glad so many directors are now getting personally involved in the writing. I think the results speak for themselves.
I like all genres, with a strong preference for comedy, but I especially enjoy coming-of-age films. However, I wonder why, in this day and age, with few exceptions, Hollywood still thinks only boys come of age.
A few thousand words about my Avatar. Some may not recognize Mrs. Murgatroid, a wonderful creation of Billy De Wolfe, one of my favorite comedians, and not just because, like Ruth Gordon and yours truly he grew up in Wollaston. His reference in the skit to “Highland Avenue” refers to a real, very steep street in Wollaston, just a few steps from the original Howard Johnson’s Drug Store.
He first did Mrs. M. on Broadway, but she remained his best known and most performed character throughout his life. She is immortalized in the Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire musical “Blue Skies (1946).” Universal has released the DVD on a disk with an earlier Bing Crosby film, “Birth of the Blues.” They seem to have managed to keep copies of the skit off YouTube, but it can be found in the film starting at 72 minutes in and running about six minutes.
I have done my own homage to Mrs. Murgatroid using a poem by Ogden Nash which, coincidently or not (I think, not), includes the line: “Mrs. Murgatroid eats opium for breakfast.” Should anyone feel a desire to watch my mug mugging, it can be found at:
[youtube][/youtube]
(Don’t say you weren’t warned.)
Finally (no, I haven’t run out of words, just energy), an explanation of my “signature:”
:–)—
It’s my invented I-never-tell-a-lie smiley.
Pinoc-U-no(se)!
Greetings from the Golden Gate, home of “Vertigo,” “Dark Passage,” “What’s Up, Doc?” and a few hundred other films.
I’ve decided to make my first post a long one. That way, no one will be surprised if my future posts tend to the garrulous, an old man’s privilege. Young people are supposed to learn from their elders (even if the only thing they learn is how to be bored to tears).
I have always placed a high premium on well-written scripts. Any really talented director and/or actors can make a pretty good script better than it deserves, but it takes a near-perfect script to produce a true destined-to-be classic. Hollywood has never given the writers the credit they deserve. I’m glad so many directors are now getting personally involved in the writing. I think the results speak for themselves.
I like all genres, with a strong preference for comedy, but I especially enjoy coming-of-age films. However, I wonder why, in this day and age, with few exceptions, Hollywood still thinks only boys come of age.
A few thousand words about my Avatar. Some may not recognize Mrs. Murgatroid, a wonderful creation of Billy De Wolfe, one of my favorite comedians, and not just because, like Ruth Gordon and yours truly he grew up in Wollaston. His reference in the skit to “Highland Avenue” refers to a real, very steep street in Wollaston, just a few steps from the original Howard Johnson’s Drug Store.
He first did Mrs. M. on Broadway, but she remained his best known and most performed character throughout his life. She is immortalized in the Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire musical “Blue Skies (1946).” Universal has released the DVD on a disk with an earlier Bing Crosby film, “Birth of the Blues.” They seem to have managed to keep copies of the skit off YouTube, but it can be found in the film starting at 72 minutes in and running about six minutes.
I have done my own homage to Mrs. Murgatroid using a poem by Ogden Nash which, coincidently or not (I think, not), includes the line: “Mrs. Murgatroid eats opium for breakfast.” Should anyone feel a desire to watch my mug mugging, it can be found at:
[youtube][/youtube]
(Don’t say you weren’t warned.)
Finally (no, I haven’t run out of words, just energy), an explanation of my “signature:”
:–)—
It’s my invented I-never-tell-a-lie smiley.
Pinoc-U-no(se)!