I belong to a book club which is dreary and earnest and guilt-inducing. Each lady takes a turn picking a book and the rest receive it in pinched-lip silence until out of ear shot where we then unpack our evil eyes and roll them gloomily skyward. I hate book clubs. Loathe them. The last time I read something someone else assigned me was in college and, you know, not to go all Indigo Girls on you but, I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind. Got my papers, now I'm free...and whatnot. (And to answer the obvious question: Because they are really cool women who I like enough to spend time with, that's why. I just wish we could skip Cry, the Beloved Country, the month of guilt and the hours I spent reading something I knew I hated 20 pages in.)That's why I started a movie club. So much more satisfying. We get the chips and the dip and the Swedish fish and the bowl of popcorn but if the movie is truly dreadful, well then, we've only wasted 2 hours of your life now, haven't we. I call it Cinema Domingo. We've only had one person who harumphed during a Cary Grant kiss. If you can harumph during that you're no Cinema buddy of mine.
So, I'm starting a Cinema Betty for all my most favorite women. If I can't invite you over for the popcorn, just know I'm raising a Mike and Ike in spirit and wishing my posse of Bettys were with me. My pick this week is:
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers
Not only is it set in 'god-fearing Oregon Territory' (the last time that sobriquet was ever applied to Oregon, I'm sure), but it features Adam Pontipee as a brash red-bearded backwoodsman who comes into town, snaps up an available maiden and hustles right back to the backwoods. No, he didn't mention the six brothers living with him:
Look out for the dance numbers, misogyny, no-talent eye candy (Dorcas and Benjamin, I'm looking at you), dreamy Frankincense (because he smells so sweet), love at first sight and the best film insult ever:
You're a bunch of chicken-hearted, lily-livered, lick-spittles! These guys want to kill you and what do you do? Apologize for livin'!
Have a great weekend and tell me how the movie goes. Feel free to fast forward through When You're in Love--I always do.
**For those merely looking for movies that came out the same year as A Gentle Awakening (1988), they would do well to consider Willow (short person and redhead must save a baby from an evil queen who is not named Wanda) or the slightly more campy My Step-Mother is an Alien (also shades of Wanda).
There's me and my six brothers. Place is like a pigsty, and the food tastes worse. So I made up my mind. The next time I come into town, I'll get a wife.
(That's one of the most charming things about Damsel in Green. Sure Hunky Dutch Doctor could knock Georgina off her feet--easy peasy. But he took her up to his backwoods cabin first, so to speak and let her see them on approval. Very un-Adam of him.)Look out for the dance numbers, misogyny, no-talent eye candy (Dorcas and Benjamin, I'm looking at you), dreamy Frankincense (because he smells so sweet), love at first sight and the best film insult ever:
You're a bunch of chicken-hearted, lily-livered, lick-spittles! These guys want to kill you and what do you do? Apologize for livin'!
Have a great weekend and tell me how the movie goes. Feel free to fast forward through When You're in Love--I always do.
**For those merely looking for movies that came out the same year as A Gentle Awakening (1988), they would do well to consider Willow (short person and redhead must save a baby from an evil queen who is not named Wanda) or the slightly more campy My Step-Mother is an Alien (also shades of Wanda).
Whenever it's a beautiful day and the husband and I are going for a walk, I try to trill "Wonderful, wonderful Day," like June Allyson. My husband has yet to be impressed, but he doesn't have 6 messy brothers either, so I guess we're even.
ReplyDeleteBetty Jill, I introduced this to my Mijneer when we got married and I don't think we made it past "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" before he began thinking I was nuts.
ReplyDeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE THAT MOVIE. LOVE IT.
ReplyDeleteI love old movies, that is probably why I like Betty so much. I enjoy stories that have social rules and constraints in this world of "anything goes". You have all probably discussed this before but I just discovered your blog and have been thoroughly enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteI think Seven Brides for Sevens Brothers is very much in the spirit of Neels--Howard Keel is as hunky as any Dutch doctor and Jane Powell could certainly be an Araminta (or do I have my types mixed up?).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Betty Lea, I love the old movies and romance novels for the same reasons. Through life's tribulations large and small, Betty's plucky heroines have inspired me on so many occasions in so many ways. When I hunker down with a Neels' romance, I feel I have entered a safe zone where Betty's mantle of morals is about me and the "permissive society" has been shown the door.
ReplyDeleteI have often wondered what the editors at Mills & Boon thought of Betty's romances over the years. Betty trotted out 4-5 romances a year for 30 odd years without there being any change in the overall content; her first could have been her last and her last her first. I began reading Neels when I was a teen and I am 48 years old. Most of the other Mills & Boon authors that I was reading at the same time, seemed to have caved to the pressure to "sex" up their novels over the years, but not Betty. No sir, La Neels must have had a special edict that stipulated her work would always maintain its high moral fiber and we Betty-lovers are the beneficiaries of that. We have probably all read racier novels, but when we pick up Neels we want her to deliver that formula that we count on and she rarely disappoints!! Betty Suzanne II