For Tulips For Augusta we have a film made when Hollywood was still casting ugly people as ugly people (as opposed to 'Hollywood ugly'--defined as a semi-hot person wearing glasses). It's got a quarry and a Cinderella story and lots and lots of bike riding. Sounds like a Betty to me!
Breaking Away
And lest you think it is all a bunch of dreary poor people and their struggle for self-actualization, I hasten to point out a totally hot and gratuitous Dennis Quaid (before his mouth went w
onky). Also, it's got some excellent opera.The Course of True Love stumped me a bit until I remembered that Claribel gets walked off her feet by Unsuitable Frederick. Also, Marc twits Claribel a couple of times about getting picked up by strangers and opening her door to them. So it had to be:
Walk, Don't Run
This isn't Cary Grant's best ever but it is charming. The heroine is engaged to an Unsuitable, meets Cary Grant who sub-lets her Tokyo apartment during the Olympic games (as there are no other rooms to be had) and then further sub-lets his half to an Olympic speed walker. If that isn't being careless about your personal safety I don't know what is.
Alas, Cary Grant doesn't get to kiss anybody...
Alas, Cary Grant doesn't get to kiss anybody...
My children (ages 4-10) saw "Walk, Don't Run" for the first time right before the winter Olympics (the two oldest were studying Japan at school so we thought the timing was great). They loved it. They are still quoting lines from it (who knew?).
ReplyDeleteIt was Cary Grant's last film. Samantha Eggar is a perfect Neels (there's even a dull but worthy but still hilarious fiance). Grant was so stunningly romantic over the phone with a never-seen wife of upteen years that your heart drops to your stomach. Brighton is referenced without actually being referenced. And then there's Jim Hutton . . . . (the image made me lose my train of thought).
I love love love Jim Hutton. (Deceased, I believe, alas.) Also, John McGiver, character actor from the 1960s. Wonderful, under appreciated sitcom called "Many Happy Returns" about the return & exchange window at a department store.
ReplyDeleteI think they both (Hutton & McGiver) had ties to my hometown, Schenectady NY. I think.
I think my post lost a little bit of text explaining that I choose Breaking Away because there's a quarry--otherwise it seems a totally random pick...and I'm never that. Right?
ReplyDeleteOh, yes -- it's the Bloomington, Indiana locals versus the snotty U of I types. The local industry is quarrying. That's all I remember, though -- it's been a while since I saw that one.
ReplyDeleteI once caught my late father watching some midnight replay of "Breaking Away" and laughing his head off (he loved the shaving legs bit). That movie must have hit a broad audience because I don't think that a Western rancher and oilman who wore cowboy hats and boots was their target audience.
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