OVP: Small Town Girl (1953)

Film: Small Town Girl (1953)
Stars: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller, S.Z. Sakall, Robert Keith, Bobby Van, Billie Burke
Director: Laszlo Kardos
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"My Flaming Heart")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

With the Oscar Viewing Project, frequently I find myself stumbling across films that I have never even heard of, even with spending most of my life perusing the annals of movie history, and it's always something I find as kind of a delight.  I genuinely love movies (regardless of the era) and would happily watch one every day until the day I leave this earth without any qualms or worries about boredom.  As a result, I occasionally go on a bit of a binge, and did that this weekend watching four, and am already itching to start a fifth this evening before going into a pantheon of Olympics.  Before I get there, though, I want to talk about the sweet, lovely Small Town Girl which I caught Sunday afternoon.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is something of a trifle, one of those below-the-line type films that major stars like Jane Powell seemed to churn out at a staggering pace during the 1950's.  She stars as Cindy, the daughter of the local judge (Keith) who has sentenced the handsome playboy Rick (Granger) to thirty days in jail for speeding through town with his Broadway star girlfriend Lisa Bellmount (Miller).  While in town, Rick begins to find the country life quaint, and after nearly freezing Cindy to death in a coat closet (long story), he falls in love with her on a Manhattan night out, eventually breaking her from her boyfriend Ludwig (Van) who is happily pursuing stardom, and it's implied, Lisa, and they fall madly in love all while finding a few moments for singing and hoofing.

It's not a difficult-to-predict plotline, of course, and there's nothing here that's intensely groundbreaking, but the movie is innocent fun.  For those who are seeing his name on a musical, yes, Farley Granger does sing, but he isn't particularly strong at it and all of the actual musical numbers are done by Powell, Van, and Miller.  His principle role here is to be devastatingly handsome (he is, and is one of those guys that would still be considered handsome even by modern standards) and kind of a cad, and he relishes in both, while Powell is saintly with spunk, and since that's pretty much the description of every Jane Powell role, she holds up admirably.  My favorite parts were the two supporting lovers, but mostly because I have a joyous and undying love for Ann Miller (literally my favorite moment in any musical's opening credits is when I see Miller's name, as I know I'm going to like it), and Bobby Van is wonderfully charming as a Broadway-loving beau.  This film features the most famous moment of Van's career, where he acrobatically hops through town for four straight minutes, jumping repeatedly.  It's wildly entertaining even if it sounds a bit loopy, and worth catching on YouTube even if you can't get access to the picture.

The film only received one Oscar nomination, one of those random Best Song citations, and it's completely outside the tone of the film and really feels oddly more-suited for another film.  The song, sung by Nat King Cole in a cameo in the picture, is a marvelous piece of music.  It's rich, lovely, and perfectly-suited for Cole's love-lost vocals, but it's completely alien to the rest of the picture.  The film is a lighthearted musical comedy, and this is a song that you sing to Celia Johnson while she's contemplating a love affair, not while two young paramours are on a first date in the city.  Half of me thought that they must have had Cole under contract or the studio had this piece of music and wanted to profit off of it as a single, but it feels very out-of-place in the film.  If we were judging solely based on the merits of the song I'd give it five stars (I'm buying it on iTunes right now), but as it pulls me almost entirely out of the picture, I have to dock some of that Oscar love.

Still, it's a fun little picture, one I wouldn't have seen without the OVP so once again the breadth of this endeavor is rewarded.  If you've seen the film, what are your thoughts?  Were you equally charmed by Van and Miller, or were you all about our principle leads?  Did you like "My Flaming Heart" or find it an unusual detour?  And just in general-what's your favorite Jane Powell musical?  Share in the comments!

OVP: Royal Wedding (1951)

Film: Royal Wedding (1951)
Stars: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill
Director: Stanley Donen
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Too Late Now")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Continuing on with our wedding week OVP viewing, we have one of those films that is marketed as "classic" even though there's a good chance you've never heard of it: Royal Wedding, from 1951.  The film sure feels like a classic-it has golden age stars Fred Astaire and Jane Powell (though they oddly are not romantically involved, but instead are paired as brother-and-sister instead) and features singing-and-dancing in a bunch of well-orchestrated numbers that you've never heard of, but feel you should.  Is it a classic, though?  Let's take a look, shall we?

(Spoilers Ahead) The film opens for us with Tom and Ellen Bowen (Astaire and Powell), a brother-sister vaudeville dancing team (shades of real life, since Fred Astaire got his start with his sister Adele on the same circuit), and both have very similar attitudes toward love: they like love, they hate marriage.  Ellen, in what has to be the closest I've ever seen a 1950's studio film get to showing female empowerment through sexuality, juggles beaus on a regular basis (she doesn't have the heart to break up with them...though they're all pretty good looking and I suspect that Ellen just is having a fun time), and Tom is all work and just the occasional ladies' man.  The two of them are hired to go to England during the wedding season for the young prince and princess (clearly inspired by the recent wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, which had been enormous news around the world at the time).  Off-they-sail, and on the ship, Ellen meets a handsome young lothario named John Brindale (Lawford) who charms her and quickly becomes her one-and-only.  We also get a hilarious dancing number onboard the ship (did anyone else get massively freaked out by the wave crash during that cutaway and worry they'd accidentally started watching The Poseidon Adventure?), with Powell and Astaire being rolled around the floor, despite the tables, chairs, and other patrons of the performance staying stagnant.

Once in England, Astaire falls quickly for an English dancer named Anne (Churchill), whom he becomes enamored with despite her not having the verve one usually associates with an Astaire love interest (I know this is weird to say, but Powell and Astaire had such good chemistry you secretly wish the writers hadn't made them brother-and-sister, and instead had them falling in love), and both siblings wrestle with their attitudes toward marriage, to of course decide in the end that they should follow the prince and princess down the aisle.  With only ninety minutes of runtime, it's a very light and fluffy film, but not without anything to lend itself.

As I mentioned before, Astaire and Powell own the screen here.  Both absolute MGM pros who could sell pretty much any musical number, each radiates charisma and whenever they're playfully sparring with each other, the film comes to life (which is often).  You kind of wish that the entire film would just consist of the two of them going out and doing musical numbers, then running back to their dressing rooms and talking about their respective love lives and then going out and doing another musical number-I think I could watch that for hours.

The film isn't nearly as fun when they are apart, though.  I know that Powell got the film's Oscar nod for her solo number "Too Late Now" (which is beautiful, if a bit out-of-place in this light of a comedy), but they never achieve the sort of chemistry with their romantic counterparts that they do with each other.  Astaire in particular is saddled with Sarah Churchill, an actress with an extremely famous last name (her father was Winston Churchill) who made some waves as an actress in the 1940's and 1950's in television and cinema, with this being her most significant film.  Churchill had a tragic life (alcohol and failed marriages), and probably would make for an interesting biopic someday, but as an actress I wasn't impressed at all in her signature role.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Did you, like me, find yourself adoring this film way more than you thought you would?  Who thought "Too Late Now" deserved the 1951 Oscar?  And since it's Wedding Week-which casual wear dress was the better bridal gown-Powell's or Churchill's?  Share in the comments!