One of the best romantic scenes in Hollywood history--alas, too subtle in sexuality by today's standards. IYou'll think me a prude, but I'm sorry we don't see something along these lines more often in modern films. There's a lot of story here and very few words.
I remember this was one of my parents' favorite movies and I thought it a crashing bore when I first saw it at age 12. Humphrey Bogart sending Mary Astor off to the gallows for killing his detective partner in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) was my idea of an good late show love story.
Now I see this and pine a bit for a lost time in cinema when people could read feelings rather than witness people stripping off each others' clothes in every "love scene".
You're right Doug the feel good factor captured in films like this reflect the longest period of continuous economic growth in the western world... between the end of WW2 and the Yom Kippur war which finally broke it. These 'between the wars' films had no fear of censorship because they are unremittingly 'on message' as McCarthy's witch hunts ran in the background, they glow warm and comforting enveloping us in a security blanket against the icy blasts of the cold war chills.
ReplyDeleteBringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story....nuff said!! :)
ReplyDeleteI think it was harder to act back then. Anyone can catch your attention when they are flashing their naked body on the screen. I think it is harder to show "true" romantic chemistry on the silver screen. The looked genually enamored with each other. When I was a younger I did not appreciate the acting as I do now
ReplyDeleteWell put,AA.
ReplyDeleteIt is now known to have been something of a "golden age" over here, as long as you weren't black or poor in America--a very serious crime I assure you--or an "egghead" type who wanted Adali Stevenson to be President, or were suspected of being a Communist. "No down payment" homes for ex-vets or anybody with a good job. There was cheap fuel, and 2/3 of the economy of the whole blasted Western World right in the good old U S of A.
A few movies like "Crossfire" (1947) and "Home of the Brave" (1948) tackled anti-semitism and race problems, respectively, but Nixon and McCarthy and others put the chill to "message films". By 1955 a darker America as seen in what would be called "film noir" pictures was ebbing away to be replaced by Jerry Lewis' infantilism and Doris Day's Perpetual Virginity and Marilyn Monroe's airy and unthreatening sex appeal. There sure were a lot of escapists on those weekend nights at the local movie palaces.
Still, serious movies like this one and the offbeat military comedy/drama "Mister Roberts" (1955)--also a Broadway product and produced for the stage by Joshua Logan---snuck in some scenes that reintroduced Americans to the harsher realities left off by Red Peril---in between the romance of course .
Ah, but you have said enough, roolee. Two wonderful movies repesenting the best of wit and screwball comedy Hollywood and Broadway could dish out.
ReplyDeleteYou said it--it must have been harder when actors had to bring emotion with glances and long and captivating stares. No cutting to the bedroom. I don't want to ban frank sexuality or anything silly like that, I just wish they would give actors more opportunitty to let the audience see the passion and chemistry between two beautiful people without always going soon to the sack.
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