I was just wishing that Cagney did more musicals--I'll have to watch Footlight Parade! I have a serious love of Yankee Doodle Dandy, even with all of its jingoistic tendencies, just because Cagney is such an egotistical, yet charming, ass as Cohan. And his dancing is so wonderfully different from any other dancer of the time--wasn't it based on Cohan's own performances?

Heh. TCM happens to be running "My Man Godfrey" tonight. Plus a bunch of other Carole Lombard flicks. She was at her best in screwball comedies, I think.

Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe, huh? *raised eyebrows* This, I'll have to see. I don't know if it's just the Dick Powell thing or my dislike of a certain type of musicals--I mean, I am very fond of musicals in general, but those extravagantly vapid Busby Berkeley stuff just set my teeth on edge.

Vonnie, Powell does well in Murde My Sweet. He spends most of the movie looking like he hasn't shaved for two days, and it helps him get the right look.

William Powell is Teh Sex. Plus all suave and relaxed and charming and killer comic timing.

One of my faves.

The more I think about it, the more I love the fact that Mister Roberts really had some excellent roles for actors in "the twilight" of their careers, namely William Powell, James Cagney, and Henry Fonda, as well as a breakout role for a young Jack Lemmon. It was a handing-of-the-torch type movie between acting generations. (I think the scene where Powell and Fonda mix up the liquor for Lemmon to seduce the nurse is one of the funniest things ever.)

On a different note, here is a very funny review of the new Pride and Prejudice movie by Anthony Lane from The New Yorker. [link]

My favorite bit:

He has donned a long coat, which sways fetchingly in the mist; obviously it was copied from a Human League video of the nineteen-eighties, but I’m damned if I can remember which one. For her part, Knightley has been crisp and quick throughout—more girl than woman than seems fit, perhaps, and a boyish girl to boot, but ready and able to hold her own in any rally of wits. Now, like the queen in “Aliens,” she extends her famous underbite and gets down to business. Widening her eyes to maximum chocolaty hue, she stares into his, which are of that sea-cold, grayish blue favored by Gestapo officers in war movies.

Hee!

None of this will deter me from going to see the film on the opening day, of course. At least, there seems to be some measure of affection in Lane's snarkage.

Have you seen the commercials for it? More of a howler than the recut Shining trailer. My hand to God the trailer actually suggests it was love at first sight.

Yeap. Set to Howie Day's "Collide" of all the songs in all the lands, like seriously, Howie fucking Day! I laughed until I cried.

I've been told from reliable sources that the movie is not actually the travesty as the trailer suggests. But this line of promotion is majorly testing my attachment to Austen (and MacFadyen, who's the main reason I'm so set to watch this flick at all costs.)

...they set... a Pride and Prejudice trailer... to... COLLIDE?

You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding. I want the wacky love montage between an anthropologist and her skull back now!

(and MacFadyen, who's the main reason I'm so set to watch this flick at all costs.)

So very true. Plus, Dame Judi as Lady Catherine. Pretty soon, there won't be a crochety old woman part she hasn't owned.