Saw a fun screwball comedy last night, Merrily We Live. Emily Kilbourne (Billie Burke) has a habit of hiring hobos as her chauffeur with the idea of turning their lives around -- much to the displeasure of the rest of the family. Shortly after the latest runs off with the family silver, a scruffy Wade Rawlings (Brian Aherne) shows up at the door asking to use the phone. The Kilbournes all assume he's another hobo, Emily hires him as the new chauffeur, and comedy ensues.
Yeah, the plot is first cousin to My Man Godfrey (Rawlings wants to use the phone because his car just rolled off a cliff, so he isn't your typical hobo), and Aherne and Constance Bennett (as the older daughter) aren't exactly William Powell and Carole Lombard, but it's a lot of fun. Not least because it does have Burke playing a scatterbrained society wife as only she could, Bonita Granville as the over-hyper teenage daughter, and Patsy Kelly as the cook. And Alan Mowbray delights as the strait-laced butler who really can't deal with all the loopiness going on.
Burke playing a scatterbrained society wife as only she could
She's brilliant in exactly the same type of role in Dinner at Eight, too.
She's brilliant in exactly the same type of role in Dinner at Eight, too.
Only one of the reasons that's my favorite movie of all time.
"I read the strangest book recently..."
::Best double-take in the history of cinema::
"You read a book?!?"
"Yeah. It said that someday, every profession will be replaced by machines."
::Looks her up and down::
"Oh, my dear, that's something you need never worry about."
Marie Dressler's last scene in her last movie. Best delivery of an exit line ever.
I was going through some more of the dvr'd silent shorts from Monday night's TCM broadcast. Melies is interesting in the abstract, but overall gets old very fast--too much of the same camera tricks to imitate magic tricks schtick. IMO, the best one was the Gulliver's Travels adaptation, not A Trip to the Moon. And I had to stop watching the Griffith shorts after about an hour, when the melodrama got way too thick on the ground. It was just about unwatchable. I still have the Silent Shakespeare shorts to watch tonight.
Oh, and I am looking forward to Sunday night's TCM broadcast of Metropolis!!
Metropolis!!
Is it the (latest) restored version?
Yes, it is, and after the film, they're showing a documentary about how they found the latest version in Argentina and used it for the restoration.
We wound up Instant Watching Metropolis in addition to the restored version of the 1927 film.
As a re-imagining, it works.
