
Is your poor grammar what's holding you back
in your career without your even knowing it?
Don't wait for your employer to
tap you on the shoulder & tell you about it;
this book can help.
you need to meet... ...before it's too late
|
Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Never heard of Kay Kendall? Chic, leggy, funny Kay Kendall? Check out Les Girls, one of the best moments for the beautiful British actress (and wife of Rex Harrison), whose promising career ended when she died two years after this film's 1957 release. A cheeky musical variation on Rashomon, the film gives three flashbacks on the Parisian sojourn of a dance master (Gene Kelly) and his featured artists (Kendall, Tania Elg, Mitzi Gaynor). The film isn't a peak outing for director George Cukor, and the Cole Porter songs are infrequent and not top-drawer. But there's a kooky dance number inspired by motorcycle gangs (Kelly in Wild Ones territory), and Kendall has a long drunk scene that she handles with regal aplomb. A stuffy suitor asks les girls why they spend their youth scurrying around Europe in a dance troupe: "Is having fun so important?" The film answers a resounding "mais oui." -- Robert Horton --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. There's No Business Like Show Business: Editorial Reviews Amazon.com This 1954 dinosaur brings together two giants of Broadway, Ethel Merman and Irving Berlin, just as their moment was passing forever, to create one last hurrah: a celebration of the glories that were vaudeville. Still, it's hard to imagine that Broadway--or nightclub entertaining, for that matter--was ever quite this lavish and satisfying. The story centers on a married couple, the Donahues (Dan Dailey and Merman), who live on the road as vaudeville entertainers, and since they have children, begin incorporating the kids into the act. Eventually, the kids grow up to be Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnny Ray, and they begin having interests of their own. Donald's is an ambitious showgirl (Marilyn Monroe), whose standoffish response to his romantic overtures drives him to drink. Best for its lavish, splashy production numbers built around some of the best of the Berlin songbook, including the title tune and "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody." --Marshall Fine --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Editorial Reviews Amazon.com The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) "as corny as Kansas in August" and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring in 1958, and so was director Logan's decision to overlay emotional moments with tinted filters--a technique that misfires as often as it hits. The comic relief tends to fall flat, and an overly spunky Mitzi Gaynor is a poor substitute for the stage original's Mary Martin. But the location scenery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is gorgeous, and the songs are among the finest in the American musical catalog: "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger than Springtime," "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," "This Nearly Was Mine." That's Juanita Hall as the sly native trader Bloody Mary, singing the haunting tune that launched a thousand tiki bars, "Bali H'ai." Based on stories from James Michener's book Tales from the South Pacific. --Robert Horton --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.
All text (unless otherwise cited) copyright J. W. Turner, 1997-Present. All rights reserved. |