the chic flicks with fun

"the grass is greener" is one excellent work from classic comedy director stanley donen who could elaborate those bedroom drama which mainly be epathetic with estrogen to a divine sophistification, even a mundane subject of un-marital affair could be polished with civilized suaveness.

the main story set is cary grant and deborah kerr are happily married in their old historical british mansion, living by exhibiting fair of their ancient house, until one day american prodigal charm boy robert mitchum steps into their private living room to captivate kerr's matronly affection by exclaiming "your eyes are beautiful as poetry"...then the composed grant sinks into a predicament of his happiness with his competent love rival who is recklessly unpreditable and boyishly charming...

usually the corny scenario of cuckolded man would run amok to bombard the wife with the accusation of infidelity and rageous condemnation, but not our resourceful grant with fine spirit of sportsmanship who schemes to connive his wife galloping to her provocatively exciting lover, escpecially the third party is insolently luring as robert mitchum. since he comprehends his objection would even enhance mitchum's rascal attraction to kerr, so he intends to stand his position without movement...then everything is drastically modified after a challenge of pistol duel. you gotta admire the clever wits in the lines of grant, and his mellowed wisdom as the ultimate debonair who conducts himself gracefully, retains his dignity under such a circumstance of potential humiliation.

jean simmons plays the talkative friend who flashes herself in the gaudy wardrobe of christian dior, and her vivicious humor is also adequately humorous under such an awkward condition as the outsider of a threesome.

"the grass is greener" is definitely very british, and incidentally it parodies the feud between america and britain, symbolizing it with marvellous line like "maybe it's time for america to place a statue of liberty (or libertine!) in britain" as the insinuation of mitchum's bold inference to grant's married life. such sophisticated comedy could be only made with stanley donen and stars like grant, kerr, mitchum and simmons, and nowaday show business can no longer produce such tasteful comedy with such pearly dialogues, impossible to exist under the absurd emphasis of savagely rugged manhood in contemporary action cinema or the radical effimination of male beauty in various recent advertisements.

"barefoot in the park" is one of the wittiest comedies tackling the complementariness of genders, as jack nicholson remarks in "as good as it gets": a woman is a man devoid of reasonability and self-constraint, if you wanna comprehend how woman functions, just to shed off reason and discipline. it's probably the most sarcastic criticism on woman. ha. in the case of "barefoot in the park", this couple have the discord that fonda wanna walk barefoot in the park, but redford refuses becuz it's freezing cold in the squad that is utterly reasonable, no doubt about it.

fonda's corie is a wild goose with naive opitimistism, that kind of person who would say "tomorrow is another day" with giggles..redford's paul is a properly conducted lawyer who believes in common sense and emotional maturity. and their bond is due to widely acknowledged "opposite attraction"..while corie's being adventrously whimsical, paul frowns in tranquill disapproval. their disgreement detonates when it comes to hooking corie's mother(mildred natwick) a blind date with the elderly bohemian wacko upstairs, who dines in various bizarrely exotic nauseatic cushine.

it's the script of humorous dialogues that accomplishes the charm of this flick, and there're lots of facetious jokes. such as the laboriously climbing to their overcharged apartment with no bath tube and the loothole on the ceiling as well as a bunch of wacky neighbours. you gotta read between the lines to chew over this mildly suave sense of ridicules which belongs totally to the league of feminine-ness and only comprehended by man who has a irresonable spouse like that in the household.

as for the concrete ideas of gender sphere in this flick, paul stands for the absolute reason; corie is the spontaneous romanticist. she demeans him as stuffed shirt, and he bombards her for the lack of rational sensibility. then corie cracks up for divorce, heart-broken paul runs amok. eventually they concede part of themselves as symmetry: distressed paul finally gets drunk then walks barefoot in the park; corie someway accepts mother's advice to give up a little bit of herself to take care of paul in their tiny shell to make him feel important.

another parallel is the friendship of natwick as corie's mother and charles boyer as the quirky neighbor. one uptight conservative woman neutralizes herself with some unpredicatibility from another free-spirited man who also yields to behave himself in norm.

reason and emotion should be appropriately counteracted with the solace of love and mutual concession that is the central wisdom of this play.

as man criticizes woman's mercenery snobbery, the case of "how to marry a millionaire" might be dismissed as irrelevantly worthless. just as monroe quibs at "gentlemen prefer to blondies", woman liking rich man is as fair as man evaluate woman by appearance, and it probably makes the most sense. and this husband-tracking theme is utterly reserved for female audience but somehow some contrary sarcasm mingled with human warmth has been injected in it that evolves it into a classy social satire sweetened with a comic flair.

misogynists might bombard feminie vanity for luxury but they definitely have no clue that females are sharp in the tongue but gentle in the heart, and ironically none of these three females end up with rich men as they assume in the first place, especially bacall's character who nullifies her potential marriage to the rich debonair elderman played by william powell who manifests great gentile demeanor to breeze a woman's heart with proper respects. the conclusive point in this comedy shall be human affection surpasses materialistic ambition, despite whatever they may say or claim, their hearts are bigger than their purses but they ain't aware of it.

the cutest joke in this flick would be monroe's near-sightedness, particularly when she mistakes a blind eyepatch as a beaten bruise. monroe has the residual childlike innocence ironically contrasted with her million-watt sensual outlook. the gowns and constumes in this flick are well-designed by travilla. notably the red paillette dinner gown monroe wears in front of the four-folded mirror has become a fashion milestone.

the end credict has a witty cynical touch: as three women faint while bacall's seemingly prole lad flings 1000 cash just for several pairs of hamburgers, then the men rise and toast "gentlemen, to our wives!"

if you enjoy sophistication comedy which means comic tales about upper class people like those socialites blended with the elements of screwball comedy, and meanwhile you sorta like the old gangster style episode, "designing woman" would be a terrific choice to consume your evening tea time....meanwhile if you're not weary of the trivial emphasis of feminine extravagent constumes, you would embrace this flick with vigor.

the storyline is complicated, a joulistist played by peck falls in love with a fashion designer played by bacall, then gets married immediately once the passion is torched, and he's having some discord over the gap of their social lives, and also he's busy concealing the fact of his ex girlfriend whom his wife suspects he's having affairs with, further his newspaper article infuriates a gangster lead who plans to send thugs to teach him a lesson....you could imagine..it's a comedy of errors and irreconcible ridicule between genders, as he would rather take all the troubles denying the existence of his ex than confide the truth to reclaim his fidelity.

the wardrobes are all out of prestigous designer helen rose who even held a press conference to introduce the fashions in this flick. bacall's role was originally considered with grace kelly if kelly had not been transported to morocco as princess.

the best pleasure of watching "designing woman" is the girlish amusement for dresses and those rosiness of high class lifestyle such as being a designer and a popular society queen, most of all, married to a dashing handsome man who is the man of men, gregory peck. of course, the premise is that you must have a slight acceptance of chic flicks, and this one has the right dose, one bit more would ruin the pleasant taste.

the 1958 "auntine mame" is the pinnacle of rosalind russell's career, and it does jolly rosalind great justice to glitter her comic genius in screwball comedy gendre that had been neglected or underused before. overlooked by most, rosalind russell has uncanny parallel to another classic star katehrine hepburn who was also a screwball diva in the 30s, considering her numberous collaborations with cary grant like "bringing up baby". they share the traits of being tall fair brunette and both funny with their non-stop swift-paced british accents except hepburn had more sharp edginess within her aggressive mannerism which has been constantly mocked in movies like "woman of the year" and "philadelphia story". (after all, we all like to cut a lofy dame down, aren't we?)

mame dennis is an eccentric socialite from the roaring 20s, wallowing in an extravangant life of endless gayety and diversities of styles and interior decors. mame has a stuff-shirted brother who sets up a will to keep her little son from her "bad influence" after he passes away. unfortunately it arrives soon, so auntine mame is ready to open doors for her nephew with mighty enthusiasm.

the title protagonist auntie mame is a larger than life character as you cannot demand realism upon such a cozy heart-warming fair tale. it is a comedy which relies upon its witty lines nourished by its deviant naivete of exaggerated demeanors. and this sort of comedies could merely exist among the 50s (age of innocence despite its fatal mccarthyism) since the cleverly phrased comedy without relishing profanity is no longer popular after the mid 60s, another read-between-the-lines "refined" humor celebrating "santized bohemianism".

the philosophy behind "auntine mame" is more of a hygienic hedonism without the darkness of alcoholism and prosmiscuity as mame exclaims "life is a bandquet, and most suckers are starving to death". and it does pose some anti-bourgeois sign without intruding middle-classed moralisticness. perhaps it casts a positive user-friendly democratic view that everyone should live beyond prejudice to appreciate a lovable cucko-cucko like auntine mame with enormous social acceptance. and my conclusion would be auntie mame is a fruitation of indulgent whims upon childlike innocence.

one praise goes for orry-kelly who designs most clothes for warner bro. from 30s~40s,, also lots of bette davis vehicles like jezebell and little foxes. and rosalind russel does have episodic sections of various dyed hairdos and exotic costumes, and she even dresses herself like a drogn lady with a dragon-headed doorgate which fumes everytime guest rings the bell. that anchors the great idiocyncrasy of auntine mame.

except katherine hepburn, no other actress could deliver those oddball lines so well so proficiently as rosalind russell who is mildly underrated. russell does appear as demure love interest in her 30s mgm days in flicks like "china seas" and "they met in bombay" with, again, clark gable. russel could be competent in most roles hepburn made prestige among 30s~40s. the major distinction would be russell is more feminine and less domineering and invasive than hepburn. thus rosalind russell makes an appropriate goofy adorable auntine mame as every adolescent boy's ideal auntine. an escapic retreatment for childhood dreams.