Lanning : ) (binky013)

Julia Child actually turned me into a cook. She is the godmother of all TV cooking shows, and no one has been able to match her cooking show charisma. If Child had been doing her thing in the age of blogs, I'm sure I would have been a reader as well as a watcher.

I can recommend half of this movie with great enthusiasm. Too bad it isn't all Julia all the time. The other half of the movie is pretty darn boring.

I've never been a great Glenn Ford fan, but his low-intensity performance style actually works well here as Ron Howard engineers his dear dad's romantic life beyond widowerhood. A year after The Music Man, Howard steals the show with his charm, wit, and good humor, and Shirley Jones is knockout gorgeous as little Howard's target for his father's second wife. Jones is definitely one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the sliver screen, and he projected intelligence has never hurt her, even in the acting work she does nowadays. I will always regret that I didn't have a chance to witness her in her heyday on the big screen.

Oh good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.

Famous last words from Robert LeRoy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy) right before that amazing run out the door. Paul Newman and Robert Redford are one of the unbeatable male pairs in movies. If you've not seen this one, but saw The Sting and liked their work together, you must see this movie. A good job done by Katherine Ross as well.

Man, do I hope they do a few more together before they call it quits.

11/14/06 update: Just watched this again. One of the aspects that really grabbed me this time, even though I've seen this so many times, is the way you believe, right up to the end, that Newman and Redford might actually get out of this . . . and go to Australia. Beautifully done. I'll say it again: Hope they do one or two more together . . . for the ages.

If I loved you
Time and again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know.
If I loved you
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go.
Longin' to tell you, but afraid and shy
I'd let my golden chances pass me by.
Soon you'd leave me
Off you would go in the mist of day
Never, never to know
How I loved you . . .
If I loved you.

One of the greatest love songs to come out of musical theater. Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones: A Hollywood musical match made in heaven. I wonder if Jones might have broken a few hearts in high school . . .

Carousel's story is different from most Hollywood musicals in several ways, the most significant of which is that true love is won right at the beginning, then is tragically squandered by Billy Bigelow, although not ultimately lost. Besides such memorable numbers as the "Carousel Waltz" theme itself and "You'll Never Walk Alone"--the ultiimate graduation song--, one of my all-time favorites is "When (the) Children Are Asleep," the beautiful duet, shared by Carrie and Mr. Snow on the way to the clambake, in which they dream of their married future together:

When the children are asleep we'll sit and dream
The things that every other dad and mother dream.
When the children are asleep and lights are low
If I still love you the way I love you today
You'll pardon my sayin' I told you so.
When the children are asleep, I'll dream with you.
We'll think what fun we have had and be glad that it all came true.