However, I reckon the last time I actually went to the
‘pictures’ in person, was at least five years ago, when I took my grandson to
see ‘The Muppets’, starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams… and… of course… the Muppets!
Nowadays, in charity shops and at car boot sales there are stacks of super-cheap, second-hand DVDs
available, which one can watch as and when,
in the comfort of wherever. Recently, I came across a copy of ‘On the Town’ for
only 50p.
The sleeve note reads… “New
York, New York, it’s a wonderful place – especially when sailors Gene Kelly,
Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin have a 24 hour shore leave to see the sights…
when those sights include Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen.
Co-directed by Kelly
and Stanley Donen, based on the Broadway hit and set to an Academy Award-winning
adaptation score, ‘On The Town’ changed the landscape of movie musicals,
opening film-makers’ eyes to what could be done on location. And when brilliant
location and studio production numbers are blended, it could be - as here - ebullient,
up-and-at-‘em perfection.”
I’m not a great fan of movie musicals in general, but here
you really have to marvel at the sheer professionalism… not just the singing
and dancing in the main production numbers, but in the little bits of
‘business’, the timing, the reactions, the facial expressions, etc. etc.
Out of the six leading actors, the least known are Betty
Garrett and Jules Munshin, but they match the stars in ability and appeal.
A graduate of the ‘Borscht Belt’ and Orson Welles’ Mercury
Theatre, Betty Garrett was a singer, dancer and comic actress, who starred in
several Hollywood musicals and stage roles.
She found fame on television in the U.S. sitcoms, ‘All in the Family’,
and ‘Laverne & Shirley’.
Jules Munshin has, as far as I know, no connection with the
little folk in the Oz books. He too served an apprenticeship
in the Catskill resorts, where he was a popular song-and-dance man and comedian,
and he became a Broadway star after starring in the musical 'Call Me
Mister' in 1946. Apart from ‘On The Town', he had roles in the films ‘Easter Parade’ (1948), and ‘Silk Stockings’ (1957).
Interestingly from this Blogger’s point of view, Jules
Munshin co-starred with Peter Sellers in the play "Brouhaha" in London 's West End in the
late 1950s, but he frequently fell out with Sellers as the latter would often
improvise new lines and bits of business during a performance, claiming that
sticking to the play's text bored him.
Oh dear!
Not to beat about the bush… or any other kind of foliage… I
am not a fan of Peter Sellers, who is generally praised far too highly for my
liking.
He is regularly described as ‘inimitable’, and yet, many
Goons ago, when I was at grammar school, just about every one of my mates could
do a passable ‘Bluebottle’… and… Bloodnok, Grytpype-Thynne, and Henry Crun were
not too difficult. Clouseau is nothing more than ‘comedy’ French, and Dr. Kabir
in ‘The Millionairess’ is likewise Indian.
Sellers appeared on the Parkinson tv show in 1974 and delivered what one critic described as a "masterful George Formby
rendition".
Hecky thumpers! There are branches of The George Formby Society throughout
the country. They hold regular monthly meetings, where juniors to geriatrics do
a ‘George’.
If Sellars was bored with acting he was obviously in the
wrong profession, perhaps for excitement he should have been a bomb disposal
expert, a bullfighter... or a bobsleigh tester.
"I'm honest with my audiences.
I never fool them… the public has learned that I will be there with every ounce
of entertainment I can give. I respect my public." May Irwin quoted in 'Funny
Women. American Comediennes 1860-1985 - Mary Unterbrink. McFarland & Co.
1987
