I'm doing a guest post for my best Internet-friend Libby at Catching The Stars and its all about Autumn and classic movies. Here is what I did.
Autumn And The Movies
I'm sure there are lots of movies set in the autumn, but whenever I try to think of any, I can only think of a few. The one that has the most association with autumn for me, is Meet Me In St. Louis(1944). The film is about The Smiths, a lovely New England family that go through the normal troubles of every day middle-class life in 1904. The film shows the goings on the the family through from spring to Christmas. The cast is as follows:
"If I like a you and you like a me and we like a both the same! I'd like to stay this very way, under the bamboo tree!"
Ok, So I will just do a quick plot summary. Esther Smith is the second eldest sister of the Smith family. She is in love with the "boy next door", but he doesn't know she exists. Her elder sister, Rose, is expecting her sweetheart to propose to her over the newly discovered "telephone *squeal of excitement*", but he only talks to her about how it is "LIKE THEY"RE IN THE NEXT ROOM!" she replies with "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Esther's romance with the boy next door is going nowhere fast, after he said to her on their first meeting "That perfume smells just like the kind my grandmother would wear," and, "You got a mighty strong grip for a girl!" Whilst all of this romance is going on, their five year old sister, Tootie (the adorable Margaret O'Brien) rides around on the ice wagon and causes mayhem. They all get the shock of their lives when they find out that their father has decided to take a job in New York.
Mary Astor, who is best remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon(1941), Is lovely as the mother of Judy Garland and her siblings (although she is really too young to play the mother of young adult children), and she is so lovely ;-). But she still lets them go out, on their own to throw flower bombs at people on Halloween. The main reason that this reminds me of Autumn is the said Halloween sequence were all of these unsupervised 10 year old children have a huge bonfire (health hazard or what?)!
And Tootie, dresses up as a dead man with a Charlie Chaplin mustache. She wants to throw a chair into the bonfire (!), but all the older children tell her to go away 'cause she's too little. She makes a deal with them, if she throws a flower bomb in Mr. Broughcoff's (is that how you spell it?) face. Mr. Broughcoff is the scariest man in town, and according to rumor, he branded his wife with a red hot poker! But he is really a sweet middle aged man, who is scared the daylights out of when Tootie screams "I hate you Mr. Broughcoff!" and throws a flower bomb in is face.
Beautiful house
There is only one other reference to Autumn that comes to mind, and that is in All About Eve (1950) when Celest Holm as Karen Richards declares that "Loyd always says that in the theatre a lifetime is a season and a season a lifetime. It must have been last October." But it isn't really an autumny movie just my fabourite one, and I reccomend it to all of you!
Karen is the one in the mink, not the mousy one with the trench coat and funny hat.
Although Mike and her roommates have tried to keep it a secret about Babs's condition, their obvious concern alerts Iturbi, who is sympathetic.
Just before the orchestra leaves for Florida on a tour, a telegram arrives for Babs at the boardinghouse. Rosalind, one of Babs's roommates, reads the message herself. As feared, the telegram has bad news about her husband Joe, and Rosalind and the other girls decide not to tell Babs anything about it until after the baby is born.
Even though Music for Millions, is called a musical comedy, you will need plenty of "hankies". Jimmy Durante's comedy, provides the smiles. You will also enjoy the beautiful classical concertos played by Jose Iturbi, and his mostly female orchestra. Giving their support to the boys in uniform.
Although Margaret O'Brien's career was brief, she was one of the most highly regarded child actors in cinema history. She performed in one of my favorite films, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Romantic/ musical. Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll. The movie was based on Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, series of short stories by Sally Benson, originally published in The New Yorker magazine and later in the novel 5135 Kensington. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Garland made famous the songs: "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Arthur Freed, the producer of the film also wrote and performed one of the songs.
Meet Me In St. Louis, I love everything about it, the scenery, costumes, actors and story line about learning life lessons. If you were to ask me which is my favorite part of the movie. I would have to say Halloween when, Tootie and her sister Agnes dress up and go out to celebrate Halloween with the neighborhood children. Wanting to prove herself to the other children, Tootie, insists on going up to the feared neighbor Mr. Braukoff door, and blow flour in his face. After Tootie is called the "most horrible," she puts her family into a panic when she returns home, crying, bruised and with a cut lip. Tootie claims that John hit her by the trolley tracks, Esther at first refuses to believe her, but.. changes her mind when she sees a clump of hair in Tootie's hand. Esther storms over to John's house, accuses him of being a bully and beats him up. Tootie and Agnes confess that John actually saved them from being arrested after they almost caused an accident on the trolley tracks. Esther rushes back to John's house to apologize.
