GussieK

PS Richard Brooks is also the director of Elmer Gantry.

I am looking forward to rewatching Ball of Fire later this week. I recorded it and haven't seen it in years. I started watching last night and was so enchanted by the Seven Dwarfs entourage, played by all the famous character actors of Hollywood. Last week I watched Guys and Dolls again. There's always something new to focus on. This time I was astounded about how inventive and funny the Havana bar scene choreography was. I loved how Jean Simmons went wild. I also was floored by Stubby Kaye's voice for "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat." Oh, and I also loved Miss Adelaide's wedding dress. I'm in a bit of a Jean Simmons rabbit hole. I watched The Happy Ending on Amazon Prime this week. This movie stars Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, and many more (don't forget Bobby Darin, credited as Robert Darin--I won't spoil his part), and was directed by Simmons's love interest (later husband) Richard Brooks. How had I missed this movie before? Another example of a late sixties film that I should have been aware of. It's very dated and weird yet also a fascinating psychological study. Another example of a famous theme song that was a hit song at the time ("What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?"). Catch this movie if you can. Then I decided I wanted to watch Elmer Gantry, also starring Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones! I have already set my DVR for next week when they show it on TCM.

Camelot has some great songs, but it's such a dull story. Phil Hartman was a national treasure. So sad.

I agree. Perry is tormented by thoughts of those men he killed. But he may be haunted by having to keep the secret of his cheating. Maybe you're always afraid that someone will turn you in. If only Della and Burger know, that might not happen. I always wonder how sociopaths do that, say, a Bernie Madoff. What do they think about their continuing lie each day? Or do they just successfully stuff it down and forget it?

you're getting a laugh for "boards on boards," 'cause I never really understood why that was a problem.

Della has obviously done some "apprenticing." She was already generating all of E.B.'s motion papers.

P.S. Yes, it was a form of cheating, but they had already set up a forged affidavit for him to even get to take the exam. But they set us up to accept this earlier in the episode with Perry's mantra: "there's what's legal and then there's what's right." As a lawyer, I'm actually kind of appalled at any of this. It's so ingrained that you can't do things like cheat on tests and forge documents. But people clearly do it and other bad stuff. My love for Matthew Rhys allows me to accept anything! After all, he killed so many people on The Americans.

Gee, thanks a lot, fellow lawyers, for reviving my bar exam memories. Yikes! I took the NY bar 25 years ago next week. My friends and I took a two-month review class to prepare. It took till late November to get the results. We still had to handwrite our essays in bluebooks (a few years ago, they switched to allowing you to use a computer). (The exam was canceled this year, of course.) I'm handwaving the easy study-cheat-pass thing--it was a different era. The idea they wouldn't change the questions from year to year is ridiculous. I saw they were setting Perry up to be an able courtroom advocate with a flair for the dramatic speech (a neat parallel to Sister Alice). Also, in episode 1, he was shown knowing more about evidence rules and objections than the attorney representing him on whatever it was he was dealing with, can't remember now. So he's been around the law for a few years, and Della recognized he could do it.

Meant to add earlier that I don't think Kiss Me Kate is underrated. I think it is highly regarded, and it does have a lot of great numbers. I love it.

Well, not in Double Indemnity, heh heh . . . But for an example of what you are speaking of, I caught Clash By Night, with Stanwyck and Paul Douglas and our favorite bad guy, Robert Ryan, apparently re-creating his stage role from 10 years earlier (see link https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/06/19/84326525.html?pageNumber=32 ). (Trivia buffs: If you look at the old Times review, note the birth announcement for Ingrid Bergman's twins, Isabella and Ingrid Rossellini, on the same page. Also some neat theater ads.) Like the Times reviewer, I found the conclusion somewhat unconvincing, but Stanwyck managed to earn my sympathy. No so in the unwatchable curiosity B.F.'s Daughter, which also aired recently. I managed to make it only about halfway through. This was a strange mashup of anti-capitalist political tract and meet-cute love story. Stanwyck was way too old. Did anyone watch this?

What a great episode! So sorry to see EB really dead, and Della had to find him. Della is really a power behind the throne. She knows everyone and everything, including how to get Perry admitted to the bar, and to fake the affidavit. And to find a “tutor” for the bar exam.

I haven't seen it either, but apparently yes, according to Roger Ebert's review of the American version. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/three-men-and-a-baby-1987

The American Three Men and a Baby was based on a French film of the 80s Three Men and a Cradle. I'm guessing they were also based loosely on Three Godfathers. I'll keep my eye out for the 1936 version. Thanks!

I have been catching up on other TCM fare. I have not watched The Scarlet Coat yet. But I watched Three Godfathers, a John Ford western I had never seen (or even heard of). What an epic! You felt every agonizing moment of their journey to redemption. I had just been reading about the efforts to cancel John Wayne, so I was really curious to watch this. I don't know if anyone here watches Better Call Saul, but this year's desert trek episode took cues from this movie. Did the silly "three men and a baby" films of the eighties also derive from this?

Yes, that's what I thought someone referred to in a previous episode. Or maybe he will apprentice to take the bar. We will have to wait and see.