TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Charlie Baker]

Interesting, wide ranging, but not too long piece about 1968 and 2018, reflected in the movies of fifty years ago, by the two main New York Times film critics.

Culture Wars: 2018 or 1968

[voiceover]

If you haven't seen it, add Knight Without Armour to your watchlist. Charming backstory (leading lady coming to the rescue of leading man, whose chronic asthma delayed the shooting); gold star behind-the-scenes talent (Alex Korda & Frances Marion); sprawling Romantic/political/escape thriller, all wrapped up in pre-and post-Revolutionary Russia; and jaw-dropping, electric, shimmering sexual tension between uptight Brit Robert Donat (as a double agent) and sultry Eurowench Marlene Dietrich (as an escaped Russian countess).  

The moment he admits to her, just when he first fell in love... *shudder/dissolve*... I'm as lost as he is.

viz. to wit:

 

Edited May 18, 2018 by voiceover

[Charlie Baker]

RIP Bill Gold, a master of the movie poster.  Link to his obituary includes a slide show of some of his memorable work,

Bill Gold, Whose Posters Captured Movie Magic

[ratgirlagogo]

  What an amazing career.  And  he looked damned good for 97, much younger than his age, at least in that linked photo. 

[Charlie Baker]

Patricia Morison has also died, at 103. Most revered by theater people as she originated the role of Lili on stage in Kiss Me Kate.  Her movie career never took off--she never got to do a musical. But she was in Song of the Thin Man!  Par for the course in her movie career, she didn't get enough to do in that one.

Patricia Morison

Edited May 21, 2018 by Charlie Baker

[Rinaldo]

Ahhh, thanks for the news, @Charlie Baker. I knew it had to be coming sometime. She was one of the 100-plus crowd from the golden age, and not that long ago she even sang a bit on a gala event. She was known for showing up at Broadway premieres still on occasion (like the last Kiss Me, Kate revival), and saying something nice to the youngsters in it.

As you say, her movie career never took off. With her brunette coloring and long hair, she was positioned as "exotic" in the Lamour manner, and often relegated to playing villains. Crowning insult, when her character had to sing in a movie (see this montage at 3:48 -- the whole thing is well worth a look and listen), she was dubbed despite that lovely voice. The studio simply set up for a dubber for that scene, and didn't care when she told them she didn't need one. She was much better off onstage, though she never followed up Kiss Me, Kate with another iconic role. She was a replacement Anna in the original King and I, but only for the last month of its long run. And she wasn't first choice for Lilli/Kate, either -- they considered lots of more famous people before "settling" for her.

Well. Another piece of Broadway history is gone.

[Milburn Stone]

30 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

Crowning insult, when her character had to sing in a movie (see this montage at 3:48 -- the whole thing is well worth a look and listen), she was dubbed despite that lovely voice. The studio simply set up for a dubber for that scene, and didn't care when she told them she didn't need one.

I can see the thinking, and it's not utterly ridiculous. "Patricia, you can sing, and your quasi-operatic vocal quality is right for some parts, and it MAY prove pleasing to the movie audience--but Martha Mears' voice is guaranteed pleasing to the movie audience, and a demonstrably close-enough match for any actress's speaking voice. We're making enough decisions already on this picture; this doesn't have to be one of them."

[ratgirlagogo]

She was on TCM day before yesterday in Tarzan and the Huntress (she was, ahem, the Huntress) as part of their Tarzan series this month.  Since as you all know I love B-movies I've seen her in many things -  Calling Doctor Death (one of the Inner Sanctum movies), Prince of Thieves (a Robin Hood movie),she was even in one of my beloved Jungle Girl films (Queen of the Amazons) - sadly, not as the Jungle Girl herself, a role she would have KILLED in although of course back in those days I suppose it would have been even worse for her career  to star in a film like that than to play one of the "normals".  I never even knew she was a big-time musical performer.  No wonder she gave up on Hollywood.

[voiceover]

18 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

RIP Bill Gold, a master of the movie poster.  

So many to choose from!  My Top Five (lol/jk) would have to include the ones he did for The Sting, and the poster with the best tagline ever ("In space no one can hear you scream"), Alien.

I agree with the Telegraph's critic: his designs ping your memory & pull you right back into the movie. 

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

She was on TCM day before yesterday in Tarzan and the Huntress

I've never, to my knowledge, seen Patricia Morison in a movie. I know she's in one of the Thin Man series, but I think it's one I've missed, and I unfortunately lack @ratgirlagogo's expertise in B-movies. But I always keep an eye out.

@Milburn Stone's imagined Hollywood justification for dubbing her is probably apt as a general point of view, but I recall that there's a bit of a "story" about that particular movie, though I can't at the moment track down a reference. She was a late replacement in that film, and they had already made provisions for dubbing the actress's singing, held the recording session and everything. When Morison pointed out that she could sing for herself, those in charge shrugged and said, in effect, that there was no point disrupting the system and holding a new recording session for her when everything was all set up.

By the way, while we're on the subject of the amazing Martha Mears and her versatile voice, regular TCM viewers have probably seen one of her rare onscreen appearances, in fact her very first movie: early in Remember the Night, she's the nightclub singer when Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck go out for dinner.

[Charlie Baker]

PBS' American Masters has shown (and I assume it will be on demand and web available and rebroadcast on some affiliates) Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.  Of course it's a fascinating look at the career and life and aptitude for invention of Ms. L,   But one of the talking heads interviews is her friend Robert Osborne (in fact, his voice is the first one heard in the film), which compounds the poignancy of the story for me. 

[Crisopera]

Rinaldo, Song of the Thin Man is showing on TCM Thursday morning at 5:15-6:45.  It's a small but effective part for Ms. Morison. if I remember correctly.

[ratgirlagogo]

1 hour ago, Crisopera said:

It's a small but effective part for Ms. Morison. if I remember correctly.

Yes, her character plays a crucial role in the plot.

[Milburn Stone]

6 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

@Milburn Stone's imagined Hollywood justification for dubbing her is probably apt as a general point of view, but I recall that there's a bit of a "story" about that particular movie, though I can't at the moment track down a reference. She was a late replacement in that film, and they had already made provisions for dubbing the actress's singing, held the recording session and everything. When Morison pointed out that she could sing for herself, those in charge shrugged and said, in effect, that there was no point disrupting the system and holding a new recording session for her when everything was all set up.

Good info--and it may also be relevant that Silver Skates came from Monogram, on Poverty Row. I'm not sure whether Monogram had its own lot and salaried personnel. If it did, then as with the majors, it would have cost them not much more than ten cents to let Morison record her vocals after Mears did. They'd have their own recording stage (already being amortized), and a crew of salaried musicians, engineers, sound mixers, et. al., that they might as well put to work since they were already paying them. Just about the only incremental cost to them would have been the electric bill for turning on the lights on the recording stage for an hour.

But perhaps they rented/contracted all these things and crafts as needed, which would give them a disincentive to record Morison when they'd already recorded Mears.

As far as the majors using dubbers when they had on-camera talent who could sing, I see an analogy in the realm of character actors. "Sure, there are other guys who can play the skinflint banker in this picture, maybe some of them with fresher faces--but we know Charles Lane can do it. Next decision."

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

As far as the majors using dubbers when they had on-camera talent who could sing

And, as I'm sure many of us know, the practice continued for a long time. Vera-Ellen and Eleanor Powell had sung onstage in their earlier careers, but in movies the former was always, and the latter usually, dubbed. It got crazy in West Side Story; everybody knows about the ghost voices for the two romantic leads, but funny things went on with Russ Tamblyn: apparently he was deemed good enough to sing "Officer Krupke," but not the "Jet Song," for which his voice was replaced by that of Tucker Smith (who played Ice). Rita Moreno sang fine, but was replaced in "I Have a Love" so that Marni Nixon could blend perfectly with herself, and isolated notes were supplied elsewhere by Betty Wand, though most of "America" is Ms. Moreno herself.

The compiler of the Martha Mears anthology also gives us Dubbing Through the Decades.

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Rinaldo, Song of the Thin Man is showing on TCM Thursday morning at 5:15-6:45.  It's a small but effective part for Ms. Morison. if I remember correctly.

Recording set. Thanks for the alert!

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

...and isolated notes were supplied elsewhere by Betty Wand, though most of "America" is Ms. Moreno herself.

The compiler of the Martha Mears anthology also gives us Dubbing Through the Decades.

After watching this video, I nominate Betty Wand to the Hall of Fame just for the way she says "and as a wife, in future life, she'll hold the horn of plenty."

[voiceover]

Jazzed to see the Bulldog Drummond series included this month, but peeved that my favorite Hugh was not included.

Walter Pidgeon played the detective in 1951's Calling Bulldog Drummond.  I saw it during his "Summer Under the Stars" day (2014), and couldn't believe it was Mr Miniver.  He was knockdown, drop-dead, Tex Avery-character-tongue-lolling, sexy.  First time any actor made me forget that Ronald Colman was there first.

[mariah23]

Anyone listening to the new podcast Unspooled?  Comedian Paul Scheer and film critic Amy Nicholson watch the AFI's 100 best films and see how they hold up today.  It's hilarious to listen to people calling in and not knowing what these films are about.  We TCM fans would be able to school all of them! 

[ratgirlagogo]

7 hours ago, mariah23 said:

Anyone listening to the new podcast Unspooled?  Comedian Paul Scheer and film critic Amy Nicholson watch the AFI's 100 best films and see how they hold up today.  It's hilarious to listen to people calling in and not knowing what these films are about.  We TCM fans would be able to school all of them! 

Thanks for the warning!  I get irrationally angry about that kind of stuff.  That's why I love it here on this thread!

[Milburn Stone]

On 5/22/2018 at 2:39 PM, Rinaldo said:

The compiler of the Martha Mears anthology also gives us Dubbing Through the Decades.

I watched this, and was left in awe not just of the dubbers' ability to plausibly "be" the actors and actresses they sang for, but--perhaps even more--of the perspicacity of studio music executives in casting just the right dubber for the part, time after time.

This goes against the conventional wisdom that dubbing is somehow slightly silly and disreputable. (Both in the sense that it involves a trick on the audience and in the sense that it is somehow disrespectful of or embarrassing to the dubbed performer.) I was struck repeatedly with the fact that if I did not know whether the dubbed actor/actress could sing, I might very well believe the voice I was hearing belonged to that performer (and not a dubber). 

All hail the studio music executives, the studio personnel supervising the recording sessions, and the dubbers themselves, for their amazing work to conceal the artifice and create the illusion of life. The video convinced me: When done well, dubbing isn't a cheat, it's an art form.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

There's also a recently posted Part II to that video, with further examples that either didn't make it in to the first one or were only tracked down subsequently.

My own preference is to cast people who can actually do everything the role requires. But granted that that was not always studio philosophy, especially in earlier movie eras, it was indeed often accomplished amazingly well. 

Not always; I do think Saul Chaplin went a bit dubbing-mad in West Side Story with replacing Russ Tamblyn's voice in one song only, and sweetening isolated notes for Rita Moreno. Still, I haven't heard the original tracks in all cases. And undoubtedly Richard Beymer, for instance, needed all the help he could get. And I have to concede (the same YouTube person posted the very interesting evidence) that though Natalie Wood undoubtedly worked her butt off with voice lessons and coachings and sang almost well enough... "almost" doesn't suffice for demanding music such as Bernstein wrote for Maria.

But in general, I agree: the achievement is downright astonishing sometimes. One of the best examples is Marni Nixon in The King and I: we now know that she and Deborah Kerr worked and practiced together diligently so that the transitions (there's a great deal of back-and-forth between speaking and singing) are seamless, and she really does sound just like Deborah Kerr, if only Kerr could vocalize that tiny bit better. (The match with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady is audibly less good, sometimes destroying the illusion, because they didn't work together, and she was sometimes added after the fact.)

And a tip of the hat to Ms. Mears, who could alter her timbre for a whole song to adjust to the person she was replacing.

[Milburn Stone]

25 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

And a tip of the hat to Ms. Mears, who could alter her timbre for a whole song to adjust to the person she was replacing.

One more salute I must make in additions to the ones I did: to the on-camera talent for mastering the art of lip-syncing so well--and to the directors and film editors who helped them do so, no matter how many takes and how much judicious editing it required.

You're right to cite Martha Mears and Marni Nixon, but Hollywood developed the craft to such a peak that there are so many other examples. To pick just one that wasn't included (to my recollection) in the YouTube video I watched: Pat Friday for Lynn Bari in Orchestra Wives (on "I Know Why").

All those involved in creating the illusion were so phenomenally good at what they did, they not only elevated the art of dubbing, they served film art itself.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

I had a silly experience yesterday that I then remembered having had identically before, a year or two ago: I happened upon a showing of Nothing Sacred, and I thought "Weird... TCM makes a policy of not showing colorized movies, I wonder if their source accidentally sent them a wrong version and it was too late to change." And then, both times, I looked it up and discovered that, contrary to usual practice for contemporary comedies (or dramas, for that matter) in that era, it was indeed filmed in color -- it's generally cited as the first screwball comedy in color.

And yet even after I know better, it does have a slight look of a B&W movie that's been tentatively colored in between the lines; there's a subdued, not-quite-real quality to the color that's miles away from the sumptuous saturated hues of the Technicolor adventure or musical movies of the late 1930s. 

And then, no doubt, I'll forget all of this again so I can be wrong again a year from now.

[prican58]

Who dubbed Debbie Reynolds in Singin' In the Rain?

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, prican58 said:

Who dubbed Debbie Reynolds in Singin' In the Rain?

That's a three-level answer! Her "regular" singing, in songs like "Good Morning," is Debbie Reynolds's own voice.

When she (Kathy) is supposed to be supplying lovely, cultivated singing for Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont) in "Would You?", the voice is supplied by Betty Noyes.

And when Kathy is supplying lovely cultivated speaking for Lina in The Dancing Cavalier -- that's Jean Hagen herself doing the talking.

[prican58]

Thanks loads.

TCM has  Leslie Howard doc is on now. I know very little about him except the obvious.

[chitowngirl]

I adore Victor/Victoria. Robert Preston singing The Shady Dame of Seville at the end is everything! And his reactions during the closing credits seem to be Robert, not Toddy.

[prican58]

V/V is when it hit me hard that Preston was a fine actor and probably underrated.  Then when I rewatched The Music Man it was confirmed. 

[Rinaldo]

I have... issues with V/V, but Robert Preston's performance (as distinct from some of the lines he's given) is a delight. He's someone who just loved to perform, to reach an audience; and I think his casting in The Music Man (on stage, then on film) was what released that in him, after a rather miscellaneous previous career.

[Sharpie66]

I saw Victor/Victoria in the theater as a teen, and I don’t think I had ever laughed so hard at a film. Yes, there are tons of problems with it, but it was probably the first time, outside of the tv show Soap, where I had seen such a positive depiction of a gay man. Also, it is one of the best recent examples of farce I remember seeing. All of the various scenes of people moving just behind someone delight me with the sheer amount of choreography involved!

[Wiendish Fitch]

6 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

I saw Victor/Victoria in the theater as a teen, and I don’t think I had ever laughed so hard at a film. Yes, there are tons of problems with it, but it was probably the first time, outside of the tv show Soap, where I had seen such a positive depiction of a gay man. Also, it is one of the best recent examples of farce I remember seeing. All of the various scenes of people moving just behind someone delight me with the sheer amount of choreography involved!

If nothing else, hearing sweet, wholesome Julie Andrews grumble "bitch, bitch, bitch!" is just golden. 

[Sharpie66]

Julie Andrews is terrific in V/V. I love the sequence in the restaurant, when she is eating her way through the menu with the intent to plant the cockroach. My favorite song in it is “Crazy World”—beautiful. 

[Inquisitionist]

I skipped V/V but watched James Garner's earlier pairing with Julie Andrews, The Americanization of Emily.  The last third drags a bit, but the first half or so crackles.  I was pleasantly surprised to read that this Paddy Chayefsky-penned invective exposing some of the less flattering sides of military brass (and celebrating selfish cowardice) was pretty well received back in 1964, though not without controversy.  Garner is another actor I think was somewhat underrated -- but soooo dreamy!

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

My favorite song in it is “Crazy World”—beautiful.

The song is lovely indeed (Henry Mancini's best songwriting was, I think, in his subdued ballads: other examples including "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" of course, also "Charade," "Two for the Road" [not actually sung in the movie], and "Whistling Away the Dark"). But my favorite performance in the movie is "You and Me." Preston works with Andrews in a way that loosens her up and releases a simple joy in performing that her careful control didn't always allow her to express, and I smile just thinking about the two of them in this song. (Steve Lawrence accomplished something similar with her on her weekly variety series.)

[Dandesun]

On 4/19/2018 at 12:35 PM, LilWharveyGal said:

An ad for this free online TCM class about musicals just popped up in my Facebook feed.  Sounds intriguing, but they're sure covering a lot of ground in just a month.  Is anyone here planning on participating?

 

On 4/20/2018 at 9:25 AM, mariah23 said:

I signed up yesterday.

It came up on my Facebook feed on the 3rd and I decided to go for it. So, yeah, I'm into it. I'm particularly digging the really early stuff they're playing this first week because it's things I've only seen in compilations like 'That's Entertainment' and have never been able to find the full movies back in the day or streaming now. (I mean, TCM is streaming them at the moment but still...) So, yes. Here. For. It.

[Rinaldo]

I tuned in this afternoon in what turned out to be the middle of The Gay Divorcée -- specifically, just as "The Continental" is moving from song into dance. And I felt an affection, and even admiration, for it that I'd never had before in all my viewings of the movie. (The movie has always been redeemed for me by the glorious few minutes of "Night and Day.") It's easy to see that it's the kind of monster production number that the Astaire/Rogers series would grow away from, and that it's aiming for effects that were really more in the Busby Berkeley vein: the simple wipe-dissolves from ne setup to another, the arbitrary nonsensical poses (showgirls braced on revolving doors just so they can spin prettily) that have no dramatic logic, the masses and masses of boys and girls in black and white who aren't even dancers really, just completing a pattern. All true, but having seen earlier musicals now (like The Broadway Melody, which clumsy as it is, so impressed people at the time that it was voted Best Picture), I understand better how quickly and decisively the musical film was evolving, and how amazing a quarter-hour sequence like this must have felt at the time, capped by the incomparable dancing of Astaire -- and of Rogers, who at this early point in the collaboration is still learning, but learning well. No wonder this was the first winner for Best Song.

[ratgirlagogo]

"CHANCE is the FOOL'S name for FATE!"

I love The Gay Divorcee.  I also love The Broadway Melody and most of those other early sound musicals too, of course.   Yeah, yeah, I know - I'm that lone one.  Believe me I know.

Edited June 7, 2018 by ratgirlagogo

[Charlie Baker]

Not to get too off topic here, but my initial exposure to Julie Andrews as a kid didn't impress me much--and we're talking Mary Poppins and Sound of Music, At that age I couldn't appreciate the skill and talent involved in pulling off those roles.  It was that variety series that Rinaldo mentions when I really got just how gifted she was--I didn't then know from My Fair Lady. I remember too an episode of that show in which she was downright sexy opposite Robert Goulet. (And he in turn was less slick and more heartfelt than he came across later on.) The chemistry there would make sense, given their time in Camelot. 

I love all of Fred and Ginger, and I can appreciate Broadway Melody.  I think it's Bessie Love's performance that holds up best, if I remember correctly. Been a while since I've seen it.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Charlie Baker

[VCRTracking]

Why I love parody sites:

[Sharpie66]

I am completely biased WRT Julie Andrews. Both Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music were big parts of my very young childhood years in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. My most thrilling celebrity encounter was meeting her at a book convention signing where we exchanged a few words while she signed her book for me and all I could think was, “I am standing three feet away from Mary Frickin’ Poppins!!!”

I love watching clips from the Carnegie Hall show of her and Carol Burnett—they were just wonderful together.

[prican58]

My earliest movie memories are Poppins and Sound of Music and still thrill at seeing them. I wouldn't say I was an obsessive Julie fan but I do enjoy her presence on the screen. That opening sequence in the SoM really just melts me. Oh yeah, Christopher Plummer.. le sigh! 

[voiceover]

Sooo...

During today's Tale of Two Cities screening, I zeroed in on two scenes in particular:  

1. Sydney Carton's post-victory dinner with Charles Darnay.  There's Ronald Colman, mumbling all the way through the meal -- getting progressively drunker, but sounding neither sloppy nor unconvincing.  This is a tough thing to pull off for any actor.  He makes it look effortless.  The dashing hero sits opposite, but you never even give him a look.

2.  Sydney Carton losing his heart, after church, Christmas Eve.  We know he's attracted to Lucie -- from the first time he saw her in court, in fact.  But then she puts her hand on his arm, and leans in a bit, and charmingly confides that she'd quite like to be his friend.  There's...almost a moment...then, a bit flustered, she pulls her hand away and stammers, "And so would Father!" before she rushes off in confusion.  The look on Colman's face as he watches her go...you understand that from then on, he is a changed man.

God, I love him in that movie.

[Inquisitionist]

Tangentially related, due to the September broadcast noted below:  AFI is honoring George Clooney this year. 

Quote

TNT will premiere the special, THE 46TH AFI LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE CLOONEY on Thursday, June 21, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, followed by an encore at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT. Sister network Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will also air the special in September 2018 during a night of programming dedicated to Clooney's work.

My question is:  what living American actor/director/producer/etc are you surprised to see has not received this honor from AFI?  Here's the list of honorees.  The missing names that jump out at me are Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.  I wonder if they've been approached but declined the honor (you do have sit through a lovefest that some might find off-putting).  Ellen Burstyn also came to mind.

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, Inquisitionist said:

My question is:  what living American actor/director/producer/etc are you surprised to see has not received this honor from AFI? ... The missing names that jump out at me are Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.  I wonder if they've been approached but declined the honor (you do have sit through a lovefest that some might find off-putting).  Ellen Burstyn also came to mind.

I agree about Redford and Hackman (less about Burstyn, fine actress though she is). And they missed the boat on Paul Newman, unless he privately declined. Among actors, I'd say it's past time to recognize Denzel Washington (they seem to have gotten to Tom Hanks, about the same age, some years back). Among currently active directors, I notice the absence of Jonathan Demme (as long as he doesn't have to give a speech himself). And among directors of the senior generation, Stanley Donen is a glaring absence -- surely he was asked and said no; if not, he's 94 and they ought to get moving.

[Rinaldo]

Catching some of It's Always Fair Weather today (I own the DVD, so I've watched it often), I'm reminded of what a surprising and odd item it was for MGM to have made at all: a kind of disillusioned quasi-sequel to On the Town. (It's not the same characters, but it's three ex-servicemen friends meeting again 10 years later and finding that they don't like their lives or each other.) And it's hampered by a middling sort of score: Andre Previn was good at a lot of things but a satisfying show score wasn't among them, and I've already gone on about what I think of Comden and Green's limited talents as lyricists. But there's still that unique overall atmosphere, and some great sequences: one of Gene Kelly's best (and last) dance solos, and on roller skates; Dolores Gray letting loose with that big voice and personality on "Thanks a Lot but No Thanks"; Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse triumphing over mediocre material so completely that I can't even be critical, they're so dazzling. 

[Milburn Stone]

3 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Among currently active directors, I notice the absence of Jonathan Demme...

Sadly, Demme passed away in April of 2017.

I agree about the unlikelihood of It's Always Fair Weather. (Kelly must have really done a full court press to get it approved.) But I disagree about Andre Previn! I like the whole score ("Music Is Better than Words" is a favorite) and I have great regard for his and Alan Jay Lerner's score for the stage musical Coco, and also for his and Johnny Mercer's score for The Good Companions. 

But I think we've had this disagreement before. Or is it deja vu? :)

[Charlie Baker]

I may have posted here before that I think It's Always Fair Weather deserves a reputation closer to Kelly's peak work.  I especially agree with Rinaldo about Dan Dailey. And nice to see Michael Kidd performing.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Charlie Baker
Always nice to italicize.

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

And nice to see Michael Kidd performing.

The only other instance I recall (and he didn't sing or dance in it) is a couple of decades later, as the choreographer for the pageant in Smile.

[Crisopera]

According to IMDB, he also played Harry Hamlin's father in the "Dynamite Hands" segment of Movie Movie (and appeared in some other 1970/80s movies that I don't recognize).  He also staged the "Baxter's Beauties" numbers.