Monday, February 17, 2025

"The Iron Mistress" (1952)

Happy 9th Alaniversary to me :-D  I shall celebrate by reviewing Alan Ladd's biopic about James Bowie, the legendary frontiersman and inventor of the Bowie Knife.  

(Quick aside:  I always thought that a Bowie Knife and an Arkansas Toothpick were the same thing, but it turns out they're slightly different styles of hunting-and-fighting knives... which were both originally made by the same knifemaker in Arkansas.  Huh.)

The movie opens with Jim Bowie (Alan Ladd) leaving his Louisiana backwoods home for the first time to go sell his family's lumber in New Orleans.  In New Orleans, he gets tangled up with the aristocratic de Bornay siblings, Narcisse (Douglas Dick) and Judalon (Virginia Mayo).  He quickly falls for the spoiled and scheming Judalon; Narcisse tries to warn his new friend away from his sister, but of course, Jim Bowie's not thinking with his head at the moment.


Nothing Jim Bowie does convinces Judalon he's worthy of her love.  She doesn't dig poor guys.  Oh, she enjoys kissing him from time to time, and flirting with him, but no, she could never love a poor man.  So, Jim goes home, works hard, and gets rich.  When he encounters Judalon again, he's on an equal economic footing with her... and she's married.  But Judalon claims she's trying to get a divorce.  Jim believes her, of course.  


And then there's this whole thing involving horse races where Jim enters a horse race, and his horse wins, and all the aristocrats refuse to pay their gambling losses unless he can prove he owns the horse.  Insults and challenges ensue, and Jim ends up attending a duel as the second for a friend.  The duel is a set-up, an ambush to kill both Jim and his friend because they just don't belong in the fancy New Orleans world, no matter how rich they get.  


The movie does a reasonably good job recreating the Vidalia Sandbar Fight here -- a real-life event where a duel turned into a brawl.  Jim Bowie gets shot, then stabbed with a sword, but cuts down his opponent with a special knife he had made to his specifications.  Oh, and he still has the other guy's sword sticking out of him when he does it (which is historically accurate). 

Judalon reneges on her promise to leave her husband for Jim Bowie.  He leaves for Texas, hoping to find a new purpose for his life.  But he's ambushed on the way and left lying on the road, presumed dead.  There, he's found by Senorita Ursula de Varamendi (Phyllis Kirk), who takes him to her family's home so he can recover.


It turns out Ursula's father is the Governor of Texas.  She clearly would like to get together with Jim Bowie, but he is still obsessed with Judalon.  He leaves Texas, saying he's going to wrap up his business affairs in New Orleans, but Ursula can see it's really so he can have one final chance to find and woo Judalon.


Bowie encounters Judalon and her husband Phillipe (Alf Kjellin) on a riverboat.  Phillipe is a terrible gambler and desperate for money.  When he loses a huge sum of money to some card sharps, Jim saves the day by exposing the cheaters and getting Phillipe's money back.  Judalon tells her husband she's leaving him for Jim.  Phillipe decides to ambush Jim in his cabin on the boat.  There's another guy called Black Jack Sturdevant (Anthony Caruso) aboard the boat and planning to kill Jim too because of reasons.  (I kind of left out his whole part of the plot, but he's been after Jim Bowie for a while now -- and he stole Jim's knife.)  


Now, we all know that Jim Bowie died during the siege of the Alamo, not on a riverboat, so obviously, he survives the ambush.  And he finally realizes that Judalon has never and will never love him, that she's a scheming opportunist and liar.  He is through with her at last, and heads back to Texas to marry Ursula (also historically accurate!) and start a new life there.  And he tosses his special knife in the river on his way out for symbolic emphasis.


While the main plot of this whole movie is made up (everything involving Judalon, basically), it does at least hit some facts here and there.  It's one of those "well, this COULD have happened" sorts of movies.  And it's a good time -- lots of knife fights and duels and brawls, Alan Ladd looks gorgeous throughout, and he even gets to do some stunts.  The two things that you would think most likely to stretch your credulity -- that fight where he kills a guy while he's got a sword is sticking out of his chest, and the fact that he married the governor of Texas's daughter --  are totally true.  


Is this movie family friendly?  Basically.  There's a lot of hand-to-hand violence and some gunplay, but it's all very '50s-style and non-gory, non-scary stuff.  Judalon clearly is untrue to her husband, and even kisses Jim after she's married to Phillipe, but it's very tastefully handled and could even be a good talking point for parents and children about what marital infidelity is.

You can easily find The Iron Mistress on DVD, but I don't know that it's streaming anywhere.

Saturday, February 15, 2025

We Love Musicals Week -- Giveaway Winners + Wrap Up

Well, here we are at the end of another blog party.  This was such a fun one!  I'm still catching up on reading posts, but the ones I've read so far have been lovely :-)

If you have any last-minute posts you want to contribute, you are not too late!  Here's the link-up widget once again:


And here are the winners of the giveaway:

Prize One:  used DVD copy of Guys and Dolls (1955) -- Chloe the Movie Critic

Prize Two:  a used DVD copy of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) -- Ivy Miranda

Prize Three:  a used DVD copy of Holiday Inn (1942) -- Amanda O.

Prize Four:  a used DVD copy of Oklahoma! (1999) -- Crystan R.

Prize Five:  a Newsies sticker sheet -- Nicole B.

Prize Six:  a My Fair Lady vinyl sticker -- Gill J.

I will be alerting the winners by email this evening, so please keep an eye on your inboxes!


I hope you've all had lots of fun this week!  

Answers to "What Musical is That Song From?" Game


Here are the answers to Tuesday's game, and everyone's scores.  How'd you do?


1.  "Defying Gravity" and "Popular" are from Wicked

2.  "Lonesome Polecat" and "Spring, Spring, Spring" are from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

3.  "It Might as Well be Spring" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing" are from State Fair

4.  "Sisters" and "Count Your Blessings" are from White Christmas

5.  "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "Summertime" are from Porgy and Bess

6.  "Do-Re-Mi" and "Edelweiss" are from The Sound of Music

7.  "This is Me" and "Tightrope" are from The Greatest Showman

8.  "Good Mornin'" and "You Are My Lucky Star" are from Singin' in the Rain

9.  "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" and "Luck Be a Lady" are from Guys and Dolls

10.  "On the Street Where You Live" and "The Rain in Spain" are from My Fair Lady

11.  "All I Ask of You" and "Music of the Night" are from The Phantom of the Opera

12.  "King of New York" and "Santa Fe" are from Newsies


SCORES

Grace Avender -- 10
Katherine -- 10
Ivy Miranda -- 9
Sam the Library Mouse -- 9
Chloe the Movie Critic -- 8
Lizzie Hexam -- 8
Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews -- 6
Debra She Who Seeks -- 5
Anonymous -- 5
Charlotte (Mother Owl) -- 4
The Hopeful Pen -- 3
Anonymous -- 3

Thursday, February 13, 2025

My Answers to the We Love Musicals Tag


Time for me to fill out the We Love Musicals Tag!

1. What are your favorite musicals?
  1. Guys and Dolls (1955)
  2. An American in Paris (1951)
  3. White Christmas (1954)
  4. The Greatest Showman (2017)
  5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
For the rest of my top ten, read this post :-)

2. What do you like about musicals? 

I like how a good musical allows characters to express their thoughts and emotions through song and dance instead of only words.  A good musical uses music the way Shakespeare used soliloquies.

Bonus points if they're really fun and leave me smiling, and if they have wonderful songs I want to learn all the words to!

3. What's the first musical you can remember seeing? 

The Sound of Music (1965) -- I have a vague memory of half-watching it when I was maybe four or five years old.  We didn't own a TV set until I was 4, so it can't have been earlier than that.


4. Have you ever seen a live musical onstage? 

Yes!  I saw Hayley Mills in a touring production of The King and I in 1997.  I also saw a production of The Mikado as a teen.  And I saw a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals back when I was in college -- I think Princess Ida and The Gondoliers


5. Have you ever performed in a musical? 

Yes!  During college, I was in the chorus of three Gilbert and Sullivan musicals: The Sorcerer, The H. M. S. Pinafore, and The Yeomen of the Guard.  I had several friends who were in them too, which made rehearsals and sitting around in the Green Room lots of fun.  Not to mention, learning how to do stage makeup has come in really handy now that my daughter does ballet and needs stage makeup for her performances.

Me with two friends backstage in our Yeomen of the Guard costumes.


6. Do you periodically dance about and burst into song in real life? 

I do.  Sometimes in public and fairly often at home.

7. What's the newest movie musical you've seen? 

Wicked (2024), which I took my daughters to see in the theater in December.  I liked it all right.

8. What's the oldest movie musical you've seen? 

The oldest one I know for sure I've seen all of is The Wizard of Oz (1939).  I've seen parts of some Shirley Temple movies too, but I'm not sure which ones I've seen all of -- that would have been when I was a kid, and I just don't remember now.  So I'll say The Wizard of Oz because it's so nicely symmetrical that the newest musical I've seen is a sort of retelling of the oldest one I've seen!  Neither of which are movies I actually love, but that's okay.

9. What's the last musical you watched? 

I watched The Music Man (1962) last week with my kids.  It was their first time watching it, and we laughed and laughed!  Good times.  Being from Iowa myself, I've always had a particular soft spot for it.


10. What musical do you hope to watch for the first time soon?

Hmm.  Probably either Pirates of Penzance (1983) or Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (2018).  They're both on my TBW shelves, so it will just be a matter of which I'm in the mood for first.


If you want a clean version of this tag, you can find it in the blog party kick-off post.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

My Ten Favorite Musicals -- 2025 Update

I shared my original list of ten favorite musicals a whole decade ago!  I've definitely got some slightly different favorites now, though many of the same dear favorites are still tops.  Here is my current list!  As usual, all titles are linked to my reviews if I have reviewed a particular movie.


(Random note, but I find it amusing how this graphic color-coordinated itself.  I didn't try to arrange the movies so they would have white posters all in a block and colorful ones in another block!  So funny.)

1. Guys and Dolls (1955)

Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) bets Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't get social reformer Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons) to go on a date with him. This movie made me fall in love with the stories and writing style of Damon Runyon, which the musical is based on. Personally (and that means in person), I adore the odd patter the characters speak. 



An ex-GI painter (Gene Kelly) falls in love with a girl (Leslie Caron), not knowing she's engaged to his night club singer friend (Georges Guetary). The whole movie is an excuse to sing and dance to Gershwin tunes, which is one of the best reasons for making a musical I've ever heard. 


3. White Christmas (1954) 

A team of showbiz stars (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) try to rescue a retired general (Dean Jagger) from bankruptcy by staging a show at his ski lodge. Why yes, this heads up my list of favorite Christmas movies too. 



P. T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) gathers up the misfits of the world and gives them jobs, friendship, and a purpose.  And that includes his protégé Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), who falls in love with a trapeze artist (Zendaya).  The message of everyone deserving friendship and love and a place to belong, no matter what they look like, really resonates with me.


5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

A talented young singer (Emmy Rossum) is mentored and stalked and abducted and generally haunted by a disfigured man (Gerard Butler) who lives under the Paris Opera House.  Thank goodness for her childhood friend Raoul (Patrick Wilson), who stands by her and helps her however he can, and eventually falls in love with her as well.  This production is overwhelmingly lavish and opulent and everything it ought to be.  I'm particularly taken with Patrick Wilson's portrayal of Raoul as a brave and manly young fellow who protects and defends and is generally awesome.  And his voice is like butterscotch.  I wish Wilson made more musicals.


6. State Fair (1945) 

A family spends a week at the Iowa state fair, where the daughter (Jeanne Crain) falls in love with a newspaper man (Dana Andrews), the son falls in love with an entertainer, and the parents take home prizes for their mincemeat and hog. There's a 1960s remake that stars Bobby Darin in the Dana Andrews role, but aside from dearest Bobby, that version lacks the charm of this one. 


7.  Hello, Dolly! (1969)

A fairy-godmother-like matchmaker (Barbra Streisand) finds love matches for two store clerks (Michael Crawford, Danny Lockin), two milliners (Marianne McAndrew, E. J. Peaker), an irascible businessman (Walter Matthau) and his niece (Joyce Ames)... and herself.  I have a penchant for fairy godmothers, and Dolly Levi has been an inspiration to me since I was in single digits. 


8.  West Side Story (1961) 

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1960s NYC, with rival street gangs taking the place of rival families. So heartbreaking and beautiful, with some of the coolest dancing ever -- I much prefer it to Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack was one of the first CDs I ever bought, and I know all the words to every song. 


9.  Brigadoon (1954) 

Two hunters (Gene Kelly and Van Johnson) stumble on an enchanted Scottish village that only exists one day out of every hundred years, whereupon one of them falls in love with a local girl (Cyd Charisse).  I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. 


10. Oklahoma! (1999) 

A cowboy (Hugh Jackman) tries to win the heart of a girl who claims she hates him. Yes, you read that correctly: Hugh Jackman. This is the London stage version, not the famous Hollywood one, and I prefer it because, well, Hugh Jackman!


This post is one of my contributions to We Love Musicals Week.  I hope you've been enjoying the fun so far!

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

What Musical is That Song From? Game


Ready to play a game?  Listed below are two songs each from twelve famous musicals.  All you have to do is tell me which musical goes with each pair! 

I will put comments on moderation this morning so people can't be tempted to cheat off each other.  I'll share the answers and scores at the end of We Love Musicals Week.

Have fun!

1.  "Defying Gravity" and "Popular"

2.  "Lonesome Polecat" and "Spring, Spring, Spring"

3.  "It Might as Well be Spring" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing"

4.  "Sisters" and "Count Your Blessings"

5.  "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "Summertime"

6.  "Do-Re-Mi" and "Edelweiss"

7.  "This is Me" and "Tightrope"

8.  "Good Mornin'" and "You Are My Lucky Star"

9.  "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" and "Luck Be a Lady"

10.  "On the Street Where You Live" and "The Rain in Spain"

11.  "All I Ask of You" and "Music of the Night"

12.  "King of New York" and "Santa Fe"

Monday, February 10, 2025

We Love Musicals Week -- Kick-off and Tag


Welcome to We Love Musicals Week!  Together, we can spend five whole days celebrating everything we love about musicals, whether they're on film or on the stage.


Remember to use one of the party buttons in your own posts, and to link back here so your blog readers can visit the party too.  Also, please remember to keep your posts family friendly and celebratory.  If you don't like musicals, that's okay -- you are free to ignore our partying.  Just, please, don't bring around a cloud to rain on our parade :-)


Whenever you create a post for this week's party, add a link to it using this widget:


Make sure you check out posts from other participants!  And don't forget to check out (and enter) my giveaway.


Also, here's the official party tag, which you can fill out on your own blog!  It's a handy way to participate even if you don't have time or ideas for a different sort of post.

The We Love Musicals Tag

1.  What are your favorite musicals?  (Tell us a top 3 to 5, that sort of thing.)
2.  What do you like about musicals?
3.  What's the first musical you can remember seeing?
4.  Have you ever seen a live musical onstage?
5.  Have you ever performed in a musical?
6.  Do you periodically dance about and burst into song in real life?
7.  What's the newest movie musical you've seen?
8.  What's the oldest movie musical you've seen?
9.  What's the last musical you watched?
10.  What musical do you hope to watch for the first time soon?