Jane Powell vs. Elvis Presley

Well, they're not really going up against each other; they're just close to each other on the TCM schedule. When I was watching Jane Powell's introductions to Pride and Prejudice and Madame Bovary last night, I was struck by the thought that they came across as a bit superficial. Now, I don't expect Powell to know as much about the movies as Robert Osborne, or to be as polished at reading the teleprompter as somebody who's been doing it for the past 17 years. Also, I thought the brief synopsis of Madame Bovary was on the mark, and one doesn't need to go into too much more detail to explain the movie. And, it's nice to have somebody give her reminiscences of the people with whom she was acquainted and with whom she worked. The only problem is that even those reminiscences came across as a bit cursory.

As for Elvis, he's showing up tonight at 10:00 PM in Harum Scarum, another of the movies in the Arab Images on Film series. It's another movie where I'm interested in seeing Prof. Shaheen's comments. I think Shaheen was quite accurate about Dream Wife, which I mentioned on Tuesday, when he commented on just how pervasive and over the top the stereotyping was.

Finally, I kind of wish Our Very Own were available on DVD. I hadn't seen it before it showed up on TCM yesterday, and it's the sort of movie that deserves one viewing, at least, with the attendant blog post.