Two weeks with sex

I'm getting close to the end of the movies that I recorded while Debbie Reynolds was TCM's Star of the Month back in March. This time, it's another of her supporting roles from early in her career: Two Weeks With Love.

As this was early in Reynolds' career, she was not yet the star here; that honor goes to Jane Powell. She plays Patti Robinson, eldest daughter in a middle-class family from the turn of the last century. The family goes up to the Catskills for a summer vacation at the same resort every year, and Patti, just having turned 17, is at the point where she wants to be treated like an adult and is none too pleased by having to go to this resort with her family. She's also irritated with other ways she's not treated like an adult, such as not yet being allowed to wear a corset. Dad (Louis Calhern) loves his family, but like a lot of fathers, doesn't quite know about teenage daughters, while Mom (Ann Harding) doesn't see Patti as an adult. Younger daughter Melba (Debbie Reynolds) is definitely not grown up, and there are two even younger brothers here for comic relief.

The Robinsons aren't the only people who go to the resort every summer at the same time, and the proprietor, Mr. Finlay (character actor Clinton Sundberg) knows all of them, while many of the guests, such as budding actress Valerie (Phyllis Kirk), a year or two older than Patti, looks forward to seeing Patti again. Meanwhile, Finlay's son Billy (Carleton Carpenter) is in the same position as Patti in that he's on the cusp of adulthood but his father won't treat him like a man yet. Billy has a thing for Patti, but she's not into him; instead, it's Melba who would like Billy.

There's one new guest at the resort: Cuban Demi Armendez (Ricardo Montalbán). He's apparently got enough name recognition, and is glamorous enough that any young woman would love to be approached by him. So it's no surprise that both Valerie and Patti express an interest in Demi. Patti, however, screws things up by tripping in the dining room and sending the contents of Billy's serving tray onto poor Demi! Demi forgives her though, and is willing to go with Patti for an ice cream soda, if only Mrs. Robinson weren't there to inform Patti that it's her bedtime. Valerie, of course, has no such curfew, and is there to pick up the pieces.

But Jane Powell is the star here, so we can expect that she's going to end up with Ricardo Montalbán in the final reel. However, it's going to take some twists and turns. Also, it's going to require both of the parents to come to their senses and realize their "little" girl is growing up. Likewise, you can expect Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter to end up together, especially when they sing the big hit "Abba Dabba Honeymoon".

Two Weeks with Love is an enjoyable piece of fluff, showing the sort of movie that the studio system could churn out and imbue with charm back in those days, and the sort of thing that I don't think could possibly be made today. Sure, it's all backlot stuff, and a latter-day version would look more realistic, but a version made today just wouldn't have the charm. So definitely catch Two Weeks with Love.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

I've mentioned before that musicals aren't my favorite genre of movies, in part because they're even more artificial than other movies in that nobody just breaks out into song like that in real life. Never mind that I don't always care for the voices of the singers. So I have to admit that as a result I've put off watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for a while. It was on TCM last month, and is on again tomorrow, January 16, at 6:00 PM, so I've finally gotten around to watching it to do a full-length review.

A title card just after the opening credits informs us that the action is set in the Oregon Territory, 1850. Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) is a farmer out in the backwoods who has come into town in part because he's in want of a wife. Outside one of those hotel/restaurants you see in old westerns, he meets Milly (Jane Powell). Seeing the way she can handle the rough men who pass through town, he realizes she can handle life on a farm, and so almost immediately proposes to her. This is a rather shocking idea, but back in those days it wasn't as if there was much way for men and women to meet, so she takes him up on the marriage proposal.

It's only when the two of them get back to the farm that Adam informs Milly that he's got six brothers, all of whom work the farm with him. Amazingly, none of the brothers gets jealous and tries to do anything inappropriate with Milly, at least not in the way you'd think of men doing in a place where there's only one woman around. But they are uncouth, not having had the civilizing presence of a woman around, and poor Milly has to try to civilize them.

The brothers go to a barn raising, which is an excuse for the big dance number in the film and the number that everybody remembers with good reason. More importantly, however, its a chance for the brothers to be around women, and for them to cotton on to the idea that they need wives as well. However, they come up with a rather dumb way of trying to find themselves wives. As winter is setting in, they go into town and look for the women they met at the dance... and basically kidnap the women to bring them back to the farm for a marriage ceremony. And they set off an avalanche on the way back so that the women's angry fathers and brothers won't be able to follow them until spring, which will give the women time to accept the situation and fall in love with the brothers the way Milly has fallen in love with Adam. The only thing is, they don't have anyone to perform the wedding, and there's no way the brides are going to consummate a non-marriage relationship. Never mind what the Production Code says. Adam is disgusted with this behavior and goes to a trapping cabin to spend the winter, even though Milly is now pregnant with his child.

Of course, there is that pesky Production Code, so we know that in the end everything is going to be made right. The fact that Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is also supposed to be a light musical also requires the sort of happy ending that we're going to get once spring comes and the brides' families come for the brothers.

Fans of musicals will love Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, although most of those will probably already have seen the movie. I didn't dislike it, although I have to say that I'm still generally more of a fan of backstage musicals about putting on a show like 42nd Street or Gold Diggers of 1933 or biographical musicals since songs and dance numbers tend to make more sense there. It's easy to see why Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has such high critical praise.

The Freed Unit wasn't always right

I'll admit that I'm not the greatest fan of musicals, but I think sometimes my not particularly caring for a certain musical is because the movie isn't all that good. I'm sorry to say that's the case with the musical Athena.

The movie starts off with a performance from an alleged TV star, Johnny Nyle (Vic Damone). Nyle sings in the sort of way that the part of Hollywood that still had one foot stuck in the past would like, and has a legion of adoring female fans who wear conservative long skirts. He's also got some sort of legal issue that has a process server going after him. With that in mind, Johnny goes to see his old war buddy Adam Shaw (Edmund Purdom) to see if Adam can fix his legal problems.

Adam, for his part, is trying to run for Congress, being the third generation of his family to go into politics and having the old solons from the party on his side. Regardless of the political considerations of helping someone like Nyle, Adam may simply not have the time to do it. He's also got his own personal problems, as he had bought some fruit trees from a tree nursery that didn't turn out the way he had hoped.

Adam is about to have much bigger problems when he goes to the nursery and runs into Athena Mulvain (Jane Powell). She's the sort of person who, when she's in public like this, would get the reputation for being "free-spirited", although that's putting it mildly. And Athena has decided that she loves Adam and is going to get him to marry her just by constantly being in his life. Never mind that he's got a fiancée already.

So Adam tries to find out who this Athena Mulvain is and where she lives so that he can go visit he and ask her if she would kindly break off the relationship. Instead, he finds that not only is she not going to take no for an answer, but she's got a really kooky family. She and all of her sisters are named after mythological figures, altough not all Greek as Athena's sister Minerva (Debbie Reynolds) is named after Athena's Roman equivalent. Minerva is also going to become a romantic interest for Johnny. This is determined by Athena's grandmather Salome (Evelyn Varden), who is into numerology.

Obviously, getting involved with Athena would cause all sorts of political problems for Adam, but he can't help himself. A further subplot involves Grandpa Mulvain's (Louis Calhern) views on diet and fitness, leading him to emcee a Mr. Universe-like contest which also serves as the dramatic climax of the movie.

For me, the movie Athena had a whole bunch of problems. One is that although it's a musical, it's one of those where the songs aren't particularly memorable and bring the proceedings to a screeching halt. Fans of musicals, however, probably won't have that problem. The bigger problem is that on multiple occasions, the main characters' motivations suddenly turn on a dime in ways that aren't realistic at all. And Athena isn't a charming free spirit, but an obnoxious blankety-blank since she can't take no for an answer.

Still, there are probably going to be some people who like a musical like this, so as always, watch and judge for yourself.

TCM Star of the Month June 2019: Jane Powell

Now that we're in the first full week of a new month, it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time out, it's Jane Powell, who made a bunch of light musical comedies at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s. Powell turned 90 this year, but because her birthday was in April, and TCM celebrated its 25th anniversary that month, they have her tribute now. Powell's movies will be airing every Wednesday in prime time in June.

This first night sees some of her early movies starting with Holiday in Mexico at 8:00 PM, seeing Powell play the daughter of the US Ambassador to Mexico (Walter Pidgeon) who falls in love with a Mexican pianist (Jose Iturbi, who for some reason I thought was Brazilian but was in fact Spanish).



Having run one movie with Powell and Iturbi, it shouldn't be surprising that there's another one. That one, Three Daring Daughters, follows at 10:15 PM.

I have to admit that Jane Powell isn't my favorite, but that's more because the type of movie she was cast in.