Sunday, 03 December 2006

• Currently Watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington By Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, H.B. Warner, Harry Carey, Astrid Allwyn, Ruth Donnelly, Grant Mitchell, Porter Hall, Pierre Watkin, Charles Lane, William Demarest, Dick Elliott, Billy Watson (II), Delmar Watson see related

  I wish my life were a movie

  I wish life were like an old movie...

  ... A nice dramady in clasic black and white, directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart: Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Wholesome.  A moving story: where Mr. Wholesome gets all his ideals mixed up in the big world, meets a nice, bright-eyed, bouncy-haired girl, and falls in love. Somewhere along the line he gets in and out of a whole lot of trouble, questions his ideals, nearly loses them, then finds them again - with a little help from the bright-eyed girl and couple of loyal friends, of course. The two come out relatively unscathed, get married and live happily ever after. And it cetainly doesn't hurt that Mr. Wholesome happens to be charming, handsome, and noble all at once. Now, doesn't that sound wonderful?

  ...Or a big MGM  musical-comedy in amazing techincolor. The bright-eyed, bouncy-haired girl has a song in her heart and a spring in her step. She's out to make a name for herself when the handsome crooner waltzes his way into her life and gives it little push. At first she doesn't like him, but that'll change soon enough. He sweeps her off her feet with a couple of Irving Berlin songs and some well coreographed tap numbers. There's a horrible misunderstanding and the bright-eyed girl decides she never wants to see the crooner again, but leading men don't give up that easily; he's determind to marry the brigt-eyed girl and live in a little house with a white picket fence and have nine children. The crooner and the bright-eyed girl sort out their differences eventually (with a little help from the wise-craking supporting characters) and the story wraps up nicely with a climactic kiss and couple more songs, just  for good measure. No matter how muddled up things get it all turns out perfectly in the end, because this is Hollywood, baby: land of the happy ending! Even if they don't always make sense...

  I want to be the bright-eyed girl with the bouncy hair and the spring in her step. I want to meet the handsome crooner or the shy, gangly night-in-shining-armor. I want to be serenaded and waltzed and wooed and kissed in the rain swept off my feet. I'd like to meet a George Bailey, a Jefferson Smith, a Don Lockwood or a Joseph Brady. Hell, I'd settle for a Danny Weems even. I want to say all the right things at exactly the right time and be charming and witty and beautiful... Most of all I want a happy ending, although I could do without the picket fence and the nine rug rats.

  ...but life's not a movie. It's just life: messy, scary, fickle and unscripted... 

  and I watch too much tv.

  • 9:05 PM
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