Clifton Webb was doomed mostly to comedy after he made a nation
laugh with Sitting Pretty (Fox's biggest profit pic for 1948). He was a funny
guy, and Zanuck loved him. CW was socially high-placed and got invites to
DFZ and everywhere parties. His became about the only vehicle line after
Betty Grable that 20th could count on for profits. Elopementwas Webb's follow
to Cheaper By The Dozen, which had taken a fantastic two million in profit. All
his comic roles were variations on Belvedere, if not Belvedere himself (there
were three in that group and would probably have been more if Zanuck could have
worked crews and Webb through nights). Elopement is a road saga, Cliff and wife joined
by potential in-law family to block runaway couple Anne Francis (his daughter)
and William Lundigan, son to Charles Bickford and Evelyn (I just lie there and think about my canning) Varden. Driver habits are unnerving; no seat belts,
of course, and speed or pass on hills handed me jitters rather than mirth
intended. Who knew mock up cars against process screens could disconcert so?
College grad Anne Francis chucks opportunity at industrial designing to
marry-in-haste prof Lundigan, a notion I thought ill-advised (why forfeit
career promise for such a dullard?), so their rush to altar was at
cross-purpose with my preferred outcome. It can sure ruin a movie when it resolves
a dead opposite to how you'd like. Available from Fox On-Demand DVD ... quality could be better.
Donald Benson has some interesting thoughts about movie characters and situations that have fallen out of favor:
When a student abandons her career to elope with her professor, modern audiences are more likely to be creeped out or actually outraged -- fuddy duddy or not. There's been a sort of sea change regarding the whole young-girl-and-"mature"-man thing, even though it dates back to Chaplin's teenaged heroines and continued for many decades with women playing teenagers and actual teenagers playing women, often opposite leading men of obvious mileage.
The double standard on aging is still around; at best it's toned down a bit since Woody Allen and teenage Mariel Hemingway in "Manhattan" and the Dean Martin - Ann Margret pairing in "Murderer's Row". Meanwhile, Emma Thompson took some flack for casting herself opposite Hugh Grant in "Sense and Sensibility" -- the outrage was that she was a hair over one year older than him.
Back in the day it was actually praiseworthy for older men (of certain qualifications) to pair off with younger women; now it's still common but not quite so automatically embraced as an ideal. Today, a safe comedy like "Elopement" would either promote the girl to the faculty or make her groom a fellow student.
Might be interesting to consider other movie notions that have fallen out of favor (or should): -- The natives in a British Empire story always being childish or dangerous savages. -- The hero selling his Google-sized idea to a big company for the price of a honeymoon cottage. Better that than be an entrepreneur. -- Sixties flicks where even a harmless clerk is a symbol of oppression to be savagely mocked to presumed cheers from the audience. -- Counter-sixties flicks where nonconformists are uniformly filthy and hypocritical, either as comic relief or genuine villains. -- The "worldly" woman losing out or giving way to the bland young virgin, even if she and the hero have several times as much onscreen chemistry. -- Characters eagerly putting themselves in their proper place, whether they be happy slaves on the plantation, working-class stiffs who know high-class surroundings ain't their style, or women who abandon high-powered careers.
1 Comments:
Donald Benson has some interesting thoughts about movie characters and situations that have fallen out of favor:
When a student abandons her career to elope with her professor, modern audiences are more likely to be creeped out or actually outraged -- fuddy duddy or not. There's been a sort of sea change regarding the whole young-girl-and-"mature"-man thing, even though it dates back to Chaplin's teenaged heroines and continued for many decades with women playing teenagers and actual teenagers playing women, often opposite leading men of obvious mileage.
The double standard on aging is still around; at best it's toned down a bit since Woody Allen and teenage Mariel Hemingway in "Manhattan" and the Dean Martin - Ann Margret pairing in "Murderer's Row". Meanwhile, Emma Thompson took some flack for casting herself opposite Hugh Grant in "Sense and Sensibility" -- the outrage was that she was a hair over one year older than him.
Back in the day it was actually praiseworthy for older men (of certain qualifications) to pair off with younger women; now it's still common but not quite so automatically embraced as an ideal. Today, a safe comedy like "Elopement" would either promote the girl to the faculty or make her groom a fellow student.
Might be interesting to consider other movie notions that have fallen out of favor (or should):
-- The natives in a British Empire story always being childish or dangerous savages.
-- The hero selling his Google-sized idea to a big company for the price of a honeymoon cottage. Better that than be an entrepreneur.
-- Sixties flicks where even a harmless clerk is a symbol of oppression to be savagely mocked to presumed cheers from the audience.
-- Counter-sixties flicks where nonconformists are uniformly filthy and hypocritical, either as comic relief or genuine villains.
-- The "worldly" woman losing out or giving way to the bland young virgin, even if she and the hero have several times as much onscreen chemistry.
-- Characters eagerly putting themselves in their proper place, whether they be happy slaves on the plantation, working-class stiffs who know high-class surroundings ain't their style, or women who abandon high-powered careers.
Post a Comment
<< Home