Saturday, September 07, 2013

Universal Punishing Their Family Audience Again ...


One I Barely Got Through --- Tammy Tell Me True (1961)

Note the Co-Feature For This LA Saturation
Open --- Greenbriar Will Visit It Soon
Down river sprite spreads homespun wisdom among collegiates and those misguided. Producer Ross Hunter was riding crest of his Universal deal, an on-lot independent who seemingly could not fail, his self-admitted retro stuff a color and bigscreen remind of what patronage saw on late, late shows. Hunter may have been a last to embrace movies done vintage way, and making it pay. The Tammys had begun with Debbie Reynolds, but Sandra Dee would do as well, being more age-appropriate to play the "full-growed woman" still treated as a girl. Cast/crew had short hop to commissary lunch, Tammy Tell Me True being shot entire on Universal grounds. They don't even appear to have gone to USC or UCLA for college backdrop. Students all dress well for Professor John Gavin's class, boys with coat/tie, girls in poodle dresses. When did that end on real campuses? Tammy is celebrated for "Elizabethan" English she speaks, a point I wish they'd explored further. Ross Hunter was loyal to players and kept a stock company busy: Virginia Grey, Juanita Moore, Gigi Perreau, others turn up here from past pics of his. Retroplex has been running Tammy Tell Me True in gratifying 1.85 and HD.
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2 comments:

  1. John McElwee6:55 PM

    Donald Benson harks back to several 60's moments ... remember "Munster, Go Home" and "The Misadventures Of Merlinn Jones"?



    Vaguely remember the opening to one of the Tammy sequels where she has to explain away the happy fadeout from the previous film(s). Made her sound like a bit of a doormat, and even that gave her the benefit of the doubt.


    I remember seeing "Tammy and the Millionaire" as half of a matinee at the Granada, our semi-rural neighborhood house. That was transparently a few episodes of a sitcom cut together with an short epilogue of the millionaire proposing to Tammy.


    IMDB dates the movie as 1967; Wikipedia has the series running a single season 65-66. Did Hunter have any connection to this final gasp of the Tammy franchise?


    -----


    Was Universal the last of the major studios cranking out programmers for domestic theaters? It felt like it, since the Granada had a pretty steady diet of Don Knotts comedies, westerns loaded with TV stars, actual TV spinoffs, etc.


    I know other studios cut together TV shows, but those were mainly for foreign markets (MGM's "Man From Uncle" movies). And while a lot of Disney live action qualified as programmer, it was better marketed (In those days Disney didn't produce as much as its bigger rivals, so a "Misadventures of Merlin Jones" might be their biggest new release at a given moment. Consequently it got promotion Universal would never give to "Munster Go Home").

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  2. Randy Jepsen6:44 PM

    chstains59
    Concerning LADY, PLAY YOUR MANDOLIN, the Thunderbean DVD notes are incorrect. It most certainly was in the pre-1948 package of WB cartoons. When I was a kid back in the late 50s into the 60s, I so remember watching MANDOLIN on a local TV station which showed the pre-48s from noon to 12:30 Mon to Fri. Saw it many times.

    Randy

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