The astounding tap dancer Arthur Duncan, who died early this year aged 97, spent years performing on Lawrence Welk’s weekly TV show. For that the much maligned Welk should be commended. Duncan had the misfortune of being the very best at his craft at a moment in history when only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiWpmprZDrAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufop72Q74fA Here are two deleted scenes from ‘Cafe Metropole’, a 1937 20th Century Fox musical (sort of) starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Adolphe Menjou. Both feature tap-dancing legend Bill Bojangles Robinson, who already had made screen history by dancing with Shirley Temple in another Fox movie ‘The Little Colonel’
Jerry Lewis’s ‘The Ladies Man’ (1961) is one of his most inventive and, simultaneously, unfunny films. Indeed, most of the comedy falls flat because of the films stylistic advances and ideas, which conversely still feel fresh, interesting and even startlingly good. The big deal in this movie is the massive
It’s June 11, 1929: the first of a three-day film shoot for Judy Garland and her two sisters known as “The Gumm Sisters” at the Tec-Art Studios in Hollywood, California, for the Mayfair Pictures short “The Big Revue” (aka “The Starlet Revue”). This is Judy Garland’s film debut. She’s just
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78gt7pfjlCUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unOnSonpZfY To close this weeks series of original versions of movie themes that my trio and I (redundant? is just ‘my trio’ enough?) performed last week, here’s the first screen appearance of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s iconic ‘The Candy Man’, from ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ (1971). The
Here’s the original theatrical trailer for Stanley Donen’s 1967 film ‘Two For The Road’, starring Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn. Last week my trio played Henry Mancini’s gorgeous eponymous theme song at our concert in Temecula, at which we devoted a full set to title tracks from movies. Alas, I
Yesterday I posted the opening title sequence of ‘The Tender Trap’ (1955). Today I offer up the ending of the film and its adjacent ‘The End’ sequence. (Spoiler: everyone falls in love and is happy). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll begin posting the reel changes. I like the idea of posting the
Last week I played a trio gig in Temecula, California which featured a number of title tracks from post-war movies–‘Days Of Wine And Roses’, ‘Sunday In New York’ etc. (I posted original title sequences of several of them last week). Our opening number was ‘The Tender Trap’, by Sammy Cahn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4QgGxcsFSEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXm0qhlMVE Last night my jazz trio played a concert in Temecula California consisting of songs from movies. The opening set concentrated on mid-century themes–‘Tender Trap’, ‘Wives and Lovers’, ‘Two For The Road’, ‘Sunday In New York’ etc. By far the most beautiful of the songs, and the the one that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usEo5XsgSGghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ7WT02wFOk I’ve been playing the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard ‘Wives And Lovers’ for years as a jazz waltz. I always assumed that the 1963 song had been written for the 1963 movie of the same title. (A safe assumption, one would think). Now I find out–one day before I’m to