I love "I Know Where I'm Going!" (and I don't know how to italicize here). I could add more exclamation marks - and I'm fully authorized, after my 14 years as a K-5 librarian.
And I'm with you re Roger Livesey. I do think of myself as Brit-adjacent (Anglo-Irish parents, American citizen since age 10), but it feels more like the tangential kind.
That movie cast a spell on me and my husband. And after we were married, and he was working for a Houston nonprofit to do with film and video, the MFAH brought Powell to talk as part of a film series and we saw it again. He was very old, still energetic, and so interesting.
I opened your latest newsletter with tears of joy. I'm old and cry almost daily, but still....
Oh, thank you, Melissa. I'm glad you enjoyed this installment.
Early on in my career at Random House, I worked on the US publication of Powell's second memoir, Million Dollar Movie. He was gone a few years by then, but the power behind the project was, to be sure, Thelma Schoonmaker (the final Mrs. Powell) and also, to be sure, Martin Scorsese. (The book's editor was Helen Morris, who eventually became Mrs. Marty.)
I did get to meet TS at a MoMA screening of A Matter of Life and Death, and I will always cherish getting to chat with her for a few minutes. (I also got to meet Kim Hunter that evening!)
Yes, TS was there with him - a film editor, right? They were both so happy. If Scorsese was there, I don't remember him, which is embarrassing, but I've never had a good memory. Thanks so much for sharing your memories!
Well! It turns out that the '38 Pygmalion is right there on YouTube. Beyond Miss Hiller it gets bonus points for film editing by David Lean, dresses by Schiaparelli and — mirabile dictu! — a score by Honegger. And I thought I'd heard his all. Many thanks for the directional signal.
There is a local restaurant with a summer "Lobster Fest" that features Lobster Newburg and I'm more than half-temped to order it with, of course, coffee.
(Also, leave it to me to latch on to the least relevant tidbit of the piece.)
You remind me that the one and only time I visited City Island, I had dinner at a marvelously old school seafood kind of place (well, that's the whole point of visiting City Island), and I ordered not Lobster Newburg but Lobster Thermidor, which I thought would be fun. I'm pretty sure it was well prepared, but it was, alas, ghastly: the sort of lobster dish you might order if you don't like lobster and don't want to taste it.
I'm not sure I've ever had Lobster Newburg. But I'm game.
Omigosh this is a perfect example of what you do best: spin a great story out of what is ostensibly a post about punctuation.
Because so many people were posting about I Know Where I'm Going! on Hiller's birthday, I decided to finally watch it. Loved it! So much to unpack, really, but I loved the way the movie, at just about every moment, is all "girl, you definitely do not know where you're going!"
Also, you're 100% right about that scene in The Awful Truth. I sometimes skip the rest of the movie after that scene, but that scene is fantastic.
I'm due for another viewing of I Know...!, so I should push it to the top of the list. Or toppish.
The Awful Truth is so so so so good, especially through the Lola scene, but it does droop toward the end. It might be a fun mental exercise to figure out how it might have been done a bit more snappily (without tipping over into melodrama or meanness).
The comedy of remarriage format seems to require a trip to the wilderness (i.e., Connecticut), so we're probably stuck with that but, yeah, something . . . better . . . could happen there.
This is an unpopular opinion, but Christmas in Connecticut bums me out. I want it to sparkle more than, for me, it does. Stanwyck, of course, is great; she had no settings other than "great" and "amazing." But if ever there was a premise that calls for the Lubitsch touch, it is the premise of Christmas in Connecticut. (I know that it is beloved by many, and I appreciate its virtues, having seen it many times. I just don't think it gets off the ground as much as I'd like it to. I mostly blame Dennis Morgan.)
Many people I know adore C in C. I like it just fine, and I'm happy to watch it once every couple of years. The Stanwyck feature I watch incessantly is Lady of Burlesque.
I note your first "Oliver!" sentence ends—“Reviewing the Situation.” The second example ends—‘Reviewing the Situation’. Is the repositioning of the period* intentional?
The "P" in "Alfred P. Doolittle" is silent, as in ptarmigan or Psmith.
Yes, the Brits will always exclude punctuation from a quoted bit of matter that doesn't in fact “own” that punctuation, thus that full stop (and the preceding commas) pushed to the far side of the close-quote marks.
Of course it’s logical, but I will always find it visually jarring. And also of course, it’s not The American Method.
Thank you for addressing this. I hope the terminal punctuation extends to em-dashes (of which I am perhaps overly fond), because I tire of Grammarly asking me to correct the punctuation in sentences like:
Drinks in hand, we joined in the communal toast—kanpai!—before sitting back to relax.
I love "I Know Where I'm Going!" (and I don't know how to italicize here). I could add more exclamation marks - and I'm fully authorized, after my 14 years as a K-5 librarian.
And I'm with you re Roger Livesey. I do think of myself as Brit-adjacent (Anglo-Irish parents, American citizen since age 10), but it feels more like the tangential kind.
That movie cast a spell on me and my husband. And after we were married, and he was working for a Houston nonprofit to do with film and video, the MFAH brought Powell to talk as part of a film series and we saw it again. He was very old, still energetic, and so interesting.
I opened your latest newsletter with tears of joy. I'm old and cry almost daily, but still....
This is so so good.
Oh, thank you, Melissa. I'm glad you enjoyed this installment.
Early on in my career at Random House, I worked on the US publication of Powell's second memoir, Million Dollar Movie. He was gone a few years by then, but the power behind the project was, to be sure, Thelma Schoonmaker (the final Mrs. Powell) and also, to be sure, Martin Scorsese. (The book's editor was Helen Morris, who eventually became Mrs. Marty.)
I did get to meet TS at a MoMA screening of A Matter of Life and Death, and I will always cherish getting to chat with her for a few minutes. (I also got to meet Kim Hunter that evening!)
Yes, TS was there with him - a film editor, right? They were both so happy. If Scorsese was there, I don't remember him, which is embarrassing, but I've never had a good memory. Thanks so much for sharing your memories!
*The* film editor, one might even say.
“A Word About…” is so good, isn’t it? I get your tears absolutely.
I live for your footnotes.
I'm glad that you like them, as there certainly are a lot of them!
None superfluous.
I Know What I’m Watching Later!
It's So Much Fun!
Wendy Hiller was also wonderful (as usual) and underutilized (as usual) in A Man For All Seasons.
And as Lady Slane in "All Passion Spent".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0gtzwj2/all-passion-spent
I've watched it once. That was plenty.
Though you remind me that, speaking of the Tudorish era, she's marvelous as the Duchess of York in the 1978 BBC Richard II with Derek Jacobi.
We got very spotty public television reception in 1978.
Also, at 17, I wasn’t much interested in Richard II, so probably wouldn’t have watched it even if I had the chance.
It’s something I think I would appreciate now.
We're very fond of Dame Wendy's "I have no need of a nurse. That is an ordeal yet to come."
Well! It turns out that the '38 Pygmalion is right there on YouTube. Beyond Miss Hiller it gets bonus points for film editing by David Lean, dresses by Schiaparelli and — mirabile dictu! — a score by Honegger. And I thought I'd heard his all. Many thanks for the directional signal.
Torch Song reference: drink! 😂
There is a local restaurant with a summer "Lobster Fest" that features Lobster Newburg and I'm more than half-temped to order it with, of course, coffee.
(Also, leave it to me to latch on to the least relevant tidbit of the piece.)
And spoil that line?
You remind me that the one and only time I visited City Island, I had dinner at a marvelously old school seafood kind of place (well, that's the whole point of visiting City Island), and I ordered not Lobster Newburg but Lobster Thermidor, which I thought would be fun. I'm pretty sure it was well prepared, but it was, alas, ghastly: the sort of lobster dish you might order if you don't like lobster and don't want to taste it.
I'm not sure I've ever had Lobster Newburg. But I'm game.
I love the movie “I Know Where I’m Going!”
Love Scotland, and we had a couple of Scottish Deerhounds several years ago. Watched the movie primarily to see the pack of hounds there!
Omigosh this is a perfect example of what you do best: spin a great story out of what is ostensibly a post about punctuation.
Because so many people were posting about I Know Where I'm Going! on Hiller's birthday, I decided to finally watch it. Loved it! So much to unpack, really, but I loved the way the movie, at just about every moment, is all "girl, you definitely do not know where you're going!"
Also, you're 100% right about that scene in The Awful Truth. I sometimes skip the rest of the movie after that scene, but that scene is fantastic.
I'm due for another viewing of I Know...!, so I should push it to the top of the list. Or toppish.
The Awful Truth is so so so so good, especially through the Lola scene, but it does droop toward the end. It might be a fun mental exercise to figure out how it might have been done a bit more snappily (without tipping over into melodrama or meanness).
The comedy of remarriage format seems to require a trip to the wilderness (i.e., Connecticut), so we're probably stuck with that but, yeah, something . . . better . . . could happen there.
Oh, and I forgot to say: Thank you!
not to be confused with Christmas In Connecticut, which is not a comedy of remarriage so much as a comedy of fake marriage.
This is an unpopular opinion, but Christmas in Connecticut bums me out. I want it to sparkle more than, for me, it does. Stanwyck, of course, is great; she had no settings other than "great" and "amazing." But if ever there was a premise that calls for the Lubitsch touch, it is the premise of Christmas in Connecticut. (I know that it is beloved by many, and I appreciate its virtues, having seen it many times. I just don't think it gets off the ground as much as I'd like it to. I mostly blame Dennis Morgan.)
Many people I know adore C in C. I like it just fine, and I'm happy to watch it once every couple of years. The Stanwyck feature I watch incessantly is Lady of Burlesque.
That's one I don't think I've seen. Luckily, it seems to be available to stream on Prime!
"Them…what PINched it…done…her…in."
"Poor, silly man — do you think they leave you here to think?"
Loved this!
I am a retired kindergarten teacher and had a student who referred to periods as stop dots. Lovely and precise!
I love that!
I note your first "Oliver!" sentence ends—“Reviewing the Situation.” The second example ends—‘Reviewing the Situation’. Is the repositioning of the period* intentional?
The "P" in "Alfred P. Doolittle" is silent, as in ptarmigan or Psmith.
*Or full stop, if you prefer.
Yes, the Brits will always exclude punctuation from a quoted bit of matter that doesn't in fact “own” that punctuation, thus that full stop (and the preceding commas) pushed to the far side of the close-quote marks.
Of course it’s logical, but I will always find it visually jarring. And also of course, it’s not The American Method.
Alfred Papa Doolittle.
Stands to reason, dunnit?
Thank you for addressing this. I hope the terminal punctuation extends to em-dashes (of which I am perhaps overly fond), because I tire of Grammarly asking me to correct the punctuation in sentences like:
Drinks in hand, we joined in the communal toast—kanpai!—before sitting back to relax.
That couldn't be more correct! To heck with Grammarly!