Frankly, My Dear, 'Twas Damn Good!

[klondike]

Hey, Friends!
Caught last night's Idiot's Delight, and sign me up on the idiot list, cause I thought it was jim-dandy!
Pretty amazing, as Romantic Comedies, old or new, are a real hard sell for this old Sled Dog, especially when they feature neither Kate Hepburn nor Ronnie Lake.
This one, however, worked fine for me, though of course I found a few minor faults:

1) Had I been watching this one on my Dad's 1956 Zenith (with corner-point sonic remote control!, clicker guaranteed to disappear in first week of ownership), that chalk-stripe jacket Clark so favored would definitely had set-off the horizontal-hold signal; good thing Edith Head hadn't been contracted for this one, she never would've let that jacket, nor the waxy-looking boater that topped it, off the wardrobe trolley.
2) I realize that Mr. Meredith was impossibly young here, but couldn't a member of the Westmore family be found somewhere who could tame that wild, Celtic shock of hair? Poor Burgess looked like he'd just raced in late from a cross-town Frat smoker!
3) We all deserved a couple extra minutes of Gable's jaw-dropping "Ritz" number (damn those foreign troops!); don't give-up your "day job", Clark, but don't take any guff from Fred or Bing, either; you looked & sounded swell!
What a topsy-turvy world, wherein I beheld Gene & Pete spoofing that same act in Brooks' Young Frankenstein over 30 years before I saw the original! No mention of "Gary Cooper", though, when CG sang it; was that lyric added later, I wonder, or just dropped from where it would have "fourth-walled"?
Or did Porter write lotsa lyrics for this tune, all of which are seldom heard in the same performance?

Can any of you Musical types help us out here?

[jdb1]

I just looked up the lyrics on one of those song lyric sites, and it has that line in what it calls the "original" version of 1928. However, a lot of those original lyrics were changed by the time Fed Astaire sang it in 1930. The song original teased the "swells" of Harlem parading in their finery and "trying hard to look like Gary Cooper." That aspect of the song was of course toned down, as we can now hear.

But it's still a good song. Are there any New Yorkers out there who had to suffer through the public school annual "Spring Dance" ritual. This is where the entire school prepares dance numbers to perform before everyone else, and parents, in the outdoor schoolyard. It's still being done today. In my day, in the upper grades of elementry school, say from 3rd grade on, we girls were singled out to perform a silly little dance to either "Steppin' Out" or "Puttin' on the Ritz" every gosh-darn year.

[movieman1957]

Klondike:

Could it be as simple as Copper not belonging to MGM? Based on Judith's post he was mentioned originally.

Just a silly guess.

[jdb1]

Yes, I think that, and the mentioning Cooper in a Gable movie were probably the reasons. I wonder whose call that was?

[Bogie]

I saw this movie a long time ago on TCM and I loved it. The only thing is, I wish the studio had the guts to release the international ending to the domestic audience as I thought that ending was a lot stronger.

The only thing that really distracted me was Norma Shearer's acting but I was told that it's pretty much a hold over to her silent days with all the gesticulation and such.

[mrsl]

I saw Idiots Delight long ago on a Chicago station, long before TCM was a twinkle in someones eye. IF that was Clark singing, I always thought he did a great job, but I recall being shocked at him actually doing a song and dance act, I never thought he would ever do anything like that! As for Norma, she uses a lot of gestures all the time, but I think she was really hamming it up for this part, and to convince Clark that she was not the girl he remembered. She too, was great though. I kept looking for Lucy - one of those girls sure sounded like her to me, did anyone else notice?

Anne

[Ayres]

Stole this history of Puttin' on the Ritz (which Clark certainly did sing himself) from Wikipedia:

"Puttin' on the Ritz" is a popular song written and published in 1929 by Irving Berlin and introduced by Harry Richman in the musical film Puttin' on the Ritz (1930). The title derives from the slang expression "putting on the Ritz", meaning to dress very fashionably. The expression was inspired by the swanky Ritz Hotel.

The original version of Berlin's song included references to the then-popular fad of well-dressed but poor black Harlemites parading up and down Lenox Avenue. Berlin later revised the lyrics to apply to affluent whites strutting "up and down Park Avenue," possibly because by 1946, when Astaire sang the song in Blue Skies, race relations were changing. Other lyric changes included:

Original: Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns from down the levee, all misfits
Revised: Different types who wear a day coat, pants with stripes and cut away coat, perfect fits

Original: That's where each and ev'ry Lulu-Belle goes, ev'ry Thursday evening with her swell beaus
Revised: Dressed up like a million dollar trouper, trying hard to look like Gary Cooper

Original: Come with me and we'll attend the jubilee, and see them spend their last two bits
Revised: Come, let's mix where Rockerfellers walk with sticks, or umber-ellas In their mitts

Hit phonograph records of the tune in its original popularity of 1929-1930 were recorded by Harry Richman and Fred Astaire (so Astaire sang both versions).

[moira finnie]

I loved Clark Gable in this one. He is supposed to be a poor dancer and singer. It's such a shame, if true, that the suits at MGM convinced him that he made a mistake appearing in this. There is a devil-may-care grifter side of his persona that is very endearing and this is one of the last times we glimpse it before the war, the loss of Carole Lombard and life made him slower and took some of the bounce out of his step. He is this idiot's delight.

Norma Shearer, who is said to have been doing an imitation--at least in part--of Greta Garbo, was fine in the early vaudeville scenes, but I did have a hard time getting past the bad blonde wig. I don't think that was Lucy you spotted among the Harry Van girls, Anne, but Virginia Grey, who came very close to marrying Gable and never, ever spoke to the press about it. She is one of the more noticeable and most charming little corinnes in the gaggle. Louis B. Mayer reportedly told her once that she had everything that goes into making an actress a star but one thing--good luck. I suspect that she also didn't have that ruthlessness that's a prerequisite for most of 'em.

I also enjoy Skeets Gallagher whenever he pops up in a movie. He's no actor, but a knowing man of the world who had a way with a line, (though you'd really not know it from this one).

Terrific performance by Gable, maybe one of his best.

[Moraldo Rubini]

Norma Shearer, who is said to have been doing an imitation--at least in part--of Greta Garbo, was fine in the early vaudeville scenes, but I did have a hard time getting past the bad blonde wig.

This is one of my all-time favorite comedies and I'm happy to see a thread devoted to it. This is also one of my most impatiently awaited movies for DVD release. When it will ever come out?!

Moira, it was my understanding that Norma Shearer's broadly-played role was an homage to Lynn Fontanne, who played Irene in the original Broadway production. I'd heard that many of the gestures belonged to Miss Fontanne. But she's supposed to be phony, guys. She's a con from Omaha! I only caught the end of this last screening, and look forward to TCM's next showing to hold me over until that elusive DVD comes out.

[CoffeeDan]

. . .good thing Edith Head hadn't been contracted for this one, she never would've let that jacket, nor the waxy-looking boater that topped it, off the wardrobe trolley.

She could when she wanted to. Don't you remember the loud pin-striped suit she designed for Robert Redford in the opening reels of THE STING?

[klondike]

. . .good thing Edith Head hadn't been contracted for this one, she never would've let that jacket, nor the waxy-looking boater that topped it, off the wardrobe trolley.

She could when she wanted to. Don't you remember the loud pin-striped suit she designed for Robert Redford in the opening reels of THE STING?

Vaguely, yes . . the one time I watched The Sting on the big screen, I was on a blind date with a ripe young tomato who was later extorted into becoming Mrs. Klondike, and so, I fear, wasn't paying very close attention to what Bobby & Paul were up to . .
(Thirty years later she's still distracting enough to make me burn the beans.)
I guess the best defense I could suggest for Edith's mid 70's faux pas was failing eyesight, perhaps an encroaching malaise of too long a career? I've read where many felt she never again topped the field after being dumped by Audrey Hepburn in favor of Givenchy.

[MissGoddess]

I LOVE Idiot's Delight! I think it's such an off-beat sort of comedy for both Clark and Norma. In fact, this is one of my favorite Norma Shearer characters and I never saw her play one even remotely like her before. Clark also got to indulge in playing an even more waggish con-man than usual and he's marvelous, turning in a truly drole performance. My favorite scenes are in the beginning when he and Norma are just getting together. His reactions to her whoppers are priceless.