George Sanders: Singer and Actor

[moira finnie]

Call Me Madam (1953) is premiering on TCM this evening, 2/11 at 10pm EST. Though I'm not generally a fan of an Ethel Merman after the '30s, this movie is great fun, based on the life of socialite Pearl Mesta, and the cast includes a delightful Donald O'Connor dancing very well with Vera Lynn. Ethel is especially good here since we get to see her paired with the velvet-voiced George Sanders, who was a wonderful singer as well as one of the most entertaining bounders in the movies. In Call Me Madam he plays a nice guy and in the clip below he is singing Irving Berlin's "Marrying for Love" from Call Me Madam. Lucky Ethel Merman gets romanced by a guy who could have given Ezio Pinza a run for his musical comedy number:
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I really love Ethel Merman's early work in the decade of the '30s, though she lost all her subtlety as she aged. To catch a glimpse of the good Ethel, here's a clip from a Paramount short Be Like Me (1931). Wish that someone would upload her knockout version of Sing You Sinners from her first short, Her Future (1930). It's incredible.

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Did anyone else get to see this film?

[srowley75]

Hi Moira,

Thanks for mentioning this little-seen gem and the irrrepressible Ms. Merman. It's a shame that most of Merman's Broadway hits were recast when they were adapted to film. At least she retained the lead in this film, because watching her in action you can understand why the musical was such a smash. While you're not alone in voicing distate for her lack of subtlety - several of my Broadway-obsessed friends have listened to her albums and found her nasally and intolerable - I think Merman's uninhibited, brassy style enhances the comedy of many of her roles (e.g., on film, the manipulative and psychotic b**** Mrs. Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World). I'm sure that aspect also made her seem larger than life and quite dazzling on stage.

In this film, her belting voice and broad stance fits in well with the enthusiastic, nouveau-riche and streetwise though slightly gauche character of Mrs. Adams. I think it also makes her a fun foil for the uptight Billy DeWolfe - I love their initial confrontation in which she tells him once and for all who's boss. And boy, does she have a blast with those Irving Berlin musical numbers, especially "Can You Use Any Money Today," "You're Just in Love," and (my favorite) "Hostess With the Mostest." (I also like Donald O'Connor's song "It's a Lovely Day Today," though its incorporation in the film is strange and I'm left to wonder if the song was written especially for the film version or if it was performed somehow differently on stage.)

Until a few years ago, this film was extremely difficult to find. I managed to locate a terrible yet expensive copy from an online seller back in the late 1990s, yet I was still able to enjoy the movie because I thought Merman did so well in the lead. Needless to say, I was very pleased when the film was finally released to DVD in the early 00's in a much better-looking print. So if you missed it, good news - you can always add it to the NetFlix queue.

If you want to hear a funny anecdote about Merman's Broadway run of Call Me Madam, get yourself a CD or DVD copy of Elaine Stritch: At Liberty. Stritch was Merman's understudy and eventually toured the country performing in the lead.

[moira finnie]

Thanks for mentioning Elaine Stritch's anecdote. Her film is very entertaining.

In Call Me Madam, I found Merman okay and only over the top in a few scenes. She was fun and, having heard more of her singing on recordings from her Broadway days in the 30s and 40s, that voice was a unique instrument, and there was a coarsening of it as she aged, unfortunately. I think she might have been better advised (if she took advice, which I doubt), to tone it down.

This film may have been hard to find in recent years (until Fox Movie Channel started showing it), but when I first saw it Call Me Madam used to pop up on broadcast tv regularly in the '70s and Merman was a bombastic regular on several tv.

However, I really watched the film to catch George Sanders singing. I still prefer Merman earlier in her career.

[knitwit45]

Hi Moira! It seems I'm following you around the Oasis this morning..

I loved this one, just for the same reasons. Merman was a real eye-opener for me in the film shown just previous to this one, Alexander's Ragtime Band. She was very pretty, and her voice was stunning. Then, in this one, she had definitely "matured", but she wasn't yet the caricature of herself that she would soon become. She projected a real joie de vivre in this. I loved the scene Stephen mentioned, when Billy DeWolfe said " I am the charge' d'affaires" and she replied, "Well, I am the charge' duh everything!"

I had never heard George Sanders sing...what a super treat! He looked like he was actually having a good time, never that "geez, I'm bored!" expression. When she sang to him, and you're looking over his shoulder, his face was completely engaged in her songs. And singing with an accent...that has to be tough to do I would think.

I will be singing "It's a Lovely Day Today" for the rest of the week.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Hello, Moira!

I hadn't seem Call Me Madam in ages, and had completely forgotten about George Sanders' role. His singing was unbelievable. I wonder if Zsa Zsa ever enjoyed it when he was in the shower!

And the Merman clip from the 30's is lovely. She did lose a great deal of subtlety as she aged. But what a riveting rendition it is in the clip.

Thanks for those!

[srowley75]

Hi Moira,

I had meant to include a line or two about George Sanders in my earlier post but forgot. But I agree about his voice. It's somewhat surprising to me that he wasn't cast in one or two more musicals (I suppose he might've been but refused them).

[stuart.uk]

Hi Miora

I find it interesting George Sanders was married to Ronald Colman's widow Benita Hume inbetween Zsa and Magda Gabor. As Benita and Ronnie gave the impression of being one of the more solid married couples, it's almost a surprise she took George on. Yet the marraige lasted about 10-yrs until her death. I have often wondered if Sanders might not have committed suicide, even though he'd been plannning it for yrs, not wanting to grow old, if Benita was still by his side.

[JackFavell]

My guilty pleasure has always been watching Sanders in this movie. But I guess I don't have to feel guilty anymore... everyone else seems to love it.

I am one of the few who likes Merman old, young, any way at all. I think it's because I grew up listening to my parents cast albums of Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun. I, for one, would have loved to see her do Gypsy on the screen. I get upset that I was denied seeing her perform the Mama Rose number, though I like Roz a lot. When I listen to the original cast recording, I know that Merman was magnificent.

She can be a bombastic joke most of the time, but when it comes to the moment when the character needs to stop and reflect, I think Merman does a great job. There are lots of small moments in Call Me Madam in which she really gets the job done, without sentimentality, and with surprising seriousness.

I found Billy De Wolfe more irritating than Merman.

Sanders did get offered other musical roles - the first was as Ezio Pinza's replacement in South Pacific. He spent almost a hundred thousand dollars renting a recording studio and orchestra so he could send a recording of his vocal expertise to Rodgers and Hammerstein. It worked, they signed him the role. But according to Brian Aherne (Sanders best and possibly only friend), George got cold feet thinking of doing the performance hundreds of times in a row. The boredom would surely get to him... he became shaky and nervous at the prospect of devoting himself fully to the run of the show. A few weeks after signing the contract, George developed a serious back problem that forced him to quit the show.

I believe Moira wrote about the musical version of The Man Who Came To Dinner, Sherry. Sanders by all accounts was marvelous in the role, but his wife Benita was diagnosed with cancer and he became distraught, quitting the show to take care of her.

I don't think that Sanders would have committed suicide had Benita lived, but there is always a little niggling doubt in the back of my mind. He was quite selfish, though his love for Benita seemed to override that. He was quite ill at the time of his death, and was rapidly losing the ability to do the things he cared about. He loved music, and when he found he could no longer play his beloved piano, a beautiful instrument, he took an axe and chopped it into kindling, rather than let anyone else own it.

If he had found he was unable to take care of Benita (his one true love, I believe), I don't know what he would have done. He was subject to the blackest fits of depression - and was known to sulk openly for hours, not speaking to anyone, even if he was at a social event, or behind the scenes while making a movie. Then again, according to Benita herself, if George did not like you, he would simply shut down all communication..... so these supposed fits of depression might have simply been George's attempts to revile a too friendly companion.