Not a film but a wildly (especially in Baltimore, where it was shot) popular television show, Homicide: Life on the Streets featured Robin Williams in an episode directed by my beloved Stephen Gyllenhaal, who cast his young son in a guest role. This is the scene where Jake is told that his mother is dead. Be prepared to have your heart torn out.
Here's a Charles Trenet standard that's been heard in at least three films. Name one.
Name the only film in the list below in which Garbo dies:
1. The Temptress
2. Flesh and the Devil
3. The Mysterious Lady
And then there's Love Me Tonight (1932), a pre-Code classic from Mamoulian and one of the best musicals ever. Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Ruggles, even Gabby Hayes(!) when he was still just plain ol' George. Highlights: the incredible opening scene where Paris awakens, MacDonald in a nightgown so deliciously transparent it belongs in a stag movie, and the "traveling" melodies "Isn't It Romantic?" and "Mimi", both courtesy of Rodgers and Hart. In time, Rodgers came to detest Hart, MacDonald came to loathe Chevalier and I wasn't too crazy about Mamoulian after working eight months deciphering his rambling tales of Hollywood yore. But - art lives on long after old grudges die, and this film is proof of that.
Personal connections with this film:
- I was Mamoulian's amaneunsis in the late 1970s.
- Queen Christina is a heavily-romanticized biopic of Christina of Sweden who, in real life, ennobled a certain landowner named Nils Gunnesson Haal, who then changed his surname to Gyllenhaal.
- Stephen Gyllenhaal is ninth in direct line from the original Nils Gyllenhaal.
- Stephen is my...well, you know.
Beautiful simple film, beautiful simple music. What a sweet couple to take Hollywood by storm!
