Posted on 04/07/2019 4:00:28 PM PDT by Twotone
In George Lucas' best film - no, not Star Wars Episode 12: The Force Awakens the Empire's Return of the Revenge of the Awakening of the Force, but American Graffiti - there's a scene where young Harrison Ford and young Cindy Williams are sitting sullenly in his '55 Chevy during a rather awkward moment in their relationship. Ford suggested to Lucas that it might be a good idea for him to serenade her in a somewhat sardonic fashion. The director liked the idea, and they tried the scene with a couple of Everly Brothers tunes (all the music in the film is early rock'n'roll from the end of the Fifties and the dawn of the Sixties). But nothing seemed to work, and eventually Harrison Ford hit upon warbling Rodgers & Hammerstein in florid mock-operatic Italian-voweled bombast:
Somm Enchanntid Eefning You will see a strainjer You will see a strainjer Across a crrrrowdid rhum And soddenly you knowww That sheee is the one...
Young Harrison didn't get the lyric quite right, but for a rock'n'roll greaser's take on Ezio Pinza, who introduced the song on Broadway, and Rossano Brazzi, who (dubbed by Giorgio Tozzi) sang it in the film version, it's pretty good. The composer, Richard Rodgers, hated the scene, of course, and refused Lucas permission to use it - which is why it wasn't included on American Graffiti's original run in 1973, but only showed up on the film's theatrical re-release five years later, by which time Rodgers had presumably relented. Still, one has to admire Ford's instinct for la chanson juste: this was a perfect choice for a song that stands in contrast to all the rock and doowop and teeny pop on the soundtrack - a stately, grandiloquent tune, a lyric of heightened romantic enchantment...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Songbook ping.
bfl
No matter what he writes about, in any amount of paragraphs Steyn never fails to entertain and enlighten (I know that phrase is already in use but really, Glenn doesn’t fit that description).
Another great read. Thanks for sharing.
Cindy Williams was pretty. It seems like her career just died after or maybe during “Laverne and Shirley”.
This thread is begging for a joke.
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Sounds like a hoot. Any way there's a YouTube of it?
Found it!
Sam and Janet.
Sam and Janet who?
Don't say it, you bastard. :-D
If you go to the link, Steyn has the clip of Harrison Ford serenading Cindy Williams.
Oh, you know I’m going to. The punchline is coming.
AG’s mise en scène nailed my teenage years. It is as it was. Been there, done that.
I wish Steyn’s TV persona was as good as his writing. Why doesn’t he have a presence on Fox, anyway?
I tell younger people today that no one was smoking pot or using drugs when I was in high school, at least where I lived, in the mid to late '60s and they find it hard to believe.
Harrison certainly can sing. He did that pretty well.
It reminded me of my high school years too. There were some differences. We listened to the Big Bam in Montgomery Al. during the day and WLS at night.
Someone told me they only played 10 different hits during prime hours. I checked and they were right.
All the high school kids hung out at the Parkway. Dragging main was not quite as popular but it was a small town.
Never heard of Wolfman Jack. So many kids parked at Back Lakes that someone stole a city parking meter and stuck it in the ground there.
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