Posted on 08/03/2019 8:01:26 PM PDT by Rummyfan
I can't sing, dance or act. I'm in awe of anyone who can, particularly performers who leave everything on stage, who reportedly lose five pounds every night during their Vegas residency, who have zero vanity or inhibitions — who commit.
"They make it look easy" is a cliché of a compliment. I most admire those who make it look hard.
That's why I insist that Gene Kelly was a better dancer than Fred Astaire.
And that Patty Duke deserved an Oscar nomination for Valley of the Dolls (1967).
This film adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's mega-blockbuster novel about three young women striving to make it in show biz is always lazily described as "so bad it's good." I reject this premise, just as I never qualify some of my favorite films as "guilty pleasures." If you've watched Cobra or Con Air with glee, and can't wait to do it again, then by definition that movie cannot be "bad." (Would you do the same thing with a restaurant?)
True, Valley of the Dolls doesn't look as fabulous as it should. The material and milieu demand a retina-melting Sirkian palette, but we're stuck with gauzy pastels and beige. Lots. Of. Beige.
Others complain about the Previns' pastiche songs, or the goofy ending, and that I'll grant: Why, after saying goodbye to Lyle forever, does Anne dramatically exit her own damn house, then saunter in a satori-like state through thick New England snow... wearing flats?
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
I guess I will have to watch it some day.
What is a flat?
Alex; What is flats.
And I'm a fan of movies of that type. Others are The Best of Everything and Peyton Place.
I would describe them of movies that came out in the post-war period, and were aimed at young women who longed to go to the big city and live the life of an independent American female.
They were (in my view) actually warning parables, mid-century versions of the "penny dreadfuls" of one hundred years before.
You see them all the time you just don’t know it
They’re currently ballet flats. Shoes with no heel. Not running shoes. Black or brown leather flats
You don’t go around in the New England snow wearing them. boots. They can be feminine boots
But a film loses credibility when starlets have their ankles exposed to snow. No woman would do it in reality
Like yutes wearing flip flops in the cold & rain?
A flat pump, without a heel.
Pump?
I am male. I know of boots & tennis shoes & cleats.
A plain shoe, no heel, no frills
“Like yutes wearing flip flops in the cold & rain?”
LOL. Kinda. More like guys building a Trojan horse in the woods using chainsaws in the Middle Ages looking for the Holy Grail
Of course she's wearing flats in the snow.
She'd look pretty silly wearing heels!
She did everything he did.
Backwards.
In heels!
I had to do a double take because it seemed impossible that Mark Steyn would have a soft spot for VOTD. It made sense once I saw it was written by Kathy Shaidle, whoever she is.
I’ve seen the movie several times and it’s such an entertaining train wreck I can’t look away. It’s high camp because it takes itself so seriously. And I’ll watch it again the next time it pops up on Turner Classic Movies.
Lol. Steyn means as opposed to boots
Eh, if you want to watch Sharon Tate watch the Matt Helm movie The Wrecking Crew, it’s silly and easier to get through.
Loved reading the Matt Helm books. The movies made from them were like satire...hated them. They ridiculed/trivalized my man Matt.
Once Bond was popular there just wasn’t room for another serious spy in the movies, I think that’s why they went the parody route with Dean Martin and the Flint movies with James Coburn.
Yeah, but that isn’t any where near as funny...
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