Sally vs. Carrie

 

In May 1977, my father took my brother and I to the movie theater at Quince Orchard, Maryland (Gaithersburg) and we finally got to see the first Star Wars movie – well after all our friends had.  In summer 1980, our cousins took us to see “The Empire Strikes Back” in Rockville, Maryland.  And in London, 1983, my brother and I saw “Return of the Jedi” at Leicester Square, with some highly vocal local boys who were kind of annoying.  But imagine our immense surprise when the bounty hunter taking Chewbacca in to Jabba the Hutt, and unfreezing Han Solo from his carbon freezing, takes off the helmet to reveal it’s… Princess Leia.  Soon after, the heretofore fully-clothed Leia now appeared in a highly provocative bikini – aka “Slave Leia” and a common sight in cosplay circles.  I think I speak for all males out there when I say that Carrie Fisher was definitely a knockout in that attire.

 Around the same time “Star Wars” came out, another popular movie came out.  In this film, a charismatic rogue, “Bandit”, drove a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Special Edition eastbound from Texarkana to Georgia, distracting the police from a large rig carrying 400 cases of Coors beer further east than it could legally be sold at that time.  He picked up an attractive girl, “Frog” (Sallie Field) who was escaping from a wedding (Snowman, observing her bridal gown flying out from the Trans Am’s t-tops: “what’s she wearing now?”).  Her father-in-law-to-be, played by Jackie Gleason, wasn’t too pleased at this change of plans and took to pursuing the couple well outside his jurisdiction – as one angry local cop reminded him. 

 Sally Field and Carrie Fisher are two beautiful actresses who I sometimes confuse with one another: they are both very cute, somewhat short, and have iconic roles.   Field (DOB 11/6/46) is ten years older than Fisher (DOB 10/24/56) but remarkably still among us.  Fisher, sadly, passed away fairly recently (12/27/16).  Both are highly attractive, fairly short, and brunette.  Fisher has a famous actress mother, Debbie Reynolds (“The Unsinkable Molly Brown”), and I’m not sure Field’s parents are famous.   They both went on to other roles afterwards.   Fisher served as Sally’s (Meg Ryan) friend in “When Harry Met Sally”, and Field served as Forrest Gump’s mom.  

Paint Your Unsinkable Wagon Brown

Last December, actress Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher died, followed the following day by her mother, Debbie “Molly Brown” Reynolds.  I decided to put “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” on my Netflix queue, but it seems I wasn’t the only one who did so.  Only after I returned from a recent trip to Colorado (!) did I find the DVD waiting for me, and of course I watched it.  I’d seen it before, eons ago with my parents, but I find that rewatching movies after I’ve experienced life a bit more makes them a different experience. 

The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  The true story of this remarkable woman who grew up and developed in late nineteenth century Colorado, Denver in particular.  It seems she and her husband were both of hillbilly background but struck it rich, much to the annoyance of their snobby neighbors in Denver.  She went off to Paris, learned French and other languages, got “culture”, and eventually came back to impress everyone for good.   She went back to Paris again, this time returning on a so-called unsinkable ocean liner, the Titanic.  She was one of the survivors.

The movie features Debbie Reynolds in the title role, with Harve Presnell as her husband.  It’s a musical, and it’s long.  However, it’s charming enough to be endurable, and I love the Paris scenes.  She picked the right time to go, right before WWI.   If you haven’t seen it, and you have 3 hours to spare, knock yourself out – especially if you like musicals.

Paint Your Wagon.  As it happens, I don’t know why, but I also put “Paint Your Wagon” on my queue as well.  Eventually Netflix decided to send it to me, and for some reason I decided to watch it.   Guess what, it’s another long-ass musical.   The main characters are Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) and a character only known (his name only revealed at the very end) as “Pardner”, played by Clint Eastwood.  There are other actors as well, which I’ll get into.

Rumson and Pardner start off as gold prospectors in northern California in the mid-1800s.  A Mormon man comes to town and is forced to auction off his second wife, Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), and Rumson manages to win the auction for her – by drunkenly offering to double the last bid, which no one can match.  At this point she’s the only woman in a mining town of 300+ men (apparently all of them straight).  When they catch word that a shipment of 6 French ladies can be hijacked, Rumson goes off to head the hijacking party to capture them, leaving Pardner to guard Elizabeth.  In Rumson’s absence, the two fall in love.  When Rumson returns, she decides she loves both and the three wind up in a very unconventional lifestyle.  The town develops into a Sin City, with several brothels, saloons and casinos to cater to every vice imaginable.  Eventually it all comes crashing down – literally.  I found it highly entertaining, despite its length.  Part of the charm is hearing Eastwood sing in his own voice, a talent which didn’t come up in the Dirty Harry films.  “Make…My….Day…!”

A familiar face, Ray Walston, is here too.  But one guy, Rotten Luck Willie [ironically named, it seems], who winds up running one of the main saloons, caught my eye – and my ear, as he had a particularly strong singing voice.  Where had I seen him before?  (Slaps head):  it’s Harve Presnell, better known as Mr. Molly Brown. 

So that makes TWO musicals worth wasting time watching, with a common actor.  ENJOY.