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| Cinderella Jones - Movie Club 2018 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 20 2018, 05:34 AM (263 Views) | |
| bure420 | Jun 20 2018, 05:34 AM Post #1 |
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deadpan darling
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For Movie Club I am picking a rarely seen Busby Berkeley feature from 1946, Cinderella Jones. Cinderella Jones is fucking insane. It has almost everything. Dancing, singing, jokes, fights, romance, courtroom scenes, diner humour galore, classic Hollywood "genius/academic/scientist/inventor" characters, horse-riding, cops, military, college kids, a trio of wacky lawyers, everything. Everything! It also has probably my TWO favourite character actors EVER, Elisha Cook Jr. and S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall. It also has Edward Everett Horton, who's up there as well. In most films I like, as in more than 99%, I'm most of all in love with the compositions. There are so many still moments that I can point to as reasons why I love the movie. With this movie, no such luck. I searched! Nothing really stood out at me. Which is WEIRD for a Busby Berkeley movie. This sure ain't The Gang's All Here. Maybe that's why it has a 5.3 on imdb from only 187 votes? But I'll tell you what. This movie is genius. It's a million things that shouldn't work together yet do. And it's a wild ride. Have fun! |
![]() sad_satellites on letterboxd | ordinaryeternalmachinery on tumblr | |
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| bure420 | Jun 20 2018, 04:24 PM Post #2 |
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deadpan darling
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I thought of more things to say about the film. The acting is really fascinating. Everyone's committed. Everyone's all-in on every single moment of every single scene. I've never seen anything like it. And the screenplay is ridiculous. It's like someone had a billion different gags they couldn't fit in their other films so they shoved them all in this one. Wait till you see the horse... This is the closest thing I have to a guilty pleasure film. But I don't have guilty pleasure films, because that's a stupid concept. But I love this film not for its aesthetics so much as its sincerity. I don't know if that makes sense. |
![]() sad_satellites on letterboxd | ordinaryeternalmachinery on tumblr | |
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| owene73 | Jun 20 2018, 08:45 PM Post #3 |
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g legs' no. 1 fan
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Thanks for choosing this, it was just what I wanted to watch last night so despite not having taken part in the film club until now I thought I'd reply. But it turns out you've covered most of what I was going to say, it is as you say, fucking insane. I got a similar vibe from The Gang's all here, almost surreal in the way it throws everything in and how everything is derived purely from movies rather than anything real at all. The 30s films that get linked most often to Busby Berkeley always have a lot going on alongside his sequences and are generally quite grounded. Whereas this and the others I've seen from him in the 40s where he is the credited director are all this weird hyper real mess where nothing can be taken seriously and are an absolute blast. You are right about how committed the actors are, none of the central love quadrilateral were performers I'd really noticed before although letterboxd tells me I've seen them all a few times but they all manage to sell something really intently despite there not really being anything of substance to sell as Berkeley moves from one set up to another and seemingly undermines the plot at each point. Undermines might be too strong as it implies the actors aren't in on it, it's more that everyone has fun with an ever shifting plot that has no intent of sincerity, which makes the actors efforts all the stranger. They and the film are on different levels of sincerity but they aren't being laughed at and in fact they all deliver good romantic comedy performances despite the script and direction taking the piss. There are also as you mention some great character actors here, I really liked Ruth Donnelly's turn as well the people you list and the script makes up for it's incoherent plotting with enough good lines to send me looking up the writer as soon as it finished. Strange to find the Blue Gardenia as another credit but he also wrote 22 episodes of the Batman TV series which actually fits the tone and ability to fly off into absurdity quite well. As a musical it lacked any real killer songs but the staging was great fun. I'm not sure it's one i'll return to or that'll stay with me but it's made me want to watch more from the period this week which is the next best result i guess and as a big fan of 30s and 40s comedies the cast and tone was always going to be a winner with me, |
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| rischka | Jun 21 2018, 01:53 AM Post #4 |
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nazi trumps fuck off!!
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what language is that? i'm not bifocal! edit: this dumb computer won't upload to imgur this was fun and i needed a laugh! thx Edited by rischka, Jun 21 2018, 01:57 AM.
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"covfefe" -- dj cheeto letterboxd + tumblr + twitter | |
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| Lencho of the Apes | Jun 21 2018, 07:55 PM Post #5 |
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Let's go do some crimes
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Based on an irredeemably sexist premise; that kinda spoiled it for me. I can see other peoples' mileages have varied... It's lively and energetic and silly enough to be a decent also-ran 40s farce in the Preston Sturges style. |
| "The four cardinal points of the compass? In reality, there are only three: North and South." | |
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| bure420 | Jun 22 2018, 03:40 AM Post #6 |
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deadpan darling
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That's a good way of putting it! Glad you enjoyed the film |
![]() sad_satellites on letterboxd | ordinaryeternalmachinery on tumblr | |
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| owene73 | Jun 22 2018, 06:44 AM Post #7 |
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g legs' no. 1 fan
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The sexism was so extreme that I just went with it. When you have Elisha cook and a few other characters talking to her for a while before even noticing she’s a woman it didn’t seen to be operating in reality as far as gender went it seemed to be going for something more fairy tale. Not that that level of sexism wasn’t a reality back then of course
Edited by owene73, Jun 22 2018, 06:45 AM.
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| rischka | Jun 22 2018, 12:20 PM Post #8 |
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nazi trumps fuck off!!
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it's part of the huge post war trend of getting women out of the workplace and showing them they really just want to be married. film noir is part of that too: when women have agency they are dangerous! i didn't take it at all seriously and barely noticed til lencho mentioned it
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"covfefe" -- dj cheeto letterboxd + tumblr + twitter | |
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| mesnalty | Jun 28 2018, 05:25 PM Post #9 |
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g legs' flame
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Wacky fun indeed! Sad to say maybe half the jokes didn't land for me, especially the ones involving Judy not understanding basic vocabulary, but it was still an enjoyable romp. |
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