Tag Archives: old movies

The American Dream

Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House

Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin’s egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don’t let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I’d like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you’ll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong! Now, this is the paper we’re going to use in the hall. It’s flowered, but I don’t want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There’s some little dots in the background, and it’s these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the Delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room – in here – I want you to match this thread, and don’t lose it. It’s the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it’s practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me…

Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?

Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.

Mr. PeDelford: Check.

I thoroughly enjoyed it again.  It isn’t the greatest of all Carey Grant movies, but it has some of the greatest moments.  :)  Borrow from your local library!

mr blandings

Wanted:  Anyone who owns at least 40 acres, a house with good bones, a barn or two plus an assortment of interesting out-buildings, a couple of horses and some farming equipment (a great big tractor is a must) want to trade me for a suburban house in a small city just 20 minutes from the heart of Denver?  Comes with a few garden squares, a pool pad, 3-car garage, and really {extraordinarily} nice neighbors.

Thought I’d ask just in case I am living in your dream – because YOU are living in mine!

Let’s trade!   :)

How to Marry a Millionaire {The Apartment}

I LOVE old movies

As they go, however, this one isn’t on any of my top lists or anything (not much of a story), other than the fact that the cast is amazing – Lauren Bacall (gorgeous, smart), Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable (who was already a little old for this role) as gold-diggers in one of the first-ever wide-screen CinemaScope films in 1953.  So it is beautiful to watch.

Naturally, the women are after money (men with money, specifically), but end up falling in love.   Oops.  I just spoiled it for you, didn’t I?

But in their pursuit of sugar-daddies, they lease this magnificent New York apartment.  The furnishings are pure mid-century-classic-dreamy.

Lamp-loving

Over the course of the film, they sell and re-buy the furnishings repeatedly as money is needed to keep up their charade.  But the lamp…the lamp stays.  And I am in love with that lamp.  If I could get my hands on it, I’d build a house around it.

Colors-so-lovely: Yellow-orange bench seating and throw pillows. Buttercup yellow couches, cool blue-gray floors and walls, beige and plum-brown throw-pillows.

Everything else was easy-come, easy-go, but the lamp always stayed!  I totally understand why.  :)

Think {mid-century} pink!

There may not be a greater example of mid-century modern, artistic, mouth-watering, pristine, high-fashion, silly-but-endearing, picturesque, old-fashioned and up-to-date in one fell swoop movie ever…

If there is, it is not coming to mind presently.  Because:

Think Pink?  Oh, yes, please!

Banish the black, burn the blue, and bury the beige

From now on girls

Think Pink!

It is on Netflix right now, “Funny Face” (1957) starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.  Costumes by Edith Head and Audrey’s Paris wardrobe by Givenchy.  The Gershwin Brother’s fab music…It’s o-so-adorable and just plain good-for-the-brain beauty and charm, wit and glamour.  There are singing and dancing, and dresses divine. Cinematography?  Marvelous!  Sets?  Stimluating!  Charm?  Galore!

Suspend disbelief and the fact that Fred is way too old to be with Audrey and all kinds of other weaknesses in plot and script and just enjoy the fantasy and delightful frolics this film entices you to enjoy.  You MUST just grab some chocolate and sit yourself down for a sense-captivating romp through 1957.  This minute!  REALLY!!!

 

Moonlight in Vermont

The main problem

Here is what I have against Dave’s new TV, his Apple-TV thingy and the Netflix subscription (all Christmas gifts) is – OMYGOSH!  There is all this great stuff available.  What should I have been doing early this morning?  Well, probably something much more fruitful than watching Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in “People Will Talk,” which is just-so-mid-century-BEAUTIFUL and cute and romantic and touching and ridiculous and lovely and c’mon – CARY GRANT!!!

What should I be doing now besides deep-conditioning my hair, catching up on some house stuff,  and making a packing list?  Well, possibly not watching Frank Sinatra {Sinatra: The Classic Duets, where he performs with Ella “Moonlight in Vermont” Fitzgerald and Dean Martin and pretty much anybody from the Rat Pack, his daughter Nancy, Elvis Presley, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and more!!!},

but I. can’t help. myself!!

I am wholly and thoroughly distracted by great music.  O yes, I am !!

Singing along.  I am Ella.