seem to find the happiness

 

     I want to take Indiscreet (1958, on You Tube) and Designing Woman (1957, Amazon Prime-rent or buy) and watch them both, taking notes on what to discuss about them.

     I say "WATCH" because even though I keep talking about these movies, I haven't watched either of them lately.  I stream them on android tablet, and listen to them while I'm doing things at home ...

     Alfred Hitchcock's polite criticism of verbal films of the 1960s was that they were "photographs of people talking."  He believed films should not be that; they should tell the story visually, where possible.  (You still have dialogue, though....)

     Anyway, I think these two 1950s romantic comedies use visual techniques and "splash" to tell part of their stories, but I miss that because I'm never watching, I'm only listening - while doing stuff.

     Both Indiscreet and Designing Woman are about falling in love.  In modern times, it's been written that there is really no such thing as a romantic comedy anymore because those stories used to be based on obstacles that the couple faced, and in today's society, there are no obstacles.

     But actually, if you see these two 1950s films, they still work today, because the obstacles are ones that have not disappeared with an evolving society.  

     In Designing Woman, the obstacles are simply the two people in love accepting and adjusting to each other's priorities, lifestyles, tastes, etc.  

     And there's the age-old thing where one partner is upset because the other one used to date someone before meeting them.  (It doesn't make sense, but people do that anyway -- at least in movies...)

     And in Indiscreet, it's a question of the two people getting onto the same page as to what the relationship is going to be.  That type of obstacle may change form, with time, but it doesn't disappear.

______________________________

     Something that fascinated me the first time I played Designing Woman from Amazon was, I could notice the influence of not one, but two Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy movies:  Woman of the Year (1942), and Pat and Mike (1952).

     From Woman of the Year, Designing Woman borrowed the scene where the newly married couple has a party and all their friends are there, and her friends are vastly different from his, so it's awkward / funny / weird...

     In Pat and Mike, there are underworld-mob guys interested in fixing sporting events and illegally winning money on them, and they become a threat.  This scenario is mirrored in Designing Woman -- It's played for laughs in both films -- no one is getting seriously beaten up, it isn't the Godfather or the French Connection, right?....

     Indiscreet was directed by Stanley Donen -- the guy who received an honorary award at the 1997 Oscars, and danced with it, singing --

Heaven -- I'm in heaven,

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak --

And I seem to find the happiness I seek,

When we're out together dancing, cheek to cheek...

     Wow, that was 39 years after Indiscreet....

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