Dancing Legs Quiz ~ Nov 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2)

Good luck!

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ Sept 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2)

3)

4)

Good luck!

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ Aug 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2) 

3) 

4)

5)

Good luck!

Film Clip Find: "Black Music from 1940s"

Film Clip Find posts - a place to archive discoveries while going down the rabbit hole of research

Description: a collection of film shorts featuring African-American singers of the 1940s

Why I like this clip: beautiful singing from many artists I have not been exposed to; African-American performers get to be themselves, not exaggerated caricatures--so refreshing!

Length - 28:05

Unable to view? Click here. 

Ciao til next time!

Dancers in the Dark (1932)

This is part of Hot and Bothered: The Films of 1932 Blogathon hosted by Aurora at Once Upon a Screen and Theresa at CineMaven's Essays from the Couch. For more steamy posts, click Day 1 and Day 2.

The Task

*To write about a film from 1932
*I chose Dancers in the Dark sight unseen because of the topic (dancers!) and Miriam Hopkins.

The Film

In the film, taxi dancer Gloria (Miriam Hopkins) and saxophone player Floyd (William Collier Jr.) are in love and want to get married. He is willing to forgive her past, which may be worse than he thinks, but he insists he doesn't need to know. Bandleader Duke (Jack Oakie) grew up with Floyd and sees him as a brother. He believes Floyd deserves better than the fallen Gloria. Duke arranges for Floyd to take a four-week out-of-town job, hoping his absence will cause Gloria to reveal her true colors. Side note: At one time, Duke was also in love with Gloria, and she had a crush on him.

Miriam Hopkins, William Collier Jr., Jack Oakie

Battleground (1949)

Freedom is not free.

On this Independence Day, I would like to remember all those who fought for the freedom we enjoy by sharing Battleground (1949), a World War II film with authentic details and realistic characters.

The movie is further fitting because one of its stars is George Murphy, today's birthday boy.

Murphy is bottom right.

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ July 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2)

3)

4)

Good luck!

April & May 2016 Viewing: Garland, Brunettes, and Secrets

How I feel by the end of May....

April and May are busy months in my neck of the woods. While my tweeps are gathering at the annual TCM Film Festival, I am readying students for state testing and our end of the year drama production. May sees me furiously grading papers to meet deadlines and calling or meeting with parents about kiddos who may not make it to the next grade unless assignments get turned in. For the most part, I am on island far away from Tinseltown and its movies, but even the hardest worker is entitled to a brief respite. Here are a few of the movies I caught.

Post covers: Pigskin Parade (1936), For Me and My Gal (1942), Little Nellie Kelly (1940), Presenting Lily Mars (1943), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Secret Garden (1949)

2016 Liebster Award

A little late, but I finally made it to the Liebster Ball to accept my awards.

Thank you to Ginie from Wonderful World of Cinema and Christina Wehner for the kind nominations. In turn I would like to nominate the following blogs:

• Back to Golden Days
• Define Dancing
• Sister Celluloid

If you decide to join the ball, you will need to:

• Nominate up to 11 blogs for the award
• Give the bloggers you nominated 11 questions to answer
• Answer 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you
• Share 11 details about yourself (optional - one Liebster required it, the other did not)

Questions for the bloggers I nominated can be found here. 

Reel Infatuation: Dennis Riordan

This post is part of the Reel Infatuation Blogathon hosted by Font and Frock and Silver Screenings. To read about more cinematic crushes, click here. 

The Task

*To share a crush you have on a character 

*The difficult part of this task was picking a character as opposed to an actor crush. (Sorry, Cary!)

My Reel Infatuation

Blame it on the political season, but my crush goes to a character who has strong convictions yet can listen to the other side of the story and--gasp!--change his course of action if it benefits the whole.

Brian Aherne's Dennis Riordan in Beloved Enemy (1936)

People Will Talk (1951)

This post is part of the Order in the Court! Blogathon hosted by Theresa at CineMaven's Essays from the Couch and Lesley at Second Sight Cinema. To read more judicial posts, click here.

The Task

To write about a classic film that brings the audience into the courtroom.


The Film

People Will Talk (1951) is the first movie Joseph L. Mankiewicz took on following his Academy Award-winning film, All About Eve (1950). The film is based on a 1934 German play written by Curt Goetz, which was later made into a German film, Frauenarzt Dr. Pratorius (1950). According to film critics, Mankiewicz maintained that People Will Talk was a response to an unpleasant medical experience although parallels have been made between Praetorius' hearing and the House Un-American Acts Committee (HUAC) hearings, which resulted in the blacklisting of hundreds of Hollywood artists.  

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ June 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2)

3)

4)

Good luck!

2016 Gotta Dance! Blogathon

Get your dancing shoes ready because the Gotta Dance! Blogathon has arrived!

The Task

Celebrate #NationalTapDanceDay and the great Bill Robinson and Fred Astaire with a post that celebrates dance in film. Everything is game: choreography, dancers, music, partnerships, style. The important ingredient is fun!

The Menu

Sit back and let us razzle dazzle you with these copasetic posts:

Classic Reel Girl - Everything's Copasetic when Bill Robinson Dances

Old Hollywood Films - Ballet Sequences in Old Hollywood Films

Moon in Gemini - The Turning Point (1977)

Love Letters to Old Hollywood - Scattered thoughts on An American in Paris (1951)

Define Dancing - The hypnotic magic of Girl Hunt Ballet

Realweegiemidget - Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)

Cinema Cities - The Barn-Raising Dance in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

 Wonderful World of Cinema - Put your Dance Shoes and Watch "Footloose"!

In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood - Dancing Lady (1933) Joan Crawford Dances with Fred Astaire

Christina Wehner - Cyd Charisse

The Flapper Dame - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

 Cinema Gadfly - The Red Shoes

Critica Retro - Gene Kelly

 Back to the Golden Days - Gene Kelly and Judy Garland

 Phyllis Loves Classic Movies - The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing..Especially If You're Vera-Ellen!

Pop Culture Reverie - Dirty Dancing

Sometimes the best things happen while you're reading about dancing.

 ~  ~  ~

Thank you for stopping by and reading our posts, and a big thanks to all the wonderful bloggers who were able to participate this year!

Happy National Tap Dance Day!

Everything's Copasetic when Bill Robinson Dances

This entry is part of the Gotta Dance! Blogathon hosted by Classic Reel Girl on May 25th. Click here to view more fabulous entries celebrating dance in film.

~  ~  ~

On Wednesday, May 25th, we celebrate National Tap Dance Day and the birth of the King of Tap himself, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Born May 25, 1878 in Richmond, VA

Image Source

Today, Robinson is best remembered for the four films he made with Shirley Temple. He has been both praised and criticized for his part in these movies. Praised for breaking race barriers when he and Temple became the first interracial dancing duo to grace the silver screen. Criticized for taking "Uncle Tom" roles where he portrayed servant, slave, butler, and overall protector of a little white girl.

5 Movies on an Island

In honor of National Classic Movie Day, Rick from Classic Film and TV Cafe is hosting the 5 Movies on an Island Blogathon.

The Task

Pick five classic films you would want to have with you if stranded on a deserted island.

Whittling my beloved film collection to only five was no easy task. Which movies would I be content forever replaying in my head because I know every line and move by heart? Which movies would I want the full film experience? I needed some criteria.

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ May 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

 

2)

Good Luck!

Star-Studded Couple Blogathon: Marge & Gower Champion

This post is part of the Star-Studded Couple Blogathon hosted by Phyl over at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies. Click here to read more fabulous posts about star couples.

Marge and Gower Champion were a popular dance team during the 1940s and 1950s. The married couple co-starred in seven films, made numerous television appearances, had their own television series, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, and even wrote a book on how to dance.  

Beyond the Cover: Alice Adams

This post is part of the Beyond the Cover: Books to Film Blogathon hosted by Now Voyaging and Speakeasy. For more fabulous entries, click here.

***Spoilers***

Until a few months ago, I avoided Booth Tarkington's novel, Alice Adams. Like its heroine, I preferred to be willfully ignorant of reality and believe in RKO's fairy tale film ending. The idea that there was an alternate universe in which Alice did not get her happily-ever-after bothered me. By not reading the novel, I denied its existence.

Dancing Legs Quiz ~ Apr 2016 Edition

Take a look at the following partial pictures. Each pair belongs to a dancer whose birthday is this month. Name the dancer. Then give yourself a bonus point if you can name the movie.

1)

2)

3)

4) and 5)

Good luck!

Easter Eggs in my March Viewing

Easter eggs. The wink and nod between filmmaker and audience. The quick quip that slips past censors. The hidden gem...

...and I love finding them. 

In honor of Easter, March's Viewing Journal will include a few eggs I caught along with my usual musings. Movies covered include Beloved Enemy (1936), Foreign Correspondent (1940), and Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). So grab another slice of pie and cup of coffee, kick back your feet, finish that chocolate bunny, and enjoy the reveal.

***Spoilers ahead***

Gotta Dance! Blogathon Update

Looks like I made a rookie mistake. Turns out there is another major blogathon occurring during the Gotta Dance! window, so I'm going to move my blogathon to May 25th, which is National Tap Dance Day. 

Updated banners are available in my original post.

Ciao til next time!

Announcing the Gotta Dance! Blogathon

**Updated 3/24/2016**

May is an important month in the world of dance. Two greats were born: Fred Astaire on May 10, 1899 and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson on May 25, 1878. In honor of these great dancers and National Tap Dance Day--which coincides with Robinson's birthday I will host my first ever blogathon:

Gotta Dance! May 25, 2016

Come join me in celebrating all things dance: the choreography, the dancers, the music, the partnerships. 

Marathon Stars Blogathon: George Murphy

This post is part of The Marathon Stars Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema and In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood. You can read more fabulous posts by clicking here.

The Task

*To get to know a star whose films you have not widely viewed (max three prior to blogathon)
*View at least five of their films and report back

Who I picked and why

After consulting Constance Valis Hills' Tap Dancing America and checking to see if there were enough films available for viewing, I selected George Murphy for the Marathon Stars Blogathon. According to Hills, Murphy is one of the "Irish Princes" who brought the vaudevillian and popular stage tradition to the big screen. 

What better month to celebrate the Irish actor than in March?

Source - Biography.com