Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 2

This is another round of breakfast in classic movies and its importance to a storyline. Read the first part here: Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 1

Eating your first meal of the day with someone suggests the importance of that person. When it happens in the movies, the characters are often doing more than just eating to pass the time. They are often telling us who and what are important to them, with whom they are closest, etc.

Hungry? Let's have breakfast with the stars (again).


A Tale of Two Breakfasts
Movie: Giant (1956)

The Breakfast

At her childhood home in Maryland, Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor) is so busy talking, she barely eats the fluffy eggs at the table. Later, she takes a single piece of bacon from a chafing dish and strolls outdoors, forever nibbling.

Later, when married to Jordan (Rock Hudson) and living in Texas, her first breakfast as lady of the house includes a huge steak and other hardy fare. It's too much for the dainty lady to eat.

Not only what is being served for breakfast different, but how it is served has changed for our leading lady.

In the East, Leslie enjoys a leisurely morning meal around the dining table with the entire family. Out West, she must eat alone at a coffee table since everyone else has been up for hours and gone to work on the range.

In her new home, breakfast is fuel; it's not for lingering.

How it Drives the Plot
With two breakfasts, the movie plays up the cultural divide between husband and wife -he's formal and dogmatic, she's casual and challenges rules; he's a traditionalist, she's more suffragette,  etc. This makes for arguments and other drama for the duration of the movie.

The intensity of their differences at the beginning of the film contrasts with the peaceful family routine they later settle into. As the years wear on, they find common ground and become less selfish.



Morning Meal in a Motel  
Movie: It Happened One Night (1939)

The Breakfast

Two doughnuts, two cups of coffee, one fried egg. Our two leads (Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable) have very little money, so they split the motel rental the night before and they share an egg the next morning.

They also share a famous discussion about how to dunk a doughnut.("Say, where'd you learn to dunk? In finishing school?") Totally charming conversation.

How it Drives the Plot
It's only after this casual, humor-filled breakfast that the lady begins to relax around this veritable stranger who might become her love interest. Highly-recommended road trip movie.


Breakfast at the Kitchen Table
Movie: Indiscreet (1958)
 

The Breakfast
In Indiscreet, Ingrid Bergman is decidedly unhappy to have dinner alone at home. She wants a man and cannot seem to attract one. Enter Cary Grant. They have a lovely breakfast of bacon, coffee, etc. at her table, filled with sunlight and happiness.

How it Drives the Plot
This breakfast is a character development moment. The meal itself is not as important as are the accoutrements and what they mean.

It's a contrast of the lonely, paltry dinner of chocolate triangles and milk versus the bountiful breakfast with her new beau.

The lady has gone to the trouble of pulling out dishes and a tablecloth for this meal; she couldn't be bothered before. Sunlight is a huge part of this breakfast as well; before, she sat in a dark room alone with her dinner.

Life is fun again. However, we're only halfway through the film, so there's bound to be trouble ahead for the couple. For now, she's happy.

Almost No Breakfast
Movie: The Out-of-Towners (1970) 

The Breakfast

Noted for its lack of a morning meal, this comedy follows an Ohio couple (Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis) in New York City who have lost all their money to a mugger, they've slept in Central Park and George has to be at a business meeting at 9am.

Tired and hungry, they discuss that the kids back home are probably eating cornflakes and bananas right now. They talk about the room service that they could have had at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, if life had gone as planned.

They do manage to find a box of stale Cracker Jack that a dog slobbered over under an underpass.

How it Drives the Plot

There is very little plot. It's really a series of vignettes of the miserable things which beset this out-of-town couple. Writer Neil Simon has them starving while surrounded by some of the finest food in the world; it's all just played for laughs.

The through line is the husband's determination to arrive at that meeting. And -yes!- to get there he will eat stale, germ-ridden junk food if he must.


Definitely No Breakfast 
Movie: I Thank You (1941)

The Breakfast
A man (Arthur Askey) wakes up in a tube station in London where many have taken refuge in the night during an apparent blitz from enemy forces. During his morning ablutions underground, with a tiny cake of soap tied to his coat like a pocket watch, the man sings ("Hello to the Sun") and is generally cheerful.

He doesn't eat breakfast, but the song includes the following lyrics:

I stretch out my arms/ I try out my legs/I sample the coffee,/the bacon and eggs.
I'm way ahead of everyone,/the first one to say/ hello to the sun.

How it Drives the Plot
Mentioning rationed luxuries like coffee, bacon and eggs while clearly the character doesn't have any, sets him up as an everyman to his audience members, who were going through similar circumstances during WWII.

What's more, it's played for laughs and optimism - other commodities that people were short on at the time. This hilarious first scene sets you up nicely for a fun and frothy, pack-up-your-troubles-by-poking-fun-at-them movie.

Arthur Askey was a popular British movie star who often plays the comic average guy. His radio and movie appearances were welcome respite in times of great distress. So here he is again, serving humor sunny side up.

Have any more classic movie breakfasts? Tell me in the comments below.

------------------------------------
Update
Read the first part here: Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 1
Third part here: Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 3

Edith Head's Birthday Tribute from Google Doodle

Edith Head, famed movie studio costume designer with a record-setting number of Academy Award wins, has a birthday today and Google remembers the artist with a Doodle.

Though there have been news items about the Google Doodle,  yours truly hasn't found an article that discusses the outfits that Google has chosen to display.

The Doodle is of six illustrations of the designer's costumes parading in a line while a drawing of the woman herself stands in the foreground in her trademark pencil skirt suit and glasses.

From left to right:

1. Outfit: White strapless gown with yards of skirt
| Movie: A Place in the Sun (1951)
| Actress Who Wears the Costume: Elizabeth Taylor
| One Costume Factoid: Started a trend of puffy ballgowns and prom dresses for females everywhere

2. Outfit: Red, floor-length gown with matching overlay lined in white fur with matching muff  |Movie: White Christmas (1954) 
|Actress Who Wears the Costume: Vera-Ellen
|One Costume Factoid: It's the finale dress.

3. Outfit: Canary yellow cocktail dress and coat 

|Movie: Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
|Actress Who Wears the Costume: Natalie Wood
|One Costume Factoid: After an accident on a movie set in which her broken wrist was left untreated, Natalie Wood preferred to cover her left wrist, usually with bracelets or gloves, to hide a slight protrusion.

 
4.  Outfit: Ice cool blue, one-shoulder ballgown
|Movie: To Catch a Thief (1955)  
|Actress Who Wears the Costume: Grace Kelly 
|One Costume Factoid: It is said to symbolize the character's aloofness since she has no dialogue while wearing the dress.

5.  Outfit:  Green pencil skirt suit 
|Movie: The Birds (1963)
|Actress Who Wears the Costume: Tippi Hedren 
|One Costume Factoid:  Edith Head's insistence on simplicity means the suit ages well; there's little trendiness to make the suit dated

6.  Outfit: Red, off-the-shoulder period dress with tassels

|Movie: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) 
|Actress Who Wears the Costume: Jo Van Fleet  
|One Costume Factoid: Edith Head was not nominated for an Academy Award for costume design for Gunfight. Instead, she received a nomination with Hubert de Givenchy for another movie released in the same year - Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn.

It's great to see people from classic filmdom still getting recognition.

Update:

• I did find one article which talks about the outfits that Google chose to celebrate. Here it is: http://searchengineland.com/edith-head-gets-her-own-google-logo-celebrating-her-career-as-one-of-hollywoods-most-famous-designers-175248

• Another blogger pairs the Google Doodle with Edith Head's original sketches here: http://costumefilms.tumblr.com/post/65323862887

Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) - Bob Hope vs.King Louis

The king of France and his barber like the same woman - a chamber maid.  The king and a duke also like the same woman - the king's mistress.

The barber and the duke hightail it out of town before someone gets the axe. Through movie plotting, they are mistaken for each other just as the duke (Patric Knowles) must marry the princess of Spain. This means the barber (Bob Hope), pretending to be an aristocrat, could ruin everything.

Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) is a sumptuous costume comedy ripe for 20th century, fourth-wall breaking and humorous one-liners.

Too bad it's not in color. I'm dying to know the color of Madame Pompadour's gown.

If you like Bob Hope, you'll like this movie. It's a good one to have in your collection. However, for a more exciting Bob Hope period comedy (with Basil Rathbone and Joan Fontaine), watch Casanova's Big Night (1954).

Enemy Agents Defect for Love in Classic Movies

"An enemy agent defects for love" is a standard movie plot that has been around for a long time.  Omnia Vincit Amor, or some such thing. Often, though, the defector also has a hidden affinity for silk, chocolate, baseball, bubblegum, apple pie, freedom, etc. - that which is more widely available in the nation state that the hero of the film represents.

Often in films made during the early- to mid-20th century, it's a guy who wins over a female enemy agent.The man is played by a handsome, powerful movie star known for his romantic or dramatic acting chops.

If you're in the mood for classic movies about defectors, here are a few to start you off:

• Melvyn Douglas' singular charms win over Greta Garbo, a high-ranking official, in the award-winning film Ninotchka (1939). 

• Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse remake Nintochka as a musical in Silk Stockings (1957).

• John Wayne's strapping presence is enough to make Janet Leigh forget her advancing career as a pilot for the other side in Jet Pilot (1957).

• Dirk Bogarde and Sylva Koscina both contemplate giving it all up for love in the serio-comic spy film Hot Enough for June (1964) (aka Agent 8 3/4).

What are your favorite classic defector movies?

Breakfast in Classic Movies (and How it Drives the Plot) - Part 1

Breaking bread with a person is an intimate activity. To do so first thing in the morning suggests the person carries a certain level of importance in your life (at least for that day or that moment).

When this morning ritual occurs in a movie, an audience has the time to be with the characters in their moments of vulnerability; we get to know them and like them (or not).

Hungry? Let's have breakfast with the stars.

Breakfast in Bed
Movie: All About Eve (1950)

The Breakfast

It's your usual tray of coffee, jam, toast and who knows what else.  What is being served for breakfast in this scene is not as important as where it is being served.

Birdie the maid (Thelma Ritter) brings breakfast to Margo the actress (Bette Davis) in the bedroom. They suspect the new personal assistant Eve (Anne Baxter) of nefarious plans.

A few minutes later, Eve, the potential villain, interrupts and comes in on the pretext of running errands.  The dialogue here could easily have been done in a different room, but they choose Margo's bedroom for a reason.


How it Drives the Plot


Breakfast in bed is a device to place a confidential topic in the most intimate spot in the house -the actress' boudoir- thus having Eve violate what is sacred.

Eve entering the room is a part of increasingly familiar maneuvers that this young opportunist will commit. Eve will later do much more than intrude on her boss' conversations, potentially threatening every aspect of Margo's successful life.

Breakfast in Bed, Part 2
Movie: One Touch of Venus (1948)

The Breakfast 

A secretary (Eve Arden) casually walks into her employer's bedroom, grabs a bite of toast and jam while waiting for him (Tom Conway) to finish a telephone conversation.

How it Drives the Plot

To share breakfast with someone  tends to be an indication of warmth and solidarity in old films. And to share breakfast in bed -even when one of them is standing up- shows another layer of a companionship between characters.

The employer and his right hand lady share a close-knit, seemingly platonic relationship. There's an indication that wedding bells might soon ring for this couple. Still, we don't know yet; he's about to be distracted by a living statue of Venus (Ava Gardner).


Breakfast on the Go

Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

The Breakfast 

Of course, we are obligated to include this famous breakfast scene. But it's a good one.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly leisurely eats a danish and coffee by herself in the morning as she gazes at shiny objects in the window of Tiffany & Co. jewelry store.

How it Drives the Plot
Holly's breakfast is notable as a solitary breaking of the fast. Meaning that everyone else we discuss today who consumes a meal does so with someone else nearby. That's not the case for this opening scene.

She's in an evening gown at dawn, which in classic movies suggests she's been to a wild party. The lady might be using this alone time before another mad round of soirees begins.

Holly hasn't said a word and already she's an intriguing character. Observing her silent meal whets the appetite for the rest of the film.


Breakfast in Bed with Jewelry
Movie: Ball of Fire (1941)/ A Song is Born (1948)

The Breakfast 
A timid professor proposes to a nightclub singer who he doesn't know is on the lam. He places the engagement ring under the lid of a plate of toast and serves her breakfast in bed. But she's not hungry. She simply drinks the juice and black coffee ("Just jav, no cow").

It's an awkward few seconds as he stares at the plate's lid and tries to get her to pick it up. ("Won't you have some toast?")

In addition to that, this is a rather daring scene for a classic film, considering an unmarried man and woman are speaking to each other alone, in her bedroom, while she's still in her bed jacket ... and with the door closed! But the character bumbling around, making a fool of himself, distracts from what was considered risqué.

How it Drives the Plot
This awkward proposal over toast and coffee progresses the plot.

(1) The shy professor is stepping out of his comfort zone to pursue a love interest, even breaking societal norms to express his infatuation.
(2)The fugitive will use her potential nuptials with the professor to get away from New York City and away from the police.

Will he discover her true intentions? This guy is in for plenty of heartbreak. But not before breakfast.


A Cup of Coffee and a Kiss
 Movie: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
 

The Breakfast
A busy wife (Doris Day) brings her husband (David Niven) a cup of coffee just as he wakes up from a late commute the previous evening. They kiss, which is good. He tells her about his work and she's too busy minding the dog to listen; this does not bode well for their relationship - the crux of the whole plot.

There is a potential threat to their marriage in the form of a stressful move to the country, the husband's new commuting routine and an ambitious actress waiting to pounce on the guy whenever he's in the city.

How it Drives the Plot
The movie is letting us know with this simple cup of coffee that, despite the impending turmoil, the couple is still together... for now.



You're Fired! (and Before Breakfast, Even)
 Movie: The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

The Breakfast 
 
Jody Varner has just discovered that his father has fired him from the family business. He dashes outside in his pajamas to the lawn where Mr. Varner, the elder sits consuming the morning meal.

Jody attempts to discuss the decision, then segues into whether his father loves him. Mr. Varner continues eating, then dismissively tells the son to go fishing.

How it Drives the Plot
Throughout this scene, the father rarely looks up from his breakfast as his son pours out his heart to the man who sired him. Mr. Varner's scrambled eggs are more important.

This tells you
(1) The decision is final. There will not be reams of discussion about Jody returning to his job.
(2) His not looking away from the meal indicates the shame the father has for a disappointing son.

It's a chilling scene.

What are your favorite classic movie breakfasts?

-------------
Update
Read the second part here: Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 2
Read the third part here: Breakfast in Classic Movies (And How it Drives the Plot) - Part 3

One Touch of Venus (1948) - Ava Gardner's comedy

Before Mannequin (1987), another inanimate simulation of a female form comes to life in the movie One Touch of Venus (1948).

The kiss from Eddie the department store clerk animates a statue of the Roman goddess of love. Unable to explain to his employer why the statue is missing and unable to explain the new woman in his life to his fiancee ruins Eddie's personal life and career.

Why the guy would kiss a statue is never explained. In the play, he slips an engagement ring on her finger, which still makes no sense but is somehow less creepy... no, actually it isn't.

Robert Walker (now known for the Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train (1951)) stars as the hen-pecked clerk in this comedy. This is the type of juvenile role from which the actor was desperate to escape since the beginning of his career.

Says Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas on March 5, 1946 about Walker's desire to mature on the screen,

"  Robert Walker, a contentious character, says at last he is getting the chance to act.
    'So far I have been playing naive boys,' he told me.... He contended he is neither a boy (he is 27), nor naive (he didn't explain this).
    The Salt Lake City actor said his first chance to escape the gee-whiz type of role is in 'Till the Clouds Roll By,' the Jerome Kern biography....Walker is playing the late composer and he says it is a challenge to his acting ability."

And here he is two years later doing the very thing he detests.

Venus has a fun movie premise, but is executed as a sitcom. A very old sitcom. One where reaction shots consist of actors bugging out their eyes and committing to exaggerated double-takes.


Eddie and his fiancee Gloria (Olga San Juan) are especially fond of overacting. They are like live-action cartoons. They deserve each other.

On the other hand, you have Eddie's best friend Joe (Dick Haymes) who is a calming presence and never raises his voice above a hush. (Ah, that mellow crooner's sound.) He's the only sane one in the film and you don't get to see much of him.

He's also the only man in the movie who doesn't try to seduce the statue.  For some unfathomable reason, he's too busy making time with his best friend's intended - Gloria.

Now we come to Venus herself, played by Ava Gardner. All she has to do is stand around and look pretty. But she gives great reaction shots.

The actress would turn 26 in the year of this film's release. By this time, she had appeared in over 26 feature films and shorts, mostly uncredited. Working not so completely in the spotlight for so many years would serve her well (at this point, she was better known as the former Mrs. Mickey Rooney and as Artie Shaw's ex). She would use the time to focus on her craft and change herself from the little girl from the country, into a megastar onscreen.

This is the face of experience.

The actress is probably best known now for her work with gritty tales like The Killers, Show Boat and Mogambo. Still, she shows in Venus that she can handle comedy well.

Even with that, she's probably still better-known for her personal life, particularly her choice of mates, including Frank Sinatra. Gardner was the "other woman" -the Angelina Jolie- of the affair and Nancy B. Sinatra was the beleaguered wife- the Jennifer Aniston- of the triangle.

You'll also note that Gardner often plays "the other woman" in movies, including in the film we're discussing today. In any case, this is a megastar in the making, complete with tragedies both and on- and off-screen.

You could do worse than watch this film.

Would This Scene Be Better If...? Garland's Shouting Match in A Star is Born (1955)

Spoiler alert.

Sometimes even highly-acclaimed movies leave you wondering if some scene "would have been better if." Take, for instance, the second to last scene of the award-winning drama A Star Is Born (1955).

Movie star Vickie Lester (Judy Garland) is depressed and will not return to work. This comes after a distressing scene at her husband's funeral where neither her fans nor the press will leave her to grieve.

Later, her best friend Danny (Tommy Noonan) stops by to coax her out of the funk. When she gets stubborn about it, Danny shouts at Vicki and taunts her with biting sarcasm. He follows her around the room screaming in her face and she returns the favor; I almost expected someone to get slapped.

By the end of the scene, she's ready to return to work.

Perhaps it's my visceral aversion to people shouting at each other that's making me uncomfortable here, but, coming on the heels of her husband's funeral,wouldn't this scene have been better if  they used the same dialogue but played it quieter? One of them should have been more subtle to offset the other person's hysterics.

Her reactions to his prodding are appropriately grief-stricken; after all, she's unexpectedly become a widow. But should he have underplayed? Tell me what you think.

----------------------

Edit
Video link of the scene doesn't work.[Thanks for telling me, Silver Screenings.] I've substituted with a screenshot of the scene.

Jumbo (1962) - Doris Day's Circus Romcom

Make it stop! I cannot tear my eyes away from this train wreck.

Jimmy Durante owns the little circus with the big elephant in Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962). You'd think this plot would be a source of merriment and fun, but this is one of the most depressing movies about a circus ever made. (And it's a musical comedy.)

First,  this is meant to be a spectacle to ravage the senses. It is a circus, after all. We in the movie audience should be just as excited as if we were in the front row under the big top. Unfortunately, the movie drags.

Durante commits to clown antics that take too long; children will fall asleep. Doris Day, as Durante's daughter, is a bareback rider in a tutu who is obviously not doing her own stunts.

The title character, a prancing pachyderm, does not seem interested at all in its performance. It's very difficult to watch this crestfallen creature go through its paces. The elephant gets so little enjoyment from the mind-numbing routine, you'd think it's serving a nickel at San Quentin.

Second, each of the (human) leads is at least 15 years too mature for his/her role.

I'm ignoring you.

What makes it worse is that middle-aged Doris Day is asked to go even farther back in time and play an ingenue. This sophisticated star is directed to return to juvenile behavior, aggressively flirting with a guy ("I saw him first!"), following him around when he clearly wants solitude ("I'm just stalking him a little.") and seducing him in a wig of spun straw and a dress of cotton candy pink while on a carousel.

The frilliness. The cloyness. The Lisa Frank of it all!

I'm still ignoring you.

[Let me pause to say that if Doris Day feigns stupidity in one more movie, I'm going to scream! How many times have we heard her use some variation of "Oh, I'm just a woman," to explain why her character knows nothing? There are some actors -male and female- who play clueless very well in spite of the audience knowing how smart they are.

Judy Holliday made perplexed characters an art form. The Three Stooges turned doltishness into a cottage industry. Marylin Monroe made herself into a living icon with her brand of cluelessness. Doris Day cannot pull this off. I'm sorry. She does not play dense very well. You KNOW she knows. You cannot suspend disbelief. You get a migraine trying.]

Third, Martha Raye - dear, funny Martha Raye- does what she can as Durante's fiancee, but there is nothing for this lady of comedy to do.

Fourth, the real tragedy of this film is casting Stephen Boyd (notably having starred in the award-winning sword and sandal drama Ben-Hur not too long before this) as the son of the rival circus owner, a man cowered by his father (Dean Jagger, whose performance is the only one with bite in it).

What's this? Stephen Boyd is under someone's thumb? I think not! Why, oh, why did you bother with this movie, Boyd?!

You are Messala! You are the guy who would betray your best friend in the most epic terms, have guys whipped within an inch of their lives, imprison perfectly innocent women that you used to like and do all kinds of totally foul, power-mad, Ancient Roman-y things, and now you're taking a fushia-clad Doris Day for pony rides?!

Excuse me. We need a little ruggedness and hostility after this movie.

 


That's better.


For less irritating, circus-themed movies see

• Trapeze - Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollabridgida and Tony Curtis walk the tight rope in this taut backstage drama.
• The Greatest Show on Earth - Charleton Heston leads a cast of many legends in this sawdust and spangles story.

The Band Wagon (1953): The Martons

Lilly and Lester Marton are a New York writing team who convince former film star  and friend Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) to try Broadway for a career comeback. They are secondary characters as the plot concentrates on Tony the hoofer's antagonism with Gabrielle the ballerina (Cyd Charisse).

Still, the Martons deserve a closer look.

Lilly (Nanette Fabray) and Lester  (Oscar Levant) are modeled after the real-life writing duo of Betty Comden and Adolph Green who were often mistaken for man and wife when actually they were each married to other (very understanding) spouses.

The Martons are successful playwrights and performers. We see them argue a bit when under stress, but mostly they are a solid couple. It is their strength and solidarity that provides a safe haven for Tony, a forgotten star and confirmed bachelor whom no one seems to want either professionally or personally.

Tony is forever putting on a facade, masking how he genuinely feels. ("I'm by myself, alone.")The Martons gently ease Tony into admitting his despondency, admitting that he actually likes Gabrielle. They are careful not to break his spirit.

These are great friends and a lovely and talented couple. I wish there were more movie characters like these two.

Gene Kelly's Makeovers Tell a Story in Singin' in the Rain (1952)

There's a movie within a movie in the classic musical Singin' in the Rain (1952) called The Dancing Cavalier (aka Broadway Melody Ballet). Actor Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) tells his next movie idea and the screen fades to white as we go inside his imagination.

In the imagined new movie, Gene Kelly has multiple makeovers -designed by costumer Walter Plunkett- which advances the plot in split seconds, a masterwork of efficient storytelling.

Costume = Career Phases
Sometimes when a film character recreates himself or changes wardrobe style it is to attract a love interest. In Cavalier, however, the protagonist's wardrobe tells us where he is in his career trajectory. Years of success quickly go by with costume changes.

 

Cavalier is set in the 1920s and follows a hayseed hoofer who moves to the city to start a dancing career. He's carrying luggage. He's wearing a suit with highwater pants, a hat usually reserved for comic foils and Coke bottle glasses. A printed kerchief dangles carelessly from his pocket. His mouth is open as he takes in the sights of the mighty metropolis.

This is a vulnerable man.

The dancer walks in broad strides, pauses to stare at the sights, squares his shoulders, leaps up and trudges forward again. Leaning into the walk, he's energetic, he's eager.

The movements will later change with his clothing.

Makeover #1
Once Dancer (he has no name) finds an agent, he gets the first makeover. Off comes the jacket, kick aside the travel bag, the glasses go inside his vest pocket. He looks less like an out-of-towner and he's ready to dance... in a speakeasy.

The career is starting at the bottom. Illegal beverages and tawdry shenanigans are served with a generous dose of inferred mafia crime in this environment.  Dancer has nowhere to go but up.


Free from his traveling togs, he smiles and sings about the music of Broadway ("Gotta Dance"), leaps around engaging his audience who rise from their tables to join him.

This kid's got something!

Makeover #2
As Dancer gets into the Broadway rhythm and sings for his supper, he notices a gangster's moll (Cyd Charisse) in the audience. She will give him another makeover, one for his personal life.

The music -which has been peppy and energetic up to this point- slows to a vamp as Dancer takes out his glasses again to drink in all this feminine beauty. Spectacles make his vision clearer,  but these lenses physically distance him from the person he's observing. He's protecting himself.

He's got the big city career down pat, but when it comes to romance, he's still unsure.

Cut to the woman. She is confident whether she's dancing or not, as opposed to our hero who is only sure-footed when in terpsichorean endeavors.


She grabs his glasses, drops them to the floor and kicks them away. The mere thrust of her hips sends his hat flying.  After this, he gradually becomes less passive in the dance. As they move together, he becomes more of an equal with her, more sure of himself.

This is the last we'll see of his first accessories, his "security blankets" from home.


Makeover #3

So far, Dancer's fashion has been about extracting things from his life as the movie takes time to tell his story. Now that he's confident professionally and personally (and has pared down his wardrobe to convey this), his career will move quickly and his clothes will follow.

Within seconds, he's out of the speakeasy and into Burlesque.We see him onstage in comic rags, perhaps about to do pratfalls. A bevy of Brooklynese beauties stand behind him in skimpy, metallic Harlequin shapes. The ladies are part of his costume, in a way. We'll continue to see them for a bit.

Dancer wears a smile.

Makeover #4

A couple of seconds later (in real time, not in movie time), he's out of  Burlesque and into Vaudeville.

Now the ladies are in usherette/faux military uniforms, singing in staccato and marching. Dancer is onstage in front of them wearing a red-striped blazer and straw boater which he doffs as he skips in front of them. Colors are red white and blue - patriotic. He's now the picture of "respectability" in early 20th-century American stage craft.

Makeover #5

Seconds later in real time (perhaps years later in movie time), Dancer is out of Vaudeville and into the Follies. The Ziegfeld Follies was a dream come true for many in the mass stage arts. It was a show which boasted glamor and excitement. Society's rich and famous bought tickets for the Follies and lent it an air of sophistication.

The ladies are now in headdresses festooned in ostrich plumes. There are many yards of material in their skirts. Dancer is decked out in a top hat, white tie and tails.

His movements are no longer herky-jerky; he and the ladies move languidly. In fact, they barely move. They have arrived at the pinnacle of their careers; there's no need to rush. They move slowly so that the audience may appreciate the opulence (also to keep those headdresses from falling off).



From now on, you won't see Dancer without a tuxedo (except in that dream within a dream sequence where he's wearing a black polo shirt - another fashion statement of wealth and leisure).
 
Dancer has made it!  He's a little older now, sophisticated, successful and he has the clothes to prove it.

Two Outfits

Later, he's still a professional success but has had a lingering personal crisis - the woman who divested him of his security blankets is no longer in his life. Dancer becomes despondent.

Walking out of a casino, Dancer's figure is back lit by the lights, throwing his features into shadow. Such a solemn and solitary moment. Surrounded by opulence and yet the saddest man in town.

Dressed in a tuxedo with a cane, looking grim, he spots a young man wearing his 1st outfit, dangling handkerchief, hat, glasses and all.

Because of the juxtaposition of Dancer's 1st and last costumes, he comes out of his funk and remembers why he traveled to the big city in the first place - to dance. And so he does.

Smiling again

----------------------

Though some have complained that The Dancing Cavalier  stops the forward motion of the movie that it inhabits, it is still a treasure of visual storytelling in and of itself. This is one of those movie sequences where you could turn off the sound and still understand the plot just from the dancing and the clothes.

It Started With a Kiss (1959) - A Risqué Comedy with Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds was (and is) one of America's cinematic sweethearts.  By the late 1950s, the actor was growing out of her ingenue roles. However, these characterizations of the Singin' in the Rain (1952) star  -demure, child-like, your kid sister- were an asset as she transitioned into more mature or wilder roles.

It is because Ms. Reynolds' persona is associated with innocence that the audience has empathy for, say, her role as the nasty, unforgiving and selfish tough gal Peggy in The Rat Race (1960). You develop a protective feeling toward that character who lashes out because she is suffering on the streets of New York.

Our juvenile star also transitioned smoothly into adult roles with comedies, making risque subjects funny and almost "family friendly." Today's movie is a case in point- It Started With a Kiss (1959).

Maggie Putnam (Reynolds) hastily marries an Air Force Sergeant - Joe Fitzpatrick (Glenn Ford)- and almost immediately regrets it. Maggie does not know whether they married for love or for that kiss which started the whole thing. Plus, they disagree on finances. Thus, Maggie puts her husband in the friend zone (!) for a while until she sorts herself out. All this while deployed to beautiful, romantic Spain.

Separate rooms, Joe.

Only Glenn Ford's sad eyes and anguished broken voice can convey the agony this wife has put on the guy.

Add to this romantic comedy a futuristic, red convertible that the couple cannot afford,

 

 an amorous toreador (Gustavo Rojo)

and an eager baroness (Eva Gabor) and things become even more complicated.

Joe's confrontations with the bullfighter over Maggie are hilariously tense.

It's a will-they-won't-they with a married couple who has just agreed to have a platonic relationship. This is fairly risqué stuff...sort of.  And with Debbie Reynolds, it's kinda cute.

By the way, there is also a certain someone of TV fame who snoops around making everyone's lives miserable. 

Aunt Bea?