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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Man Who Knew Too Much -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

marcco00

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Trentrunner said:
Doris Day is a fraking great singer, and putting her in a movie and not letting her sing is like putting Fred Astaire in a movie and not letting him dance.
(And, for those who don't know, Ms. Day is very much alive, having recently given an interview to Fresh Air. )
AND i cannot believe ms. day has not received an honorary oscar for lifetime achievement by now- come-on, academy!
i cannot think of ANY living actor/singer/entertainer who would deserve this honor more!!!:confused:
 

Richard--W

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You can say that again.
Doris Day should receive an honorary Oscar and a lifetime achievement award.
Absolutely positively.
In about three months, if anyone at the Academy is on the ball.
 

Eric Vedowski

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Doris Day declines the Oscar thing-she prefers to be remembered as she was. When she was still willing to be photographed she showed up to collect her lifetime Golden Globe-and she still looked fabulous. Blame goes to the Academy for waiting too long-as they've done with so many. Myrna Loy for example. Doris "enjoyed" some really hostile press when she was Number One at the box office-unthinkable in this era of fawning reportage of major stars. I've loved Doris Day since I was a child. And BTW Doris hated "Que Sera Sera." As she recounted in her autobiography, after she recorded it for the Hitchcock movie she turned to the musicians and said "That's the last time you'll ever hear that song."
 

Richard--W

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Then they should give it to her in absentia.
Play a recording of her voice over well-chosen images.
I think what she was referring to was the necessity to over-sing the lyric for dramatic purposes. She did record a take or two at the proper pitch, didn't she.
 

Mikey1969

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This wss one of Hitchcock's best female roles and Day played it with great skill. It's interesting that on the surface, both Day and Stewart play very traditional familial roles. As the film plays out, it's apparent that Stewart's domineering ways and even his physical height backfire on him, and hide his ineffective, inert and impotent personality. Day may play the role of a subdued doctors wife, but it's clear she's not content and when Hank is kidnapped, she's far more effective than he at getting him back. The Draytons are interesting as well, and there's morethan a few parallels between them and the kinapping couple played by William Devane and Karen Black in Family Plot.
 

JohnMor

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Eric Vedowski said:
/t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/300#post_4008209
I think what she was referring to was the necessity to over-sing the lyric for dramatic purposes. She did record a take or two at the proper pitch, didn't she.
Actually, she was referring to the recording she made for Columbia Records. Both the label and her manager-husband, Marty Melcher, had to beg, cajole and practically force her to record the song. She thought it was fine for where it was in the film ("a kiddie song," she called it), but would never make a popular record. After the recording session, she made her famous remark to the musicians and then years later said, "I had to eat those words!" She said she really thought "We'll Love Again" would be the hit song from the movie.

And it's interesting to note that both she and Hitchcock agreed to work together with the belief that it would be a non-singing, straight dramatic role. After she was signed, it was Paramount who insisted on including a song or two in the film. And I'm sure Marty helped foster that as well.

I could not agree more about her incredible singing and fine acting (and overdue Academy recognition). She was/is one of the most underrated talents ever in Hollywood. She made it look so easy that people took it for granted.
 

Richard--W

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Thanks for the well-informed history. I couldn't agree more that Doris Day is under-rated. It may be her own fault, to some degree, preferring light comedies. I've always secretly wished Doris had starred in THE BIRDS and MARNIE -- especially MARNIE -- instead of Tippi Hedren. It would have done Doris good to get her hair mussed a little and explore the darker side of her range which didn't get nearly enough opportunities. I appreciate those films for what they are, but Doris would have invested both roles with more juice and gravitas than Tippi was capable of.
 

Matt Hough

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Yes, I've heard that as well that Doris has declined the honorary Oscar several times, but the Academy could award it anyway as they did with Greta Garbo. She certainly didn't show up to receive it, but they awarded it anyway, and Nancy Kelly accepted it on her behalf.
 

JohnMor

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Originally Posted by Richard--W /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/300#post_4008252
Thanks for the well-informed history. I couldn't agree more that Doris Day is under-rated. It may be her own fault, to some degree, preferring light comedies. I've always secretly wished Doris had starred in THE BIRDS and MARNIE -- especially MARNIE -- instead of Tippi Hedren. It would have done Doris good to get her hair mussed a little and explore the darker side of her range which didn't get nearly enough opportunities. I appreciate those films for what they are, but Doris would have invested both roles with more juice and gravitas than Tippi was capable of.

That definitely would have been interesting, especially as I feel Day had good chemistry with Rod Taylor in their two films together. I certainly wish she had accepted Mike Nichols' offer to play Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Ah well. The great what-if's of Hollywood history.
 

WadeM

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Richard--W said:
Thanks for the well-informed history. I couldn't agree more that Doris Day is under-rated. It may be her own fault, to some degree, preferring light comedies. I've always secretly wished Doris had starred in THE BIRDS and MARNIE -- especially MARNIE -- instead of Tippi Hedren. It would have done Doris good to get her hair mussed a little and explore the darker side of her range which didn't get nearly enough opportunities. I appreciate those films for what they are, but Doris would have invested both roles with more juice and gravitas than Tippi was capable of.
Yes! I would love to see her as Marnie. She would have raised the film another notch or two. Definitely.
 

Robin9

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Eric Vedowski said:
Doris "enjoyed" some really hostile press when she was Number One at the box office-unthinkable in this era of fawning reportage of major stars.
Correct and something that's forgotten today. For example, when Rock Hudson's movie Blindfold came out, one ungallant reviewer said of his co-star Claudia Cardinale "such a nice change from Doris Day"
 

AnthonyClarke

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Doris has long been one of our favourite actors and my wife Robyn is totally spellbound forever over Pillow Talk in which she plays a most feminine feminist way ahead of her times.
And for sheer feisteness, we both love her Calamity Jane while I am nuts about The Pyjama Game! So her presence in TMWKTM is a sheer bonus all the way......
And since I once spent most of a day with Jimmy Stewart, sharing lunch and dinner and endless anecdotes with this wonderfully natural person, I guess I'm biased towards a movie which stars both of them (though my favourite in the new Hitchcock set still has to be Rear Window!)
Long may Doris thrive, despite having given us that diabolically awful song.......
 

Yorkshire

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JohnMor said:
??  It's really nothing like a song in a musical, where the character sings their internal thoughts as the character with full orchestral background.  
Not all songs in musicals are people just spontaneously bursting into song in the middle of the street. Take The Sound of Music as an example - The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell (both times), and Edelweiss, are all sung 'correctly', as in real life.
Steve W
 

JohnMor

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Originally Posted by Yorkshire /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/300#post_4008719
Not all songs in musicals are people just spontaneously bursting into song in the middle of the street. Take The Sound of Music as an example - The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell (both times), and Edelweiss, are all sung 'correctly', as in real life.
Steve W

That's because it's a musical about a famous singing group in real life, so of course it would show them performing. But if those were the only songs featured in a film about them, it would not be a musical, merely a film that features music, like The Fabulous Baker Boys. It's the other songs, where they sing their feeelings to each other that qualify it as a musical. The German film it's partly adapted from also features them performing, but is not considered a musical. Take two films about famous singers that both feature "performed" songs: Funny Girl is a musical because it also features songs the characters sing to each other, whereas Coal Miner's Daughter features only performed songs and is not a musical, merely a biographical drama with music.
 

Sumnernor

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FYI the movie "Sound of Music" is really fiction. It has lots of sugar- The people in Salzburg don`t like the movie other than the $$$$ tourists bring in because of the movie.
 

Bob_S.

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Wow. Never knew this song got under the skin of so many. I would think if she hated it so much she would have had enough creative control not to allow it to be her tv show theme. I love Day's voice and I love this song. My favorite from her though is Secret Love. Didn't realize that TMWKTM was considered underrated. I always thought it was one of Hitch's top classics. For me it ranks #4 behind NBNW (#3), RW (#2) and Vertigo (#1). In fact, TMWKTM's pq is the reason I'm not getting this set.
 

JoshZ

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JohnMor said:
That's because it's a musical about a famous singing group in real life, so of course it would show them performing.  But if those were the only songs featured in a film about them, it would not be a musical, merely a film that features music, like The Fabulous Baker Boys.  It's the other songs, where they sing their feeelings to each other that qualify it as a musical. The German film it's partly adapted from also features them performing, but is not considered a musical. Take two films about famous singers that both feature "performed" songs: Funny Girl is a musical because it also features songs the characters sing to each other, whereas Coal Miner's Daughter features only performed songs and is not a musical, merely a biographical drama with music.  
I think you're being a little too rigid in your definition of "musical." Many people would consider movies like Coal Miner's Daughter or The Fabulous Baker Boys to be musicals.
 

JohnMor

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Originally Posted by JoshZ /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/300#post_4008871
I think you're being a little too rigid in your definition of "musical." Many people would consider movies like Coal Miner's Daughter or The Fabulous Baker Boys to be musicals.

True, but perhaps they're being a little too free in their definition. LOL.
 

JohnMor

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Originally Posted by Bob_S. /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/300#post_4008847
Wow. Never knew this song got under the skin of so many. I would think if she hated it so much she would have had enough creative control not to allow it to be her tv show theme. I love Day's voice and I love this song. My favorite from her though is Secret Love. Didn't realize that TMWKTM was considered underrated. I always thought it was one of Hitch's top classics. For me it ranks #4 behind NBNW (#3), RW (#2) and Vertigo (#1). In fact, TMWKTM's pq is the reason I'm not getting this set.

Doris didn't hate the song. She just never thought it would be viable outside of the film as something people would want to listen to. She thought Columbia was wasting money to have her record it. But once it was a monster hit and she saw she was wrong about that, I don't think she had any issues with the song in general. She performed it in two additional films (Please Don't Eat the Daisies and The Glass Bottom Boat) as well as re-recording it again on her album of childrens' songs from the mid-sixties.

And it's hardly the worst song in her catalogue: check out a couple of songs called "A Purple Cow" and "Tacos, Enchiladas and Beans." Or rather, don't! LOL.
 

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