Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web
March 1, 1973
Hanna-Barbera
Children's, Fantasy, Musical
VHS
B

Some of what I feel about this movie is mentioned in my review of the E.B. White book-- http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/06/charlottes-web.html-- but I want to add some things.  It is a very 1970s-televisiony movie, but I don't consider that a bad thing.  The Hanna-Barbera animation is "limited" but there are some lovely images, and I like how they captured Charlotte's personality in a few simple facial details.  The voice cast includes performers from The Partridge Family (Danny Bonaduce, Dave Madden) and Bewitched (Agnes Moorehead, the incomparable Paul Lynde as Templeton), as well as you'll-know-them-when-you-hear-them voices (Herb Vigran, Pamelyn Ferdin).  Debbie Reynolds is perfect as Charlotte-- warm, smart, loyal, but also with an edge.  (You can believe she'd suck blood out of flies, or inflict minor revenge on Templeton.)  The script by Earl Hamner, Jr. is both more slapsticky and more sentimental than White's book, but the focus stays mostly on the cycle of life and the importance of friendship.  There are perhaps too many songs by the Sherman brothers, and some of them sound like previous music of theirs, but there are some stand-outs, slow almost mournful tunes like "Deep in the Dark" and "Mother Earth and Father Time," as well as jaunty songs like "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" and the smorgasbord tune.  What chokes me up is not Charlotte's death, which is subtly led up to, but Wilbur's fear that her children will all abandon him, and that line from the book, "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer."  And it's not often that you find a film adaptation equal to the book.

Of the singers, Jackie Ward sang Linda Evans's songs in Beach Blanket Bingo; and Dick Bolks, Paul DeKorte, Susie McCune, Gene Merlino, Paul Sandberg, and Bob Tebow would all be part of the chorus in Heidi's Song.

Palm Springs Weekend

Palm Springs Weekend
November 5, 1963
Warner Bros.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
VHS
C+

This is never as much campy fun as it could be but if you're patient you may find it worthwhile.  Mostly I watch it for the cast, particularly scene-stealing nine-year-old Billy Mumy as Boom Boom.  The more recognizable "teenagers" in the cast include Jerry Van Dyke, 36, providing most of the comic relief, such as it is, and playing the banjo; Robert Conrad, 28, as the spoiled rich villain; Troy Donahue, 27, as the hero (and singer of the title tune); Connie Stevens, 25, as an 18-year-old pretending to be 21; Stefanie Powers, 21, as Bunny, who despite the name comes across as proto-feminist in one scene where she criticizes the double standard.  (She also is, perhaps coincidentally, in a similar situation to Trudy Kockenlocker's in Miracle of Morgan's Creek, in that she works in a record shop and has a protective policeman father, although she decides not to give in to her own or Troy's "biological urges.")

The script is by Earl Hamner, Jr., later of Waltons fame, and among the un-Walton-like elements are

• A patio and swimming pool completely covered in laundry-detergent bubbles
• The policeman's wife trying to put tranquilizers in his orange juice
• Van Dyke trying to give Boom Boom a "milky Finn"
• A house-wrecking brawl
• A Nanette-Fabray-style makeover
• A gigantic Bugs Bunny doll
• A young man who hiccups when he thinks about sex
• A couple drag races 
• A weekend that lasts a whole week (Spring Break/ Easter vacation)
• A folk band in a casino

Hamner obviously isn't responsible for the most unintentionally funny aspect of the film, the repeated shots of the cyclorama of the desert by the casino, with the studio lights clearly visible in several shots!  (And it's not even like I have a big TV.  It's really obvious.)  Trying to make sense out of all this nonsense is Norman Taurog, who had been directing since the '20s (and apparently was one of the several directors of The Wizard of Oz), but in the '60s he started getting "teen movie" assignments, including a few for Elvis, so we'll be seeing his work again.

Jack Weston, who was the playwright/cabbie in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, plays the health-food fanatic basketball coach.  Sam Harris has been in several of my movies, dating back to the '30s, the most recent before this being Auntie Mame; next would be Mary Poppins.  Dorothy Abbott was in The Apartment.  Roger Bacon was in Beach Party and would appear in Pajama Party.  Red West would be in Girl Happy, Jim Shane and Louie Elias in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, and Jack Shea in I'll Take Sweden.  Lesley-Marie Coburn, listed at IMDB as "Beatnick [sic] Babe," would do Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

"And I think that's the commissary over there."

Oh, and the trailer is a lot more fun than the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWB_tDhLLwU