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Monday 25 July 2011
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"Holy smoke, the dropped kerchief!That hasn't been used since Lillie Langtry."
You can watch this entire scene from Preston Sturges' brilliant 1941 comedy The Lady Eve over here. I almost quoted the entire thing but you should just watch it. This is how you start a movie and introduce your characters.
It almost feels derogatory at this point in our cinematic history to call The Lady Eve a rom-com, the genre's name is so sullied by years upon years of dreck, but this is one of the gold standards and should be enough to keep "rom-com" in everlasting luster. I really can't hurl enough crazy-in-love superlatives at this movie, and the one-woman charm-school that Barbara Stanwyck is presiding over. She's the damiest dame to ever dame - she gives me goose-pimples and then pops 'em with a sly side-eye. Nobody, certainly least of all Henry Fonda, stood a chance side-stepping her beguile.
Oh and I chose that specific quote because I had no idea who Lillie Langtry was and her Wiki makes for a fascinating read. She was a close friend of Oscar Wilde, was the mistress of a couple of princes, and was the first woman paid to endorse commercial products. It was for Pears Soap, and "her fee was allied to her weight so she was paid 'pound for pound.'" (Kirstie Allie is so jealous!)
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The Lady Eve is being shown in Bryant Park tonight for free.
The heat wave's broken so you got no excuses, New Yorkers!
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