Fab Finds

In true can't-love-it-unless-it's-older-than-my-parents style, I indulged in one of my favorite pasttimes earlier this week: record foraging. There is nothing quite like flicking through stacks of discarded LPs, searching for gems that have been too long confined to basements or garages and discovering remnants of a bygone pop culture that few care to reminisce about (you and I are of those few, it seems).

This was a particularly lucky search effort that yielded three classic-film-related finds for just 99 cents a piece:

• The campy, burlesque-themed soundtrack to 1962's Gypsy, starring Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell, is in perfect condition;
• The endlessly romantic musical accompaniment to the ultimate street-gang love story, West Side Story, with vocals by Marni Nixon, Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno, in addition to the supporting cast;
• and the double LP offering of That's Entertainment, a hand-picked collection of MGM's best and brightest musical moments, featuring everyone from Agnes Moorhead to Yvonne de Carlo and every star in between (Gene-o, Junie, Mick and Joots - they're all there).
  

CD wha-?! Of course I know these are available in, well, a more accessible format, but I can't wait to give these a spin. And though the aforementioned compact disc and mp3 have long rendered vinyl obsolete as a means of making music, I find records to hold endless charm, to bring a certain authenticity to their sound, those delicate artifacts of yesteryear. And hey, they look fabulous framed in the foyer!

Lana, Wood You Go Away?

It must be difficult being Lana Wood. Growing up in the shapely shadow of older sister Natalie, feeling second-rate as her own career skittered along in walk-on roles on obscure television shows while the other Ms. Wood snagged movie star boyfriends and the top row on movie marquees worldwide - it couldn't have been easy on the girl. Nothing, however, justifies her authoring a tell-all book about her beautiful and effervescent sister that focuses largely on herself.

Natalie: A Memoir By Her Sister could perhaps be more appropriately titled Lana: A Self-Indulgent Narcissist Recalls Her Former Married Lovers and Talks About When Her Sister, Who Was A Famous Movie Star, Used to Hang Out with Her. The book opens with Lana's recollections of watching her big sister film the famous racing scene from Rebel Without A Cause, then reaches back to flesh out the sisters' family history up through Natalie's untimely drowning in 1981 at just 43. The insightful anecdotes and juicy inside stories Lana tells, though, are scattered amidst multi-page descriptions of her own unsuccessful film career, vivid details of her trysts with married lovers, and an in-depth portrait of her daughter's birth and infanthood. Nat fans who pick up the book to indulge in a veritable list of Natalie's fabulous wardrobe and her favorite pieces of jewelry will first have to endure pages of Lana's sexual encounters with Sean Connery and Alain Delon ('I would characterize Alain as the perfect fling'); to uncover a gem of a tale about Nat's seaside antics while on vacation (she pranked a local restaurant and convinced them they'd been held up), one would best be prepared to hear about how upset Lana was upon discovering someone had mistakenly gotten her birth-control pills wet in the bathroom. This book obviously had no editor, or if it did, it was one hypnotized by the potential for huge profits that a racy tell-all book on tragically dead Natalie Wood could reap.

Here's a sample of Lana's 'Me too!' style of writing:

"Natalie wore a jacket and a skirt of green and gold cut velvet...She looked stunning. I wore a plain black dress with long sleeves and an open back that was draped to the waist. I looked stunning too." (190)

Wow...riveting. I guess I shouldn't expect Tennyson-like prose or deep, thought-provoking passages from a juicy, scandal-soaked celebrity memoir fished from the dollar bin at my local library, but I am floored by the phenomenal self-centeredness of its author. Insecure, overshadowed and discouraged, this younger sister of a still-brilliant star is too close to the story's heart to give a focused homage - and too selfish to even try. Buy it secondhand (or relieve a disgusted owner of it) for the photos, then burn the rest of this drivel before it sours your love for Natalie Wood.

Fine Flicks

As busy as I was this past week, I still carved out enough time to watch some good ol' sixties flicks and revel in the brilliant colors of Edith Head designs, lush theme-song orchestrations, and even those archaic views on courtship and the eternal 'battle of the sexes' that I still subscribe to - obviously, the result of years of watching Doris Day movies. Anway, here are some gems I uncovered starring three of my favorite actresses:


The Wheeler Dealers (1963) - Ahh, the film that made "widget" a household word. After years as TV's suave and studly Bret Maverick, James Garner brings his smooth, fast-talking highroller to the big screen - this time, as a wealthy Texas oil man who invents a grand stock market scheme on a trip to New York. Lee Remick is as charming and pretty as ever (despite her character's propensity for wearing large bows - I'll overlook it because she's darling) and stands her ground as the lone female analyst in her Wall Street investing firm, braving the onslaught of mindless tasks being dumped upon her. The supporting cast sparkles, too: Jim Backus as the bullheaded boss and John Astin as a manic investigator guarantee a good time.


Penelope (1966) - Edith Head, Natalie Wood and kleptomania - three elements of this film that excite and intrigue me far more than they should. But seriously, who could ask for more? Nat is endlessly elegant in a parade of Head-designed Givenchy and well-coiffed wigs as she holds up her husband's bank for $60,000, then nonchalantly shows up to her analyst's office to alert him of her doings. Numerous glitzy flashbacks chronicle her earliest larcenous larks and her early days of courting husband James (Ian Bannen), though none fully answer her question as to why she loves stealing so much. Peter Falk even joins the cast and waxes elements of his future Columbo persona as the police Lieutenant investigating the crime. Sure, it's no Splendor in the Grass, but for Natalie fans it's a decadent little confection of a flick.


Divorce, American Style (1967) You all know that Debbie Reynolds has always been, and will always be, my favorite movie star of the 1950's and '60's, so to see her in a film focused on her failing marriage to screen husband Dick Van Dyke is a tougher for me to take than, say, a lighthearted romance like Tammy and the Bachelor or The Mating Game. Nevertheless, the leads are quite compelling here, and while the plots gets mired down with some unnecessary complications that intend to satirize the state of a divorcee's lifestyle (note the looks pregnant fiancee Eileen Brennan's bulging belly gets), Dick & Deb manage to sparkle in the end. The cinematography is quite evocative and interesting and, paired with a lush score that completely paces the movie and the emotions it attempts to inspire, makes for a decent film.