Calamity Jane, the movie musical (1953)

 Hi there

Last week, I went to the Roxy in Miramar, Wellington, to see the old movie musical "Calamity Jane". starring Doris Day and Howard Keel.  I had seen it lots of times before and loved it.   I also know that Doris Day had been miffed that she'd never got the lead role in "Annie Get Your Gun" so her studio had written "Calamity Jane" especially for her.

It shows.  This movie is truly a knock=off of "Annie Get Your Gun". Some songs could even have been considered replicas from that movie.  "I Can Do Without You" appeared to be a copy of "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" from  "Annie Get Your Gun".  When Day was singing about how she "just blew into the windy city...",  I realised that I was confusing it with "Everything's up-to-date in Kansas City" from the 1940s stage musical  (movie 1955) of "Oklahoma!"  Looks like the writers cribbed from several shows.

Still...  the songs, by themselves, stood up pretty well, considering the movie was - what? - about 70 years old.  

The rest of the movie was... cringeworthy..   The second I got home, I went straight to my DVD collection (which has laid dorment for about ten years) and got rid of  "Calamity Jane". 

Calamity shoots to kill "Redskins" and "Injuns".  She's riding shotgun on top of a stagecoach,  I mean, come on, these native Americans are on horses, and with mostly lances and spears; how much of a chance do they honestly have against Calamity's deadeye aim?

In another scene Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel) dresses up as a squaw with a papoose on his back (a bit of a copycat scene from "Annie Get Your Gun" where a dressed-up Betty Hutton sings "'I'm an Indian too").  Later on, Doris Day gets spooked by a drugstore wooden "Injun" and draws her guns, much to the amusement of the townspeople.

Sidebar:  I came across a replica life-size sculpture at a candy franchise store in Hollywood about eight years ago.  Instead of feathers in his headdress, he had candy sticks.  I was so horrified I wrote a scathing review about the place.  When I went back to the store a couple of years later, the wooden sculpture was gone.

In "Calamity Jane", the backgrounds were obviously studio settings.  Even when the settings were 'outside', the areas were pristine and perfect, as were the stars themselves.  Day rolled up in perfectly pressed trousers and a modern persil-white blouse that I don't believe would ever have been worn by a pioneer woman in the untamed wild west.

Okay, the scene where the movie extras were singing about "The Black Hills of Dakota" as, maybe, a dozen of them sat on a hayride cart was very cliche, but it might not have been so cliche in the nineteen-fifties, so I'll try to excuse that...

During the last few minutes when Day and Keel were having a love-conversation, the script was absymal.  I was embarrassed.

I was equally embarrassed over the film's characters waxing about "A Woman's Touch".  Day floated around dusting, cleaning, cooking, and singing the song.  And the phrase was mentioned over and over during the second half of the movie.  So ... Day changed from a sharp-shooting buckskin-wearing tomboy into a subservient female with "A Woman's Touch", and Wild Bill fell for her (shades of Sandy in "Grease" who also changed for her man)?  Cringe-cringe-cringe.

I did spot an 'easter egg':  At one stage, Day is singing the  line "By the light of the Silvery Moon".  "By the light of the Silvery Moon" was also a stand-a!one song and movie starring Day.

It's been said to never go back to a movie you loved when you were young.  I think this saying could be right.  The times change, as do we....

 

Where have all the shops gone?

 Hi there

(Oops I'm having trouble with the layout.  I hate it when I get stuck somewhere on the computer and I don't know how to get out of it....)

Now, over to a quandry that is leaving me a bit miffed:  where have all my favourite shops disappeared to?  Well, no that's not quite right.  The shops are still there, but the businesses have gone.

A few weeks ago, via the radio*, a talkback host was telling how he walked through Wellington CBD, from the bottom of Lambton Quay to the end of Courtenay Place, and he counted, like, 35 shops that were empty of businesses.

And it's everywhere.  When I was in New Plymouth, Mt Maunganui, Whakatane, Levin, Queeenstown, Wanaka, Melbourne, etc, there were soooo many empty shops.

My fave cafes have gone.  My fave clothing shops have gone.  My fave butcher has gone.  Many shops that were empty have now morphed into incense/crystal selling stores, $2-type shops, or here-today-gone-tomorrow places that can be leased out quickly by shop owners.

I went to go to what I considered the best Chinese buffet in the CBD, but it shut down overnight.  Ditto the fish and chip shop that called to me everytime I walked past (I didn't often answer that call because, you know, my so-called diet, but just knowing the shop was there soothed my nerves).  

I like window-prowling shops that sell pretty clothes and I'm still searching for the perfect casual-come-visiting jacket that i can scrunch up when not in use and hide it in my bag when out hiking, but, no, so many clothing shops have closed.  Sigh, I guess I'll never find that elusive jacket.  Oh well - bright moment here - I am going to Melbourne to see "Moulin Rouge". Maybe my jacket will call to me from there?

^^^^^^

*Radio?  It's a box with dials, and music and talking comes out though a speaker on the front. Will technology wonders never cease????

My eyesight

 Hi there.

Since my second glaucoma operation my eyesight has been annoying me.  It's not that good.  

Last week I went to an Asian buffet place, just off Cable Car Lane.  

I got a Diet Coke (yes, yes, everyone knows that I'm an addict; I can't quit).

 "May I have a straw please."  I smiled to the lady behind the counter.

 " We don't have any, " said the lady.  There was no returning smile.  She thrust a glass at me.

I shuffled alongside the serve-yourself counter.  But then I saw something -

Ah-ha, there were straws!  

 Gotcha!   "You do have straws," I proclaimed loudly and with what, I imagined, was somewhat of a triumphant smirk.  I pointed to the jar holding the straws. 

The lady and half-a-dozen customers burst out into hysterical laughter.

Huh?

 " They're not straws, said the lady.  "They're chopsticks."

I was so embarrassed.  I blame my eye surgeon.

Booking for the theatre on-line

 Hi there

I had decided to go and see "Moulin Rouge - the Musical" in Melbourne.  It meant I would have to book on-line.

Oh dear, I always have trouble booking theatre seats on-line.  Only once did I get it right with just one attempt:  it was for  "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child".  When I got into the pre-book wait room, there were over 1000 people before me trying to also book. With 19,000 behind me.  I ended up fourth row from the front.  Great show.

But last week....

I went into the official booking site for "Moulin Rouge - the Musical" armed with the website password that I'd had for a few years.  Hey, but wait, there was a message telling me I had to put in a special registration-y code.   I could only do this by leaving the website, and checking my emails for the code. With about  five minutes of  time to do everything.

This took half-a- dozen attempts.  

Then I had to change my password.  I had to go out again to look at my emails.

Four more attempts.

I finally got into the actual site but by the time I'd chosen my seat, I got timed out.  I had to start the whole process again.

And again.  And again.  And again.  Oh, that timed-out thingee.  It's not good for dyed-in-the-wool checkers of everything they ever type.  I got blocked out so many times from the seating I had chosen because of this timing-out.   I was furious.

Other times the website wouldnt accept my NZ phone number.

Or my country zone.  Or my area zone.

Then my new credit card was a no-no.  

Each time I had to restart the whole thing again. And again.  And again...

It all took 19 attempts.

In the end I rang up the booking office in Melbourne.  This only took three attempts.

I played The Old Lady Card.   And ...

Success!!!!  

above: a stock photo of a typical interior of a theatre showing "Moulin Rouge - the Musical".

Traffic Stoppage down Lambton Quay, Wellington

 Hi there

I was in the bus a few days ago, during a Friday, lunchhour, and going to town.  Oops, Lambton Quay was blocked off, from Stewart Dawson's jewellery store down past Farmers department store and further along.  I had to hop off the bus...

Apparently, the transport blockage is for five days -  grrrrrhhh -  whilst a whole lot of gigantic cranes and whatnots block Wellington's main shopping street.  No transport at all allowed.  Whaaat!!??

I believe some huge cooling unit is being installed in a building.  Honestly, I've never been so close to such a big crane.  And what are all the other .... immense contraptions.....  So big, in fact, that my camera couldn't get in all equipment, specially the top half of the crane.