I’ve seen the 20th Century Fox / Henry King movie of Carousel two or three times, and while it’s not a great or even an especially high-grade film in a dramatic sense, the finale always melts me down.
But the deepest emotional depth charge, for me, has always come from Frank Sinatra‘s rendering of “Soliloquy,” which he recorded for the film’s soundtrack on 8.16.55
Sinatra sang at least two songs (“Soliloquy” and “If I Loved You”) that day for the 20th Century Fox / Henry King movie. The session happened on a Fox soundstage on Pico Blvd. The orchestra was conducted by Alfred Newman.
On the first day of shooting in Booth Bay, Maine, Sinatra was told he’d have to shoot his scenes twice, once in 35 millimeter and again in Cinemascope 55, a large format process similar to VistaVision and Todd-AO.
Stunned by this news, Sinatra said “no dice” and quit on the spot. He was replaced by Gordon MacRae. The finished film opened on 2.16.56.
From Owen Gleiberman‘s 4.17 Variety review of Becoming Madonna:
“We’d like an authoritative chronicle of everything that happened [during Madonna‘s struggle to make it], since Madonna intersected with as many notable figures as Zelig. And Michael Ogden, the director of Becoming Madonna, churns through these years in a slipshod way.
“The film keeps tossing out stray bits of information, like the fact that Madonna just about moved into The Music Building, the graffiti-strewn beehive of a studio rehearsal fortress several blocks south of Times Square.
“Yet it leaves out so much lore! Like the fact that Madonna studied under Martha Graham, or that she worked as a hat-check girl at the Russian Tea Room, or that she was sexually assaulted at knifepoint, or that she had a relationship with Jean-Michel Basquiat, or the pivotal way that she recruited ‘Jellybean’ Benitez to remix her first album.
“And though it’s part of Madonna’s legend that she pestered the DJs at Danceteria to play her demo tracks, it would have been nice if the movie filled in that chapter instead of just…mentioning it.”
Does anyone remember my 12.16.16 HE piece that praised Elyse Hollander‘s Blonde Ambition (“Popstar Bitch is Born”), a still-unproduced script that explores Madonna’s tough Manhattan years (’81 through ’83)?
I hereby pledge to send a PDF of Hollander’s script to anyone who’d like to read it.
Alas, Madonna didn’t like it and that’s where it ended.
I’ve begun to read Zach Dean‘s script of Day Drinker, a frothy thriller currently filming in Spain with a gray-haired Johnny Depp, 61, as an alcoholic named Kelly.
I’m only up to page 15, but it’s pretty clear that Kelly will either end up sober or a lot less shitfaced.
Dean’s story cruises around on a private yacht. Madelyn Cline, 28, plays the proverbial hottie; Penelope Cruz portrays a criminal of some sort.
Wikipedia says director Marc Webb (who always directs lightweight stuff) has actually been filming on the Canary Islands (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Depp’s Kelly is a friendly, enjoyable rogue…a charming fellow who needs to be sipping something at all times.
Dean’s script has a jaunty feel — I’ll give it that much. It ends with a twist,.
The discussion of “Inconvenient Stats That Journos Would Be Wise To Ignore” (4.15) was apparently shut down by socially concerned persons within the WordPress matrix. This may have been incited by the posting of 2022 crime statistics from the City of London website. Or not…I wouldn’t know. I know it wasn’t me.
