Both of the problems reported last night have been taken care of, yippee! An ATT tech called this morning to let us know that Pearl's phone line had been repaired. He said the break was outside the house on the main line, but didn't specify where, or what it was. Probably a possum chewing through a wire, as usual. Anyway, I've got my Internet back here at Pearl's, so I can write to ya late at night once again.
Also, the replacement car key did indeed unlock the ignition and steering wheel, and has worked fine all day long, so that is another relief. Now I'd just like a few days (or weeks, months, eternities, etc) without a mechanical problem of any kind, thank you very much. :):)
Tonight I watched a movie called "The More The Merrier" (1943), starring Jean Arthur once again, along with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn. The setting is Washington DC during wartime. Housing is scarce in the capitol city due to all the crisis-management activity taking place. The movie is a rom-com, though, so the housing problem is not a dramatic issue but merely a device to get everyone in place together. Jean Arthur, looking years younger than her IMDB stated age of 43 (she must have been both a fitness and health food fanatic), has her own apartment on "D" street, but feels she must rent out the extra bedroom as her patriotic duty during the housing shortage. She puts an ad in the paper and the next morning there is a line of men and women outside her door, all wanting to rent the room.
But up walks the shifty but genial Charles Coburn, a tall, rotund older gentleman who works as an adviser to the war department. He will only be in town for a few weeks and needs a temporary place to stay. His motto, repeated throughout the film, is "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead", so he walks right past the line of would-be renters, opens the front door of the apartment house and goes straight up the stairs to Jean Arthur's apartment. When she opens the door he very politely begins to insinuate himself as her new tenant, using sophisticated comedic manipulation techniques.
Jean Arthur was a top level comedienne herself, so the parlay between the two continues successfully for a dozen minutes. The context is the pairing of opposites : Coburn the 65ish overweight cigar-chomping political patron, and Arthur, the petite, stylish younger woman (who could pass for early thirties) who has an unspecified job in the war effort. When they first meet, we go though sequences of fast talking screwball comedy, then a couple of minutes of pratfall slapstick. So talented are the two stars that the director, George Stevens, must have wanted to make the most of his opening setup.
The plot begins to develop when Coburn (who was born in 1877 and is thus one of the oldest stars I've been able to verify) decides to sublet half of his rented room, in his own effort to ease the housing crisis (and save himself a few bucks). Without telling his landlady Jean Arthur, he rents out a share of his room to young, tall and handsome Joel McCrea, who you know from many a cowboy movie when he was much older. McCrea is also working for the war effort, but in a top secret way. He is military, though this will not figure too greatly in the story as the focus is on love.
Jean Arthur is engaged to a nerdish and nebbish lawyer who moves in the same DC circles as does Charles Coburn. The nerd is Arthur's age, but he is as stiff as a board (and played by an actor named Richard Gaines, who is an absolute riot). She really doesn't want to marry him, and so once Joel McCrea moves in to Charles Coburn's room you can guess what happens.
At first Jean Arthur is outraged, in a comedic way of course. It is her apartment! How dare Charles Coburn sublet his room without asking her. She doesn't want two men living in her unit.
But then McCrea is handsome, and he is a low key gentleman, the opposite of Coburn's effusive mover/shaker.
Jean Arthur decides to let both men stay, and the plot is set.
Being that the context is World War Two and the setting Washington DC, there is a lot of intrigue involving spies and national security, but again this is only a surface level theme. The real plot involves Arthur, and her choice between her fiancee the nebbish Richard Gaines, and her newfound love Joel McCrea. Charles Coburn will play matchmaker, and he steals the show in this one. I will be looking for more films with him.
"The More The Merrier" has a 7.8 rating on IMDB, which is very high for a 76 year old motion picture. That, and my Two Very Big Thumbs Up, should be enough of a recommendation to get you to see it. The wartime context and the need for every American to pull together is a running subtheme throughout, but the movie belongs to it's three leads and their clockwork interplay. Arthur received an Academy Award nomination for her role and it is well deserved, though I still say Charles Coburn is the secret weapon here. He should've won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, going away. He is a revelation and a real find for fans of Old Hollywood. ////
That is basically all I know for tonight. I hope you are enjoying your Summer. See you in the morn.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo tons of love.... :):)
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