Thursday, September 8, 2011

Nice to see you, Robert

It was good to see Robert Osborne sitting down with Cher to present four of her favorite movies, even though it was recorded months ago. I only stayed up for the first two selections, but I thought Cher made quite good points about why she selected the movies she did. That, and I liked her opening comment about writing down movies to select and quickly coming up with a list of about 60 films; I'm sure that if I were ever a Guest Programmer (I have a face for radio, but not the voice to match), I'd have to choose from a similarly high number of movies.

As for Cher, I particularly liked the point about normally thinking of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the formal wear -- the top hat and tails for him and the gown and heels for her -- and that it's interesting to see Astaire in a navy uniform. Granted, I thought he looked out of place in it. But that's certainly not Cher's fault. As for Hobson's Choice, I think Cher was once again right that we don't normally think of David Lean as having done "little" pictures like this; once again, it's good to see such a lesser-known picture. That, and Hobson's Choice is certainly one that's got a lot of charm. I would also think, not having seen the introduction, that The Big Street is not the sort of movie most people would think of when they think of Lucille Ball. As for Barbara Stanwyck in Lady of Burlesque, well, she did everything, even having played a nightclub singer before in Ball of Fire. But is such a character the first thing people would think of when they think of Stanwyck?

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