One Person's Opinion |
|
|
A compendium of random thoughts regarding politics, society, feminism, sex, law, and anything else on my mind. POST YOUR COMMENTS BY CLICKING ON THE TIME INDICATOR BELOW THE POST YOU WISH TO COMMENT ON. RSS FEED AVAILABLE AT http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dilanblogspotcom
Archives
RSS FEED
ACLU Andrew Sullivan Attorney Shopping Links Bag and Baggage Ernie the Attorney Eve Tushnet Gail Davis Gnosis How Appealing Legaline Lehrer NewsHour National Law Journal National Review New Republic Slate Spinsanity Talking Points Memo TAPPED Virginia Postrel Volokh Conspiracy War Liberal 
|
Friday, June 27, 2008
OK, RSS FEED NOW WORKS: The link is http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/11954/. Hope you all subscribe. Labels: RSS feed TEST POST: I am trying to get RSS to work. (As usual, the directions for such things on the web are incomprehensible.) This is a test post. Labels: RSS test Wednesday, June 18, 2008
CYD CHARISSE: Everyone remembers Singing In the Rain, the justly famous 1952 MGM movie musical that routinely makes lists of the best films of all time. The film is full of great scenes-- Gene Kelly's iconic scene singing the title track while dancing in the middle of the street in the rain is, of course, one of the most famous scenes in movie history. People also remember Donald O'Connor singing "Make 'Em Laugh" with enough slapstick to fill two Laurel and Hardy movies, and a young Debbie Reynolds as the love interest of Kelly's character. They needed a professional dancer to dance the ballet dream sequence opposite Kelly, so they turned to the "best legs in Hollywood", which belonged to one Cyd Charisse. Charisse was not a conventional looking actress, but she was lithe and graceful, and could contort her body in the direction of the demure or the seductive. And the resulting scene, which can be seen here and here, is so well done one can argue that it is not only as good a scene as any in the movie, but one of the best dance sequences ever filmed. Charisse acted as well as danced, and got some good lead and supporting roles, the best of which (such as Silk Stockings, a remake of Garbo's Ninotchka) traded on her slightly exotic air, but she never achieved the kind of fame that famous hoofers like Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, and Kelly did. That's too bad-- they'll be watching that scene from Singing In the Rain as long as anyone cares to watch movies. Charisse died yesterday at the age of 86. At the risk of sounding beyond my years, they don't make them like her anymore. Labels: Cyd Charisse dancer Singing in the Rain |