Tonight on TCM Richard Fleischer’s delightful classic “The Happy Time” from 1952, starring Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan, Marsha Hunt, Linda Christian, Kurt Kasznar, and Bobby Driscoll in his last starring role.
It’s a warm tale of a boy discovering about girls at that certain age called “The Happy Time”, with charming performances by all. Bobby is wonderful, and it is probably the best performance by Louis Jourdan, but it is Charles Boyer who really stands out.
Unseen for decades, it finally resurfaced on TCM about 10 years ago. It’s on TCM at 1:45am (isn’t everyone up at that time?), but it’s worth catching.
“Oh what a fine party we’ll have when they all arrive, eh my boy?”
Tonight on TCM it’s an all Rankin/Bass feature production evening, with “Mad Monster Party?” getting it’s first prime-time broadcast on TCM, followed by the two other films they did through Joseph E. Levine’s Avco/Embassey Pictures.
First up is the all-time classic “Mad Monster Party?”, one of the greatest animated features of all time, with gorgeous songs by the great Maury Laws and Jules Bass. The voice cast has the greats Boris Karloff and Phillis Diller, Gale Garnett unforgettable as Francesca, and Allen Swift as almost everybody else.
The film has wonderful stop-motion animation, along with great songs, including the title song sung by Ethel Ennis, one of the greatest title songs of all time, simply spectacular. The other musical highlight is “It’s Our Time” sung by Francesca while conspiring with Dracula, a song that if you listen is an unbelievably beautiful love song, though used for scheming in the context of the film, showing the multiple levels that the songwriters were nurturing with their art.
Tonight on TCM it’s an all Rankin/Bass feature production
“We look for the good in them, and we found it didn’t we?”
60 years ago today, on Thursday 5/19/60, Walt Disney’s classic “Pollyanna” opened at Radio City Music Hall. Probably the greatest drama the studio would ever make, it is a glorious film that celebrates life, with an all-star cast, the biggest cast the studio ever put together.
It would earn Hayley Mills a special juvenile Academy Award, the last one issued by the Academy, for her beautiful, nuanced performance, and directed beautifully by the great David Swift, bringing out great joy, but also powerful drama throughout the 134 minute film.
Walt Disney’s “Pollyanna” is as great as film gets.
