Some Favourite Lyrics

It's my birthday today and music is one of my passions so I decided to share a few of my favourite song lyrics with you. Some snippets are longer than others but all of these are beautiful. Well, I think so anyway. The images I get from them are quite potent. These are just five out of literally thousands of songs I adore.

• It Never Was You - sung beautifully by Judy Garland in I Could Go On Singing, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson... 

An occasional sunset reminded me,

Or a flower hanging high on a tulip tree,

Or one red star hung low in the west,

Or a heart-break call from a Meadow Lark's nest,

Made me think for a moment,

Maybe its true,

I found him in the star,

In the call,

In the blue...

• No Way to Stop It - sung in the stage version of The Sound of Music, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II...

A crazy planet full of crazy people,

Is somersaulting all around the sky.

And every time it turns another somersault,

Another day goes by.

And there's no way to stop it,

No, there's no way to stop it.

No, you can't stop it even if you tried.

So, I'm not going to worry,

No, I'm not going to worry,

Every time I see another day go by.

• Gone - written and performed by Melody Gardot... 

I won't wake up, 

To the sound of your feet,

Walking down the hall,

Like a soft heartbeat,

I won't wake up,

Cause by the time that,

I do you'll be gone...

• I Don't Want to Know - performed by Angela Lansbury in Dear World and written by the wonderful Jerry Herman...

Let me hide ev'ry truth from my eyes with the back of my hand,

Let me live in a world full of lies with my head in the sand.

For my memories all are exciting.

My memories all are enchanted,

My memories burn in my mead with a steady glow;

So if, my friends, if love is dead,

I don't want to know.

• Vincent - written and performed by Don McLean...

Starry, starry night,

Portraits hung in empty halls,

Frame-less heads on nameless walls,

With eyes that watch the world and can't forget,

Like the strangers that you've met,

The ragged men in ragged clothes,

The silver thorn of bloody rose,

Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow...

  

Book Review: The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green

The Leavenworth Case is told from the point of view of lawyer Mr Raymond as he gets drawn into a mysterious murder inquiry. Mr Leavenworth has been found shot dead in his library by his secretary, Mr Harwell. The house has been locked overnight and the only people inside were Harwell, the servants and Leavenworth's two nieces, Mary and Eleanor. The curious thing about Mary and Eleanor is that, simply by virtue of being prettier, Mary will inherit all her uncle's money. Does that give Eleanor or her sister the motive for murder? And why is one of the servants missing?

I enjoyed the plot of this book. I thought it was clever, though it felt a little static in the middle before Raymond set off on his mission to locate the missing servant. The resolution surprised me, though, and that's always a good thing with a murder mystery. However, about a third of the way into the book, I lost faith with the narrator and I found it difficult to recover from that. It was very difficult for me to accept that Raymond had not considered an alternative to one of his assumptions at all and, after that, I treated him as a guide but nothing more. I didn't see how he could've been so stupid to be honest.

The rest of the book was fairly good. The later scenes with Mrs Belden were very well written and, in truth, I felt more attached to her character than the narrator. Equally, the detective Mr Gryce was an excellent character, humanised by his gout that provides Raymond with an opportunity to follow up the case on his own. The complex relationships between the suspects are gradually drawn out, realistically so, but, again, I feel this hampered the middle section of the novel.

However, The Leavenworth Case works as a piece of detective fiction and is especially interesting as a nineteenth-century example written by a woman.

Classic Film Review: The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

The Devil and Miss Jones stars Charles Coburn as reclusive tycoon Mr Merrick who is appalled when an effigy of him is hung outside a department store he owns. Determined to bring the culprits to justice, he goes undercover as a slipper salesman in the store. Once there, he finds himself taken under Miss Mary Jones's (Jean Arthur) wing, who feels sorry for the hungry and helpless man she sees. Fellow colleague Elizabeth (Spring Byington) takes a different kind of shine to him. But of most importance to Merrick is Joe (Robert Cummings), the ringleader of the trouble - and Mary's boyfriend. Will Merrick press ahead with his plan to blacklist them all or will experiencing things from the other side of the fence change things for him? S.Z. Sakall and Edmund Gwenn also have supporting roles.

This is a fantastic film. It gets the tone just right, from Merrick's first intimidating scene interrogating his employees to being interrogated himself by his new manager at the store. Coburn is wonderful, bouncing off all the other actors without exception. Jean Arthur is also excellent, particularly in the scene where she's trying to club Merrick over the head with a boot. There are some excellent scenes including when Merrick asks his butler (Sakall) to bring in a girl to make a purchase in order to make him look good - but she won't play nicely. The Coney Island outing scenes are also excellent, particularly when Merrick gets himself accidentally arrested.

Merrick's romance with Elizabeth works very well and Mary does a good job of explaining what she likes about Joe in a memorable scene with Merrick on the beach. In fact, I can't think of a bad scene in this one. My only gripe, if I'm to have one, is that there was no scene between the revelation and the finale - it could've done with one just to iron out the tensions between Merrick and Elizabeth/Mary/Joe.

All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable comedy that works perfectly. With arguments about the rich having no concept of reality and advocating workers' rights, The Devil and Miss Jones is probably as relevant today as it was in 1941.

Classic Film Review: The Half Naked Truth (1932)

The Half Naked Truth stars Lee Tracy as Bates, an entrepreneur of sorts working for a carnival. His latest attempt to get money pouring in results in them being run out of town so Bates decides to go to Broadway and make a star out of sideshow dancer Teresita (Lupe Velez), taking his faithful friend Achilles (Eugene Pallette) along with him. They hoodwink impresario Mr Farrell (Frank Morgan) into taking Teresita on but stardom pulls the group apart and Bates's next plan involves a hotel maid (Shirley Chambers) and a nudist camp...

If this one sounds a bit mad that's because it is. Anything that involves a gigantic carnival fight scene, a dancer impersonating a Turkish princess, a lion in a hotel room and nudists driving through New York can't be described as much else. And I wanted to like it but, unfortunately, it left me a little bored.

I found it difficult to care about either Bates or Teresita. Not caring about them as a couple meant that their separation didn't really bother me too much. A character I did care about was Farrell, mainly because he was pushed from pillar to post by Bates and kept struggling to come out on top. Eugene Pallette and Shirley Chambers also put across their characters very well, especially in the scenes where he's 'teaching' her how to act - which usually involves them getting up close and personal.

Lupe Velez puts in a decent performance but without any chemistry between her and Tracy it's a drab film with some highlights. Her opening night performance is quite amusing, as are her interactions with Morgan. The film does feel tacked together in places, with little coherence and some fast-paced dialogue that can be tricky to keep up with. However, it's not all bad and, given how short it is, it's worth sitting through for a few amusing bits.

Classic Film Review: Love Affair (1939)

Love Affair tells the story of playboy Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) and Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) who meet on a ship and fall in love. Michel wants to prove he can earn a living as a painter so they arrange to meet again in six months if they both feel the same. However, a tragic turn of events stops the meeting from happening.

This is essentially a film of two halves. The first half, set on the ship, is the story of two people trying valiantly not to fall in love because they don't want to hurt their respective partners. When the ship stops in Madeira, Michel visits his grandmother (Maria Ouspenskaya) and Terry goes along with him. This little group of scenes are perhaps the best in the film, including a scene in the chapel which is beautifully shot and creates a wonderful image which is referred to later.

The second half of the film is something of a painful love story. It alters very suddenly and from then on it's difficult to watch and, really, I wanted to throttle Terry for being so stubborn about the whole thing. However, the final scene between her and Michel more than makes up for the frustration preceding it. The dialogue between the two is more complex and more evocative than it has been throughout the whole film - and that's saying something. Boyer and Dunne play this final scene to perfection and I freely admit to shedding a tear.

On the whole, this is an excellent film with the main roles not overplayed by the two leads. It's a sensitive, clever piece that gets slightly sentimental in the second half when a group of orphans take centre stage but, for the most part, it remains a delicate film that is true to its characters.

Book Review: A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

A Sicilian Romance has a typically twisted Gothic plot which I'll attempt to summarise without giving the end away. Emilia and Julia Mazzini lost their mother at a young age. Their father remarried to a young woman and lived away from the family castle with their brother Ferdinand. The girls are joined in their lonely life by their mother's faithful friend, Madame de Menon. Things change when the Marquis and his young wife come back to the castle. Julia is promised by her father to the ageing Duke de Luovo but has fallen in love with a friend of her brother's, Hippolitus. They plot to elope but the plan doesn't go smoothly...

This is an extremely atmospheric novel, playing on the spectres of an ancient castle and using the surrounding area - woodland, caves, secret underground passages - to great effect. It is also well-plotted with the end tying up all the loose ends completely and explaining all the mysteries put forward throughout. I have to say that certain events surprised me as I progressed and I simply enjoyed the twists and turns without trying to second guess everything.

On the characterisation side, the characters were a little under-explored for my liking, taking a back seat to the complex plot but I expected that. I also felt characters were forgotten for long periods, particularly poor Emilia. Her experience of living at the castle after her sister has fled could have been a novel in its own right.

Some of the most potent scenes in A Sicilian Romance come from truly terrifying incidents. For instance, Ferdinand, languishing in the dungeon, hears screaming from another quarter of the castle. Another example is when Julia and Hippolitus find themselves in one of the most gruesome rooms imaginable. That scene alone is enough to make this book stand out but there are many others of merit.

A Sicilian Romance draws on a number of Gothic conventions but is no less enjoyable for it. Watch out for armed bandits, nuns, convents, secret prisons and poison.

Classic Film Review: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex stars Bette Davis in her first outing as Elizabeth I (the second one would follow in 1955's The Virgin Queen, although she would be playing a younger Elizabeth). Her co-star as the Earl of Essex is Errol Flynn, a surprising pairing but one that, for me anyway, works.

The ageing Elizabeth loves Essex but is fearful of both his ambition and the fact that he may not love her as dearly. The rest of her advisers also dislike him and take the opportunity to provoke him into a doomed campaign in Ireland. When they conspire to keep Elizabeth and Essex from contact it proves to be the catalyst for an ultimately fatal reconciliation.

Bette Davis is captivating, utterly without flaw and fitting the character as well in 1939 as she would do in 1955. There was something about her that made her ideal to play Elizabeth I and she truly makes the role her own. The direction of the film by Michael Curtiz is superbly clever at times. For instance, our first 'glimpse' of Elizabeth comes via shadows on her wall then the wait until we do actually see her face is cleverly drawn out. Shadows are also used to great effect towards the climax of the film. It's a loving piece of drama, put together using lavish costumes and some very fitting dialogue. Davis handles all her lines perfectly, providing them with enough zest for effect but not enough to spill over into melodrama.

There are three scenes which jump out at me as above the excellent standard of the rest of the film. Firstly, the mirror scene where Lady Penelope (Olivia de Havilland) jibes Elizabeth about her looks and she responds by smashing up every mirror in her room and ordering the rest to be removed. Secondly, the scene which directly follows this between Elizabeth and Margaret Radcliffe (Nanette Fabray). This is a touching, beautiful scene and I'm sorry that we saw no more of this small relationship. Finally, the final scene with Elizabeth sat in the Tower crying. Every expression perfectly befits the moment and leaves the audience with a lingering image. I can't praise Davis enough for this performance.

And what of the rest of the cast? Flynn is remarkably enjoyable and he and Davis have a good rapport (even if, as reports suggest, it was based on antipathy). Vincent Price puts in a few good lines as Sir Walter Raleigh; the same goes for Donald Crisp as Francis Bacon. Olivia de Havilland's role was unsurprisingly small and her part a little without definition but she makes a commendable effort when up against the screen presence of the mighty Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I.