Comments on: Amateur Hour

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:52:50 +0000

I loved this…all the stuff about your family’s impromptu singing brought back memories of my own family as I was growing up. And now with my kids, we still do a bit of that, but as I was reading this I realized that lately there hasn’t been much singing. And it was truly moving to hear the songs from the movies, as well. Thanks for a beautiful and timely reminder of what might be one of the primary necessities for happiness.

By: missrhea

missrhea — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:12:31 +0000

For me, the ultimate singing in a movie is from the Welsh miners in “How Green Was My Valley” but I tear up over “Casablanca”, too.

My husband and I used to be part of a singing group (hymns, mainly). One of the best memories I have is sitting around after a meeting for which the group performed and just having a “jam session” with our voices. Someone would start a song and soon everyone was singing and that would lead to another and another. What a great memory although bittersweet since the group disbanded a couple years ago.

By: NCeddie

NCeddie — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:20:43 +0000

What a fun post! Like an old-time variety hour!
Thanks for the reminder about Durning in “Tootsie.” I think Charles Durning is an under-rated actor– he is versatile, too.
We were lucky to even see him. He was wounded three times in WWII, but kept mending and going back for more! I paid quite a bit to get a copy of TV’s “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom,” starring Durning & Maureen Stapleton. Tootsie, you’re gonna be my next DVD purchase!

By: Richard Harland Smith

Richard Harland Smith — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:46:25 +0000

Oh, no, saraeg, you’re not getting me to cry again!

By: saraeg

saraeg — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:10:48 +0000

Just another comment on “La Marseillaise”. I was watching an original program on the making of “Casablanca” a long time ago, probably on TCM, and the narrator said – as the song was being sung – all the back stage workers who had come to America to escape the war and were expatriots also, were crying along with the actors being filmed in that scene. The emotion swept everyone at the time and still does to this day.

By: suzidoll

suzidoll — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:07:29 +0000

“La Marseillaise” in CASABLANCA is my favorite scene in the film.

By: rhsmith

rhsmith — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:43:51 +0000

Moira, I know about the YouTube thing – but if you click on the hyperlink that reads “Watch on Youtube it’ll take you right to the clip.

My Mom used to let rip with Neil Diamond tunes all the time. Maybe that’s why every time I do laundry I can’t help but belt out “I ammmmmmmmmmmm I saiddddddddddddddddddd…”

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:21:31 +0000

I loved all of these, RHS.

I enjoyed hearing about your family’s impromptu singing and have a tendency to do that in my family too. I used to be embarrassed when my Mom or Dad would start singing “That Old Black Magic”, “A Bicycle Built for Two” or, at key moments in public, the Cole Porter tune from Kiss Me Kate “Why Can’t You Behave?”

Of course, I’d give a million to hear them embarrass me again in public or private!

The only segment above that I couldn’t bear to listen to was “God Bless America” from The Deer Hunter. When this movie was first in theaters, everyone, no matter what their feelings about the war, had tears streaming down their faces by the end and after 9/11 it is even more deeply affecting.

Btw, for some reason the first segment from Jaws has a message of “Embedding Disabled By Request” with a hyperlink to see it on Youtube instead. Just thought you might like to know about that.

Thanks for putting a smile on my face this morning with the rest of the well chosen clips.

Moira