Continuing our Labor Day Fest of little-known labor songs from Broadway musical, this is the song "7-1/2 Cents" from the movie version of the musical, The Pajama Game.  The Broadway show was a huge hit and had a very long run of 1,063 performances, around 2-1/2 years.  The score was by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, who also wrote a show that ran almost as long (1,019 performances) and has had a more memorable shelf-life, Damn Yankees.

The musical is based on the novel, 7-1/2 Cents, by Richard Bissell, who co-wrote the book of the musical with director George Abbott.  It's a romance about labor unrest at a pajama factory.

It all also plays a part in what I've long felt was the oddest credit of a musical, the show Say, Darling.  That show had a score by Betty Comden & Adolph Green and Jule Styne, and it had a respectable run of 332 performances.  It was based on a fictionalized novel of Richard Bissell's experiences adapting 7-1/2 Cents into The Pajama Game.  The Broadway adaptation of that was never officially called a musical, but rather "A Play About a Musical."  But to me, I've always thought that the actual credit is far better -- because it's really a play about a musical based on a book about a musical based on a musical based on a book.

Anyway, here are Doris Day, Jack Shaw and the company with "7-1/2 Cents" from The Pajama Game -- based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents.

Netflix is a fairly recent movie, Wicked Little Letters.  I watched it the other night, and thought it was superb.  It stars Oscar-winner Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.  And is directed by Thea Sharrock (who directed another new movie on Netflix, the lighter, but fun The Beautiful Game with Bill Nighy, based on the real-life international soccer tournament for homeless people).  And written by Jonny Sweet.

Wicked Little Letters is also based on a true story, when in a small town in 1920 England vicious and egregiously profane poison pen letters began being sent to one woman only, and then -- after an arrest, but then released -- increased to much of the town.  It became a famous case at the time throughout England, as officials and residents tried to figure out who was, in fact, sending them.  The film is being positioned as a comedy, though calling it a dark comedy is far more accurate.  Or perhaps even a drama that's often very funny, in a sly, off-beat way.

It is wonderfully directed.  Not the tentative work of a stage director (as the acclaimed Thea Sharrock is, including the Broadway revival of Equus with Daniel Radcliffe, and Moliere's The Misanthrope starring Keira Knightley and Damian Lewis) making a foray into film.  It’s just really well directed.  There also isn’t a performance anything less than spot-on.  Also in the film are Timothy Spall and Dame Eileen Atkins.  But everyone is great, including Anjana Vashan, who plays a major supporting role as a young Woman Police Officer.  (I describe her part that way because that's what her title official is, a bit of a sore point to her, and Jessie Buckley relentlessly reminds her. "You don't have to keep calling yourself that!  I can see you're a woman!!")
 
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley play opposite personalities – one, religious repressed and the sole recipient at first, and the other, her next-door neighbor, a guttural swearing free spirit. (Yes, no shock that Colman is the former, Buckley the latter.)  Both are absolutely great.

It's not for everyone.  The language -- mostly when the letters are read (all real, by the way.  The film shows copies over the end credits), but not limited to them -- takes expletives to an near-operatic level.  Though at a point, it becomes almost comic.

It's just really terrific.  Here's the trailer.  Given the limitations of a trailer, it does a pretty respectable job.

A few weeks back, when Bob Newhart passed away, I brought up a little-seen 1968 movie he was in, Hot Millions.  It starred Peter Ustinov, who co-wrote it, and Maggie Smith.  It also featured Karl Malden and Robert Morley.  I haven't seen it in many decades, but remember it as being a fun comedy-caper film.

As it happens, TCM is showing it tomorrow, Wednesday, August 7!  It airs at 12:30 PM Los Angeles time.  So, that should be 3:30 PM in the East.

​Here's the trailer.

As a bonus, TCM has another caper movie the same day -- also with Peter Ustinov, as it happens, in a co-starring role, for which he won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor.  In fact, all the better, it's considered one of the great, fun, caper heist movies of all time, Topkapi.  Just to put that praise in perspective, so you know this isn't hyperbole, it has a 95% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  The 1964 movie stars Melina Mercouri, who also famously starred in Never on Sunday, and it co-stars Maximilian Schell.​  Also feature Robert Morley (again, too!) and Akim Tamiroff.  It was directed by Mercouri's husband Jules Dassin, who also directed Never on Sunday, as well as another great caper film (though more serious) Rififi.  The film is based on a novel by the great writers of espionage thrillers Eric Ambler, perhaps most famous for A Coffin for Dimitrios, made into the movie The Mask of Dimitrios (its British title) with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

It airs on TCM at 11:30 PM Los Angles time.  Or 2:30 in the morning very early on Thursday.  Here's the trailer.

​For the past half-year or so, a friend and I have pondered when Trump would finally give "that" speech.  A meltdown on camera so out-of-control that it would be hard to ignore as opening the door to serious discussion about his early dementia, so pronounced that it couldn't be dismissed as just a "gaffe".  Something like the A Face in the Crowd moment.

That's the climactic scene when the main character, a former prison bum who's become an out-of-control, political powerful, homespun Bible-hugging TV star,  doesn't realize that a microphone has been intentionally left on at the end of a live broadcast as he reveals his true self, going on a megalomaniacal rant about his disdain for the public, most notably his adoring fans, destroying his political support.

Presciently written by Budd Schulberg.  Eerily so.
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On Friday night, Trump gave a speech at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach, Florida, that -- though it wasn't "that" speech -- opened the door to get there.
 
No, it wasn’t a hidden video, and no, it won't destroy his support, but it was live on national TV, said the quiet parts out loud, and exploded all over social media and newspapers, and was covered yesterday on the Sunday morning talk shows.  The only shame is that when he made the speech the weekday TV shows wouldn't be on for three days.  But I suspect that it will still be covered today, still news, even with that much time passing.  Not only because of how delusional it was, the lunacy of a sociopath out of control, unable to stop himself, distraught and breaking down begging, but perhaps more because of what it says foundationally about Trump right now.

The problem for MAGOP campaign officials, beyond having to run with a candidate who not only says but believes this sort of thing, is that they really don't have an answer for it.  When asked on Sunday morning about Trump's comments, the best that Trump surrogate John Sununu could offer was that it was just "Trump being Trump."  Fortunately for Sununu, ABC host Martha Raddatz didn't follow-up on that and just moved on.  Unfortunately for Sununu, "Trump being Trump" means a white supremacist, fascist, anti-Semitic, pathological lying sociopath with early dementia.  And enough people know that, which is why his favorability rating is only 36%.

This may not have been Trump's A Face in the Crowd moment.  But he's standing in the pathway, and you can see him profusely sweating.  Screaming into the night.

It's been a long while since we've had an episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, so let's correct that. 

The guest today is filmmaker Charles Shyer.  Among his many credits, he co-wrote Private Benjamin, Smokey and the Bandit, House Calls and the remake of The Parent Trap, and co-wrote and directed Baby Boom, Father of the Bride, Irreconcilable Differences, and the remakes of the Father of the Bride films and Alfie.  He talks about his career, as well as co-writing and directing Netflix’s holiday romantic drama The Noel Diary.
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​I had no idea, but on the Fourth of July, Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint celebrated her 100th birthday.  That explains why Turner Classic Movies not only made her the "Featured Star of the Month" and on the Fourth ran several of his classic movies along with an hourlong interview that she did with then-host Robert Osborne back in 2014.  According to math, that would have made her 90 at the time, though during the interview at one point she mentions being 88.  (It’s possible that although this was broadcast in 2014, it might have taken place the year before, and though 88 at the time, she was about to turn 89, but hadn’t yet, still before it aired.)
 
The interview is wonderful.  She was bright, sharp, funny, honest, open and charming.  And told wonderful stories, not just anecdotally, but also with thought intent.  It was seriously impressive for (let’s say) 89.
 
I thought it only proper to post the entire interview below.  It’s very enjoyable.  Some of the clips are gems, most notably from her early days doing live TV.  There's a wonderful early-TV scene with her and Jack Lemmon, but I think the standout is a scene from the live TV production she did of The Trip to Bountiful, opposite -- Lilian Gish!

She won her Oscar for her very first movie, On the Waterfront, which isn't shabby, working with a lot of her now-legendary Actors Studio compatriots, but for me, my standout favorite will always be North by Northwest.  (From the reaction of the audience in attendance, every time it's mentioned, that seems to be their favorite, as well.)  But the list of gems (and  range of genres) is long -- from Exodus to Raintree County, Grand Prix, The Sandpiper and, from what she briefly says, a favorite of hers, The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming.   Not to mention that she kept doing theater.
 
A slight digression. 
 
Hearing some of these stories in the show about Old Hollywood reminded me of a tale of my own that has a slight overlap that’s worth adding here.
 
Maybe 30 years ago, a good friend of mine David Rintels – a former president of the Writer Guild who wrote some classic, award-winning mini-series like WWII: When Lions Roared (with Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins and John Lithgow), Andersonville and Nuremberg (that won an Emmy for Brian Cox), as well as the Broadway one-man play Clarence Darrow with Henry Fonda – had written a made-for-TV movie and invited a group of friends to a watch party.  I was lucky enough to be invited, because David has some good friends.  (A couple months back, I was discussing politics with David – who now lives on the East Coast – and he mentioned that he’d talked about the matter at hand with one of his recent house guest…Laurence Tribe.  Because what he said Tribe told him contradicted my point, I gave David the win on that one.)
 
I’m pretty shy at parties and tend to hang out at the buffet table, and then eventually make way with my plate to a sofa where I could eat.  At one point, an elderly lady came over, asked if she could sit, and we had an enjoyable conversation.  Actually, it was more like an interview, because she asked most of the question, interested in me and what I was doing.  I got a few questions in, but she was very nice and really was simply more inquisitive.  We were nearing the end of our conversation, perhaps five to 10 minutes, and as she was about to get up and leave, a thought hit me like a crescendo.  “Oh, my God,” I thought to myself.  “That’s Eva Marie Saint!!!!”  And before I could say anything else, we’d said goodbye, and she wandered off.
 
She was really extremely nice.  And it was year later when I read something about her and how her reputation was that she was really extremely nice.  I didn’t need the confirmation, but it was good to read.
 
So, that’s my “slight overlap.”  And yes, I was an idiot.  Of course, she didn't look exactly like she did in North by Northwest 30 years earlier.  And I've always had a low-level case of "face blindless," not great at remembering faces.  But still.  It was Eva Marie Saint on the sofa, four feet away.  I was an idiot.  My one saving grace is knowing how nice she was and asking questions about me that I'd like to think she was glad to have a nice, normal conversation and not have the person just gushing over her.  Not that I tend to gush.  But...well, that's my "saving grace" hope.  Whether it has any bearing in reality, I don't know.  But she didn't evince the slightest sense of being put off that I didn't recognize her.  But then, in fairness, and happily, I did ​recognize her!  Just...well, far, far too late.
 
And here’s the TCM interview.  You’ll see for yourself how really extremely nice she comes across.  It’s not an acclaimed actress putting on a show.  That’s her.
 
Now, 100.