Giving Thanks, Big Production Style
Okay, I've posted this before. And it's from a movie (Scrooge) about Christmas. But -- so what?! The song is about someone thanking others, so you should be able to play -- and re-play -- something called "Thank You Very Much" on Thanksgiving.
The number, by Leslie Bricusse, got an Oscar nomination for Best Song. It's song here by the wonderful, though little-known to American audiences, Anton Rodgers, along with an assist from Albert Finney.
As I wrote before, Anton Rodgers was a great British stage actor, who did his fair share of movies and TV, though mostly in England. But he's forever endeared in my heart for playing 'Alfred Jingle,' in my beloved musical Pickwick, both on the West End and Broadway, which I wrote about, in part, here. (My parents saw the show in London, and much as they loved Harry Secombe in the title role and raved about him for decades after, 40 years later they'd still go all googly at the mention of Anton Rodgers, even though it was a supporting role, oozing charm and virtuosity. I think the reason for that becomes clear in this performance below from Scrooge.)
Among some of the things which people might recognize him for are Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which he played 'Inspector Andre,' Son of the Pink Panther as 'Police Chief Charles Lazar, and -- for fans of the legendary The Prisoner, he played one of the 'Number Two's' in the episode "The Schizoid Man." Rodgers also was in a great mini-series on PBS, Pictures, about the early days of the talkies, playing a genial, ham actor. But it was on the stage, in dramas, comedies and musicals, where Anton Rodgers' great versatility shined. He was in A Doll's House, played 'Macheath' in The Threepenny Opera, starred as 'Walter Burns' in a musical version of The Front Page called Windy CIty, played Henry V, was in Shaw's Saint Joan, directed Death of a Salesman and The Fantasticks, and even played 'Grandpa Potts, in a recent stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
And here, despite taking place on Christmas Eve, here's Anton Rodgers with a lot of thanks giving in his heart.
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