On BEING THE RICARDOS

 This post will be about two women with whom I had the privilege to be up close to and engage in conversation -- Nicole Kidman and Lucille Ball. Earlier this month, I posted a short piece I wrote titled "They Loved Nicole as Lucy." BEING THE RICARDOS, starring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz, had screened in Los Angeles for Motion Picture Academy members and entertainment press reporters. There was a Question & Answer session with cast members right after the film. When Kidman was introduced, she entered to a standing ovation.

Before the production had been completed and screened, there was a lot of Twitter chat about the casting. Many were outdone that Kidman had been cast -- mainly because she doesn't resemble Lucille Ball or Lucy Ricardo. Director/screenwriter Aaron Sorkin punched back by telling upset people that Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., Lucy and Desi's children, are executive producers of the project and that the project is more about the power couple dealing with a major crisis while making the classic I LOVE LUCY sitcom. It's not about Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo.

If you've followed my blogposts for some time, you know that I spent one hour with Lucille Ball during my VH1 years as a veejay and prime time celebrity talk show host/interviewer. While in L.A. doing some work for VH1 and CBS, Lucille Ball invited me to her home for cocktails on the evening of St. Patrick's Day in 1989. Of course, I went. She was most gracious. We both had vodka tonics. What hit me was that I could tell she was definitely a businesswoman, a direct no-bullshit businesswoman. After I'd read Desi Arnaz's excellent autobiography -- A BOOK by DESI ARNAZ -- I realized that he was the one with the spontaneous, engaging, mischievous, joyful spirit like Lucy Ricardo's. Lucille Ball was the disciplined entertainer who took care of business matters like Ricky Ricardo did.

I saw BEING THE RICARDOS over the weekend. Had I attended the screening in Los Angeles, I would have enthusiastically joined in giving Nicole Kidman a standing ovation. Maybe she doesn't resemble Ball as much as Frances Fisher did in the 1991 CBS biopic presentation, LUCY & DESI: BEFORE THE LAUGHTER or Debra Messing dressed as Lucy Ricardo in an episode of the WILL & GRACE reboot, but she fully gets the guts and steeliness of the off-screen Lucille Ball from her years at RKO, where she met Desi around 1939 or '40, to her successful 1950s period on I LOVE LUCY. Ball was a tough dame who worked hard and knew what she wanted. But, for a long time in show business, she really didn't get what she wanted. BEING THE RICARDOS shows Lucy and Desi as what they became in the 1950s -- a top Hollywood power couple. They had network TV power together and individually.

I did a TV pilot with TV producer. He was a producer of the original THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. He worked with Lucille Ball once and I asked him what she was like. He answered that she was smart as a whip and tough as nails. That's what we see in Kidman's performance. We see the lusty and often turbulent relationship the two married stars had. They could have explosive marital arguments yet go onstage and play The Ricardos to a large and loving audience. That's how focused they were as actors. 

During the 1950s, when the show was an enormous hit, Desi's extra-marital affairs caused friction in the marriage. But the even bigger crisis was press reports that Lucille Bill was a Communist. In those years, the accusation of being  Communist could kill a performer's career stone cold dead in a heartbeat.

Comedy is hard work and Lucy took it very seriously. We see that the I LOVE LUCY production team of writers, directors and actors was not exactly a happy one while it made classic sitcom episodes. Vivian Vance and William Frawley, who played the Mertzes, couldn't stand each other. Nina Arianda and J.K. Simmons slam across two terrific performances as Vance and Frawley. Their non-stop bickering and insults are funnier than some of the dialogue given to Fred and Ethel Mertz. Sorkin shows how Ball was a comedy visionary. She could see in her mind how a scene should be played and staged. But, on the set, she had an iron fist in production to see her vision realized.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz started their romance while making the 1940 RKO musical comedy release, TOO MANY GIRLS, Desi was in the original cast of the Broadway musical and repised his role for the film adaptation. She had done bit parts and B-movie roles at RKO through the 1930s. She had the female lead role in TOO MANY GIRLS. He felt she had the talent to be a star and should've been. Hollywood didn't see her as a star, but she kept working. On a date, he asks her how she wound up in Hollywood. Lucy replies "I got kicked out in New York." She asks him the same. Cuban immigrant Desi replies "The Bolsheviks burned my house down." His father had been a mayor in Cuba.

There is one huge mistake in the screenplay that, for a veteran writer like Sorkin, just comes down to laziness and no one checking him on it. My favorite Lucille Ball movie is the 1942 RKO release, THE BIG STREET, co-starring Henry Fonda. It's a drama. Her character is crippled for half the film. Lucy is remarkable in it. In BEING THE RICAROS, Lucy excitedly tells Desi that she got the part in THE BIG STREET after Rita Hayworth and Judy Holliday proved to be unavailable. At that time, Ginger Rogers, (Lucy's buddy in 1936's FOLLOW THE FLEET and 1937's STAGE DOOR) was queen of the RKO lot. Hayworth may have been considered after her dramatic work in 1940's ANGELS OVER BROADWAY. However, Carole Lombard was Lucy's friend and idol. Lombard had proven to be a top screen beauty and Oscar-nominated screwball comedy star of the 1930s and early 40s. Plus, she'd displayed her solid dramatic skills in RKO's 1940 hospital drama, VIGIL IN THE NIGHT and as the lonely waitress in RKO's other 1940 drama, THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED.

Even though Judy Holliday's name keeps coming up in BEING THE RICARDOS as an early 1940s Hollywood star, that just was not the case. Proof is in the 1944 Fox musical comedy, SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS. You see Judy Holliday in that as an extra, a background actor standing behind Carmen Miranda during a musical number in a defense plant. Holliday's name wasn't even listed in the credits. Hollywood didn't start talking about Judy Holliday until her comedy supporting role in 1949's ADAM'S RIB starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Holliday became a big Broadway star in BORN YESTERDAY. She repeated her role in the film version and won the Oscar for Best Actress of 1950. I LOVE LUCY premiered in October 1951.

After Lucille Ball's excellence in 1942's BIG STREET, RKO canceled her contract. In the 1950s, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz became such a wealthy Hollywood power couple that they purchased the RKO studio backlot and made it the home of their Desilu Productions. Javier Bardem is very good, showing what a creative, imaginative and influential force he was in TV. Lucy was driven to keep the show a hit and to use it to repair her marriage. She was a high-powered working wife and mother whose Hollywood career didn't really take off until she became a big star on the small screen when she was 40. Then she had to combat accusations of being a Communist. Here's a trailer.

See BEING THE RICARDOS if you can. I interviewed Nicole Kidman a couple of times. She was delightfully warm, down-to-earth and funny. We seem to associate her with deep-dish dramas like THE HOURS, the film that netted her a Best Actress Oscar, but she can get laughs. Look at her opening scene in the unfortunate 2004 remake of THE STEPFORD WIVES. It's like a stand-up comedy routine. There are moments in the black-and-white I LOVE LUCY portions when she does call up the Lucy Ricardo comedy spirit.

I was really gripped and impressed by Nicole Kidman's emotional intensity playing the legendary TV star for whom comedy was serious business. 

Jazz Singer Beverly Kenney

 I have some totally cool Twitter followers. There's a car commercial on television. It's a car commercial promoting the new Lincoln Aviator. In the ad, you hear a female vocalist do a sensationally smooth jazz rendition of "It's a Most Unusual Day," a song introduced by Jane Powell in a 1948 MGM musical titled A DATE WITH JUDY.

I'd never heard that jazz vocal before but I loved it immediately. Who was the singer? Was it Blossom Dearie? Chris Connor? June Christy? None of the three. I asked for help on Twitter and, within 15 minutes, a follower messaged me that the singer is Beverly Kenney. Thank you, Charlee, for the answer!

Here's the Beverly Kenney jazz vocal heard in the TV commercial:

Wasn't that a treat for the ears? Here's another one. This song, I first heard on an album I had of vocals by Lee Wiley. Now, Beverly Kenney also does jazz justice to "A Woman's Intuition."

I searched online for some biographical information about this singer. It was sad. With that velvety voice, she suffered from mental issues and took her own life in 1960. New Jersey native Beverly Kenney was only 28 when she died in Greenwich Village.

She left us with rediscovered beauty.

About AILEY

 The documentary opens with him receiving a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor. Actress Cicely Tyson is on stage and tells the formally-attired audience, "He is a choreographer of the heart." One of his dance numbers is presented. Then we go to the New York City street named in his honor -- Alvin Ailey Place. This fascinating 95-minute documentary is called AILEY and it is about the late, great dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey. In my previous post, I wrote about actor Anton Walbrook who played the imperious, driven ballet company head in THE RED SHOES. He warns a new ballerina, one in whom he sees greatness, that she cannot have it both ways. She cannot be a great artist and have an ordinary life with average domestic pleasures. I thought of Walbrook's character in THE RED SHOES as I watched AILEY. Alvin Ailey is asked if he had to sacrifice anything in order to maintain that extraordinary career in the arts.  His answer -- "Everything."

Then I thought of my father. No, he wasn't a dancer. But, like Alvin Ailey, he was born in Texas during the Great Depression and, in his youth, moved to Los Angeles. Ailey moved with his mother. He never saw his father. By the time he was in his late teens, Ailey was drawn to ballet and he'd been introduced, by a friend, to the thrill of same-sex affection. But when Ailey saw classical ballets performed onstage, he did not see a representation of himself. He didn't see any Black dancers. However, he'd become one.

Eventually, he will get to New York. He will see celebrated Black dancers such as Katherine Dunham (who was featured in the all-Black 1943 Fox musical, STORMY WEATHER) and actress/dancer Carmen de Lavallade. He would take dance and be a stand-out with his talent, good looks and charisma. But he had his own ideas about dance. He started his own company and created stunning dance pieces such as "Blues Suite," "Cry," "The River," "Fever Swamp," and the exquisite "Revelations." You'll see excerpts in the documentary. Offstage, Ailey was driven and solo. He didn't have a significant other who loved him and that seemed to fray his spirit. 

Plus, at times when he was being applauded worldwide, there was still racial exclusion and discrimination and death in his homeland. The murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton (his life and death were portrayed in the 2021 film, JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH)  shook Ailey and a response came through in his art. At this time, he questioned whether upscale White people embraced him because they truly cared about his art or they basically wanted to position themselves as seeming liberal.

Some of those White folks who celebrated him did not embrace him when he was diagnosed with AIDS. You really need to see this fine documentary expertly directed by Jamila Wignot. We hear Ailey in his own words, we see him and his work. We see his dance company which was Black, White, Asian, Latino....racially diverse and inclusive unlike the ballet companies Ailey saw onstage in big cities in his youth. The comments from co-workers, former dancers and fellow choreographers -- such as Judith Jamison and Bill T. Jones -- are excellent. There is terrific archival footage. Above all, we see the genius of Alvin Ailey's choreography.

I'm positive that many White kids and young adults only knew Alvin Ailey's name because, in the 80s, it was much-publicized that Madonna had studied dance at Alvin Ailey studios. But those folks were unaware of history and significance. This is the true story of a major talent -- a Black, gay man who established his unique voice in the arts and took his place at the table. He gave us great work. He made great personal sacrifices. AILEY is worth watching. This is fine arts history, Black history and LGBTQ history. This documentary is on Amazon Prime.

He Rocked THE RED SHOES

I am hardcore fan of performances given by Anton Walbrook. It is my strong opinion that he should have been a Best Actor Oscar nominee for his fabulous performance as the dashing, obsessed, driven Boris Lermontov, the renowned head of the ballet company in THE RED SHOES (1948). Lermontov is an effortlessly debonair man who can be both wise and ignorant, warm and monstrous. He is, as one character calls him, an "attractive brute." 

His all-consuming, relentless  passion for his art and the career of one superb ballerina will lead to a major, severe crack in the ice of his glacial elegance that will cause his breakdown at the final curtain. Walbrook inhabits the character totally, the smallest gestures of his physical carriage -- such as the raise of an eyebrow, the motion of a finger, his fixed stares, his posture which leads one to think he once was a fine ballet dancer himself -- are all brilliant.

This isn't the only Anton Walbrook performance I love. The Austrian actor is quite classy and charismatic in the 1933 German film, VICTOR AND VICTORIA. He originated the role that would be played by James Garner in the hit 1982 remake, VICTOR/VICTORIA, starring Julie Andrews. He's got a sophisticated menace about him in the 1940 British film, GASLIGHT. Charles Boyer would take on that role in the 1944 Hollywood remake opposite Ingrid Bergman. 49TH PARALLEL is a 1941 British wartime film that Walbrook steals from co-star Laurence Olivier. He's remarkable and one of the hearts of the wonderful 1943 British film, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP. He's deliciously jaunty in the 1955 British comedy, OH...ROSALINDA!

Did you see the classic 1944 murder mystery, LAURA, directed by Otto Preminger? What a movie. So much posh Manhattan decadence in that classic starring Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb.

 That film, in 1968, was adapted for a television production that aired as an ABC TV special.

In 1962, LAURA was adapted for West German television. Who took on Clifton Webb's role as Waldo Lydecker? Anton Walbrook!

When I discovered that a video of the 1962 foreign production is on YouTube, I had to see it whether it's all in German without subtitles or not. I just had to see Anton Walbrook.

If you share that same passion, click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/LXySR37r3QU.

Love me some Anton Walbrook.

More Music by Johnny Mercer

 This music man was enormously talented. Songwriter, lyricist, singer Johnny Mercer was born on November 18, 1909 and the world became a better place for it. In August, I blogged a piece about this multi-Oscar winner and included some of his music. I'm giving you more of his music here -- and you may not even know that he wrote a couple of these gems. First up is "Travlin' Light" sung by Billie Holiday.

This classic song was later sung by Ida Lupino in ROAD HOUSE (1948) and by Frank Sinatra in YOUNG AT HEART (1954). But Johnny Mercer with Harold Arlen wrote it for Fred Astaire to introduce in THE SKY'S THE LIMIT (1943). Astaire played a G.I. on leave who just broke up with his sweetheart and tries to drink his blues away. Another song in the score, "My Shining Hour," brought Mercer an Oscar nomination for Best Song. Here's "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road).

Mercer with Jerome Kern wrote "I'm Old Fashioned" for Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth to introduce in YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER (1942). Another song in the score, "Dearly Beloved," brought Mercer an Oscar nomination for Best Song.

Numerous top vocalists recorded "Moon River" from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. But my favorite version of this song Mercer wrote with Henry Mancini is the original one -- introduced wistfully in the film by Audrey Hepburn. It won the Oscar for Best Song of 1961.

If you've got time for one more, here's Johnny Mercer singing the tune he wrote for Bing Crosby to do in Paramount's HERE COMES THE WAVES (1944). It got an Oscar nomination for Best Song. You hear this vocal in the opening minutes of the 1997 crime drama, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.

Johnny Mercer was a true American artist.

They Loved Nicole as Lucy

 I just had to share this. There was a critics' screening last night in Los Angeles for members of the press and the Motion Picture Academy. They screened BEING THE RICARDOS starring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. The two stars walked out to greet the audience after the movie and answer a few questions. When introduced, Kidman entered to a standing ovation. Best Actress Oscar buzz for her has already started. You know how Oscar loves biopics.

Scott Feinberg of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER wrote "...the whole cast was great. Shame on me for doubting Kidman could nail Lucy. Big standing O."

Nathaniel Rogers of CRITICS CHOICE on Twitter wrote "It's true. Nicole Kidman is marvelous as Lucille Ball."

Matt Neglia of NEXT BEST PICTURE and CRITICS CHOICE on Twitter typed in with "BEING THE RICARDOS is a crackerjack piece of entertainment on creative control, power & influence. Aaron Sorkin's strongest directorial effort yet. Nicole Kidman & Javier Bardem fully inhabit Lucy & Desi with wit, layered emotion & brilliant comedic timing..."

VARIETY's Clayton Davis noted "BEING THE RICARDOS is full of wit and charm. Nicole Kidman owns the spirit and vigor of Lucille Ball. 

Dave Karger of TCM and NBC's TODAY show wrote "A 5th Oscar nomination for Nicole Kidman especially likely....the fantastic Javier Bardem (also a strong contender)..."

I'm eager to see it.  I loved Lucy.

Petula Clark Music Break

 What does singer/actress Petula Clark have in common with Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn and Cyd Charisse? She got to dance in a movie with Fred Astaire. As she told me on camera one morning on Fox 5's GOOD DAY NEW YORK when I had the great joy of meeting her, "I wasn't very good at it." I replied, "But you did it!" Petula Clark celebrated her 89th birthday this week. Now some of us who purchased her hit 45s of "Downtown," "Don't Sleep in the Subway," and "A Sign of the Times" when we were kids may find that impossible. However, in our baby boomer youth, we didn't know that Petula Clark, like Julie Andrews, had been a child entertainer in Great Britain during World War 2 and started acting in British movies in 1944. By the time she became a top pop star here in the U.S., she was already a veteran performer. I was then and still am a Petula Clark fan.

 My sister and I had a great Saturday afternoon at the movies when we were youngsters seeing Petula Clark and Peter O'Toole in the 1969 musical remake of 1939's GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS. Critics may have been lukewarm to the film, but I loved it. I loved the original song by Leslie Bricusse. I loved Petula Clark taking on the role previously done by Greer Garson. For Clark, as the woman who falls in love with and weds the shy British schoolteacher, the character was changed. In 1969, she was a popular music hall entertainer who liked to party. Ultimately, she finds some of those posh parties rather hollow but she finds happiness and fulfillment in the company of Mr. Chips, as she calls him. Bricusse passed away this year in October. He wrote some fabulous tunes for Pet to sing in the movie. "You and I," sung when Katherine (Clark) is now Mrs. Chipping, went on to become a favorite with jazz vocalists. Here it is, introduced by Petula Clark on the movie soundtrack.

Another original tune I love from the move is one Clark performs as the music hall star. In a clip from GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS, here is the rousing "London Is London."

Petula Clark and Fred Astaire played father and daughter in 1968's FINIAN'S RAINBOW. In this musical fantasy that takes on a social issue, they're two people from Ireland searching for a pot of gold in America. They go down South. There's a leprechaun involved. This was based on a Broadway hit that was pretty radical in 1947 when it opened. It tackled racial prejudice by having a bigoted White senator being turned Black to know how racial inequality feels. But, by the time FINIAN'S RAINBOW was adapted for the big screen by Warner Bros., America had gone through peak triumphs and turbulence of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement. Also it had seen popular movies dealing with racism, dealing with it in a way that won them Academy Awards. Those two hits films were IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967) and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967). Both starred Sidney Poitier and Beah Richards. When FINIAN'S RAINBOW arrived on screens, the material seemed a bit dated. Nevertheless Fred Astaire and Petula Clark had some magical musical moments. 

This is my favorite Petula Clark number. I totally dig the Brazilian jazz flavor given to the lush arrangement. With singer/actor Don Francks, here is "Old Devil Moon" from FINIAN'S RAINBOW.

I hope you enjoyed my Petula Clark music break.