2h 8min | Animation, Comedy, Musical | 15 August 1946 | Color
Director: George Sidney
Stars: Walter Pidgeon, José Iturbi, Roddy McDowall, Ilona Massey, Xavier Cugat, Jane Powell.
Stanley Donen ... choreographer
Watched online, miserably blurry; tried 3 different copies.
I like JI more each time I see him. Director GS did a good job of making his numbers more visually interesting by tilting the camera, or showing JI in reflection from the music stand, or showing the rapid key mechanisms responding to JI's hands, And the music he plays is right up my alley: romantic classical, and then boogie woogie.
Actual ages: JP (b. 1929), JI (b. 1895). So he's ~51 to her ~17; he and his offspring would need to have been her age for him to be her grandfather. But his is A grandfather in the film, with g'children under age 10. We don't learn this until late in the film.
Although this is coming-of-age romantic nonsense of immature JP & RM (b. 1928, playing younger), which I always find a bit irritating, I would like to see a good copy of this. The Soundtracks lists 19 songs, with no performers; I think I could identify a lot of those, and it would be a pleasure to go through them again.
Still a Good Neighbor production (dates 28 August 1945 - 4 December 1945). And, let's face it, a lot of Europe was badly damaged; no idea how soon they would be ready to receive their pre-war volume of film imports. And obviously, given the setting (and they're not on holiday; father WP is US Ambassador there), we get some Latin music (Cugat & Orch), but most is classical. Both JP & IM are in the cast; even if they sing pop, it comes out opera.
My rating may go up when I see a clean print.
MGM, dir. Sidney; 6+
