cider in the ear
by Douglas Messerli
I have seen several stage productions of
the great Frank Loesser including the 1976 all Black production in Washington,
D.C. and the enjoyable Jerry Zaks Broadway revival of 1992, as well as having
seen, in concert, Barbara Cook’s incredible rendition of the lead song—with all
its lyrics! It is hard to imagine a better reincarnation of the character Miss
Adelaide than Faith Prince in the 1992 production. But I still prefer Vivian
Blaine’s less-winkingly performed straight-forward satire in the film musical.
Mankiewicz clearly saw the possibilities
of Brando’s and Simmons’ intense acting styles coming through their inexperienced
voice boxes. Simmons actually comes alive as a musician in “If I Were a Bell.” Brando
is so disarmingly charming that if you didn’t fall in love with his natural
good looks, you might want to take him home just for the high-piping
incantations of “Luck Be a Lady” and the repeated whiningly melodious “Your
Eyes Are the Eyes of a Woman in Love.”
Sinatra (Nathan Detroit), as always sings
marvelously—although Loesser, himself, thought his crooning not right for the
role—but his acting is here represented by a kind of grumpy bemusement: he’s in
the doghouse for most of the movie for failures to revive his “floating” crap
games, nail-bitingly deep in trouble not only with the police and his fellow
gamblers but with his long-lasting, sneezing and discontent life-long lover,
Adelaide. At one point he bemoans: “Everybody in the whole world who hates me
is now here.”
Back to Vivien Blaine, whose “Adelaide’s
Lament” is perhaps one of the best musical numbers ever performed on stage and
film. I’ve watched the film performance of that song hundreds of times and it
has never lost one instant of its absolute wonderment:
That her microscope slide
Looks like a day at the zoo
Just from wanting her memories in writing
And a story her folks can be told
A person can develop a cold.

In between there is enough good dancing,
singing, and, in the final act—just in case you’re losing interest—a
rabble-rousing mission sing-out where Stubby Kaye (as Nicely-Nicely) joyously converts
before the eyes of his fellow gamblers—to jam up the streets of any urban
center, let alone of the few blocks of Manhattan’s Broadway which the double
marriage closes down.
Never has the Runyon style and upbeat
vision of conformed sinners—that is every man and woman who falls in love—been
better realized in this wedding of the hot (Simmons) and the cool (Brando), or
is it the hot (Brando) and the school-marmish cool (Simmons)? One can only ask,
after the screen goes black, who was the sinner and who the saved? After all,
Sky Masterson knows the bible even better than his Salvation Army doll!
Los Angeles,
August 11, 2012
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