The Grill-Meister and I have been watching a fair amount of old movies in the evenings during this coronavirus crisis. It’s refreshing to immerse ourselves in a different time and take a break from the grim news of today.
Bob Mondello, NPR’s movie critic, is on the same page. In a story on All Things Considered a couple of days ago, he said:
“Fred and Ginger danced America through the Great Depression. No reason they shouldn’t dance us through this.”
Source: Fred And Ginger Cheered Us Up During The Depression. Might They Do It Again?
The story is a great read (see the link above), or you could give it a listen:
While he’s always willing to dig into a great film noir classic with me, I can’t really get the Grill-Meister into Fred and Ginger.
That’s OK.
My partner for enjoying musicals has always been my son, known here as the Musical Millennial. We have the whole Fred and Ginger collection, all ten films in a set. Watching these sweet movies that are as strong on song and dance as they are weak on plots was a favorite Mom & Kid pastime for us during the years when it was just the two of us, before I got remarried. Sometimes when he comes home from college, we’ll break one of them out, and it’s like wearing a very old and comfortable sweater, only with a sound track. And I can send him a text with a picture when I’m watching old movies, and he’ll text back with the name of it, immediately. That’s where this pic came from.
So I’m with Bob Mondello on this:
“Fred and Ginger made the world’s troubles vanish — at least for a couple of hours — for Depression-era audiences.
Wonder if they might be able to do it again for us?”
We’ll certainly find out next week, when we’ll be in the metaphorical front row of the TCM Classic Film Festival Home Edition. You’ve heard about that, right?
What are you watching these days?
Stay home, stay safe, stay sane and stay in touch.
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