Film Festival: Weddings, Hollywood Style Palm Beach Story (1942) gets off to a madcap start during the opening credits! A maid faints. A pastor paces and looks at his watch. A groom and best man hurry into a taxi. A beautiful woman is tied up in a closet. A bride hails a taxi. The wedding…
Movies
Whoopee! 1920s wedding comedy: Lisa’s Home Bijou
Film Festival: Weddings, Hollywood Style In triumphant lettering the opening credits of Whoopee! (1930) announce “Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn present Eddie Cantor in Whoopee! A Musical Comedy of the Great Wide West.” FLORENZ “FLO” ZIEGFELD was best known for his Follies, his elaborate musical stage revues. Whoopee! is one of the few book musicals…
Father of the Bride wedding fun: Lisa’s Home Bijou
Film Festival: Weddings, Hollywood Style Father of the Bride (1950) opens with a scene of complete chaos: bottles, confetti, and trash all over a home. Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy), the father of the bride, speaks to us about his opinion of marriage and weddings. “Someday in the far future I may be able to remember…
Lisa’s Home Bijou: San Francisco
Film Festival: The City by the Bay THE GREAT 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire is one of the defining events in 20th century American history. The 1936 film San Francisco connects faces with some of the stories of the earthquake, from the wealthy owners of mansions up on the hills, to the politicians who…
Lisa’s Home Bijou: It Came From Outer Space sci-fi
Film Festival: Science Fiction in the 1950s It Came From Outer Space (1953) is a classic sci-fi film based on a Ray Bradbury story. It is important to the genre because the outer space aliens that crash on Earth have no interest in invading or harming humans. John Putnam is an amateur astronomer who makes…