The Accidental Tourist [1988]

In 1898 the US government, led by Theodore Roosevelt (Tom Berenger) back when he was still a young, ambitious Naval Secretary, intervenes on the side of the Cuban rebels in their struggle against Spanish rule. Always ready for action, Roosevelt leaves the confines of the sidelines and forms a volunteer cavalry regiment which later became infamously known as the “Rough Riders.” Roosevelt’s regiment brings together volunteers from all corners of the nation to fight against a far superior adversary in one of the most rousing victories in American history.
List Price: $19.98
Amazon Price: $11.49
Used Price: $12.83
Customer Review: Roosevelt and the Rough Riders…
1997’s “The Rough Riders” was originally broadcast as a two-part television movie. Its exceptional quality and compelling story have given it a long afterlife, first on VHS and now on DVD. The United States went to war with Spain in 1898 over the status of Cuba, a Spanish colony in rebellion. Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was one of the most outspoken advocates of war against Spain. Once the war was underway, Roosevelt put his money where his rhetoric had been and helped organize a volunteer cavalry regiment for the anticipated campaign in Cuba. The regiment, thanks in part to Roosevelt’s recruiting efforts, was an unusual mixture of cowboys, desperadoes, Ivy League athletes, and some old sweats from the Regular Army. The movie follows the Rough Riders to Cuba, where they fought dismounted for lack of transport to move their cavalry mounts. The Rough Riders would distinguish themselves in the assault on the Spanish lines outside Santiago De Cuba, in the famous charge up San Juan Hill. Roosevelt’s leadership of the Rough Riders was the making of his political career. He would become, successively, Governor of New York, Vice President, and President of the United States, and would receive a posthumous Medal of Honor for San Juan Hill. The movie is extraordinarily well-cast. Tom Berenger is pitch-perfect as Roosevelt, with his boundless enthusiasm making up for a lack of military experience. Gary Busey is priceless as General Wheeler, an aging former Confederate officer who commanded the U.S. expedition to Cuba and occasionally forgot who he was fighting. Chris Noth has a brillant cameo as one of the Ivy Leaguers, quoting Shakespeare’s “Henry V” during the famous charge. Sam Elliot does his standard stalwart turn as Bucky O’Neill, one of the NCO’s who helped whip the regiment into fighting trim in time for the move to Cuba. This movie is very highly recommended both as an entertaining movie and as a painless piece of education on a largely forgotten war.
Customer Review: Rough riders indeed!
I don’t know a lot about the US-Spanish war in Cuba, but I did like this dramatisation of parts of it! Mind you, I could watch Gary Busey standing at the street corner and like it, but seriously, thought this was a good story, well told.
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Support your favorite team by wearing this NFL youth replica jersey. This officially licensed v-neck jersey is made of durable, quick-drying nylon diamond back mesh and displays the player’s number screen-printed on the chest and shoulders. The team-colored jersey features the player’s name screen-printed on a sewn down nameplate at the upper back, with his number screen-printed at the center of the back.
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William Turner is a natural white mould-made watercolor paper with 100% rag content making it highly archival. A smooth surface suits detailed work and watercolors. The printed side of this paper has been specially coated for excellent image sharpness and optimum color graduation. The coating also offers a very high level of water resistance.
Price: $5.00
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Astaire teams up with Burns & Allen to bring some good ol’ American music and mayhem to stately England. There, lovely Joan Fontaine pines for a husband and finds Astaire. Naturally, A Damsel in Distress becomes a lady in love. Enjoy George Gershwin’s last completed score, including the pensive “A Foggy Day” amd “Nice Work If You Can Get It” plus the famed Astaire-Burns-Allen fun house dance and other inspired stepping-out that earned dance director Hermes Pan an Academy Award(R). Renowned “Jeeves” humorist P.G Wodehouse writes and George Stevens (Giant, Shane) directs. Year: 1937 Director: George Stevens Starring: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardner, Ray Noble
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Used Price: $10.99
Customer Review: Considering the Pros and Cons of Purchase
“Damsel In Distress,” (1937) another Fred Astaire romantic musical comedy for RKO Radio Pictures, as the studio was then known, was, despite some great help - and most of the usual suspects behind the camera — the great dancer’s first box office flop. It is, therefore, not in print, I believe, and hard to find: I settled for a used videotape, and, if you really want it, you might have to, too. So let’s look at the pros and cons. Firstly, and most importantly, neither sound nor picture is what we’ve been happy to become accustomed to. However, the talent is there. Astaire himself, of course, playing Jerry Halliday, professional American dancer visiting London. The late great vaudevillians/comics, George Burns (playing George) and Gracie Allen (playing Gracie), his staff people. But someone important is notably missing: Ginger Rogers. She is replaced by Joan Fontaine, then just beginning her career, as the romantic lead, Lady Alyce Marshmorton. There are sturdy British supporting players Reginald Gardiner as Kegs, butler with a hand in many pies; Montagu Love as Alyce’s father, Lord Marshmorton, mistaken for a gardener by Astaire’s character; Constance Collier, then a very big name in the British worlds of theater, society, and sapphism, as Lady Carolina Marshmorton, Alyce’s Aunt. The talented George Stevens directed. The nine-song score is by George and Ira Gershwin, completed before production began on the picture. Confusingly enough, some sources say this was their last completed film score; others say “Shall We Dance” was. Go figure. Pandro S. Berman produced, as usual; Hermes Pan was in on the choreography, as usual. Story and screenplay, as silly as anything Astaire ever made, were by outstanding British humorist/novelist P.G. Wodehouse: Lady Alyce is of an age to marry, but can’t make up her mind, until she shares a cab with Halliday, and falls for him. Van Nest Polglase was not on hand to supply his usual gorgeous art deco sets, but it’s doubtful that that’s what caused the movie to flop. Most people lay the blame for that at poor Joan Fontaine’s door. She was just beginning work; she was supposed to be the second lead, and help carry the picture, but she couldn’t. She was then rather colorless for starters, and she couldn’t dance. She was given only one brief dance with Astaire, and the haste with which she sits down in the nearest chair, as soon as that’s over, is still telling after all these years. Supposedly, as Fontaine, sister of Olivia De Havilland, sat at the movie’s premiere, watching herself try to dance, a woman behind her loudly said “Isn’t she awful.” The actress always said she thought this movie set her career back four years. She would eventually succeed, of course: she was nominated for an Oscar for the well-known 1940 film “Rebecca,” in which, you’ll recall, she, in character, couldn’t ride or sail, either. She lost Oscar that year, oddly enough, to Ginger Rogers, who’d gone on to better things, in “Kitty Foyle: Natural History of a Woman.” But she won the Oscar in 1941 for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion.” She always said she considered Astaire a notable exception among her male co-stars, in that he cared more about the film than himself. Well, Astaire cared about the movie, and the studio did too: that’s why they brought Burns and Allen in after production began. These seasoned performers actually could both sing and dance pretty well, in addition to being funny. They do a nice job together on “Stiff Upper Lip.” The pair, and Astaire,(both men in spats), dancing to an instrurmental number, do an infectious, enjoyable funhouse romp that most people consider the picture’s highlight. Finally, I’ve always loved Astaire’s versions of “A Foggy Day in London Town,” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” so I just plain wanted the picture. You might, too.
Customer Review: What could be better: Fred Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and the Gershwins. Everyone to the fun house!
From 1933 with Flying Down to Rio to 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Fred Astaire made 10 movies. All except one had him partnered with Ginger Rogers. By 1937 he decided he wanted a break, and the result was A Damsel in Distress. Who was his new partner? Well, he didn’t really have one. The closest in the film would be George Burns and Gracie Allen. Joan Fontaine, who was the love interest, simply doesn’t register strongly. Probably deliberately, Astaire chose Fontaine because she couldn’t sing and couldn’t dance. She was the antithesis of Rogers. At 20, she was sweet, shy and attractive. She makes a pleasant love interest, but the movie works as well as it does because of Astaire, Burns and Allen, and some great George and Ira Gershwin songs. Lady Alyce Marshmorton (Fontaine) met an American she thinks she loves, but her mother is having none of it. Lady Marshmorton is determined Alyce will mary Reggie, a proper British twit. She’s keeping Alyce closely watched at the the family manse, Tottleigh Castle. But Alyce runs off to London with the family’s butler, the obsequious Keggs (Reginald Gardiner) in pursuit. In London, Alyce meets Jerry Halliday (Astaire), a famous American dancer who has been promoted into a heart throb by his publicity agent, George (George Burns), assisted by George’s secretary, Gracie (Gracie Allen). One confusion leads to another, with Jerry, George and Gracie arriving at Tottleigh Castle. Then there are misunderstandings, reconciliations and leaps from a balcony. Things aren’t helped by a pool set up by Tottleigh Castle’s servants to pick who will eventually win Lady Alyce’s hand. Kegg and a young houseboy, Albert, are determined each of their own candidates will be the winner and win the pot for them. They take turns stirring the pot. However, is there any doubt who eventually wins the lady’s hand? Joan Fontaine doesn’t sing a note in the movie. Only briefly and cautiously does she share a simple but elegant dance with Astaire. She was probably the most obviously non-dancer he ever worked with. The most complicated steps she’s called upon to do are a few simple, graceful jumps. In every case Astaire is there guiding her with his hand or an arm around her waist. For a young woman with no dancing ability, it must have been a petrifying experience for her. But with Burns and Allen, two pros, Astaire has one excellent routine and one classic. With the “I’ve Just Begun to Live” theme (there’s no song), the three of them do a complicated and amusing three-way dance that is part soft shoe, part tap. The classic is danced to “Stiff Upper Lip” and takes place in an art deco fun house. The number was put together by Hermes Pan, who won an Academy Award for it. The three of them dance on and with every device Pan could think of for a fun house: Moving walkways, collapsing stairs, slides, turning tunnels, rubber doors, distorting mirrors and a circular turntable. It’s inventive, surprising and great fun to watch. And pay attention to Gracie Allen. She and her husband were one of the great comedy teams in America. At best they probably are only faded memories now. Gracie, however, was not only a skilled comedienne, she was a very good dancer. She used small gestures and never lost the ability to look “lady-like” while dancing. She could be almost as funny dancing has she was delivering her ditsy lines. The Gershwins wrote five songs for the movie and there’s not a clunker among them. The songs are smart, amusing and clever. Even the one romantic song, “A Foggy Day,” is best appreciated by literate lovers: A foggy day in London town, Had me low, and had me down. I viewed the morning with alarm. The British Museum had lost its charm. How long, I wondered, could this thing last. But the age of miracles hadn’t past. For suddenly, I saw you there And through foggy London town The sun was shining everywhere. The songs are: –”I Can’t Be Bothered Now,” a fast tap number that takes Astaire into the London streets. He turns his umbrella into an animate object. The number is shot with daytime fog swirling around. –”Stiff Upper Lip” is a collection of amusing cliches, sung by Gracie. It sets up the fun house number. What made good queen Bess Such a great success? What made Wellington do What he did at Waterloo? What makes every Englishman A fighter through and through? It isn’t roast beef, or ale, or home, or mother. It’s just a little thing they sing to one another. Stiff upper lip, stout fella, Carry on, old fluff. Chin up, keep muddling through. Stiff upper lip, stout fella, When the going’s rough. Pip pip to old man trouble And a toodly-oo, too. Carry on through thick and thin If you feel you’re in the right. Does the fighting spirit win? Quite, quite, quite, quite, quite. Stiff upper lip, stout fella, When you’re in the stew. Sober or blotto, this is your motto, Keep muddling through. –”Things Are Looking Up,” sung by Astaire to Fontaine and then danced by them by the streams and trees of Tottleigh Castle. –”A Foggy Day.” Astaire sings of the first meeting he and Fontaine had while she watches him from her balcony as he strolls and dances in the fog-swept woods. –”Nice Work If You Can Get It,” is a close harmony rendering sung as entertainment at a party at Tottleigh Castle. Astaire joins in. It morphs into a fast tap and drum number for Astaire at the close of the movie, just before he and Fontaine sweep arm and arm out of the castle. The movie can be located on VHS. The copy I have looks very good. For Astaire fans, it’s a must have. The fun house number alone justifies the purchase.
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The Accidental Tourist [1988]
Customer Review: Baltimore books
Great movie and book is even better. Set me off on pleasurable trail of reading all Ann Tylers Baltimore series. Favourite so far “Dinner at the Homesick restaurant”