Feel Good Movies...

[charliearon 3,024]

How's about Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy??  Good 'ol Andy Hardy movies.  I remember a Mickey Rooney movie where Marilyn Monroe had her first, tiny speaking part......."The Fireball".  Mickey was a Roller Derby guy.

@W2DR  How about Ginger Snaps??   Ooops, sorry!  Wrong kind of movie!!! 😯

[W2DR 1,860]

Dirty old man................

[scianoir 610]

On 12/22/2020 at 6:15 AM, cmpbellsjc said:

I actually watched The Sound of Music for the first time last night and enjoyed, plus it gave me some sightseeing ideas for the next time I got to Austria.

My wife loves anything related to music so for her birthday a few years ago I arranged a surprise trip of a few days to Salzburg. Apart from a rather alarming sudden roll of about 70 degrees to the right (?wake turbulence) on the climb out from Amsterdam on our connecting flight in an Air Alpes Dornier 328, the destination was fantastic.

Salzburg itself is one of the nicest cities I have ever visited - small enough to see on foot, nice restaurants, great beer (recommend the Augustiner Bräu beerkeller!!), friendly people and plenty to see both in the city and in the beautiful surrounding alpine countryside. And of course there is the music with both Mozart and the Sound of Music predominating and tours, etc available related to both. 

I can recommend the lovely Hotel Bristol on Makartplatz just behind the Mirabel Palace in the gardens of which some iconic scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed. In addition, if you need to impress a ‘better half’, that hotel also has an absolutely excellent restaurant for that special occasion! Loved the place some much that I went back again a couple of years ago and plan another trip there when the current plague ends (if God spares me!).

Bill

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

1 hour ago, scianoir said:

My wife loves anything related to music so for her birthday a few years ago I arranged a surprise trip of a few days to Salzburg. Apart from a rather alarming sudden roll of about 70 degrees to the right (?wake turbulence) on the climb out from Amsterdam on our connecting flight in an Air Alpes Dornier 328, the destination was fantastic.

Salzburg itself is one of the nicest cities I have ever visited - small enough to see on foot, nice restaurants, great beer (recommend the Augustiner Bräu beerkeller!!), friendly people and plenty to see both in the city and in the beautiful surrounding alpine countryside. And of course there is the music with both Mozart and the Sound of Music predominating and tours, etc available related to both. 

I can recommend the lovely Hotel Bristol on Makartplatz just behind the Mirabel Palace in the gardens of which some iconic scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed. In addition, if you need to impress a ‘better half’, that hotel also has an absolutely excellent restaurant for that special occasion! Loved the place some much that I went back again a couple of years ago and plan another trip there when the current plague ends (if God spares me!).

Bill

Thanks for all the info. 

My wife is the same when it comes to music and older films like that. She’s seen that movie probably at least 20 times and was surprised I’d never seen it. Glad I committed the 3.5 hours to watch it finally.

We’re actually supposed to be in Prague and Vienna now during the holidays but since Covid messed it up, we'll try again for next year, 2021, but if we go to Salzburg, we probably need to make that a spring, summer or fall trip.

Frankly I’d love to go to Innsbruck during the winter to ski and try the runs that make up the famous Hahnenkamm downhill ski race. Being an avid skier, I’ve always wanted to ski in Europe but ever winter when we go there it’s always for sightseeing.

[W2DR 1,860]

4 hours ago, scianoir said:

I can recommend the lovely Hotel Bristol on Makartplatz

To that I would add the hotel Am Dom. A great location in the center of Old Town. I've only been to Salzburg once but a few years ago my wife and I decided we just had to go before time passed us by. I guess it was our love for anything associated with "The Sound Of Music". You see, back a bunch of years ago we would often visit Stowe, Vermont. And several times we stayed at the Von Trapp Family Lodge. At meal times Maria would put on her Austrian garb and wander through the dining room greeting and meeting with the guests. For me that was really heady stuff. I love Julie Andrews but I'll take the real thing anytime.

[0861GUNS 6]

You want to see dancing, catch 'Broadway Melody of 1940'. Fred Astaire met his match in Eleanor Powell. 

[Fielder 3,673]

George Sanders and Betty Davis, All About Eve.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Fielder

[n4gix 4,947]

3 hours ago, W2DR said:

And several times we stayed at the Von Trapp Family Lodge. At meal times Maria would put on her Austrian garb and wander through the dining room greeting and meeting with the guests. For me that was really heady stuff. I love Julie Andrews but I'll take the real thing anytime.

When I was still a teenybopper I actually wanted to either be adopted by the Von Trapp family, or be accepted into the Wiener Sängerknaben after having watched Almost Angels at the Tehran American Club in Tehran, Iran back around 1963. I still had a quite lovely soprano voice at the time, as well as perfect pitch. I just knew if I could get an audition... 

Two of my favorite movies are the Sound of Music and Almost Angels. Disney buried Almost Angels video tape deep in their Vault for nearly forty years, and the only place it could be found was on 'bootleg video tapes' sent from Hong Kong. Even then the last twelve minutes was missing because the tapes they used were simply too short! 

Disney finally released a re-mastered DVD version a few years ago and I quickly snapped up two copies of it!  Listening to those sweet soprano and tenor voices singing Joseph Eybler's "one hit wonder*" the Graduale Omnes de saba venient made me think I'd gone to heaven early! Tony is the soloist in this stunning masterpiece Eybler wrote. Tony's father is sitting in the pew as the orchestra and choir begin their lovely windup to Tony's solo. His father is a train engineer and wanted Tony to follow in his footsteps. Tony's mother on the other hand recognized his latent talent and took him to an audition without his father's knowledge.

NB: I wasn't joking, nearly nothing remains of anything else Eybler ever wrote, which is frankly a great shame.

[Penzoil3 480]

I'm sold, just bought the DVD on Ebay.

[n4gix 4,947]

2 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

I'm sold, just bought the DVD on Ebay.

I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I have! I've watched it every year around this time for the past 30 odd years.

BTW, I learned last night that Covid-19 has just about ruined this 522 year old institution! They have had to cancel over 300 concerts and are struggling to keep the boys (and girls) at their palace and in classes. I sent a modest contribution to help them out.

I also learned that it costs close to $36,000/year for each of the boys in the Choir. They maintain 100 boys from 8 to 15 in four separate choirs. Yikes! That is expensive, but then they are getting a world class education... 

[birdguy 3,943]

Boy! That was wonderful and takes me back to St. Brigid's School.

The 6th, 7th and 8th grade boys were in the church choir and sang at the 9:00 mass every Sunday unless you were an alter boy for that mass.

After church one Sunday the music teacher sister called four of us out and told us we weren't in the choir any more.  Our voices were changing.

What happens to these youngsters when their voices start changing?

Noel 

[n4gix 4,947]

18 minutes ago, birdguy said:

What happens to these youngsters when their voices start changing?

They are moved into the older boys program. Those were the older guys behind the WSK boys. Some of them decide to continue their musical education and go on to master their chosen instruments. Some follow a track that leads to them being ready to become choirmasters in their own right.

The one thing they don't do is going on any of the WSK world tours, unless it is as one of the two proctors accompanying the young boys and their concert master. That is what happened to Peter when his voice broke. He was the one who was supposed to do the solo in the video clip above. He's the one who kept nodding his head in time with Tony's solo.

When they went on their world tour, an exception was made for Peter as a sort of consolation prize. He conducted some of their songs at each performance.

I'm astonished that they haven't produced another movie over the past 58 years!

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a better New Year my friend!

[birdguy 3,943]

Nobody has mentioned Clint Eastwood although he's more or less contemporary.

Last night I saw a special on his career.  He appeared in over 70 movies and directed 40.  That's quite an accomplishment.

I prefer to see him in the spaghetti westerns.  More because I like Sergio Leone's directing and casting.  Where does he finds all those interesting faces for those closeups?  

Noel

[martin-w 3,235]

I'd highly recomend a new documentary on Netflix. Not a movie a documentary but utterly profound.

Its called My Octupus Teacher.

You won't regret watching it.

[Fielder 3,673]

My Giraffe Teacher by Rebbe Shaul Deutsch, Brooklyn, failed to get a Netflix deal ☹️