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Wednesday, September 16, 2020

YES! (PUMPING FIST)

 Yesterday evening, Susie and I were idly watching television and I switched to Turner Classic Movies, where I found an old Alfred Hitchcock movie Stage Fright. It features, among many great old actors, Marlene Dietrich playing a somewhat over the hill singer and actress. At one point in the movie Dietrich on stage launches into a seductive number called, if I remember correctly, “I am a lazy lover.” As she reclined on a divan and started singing I erupted. “But that is exactly Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles singing I’m Tired!” I ran off to my study to consult Google and sure enough it is recognized as the Dietrich number that Kahn is satirizing. Now I grant you this does not rank up there with the discovery of radium or the proof of the fundamental theorem of Game Theory, but I was triumphant. It is small victories like this that make it possible for me to carry on in isolation as I wait the interminable 48 days until the election.

4 comments:

David Zimmerman said...

The refrain in Marlene Dietrich's song is "I'm the laziest girl in town."

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Ah yes, thank you. By the way, Jane Wyman and Michael Wilding is NOT a very plausible couple, I thought.

marcel proust said...

I love Dietrich (Destry Rides Again, anyone?) but am not familiar with Stage Fright. What line in Deitrich's song was von Shtupp Kahn satirizing when she sang (or rather, spoke), "Let's face it. Everything below the waist is kaput"?

David Zimmerman said...

Here are the Dietrich lyrics:

It's not 'cause I shouldn't
It's not 'cause I wouldn't
And, you know
That it's not 'cause I couldn't
It's simply because
I'm the laziest gal in town

My poor heart is achin'
To bring home some bacon
And if I find myself
Alone and forsaken
It's simply because
I'm the laziest gal in town


Though I'm more
Than willing to learn
How these gals
Get money to burn
Every little proposition
I turn it down
'Way down

It's not 'cause I wouldn't
It's not 'cause I shouldn't
And, you know
That it's not 'cause
I couldn't
It's simply because
I'm the laziest gal in town

I don' see any reference to the line in the von Shtupp tribute song--- expect maybe an indirect one....
"I turn it down
'Way down"