Julie Andrews segment during of Carol Burnett’s 90th Birthday Special
An evening pause: Aired in 2023. The best part is the short film providing sample moments from the three television specials they did together.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
An evening pause: Aired in 2023. The best part is the short film providing sample moments from the three television specials they did together.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
An evening pause: From the movie The Sound of Music (1965), a song about teaching children to face fear, to push past it, and live boldly and with courage. And to do it with humor. As Ray Bradbury wrote in his book, Something Wicked This Way Comes, you defeat evil and fear by laughing at it. The world needs to recapture this idea, or else we are doomed.
Hat tip Tom Wilson.
An evening pause: Performed and aired live on television in June 12, 1962. Andrews is known for her singing, while Burnett is known for her comedy. In truth, their talent in both areas was special.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: With high hopes for the new year.
Hat tip Edward Thelen, who I thank for trying to offer me videos from a source other than youtube. Unfortunately, by the time this appeared, it was gone at that source and I had to rely on youtube.
An evening pause: O that face. Even with this poor recording, you can see why I said, in my very first evening pause, Julie Andrews had “one of the most incredible screen presences of any actor in the history of film.” And the lighting here, reflecting off her features and eyes with a glint, accentuates that presence.
From The Sound of Music (1965).
An evening pause: From the live television premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 1957, their only musical written for television. Edith Adams plays the fairy godmother.
For the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say
And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes
Impossible things are happening every day!
I first posted this in 2011. Time to see it again.
An evening pause: You need to watch all of The Sound of Music (1965) to understand the context that makes the song even better, and explains the way the clip ends.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: From Julie Andrews 1971-72 television show. Remember, they put this together for a weekly show. No CG. No editing. Just two performers performing, impeccably.
An evening pause: A fine performance by James Garner from a Paddy Chayefski screenplay. While I agree that putting soldiers on pedestals is often a misplaced emotion that can lead to future unnecessary wars, I do not agree that all war is immoral. There are times, as a last resort, when good people have to stand up and fight, if only to prevent bad people from dominating the battlefield. In 1964, when The Americanization of Emily was released, Americans could be forgiven for being hostile to war. After World War II the country had gotten itself into a string of wars, the goals of all having been poorly considered. It was also a time when evil people were well restrained by our willingness to stand up to them.
Today, our fear and hostility to war is allowing evil to run rampant worldwide. It will very soon descend upon our heads if we do not begin to fight back.
Having said that, this is a fine and thoughtful scene from a fine and thoughtful movie, raising many profound thoughts about the nature and consequences of war. Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
An evening pause: From the classic musical, The Sound of Music (1965), a moment with few words where all things change because everyone understands everything anyway.
As I noted in my first Evening Pause on July 1, 2010, “Julie Andrews, in her prime, had one of the most incredible screen presences of any actor in the history of film.”
An evening pause: Once, a long time ago, the concept of charity was something that you gave voluntarily, not forced upon you by the will of others.
A technical aside: If you listen closely to the soundtrack to Mary Poppins (1964), you will discover hints of the melody from this song sprinkled throughout. The composers clearly considered it a central theme on which they wished to link to the rest of the score.
An evening pause: , The song “Impossible,” sung by Julie Andrews and Edie Adams, from the live 1957 television production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
For the world is filled with zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say
And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes
Keep building up impossible hopes,
Impossible things keep happening every day.
An evening pause: In a previous post, I described how I have always felt that Julie Andrews’ incredible screen presence was only rarely taken full advantage of during her career. In Mary Poppins — one the films that did showcase her wonderfully, Andrews’ co-star was Dick van Dyke, an amazing talent in his own right. For that film, Andrews and van Dyke had a chemistry that was riveting. In an earlier movie era, the studios would have taken advantage of that chemistry and cast them together again and again, much as Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn were repeatedly cast together throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Unfortunately, by the 1960s the studio system was dead and such casting was impossible, and Andrews and van Dyke have never again appeared on the big screen together.
However, in 1974 they did do a television variety show special together, Julie and Dick in Covent Garden. One particular skit from that show not only demonstrated vividly the chemistry between Andrews and van Dyke and how we had lost something precious by not having them appear together in many films, the skit’s story itself illustrated in a most ironic manner these lost opportunities of life. Enjoy.