Before the Storms

Though there's rumblings of Hurricane Irene coming this way starting Saturday night, today remained absolutely gorgeous. It was all bright sunshine and soft wind as I headed down the street to the Oaklyn Library for this week's volunteering session there.

It was pretty quiet this morning. There were a few kids in the children's area, but otherwise, it wasn't bad. There was either no Storybook Hour today or I missed it. I was able to organize the children's books after finishing the DVDs with no interruptions.

I went right into dubbing the next movie when I got in. I know I said I wanted to buy Bitter Sweet when it comes out in the Warner Archives next month, but I finally decided to save myself 20 bucks and add it to the list. Bitter Sweet is the second of two Technicolor movies Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy did together, and their second romance that ends in tragedy. MacDonald is a prim and proper young British woman in 1881 who scandalizes her upper crust family by running off with Austrian music teacher Eddy. They live in happy poverty in Vienna until they get a job working at a cafe. MacDonald is pursued by an amorous captain (George Sanders, in one of his many "cad" roles), but it's Eddy who may not survive his advances...

Yes, it's more-or-less Maytime in color. As such, it's really not their best film by a long-shot. Noel Coward, who wrote the music for the original show, really hated it, and MacDonald and Eddy supposedly weren't happy, either. There's some nice moments, though. I love Eddy carrying MacDonald up the stairs to their apartment in Vienna. Otherwise, unless you're as big of a fan of these two as I am, I recommend you try Maytime first for them in drama mode.

I baked Spicy Applesauce Cupcakes while Bitter Sweet ran. They came out very well, moist and nutty...and fairly low in fat. They came from one of the Cooking Light cookbooks I got from the yard sale in Audubon a few weeks ago.

After Bitter Sweet ended, I ran Danger Mouse until it was time to head for work. Work was on-and-off steady. I shelved candy during the off times. There were a few annoying customers; otherwise, there were no problems.

When I got home, I dubbed The Girl of the Golden West. Another lesser-known MacDonald/Eddy vehicle takes the two out to California during the Gold Rush years. She's a tough-talking saloon owner, he's a bandit with a lot of romantic ideas...and both of these urban creatures (she was born and raised in Philadelphia, he was raised downtown) are clearly out of their element in a western. Buddy Ebsen is a lot more comfortable than they are as the town blacksmith and an admirer of MacDonald's. Walter Pidgeon is the sheriff who is determined to capture Ramerez...and win a certain saloon owner's heart. Like Bitter Sweet, this is hard to find and is generally for fans of these two, Ebsen, or Pidgeon only.