Safety In Numbers

Started out the morning with finishing The Boy Friend and having breakfast. I also wrote in my journal and worked my way through The Elusive Pimpernel, the second book in The Scarlet Pimpernel series. (Oh, and my only movie purchases with tax return money were two variations on Pimpernel from Amazon. The 80s Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour was just re-released on DVD not long ago. I rented it in the mid-90s during my young teens and loved it, but I haven't seen it around since. I also broke down and bought the 1955 TV Desert Song with Nelson Eddy, which is more-or-less the same story with a Roaring 20s Arabian Nights setting.)

Work was slightly less busy than yesterday throughout much of the day. It was on and off busy until rush hour, not as consistent as yesterday's mess. After about 3:30, though, the crowds got crazy again. Some people reported that schools had already been closed, even as TV stations reported anything from 4 to 8 inches of snow to rain and sleet. I was getting tired of the whining over something that hadn't happened yet and that we have no control over. It didn't help that they had no relief for me, and anyone who conceivably could have gone in for me was in a register. I was late getting out and fit to be tied when I finally left.

I found Imitation Hazelnut flavoring on the Acme's clearance shelves and thought I'd try the Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkles on the back of the box. Ran Du Barry Was a Lady to cheer me up as I baked and had leftover chili for dinner. This 1942 musical comedy spoofs both Pimpernel-esque swashbucklers and typical musical romances. Gene Kelly and Red Skelton are a dancer and a hat-check boy at a night club who are both in love with the club's singer May Daly (Lucile Ball). Virginia O'Brian is the cigarette girl who wants to marry Skelton, Rags Ragland is Skelton's pal, Zero Mostel is Kelly's, and Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra are just around for specialty numbers. When Skelton wins the lottery, he tries to use his newfound loot to essentially buy Ball's favors. He learns a lesson about the importance of marrying for love when he drinks a drugged cocktail and wakes up back in 1740 France. Now he's the king, Ball is Du Barry, O'Brian is her lady in waiting, Kelly and Mostel are revolutionaries. He has to save Kelly's neck from the guillotine, even as he saves his own hide from an evil count with designs on Ball (Douglass Dumbrille).

Originally a Broadway show in 1939 with Ethel Merman and Bert Laher, I'm afraid this one simply hasn't dated that well. There's too many references to the time period (including wartime gags and an entire number based around Esquire pin ups) for casual viewers to want to check this one out. Some of the musical numbers are worth a peek for fans of the cast, World War II, or the big band era.