Movie Maniacs

Began a cloudy, blissfully cool day with breakfast and a couple of Looney Tunes that spoofed the Golden Age of Hollywood. The black-and-white "Hollywood Capers" has Beans from "I Haven't Got a Hat" hitting the studios for a chance at the big time. He ends up rescuing Miss Kitty from a robotic Frankenstein monster. "The Coo-Coo Nut Grove" and "Porky's Road Race" are more-or-less the same idea, caricatures of the popular stars of the time interacting with one another. "Coo-Coo Nut Grove" has the stars as birds and other animals in a tree nightclub. "Road Race" pits them against Warners' then-biggest animated star in a race to the finish in some very creative cars.

Actually did a little re-writing after breakfast. Leia notices that one of the chorus girls in the tropical-themed number onstage is dragged off before the number's over. She doesn't get a chance to either talk to the dazed Harry, who doesn't seem to recognize her, or as Yasmin about it. Yasmin is suddenly called away by an especially fat and pig-like guard, saying they have the dame in the basement, and she needs to "handle" her.

Broke for lunch at 1. Continued with the Warners movie spoofs as I had peanuts and yogurt with blueberries and got ready for work. Porky is "The Film Fan" who stops to watch shorts and newsreels rather than bring his mother's groceries home. "Goofy Groceries" is another caricature cartoon, this time with animated versions of then-popular store mascots coming to life. A Jack Benny bunny has to stop a gorilla from wrecking havoc with the can-can dancers. (Beware of the African-American stereotype in the finale.) "Video Wabbit" lets Bugs and Elmer have fun with early TV as Elmer tries to get Bugs to appear in his hunting program.

Two of my favorite Looney Tunes shorts of the 1950's parodied hit sitcoms from that era. "The Honey-Mousers" is a spoof of the Jackie Gleason working-class show The Honeymooners, with Ralph and Ed trying to evade a cat and get dinner. The guys have some amusing schemes, but it takes no-nonsense Alice to get rid of him. "The Mouse That Jack Built" uses the actual cast of The Jack Benny Program to voice their rodent counterparts. After inspecting his cheese vault and getting his favorite jacket off his valet Rochester, Jack is ready to take Mary Livingstone out for the evening. She's not so crazy about his choice, which looks distinctly like the inside of a cat. (I like that there's no stereotypes here - Rochester looks pretty much the same as the rest of the cast.)

Headed out to work the second Jack ended. I got stuck in the register for about an hour or so after I got in. We were busy and still short on help. I managed to get out as the afternoon shift arrived and it slowed down. Spent the rest of the afternoon doing the inside trash and gathering carts and baskets.

Made Chicken Stir-Fry with canned chicken and some of the vegetables in my refrigerator that were starting to go soft for dinner. Watched a couple of episodes of the first season of Sailor Moon while I ate. "Usagi Vs. Rei: Nightmare In Dreamland" has Ami, Rei, Usagi, and Luna exploring a local amusement park with a history of people disappearing mysteriously. Rei is determined to stick to their mission, but Usagi just wants to ride the rides and have fun. They have to learn to work together in order to rescue Ami and figure out what the creepy "Dream Princess" audio-animatronic figure is really after.

"I Want a Boyfriend: The Luxury Cruise Ship Is a Trap" has Usagi sneaking aboard a ship where Rei and Ami are passengers. It's supposed to be a romance-focused cruise, but Rei won the tickets and didn't want to deal with Usagi's fussing the whole time. Usagi once again just wants to enjoy herself...until she and Luna discover that the ship is a fake and is being used by Jadeite and a fellow minion of Queen Beryl to gather energy.

Took a nice, cool bath after dinner. Ahhh. I very much needed that. Listened to jazz while looking over one of my Christmas With Southern Living books for ideas for the holidays. It felt so nice to just relax in the coconut-scented bubbles.

Finished the night with Houseboat. Tom Winters (Cary Grant), a government official in Washington DC, finds himself with the care of his three children after their mother dies. He has no idea what to do with them, until he meets Cinzia Zaccardi (Sophia Loren) after his son Robert runs off and she returns him. She's so good with the kids, he hires her as a maid and nanny. They're to live in a guest house provided by Tom's late wife's sister Carolyn (Martha Hyer), but it's accidentally destroyed. The group end up in a leaky old houseboat instead. Not only that, but Cinzia is no maid. She can't cook or make coffee, and she's terrible at the laundry. Tom and the kids grow fond her, though, even after an incident on the 4th of July when friends of Carolyn's make vulgar jokes about their relationship. Tom thinks he wants to marry Carolyn...but even after he figures out who really owns his heart, there's still the matter of the kids not wanting to share him.

This is somewhat similar to Father Goose, only this time, she's the free spirit and he's the repressed one, the kids number boys as well as a girl, and there's no war. The kids bothered me. Even considering the trauma with their mother's death, they were still way beyond bratty at times, especially when Robert ran off early-on and in the end before the wedding. Grant was obviously on more familiar territory here, playing the befuddled bachelor dad to the hilt. Sophia Loren did well enough as the flightly Italian who wants a life of her own outside of her father's world.

I think I'm just not a romantic comedy fan. The script was nominated for an Oscar, but I found it abrasive and a bit sitcom-ish, especially once they got on the houseboat. The music is better, including another Oscar nominee, the Sam Cooke ballad "Almost In Your Arms."

If you're a fan of the leads or are more into romantic comedy than me, you may find this one to be a lot more enjoyable than I did.