Happy Hump Day!

Currently Watching - The Mating Season (1951)

I adore this movie! Thelma Ritter is fantastic!

Fed up with being in debt, widow Ellen McNulty hands her Jersey City hamburger stand over to the bank, intending to live in Meridian, Ohio with her son Val. There, Val, an ambitious junior executive at Kalinger Machine Tools, is ordered by the boss's alcoholic son, George C. Kalinger, Jr., to pick up Jr.'s car on the ridge where Maggie Carleton, his date of the previous evening, has left it. When Val arrives at the ridge, he is surprised to see the car dangling over the edge, with Maggie still in it. After Val rescues Maggie, who admits she accidentally backed up the vehicle too far, a smitten Val declares his undying love. Soon after, Maggie calls her globe-trotting mother Fran in Venice to announce she is marrying Val that afternoon. Val, meawnhile, receives a telegram from Ellen announcing her imminent arrival by bus. Unknown to Val, the cash-strapped Ellen has actually hitchhiked to Ohio and has been dropped off at the bus station. Ellen happily reunites with Val and is pleasantly surprised by his impending nuptuals, but quickly realizes that he is worried about her shabby clothes. Ashamed, Ellen returns the cash that Val offers her, claiming that she is flush and that the hamburger stand is being remodeled. As soon as Val departs, Ellen applies for a job and ends up missing the wedding, then in a note, tells Val that she had to return to Jersey City. Ellen actually takes several temporary jobs in order to earn enough money to buy decent clothes and an "eighteen dollar hat." Using advances on his modest salary, Val, meanwhile, begins his marriage by moving into an upscale apartment and hosting a dinner party, to which Jr., who still has feelings for Maggie, invites himself. At home, Maggie is frantically trying to prepare for the party and is relieved when Val calls and offers to send her a cook. Soon after, Ellen arrives, dressed in her new suit and flowery hat, ready to meet her daughter-in-law. Maggie, however, assumes she is the cook, and Ellen is too embarrassed to correct her, even when the real cook arrives. Instead, Ellen allows Maggie to send the woman off and heads for the kitchen. During the party, Ellen tries to get Val's attention, but he is too preoccupied to notice her until the conniving Jr. causes Maggie to dump some cake on his father and Val rushes into the kitchen for a rag. Without exposing her, Val offers to drive Ellen home, but the kindly, widowed Kalinger insists on taking her himself. Val follows Kalinger's car to Ellen's boardinghouse and, after she is dropped off, confronts her. Ellen admits all, but refuses to move in with Val, feeling strongly that no bride should have a mother-in-law under foot. At home, Val tries to tell Maggie the truth about Ellen, but she distracts him. To the newlyweds' surprise, Ellen returns the next morning and tells Maggie that Val has hired her as cook. Before Val can protest, Ellen drags him off, explaining that by continuing the deception, she can live with them without intimidating Maggie. Just then, Maggie's mother calls to announce she is on her way to visit. Upon arriving, Fran moves into the newlyweds' bedroom, forcing Val to sleep on the couch. Later, at the office, an exhausted Val discovers that Jr. has been trying to take over the important Williamson account he has been toiling on and telephones Maggie to say he has to stay late to work. When Maggie reveals that she sent Ellen to the Kalingers, Val yells at her for "loaning out" the help. Ellen, meanwhile, takes care of a sick Kalinger and informs him that Val, not Jr., is responsible for the survey that has impressed Maryland industrialist Williamson and his wife. The next day, at the Kalingers', Maggie and Val attend the party being held in honor of the Williamsons. While Val receives praise from Kalinger for his survey, Maggie plays backgammon with the condescending Mrs. Williamson. When Mrs. Williamson implies that Maggie is having an affair with Jr., Maggie becomes irate and accuses her of being small-minded. Maggie storms home, followed by Val, who demands that she call Mrs. Williamson and apologize. Maggie does so angrily, and the two part still furious at each other. Late that night, Val talks privately with Ellen, unaware that Fran is in the kitchen eavesdropping. Fran interprets their conversation about meeting secretly to discuss a hamburger stand that Ellen is thinking about buying as an arrangement for a tryst and is shocked when she sees Val kiss Ellen. The next morning, Val and Maggie make up, but as soon as Val leaves for work, Fran tells Maggie about Val's "affair." After Maggie laughingly dismisses her mother's claim, Mugsy and Annie, Ellen's unsuspecting friends, come to the door looking for Ellen. Through Mugsy and Annie, Maggie finally learns the truth about Ellen and rushes to see Val at work. Assuming that he kept his mother's identity a secret out of fear that Maggie would reject her, Maggie accuses Val of believing the worst about her and announces she is divorcing him and moving to a hotel with her mother. Later, Kalinger runs into Ellen at the factory, and she confesses everything to him. Kalinger, who is hosting a party at Maggie and Fran's hotel, brings Val and Maggie together, and Val reveals that he and Ellen are moving to Maryland to oversee the Williamson business. After Maggie insinuates that Val will not have the guts to introduce Ellen to Mrs. Williamson, Val drags Ellen to the party and asks the matron to say hello to his mother. As predicted, Mrs. Williamson acts shocked by Ellen's coarseness, but Maggie is impressed by Val's boldness and kisses him. The newlyweds then disappear into the bridal suite, while Kalinger insists on driving Ellen home.

Get out and enjoy the pool while you can.

This week in Dallas we are going to be in the 90s for most of the week so I plan on taking advantage and getting in some last minute pool time. This time of year you never know what the weather will bring and soon enough it will be far too cold.

 

Oh...my...WOOF!!!

Currently Watching - A Room With a View (1986)

I love that TCM has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Merchant Ivory Films this month but it makes me feel old to hear that something that began in 1961 is celebrating 50 years. JESUS!!!!
Anyway, I am a sucker for these films. I just love period pieces. Give me a British cast shot on location and I am there!

Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) from the English hamlet of Windy Corner is on holiday in Italy with her much older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith). Charlotte is conventionally English, with an extremely restrictive personality and tends to get her way by expressing her emotions to manipulate others. Lucy has been brought up in an upper class but loving and easygoing household, and had fewer inhibitions, which creates a strong tension between Charlotte and herself. They are in contrast with the more free-thinking and free-spirited backdrop of Italy. At a small pensione Lucy meets an aging Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his handsome, philosophical son, George (Julian Sands), as well as other personalities such as Reverend Beebe, the two Miss Alans, and the author Miss Eleanor Lavish, who becomes friends with Charlotte. These men, although also English, represent the forward-thinking ideals of the turn-of-the-century, seeking to leave behind the repression and caution that was the norm in Victorian times. At first, the two Emerson men seem strange and unfamiliar to Lucy and Charlotte. The men seem unaware of finer upper class Victorian manners, and offer Lucy and Charlotte a room with a view where the gentlemen have already slept, and Charlotte fusses until she must give in or appear overbearingly rude. As Lucy begins her journey to maturity, she finds herself drawn to George due to his mysterious thinking and readily expressed emotions.

A number of people residing at the pensione take a carriage ride in the country. A mischievous Italian driver gets back at Charlotte by misdirecting an unchaperoned Lucy to George in a barley field as he admires the view. George suddenly embraces and passionately kisses Lucy as she approaches him. Charlotte has followed Lucy, witnesses the act, and quickly stops the intimacy. George's unreserved passion shocks Lucy, but also lights a secret desire and romance in her heart. Charlotte suggests George kissing her was the act of a rake. Charlotte makes reference to a heartbreak from her youth that occurred the same way and has behaved accordingly with disgust and anger toward George. Charlotte uses guilt to coerce Lucy to secrecy to save both their reputations as a young lady and a chaperone, but it is mostly for her own benefit. Normally, if a young man kissed a young lady, an engagement should be announced to preserve her reputation, but Charlotte considers George to be an undesirable influence. Upon returning to England, Lucy tells her mother nothing due to Charlotte's influence, and pretends to forget the incident. She accepts a marriage proposal from an uptight, but respectable and wealthy man named Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). However, she soon learns that both George and his father have moved to her small village and will be her neighbors due to a letter from Reverend Beebe inviting them to reside in an empty cottage.

The appearance of George soon disrupts Lucy's plans and causes her suppressed feelings to resurface, complicated by the supposed need for secrecy. Lucy consistently refuses George's attempts to woo her because of Charlotte's admonitions. A confused Lucy breaks her engagement to Cecil due to George's influence, and plans to travel with the two Miss Alans, this time to escape the nearness of George. George has also decided that he must move for peace of mind and makes arrangements. Lucy stops by Reverend Beebe's and is confronted by George's father before they are to leave town. Lucy runs down the road and catches up with her mother's carriage and reveals the truth about her feelings. At the end, we see George and Lucy honeymooning in the Italian pensione where they met, in the room with the view.

STEVE HAYES: Tired Old Queen at the Movies - #84

An amazing movie! THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939}

Have you ever just gotten a glimpse of someone and thought...

"I really want to see them naked"?  This cutie was in the audience on Anderson Cooper's new talk show. WOOF!

Yesterday marks one your that I have had my baby back from my ex.

It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know I can't rely on a man for love but she always loves me.

Thank you Hawaii Five-0 for your continued quality programming.

And by that I mean keeping Alex O'Loughlin shirtless! 
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!