*** The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music -- 1965; starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer; directed by Robert Wise.

I have seen this film before -- in fact, it was one of the first films I saw in a walk-in theater (my parents tended to favor drive-ins when the kids were along, but I think my Mom and Grandmother took us to this during the day) -- but I was perhaps five years old, and I remembered nothing other than it had singing and Nazis in it. Of course, I've been exposed to most of the songs over the years.

It's definitely an old-fashioned film in terms of the way the characters are portrayed; but the performances are excellent. The kids are corny by today's standards, but the performances surprisingly fresh and unforced. Julie Andrews does some broader comedy than I remembered. But Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp was the standout performance, I thought. He manages to convey the caraciture of the stern father with the right touch of sardonic humor, and then makes the transition to loving family man very smoothly. Of course, realism is not what the film is aiming for, but the cast manages to make the whole thing more plausible than they might have.

And the visuals are a treat throughout. From the opening vistas over the mountains, to the lovely architecture of Salzburg, to the simple but classic costumes (those wonderful full skirts on Liesel -- yum! I want some!) -- the film should make anyone want to pay Austria a visit in short order.

As to the songs, one thing I did think odd is the repetition. As the DVD broke for intermission, I realized that the first half of the film had covered pretty much all the classic songs I'd heard of (Do Rei Mi, My Favorite Things, Edelweiss, So Long, Farewell, Sixteen Going On Seventeen, Maria, and the title song -- even The Lonely Goatherd) except for Climb Every Mountain. I wondered what songs would fill the second half, but it turned out simple enough; they simply reprised most of them, some more than once.

Certainly a classic musical and old-fashioned family film, which may be its only flaw -- at nearly three hours in length, the amount of plot and suspense is pretty minimal.

** The Bank Dick

The Bank Dick -- 1940; starring W.C. Fields

Though I'm a big fan of the Marx Brothers, I'm less familiar with the works of the other comedians of the classic era -- folks like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplain, Laurel & Hardy, and so on. I've seen a few W.C. Fields films some years back, but none for quite a while, and I'd been having a hankering to. I decided to give this one a try; it's from late in his career -- in fact, his next to last starring role (the last being in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break).

There's certainly no question the man had talent and style, and I got a pretty fair number of chuckles out of the film. But it does seem to be a bit piecemeal, and the big chase at the climax didn't really work for me. Most of the humor comes from one-liners, reaction shots, and Fields' particular style of physical comedy and verbal mangling.

For a bit of a surreal touch, Shemp Howard is featured as the bartender at Field's habitual saloon. At the very end of the film, when Fields walks out of his brand-new mansion, Howard is walking by, whistling "Listen to the Mockingbird," the theme which is played at the end of the 3 Stooges shorts; Fields ends up chasing him down the road.

Main verdict: worth a look for the curious, but probably wouldn't recruit new fans for Fields today.