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ONE TWO THREE is one of my favorite comedies ever made. Sheer lunatic, cynical satire, all about "Coca-Cola colonialism in West Berlin!" Unfortunately, however, it is really too topical for today's audiences, with so many references to contemporary events that people today just won't get, like, "Take more off the top, you know, like Jack Kennedy!", or "Me, a countess? That means that everybody has to curtsey to me, like Grace Kelly!" or, from a Russian trade rep, "We have trade deal with Cuba: they send us cigars, we send them rockets." All delivered at such a fast pace that only repeated viewings can encompass the Billy Wilder vision.
Not much of a score, though. Repeated renditions of "The Sabre Dance," as well as "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," played at different speeds, used by East German police to torture Horst Bucholz, or "Yes We Have No Bananas," sung by a stone-faced conductor of a pitiful dance band in the "Hotel Potemkin," which "before that was the Hotel Goring, and before that the Hotel Bismark." (There are lots of digs at German politics, and Germans in general, all of which are very funny. Curiously, though the film was a financial loss upon first release, in 1961; a later re-release, complete with fancy premier, in 1985, was a big hit in Germany, where it ran for more than a year.)
So, like the original lp, it would have to be coupled with something else, maybe an updated restoration of Previn's IRMA LA DOUCE, which has some Previn themes, but mostly relies on orchestral variations of themes from the songs from the Broadway musical, none of which was sung in the film, though a number were used orchestrally for the background score.
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Not another 20CF musical. This time with Carmen Miranda. Boom chic-a-boom chic. Yeegads !
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, The Gang's All Here 1943, that's a lot of bananas!
We love bananas at Kritzerland. BIG bananas. Held by chorines.
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Now that I've heard this album...
I know that Fred's "That Face" is not the Verve single -- arranged and conducted by the great Buddy Bregman, who just passed away -- but the version Fred sang to dancing partner Barrie Chase on his second TV Special, ANOTHER EVENING WITH FRED ASTAIRE, which means the arranger-conductor would be the great David Rose.
Bruce, I'd still love to know if you had to jump through hoops to include this track on the Kritzerland CD. Whatever you had to do, it was worth it.
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Now that I've heard this album...
I know that Fred's "That Face" is not the Verve single -- arranged and conducted by the great Buddy Bregman, who just passed away -- but the version Fred sang to dancing partner Barrie Chase on his third TV Special, ASTAIRE TIME, which means the arranger-conductor would be the great David Rose.
Bruce, I'd still love to know if you had to jump through hoops to include this track on the Kritzerland CD. Whatever you had to do, it was worth it.
Astonishingly, no hoops at all. Paramount had complete rights to that vocal, no other permissions necessary. A wonderful track.
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Yay!!!
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