I don't know why. Maybe it just doesn't seem to fit with the mood and spirit of the movie.
shareMe neither and for the same reason you already said. It just doesn't fit in with the theme of the movie in any way. It really should have been left on the cutting room floor.
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I had not noticed -- why does she look different?
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hmmm - interesting. Will have to rewatch that segment. She must have really been super thin since tv adds 20 lbs to your look (or so I've read).
shareI like the choreography number. Yes, it could have been cut without damaging the movie, although I think it helped provide a break between the interpersonal conflicts. A friend of mine who is very much into dance liked it because it spoofed Martha Graham, and knowing that has added a little to my viewing pleasure, too.
The question of whether it was Vera-Ellen or a ballpark double in the Choreography number has been debated on this board before; but I'll throw in another two cents having watched the movie just last night. I've often noticed that the legs, as she descends from on high, look fuller and shaplier than Vera-Ellen's broomsticks. But last night I also noticed that the face was fuller, with chimpmunk cheeks. If that were Vera-Ellen in that number, she must have been hitting that Vermont Smorgasboard a lot in between takes.
In the LIFE magazine article on the movie, one sentence begins with, "Best dance numbers are a Danny Kaye spoof on modern choreography and a huge splashy minstrel show production number..." The "Choreography" number may have played better in the 1950s when there were such clashes of popular and "high" culture.
I've always imagined this number was a reflection (or begininng) of some blood feud between Irving "Tin Pan Alley" Berlin and Martha "Modern Dance" Graham.
Sinny G - - a blood feud??? You mean they were exchanging gunfire from their respective locations, from W. 28th Street and E. 63rd??
Don't get me going again on all of Danny Kaye's overly ****fabulous**** contributions to this film!!!
The Choreography number is, in itself, a witty contribution. I don't much care for what Kaye does with it.
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I never cared for that one either-in fact once I bought the DVD I always fast forwarded through it. I felt like it was added as part of Danny Kaye's contract- like he got to have a certain number of songs -it feels like "filler".
shareYes and as long as they were taking out "Choreography" thy could dump "Mandy" too. Both are awful and would make this wonderful movie even better.
shareoh yeah, I forgot about the Mandy number too. I have it recorded and will prolly watch this weekend. Prolly fast forward thru both of these numbers. Although Mandy is not quite as back as the choreography.
P.S. I noticed a couple of threads were deleted above by an administrator (not mine but someone else's). They were posts a year ago that I answered and so I just don't remember what the deleted post said. It couldn't have been too wierd otherwise I wouldn't have answered it. Wonder why they were deleted.
The wife and I discussed this very thing a few days ago, and both agree that Choreography should have been cut. But we also agreed that it could have actually added to the film if it had been (new verb ahead) Christmassed up a bit. Different costumes, perhaps Santa's helpers and a lyric rewrite could have left most of dance moves as was, and improved it's feeling within the context of this Christmas movie.
Just once, I'd like someone to call me sir without adding 'you're making a scene' ~H Simpson
I think this was supposed to have been a lament over the lost days of Vaudeville performing. We need to consider what the social climate was like in 1954: the Beat Generation was becoming a force within the entertainment world. Beatnik poets composed free verse and recited it in Greenwich Village coffee houses, and the teenagers were looking for a bit of hedonistic enjoyment, now that the war had ended. So they deliberately sought to make their world different from that of their parents. They moved from established dances like ballet, tap and "the ol' soft shoe" into expressive, body-contorting art and they disdained much of the culture their forebears loved. Danny Kaye, as Phil Davis, is attempting to show that this new 'choreographed' medium of dance was taking over and leaving the older, more established, forms of entertainment behind. It was his way of showing how ridiculous the new routines seemed to him.
shareThanks for that post. I figured as much, but someone having a similar take on that particular number solidifies my opinion.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
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Every time I see RC in that dress, I think of Joan in Mad Men. They both have the same lovely, curvy figures.
shareI never liked it, myself. And it did not even seem to fit into the movie properly.