{"id":24275,"date":"2017-02-17T08:48:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=24275"},"modified":"2017-02-17T09:44:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T14:44:48","slug":"the-bootleg-files-that-certain-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/17\/the-bootleg-files-that-certain-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: That Certain Feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BOOTLEG FILES 577:<\/strong> \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d (1956 comedy starring Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint and Pearl Bailey).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> An unauthorized video dupe is on YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> A possible problem with rights clearance.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely at this time.<\/p>\n

During the early 1950s, a sense of staleness began to permeate Bob Hope\u2019s film output. Movies like \u201cMy Favorite Spy,\u201d \u201cOff Limits,\u201d \u201cHere Come the Girls\u201d and \u201cCasanova\u2019s Big Night\u201d were burdened with a mechanical indifference, and even a reteaming with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in \u201cRoad to Bali\u201d carried a sense of been-there\/done-that. Yes, there were flashes of inspiration here and there, especially when Hope was paired with co-stars that matched his vibrancy \u2013 most notably in his instant-classic song-and-dance routine with James Cagney in \u201cThe Seven Little Foys.\u201d But, for the most part, the fun was deflating and Hope\u2019s star ranking at the box office was taking a slide.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hope\u2019s studio, Paramount Pictures, clearly sensed that their prized comedy star needed something different, which may explain why they agreed to adapt \u201cThe King of Hearts,\u201d a mild situation-driven Broadway comedy by Jean Kerr and Eleanor Brooke. Alas, Hope and his collaborators were not confident in the source material, with co-directors Norman Panama and Melvin Frank collaborating with writers William Altman and I.A.L. Diamond on an extensive rewrite that resulted in a weirdly quotidian affair.<\/p>\n

At first, it seems that \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d is going to be something different, especially when Pearl Bailey establishes herself as the story\u2019s narrator. Although playing a maid named Gussie, Bailey\u2019s character is clearly the sharpest person on the screen, and the four screenwriters give her a generous supply of prized lines \u2013 which is no mean feat in a Bob Hope film, where almost no one except the ski-nosed star gets the funny remarks.<\/p>\n

Gussie\u2019s employer is Larry Larkin (George Sanders), the cartoonist behind the \u201cSnips and Runty\u201d comic strip. Larkin has been obsessed with raising his visibility on television and hobnobbing with political power brokers, but as a result the comic strip has suffered and its popularity begins to wane. But dealing with Larkin is not easy, as witnessed by the trail of ex-wives and ghost artists left in his wake. \u201cRemember when Ghost Number Six ran off with Wive Number Three?\u201d Gussie recalls.<\/p>\n

Larkin\u2019s lovely young secretary, Dunreath Henry (Eva Marie Saint) recommends that he hire Francis X. Dignan (Hope), a down-on-his luck cartoonist who has been seeking mental health care for his problems, as a ghost artist. \u201cI hope psychiatry can help \u2013 bicarbonate hasn\u2019t done anything,\u201d Dignan deadpans to his shrink.<\/p>\n

Dunreath and Francis have their own history \u2013 back when she was still known as Ethel Jankowski, they were married. Francis is shocked at his ex-wife\u2019s new name. \u201cDunreath?\u201d he asks. \u201cThat\u2019s not a name, that\u2019s a housing development.\u201d But the cash-strapped Francis agrees to the job, and when he visits Larkin\u2019s duplex apartment he is astonished at the surroundings. \u201cEverything is done in contrasting shades of money,\u201d he exclaims.<\/p>\n

Larkin agrees to hire Francis, and is immediately impressed with his work. But Larkin has a couple of surprises that are not expected: he plans to adopt an orphan (Jerry Mathers) and to marry Dunreath. But the adoption is being done for publicity purposes, and Dunreath is in line to be Larkin\u2019s fourth wife \u2013 a point that aggravates Francis and alarms Gussie, who is aware of Dunreath\u2019s history with him.<\/p>\n

Gussie takes it upon herself to play matchmaker with Dunreath and Francis. One night when Larkin is away on business, she prepares a fancy dinner for them and serves generous portions of wine. Realizing that it will take a bit more to make a connection, Gussie calls on her \u201coff-the-cuff emergency vocalizing\u201d and turns on a stereo with an instrumental record of \u201cZing Went the Strings of My Heart.\u201d It is a wonderfully ridiculous moment, and Hope gets the biggest laugh in the film when he looks with astonishment at Gussie\u2019s behavior and declares, \u201cWhat is this, a floor show?\u201d More wine is served and by night\u2019s end Dunreath and Francis are in matching Chinese-style red pajamas \u2013 he is in a canoe on a couch (don\u2019t ask) wearing a straw heart and playing an uptempo version of the Gershwin tune \u201cThe Certain Feeling\u201d on a ukulele while she dances a recklessly frenetic Charleston.<\/p>\n

Will Dunreath and Francis get back together? Will Larkin be exposed as a pompous jerk trying to elevate his way to political power? Well, what do you think?<\/p>\n

Part of the problem with \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d is the strange lack of chemistry between Hope and Eva Marie Saint, who made this film after winning the Academy Award for \u201cOn the Waterfront.\u201d The nearly 20-year age difference between the pair doesn\u2019t help \u2013 quite frankly, they look like father and daughter rather than contemporaries \u2013 and, to be cruel, Saint did not have a gift for comedy. George Sanders, playing Larkin, appears to fill the void left by Saint by significantly overplaying his part. But he reads his lines with such campy gusto that he creates a further imbalance in the production.<\/p>\n

As for Hope, \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d finds the funnyman littering the screen with one-liners while making a half-hearted attempt to capture the character\u2019s neurotic personality. He is seriously off his game, and the only time that he ever shows a spark of creative energy is when he supports Pearl Bailey in singing \u201cHit the Road to Dreamland\u201d as a lullaby to young Jerry Mathers. It is a strange moment, too, with the usually front-and-center Hope deferring to the vivacious Bailey, whose warmth and sass is the only constant energy source here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d was the last film that Hope made at Paramount. He continued starring in films through the late 1950s and 1960s, but the quality of the work became weaker with the passing years. Hope and Saint worked together again in the 1972 \u201cCancel My Reservation,\u201d and that flopped so resoundingly that he never had a starring role in another feature while she stayed off the big screen for 14 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d was never released in an official home entertainment edition. Most likely, there are problems in clearing the rights to the original \u201cKing of Hearts\u201d source material or to the three classic songs performed in the film. But it has turned up on television and a dupe based on one of these broadcasts is posted on YouTube; several collector-to-collector DVD sites also offer the title. However, the film is such a disappointment that perhaps it is best to leave it in obscurity \u2013 in this case, that certain feeling is mostly numbness.
\n
\nIMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with a new episode every Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 577: \u201cThat Certain Feeling\u201d (1956 comedy starring Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint and Pearl Bailey). LAST SEEN: An unauthorized video dupe is on YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A possible problem with rights clearance. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this time. During the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[1352,1579,1581,1582,1580,1578],"class_list":["post-24275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-bob-hope","tag-eva-marie-saint","tag-george-sanders","tag-paramount-pictures","tag-pearl-bailey","tag-that-certain-feeling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24275"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24281,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275\/revisions\/24281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}