Midnight with Madeline - Dolores Gray
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- This satirical excerpt targets early 50's TV shows - and hostesses. It features Dolores Gray, a Tony Award-winning actor/singer/dancer from the 40s through the 80s.
This set of "Midnight with Madeline" and "Thanks a Lot But No Thanks" from the Gene Kelly film "It's Always Fair Weather" clearly shows that Dolores Gray was the prototype for John Epperson's character "Lypsinka".
0:00 Intro "Word from our sponsor"
0:20 Midnight with Madeline
1:14 Thanks a Lot But No Thanks - great dance number
For more great performances from Gene Kelly movies, visit www.theBestArts...
Browse our website at www.theBestArts... for more great dance, film, music and musical theatre performances.
There was Dolores Gray, and then there was just everyone else. Too bad that she only appeared in four movies. She was, simply, a force of nature!
Very true ; I disliked everything about “Kismet” but she was the best thing about “Designing Woman” and the one reason to watch
that otherwise misfire of a movie.She was great fun in “The Opposite Sex” too.
If she had been born about ten years earlier she probably would have been cast in a lot of MGM musicals. Unfortunately she came along when Dore Shary was in charge.
I quite understand why she only made four movies. Everything she had Ann Miller had more of. And she was fun. I thought she was dreadful in everything and by all accounts she was a major pain in the neck.
@@jochenstossberg5427 Maybe that is what inspired the vicious cat fight between Ann Miller and Dolores Grey in the film "The Opposite Sex."
@@davidallen508 Ann Blyth was divine in Kismet
ruclips.net/video/QgzSrTFi62k/видео.html
Love this. Dolores Grey was a killer. That hot, hot orchestration suits her, as do the campy lyrics by Comden and Green.
They wrote great lyrics, and she sang them to perfection. By the way...every time I hear this song and she winds up describing her "fella" as "Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined," I find myself wondering what such an interesting blend would look like...don't you?
THIS is Talent. THIS is Entertainment. THIS is BRILLIANT !!! ♥
All I can say is DAMN! that woman has one set of pipes. Why the hell does no one sing like that anymore??
There are plenty of female singers around today who can sing in the style of Dolores Grey as far technique and class. However, you won't hear them on the current radio playlists , television or in today's movie soundtracks. You will find them on Broadway, concert halls and in some nightclubs in New York City. I have heard some amazing singers in New York theatre and in nightclubs many of whom sing with the same verve and style of singers like Dolores Grey.
@William: Because there are styles in performance, just as there are styles in hair, clothing, oration, writing, painting, cooking, etc. Enjoy what she gave us, and enjoy what today's superb performers give us.
From "It's Always Fair Weather", a 1955 MGM musical starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, and Dolores Gray. It failed at the box office. People didn't get the satire, I guess. Scripted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. They also wrote the lyrics to André Previn's music. Michael Kidd did the choreography,
I've always thought this was in part Comden & Green's satirical response to Marilyn Monroe performing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Much of the social satire of IAFW is surprisingly acid-edged. Unfortunately most of the music isn't up to the level of this terrific number.
Completely blown away! I saw Dolores live one in the original London FOLLIES and she was incredible singing I'm Still Here!
AGREED 1OO%!!!
The One and ONLY - Delores Gray!💕
Best number in the movie, and I say that as a huge Gene Kelly fan!
Dolores is so fantastic, I love the way she moves and how she is styled. Her movie career may have been moderate but her Broadway career was very successful. Too bad nobody in audience took iPhone footage.
Uh, you realize that she died 5 years before Apple introduced the iPhone, right?
@@JJ21210 Yes but I was being factious as there were no such things back in the days. I was referring that Dolores' Broadway performances were spectacular but none of these were recorded.
WOW! Dolores Gray has a marvelous voice! I really like her Character, you don't see it anymore.
A force of nature. Fantastic performer!
Starting @1:33 I've watched this on repeat a few times over! So good all around. Love the men's choreography as much as I love Miz Dolores' voice. 'It's Always Fair Weather' is one of my all time fave movies.
I've always found this movie an underappreciated gem!
WOW ! WOW!! WOW!!!
It's marvellous to see this on youtube but how beautiful must it have been to experience this fabulous piece of work on the BIG! BIG!! screen?
Love me some Delores Gray! Especially this number! Some of the male Chours Men are/ were JUDY'S "GET HAPPY!" BOYZ! 🙂!
Love this number - the singing, choreography and lyrics are all a hoot! Thanks for finding me the Lost Chord - HaHaHa!
I think the lyric is referring to the "Famous Lost Cord" as in the exotic & rare automobile from the 1930's. Very few of them were made, and today are considered a masterpiece of coachwork and design.
I take it to refer to the famous salon piece of Sir Arthur Sullivan. I know there was a vehicle, the Cord, but was it ever lost?
Ahh - yes, one could think that as well. But, I can only wonder - was the audience of 1955 that esoteric? If so, then, wow - how the masses have fallen. Yes, actually - there was more than one "Lost Cord" as even then, they were highly collectible. The only reason for me to suspect the lyrical allusion to the vehicle - is that it seems to make most references to things of material wealth and stature. On the other hand, the lyrics could be so clever as to infer more than one idea? Your point is equally valid - this particular film was indeed, much more sophisticated than most of the period, and perhaps that is why it only had a limited audience upon initial release.
The Lost Chord by Arthur Sullivan was still quite popular in the 1950's.
@@DaninMaine Nonetheless, these lyrics refer only to tangible items with great material value, so it would make no sense to include one reference to a song, or to the chord mentioned in that song -- neither has great material value.
Because Cord automobiles were luxury cars and were so labor-intensive, they were very expensive new (4-7x as much as a Ford of the era) and even more costly when resold bc they were so rare and sought-after (for ex., only 400 units of the Cord 812, which ceased production in 1941, were made).
Thanks for posting, I love the old musicals, and the women's fashion back then
One can see all the elements of the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" here, except the men's choreography was exceptionally acrobatic. Dolores Gray was the original.
This stuff is the BOMB!!! I had an audio recording of this, and lost it. I'm downloading this video to my phone.
Great to see Frank "Yes" Nelson
Freakin' BRILLIANT!
Terrific! This is a perfect example what gay guys from the era called "high camp."
I'm sure you've seen "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love" (from _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_ ), in which Jane Russell makes eyes at a bunch of Olympians who are clearly not buying what she's selling. ruclips.net/video/W33hnrvcpiM/видео.html
Under no circumstances would I want LGBTQIA people to lose any of their hard-won rights, but I must say that, in at least this one way, movies were a little more interesting when they were more coded.
@@JJ21210 And I like to think of this number as Betty Comden and Adolph Green's response to Marilyn Monroe performing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes... :-) And at the memorial for Betty Comden, John Epperson - in his great drag persona, Lypsinka - performed this number to Dolores Gray's vocals (it's posted elsewhere on RUclips).
love that dress
Gotta be one of the most original musical numbers the movies came up with :)
I've sometimes wondered if Comden & Green, who wrote the lyrics, conceived of this song as an answer to Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" in the recent movie of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes... In any case, the staging concept and choreography carry it into some divine realm that is equal parts satire and camp. And has anyone ever been able to do anything more withering (or funnier) than what Dolores Gray does with the two words "Hello, Phil"?
Awesome performance! Thanks for posting. So true, where has all the glamour gone?
she's the BOMB!!!
Really GREAT!!!
bloody brilliant number
Thanks Plasma!
Why has lypsinka not done this ?? The cleansright song is just waiting to be given new life !!
+Stephen OToole Lypsinka did do this at Wigstock. I don't remember the year but I swear Tomkins Square Park levitated.
Lypsinka did perform this at the memorial tribute to Betty Comden (co-writer of IAFW and this song). It's posted on RUclips. :)
This is great and so funny. Love this movie.
Brilliant!
Amazing acrobatic dancing ! I hope that is Delores really singing-it is terrific!
In the time it took you to tpe that, you cd've looked her up on Wikip. and seen that she was a gifted singer.
PLEASE use your brain, bc if you don't it'll turn to mush -- and mush-brained ppl elect shitty autocratic "leaders" (djt, Bolsonaro) who kill their own citizens. Using your brain is literally a matter of life or death.
I want that dress
Love this! Judy Kaye did a fantastic rendition on one of her albums.
She is the first performer I saw on Broadway in...two on the aisle with Bert Lahr early fifties
Glamour is a dangerous weapon.
Definitely the best musical number in a surprisingly unpleasant (!) MGM musical - and the last of the big, brassy numbers.
Really? Why did you find it unpleasant?
@@Mariska9943 The tone of the film - and I’m a big fan of the MGM musicals.
@@johnhourigan6049 Yes, the tone of the film is surprisingly acid; too bad the actual material doesn't always carry through on the promise of something truly satirical. And Previn's score, aside from this number, is pretty unmemorable. But this is a gem... and the use of Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody to sell "Klenzrite" is a scream. :-) Final thought: is this a send-up not only of a whole slew of other numbers and performers - such as Mitzi Gaynor - but also a reply to "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"?
Wow! Now, finally I've seen it all!
terrific! I've always loved this number - thanks for posting!
I have this musical number in its original 35mm footage. Lucky to have found someone selling it on Ebay some years back.
Good movie.
The big switch in the floor does it for me! W O W ! ! ! !
I didn't even know how much I'd missed this little number until I found it again.
My gosh that was fun! Thank you for posting!
Thanks for posting this greatest number from a Broadway musical. Thanks again.
It was an original film musical, like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
@@tomservo56954 Except that SINGIN' IN THE RAIN used existing songs, and IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER has an original score: lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green, music by Andre Previn. I think you can really feel Betty Comden's special satirical touch in this song, as you can in numbers like One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man (WONDERFUL TOWN). Also, this number is surely partly a response to (and send-up of) Marilyn Monroe's very recent rendition of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES).
@@treesny Comden and Green had originally conceived this story as a stage musical, but Gene Kelly fell in love with it and asked them to make it into a film. With a bit of adaptation, it might still work as a stage show.
@@markschildberg1667 Interesting! In some sense it's a distant cousin of their first Broadway show ON THE TOWN, with three male Army buddies at the center of the story. Wish the Previn score were a bit more memorable... this number excepted, it's not quite top-tier.
Didn't know that! Thanks for the background. @@markschildberg1667
The pitchman at the beginning is Jack Benny's perennial nemesis, Frank Nelson.
Hardly ever in movies, and even here he plays (uncredited) a TV performer. Producers thought he was best in small doses.
Great
Thanks a lot but yes, thanks!!
Good Lord what a range! And she could put a song over. Personality, singing and dancing, she should have been as major as Cyd Charisse who couldn't really sing.
DG was very successful on the stage, and it's probable that she preferred the theater to film (bc if she hadn't, she could've gotten more work in Hollywood).
Thanks, Mark. Very knowledgeable of you and much appreciated.
I remember seeing that host guest star on several episodes of I Love Lucy
I sing the Klenz-rite song on elevators....people look at me.
I think I love you.
It's quite appealing-and-appalling to see this rejecting-the-plush-goodies-in-expos-and-liquidating-the-flush-biggies-in-tuxedos number by Ms Dolores Gray in the 1955 MGM's It's Always Fair Weather. In her Ms Helen Rose's well-designed serpentine red outfit she looked extremely classy-and-sassy.Her flatulent energy,her succulent charm,and her excellent voice were supremely fiery-and-starry.This musical number was somehow freakish-and-spookish in its scene staging - dispelling the men in tuxedos dubiously with gun shots and with detonator plunger and expelling them acrimoniously down through a trap door in the stage. But still Ms Gray's notable performance and plausible product endorsement had made this sequence lavishly enchanted and lighthearted in exchange for disregarding her unpleasant mischief. Just remember what this washing soap and this great film classic can do for you. Live clean.Use Klenzrite. Enjoy life.See this soapy delight.
Flatulent?
@@torresongs2 Yeah her track would have been laid down already so you would not have heard the flatulence in the final audio?!?!?!🙃🤪
I assume it was Betty Comden and Adolph Green who chose Franz Liszt's much-abused Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 as the Klenzrite theme song!
The way that Darwyn Cooke draws women in his illustrations reminds me of Dolores Gray.
This may be a "Gene Kelly" film, but he shares directing credit with Stanley Donen, the script and lyrics are by Betty Comden and Adolph Green - an "original," not an adaptation of something else - and the score is by Andre Previn. Also, co-star Michael Kidd apparently did some of the choreography (he had worked in that capacity with Dolores Gray in Destry on Broadway). Credit where credit is due, please! :)
Of the people who are familiar with this film, the vast majority would call it a 'Gene Kelly film'.
Hello, Jasperrr!
Interesting factoid courtesy of IMDb: as a child bystander, she was hit in the left lung by a bullet during gunfire between gangsters in Chicago. The bullet could not be removed, and remained lodged in her lung for the rest of her life. Dolores Gray sang magnificently in spite of this injury.
As a longtime fact-checker and editor, I urge you to discount anything on any user-generated website, such as imdb or Wikipedia -- there is no editorial ladder (which includes fact-checking) in place.
And her obit in the NYT, which scrupulously fact-checks everything, doesn't mention any bullet.
And a bullet to the lung would almost certainly deflate it, causing massive physical problems (respiration, infection, heart problems).
@crackahtowah Yes, she drops them like flies, and smiling all the time!! She HAS got the sexiest legs ever!!!
✴️
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
💙💙💙
I came here after seeing Liz gillies perfoming thank you but no thanks
Tried to find it on yt but can't:(
Considering what's on tv these days, stuff from the '50s wasn't so bad after all.
Yeah, Lypsinka owes a lot to Dolores Gray (And Gray would have loved Lypsinka!) the way Bette Midler owes so much to Betty Hutton.
Dolores was married to my grandfather and I can attest that they WERE good friends. When we had Dolores' memorial in a small theatre off of Broadway in 2002, we asked John to participate and he told some great stories.
JonWrightLA Wonder if Lypsinka ever considered putting together a Dolores Gray show? Even if it were just, say, 20 minutes of her act it could be wonderful.
unclealand John "Lypsinka" Epperson and Dolores Gray did become friends, actually.
Is that Frank "YESSS!" Nelson doing the introduction?
"When Dinah Shore Ruled the Earth."--Christopher Durang
Superb! And what a great band and arrangement.
Anyone know the personnel/musical director for this film?
Producer: Arthur Freed. Directors: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Choreography: Michael Kidd, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Screenplay and Lyrics: Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Music Composed and Directed by: Andre Previn. There were numerous orchestrators at MGM. This chart could be by Alexander Courage, Skip Martin, Conrad Salinger, or Jeff Alexander.
+Mark Schildberg That arrangement is killer!
oldfashionedphil Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Part of why I loved this film because it had them directing with SO many big talents along side...like uberdancer/choreographer Michael Kidd, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse and of course Dolores Gray.
Dolores Gray had a Metro contract, but musicals were going out of fashion and the only one she did after this was the lousy remake of 'The Women', 'The Opposite Sex'. Gray was a Broadway belter who found it hard to dial down for the screen, like other showstopping ladies such as Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice and Ethel Merman. But she was a wow in noisy parts such as Annie Oakley or Mama Rose.
She also obviously had a wicked sense of humor and parody (take a look at the number from DESTRY that she leads, elsewhere on RUclips); the fact that this was paired with one of the truly gorgeous mezzo-soprano Broadway voices of all time must have made it hard to figure out what to cast her in/as.
The first guys got off easy
If this were a legitimate theater, they would call this an 11 o'clock number.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who is the announcer at the beginning? He looks like a character actor from "I Love Lucy".
In the time it took you to type that q?, you cd've looked for the complete cast list on either Wikipedia or imdb.
PLEASE use your brain, bc if you don't it'll turn to mush -- and mush-brained ppl elect shitty "leaders" who kill their own citizens through their incompetence (djt, Bolsonaro). Using your brain is literally a matter of life or death, so USE IT, PLEASE.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_Always_Fair_Weather#Cast
Let me give you a clue: uh-yesssssssss?
@@esmeephillips5888
That’s Frank Nelson, a frequent nemesis of Jack Benny.
Lmaoo hillarious
It's raining men!
I'd love to see what a guy who's "Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined" looks and sounds like. Somebody who mumbles his way through high comedy, maybe.
It is quite a combination, Brando as the epitome of wild masculine cool and Clifton Webb, who was effete and gay. This was well known, and caused some consternation when he was cast as the father in "Cheaper by the Dozen," but his retort was that he was also not a murderer but that did not stop him from playing one (in "Laura.')
i would hate to sing a song about promoting a soap
All these besotted billionaires! When will they leave me alone? 🙄
Glamour is not pretty.
Did she just say Marlon Brando ?
Yes.
I love how disposable these men are. They're like Can o' Man from The Tick. Just use those drones however you please, ladies!
My God she was ghastly. If you didn't know she was for real you'd swear she was a drag queen. All those teeth. She brought every film she was in to a screaming halt and she was supposed to be every mans dream. Nope. She had a big voice, but that's about it.
Say What?