Friday, August 28, 2015

Friday Random Ten - The Real Thing™

Tonight I watched One, Two, Three. This is the Billy Wilder movie where James Cagney plays a Coca Cola executive in West Berlin. It's not Wilder's best, which depending on day and hour I'd say is either The Apartment or Some Like It Hot.  This one starts better than it ends, but it's not bad either, and it's bold in letting Cagney be as obnoxious as any of the Commie characters while the Cold War was in full swing.

Wonder what happened to Pamela Tiffin. She's very young in this movie but has some of the funniest line readings.


1. The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away
2. XTC - Paper and Iron
3. Mose Allison - Do Nothing Till You Here From Me
4. Lower Dens - Suckers Shangri La
5. The New Pornographers - These Are the Fables
6, Les Baxter - Wake the Town and Tell the People
7. Simon & Garfunkel - Fakin' It
8. Yo La Tengo - I Should Have Known Better
9. Fairport Convention - Come All Ye
10. Sarah Vaughan - What Kind of Fool Am I?

2 comments:

susan said...

"They've assigned us a magnificent apartment, just a short walk from the bathroom!"

You can tell I had to look this one up on wikipedia, can't you? What a great line from the time. I liked the descriptions too about Coca-Colonization and peaceful noexistence. I'd agree with your assessment of Some Like it Hot and The Apartment probably being his best movies (I'm never sure which one either), but I'd really like to see this one. It's too bad that by the time it was released the reality of The Wall spoiled its chances at the box office. Apparently it was Cagney's last movie for twenty years until Ragtime. Later he said the role tired him out and he'd been jealous of a friend who'd gone yachting while he worked.

Anyhow, I see it's on Youtube and since we can watch their videos on the television I think I'll plan on our doing just that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Cool and very familiar FR10. The KKK Took My Baby Away is a great singalong favorite :) and Mose Allison's Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me is a heart melter. You already know how much I like Les Baxter and Sarah Vaughan.

Ben said...

Cagney had a lot of achievements under his belt by this point. I suppose I can't blame him for thinking retirement looked pretty good. It was nice to see him turn up again in Ragtime, though. And yeah, the Wall did have a lot of people on edge at the time.

There are a couple of interesting stories behind that Ramones song. Suffice it to say the band always had some personal issues.

Very nice Sassy song, it's true.