(Written in 2011:) Long before the late Harve Presnell (1933-2009) was a big, bald, old character actor who played commanding SOBs in movies like Fargo and Saving Private Ryan, he was a blandly handsome, young musical performer with a full head of blonde hair, and a golden pair of pipes. Unfortunately for him, he hit Hollywood as the movie musical was in its death throes. But he was a trouper, and so he did every sort of musical work that was still available, as a replacement performer in Broadway shows, in touring companies, and eventually worked his way back into pictures as a straight dramatic actor. He died of pancreatic cancer two years ago, at the age of 75.
I have repeatedly posted these videos, but the Kopyright Kops (KK) are always just a step behind the wonderful guys who take the trouble to post them to Goolagtube.
Did Lerner & Lowe ever create a more beautiful song? The only contender I can think of is “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
Lerner & Lowe’s “They Call the Wind Mariah,” from the 1969 Picture, Paint Your Wagon
They Call the Wind Mariah
Words by Alan Jay Lerner
Chorus: Mariah, Mariah,
They call the wind, “Mariah.”
A way out here, they got a name,
For rain and wind and fire,
The rain is “Tess,” the fire’s “Joe,”
And they call the wind, “Mariah.”
Mariah blows the stars around,
And sends the clouds a-flyin,’
Mariah makes the mountain sound,
Like folks were up there dyin.’
Chorus: Mariah, Mariah,
Harve: They call the wind, “Mariah.”
Before I knew Mariah’s name,
And heard her wail and whinin,’
I had a girl, and she had me,
And the sun was always shinin.’
But then one day I left my girl,
I left her far behind me,
And now I'm lost, so goldern lost,
Not even God can find m
e.
Chorus: Mariah, Mariah,
They call the wind, “Mariah.”
Out here they got a name for rain,
For wind and fire only,
But when you’re lost and all alone,
There ain’t no word but “lonely.”
And I’m a lost and lonely man,
Without a star to guide me,
Mariah, blow my love to me,
I need my girl beside me.
Chorus: Mariah, Mariah,
They call the wind, Mariah.
Mariah, Mariah,
Blow my love to me.
Saving Private Ryan:
“The Letter to Mrs. Bixby,” Featuring Harve Presnell
My 90-year-old mom likes to quote a line, whereby “Genius is infinite attention to detail.” I’m not going to explain all the brilliance and emotional power of the video we just saw, because others already have. I’ll just note that commenters on this (Youtube) thread cited so many amazing facets, including one I’d never picked up on: The four blue stars in the kitchen window.
Spielberg had amazing researchers who got every period aspect right (e.g., the dresses, uniforms, hair styles, typewriters, paper, etc.), and he did a great deal of research himself. And yet, it still took a brilliant, very experienced director, chief of photography (Janusz Kaminski), composer (John Williams), set decorator (Lisa Dean) and cast to nail this sequence. This sequence is a major reason why Ryan ranks so highly on my all-time movie list.
(I was unable to find the name of Spielberg’s researcher.)
Mrs. Ryan knows it’s going to be really bad news, before the car doors open, because normally a warrior’s family learned of his death from a telegram delivered by a teenager on a bicycle. (How many times have I seen that in WWII pictures?) The Army vehicle already augurs the horror.
I believe there’s an homage built into this sequence, when Mrs. Ryan crumples to the porch. Claudette Colbert crumples to the soil the exact same way, when she watches her husband (Henry Fonda) march off with their neighbors to fight the British and the Indians during the Revolutionary War in Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), which I only saw for the first time less than a year ago, and I saw the same gesture in a third picture, also released years before Ryan, but whose name escapes me at the moment.
I put Ryan 29th on my Top 100 Movie List, between The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The Searchers (1956). It is the only Steven Spielberg picture on the list.
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