The all-night brainstorming session. Cary Grant's touch of mindlessly playing with his tie on the couch. Brilliant.
"This little piggy went to market...
A meek and as mild as a lamb -
He smiled in his tracks
When they slipped him the axe -
He KNEW he'd turn out to be Wham..."
brilliant! i love that scene too! not to mention all the city folk looking like fools- all homeowners must see this film!
shareThere really are many "favorite" scenes in this film (as is the case with many of CGs movies). For starters...the entire begining from waking up through morning breakfast (showing how cramped they really are), is choreographed perfectly, with CG and Loy doing fine (almost mime-like) work with a minimal amount of dialog.
Other favorite parts include: The scene where they are driving around in circles when trying the show their friend Bill the house; the brainstorming session; when Jim, Muriel and Bill go out to inspect the house during construction and get stuck in the storage room, etc); when Jim finds out that the railroad schedule he thought he ws going to using is wrong and that he has to now get up at..."5 in the morning to catch the 6:15 train to get to my office at 8. It doesn't even open until 9, and I never get there until 10!" ; and of course (again) when Jim finds out "they" (the family) has 30 days to get out of the apartment...then talks to Bill on the phone about fighting the predicament...using every last penny if he has to...only to realize that "they" will have to move out in 30 days (the dialog and timing are perfect here.).
Many, many other favorite points to make here if time allowed.
jb
I love the color scene where Myrna is explaining the colors she wants in the various rooms. She goes through this extensive explanation using various examples of colors, then the head painter turns to his assistant and says: Red, yellow, white, blue...
Classic!
Every creature in the universe is out to exterminate us, and you want to hire a vocal group?
my husband and I still quote this scene verbatim any time we start painting - great scene!
shareMelvyn Douglas stole every scene! "Bill Cole, friend of the family. Just came in from the rain." Not a perfect film, but everyone was at the top of their game with their performances, even the girls and the workers. Loved Mr. Tesander's "ee-yup"
shareMine is the same as tmf_scipio's
so true, it actually happens this way
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I love the color scene where Myrna is explaining the colors she wants in the various rooms. She goes through this extensive explanation using various examples of colors, then the head painter turns to his assistant and says: Red, yellow, white, blue...
Classic!
I love that scene too! Especially how earnest he seems as he listens to her go on and on! Awesome! And then the way the two guys look at each other without batting an eye..hysterical!
shareYes! This is definitely one of many favourite scenes from the film but also one that is mimicked any time someone begins discussing colours.
Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...
Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?
Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.
Mr. PeDelford: Check.
The opening scene where Cary Grant is trying to get ready for work and looking for his clothes. He finds his underwear in his sock drawer and asks Myrna where he might find his socks. She suggests he try his underwear drawer. He opens it and pulls out several of her lacy things. He gives a great look that just says " The're all so pretty I don't know which one to choose ! "
The whole opening scene is great -- low-key but very funny.
I know YOU are but what am I ... Infinity !
The whole opening scene is great -- low-key but very funny.Seeing those two in twin beds for a start, just gets me giggling. share
I consider myself a Cary Grant fan and had not ever even heard of this movie until I saw it this weekend. Very well done.
Regarding the "Shrunk Mills" driving scene. I love how that played out.
After I believe the second time they arrived at the one lane bridge still lost ( the first time Bill zings him with :
"Congress ought to pass a law.
When a man buys a house in Lansdale,
there's a prize. 10 percent off if he finds it. ) when Bill Says: paraphrased by me...
"Well let's think about this. Maybe if we pretend to be one of General Gates' horses and we were thirsty, where would we go?"
Oh yeah in the later scene with the architect when Cary Grant says:
" I am going to find the owner of my building and sign a 20 year lease!" Good times.
Also add when Bill had gotten tired of all of Cary's bad decisions he drops this little gem:
"The next time you're going to do anything or say anything or buy anything, think it over very carefully. When you're sure you're right, forget the whole thing. "
I like the way Bill is always slinging older-style slang insults at Jim, who is clueless as to why you don't tear down a home on which another man holds a mortgage (since both the sills AND the timbers are shot; "tear it down"), or why you'd pay $200.00 for an acre of land when the locals sell it to each other for only $50.00.
And of course, there is the way that J.B. must deliberate, also without knowing what he's talking about, when he tells the carpentry foreman that he'd prefer not to have the lintels between the lallies (the best I can remember that scene) rabbeted, after which he must duck some pieces of stud-lumber that could really hurt someone not in work clothes and a hard hat, were they not stage props.
I liked how in the first five minutes, Myrna Loy is barely awake - sitting up, but hunched over in the bed - while waiting for her morning coffee. Heh... definitely not a morning person.
Last Seen:
The Thing From Another World - 6/10
While I enjoy many of the same scenes, one that has not been mentioned is when Jim and Muriel are having breakfast with the children at the beginning of the film. The girls' incessant talk about Miss Stellwagon and all of that social significance and the middle class ignoring the plight of the lower class talk cracks me up...Muriel says that Jim should pay more attention to the girls' education, and one of the kids says, "Can't squeeze blood from a turnip." Love that . . .
shareOne of my all time favorite movies. I've also read the original book which is just as great, though it has more real-life grit to it.
One of my favorite moments (aside from the paint samples)is when the lawyer is standing in the living room in a bathrobe irritatingly having to repeat to gawking visitors: "Bill Cole... Friend of the family."
We built a house in the country once with similar dreams of bliss, but the experience we had was almost shot for shot exactly like this movie. For a 1948 flick, it's not only still funny but still relevant!
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Cary Grant pretends he knew the meaning of "Rabbets on the lintels between the Lally columns".
lintel and Lally column: http://www.lasd.k12.pa.us/teachers/LASDNET/Drafting/GLOSL.HTM
[deleted]
I actually liked the part where they came to the bridge with the 'Shrunk Mills' sign.
'What are Shrunk Mills?'
'I think they're mills that are shrunk.'
So corney, but hilarious! Then they come upon the bridge twice more!
If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it copy this and make your signature!
Here it is, a link to the beloved 'paint colours' scene on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRn59zNL0Ew
And leave a grateful comment so that our fellow classic film fans
will post more scenes, because I don't know how to do it yet! LOL
I also like the scene where the cunning realtor is manipulating
Myrna and Cary into seeing the crumbling house as a graceful country
manor! Nice turnabout of the old cliched "Sophisticated city dweller
versus gullible country rube" stereotype.
"Yes, sir, you'ce certainly got to visualise . . . . " And do they
ever.
Makes me want to go out and buy the best butter.
I love all the scenes but my two absolute favorite are the boulder/ledge dynamite scene and when they find water at 6 feet and Mr. Blandings is questioning Mr. Tsanders about it.
Ananananee: The inability to stop spelling banana once you have started.
I have a few, too. I like the "zuzz zuzz water softener" bit, the "you want them lallies to be rabbited or not" and the "it's just four walls and a keg of nails, but I think of it as home"....hysterical movie.
shareThe scene near the end when Mr. Tesanders gives Mr. Blanding twelve dollars and thirty six cents is priceless (!) As Cary Grant takes the money back it is the most quiet he has been throughout the whole film!
shareThis movie has to be one of my all time favorites. Too many great scenes to choose from!!
I guess I'll have to choose the scene where he realizes his train leaves at 6:15 am.
CG: "For the rest of my life I'll have to get up at 5 am to catch the 6:15 train to get to my office by 8. It doesn't even open until 9 and I never get there before 10."
ML: "Well maybe if you start earlier, you can leave the office earlier."
CG: "To get home earlier, to get to bed earlier, to get up earlier, I suppose. Mmhmm."
I always loved when Cary Grant made that little mmhmm sound. It just added to the comedy effect for me.
I love that scene. My mom and I quote that all the time. That, and whenever anything is crooked, we always say "Tear it down."
I also like near the end of the movie when they are going through the bills with the architect and they discover a large bill for Myrna Loy's flower sink and she is explaining how she wanted a few pieces of flagstone for her flower sink and she said she told the contractor that she wanted a dry floor, so of course they had to install a drain and rip out the floor, etc. So funny!!
Plus the colors scene and the missing windows and the list goes on and on!!
Wendy
My wife and I are fond of the scene with Mr. Zucca, the steam shovel operator. The line is "... that's no rock, that's ledge ..."
We live in a part of Connecticut, near the setting of of the Blandings's fictional home. The land is very rocky.
I agree with wclar. The scene where Myrna Loy is trying to explain how her flower sink ended up costing more than a grand, even after they agreed to nix the flower sink from the building plans. She audibly gulps and the poor dear's mouth seems to go dry with nervousness.
I also LOVE the color scene. Blue, white, yellow, and red. :)
Creek
"This is not good for my rage."
There are so many great scenes; one that no one has added is when the engineer has the picture frame with the level out to look at the original building and see if it is plumb. He points out that it is leaning and Cary Grant keep trying to tilt the frame to make the house plumb.
This movie is hysterical from beginning to end and is also one of the most accurate films ever made of someone trying to build a house. If its on, I have to watch it.
I loved the paint color scene too, but I think one of the funniest scenes was when Bill spent the night at the house while Jim did an all-nighter at the office. The next morning, Jim was in the living room talking to the architect and Muriel when Bill walked in wearing Jim's robe. Jim casually said, "Hello, Bill." Then that double take he did when he realized Bill was wearing his robe was hilarious.
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