Join My Mailing List!

My name is Jacqueline T. Lynch, author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.,
and I would like to invite you to join my mailing list HERE for updates, special offers, and a free eBook!

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Candlelight and love songs - Ann Blyth and Robert Mitchum


Today we celebrate Valentine's Day with a lovely scene between Ann Blyth and Robert Mitchum singing love songs to each other in One Minute to Zero (1952).

From my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

Their most intriguing scene together, however, is playing sitting opposite each other at a kitchen table after she has made supper for him at her apartment in Japan, their first date.  The candles burn down, and both, slightly slumped over the table, he with his chin on his hand, give the impression of being all talked out.  A soothing, lazy tune, in a delicately Asian style, penetrates their silence, coming, we are told in a quick camera shot from a record on a portable record player.  Suddenly, Robert Mitchum begins to sing along to the tune, in Japanese.  Catch Ann’s expression of surprised delight.  She is glued to his face, watching him sing, fascinated by him.  It opens the door to their romance.  She sees there is more to him than just a blustering alpha male dismissive of her opinions on the war...

As Robert Mitchum lazily smokes a cigarette (his trademark sleepy performance punctuates pretty nearly everything he does in this movie), he coaxes Ann, who confesses she knows only the English words to that tune, to sing.  So now it’s her turn at bat, and Ann sings an English verse of “Golden Moon.”  It is low, quiet, and lovely, and the really tender aspect about this scene is that they both appear to be singing “live.”  It does not appear they’re lip-syncing to a pre-recorded track.  It’s easier to keep the flow of singing and dialogue in this quiet, moody setting by having them do it live.  What we get is a very casual, natural, and intimate moment.

Here is that moment, from a clip on YouTube.  Happy Valentine's Day...


2 comments: