The Trouble with Bloom

What with Triangle Players Tuesday Night at the Movies: Judy! Judy! Judy! coming up this week, I thought it was only fitting to go see "Meet Me in St. Louis" at the Bowtie this morning in preparation.

Considering that my brain still thought it was 10:00 and not 11:00, all that Technicolor was a bit much for so early in the morning, though; the trolley scene with its overflowing crowd of brightly dressed women (pink! green! blue!yellow!) looked staged for best color effect. But I guess it paid off because the film got an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Color.

I wasn't the only one feeling the effects of the time change, either. When I first walked into the theater, it was pitch black except for the tiny lights at the end of the rows. I found my way to a seat as a woman behind me stormed out to find out why there were no lights on.

A short time later, the lights came up and the guy sitting near me, who'd had his head back and eyes shut, looked at me and said, "I liked it better with the lights out." Amen. I'd been doing the exact same thing he had and really kind of enjoying it.

My favorite parts of the movie were those that represented the long-lost world of 1903, as when the maid scoffed at daughter Rose's expectation that her beau was calling to propose. "Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention!" Hey, it sure beats being dumped via Facebook as happens now.

During the Halloween scene, the neighborhood kids feed a huge bonfire in the center of the street, using chairs, drawers and other pieces of wood to coax the flames higher and higher. Not an adult is in sight. Ah, the good old days when kids could satisfy their inner pyromaniac unsupervised.

My favorite old-school dialog was probably this exchange:
Rose: "Nice girls don't let men kiss them until after they're engaged. Men don't want the bloom rubbed off."
Esther: "Personally, I think I have too much bloom. Maybe that's the trouble with me."

This from an actress who was already divorced at 21, had had several high-profile affairs and was about to marry her director on this film, Vincente Minnelli. You'd think she'd have gotten an Oscar nomination for pulling off that line so convincingly.

Maybe I'll bring that up Tuesday night and see what the boys have to say about it. Bloom is overrated, I hear.