[youtube 5bKwsUnd2F0 nolink]
This clip is from a 1953 film called Small Town Girl. The dancer, and he was a marvelous dancer, is Bobby Van. Had Van been been born in 1918 instead of 1928 he’d probably be a household name today. Unfortunately, just as he came of age, the old-fashioned, MGM musical he was so perfect for had already peaked. Some of you might remember Van as the affable host of Make Me Laugh, a late seventies, syndicated game show, but if you really want to see the promise of the man rent Kiss Me Kate (1953).
We marvel, and rightly so, at Scorsese’s impressive tracking shots in Goodfellas (1990), but it’s worth pointing that as Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco enter that nightclub they’re not jumping up and down. When you consider all the elements that had to come perfectly together in order to pull off Van’s joyous hop through an idealized small town, all done in long takes, it’s a reminder that putting a smile on the face of your audience is no easy thing. Corny can be hard, harder than than even irony or nihilism.
Maybe Van’s hippity-hop number doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I’ll bet it appeals to most. And it’s not about the number itself, but the extraordinary talent that went into creating the way it makes you feel.
We don’t have to miss corny because it’s available on the magic of DVD and Turner Classic Movies for the asking, but watching this little number from this little movie makes some of us feel the way we haven’t in a movie theatre in a long time. Join me in making “corny” the new “irony.”
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