Two for the Seesaw [VHS] | Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine

Two for the Seesaw [VHS] | Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine | For those who like film noir

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Suzanna Schubert: Greatest... Fiddler on the Roo... The Adventures of ... Two for the Seesaw...

	Two for the Seesaw [VHS] Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine MGM (Video & DVD), 1992 average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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CORNBALL & HARD TO WATCH~DOSEN'T HOLD UP!

Certain films in the sixties were OK in that time frame but decades later come across totally corny and this is one of them...20 minutes in to this clunker one realizes time passed long ago for this superficial yarn and FIVE STARS are for the classic Broadway Musical! Forward to the early seventies and "Two For The Seesaw" was reworked in to a great Broadway Musical "Seesaw" staring Michele Lee, Ken Howard and Tommy Tune with a tremendous score by Cy Coleman & Dorothy Fields and the Original Cast CD is a must have for any lover of classic Broadway Musicals and the riveting "Seesaw" is one of the all time greatest!!! Michele Lee is vocal perfection and Tommy Tune memorable.

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For those who like film noir

For every exigent situation in life that ends in happiness, another ends in tragedy... Life IS a zero sum game. Only two pictures in my life, have moved me to tears....Two for the Seesaw is the second one. The other moved me on a more superficial level, for a death of a young love is almost unthinkable. That movie was LOVE STORY, and at that time I was young and in love, when death is imponderable. This movie leaves both protagonists alive, but both of them with a hurt inside, that will never heal. It would have been easy to let MacLaine and Mitchum live happily ever after. But, that would not be real life, which is a series of unrequited loves that ultimately fail, interspersed with new loves that(look at marriage statistics and factor in all the bad marriages that stay together for children, family, societal mores,etc.) most often fail again and again. Evolution is not the best way to propagate a species, just the most efficient. Evolution works great, until you add a large frontal lobe to the brain.

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Right cast in the Wrong script

I decided to watch "Two for the Seesaw" because it starred Robert Mitchum and I must say that this is one of his better movies. His strong, forceful "man in control" persona comes through very well. Unfortunately, that's the major problem I had with "Two for the Seesaw" because the lead male role calls, in my opinion, for a more bewildered man. Consider the plot's premise; A middle-aged lawyer from Nebraska comes to New York City to escape his marital problems at home. He meets a Greenich Village-type woman who's his complete oppostite and they attempt to have a normal relationship. I looked up the history of this play and Dana Andrews as well as Henry Fonda (a REAL Nebraska fellow) played the part on stage. Without knowing for sure, I presume that they brought a humorous sort of "Gee Whiz" bewilderment at not only the big city but the strange folks that live there. I presume that this made this comedy a funnier presentation than Mitchum's "ho-hum, nothing gets in my way" approach. With his leading role, the rest of the cast had to put together whatever humor they could salvage. Maybe I'm missing the playwrite's purpose; maybe he meant to show a man buckled under by others controlling his life who becomes a person looking for someone he could control. I think not.

OK that's out of the way, now for the positives. Mitchum and MacLaine work very well together and create a very interesting relationship. As I said, this is one of his best "Robert Mitchum" preformances. There is a good supporting cast but it's essentially a two person show. There is a soundtrack that is outstanding. Whoever was playing that trumpet has a knack for jazzy blues. I was absorbed in the movie but I kept thinking that someone was coming on too strong. Apparently the director, Robert Wise, didn't think so.

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Mitchum+MacLaine on the marquee, Music+Cinematography are the substance

The William Gibson play-cum-film Two for the Seesaw was on TCM recently, and being a Robert Mitchum fan I wanted to see it. Not to mention Shirley MacLaine (yes, she's been around forever!), Robert Wise (his first post-West Side Story direction) and Andre Previn doing the music.
But little did I know that the music and the cinematography (by Ted D. McCord) would be the best part of this film. Both were nominated for Academy Awards, they stand out so much-not that Mitchum and MacLaine, who dominate this two-hander almost totally, were terrible, to the contrary-that the movie became more of a celebration of New York in glorious black & white, and the jazz score a stunning evokation of the tumult of star-crossed love.
I certainly was surprised by Mitchum's settled and reserved performance here, as a seperated wandering Nebraskan lawyer who falls hard for a younger dancer. His characteristic muscularity or physical imposition is covered by a sharp suit the whole time, and the internal strife of his instability-which is only exacerbated by MacLaine's Gittel, her immaturity and vibrance-combined for a distinct performance in the Mitchum canon. MacLaine by the way is very cute and spunky here, sharp and vulnerable, & but for her nasally whim and inflections, she is also excellent.
But the cinematography of Ted D. McCord and the music of Andre Previn are the highlights here. In fact I later realized that Two for the Seesaw was on TCM because of it's brilliant cinematography, scheduled along with To Catch a Thief, Black Narcissus, A Farewell to Arms, all of which won Oscars for cinematography, and The Facts of Life, which was also nominated....

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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