Couch Potato Pickings
On TCM tonight at 11.25pm
Writers have had fun with gender crossing plotlines for centuries, as have film-makers, but the device (when done well) still has a surprisingly profound ability to break down walls of assumption and prejudice and make people see outside the box.
This Blake Edwards musical comedy certainly achieves this in a powerful, yet fun and uplifting way. But, did you know that the film could have been even more provocative?
Apparently, the James Garner character King Marchand was to fall in love with Victoria before he was sure about her gender, and that’s why he says “I don’t care if you are a man” before he kisses her. Blake Edwards admitted in an interview that he backed out and added the scene in which King discovers she’s a woman.
I love this camp classic, and while it has to be said that Julie Andrews is not the most convincing woman playing a man playing a woman, she sings splendidly. That high note in Le Jazz Hot sends shivers up the spine.
