#janna cardia

[moviesandmania]

STRANGE HARVEST: OCCULT MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire is a 2024 true crime mockumentary film about a serial killer named Mr Shiny who terrorised Southern California for almost two decades. The movie was written and directed by Stuart Ortiz (Grave Encounters; Far West; co-writer of It Stains the Sands Red; Extraterrestrial; Grave Encounters 2). The movie stars Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Andy Lauer,…

[unwelcome-ephestion]

How many musicals can one single song be cut from? Let's take a look at Boys and Girls Like You and Me, written by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

It originally featured in the 1943 musical Oklahoma!, but was cut before opening. I can't find any recordings of it from this show, although I would love if someone could prove me wrong. Very quickly, it was placed into the 1944 musical film Meet Me in St. Louis - this show has an original score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane (at least nominally; Martin claimed after Blane's death that it was a solo endeavour), but contains songs from other composers, and this was to be one. Once again, it was cut at the last second.

In 1949, the song wound up on the cutting room floor yet again. This time it made it all the way to being filmed, in Busby Berkeley's film Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Again, this is a film with a score majorly by other composers (Roger Edens on music, Betty Comden and Adolph Green on lyrics), but with a couple of interpolations, as our song was intended to be. It was thought to slow down the picture too much; take a look at the clip below, sung by Frank Sinatra to Betty Garrett, and see what you think.

In 1957, Rodgers and Hammerstein finally get it in a show - their own Cinderella, sung by the Queen. Yet, surprisingly, it's hard to find clips of this, as it has been cut from every telecast of the musical. Technically in the score, the song's disposability seems to have struck again. It's on the International Tour cast recording below, which gives you an idea of its scarcity.

And, although it did not feature in the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film State Fair, it did make it into the 1996 stage musical version, posthumous for both writers and interpolating many cut songs from their previous shows. Listen below:

Should it have been cut so often? Was it the gem that enough people clearly thought it was to not let it die? See what you think.