#the matchmaker (1958)

[ennaih]

Every Film I Watch In 2023:

140. The Matchmaker (1958)

[cornaby]

I love you anthony perkins

[citizenscreen]

Shirley Booth and Anthony Perkins for Joseph Anthony’s THE MATCHMAKER (1958)

[normanbased]

hiiiii anthony perkins enjoyer, just out of curiosity what are ur next top films with him in it for mfers who watched psycho and are foaming at the mouth now- thanks in advance <33

I’ve answered similar questions before :]] but if I had to give my next top films I would say:

- The Matchmaker (1958) with Robert Morse also :]] very silly, very cute, quite gay, very funny

- Catch-22 (1970) he isn’t a main character but his role as the Chaplain is brilliant and I would also highly recommend the book because his character is far more important in it

- The Trial (1961) also a bit gay, he plays this role just brilliantly, deffo a strong favourite

- Psycho II (1983) not a joke, go watch it, it’s better than you’d expect

- The Tin Star (1957) Tony always wanted to be in westerns and he does a great job in this one, he’s quite silly and incompetent as the new sheriff that no one believes in

These are my top 5 aside from Psycho I’d say — let me know what you think of them if you watch them!! :]] and if you want more, I have more

[byneddiedingo]

Shirley MacLaine and Anthony Perkins in The Matchmaker (Joseph Anthony, 1958)

Cast: Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins, Shirley MacLaine, Paul Ford, Robert Morse, Perry Wilson, Wallace Ford, Russell Collins. Screenplay: John Michael Hayes, based on a play by Thornton Wilder. Cinematography: Charles Lang. Art direction: Roland Anderson, Hal Pereira. Film editing: Howard A. Smith. Music: Adolph Deutsch. 

Like Lynn Riggs's Green Grow the Lilacs and Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker is not performed much these days. The chief reason is probably that they were all made into hugely successful musicals: respectively, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Hello, Dolly! And unlike George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion or William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which weren't superseded by their musical incarnations My Fair Lady and West Side Story, they seem somewhat naked without their musical adornments. Still, the film version of The Matchmaker, made three years after the play became a Broadway success but six years before the musical smash, retains a great deal of charm. Much of it comes from its cast: Shirley Booth as Dolly Gallagher Levi, Paul Ford as Horace Vandergelder, Shirley MacLaine as Irene Molloy, Anthony Perkins as Cornelius Hackl, and in his first substantial screen role, an impish Robert Morse as Barnaby Tucker. Shorn of its musical trimmings, the movie depends largely on the farce-timing of the cast, who frequently break the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience. For some viewers, a little whimsy goes a long way, and The Matchmaker has an awful lot of it. Its "opening up" from the stage version by screenwriter John Michael Hayes sometimes feels forced, and the ending depends too heavily on an unconvincingly complete about-face by Vandergelder. But director Anthony, who did most of his work in the theater and had only one previous screen directing credit for The Rainmaker (1956), keeps things moving nicely.

[perfectlullabies]

The Matchmaker (1958)

[papermoonloveslucy]

HELLS LUCY!

Lucy & Motorcycles

Lucille Ball was a motorcyle fan. She owned Hondas, Suzukis, and a Harley Davidson. In her personal ife, she rode on the back of Clark Gable's motorcycle. Lucy reluctantly gave up motorcycling after she hit a curb and her bike fell on her.

A GIrl, a Guy, and a Gob (1941) ~ Dot (Lucille Ball) disapproves of ‘Coffee Cup’ (George Murphy) riding a motorcyle. 

DOT: That’s how angels are made. 

“Liz the Matchmaker” (1949) ~ In this episode of Lucille Ball’s radio series “My Favorite Husband” Liz (Lucille Ball) is worried about her maid Katie’s romance with Mr. Negley, the postman (Jay Novello), because he always takes her to a drive-in theater on a motorcycle.

“The Sleigh Ride” (1949) ~ Mr. Negley decides to use his motorcycle to pull the holiday sleigh, but the load proves to much and the milkman’s old horse is pressed into service. 

“Safe Driving Week” (1950) ~ Liz and Marge (Elvia Allman) are pulled over by a motorcycle cop for driving too close to the curb. The policeman insists on driving their car away from the curb, but runs over his own motorcycle in the process!  Marge and Liz drive away, leaving the motorcycle cop in tears, clutching only his handlebars. 

This visual gag was brought to life on “I Love Lucy” in....

“Ricky Sells the Car” (1955) ~ Doubtful that Ricky will spring for their train fare home, Fred purchases an antique motorcycle. He weighs it down with all their belongings, just like the Pontiac in “California, Here We Come!”  The Mertzes are even attired in vintage leather riding outfits!  Viewers who know their motorbikes guess that it is a Harley-Davidson Model DL 750cc from about 1929.

LUCY: Ethel, are you seriously considering going all the way to New York on a motorcycle?  ETHEL: Well, Fred gave me a choice and this beats hitchhiking.

Oops! The sound of the motorcycle crashing happens before it is even off the screen. Also, Fred’s dialogue in this scene has been noticeably re-recorded because of the noise from the crash. In the above screen shot you can see the wire that pulled the motorcycle backward.  

“Lucy Hunts Uranium” (1958) ~ The Ricardos and Fred MacMurray get pulled over for speeding by a morotcycle cop. 

“Lucy Drives a Dump Truck” (1963) ~ And this policeman (Richard Reeves) drives a three-wheeled motorbike. 

“Lucy the Meter Maid” (1964) ~ A hybrid vehicle, Lucy drives a Cushman Minute Miser Truckster. These vehicles were especially created for traffic police who checked meters. 

“Mr. and Mrs. aka The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour” (1964) ~ Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon travel across the German border driving a Vespa motor scooter searching for Bob Hope. 

“Lucy in the Music World” (1965) ~ Lucy’s neighbor Mel Tinker (Mel Torme) keeps his 1962 Honda Dream motorcycle indoors. The question is - how did he get it up the stairs?

“Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere” (1966) ~  A motorcycle zooms by Lucy Carmichael selling maps to the movie stars homes. This time it is the driver who is old, not the motorcycle.  As the old lady races off, Lucy shouts “Say hello to Steve McQueen!”  Two of McQueen’s favorite things were racing and motorcycles. He famously rode a motorcycle in 1963’s The Great Escape.

“Lucy in London” (1966) ~ Lucy Carmichael and Anthony Newley get around mod London any way they can - including motorcycle and rocket-shaped side-car.

The special was shot on location in London. Ball and Newley did the driving themselves! 

“Viv Visits Lucy” (1967) ~ Trying to track down a Danfield boy, they go down to the Sunset Strip dressed as ‘hippies’ and go into a biker bar.  The Police Officer’s motorcycle is a 1958 Harley-Davidson Duo Glide. 

Several other motorcycles are also parked on the street during the scene. Hamburger Hovel is home of the ‘Biker Burger’!  

“Lucy Gets Involved” (1968) ~ Tommy Watkins (Phil Vandervoort) rides a white 1962 Honda Dream motorcycle. It was previously seen parked inside Mel Tinker’s apartment in “Lucy in the Music World”.  

Yours, Mine & Ours (1968) ~ In the Lucille Ball / Henry Fonda film, the neighbor boy’s motorcycle is run over by the Beardsley’s station wagon.  

“Lucy and the Diamond Cutter” (1970) ~ Craig talks to Steve on the telephone about a part for his motorcycle. It turns out to be an air horn. Motorcycles don’t usually have air horns! Oops!

“Lucy the Skydiver” (1970) ~ Craig takes up spear fishing while Kim joins a motorcycle club. When Lucy sees her daughter in a motorcycle helmet she asks if she’s playing for the Rams football team. Lucy says she doesn’t want Kim to be another Steve McQueen.

“Circus of the Stars II” (1977) ~ Lucille Ball is the ringmaster and Peter Fonda performs a daredevil motorcycle stunt on a high wire. 

In a taped segment singer / songwriter Paul Williams goes skydiving. Once he alights (just outside his circus ring target) Williams and a dozen men waiting for him on the ground mount motorbikes and zoom away through the desert.

“Lucy Moves to NBC” (1980) ~ Scotty Plummer (Scotty Coogan) wants a motorcycle for his 18th birthday. He even tries to pawn his prized banjo to buy one. 

1999 ~ Postage stamps from Republic of Turkmenistan feature Lucille Ball in a diner with Carmen Miranda and Humphrey Bogart, looking at Marilyn Monroe standing outside next to a motorcycle. 

2020 ~ A Lucille Ball impersonator at Universal Studios Hollywood poses in the sidecar of a Royal Enfield motorcycle. The Royal Enfield brandis the oldest global motorcycle brand in continuous production.

[semyazzayee]

Me trying to Decide if I Should Watch firts Hello Dolly Completed Because I LOVE Wall-e and The Scenes Where Hello Dolly Appears as a Metaphor for Wall-e and Eva Relationship or The humanity Before and I Have a Strong Feeling of Nostalgia with "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" Every Time it Appears on my random Playlist... Or if I should Watch instead firts The Matchmaker (1958) Because has Anthony Perkins on it and I'm Going to Have A strong Feeling of Nostalgia just by Seeing 1 second of Frame with him HOW CAN I SAY NO FOR ANTHONY PERKINS???

[nickyandmikey]

hiiii <3

[angelstills]

The Matchmaker (1958)

[cornaby]

Anthony Perkins: Get yourself a man who can do both

:)

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Once his parents show up, Lan gets hugged tightly, and then cursed out in Chinese an then hugged tightly again by his mother.

Eventually, everyone is cleaned up and fed, and sitting around the living room and Midge gets to her feet with a record, which she carries to the record player.

“No,” Joel snaps.

“Yep!” Midge tells him.

“Midge.”

“They’re all adults, it’s time everyone knew,” Midge tells him. “We can’t just keep sweeping everything under the rug. The more they know, the more they can make decisions on what to tell people about this crazy fucking family.”

She settles the record down and shifts the needle into place, and suddenly, her own voice is echoing through the living room.

It takes a few moments before all five kids realize what they’re listening to, and all eyes shift to Joel.

“Pop,” Ethan says slowly.

“I was young!” Joel cries.

“He wasn’t that young,” Midge counters.

“Pop,” Esther repeats her older brother.

“Right,” Midge sighs, stopping the record. “In 1958, your father told me he was cheating on me, and then he left.”

“I thought you guys just didn’t get along anymore!” Esther cries. “Pop, you cheated? Like cheated-cheated?”

Joel sighs heavily.

“Gross,” Lily voices.

“What do you know, you weren’t alive yet,” Joel grumbles.

Lan slumps back on the couch, shaking his head, before freezing and doing some math in his head. “Pop. When did you start seeing Penny?”

“...I don’t know.”

“He knows,” Lenny mutters.

Joel blows out a breath. “March...? March of 1958.”

“I was two months old,” Esther snaps. “You started fucking around on Mama right after she gave birth to your child?!”

Ethan snaps his fingers. “I remember Penny Pan! She fed me ambrosia salad and I puked it up on the couch an hour later!”

“Which is how we found out about your coconut allergy,” Joel tells him.

“That’s why you go green every time someone plays that lime in the coconut song,” Kitty comments.

“Can we keep moving this along, please?” Mei asks.

Midge sighs. “So Joel left. I started comedy. I met Lenny. Joel met Mei...and a lot of things happened after that...”

She goes into detail. Getting married again in Vegas by accident. The ups and downs of things with Lenny (including his OD in ‘61), Joel’s ups and downs with the Button club. Everything that happened with the grandparents during those years, including Abe’s illustrious theater critic career. The Matchmaker wars of ‘62. Midge getting kicked off the Shy Baldwin tour in ‘60. Sophie Lennon’s very public 1966 meltdown. Declan Howell’s unexpected death the same year. Lenny’s ‘70 relapse into addiction. 

“What about the Maisel and Roth stuff?” Ethan asks. “Is it true Zeyde had ties to Murder Incorporated back in the day?”

“Yes,” Joel says. “To say nothing of Susie’s mob buddies back in the early 60′s, Mei’s entire family being part of a gambling ring, and Noah Weissman’s spook career.”

Lily’s eyes go wide. “Uncle Noah is a spook? Like a real spook? Like a spy-spook?”

“He’s an analyst for CIA,” Midge confirms.

“Uncle Noah killed people?!” Esther cries.

“No,” Midge sighs. “Uncle Noah didn’t kill anyone. He’s a...a researcher.”

“I bet he’s killed at least one person,” Lan chimes in.

“All cops are bastards,” Lenny adds.

Midge rounds on him, annoyed, and he puts his hands up in surrender.

“Also, Midge is related to oil barons in Oklahoma,” Joel tells them.

“Fucking- what?” Ethan asks, bewildered.

Midge blows out as breath. “Grandma Rose was from Oklahoma.”

“No she wasn’t, she was from New York,” Esther argues.

“She was not,” Midge tells them. “She grew up in Oklahoma, she went to Paris in the ‘20′s, and then moved to New York and went to school for a couple of years before marrying Papa.”

“Oil barons?” Kitty asks, bewildered.

“What even is this family?” Lan asks.

“We haven’t even started talking about Mei’s side,” Midge says.

All eyes turn to Mei.

“There’s nothing to tell,” she says smoothly. “My family owned...certain...businesses and...properties.”

“They ran an illegal mahjong ring under the Button Club, and owned every business within a six mile radius,” Joel supplies. “They were the mob.”

“Holy shit,” Lan snaps, sitting at attention, eyes wide. “I’m a mob prince?!”

“No,” Mei snaps. “You are not a mob anything. I went to medical school. I became a doctor! None of the mob stuff ever touched you because we went to visit my parents twice a month, and none of the cousins were ever allowed to babysit!”

“Are we going to jail by association?” Lily asks, looking a little freaked out. “Is that possible?”

“No,” Lenny tells her. “Considering my record, that would have happened already.”

Kitty takes a deep breath and gets to her feet, mimicking Midge’s earlier move of smoothing out her clothing. “I need air.”

Lenny squeezes his eyes as she leaves the room. “Fuck.”

Lan frowns. “What’s with her?”

“She didn’t know about Lenny’s OD, and now she’s pissed,” Ethan explains. “Like big, big time pissed.”

“She’s pissed, what about me?!” Esther cries, rounding on Joel. “You cheated on Mama!”

“It was a long time ago.”

“You stuck your dick in your secretary!”

“Okay,” Ethan grumbles, rubbing his face. “Okay, no, I don’t wanna do this.” He takes a deep breath. “This was a lot of information to take in in one afternoon. Let’s all just...take a break. Cool off. Jump in the lake or something.”

“Can I drown in the lake?” Lily asks. “That feels productive at this point.”

“Lily,” Midge snaps.

“Aaaand break!” Joel cries.

And they do.

[holyfuckincabooses]

A quick poster design for The Matchmaker (1958) :]]

[normanbased]

i’ve been trying to ask you for anthony perkins movie recs for like three days in a row but every time i accidentally write “do you have any norman bates movie recs?” and then i close the ask instead of sending it. anyway. recs? 👀 i skimmed his imdb page but a lot of them look pretty bad ngl so i figured it’s best to get some pointers

So many of them suck you’re not wrong 💕💕 like the MAJORITY of his filmography is kinda mediocre….. BUT there are lots of good things spattered about, and for the most part any garbage movie you can guarantee that he’s the best part about it — (we don’t talk about the late career work some of that stuff is just awful 💀)

Here’s five goodies tho :]]

• Friendly Persuasion 1956 — His second film and his only Oscar nomination — An Amish family wrestles with their philosophies on non-violence and other vices during the civil war. He plays Josh, the eldest son :]]

• The Matchmaker 1958 — Hello Dolly! without the music. Arguably my favourite role he’s played. Two store clerks get bored and go to New York to find girlfriends. Lots of cute moments between Tony and Robert, worth watching just for that.

• Psycho AND Psycho II — this is a Psycho II propaganda blog at heart, I’ll stand by this movie til the day I die. It had no right being as watchable as it is.

• Catch-22 1970 — it’s not really much about Tony’s character but he’s in it quite a bit and it’s still a good movie, and in the book he’s a way more important character. The first line of the book is still insane to me and I’m shocked there isn’t more middle aged men yaoi about Yossarian and the Chaplain 💕 watch the film then read the book that’s how I enjoyed it

• The Trial 1961 — Knowing the production history of this movie makes it so funny to me, Tony and Orson were losing their fucking minds by the time they’d finished it 💀 it’s also just a good movie I’ve seen it a few times now, switch up your rewatches by imagining different mystery crimes for Joseph K to have committed

The rest of his filmography is sooo hit or miss so explore at your own trepidation. I like Pretty Poison even if it’s a bit stilted, it’s not bad for a late 60s flick. OH Crimes of Passion is silly, and I like the Fool Killer even if everyone else doesn’t (the book is on archive.org, you’re WELCOME everybody 🙄) and ermmmm…. OH THE TIN STAR TOO 💕💕💕💕 SILLY SHERIFF COWBOY MOVIE 💕💕💕💕

let’s ask the audience 🙏😇 @ all the Tony girlies what are u recommending?

[byneddiedingo]

Walter Matthau and Audrey Hepburn in Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Ned Glass, Dominique Minot, Jacques Marin. Screenplay: Peter Stone, Marc Behm. Cinematography: Charles Lang. Art direction: Jean d'Eaubonne. Music: Henry Mancini. Charade was dismissed in its day as a pleasant but derivative entertainment, with touches of Hitchcock and a bit of James Bond in the mix, a film that would be nothing without its star teaming of Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. It would also inspire other star-teamed romantic adventures with one-word titles, like Warren Beatty and Susannah York in Kaleidoscope (Jack Smight, 1966) and Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine in Gambit (Ronald Neame, 1966), and Charade's director, Stanley Donen, would even repeat the formula with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in Arabesque (1966). But Charade has survived today as a classic when the others have mostly been forgotten. The star teaming has a lot to do with it, of course: Who doesn't want to see the two most charming people in the world together? Owing to Grant's genetic gift for looking much younger than he was, even the 25-year age difference between Grant and Hepburn only slightly tests the limits of what one can accept in a romantic pairing.* But the film also makes sly references to the difference in their ages, and wisely makes Hepburn's character into the more active one in initiating a relationship. Charade also has an exceptionally witty screenplay, with Peter Stone largely responsible for the final script from the story he and Mark Behm had been unable to sell to the studios until they turned it into a novel that was serialized in Redbook magazine. And it has a near-perfect supporting cast, including three actors at turning points in their careers: Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and George Kennedy. All of them would move out of television and into the movies after Charade, and all three would win Oscars for their work. And in Stanley Donen it had a director whose lightness of touch had been honed in MGM musicals, including the greatest of them all, Singin' in the Rain (1952). *Compare, for example, the similar age gap between James Stewart and Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958). After that film, Stewart gave up playing romantic leads. Grant made much the same choice: Charade was his antepenultimate film: Although he would make one more, Father Goose (Ralph Nelson, 1964), that paired him with a younger actress, Leslie Caron, in his final film, Walk, Don't Run (Charles Walters, 1966), he was the older man who serves as matchmaker to young lovers -- a role that was based on the part played by Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier (George Stevens, 1943).