She'll Date Anything

Last night I was watching Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and they had on The Palm Beach Story with Claudette Colbert. It was the kind of movie that could never get made today, because it was sweet, funny, clever, and romantic (unless you like unbelievable movies about hookers with hearts of gold shopping on Rodeo Drive). If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. Some of the lines are witty beyond belief (which of course the movie is!). I will even go one step further and say that if you like this movie you should try The Lady Eve with Barbara Standwyck, as a grifter who falls for a rich hick played by Henry Ford. I know, you love Magnificent Obsession, don't we all, but give something a little lighter a try. Though not as silly as Pillow Talk, it is a great movie that I can guarentee you young girls (under 13) and old alike will love. It was of course directed by that genius of the 40's Preston Sturges who directed one of my all time favorite movies Sullivan's Travels with the lovely Veronica Lake. And since Hollywood is hell bent on remaking everything under the sun (and they say we have brain drain here in Canada) why not remake something that was actually good, like Sullivan's Travels. I can even update it for them so they don't need to have any of their 7 figure salary executives sweat too hard. So here we go, we update our hobo plot line to the rap world (I know, slighly cliché, but there is really nothing else that meets the same sterotypical bias today) with a major rap impresario, played by Terrance Howard (in the Joel McCrea part) and I think an unknown in the Veronica Lake part, I don't think there is really any black actress in hollywood right now that has the right mix of naivete, wonder, and innocence that Lake has to portray in this movie. Terrance decides to go to the 'Hood' to find truth after his last big David Foster level success has left him dwelling on the shallowness of his life. But while 'researching' the desperateness that makes rap so potent he gets mistaken for the coward who held up a liquour store in the Valley which resulted in the death of a little white girl who had just won the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. This of course lands Howard on death row, where he learns that the music he has produced has touched the hearts of hardened criminals the world over. He realizes he is not just a souless hack shooting T&A videos, but a man with a message, helping those with a dream triumph. Now tell me that wouldn't be number on at the box office in Japan.