Cheery disposition. Never cruel. Plays games, all sorts.

A candidate's pitch for Tuesday's election? Not quite. It's an advertisement for the perfect nanny. And, of course, that's "Mary Poppins" (1964). Time has not diminished her rosy complexion, nor her cheekiness, and the English children's classic, filmed entirely on a Burbank soundstage, remains tunefully fresh.

Julie Andrews won an Oscar in the title role, but the truly soaring performers are Dick Van Dyke as bloke-of-all-trades Bert and David Tomlinson as the proper banker father.

And the songs -- chimchim-hooray. All we need is a sing-along version with a bouncing umbrella.

Posted by Barbara Page at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Gilmore Girls," the java-jazzed, hip-lit, mother-daughter TV show, begins its new season Tuesday. And as fans know, the girls do love videos, particularly "The Way We Were" (1973).

Remarkably, after all this time, the Barbra Streisand-Robert Redford romance hasn't dissolved into a sugar glaze. The mismatch of activist Katie and affable Hubbell across the '30s, '40s and '50s remains intelligent and touching.

So, yes, please, break out the Red Vines -- and the hankies, just in case.

(By the way, Gilmores, add this to your 411: It was Streisand who changed the first word of the theme song from "daydreams" to "memories.")

Posted by Barbara Page at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Labor Day had been celebrated for decades before the screwball comedy "My Man Godfrey" (1936) came along. But it took William Powell as a dapper down-and-out to remind the nation that "the only difference between a derelict and a man is a job."

Powell plays Godfrey, one of the "forgotten men" on a New York trash heap, when a ditsy deb (ex-wife Carole Lombard) whisks him to her half-witted household to serve as her butler.

So what if there's a horse in the library or the concert pianist has gone ape? Godfrey is grateful to have a job, and we're grateful he prevails with charm and dignity in a labor of delight.

Posted by Barbara Page at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)