Friday, June 21, 2013

Sixty Years of Seduction (1981) (TV)

A USA network special, this documentary focuses on sixty years of romance on the silver screen. This program features clips of some of Hollywood's stars in romantic moments, covering the 1920s to the 1970s. ''60 Years of Seduction,'' was a two-hour essay on love and romance as seen through the movie camera. The hosts are stars of the ordinary variety - James Garner, Angie Dickinson, Robert Urich and Victoria Principal. The ''guests,'' though, courtesy of movie excerpts, include just about every superstar that ever stepped out of a celluloid dream, from Dietrich and Bogart to Redford and Taylor. 

It is a ''cozy, lighthearted look'' at sex symbols created by the movie business. Mr. Garner notes that while the East Coast may have its Statue of Liberty, the West Coast has its Hollywood, urging the world to ''give me your young, your fresh, your wide-eyed beauties yearning to be stars.'' 

The film clips are arranged in neat categories. Set to the sound of Dooley Wilson singing ''As Time Goes By,'' one sequence explores the kiss, going from torrid contemporary scenes back to coy beginnings. Then, as Marlene Dietrich sings ''What Am I Bid for My Apples?'' another sequence looks at the concept of sex as forbidden fruit. 

There is the male star, a category including exotic Rudolph Valentino, macho Marlon Brando and gentle Gary Cooper. The female star list encompasses such types as Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe. Arguing that, despite surface differences, Hollywood themes do remain remarkably the same, the program points up the similarity between a Valentino tango and John Travolta's famous dance scene in ''Saturday Night Fever.'' 

Surrounding these glimpses of the superstars is a good deal of ''special material'' that has the hosts strutting about in assorted costumes for sketches loosely related to the film sequences.

Sixty Years of Seduction (1981) (TV)
Hosts: James Garner, Angie Dickinson, Robert Urich, Victoria Principal, Sandahl Bergman

No comments:

Post a Comment