Rest in peace, Debbie Reynolds.
She was actually a Reynolds and there aren’t many famous Reynolds (at least as pop culture goes). She even had the hair and skin coloring of many of the women in my family and so she seemed a bit like kin.
That might have been one reason I liked her, but there was Singing in the Rain and that was a reason to love her. Yet the first film I thought of when I heard that Debbie Reynolds was dead was the film Tammy. This movie always makes me cry, but don’t watch it.
Don’t.
It is not . . . a very good movie . . . as my son pointed out the movie features characters like “an exposition goat” who listens as Tammy tells the viewer what the script writer thought the viewer needed to know. If you cannot guess the ending within the first five minutes, you need prompt medical attention, but I love it just the same.
Why?
It does three things that are rare in better films. First, Tammy exposes the hypocritical hollowness of society conventions in the fifties, that is common enough, but she does so by being a country bred Christian. Read Shakespeare. People who grow up with the King James Bible and on a farm do not need the facts of life taught to them. They grasp Judges and so have a good defense against the “wolves” of high society. This part of her character fit the people I knew.
Nana could not be shocked. She knew about life, death, sin, and devils, but she also would not approve of sin. She might not have been keeping up on the latest weirdness, dysfunction, or decadence in high society, but she had categories for each. Nana, and the women I knew like she was, could see through fakery and first-world problems easily. She loved deflating people who had to go sin to “find themselves” noting that selfishness was generally what they found.
When I was studying philosophy and tempted by the world, the flesh, and my own devils, Nana was a great comfort. She was unflappable, but unstoppable. Do right. Stop moping around.
Tammy‘s lead character is like this . . . and I am hard pressed to think of another example. Innocent, yet wise . . . not of this world, but knowing of the ways of the world. . . decent without prudery . . . sexy without licentiousness. . . . it really is too bad the script fails Debbie Reynolds.
Because the script does fail Tammy, introducing a boat load of condescending characters that are unreal and unlikeable. She falls in love with “the bachelor,” lucky man, but he is not fit for her. She is the making of him, I assume, but he might not be worth the work.
Second, if you are given to sappiness, and I have been told I am, then it is sappy with first rate actors. Imagine a Hallmark movie with some of the best golden age actors putting all they have into the lines. Debbie Reynolds may be wearing lipstick out in the swamp and barefoot in dungarees, but she is marvelous anyway. King Kong’s Fay Wray is always a scream and Walter Brennan could read a human resources manual and sound wise. Did you know Leslie Nielsen was a romantic lead, before Airplane! or Naked Gun? He was . . . and you can see why.
Finally, there is the song that was number one in America, before I was born. This is a fact to celebrate and mourn. My head knows the song is wonderful, my heart loves it. Be warned, it contains lines as bad as this: the old hooty-owl hooty-hoos to the dove. Yet Debbie Reynolds sings and the song works for me . . . being mostly about how she is in love and wondering if he knows.
Yes.
All of this is a reminder why one cannot just follow one’s heart . . . and of a time when people who did not actually share our values (Debbie Reynolds carefully cultivated image was not her reality) made movies for us to see. If they did not live amongst us any more, one never felt they hated us.
Or something. Mostly this film works because it is romantic, sappy, predictable, delightful . . . and rest in peace Debbie Reynolds.
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