TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE
US, 1950, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jane Powell, Ricardo Montalban, Louis Calhern, Anne Harding, Phyllis Kirk, Carleton Carpenter, Debbie Reynolds, Clinton Sundberg, Tommy Rettig.
Directed by Roy Rowland.
Two Weeks with Love was a very popular musical in its time. It was one of the many musicals around 1950 which took audiences back to the nostalgic times of the first decade of the 20th century (films like Doris Day’s On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon, stories by Booth Tarkington).
Louis Calhern and Anne Harding as the parents take their children to the Catskills for two weeks’ holiday. Their eldest daughter, Patti, Jane Powell, is about to turn eighteen – mother tries to keep her as a little girl, she wants to break out and become a woman. Debbie Reynolds is her younger sister. Ricardo Montalban is the Cuban who becomes the heartthrob.
Jane Powell was very popular in MGM musicals at this time, making several a year – and was to ultimately make a big hit in such films as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Ricardo Montalban had come from Mexico and appeared with Esther Williams in Fiesta and was a contract player at MGM. Debbie Reynolds had appeared in some musicals at Warner Bros but this was her breakthrough film at MGM, especially singing “Abba Dabba Honeymoon” with Carleton Carpenter. She was soon to make Singin’ in the Rain and have a very successful career in musicals and in comedy.
The film was directed by Roy Rowland who made a number of programmer films at MGM but also directed such musicals as Hit the Deck and Meet Me In Las Vegas.
1. An enjoyable piece of Americana, the quality of the film as musical and comedy?
2. Representing the style of 1950, a Jane Powell vehicle, choreography by Busby Berkley, use of colour, period costumes and settings and atmosphere?
3. The importance of the nostalgia for the insight into America at the turn of the century? The nostalgia for this particular period? Sentiment in the presentation of families, memories of youth, growing up? The significance of the title and its connection with Patty?
4. The family themes in the film: the presentation of adolescence and childhood, the emphasis on adolescent girls? The presentation of the realities and the problems of growing up? Audience response to this, sympathy with the adolescent problems, age and the distance of time and the problems seeming so important at the moment, the irony of parents growing up and older, the nostalgia of the memories of their adolescence? How well presented in the framework of a musical comedy?
5. The recreation of the period and its way of life: the opening with the band, the music and the songs, Patty and her song? The preparations for the holiday, formalities, the type of holiday, the holiday hotel itself, the meals, propriety, the concerts and the rowing, the drug stores in the town? The importance of manners and behaviour in this period? Good form? The values of this older way of life?
6. The presentation of the parents? An amiable father, his niceness, his prim and proper outlook on life, his proneness to attacking the irony of his overhearing the conversation about youth? The humour of his trying to give his children something? The humour of the surgical corset? The presentation of the mother and her values, keeping her children as little girls, the clash with the father over the issue and the story about Beulah? Her changing her mind and helping her daughter at the end? The importance of the affectionate scenes between husband and wife, a pattern of parents for example at the rowing?
7. The film's focus on Patty and Jane Powell's performance? A girl at 17, her wanting to grow up, considering herself a woman, clothes and the corset as a symbol of this? Her attitude towards boys and looking down on Billy? The importance of showing her awkwardness and her gaffes especially in the dining room, her hiding in the various places? The contrast with Melba as the younger adolescent? The scene of her disdain of Billy and his pressing his suit? Her niceness towards him at the end? The importance of Dan as ideal in her eyes, a big thing at the time? Her following him round and her being thwarted by Valerie? Her believing Valerie’s stories and pretending to be a vamp? Her falling into the lake and swimming, the horse and the blanket, the confrontation with her father? The humour of the fantasies especially that in the rowing boat? The importance of her dream and its being a musical comedy? The contrast with Valeric as the self-centred older woman? The humiliation, The crises and the moodiness? The build-up to the tango and the final permission for Dan to court her? How accurate a picture of a girl growing up?
8. The contrast with Melba and the teenage crushes, her pursuit of Billy, the song and dance routines? Debbie Reynolds' style?
9. The ironic presentation of Valerie, her career, her vanity, her swooning into Dan’s arms and then tricking Patty, her plans, her final comeuppance?
10. The presentation of Billy and his gawkiness, devotion to Patty, disdain of Melba, his relationship with his father and short pants?
11. Dan as the romantic figure, an heroic mould here, his niceness, his courtesy to Patty and his humour? His toleration of Valerie? His roles in Patty's fantasies? The culmination with the tango and his paying court to her?
12. The film's use of music, songs and the old nostalgic tunes, the comic songs especially with Melba, the Oceana Roll and Abba, Dabba Dabba? The dramatisation of 'The Chocolate Soldier' and involving the whole cast in this fantasy?
13. To what audience did the film make its appeal? How could audiences identify with the characters and the themes? The nostalgic style and humour to capture the audiences? A success within its conventions?
