"If one must have Maine...

Magnet #474 - Bar Harbor, Maine

...why not Bar Harbor?"

- Cousin Julia, Summer Magic

Right at this moment, my sisters (who unpacked the DVD out of moving boxes) are now re-watching Moon-Spinners for the thousandth time, and I've hit pause on Summer Magic, to write this post.

I certainly didn't intend for this to be a Hayley Mills mini-marathon, but who can resist the call of Beautiful Beulah, Maine, and the wonderful, oh so cheesy Carey family of Summer Magic?

There's the ever-so-put upon widowed matriarch, Margaret, placed in reduced circumstances, mother of willful daughter and consummate dreamer Nancy, ragtime pianist son, Gilly, and impish son, Peter, who sleeps every night with the Shaggy DA dog.

Nancy (who has the cutest dresses, with the wrongest hairwear) has convinced the affable Osham (?) Popham (played by the affable Burl Ives) to let them live in the gorgeous abandoned yellow house in the outskirts of Beulah, and it's all about how the Bostonian Careys get used to living in the countryside (because really, who needs money, in the land of milk and honey)?

And then horrendously prissy and snobby Cousin Julia, who is the Pink of Perfection, comes to live with them, and turns their lives topsy-turvy....

And then a hot teacher shows up to create a love triangle...

And then the hot owner of the house comes back and...

Ok, ok, the story's way too complicated to get into, but suffice to say that there's a happy ending. Of course. Hello, it's Disney!

(Actually, in point of fact, Summer Magic was based on a book called Mother Carey's Chickens, written all the way back in 1911 and already downloaded to my BlackBerry. It was written by Kate Douglas Wiggin...who, in addition to pioneering Kindergartens in the U.S., also wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.)

Also? Being Disney, it has several musical numbers that won't leave your head - apparently ever. For serious, yo. I'm seeing tonight that on top of quoting scenes, I can still sing along for every freakin' number... Good. Grief.

Overall the movie tends to hold up ok - mostly because even though it was released in 1963, it's set in the early 1900s. I won't lie, some of the songs are pretty FF-worthy - particularly when they're just montages of the countryside and the flora and fauna of said countryside. Some of them are just toe-tappin' fun. Yeah, you read that right - I said toe-tappin' fun.

You'll see below by the lyrics of Femininity, some of the songs are pretty darn offensive to our modern-day feminist sensibilities. But, scored right, and yeah, I'll be singing this song all the way to work today.

You must walk feminine
Talk feminine
Smile and beguile feminine
Utilize your femininity
That's what every girl should know, if she wants to catch a beau

Dance feminine
Glance feminine
Act shy and sigh feminine
Compliment his masculinity
That's what every girl should know, if she wants to catch a beau

Let him do the talking
Med adore good listeners
Laugh, but not too loudly (Haha)
If he should choose to tell a joke
Be radiant, but delicate
Memorize the rules of etiquette
Be demure, sweet and pure
Hide the real you

You must look feminine
Dress feminine
You're at your best feminine
Emphasize your femininity
That's what every girl should know
Femininity, femininity
That's the way to catch a beau

Heh. You're still here. Go. Watch!


eta:
Oh! I forgot! I've never been to Maine, either! Save the World Sister got me this magnet while hiking in Maine. Huh. Now there's a question. I wonder why comes it's "trekking" when you're in Nepal, but it's just plain old "hiking" Stateside.

eta2:
You know what's funny? Reading comments on the YouTube installments. So funny to see how people react to this movie...

For crying loud out!*

Magnet #473 - Greece

When I was growing up, whenever we had kids come visit - particularly girls - my mom would bust out the Betamax, and later, the VHS, tapes of old Hayley Mills movies from Disney.

Don't know Hayley? Of course, you do.

She's the daughter of Sir John Mills, the goddaughter of Sir Noel Coward, and the darling of several Disney movies, including The Parent Trap, The Castaways, Summer Magic, That Darn Cat and Pollyanna. Seriously. My mom had the Hayley Mills oeuvre nailed down.

I could go on, with the lesser-known The Trouble with Angels, Truth About Spring, The Chalk Garden, and Flame Trees of Thika....or still even more obscure Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the precursor to Saved by the Bell.

You wouldn't believe the hours we spent with Hayley growing up. Well, no, actually, you've probably gotten an idea, so far.

But, if you're paying attention, you've noticed that I left out my favorite Hayley Mills movie of alllllll time - The Moon-Spinners. You must see this movie. Must.

Filmed on location, it was a mystery/romance with a teenage Nikky Ferris coming to picturesque Greece on holiday with her doting Aunt Frances. No sooner than they check in to the lovely Moon-Spinners inn, than Nikky manages to bumble her way into a murder and mayhem, complete with a jewelry theft ring, windmills, a strange innkeeper named Stratos, weird little sidekick named Alexis, and superduper cute mystery man named Mark Camford at the center of it all. Oh, and don't forget the eclectic Madame Habib, with her exotic pet!

But let's go back to Mark Camford, played by Peter McEnery. I freakin' loved this guy. Mind you, I was watching this movie a good 20 years after the movie was initially released, but I had a right proper crush on this guy, even though he was older than my parents. But, in the movie, Nikky Ferris was a teenager, with fabulous outfits and cute hair and wonderful Brit accent, in love with a guy with a wonderful Brit accent, who was older, more mysterious, and trapped in a bloody crypt! (Heh, it's one of my favorite scenes. Ok, well, he was the bloody one, and he was just hiding out, but still!)

Goodness, you couldn't get more romantic than that!

And you know Nikky and Mark totally lived happily ever after after they returned to London. They totally did. Yep. I'm a romantic at heart, and it's no wonder, with me watching movies like this (and Summer Magic and Parent Trap) during my formative years. Apparently, though all of them are on DVD, someone's uploaded Moon-Spinners, too. Go. Now. (Though, honestly, just go buy them, cuz you'll get your use out of the DVDs. I'm just saying.)

Go. Why are you still here?

Oh! The second I saw this magnet, I knew I had to buy it, because I'll always think of this movie when I think of Greece. Ummm, yeah. I've never been to Greece, so I suppose it loses a bit of its romance if I admit that I bought this in Tarpon Springs. Florida. Heh.

*One of Alexis' silly American quotes