The Jack Benny comedy “George Washington Slept Here” has only the flimsiest connection to Presidents Day. Why, a dream sequence, in which Benny and Ann Sheridan are dressed like George and Martha Washington, was even cut from the film. Nevertheless, music from “George Washington Slept Here” will be heard on “Picture Perfect” this week, as the focus is on “city mice” in the country.
Of course there are many, many movies about “city mice” and “country mice” – those from the city displaced to a rural setting, and those from the country dazzled by the city. These often take the form of fish-out-of-water comedies. But a trip the country can also be restorative, or even have redemptive qualities. Though in the end, more often than not, the central characters return to their place of origin.
“Witness” (1985) employs elements of both “city mouse” and “country mouse.” The plot is set in motion by the witness of a murder by an Amish boy at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. The investigation reveals a vein of corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department, forcing a wounded detective, John Book (played by Harrison Ford), to lay low among the Amish. There are certainly comic elements, but also fascinating dramatic possibilities, in throwing together these figures from two very different cultures.
The music was by Maurice Jarre. Jarre is best known for his scores presented on large orchestral canvases, for films like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Dr. Zhivago.” But by the 1980s, he was experimenting with electronic music in films like “The Year of Living Dangerously,” “Mosquito Coast,” and “Dead Poets Society.” The approach worked particularly well in “Witness.”
Another police thriller, “On Dangerous Ground” (1952), throws together a detective with definite anger management issues (played by Robert Ryan) with the backwoods father of a murder victim (played by Ward Bond) for a wild mountain manhunt. Ryan finds redemption through his interactions with the suspect’s blind sister, played by Ida Lupino. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music. If you find yourself trying to identify the solo string instrument, it’s actually a viola d’amore, an instrument rarely heard outside of the Baroque.
“George Washington Slept Here” (1942), based on the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, is a “fixer-up” comedy, kind of a precursor to “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” and “The Money Pit,” with perhaps a touch of “Green Acres” thrown into the mix. Benny and Sheridan play a Manhattan couple fed up with city living. They transport their family to a dilapidated Bucks County farmhouse, with predictably disastrous results.
The somewhat cartoonish music is by English-born composer Adolph Deutsch, one of the less remembered names of Hollywood’s Golden Age, although he scored such high profile films as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Some Like It Hot.” His is an old fashioned approach – at any moment you might expect to hear a “sad trombone” – but it’s wholly appropriate in a film that features abundant pratfalls.
Finally, the Billy Crystal comedy “City Slickers” (1991) is built on the premise of three middle-aged Manhattanites who find renewal and purpose at a kind of cowboy fantasy camp. Jack Palance gives an Oscar-winning performance as the intimidating trail boss. The music is by Marc Shaiman. Shaiman has also written for Broadway. He may be best known for his score to the musical “Hairspray.”
I hope you’ll join me, as “city mice” go to the country this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
