What Have You Got Left?

It is the age-old theme that never seems to fail: Boy meets Girl. It doesn't matter how many movies or television shows are flung at us, if they build on that theme, we will come. 

I watched one of the quintessential films of that theme, the other night - White Christmas. In all honesty I must state here that Bing Crosby does it best. Here he plays the busy Broadway producer and performer, too overloaded to find time for love. That is, until the day his best friend becomes firmly and bluntly honest:

"Well, my friend, when what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting whatever it is you've got left!"

Couldn't have said it better.

Enter the two sisters who just may be the solution to this conundrum. Their brown eyes/blue eyes bat just a time or two, and BAM! the plot instantly thickens.

Maybe we like this movie so much because of its sweetness. Its innocence. I mean, absolutely no one needs a bedroom scene and it would have been gross to introduce one. The emphasis is on falling in love rather than grasping at something that ISN'T YOURS YET.

And may I tell you one slightly shocking thing about this movie? Bing Crosby was almost 51 years old when it was filmed. Yes! he was, just look it up. Bing was born in 1903, and the film came out in 1954. So let's have none of this nonsense about it being 'too late for love'. Obviously the box office results ($102,000,000 in adjusted dollars) prove that true love can strike at any age. Hurray!

Granted, there are the hurdles. Aren't there always? Some of the hurdles were:

• the sad lack of snow in Vermont
• the repercussions of making things happen rather than letting things happen
• an 'accidental' encounter next to the Lodge fireplace
• the placing of the man on a pedestal in the eyes of the lady
• the unfortunate falling off of the pedestal by said man
• the silly eavesdropper who throws a wrench into the works
• the sudden and saving arrival of the snow
• the climbing back onto the pedestal by the man

Do you mind a spoiler here? Especially since it is 2014 and the film has been out for 60 years? 

1. boy gets girl

Too often just now we walk into a theater and find the following plot points instead:

1. boy meets girl
2. boy spoils girl

(The wrong kind of 'spoiler'. Hello.)

But I am not so naive as to assume it is all the boy's fault. The movie star girl usually has the ability to prevent the spoilage. Doesn't happen like that though, not so very often. And so we must resort to films such as this one, or Roman Holiday, or An Affair To Remember, or even Frozen, where everybody seems to acknowledge what the right thing is. 

Luckily, Hollywood made quite a few of these sweet-and-innocents before somebody got to them. Yes! they did, just look it up.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady