Crazy World
from
Victor-Victoria
sung by
Julie Andrews
Crazy world
Full of crazy contradictions like a child
First you drive me wild
And then you win my heart
with your wicked art
One minute tender, gentle
Then temperamental as a summer storm
Just when I believe your heart's
getting warmer
You're cold and you’re cruel
And I, like a fool, try to cope
Try to hang on, to hope
Crazy world
Everyday the same old roller coaster ride
But I've got my pride
I won't give in
Even though I know I’ll never win
Oh, how I love this crazy world!
~ Henry Mancini, music - Leslie Bricusse, lyrics
and now
The Instrumental Version
There now, don’t you feel better?
Victor Victoria is one of my favorite movies. Robert Preston was at his best, and this Blake Edwards masterpiece was right up there with the best of the Pink Panther series. I've got to go put this on my Netflix list now. It's been years since I watched it.
ReplyDeleteHard t believe it came out THIRTY-FOUR YEARS AGO!
DeleteI was amazed by it then, and have only grow fonder of VV as the years pass.
A great accomplishment, because it deals gently, kindly, lightly and humorously with subjects normally considered taboo. Despite it's being largely a burlesque, there's an underlying theme of empathy for and understanding of the Human condition that few could not and appealing. I love VV, because it never gets mawkish, sanctimonious, or belligerent. The "finale" where Robert Preston impersonates "Victoria"by aping her Shady dame from Seville number is the only part of VV that struck me as heavy-handed. I still feel embarrassed for Preston, as i admire his courage in making an outrageously silly spectacle of himself.
The music is probably Mancini's best. It manages at once to be lyrical, wistful, comical, witty, elegant, sophisticated, energetic where needed and warmly sincere. No mean accomplishment.
Everyone I k'new at the time regarded it as a great FAMILY MOVIE denote it's quasi-controversial themes –– homosexuality, transvestism, female impersonation, overt sexuality with multiple partners and without benefit of clergy, mobsters portrayed as friends and colleagues, sympathy for an hilarious attempt to cheat a restaurant out of money owed, etc.
Julie Andrews was about FIFTY when she made VV That she appeared lovelier than ever is probably the most cheerfully remarkable thing about the whole show.
Indeed. A crazy world about to get even more crazier.
ReplyDeleteCertainly this weeks it bound to get worser, though we always it will get betterer. };^)>
DeleteBut never mind all that. Relax, unwind, listen to the music, forget your troubles, c'mon get happy.
Better yet WATCH Victor-Victoria I believe the entire movie is available online free of charge at YouTube.
I look forward to seeing more of Crazy Cankles this week!
DeleteThe Cackler and the Dancing White Boy Hispanderer will make for great entertainment. It's a balanced ticket: Two corrupt liars.
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ReplyDeleteps - Andrew's "Crazy World" was much better than Liza's "Who Can I Tell!"
ReplyDeleteApples and asparagus! Pussycats and parrots! There's no basis for comparison.
DeleteLisa wasn't singing MANCINI, so how could she not suffer by comparison anyway?
It may take an artist to put over a song, but the COMPOSER is still THE most important element.
A singer is only as good as the material she's given to perform. Su'w ears nd silk purses and all that. ;^]
Then why pull one and substitute the other from the show?
DeleteWho knows? I'm sure that a Broadway show derived from a MOVIE couldn't be much good anyway. It's always worked the other way 'round before. Plays have been adapted into musicals. Novels have been made into movies, but I've never heard of reversing the process.
DeleteCould you imagine writing a NOVEL based on a SCREEN PLAY? Could you imagine a PLAY being made from an OPERA?
It just ain't done. ;-)
Could you imagine writing a NOVEL based on a SCREEN PLAY?
DeleteGame of Thrones is working that way now.
Since I deliberately keep myself segregated from the popular culture, and have done so for the past fifty years, I haven't heard anything about that. I hope I'm not missing anything worthwhile, but you and I might have different ideas as to how to define "worthwhile." ;-)
DeleteGRRM. Note the gap between books 5&6 due to the intervening HBO series.
DeleteAnd also, remember Wagner and the gap between "Ring" trilogy operas (as Wagner works out resolutions in "other" opera's; Walkure-Parsifal "gap").
This is how the Crazy World really works.
ReplyDeleteI'm a devotee of Mancini's works. He's not famous for composing symphonies, but I know that he composed at least one.
ReplyDelete