I Know You Can Do This: Working Girl (1988)

Most Romantic Moment #6

Working Girl (1988)

I had never seen this movie before, but I knew that Brittany Murphy’s character in Little Black Book was obsessed with it.

I had also heard it had all these awards and people loved it. So when my friend and I spotted it on Netflix she and I watched it.

I thought it was okay, not spectacular but not horrible; and was surprised at the amount of awards it had won. But it did have a moment I thought was pretty romantic.

Tess (Melanie Griffith) is a secretary who dreams of becoming more, but finds that her Staten Island backgrounds stalls her from any promotion.

She also has a boyfriend that will never move things forward and is cheating on her.

After being sexually harassed by her bosses and ending her employment by getting revenge, she finds herself at the end of the line. Her last job for a female employer, and if she doesn’t make this stick she is out of New York.

Katherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) is new to the company and takes Tess under her wing teaching her about proper presentation, the right way to speak, etc. Tess sees Katherine as her mentor and shares a great idea with her.

Katherine breaks her leg while skiing and is going to be out of the office for months. She sends Tess to do a few errands, and Tess finds out that Katherine stole her idea and was planning to pass it off as her own. This betrayal coupled with finding out about her boyfriend’s cheating on her, causes her to become so furious she decides that she is going to take over the deal herself.

Don’t mess with me!

She cuts her hair, borrows Katherine’s home, clothes, etc. She then approaches Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) herself to get the deal rolling. The Harrison Ford scenes are the best: especially when he changes his shirt. 🙂

Aw!

The two start getting really close when things become super complicated!

Not good

Katherine comes home early, it turn out that her sometimes boyfriend is Jack, Tess’ cover is starting to crack, and Katherine tries to steal back the credit for the idea.

Most Romantic Moment: 

**Spoiler Warning**

So the most romantic moment for me comes at the very end of the film. Katherine tried to steal back the credit and Jack; with Tess coming in and proving the idea was hers, that she is intelligent, and pulling of this amazing deal for the company.

Yay!!!

Tess is rehired for the company, (as Katherine fired when she tried to discredit her), and is extremely nervous for her first day back as she doesn’t know what to expect and is afraid of messing up again.

Jack prepares her lunch, hands it to her, and encourages her as she goes off.

How sweet is that?

Aw!

Especially when you compare him to her previous boyfriend. He just leached off of her, never took her out, never encouraged her, and the only thing he ever gave her was lingerie (really a gift for himself).

What jerks

Jack is the complete opposite as he supports her, comforts her, and calms her down; taking care of the tiny details so she could just focus on her duties.

Aw!

To start Romance is in the Air: Part V from the beginning, go to I Did It for You: Edward Scissorhands (1990)

For the previous post, go to I Only Care That You Succeed: How I Met Your Mullet, Raising Hope (2014)

For more Harrison Ford, go to You Don’t Have to Say the Words, I Already Know: Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

For more ’80s films, go to I Will Face My Fears for You: Back to the Future (1985)

Pizza Worthy of a Queen

8) What You Ate Today

Sorry I’m posting so late, I’ll explain more tomorrow.

So I actually didn’t eat that much today. For breakfast/lunch I had honey graham crackers, which are my favorite.

Then later I snacked on popcorn, not that much though.

What I really ate though was pizza margherita.

It all started on Thursday, when I read the book A Pizza for the Queen, by Nancy F. Castaldo. It is based on a true story when a pizza maker was asked to make a “peasant” pizza for Queen Margherita. In the end he invents a new pizza, naming it after the queen, the famous pizza margherita. After I read that book it was all I could think about. And it is extremely easy to cook.

1. You need to make pizza dough, in which you should coat with olive oil.
2. Then put pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes, etc.: whatever on your pizza round.
3. Cut the mozzarella cheese into thin rounds, and place it on top of the sauce.
4. Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the cheese.
5. Cook the pizza according to the dough directions.
6. When pizza is ready, place washed basil leaves on top.
7. Serve and enjoy.

I love Pizza

While the pizza was cooking, and I was waiting; I decided to make a basil, tomato, mozzarella cheese salad.

1. Slice the mozzarella cheese and tomatoes.
2. Take a platter and place the ingredients in the pattern of cheese, tomato, and basil leaves.
3. Enjoy!

So that’s it! It was extremely delicious and you should try to make it yourself.

To start the 30 Day Challenge from the beginning, go to Musical Madness

For the previous post, go to Present Versus Past

For more on pizza, go to Pizza Power

Murder is My Favorite Crime: Laura (1944)

Murder is my favorite crime.

So I strongly contemplated whether or not I wanted to include this in my Horrorfest. It isn’t really a horror film but more of a mystery thriller, even better defined as a film-noir. I really wanted to include it but, since it wasn’t a real “horror film” I wasn’t sure if I should. But then I had a moment of clarity.

This is my blog. I can do whatever I want!

So I decided I would.

 

So this actually started out as a play and then was turned into a novel. Otto Preminger saw it as the perfect thing to turn into a film. It is known to be one of the best Film-Noir films along with one of the best mystery-thriller films of all time. AFI ranked it #4 on their list of the 10 greatest mystery films.

This film is also famous for Gene Tierney’s portrayal of Laura. This helped give her title of “Film-Noir Queen”.

So anyways, on to the film.

So it starts off with New York City police Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews).

He is investigating the death of the beautiful, successful, advertising executive Laura Hunt. Laura was murdered by a shotgun blast to the face.

Det. McPherson starts investigating and finds himself with multiple murder suspects and motives.

1) Waldo Lybecker

Waldo (Clifton Webb) is a famous columnist and he was the one who actually discovered Laura. She tried to get him to advertise something for him, and faster than you could say Pygmalion, he takes her under his wing and tries to change her and “improve” her.

“Waldo Lydecker: She was quick to seize upon anything that would improve her mind or her appearance. Laura had innate breeding, but she deferred to my judgment and taste. I selected a more attractive hairdress for her. I taught her what clothes were more becoming to her. Through me, she met everyone: The famous and the infamous. Her youth and beauty, her poise and charm of manner captivated them all. She had warmth, vitality. She had authentic magnetism. Wherever we went, she stood out. Men admired her; women envied her. She became as famous as Waldo Lydecker’s walking stick and his white carnation.”

But it goes a little more than that. Waldo becomes obsessed with Laura.

Yep. He is in love with her and wants to be the only man. Every time some other guy came around he would find a way to criticize them and demean them. The two broke it off, but Laura was very upset with him.

Laura started dating another guy, Shelby Carpenter. No matter what Waldo said, Laura wouldn’t listen to him. In fact she decided to marry him.

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!

Yep he was angry. Extremely upset about losing Laura to someone he thought was so unworthy? Angry enough to kill?

Hmm…

2) Shelby Carpenter

Shelby (played by Vincent Price) comes from great stock, has expensive tastes, and loves the high life. Only one problem, he has no money. None at all. Instead he has to use to his charms to court rich, older women and have them pay for his expenses. In fact he had found a real great giver in Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). That is until he met the very charismatic Laura. Not only is she the perfect cash cow to support him, but young and beautiful. Who could ask for anything more?

“Shelby Carpenter: I knew there was something on my mind. Ah yes, will you dine with me tomorrow night?

Laura Hunt: Yes.

Shelby Carpenter: No, it’s not that – it’s the next night. And what about three weeks from tonight? And all the nights in between?

Laura Hunt: Shelby, you talk as if I had no other engagements!

Shelby Carpenter: And two months from now? And the month after that?

Laura Hunt: What about next year?

Shelby Carpenter: Oh, that’s all settled. What about breakfast?

Laura Hunt: What about dancing?

Shelby Carpenter: What about lunch? Beautiful lunches, day after day after day?”

The two starting dating and she gave him a job, one of which he didn’t have to do too much work. The two become engaged and all is well.

Or is it?

It turns out that Laura wasn’t the only person Shelby was seeing. He was going around with a lot of poor models. Rumor has it that Laura found out and was not happy…could he have killed her? If she was about to leave him high and dry, he might have become incensed and murdered her?

3) Ann Treadwell

Ann Treadwell is the rich older aunt of Laura. She and Shelby had been in a relationship for a long time. She knew what he was, but that was what she wanted.

When he left her for Laura, she was furious that her niece stole him away. Furious enough to kill?

Sound suspicious

As Det. McPherson continues to delve into the clues and motives…he learns more and more about Laura. As he learns more and more he starts falling for Laura as well.

One night Det. McPherson is at Laura’s apartment looking at her painting and trying to figure out the mystery, along with Laura. Why does she draw him to her?

When suddenly somebody comes crashing through.

It’s Laura!!!

But wait…

But if that’s Laura? Who is…?

Who is the dead body?

They find out that the murdered girl is one of the models, Diane Redfern. The same model that Shelby was involved with.

Yep this leads Mark with another suspect…Laura

4) Laura Hunt

So we’ve heard how Laura rose from nothing to being the top girl. She was beautiful, smart, classy, etc. All women envined her and all men wanted her.

But then the guy she loves and is supposed to marry is running around with a model!!! Cheating on her!!!!

She knew Diane was in love with Shelby, and she knew Shelby only cared about her money. She knew Shelby was taking models to her house and she could have gone after them and shot her for trying to mess with her man.

Or she could be so angry at Shelby for cheating on him that she prepared a way to take care of him.

Instead of killing him, she could have killed Diane to make it look like Shelby and make him pay!

Does it seem too far-fetched? Well she wasn’t at the cabin when the cops looked that weekend. Her response “I was talking a walk.” She didn’t see the newspapers and come back saying she was alive? Or hear it on the radio? Her response: I don’t get a newspaper and my radio is broken.” Did anyone see you there? “Nobody”.

What does this mean? Who is the killer?

You’ll have to watch the film to find out.

To start Horrorfest III from the beginning, go to Even a Man Pure of Heart

For to the previous post, go to Every Time I Bring a Girl Over, You Try to Eat Her!

For more on Laura (1944), go to All I Know About Trilogies is That in the Third One, All Bets are Off

For more on Vincent Price, go to The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind

For more mysteries, go to Quite a Horror Story

For more films based on books, go to But the Book, It Will Never Close…

For more films based on a play, go to Some People Are Just Born Evil

Food, Food, Food!

Let’s talk about food.

It’s like I’m a hobbit or something

And of course after I eat I feel like a fatty

Like every time

But how can I when food is so good!???!

Yeah…so

But you know what? Food is always there for you:

So you know what, I’ve decided to give up the fight.

I’m gonna just enjoy those fatty foods

How could I live without fries? You can’t

And Nachos:

Pizza:

I love Pizza

Cheese:

Pie:

Cookies?

Yep:

But you know what:

I agree

Thank you Julia for approving of my life choices. After all

And BTW:

I want to end this post honoring those who died on 9/11. Thank you to those who helped out in the aftermath, and an even greater thank you to those who gave their lives. We owe a debt to you and your families that we can never repay.

“That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.”

-God Bless the U.S.A.

For more on Lord of the Rings, go to Lord of the Cats

For more on Lydia Bennet, go to How to Catch a Man

For more on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, go to Pizza Power

For more on Mean Girls, go to Just Can’t Get a Break

For more on Jim Davis, go to For All the Men Who Wonder What It’s Like

For more on Friends (TV Show), go to I Will Survive

For more on Joey Tribbiani, go to I Don’t Wanna Be in Love (Dance Floor Anthem)

For more of my favorite quotes, go to Here I Go