Browsing category: CINEMATIC STRUMMING

  • April 12, 2022

    Cinematic Strumming: Stanley’s Gig

    STANLEY’S GIG (2000)

    Director: Marc Lazard

    Stars: William Sanderson, Marla Gibbs, Faye Dunaway, Stephen Tobolowsky

    WITH Ian Whitcomb and Jim Beloff credited as ‘Ukulele Consultants’ and a vintage Martin O in a starring role, Stanley’s Gig is essential viewing. 

    Inspired by real-life characters, the film revolves around LA resident Stanley Myer (Sanderson), a divorced, broke, recovering alcoholic who dreams of a job playing his uke on a cruise ship to Hawaii. 

    Stanley tries his best

    With the help of his only friend Leila (Dunaway), Stanley gets an audition with a Japanese cruise company, but fails to win over the executives with his version of Makin’ Love Ukulele Style, mainly because he simply doesn’t look the part. 

    To make ends meet, he starts working at a nursing home, playing for the residents, and it’s there he meets Eleanor (Gibbs), a bitter, retired jazz singer who claims to hate music. 

    Eleanor and Stanley

    Imbued with a renewed sense of purpose, Stanley makes it his business to help Eleanor reconnect with the world, and in doing so helps himself. 

    While the picture quality and the dubbing on the songs is a bit patchy, it takes nothing away from what is a great little film about the power of music to heal and bridge generations. And it’s hard to fault a soundtrack that includes catchy Whitcomb originals such as Ukulele Heaven and The Uke Is On The March. 

  • January 23, 2022

    Cinematic Strumming: The Jerk

    THE JERK (1979)

    Director: Carl Reiner

    Stars: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams

    WIDELY regarded as one of the funniest films of all time, The Jerk tells the sorry story of Navin R. Johnson (Martin), the adopted son of a poor black family from Mississippi who decides to strike out on his own. 

    The only trouble is Navin is incredibly naïve and the laughs come thick and fast as he stumbles from one ridiculous situation to the next, until one day he learns that an outlandish invention has made him a millionaire, albeit temporarily.

    Along the way, Navin falls in love with a beautiful woman named Marie (Peters) and they do a sweet duet of the 1926 classic Tonight You Belong To Me, with Navin supposedly strumming a soprano ukulele. In reality, the tune was recorded by jazz uke legend Lyle Ritz and overdubbed. 

    On the excellent ‘26th Anniversary Edition’ DVD of the movie, Californian ukulele chanteuse Janet Klein (billed as ‘Ukulele Gal’) teaches a simplified version of the song, while a more complex Ritz arrangement can be found in the songbook Jumpin’ Jim’s Ukulele Masters: Lyle Ritz – Jazz (2000).

    As a result of the success of The Jerk, Tonight You Belong To Me has become synonymous with the ukulele and has been covered by a number of artists, including Amy Nelson and Cathy Guthrie (daughters of Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie, respectively) on 2005’s Folk Uke and Eddie Vedder and Cat Power on Vedder’s 2011 album Ukulele Songs.

    This article originally appeared in Issue 5 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the STORE

  • September 22, 2019

    Cinematic Strumming: 50 First Dates

    50 FIRST DATES (2004)

    Director: Peter Segal

    Stars: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Blake Clark

    THIS sweet romantic comedy sees funnyman Adam Sandler playing Henry Roth, a Lothario Hawaiian vet who only dates tourists because he doesn’t want to get tied down.

    Everything changes for Henry when he spots a beautiful blonde local named Lucy (Barrymore) at a cafe. The pair flirt and enjoy breakfast together, but when he goes back the next morning, she doesn’t remember him at all. It turns out Lucy was in a terrible car accident and lost her short-term memory. Her brain resets while she sleeps and her dad (Clark) and brother (Astin) go to extraordinary lengths to ensure she believes every day is the day of the crash.

    Henry has the opposite problem. Try as he might, he can’t forget Lucy and sets out to make her fall in love with him every 24 hours. In one scene, he plays her a cute song called Forgetful Lucy on the beach. Oddly, while Sandler’s pictured holding a baritone on the movie poster, he actually strums what looks like a six-string tenor in the film. There are plenty of tutorials online if you’d like to give the song a go.

    The jokes don’t always hit the mark, but 50 First Dates has plenty of laughs and while the premise might be slightly far-fetched, the solid central performances elevate it. Sandler and Barrymore have amazing chemistry.

    This article originally appeared in Issue 12 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the Store

  • June 23, 2019

    Cinematic Strumming: Blue Valentine

    BLUE VALENTINE (2010)

    Director: Derek Cianfrance

    Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka

    WITH the mighty uke on the rise once again, it’s not surprising to see it popping up on the silver screen more frequently. However, it is somewhat surprising – and refreshing – to see the instrument featured in a gritty drama.

    A love story with a difference, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine is a very good film. In fact, it’s basically two films in one. It opens in the present, where doting dad Dean (Gosling) is a part-time house painter and his wife Cindy (Williams) is an overworked resident at the local hospital. Their marriage is obviously strained, but Dean can’t seem to understand why. Rewind six years and we get to see the young couple falling madly in love, where it’s all hope, passion and, of course, ukulele serenades.  

    As the movie switches between the time periods, more about Dean and Cindy’s intense relationship is slowly revealed, and it becomes obvious that a physical and emotional boilover is on the cards.

    Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work, both deliver powerful performances, but don’t expect a typical Hollywood ending. We should have known things were going to go downhill when Dean started singing and strumming the old Mills Brothers hit You Always Hurt The One You Love.  

    This article originally appeared in Issue 4 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the Store

  • December 2, 2018

    CINEMATIC STRUMMING: BLUE HAWAII

    BLUE HAWAII (1961)

    Director: Norman Taurog

    Stars: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters

    NOTHING illustrates the popularity of Hawaiiana in the early 1960s better than Blue Hawaii. The first of three Elvis movies to be filmed in the islands, it was one of his most successful, and the soundtrack spent 20 weeks at number one on the Billboard chart.

    Presley plays Chadwick Gates, the heir to a pineapple fortune who returns to Honolulu after a stint in the US Army. While he’s happy surfing, singing and playing uke with his beach-boy buddies, Chad’s snooty parents don’t like it one bit and pressure him to join the family business. He refuses and instead becomes a tour guide, which leads to him working with a visiting high school teacher (Walters) and her four female students. Chad’s girlfriend Maile (Blackman) gets jealous of his relationship with the pretty teacher and some fairly predictable miscommunications form the basis of the comedy.

    While it’s not high art by any means, Blue Hawaii is undeniably entertaining and the scenery is stunning. Much of the film was shot on location at the Coco Palms Resort on the east coast of the island of Kauai. Sadly, the resort, which was once a playground for the rich and famous, has been abandoned since it was hit by Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

    The Coco Palms Resort in 2007

    The soundtrack was recorded at Radio Recorders in Hollywood before filming began, with Fred Tavares and Bernie Lewis playing the ukuleles. Elvis later gave a Martin uke used in the flick as a gift to famous session guitarist Hank ‘Sugarfoot’ Garland. Aside from the title track, notable songs include Rock-A-Hula Baby, Ku-u-ipo (Hawaiian Sweetheart) and Aloha ’Oe.

    Surely a movie that features the King of Rock ’n’ Roll strumming four strings instead of six deserves a spot in any uke fan’s collection.