Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Tuesday's Overlooked Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Is there a movie that absolutely everybody else in the world has seen, and somehow you've missed it? For me that movie was BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. Never saw it, despite the hundreds of times it was on TV when I was growing up. But my daughter Joanna loaned me her DVD of it, and now, well, I've finally seen it, too. I won't bother talking about the plot (since all of you have already seen it, probably multiple times), but I will offer a few random observations.

This is one of those movies where New York City is so clean and safe and charming. If I ever had to live in New York, this is the version I'd want to live in.

I've never thought of Audrey Hepburn as sexy, but she almost is at times in this movie.

I can't watch George Peppard, even a young George Peppard, in anything without thinking about THE A-TEAM. But he's really good as the young writer, and it's as much his movie as it is Hepburn's.

There are a lot of good character actors in this one: John McGiver, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Alan Reed, Stanley Adams, Elvia Allman, etc. For a fan of character actors like me, this is a good film. I would have sworn I spotted Rodney Daingerfield in a bit part as a party guest, too, but he's not listed on the film's IBDB page.

I've always liked the song "Moon River". I still do.

Boy, people sure smoked a lot in 1961.

So, after all these years, did I actually like the movie? Yeah, it's okay. I'm not really the target audience, but I enjoyed it. There are some mildly amusing lines, and the ending is nice. I'm glad I finally watched it. But now I have to find some other movie everybody else has seen that I haven't.

7 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Love the movie although if you've read the book you realize how much darker it is. Still I prefer the movie and I think it's her best role. And New York is more like the New York in that movie than ever before.

Adventuresfantastic said...

I haven't seen the movie. I have no idea what it's about.

But if the book is darker, I would probably like the book more.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

I remember watching BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and ROMAN HOLIDAY back to back and liking them immensely.

Peter Brandvold said...

I loved the book and the movie, though they're very different from each other. My ex-wife wanted to watch it, and I remember rolling my eyes, but I was very pleasantly surprised to really enjoy it. Don't tell anyone, but when they found the cat in the rain at the end, I had a golf ball sized lump in my throat and blamed my blubbering on an allergy attack!

David Cranmer said...

I like Audrey in this film and have always wanted to read the book.

Anonymous said...

I notice you didn't mention the hideously embarrasing Mickey Rooney performance. For me, Peppard almost succeeds in ruining it but not quite.

The book is indeed very different.


Jeff M.

Cap'n Bob said...

It's been a good 50 years since I saw it and I remember nothing but the Moon River song. I'm not a Peppard fan, so I've had no great longing to see it again.