REEL INFATUATION

<< SIGH! >>

The REEL INFATUATION Blogathon hosted by Front & Frock and Silver Screenings is right up my alley.

Can you be in love with someone you’ve never met? Sure you can. It happens all the time. I bought Tiger Beat magazine in the 60’s, mooning over the Tys, the Tabs and the Troys. Then David Cassidy came along ( “I Woke Up In Love This Morning“ “I Think I Love You“ ~ which I sang a duet with, with Citizen Screen at Miceli’s at the end of the TCMFF’16 film festival ) in the 70’s…and there were folks in between. My heart and soul belong to movies though; classic movies. There is Gable & Flynn, Power & Peck. But really now…girls don’t have crushes and infatuations on men like that. Lust is the more appropriate carnal response for men like them, don‘cha think?

My reel crushes are boys-next-door. You know the type: soft, kind, picnic-nice, full of jokes, good cheer, winning smile, boyish charm and friendship. Guess I was always attracted to the collegiate-type no matter the decade. My tip-top favorites are boys like this, past and present:

David Manners                       Jeffrey Lynn                               Richard Carlson
“The Mummy”                    “Four Daughters”                         “Hold That Ghost“

Paul Rudd                           Ryan Reynolds                         Timothy Bottoms
“The 40-Year Old                 “Just Friends”                         “The Paper Chase”
Virgin” “Clueless”                 “The Proposal”                    “The Last Picture Show“

 Kyle Johnson “The Learning Tree”
( be still my 17-year old heart. )

But my reel infatuation is on Singleton.

I know. HOW could I jump the gender fence like this. Reading the fine print very carefully for this blogathon, one’s crush should be on a character in the movies, so I just had to jump over. What’s not to love ( if you’re a fan ) about Jennifer Jones as SINGLETON in “Love Letters” ( 1945 ).

 

Singleton has lost her memory. And she’s been in prison for murder; a murder she doesn’t remember even committing. I feel protective of her as does everyone around her in this movie. This includes her best friend Dilly ( the beautiful Ann Richards ) and the romantic and broken Allen ( Joseph Cotten ) who, unbeknownst to Singleton, is already in love with her thanks to the love letters he’s written for her wastrel, now murdered husband.

The draw for me is her guilelessness. She’s direct and forthright without hidden agenda…or malice. She’s winning and adorable. Her memory loss has given her a clean slate and she sees life simply. She’s charmingly truthful. 

SINGLETON: “Well you see, I’ve thought of you so much.”

ALLEN:           “Think you should admit that?

SINGLETON: “Why not? I wanted to tell you that I thought of you. And you were glad to hear it. Don’t look startled, you were glad. So why shouldn’t I tell you.”

Her vulnerability is a magnet. Her truthfulness catches one off-guard. At her trial, she plainly says she can’t remember the events of the night that brought her to court. She says she does not WANT to remember. She’s sexy in a wholesome way:

“That’s the difference between us. You’re unhappy ‘cause that can never happen again.  And I’m happy because it happened once.”

There’s an unstoppable-force meets an immovable-object quality to what both Allen and Singleton want. They want two opposite things; one wants to remember, the other wants her to forget. When a painful memory creeps up on her and freaks her out, how can you help not feel bad for her. She’s lost. And breaks my heart. I feel sorry for them both. I want her to be well. But what if her being well meant losing her.

 

This is silly. This is crazy. This is futile. This is insane. It’s so hard to discuss a crush in a rational public way other than to say goo-gah gobbledy goo. I risk sounding like a blithering idiot. ( LOL! I know…too late. ) I can only hope to be understood. And if I’m not…does it really matter? 

Alright, if you’re so self-possessed, go on, tell me. Go to the comments section below and tell me what character YOU have a crush on in the movies. Or, if you see HOW hard a job it is to talk rationally about a screen rush, you can just check out the other entries in this blogathon. My fellow bloggers will be much more eloquent than I in writing about who their reel infatuations are. Won’t you please click on the banner below to read about their cinematic heart throbs? The five-day recaps are just a click away:

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