This week’s answer is the movie Gigi, which won a record-breaking 9 Academy
Awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture. In tribute to Gigi's domination of the
Oscars, the MGM switchboard answered calls the following day with
"M-Gigi-M."
(Also for Three-Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "H" is for Will Hays)
Here's this week's Berownial quiz. I wrote the following little scenelet, basing it on a very popular motion picture. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is: name the movie.
“Morning, George.
I hope you got a chance to read my film treatment. If we go ahead and make this movie, it could
be a real blockbuster.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“What!? You
said you loved the story when you read it.”
“Sure. Great
story – to read. But as a motion
picture… You know about Will Hays,
Hollywood’s chief censor?”
“Of course.
But…
“No buts. The brutal fact is, he’d
never approve such a film. Don’t forget,
this is the 1950s and we have to accept that if the Hays Office doesn’t approve
a script the film doesn’t get made.”
“But we’ll make adjustments for that in the way the script
is written.”
“Take a moment to think about it, Owen. This is a story about a little girl who is being
trained to become a prostitute! That’s
why I say you’re out of your mind to think it could ever be made.”
“But it’s about Paris, around 1900. They looked on things differently then.”
“The Hays Office doesn’t look on things
differently.”
“Anyway, she’s not training to be a prostitute; she’s
training to be a courtesan.”
“And that’s a different kettle of poissons, I
suppose?”
“That’s right.
For centuries in Europe many girls, of low social standing and without
family or fortune, were trained in etiquette, charm and the social graces so
they could have a chance in life.”
“As some rich guy’s mistress.”
“But this will all be de-emphasized in our
script. American film audiences won’t
have to grope for a darker meaning.
We’ll sort of clean it up. We'll transfer it all to just a movie about a beautiful young girl in Paris around 1900 who’s being
educated and it will be full of beauty and charm and stunning scenery and great
music!”
“Yeah, but you don’t know Will Hays like I do. ‘She’s being educated to do what?’ he’ll
ask.”
“All we have to do is convince the Hays Office that
this ‘courtesan’ deal will be totally underplayed in the script.”
“Well… I have
to admit it could be a fine movie.
Probably make a pile of money if you could ever get it produced. If you handle the screenplay right, maybe there’s
a chance. Go ahead; get to work on the
script.”
(Also
submitted to Sunday Scribblings)
