I just saw “Lady in the Dark”, the Moss Hart musical (with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin). I’d been wanting to see it for the longest time. The basic premise – a woman who leads an emotionally repressed life, except in her dreams, where her alternate personality bursts out in splendidly over-the-top song and dance numbers – just seemed too wonderfully kooky to miss. Especially when Weill and Gershwin are providing the songs.
Alas, the socio-sexual dynamics of the film are now so outrageously dated that it’s actually difficult to watch. Sort of like trying to watch those old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland films where they put on musical numbers in blackface. At some point your jaw just kind of hits the floor.
But there was one line that hasn’t aged at all. A throw-away quip tossed off by one of the supporting characters to explain why she doesn’t believe in psychotherapy:
“It would be awfully hard to convince me that the reason I don’t like artichokes is because my mother buttoned me up wrong when I was two.”
Now there’s a gal who could fit in just fine in any decade!