Training Footage
Over the weekend, I put in 1.5 hours on my bike – needless to say I’m realizing this morning how much I am now in need of padded bike shorts. Ouch.
The other thing I realized is how essential it is to have some good filmage flickering in front of you if you’ve decided to do one of your long bike workout indoors (1.5 hours +), and thus have complied a list of my 5 all time favourite pieces of training footage. Here they are, in no specific order:
1. The Awful Truth (MGM, 1937 ~ Cary Grant and Irene Dunne)
I watched this one yesterday. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne play a young married couple going through a divorce. Of course they still love each other, of course they fight like cats and dogs, and of course there’s some great physical comedy from both to match with the brilliant screwball-esque dialogue. The scene in which Irene Dunne impersonates Grant’s low-life nightclub-singer sister Lola in front of his wealthy fiancée and her family makes me laugh every time.
2. Holiday (Columbia, 1938 ~ Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn)
I love this film for so many reasons, but primarily because Prof. Nick Potter and his wife, Susan remind me of my uncle and aunt, Justin and Julia. Another reason? Katharine Hepburn executes a somersault from a-top Cary Grant’s shoulders at an impromptu meeting of the 5th Avenue Anti-Stuffed Shirt and Flying Trapeze Club.
Grant is a free spirited young man who meets a wealthy heiress, and upon being introduced to her family, falls in love with her black sheep of a sister, played by Hepburn.
3. The Palm Beach Story (Paramount, 1940 ~ Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrae)
There has to be at least one Preston Sturges film on this list. Joel McCrae and Claudette Colbert are a struggling young married couple who decide to divorce for economic reasons. Colbert reasons she can help her husband more as a successful adventuress than she can as his spendthrift wife. Hilarity ensues. Especially after the arrival of the Weenie King. The Palm Beach Story is crazy, madcap, and at moments, completely ridiculous, as the opening 10 minutes firmly establish.
4. His Girl Friday (Columbia, 1940 ~ Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell)
Hmmm … another Cary Grant film. Sensing a pattern here? Grant is spectacular as a newspaper editor scheming to get his ex-wife, Rosalind Russell back in his life, and on the newspaper payroll. I have a girl crush on Russell in this movie. I also wish that people talked like this in real life. Oh were has all the wit and charm gone?
5. State of the Union (MGM, 1948 ~ Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn)
I’m a sucker for Frank Capra, and I’m a raging West Wing fan. I’m not American, and I’m not necessarily enamoured with all things American, but there’s something infinitely appealing about Capra-esque idealism, no matter your nationality or political stance. I also enjoy watching the reunion of Spence and Kate, in spite of the best efforts of a purely evil and ambitious Anglea Lansbury – she’s obviously warming up for her later role in The Manchurian Candidate! This isn’t a widely known film, and was only released on video/DVD a couple of years ago, so as a result, the only YouTube clip I could find was of a NY Times critic talking about his favourite bits from the film.
