Call Me Madam (1953)

Ethel Merman, Vera-Ellen, and Donald O'Connor star in this musical from 1953. Ethel Merman plays a Washington socialite who has just been appointed as the American ambassador to Lichtenburg, a tiny, fictional European nation. While there, she becomes involved in the budding romance between her assistant (O'Connor) and the princess (Vera-Ellen), disrupting the country's politics and endangering not only her job, but also a possible romance of her own. It's a fun movie, and I especially liked the song It's a Lovely Day Today. Incidentally, the composer, Alfred Newman, won an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for this film, and Merman won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. (Opinions by me, things purporting to be facts from Wikipedia.)

Pride & Prejudice (1940)

I watched this movie as one of my selections for the 2009 Everything Jane Austen challenge. I had of course seen the Colin Firth version already, enough to have it practically memorized, and so I was fully prepared to be disappointed with this version. I was instead quite pleasantly surprised. To be sure, the costumes were a bit of a shock (think "Gone With the Wind" or "The King and I" with huge skirts and sleeves for the women), but as I began looking past them, I found pleasing performances from Greer Garson as Elizabeth, Edmund Gwenn and Mr. Bennett, and Mary Boland as Mrs. Bennett. Mr. Collins was also quite satisfactory, as were most of the other principle characters. The only real problem I had, other than the costumes, was that Jane was portrayed as being rather silly. For example, she was in on the riding in the rain scheme in this version, rather than a protester against it. The ending, though unauthentic, was rather fun: Lady Catherine actually approved of Lizzy all along and intentionally used her visit to play matchmaker. Also, Kitty & Mary have suggested happy endings. I missed Georgiana (she's only mentioned), but all in all a fun movie.