1981--The Year in Review

Another great year. Again, the top 30 films listed here are absolutely essential viewing (and proof that the 1970s are still going on, really). My top choice, Warren Beatty's Reds, has been a favorite of mine since its release, so I cannot abandon its sweeping romanticism and its epic peer at world history (plus its remarkable blending of the documentary and narrative styles of filmmaking; I love, too, how fiercely Beatty fought to get this difficult, extremely political yet massively tender movie made--and by a major capitalistic film outfit!). But Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (which wouldn't hit US shores until 1983) comes REAL close to besting it with its crushing suspense and atmosphere, and its equally challenging worldview (which makes us actually root for the Nazis!). Then, Lumet’s Prince of the City, with its 200 speaking parts and its own oppressive tension, also hits big (it was a tight race between Treat Williams' lead and John Heard's snarling, eye-patched performance in Cutter's Way, but I had to go for the latter; still, I could not ignore Prince of the City's sweeping screenplay). World cinema was re-awakened with movies like Pixote, Coup de Torchon, Mephisto, Diva, Christiane F, Man of Iron, Beau Père, Montenegro and two from the extremely prolific Rainer Werner Fassbinder Lili Marleen and Lola. It's a landmark year for the burgeoning genres of fantasy, sci-fi and horror, with Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Road Warrior, An American Werewolf in London, Excalibur, Time Bandits, The Evil Dead, Escape from New York, Dragonslayer, Quest for Fire, Possession, Scanners, The Howling, Shock Treatment, Caveman, Strange Behavior, Outland, Looker, For Your Eyes Only, Clash of the Titans, Dead and Buried, Heavy Metal, and The Beyond (geez, this seems like Year Zero for the present obsession with these genres). Comedy, too, reaches deep importance with Modern Romance, Gregory’s Girl, Arthur, They All Laughed, S.O.B., Continental Divide, The Four Seasons, Polyester, Stripes, Neighbors, and, yes, even Mommie Dearest. But then there are so many dramatic films I love: Blow Out (my favorite De Palma), Pixote, Gallipoli, Ragtime, Smash Palace, Southern Comfort, Thief, Body Heat, Sharky's Machine, Raggedy Man, Chariots of Fire (the surprise winner of the Best Picture award, via the Academy), Whose Life Is It, Anyway?, Ticket to Heaven, and Ms. 45. I have to laud the best musical of the year, a highly unique vision from director and former choreographer Herbert Ross (and writer Dennis Potter) called Pennies From Heaven--one of the most daring movies of the decade. And, finally, and unbelievably (since it's an art that has been so important from the beginning of cinema, as I have detailed in past years), it's the first year the Academy gave an Oscar to makeup artists, and of course Rick Baker had to win the award for the primo of his many masterpiece efforts. Ahh, it's insane how much I adore the pictures from 1981. It seems like a really unique period for movie history--one that's still ringing strongly to the present. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: REDS (US, Warren Beatty)
(2nd: Das Boot (West Germany, Wolfgang Petersen)
followed by: Prince of the City (US, Sidney Lumet)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (US, Steven Spielberg)
Pennies from Heaven (US, Herbert Ross)
Cutter’s Way (US, Ivan Passer)
Modern Romance (US, Albert Brooks)
Gregory’s Girl (UK, Bill Forsyth)
Pixote (Brazil, Hector Babenco)
Gallipoli (Australia, Peter Weir)
My Dinner With André (US, Louis Malle)
Vernon, Florida (US, Erroll Morris)
Thief (US, Michael Mann)
The Road Warrior (Australia, George Miller)
An American Werewolf in London (US/UK, John Landis)
Excalibur (UK, John Boorman)
Smash Palace (New Zealand, Roger Donaldson)
Arthur (US, Steve Gordon)
Southern Comfort (US, Walter Hill)
Blow Out (US, Brian de Palma)
Coup de Torchon (France, Bertrand Tavernier)
Ragtime (US, Milos Forman)
Mephisto (Hungary, Istvan Szabo)
Time Bandits (UK, Terry Gilliam)
The Evil Dead (US, Sam Raimi)
Body Heat (US, Lawrence Kasdan)
Escape from New York (US, John Carpenter)
The Decline of Western Civilization (US, Penelope Spheeris)
Sharky's Machine (US, Burt Reynolds)
They All Laughed (US, Peter Bogdanovich)
Raggedy Man (US, Jack Fisk)
Chariots of Fire (UK, Hugh Hudson)
S.O.B. (US, Blake Edwards)
Christiane F (West Germany, Uli Edel)
Diva (France, Jean-Jacques Beineix)
On Golden Pond (US, Mark Rydell)
Dragonslayer (US, Matthew Robbins)
Man of Iron (Poland, Andrzej Wajda)
Whose Life Is It, Anyway? (US/Canada, John Badham)
The Four Seasons (US, Alan Alda)
Ticket to Heaven (Canada, Ralph L. Thomas)
American Pop (US, Ralph Bakshi)
Continental Divide (US, Michael Apted);
Ms. 45 (US, Abel Ferrara)
The Chosen (US, Jeremy Kagan)
Brooklyn Bridge (US, Ken Burns)
Quest for Fire (France/Canada/US, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
The Day After Trinity (US, Jon Else)
All Night Long (US, Jean-Claude Tramont)
Soldier Girls (US, Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill)
Nighthawks (US, Bruce Malmuth)
Eye of the Needle (UK, Richard Marquand)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (US, Bob Rafelson)
Polyester (US, John Waters)
Lili Marleen (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Possession (France/.West Germany, Andzedj Zulawski)
Scanners (Canada, David Cronenberg)
Stripes (US/Canada, Ivan Reitman)
Neighbors (US, John G. Avildsen)
Beau Père (France, Bertrand Blier)
The Howling (US, Joe Dante)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (UK, Karel Reisz)
True Confessions (US, Ulu Grosbard)
Absence of Malice (US, Sydney Pollack)
Montenegro (Sweden/UK, Dusan Makavejev)
Shock Treatment (UK, Jim Sharman)
First Monday in October (US, Ronald Neame)
Taps (US, Harold Becker)
Lola (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Loveless (US, Kathryn Bigelow)
Caveman (US, Carl Gottlieb)
Circle of Two (Canada, Jules Dassin)
Mommie Dearest (US, Frank Perry)
The Fox and the Hound (US, Ted Berman and Richard Rich)
Strange Behavior (US, Michael Laughlin)
Road Games (Australia, Richard Franklin)
Outland (US, Peter Hyams)
Looker (US, Michael Crichton)
For Your Eyes Only (UK, John Glen)
Clash of the Titans (US/UK, Desmond Davis)
Dead and Buried (US, Gary Sherman)
Heavy Metal (Canada, Gerald Potterton)
History of the World, Part I (US, Mel Brooks)
Wolfen (US, Michael Wasleigh)
Porky's (Canada, Bob Clark)
Roar (US, Noel Marshall)
The Beyond (Italy, Lucio Fulci)
Evilspeak (US, Eric Weston))

ACTOR: John Heard, CUTTER'S WAY (2nd: Treat Williams, Prince of the City, followed by: Dudley Moore, Arthur; Albert Brooks, Modern Romance; Warren Beatty, Reds; Henry Fonda, On Golden Pond; Bruno Lawrence, Smash Palace; Nick Mancuso, Ticket to Heaven)



ACTRESS: Diane Keaton, REDS (2nd: Sissy Spacek, Raggedy Man, followed by: Kathleen Turner, Body Heat; Katherine Hepburn, On Golden Pond; Isabelle Huppert, Coup De Torchon; Meryl Streep, The French Lieutenant’s Woman; Kate Nelligan, Eye of the Needle)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: John Gielgud, ARTHUR (2nd: Christopher Walken, Pennies from Heaven, followed by: Jack Nicholson, Reds; Griffin Dunne, An American Werewolf in London; Howard E. Rollins Jr., Ragtime; Nicol Williamson, Excalibur; Robert Preston, S.O.B.; Eric Roberts, Raggedy Man) 


 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Maureen Stapleton, REDS (2nd: Lisa Eichorn, Cutter’s Way, followed by: Jessica Harper, Pennies from Heaven; Elizabeth McGovern, Ragtime; Melinda Dillon, Absence of Malice; Kathryn Harrold, Modern Romance; Jane Fonda, On Golden Pond; Cathy Moriarty, Neighbors) 



DIRECTOR: Warren Beatty, REDS (2nd: Sidney Lumet, Prince of the City, followed by: Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot; Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark; Albert Brooks, Modern Romance; Brian De Palma, Blow Out; Hector Babenco, Pixote; Bill Forsyth, Gregory's Girl)

NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: DAS BOOT (West Germany, Wolfgang Petersen) (2nd: Pixote (Brazil, Hector Babenco), followed by: Coup de Torchon (France, Bertrand Tavernier); Mephisto (Hungary, Istvan Szabo); Christiane F (West Germany, Uli Edel); Diva (France, Jean-Jacques Beineix); Man of Iron (Poland, Andrzej Wajda); Lili Marleen (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Beau Père (France, Bertrand Blier); Montenegro (Sweden/UK, Dusan Makavejev); Lola (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: VERNON, FLORIDA (US, Errol Morris) (2nd: The Decline of the Western Civilization (US, Penelope Spheeris), followed by: Brooklyn Bridge (US, Ken Burns); The Day After Trinity (US, Jon Else); Soldier Girls (UK/US, Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill))



ANIMATED FEATURE: AMERICAN POP (US, Ralph Bakshi) (2nd: The Fox and the Hound (US, Ted Berman and Richard Rich), followed by: Heavy Metal (Canada, Gerald Potterton))

LIVE ACTION SHORT: TANGO (Poland, Zbigniew Rybczynski) (2nd: L'Avant Dernier (France, Luc Besson), followed by: The Bunker of the Last Gunshots (France, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet); Pikoo's Diary (India, Satyajit Ray))



ANIMATED SHORT: CRAC (Canada, Frederic Back) (2nd: The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin (Canada, Janet Perlman). followed by: Projekt (Czechoslovakia, Jiri Barta); The Garden of Earthly Delights (US, Stan Brakhage); E (USSR, Bretislav Pojar))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson, MODERN ROMANCE (2nd: Steve Gordon, Arthur, followed by Lawrence Kasdan, Body Heat; Warren Beatty and Trevor Griffiths, Reds; Bill Forsyth, Gregory’s Girl; Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, My Dinner with Andre)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet, PRINCE OF THE CITY (2nd: Jeffery Alan Fiskin, Cutter’s Way, followed by: Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot; Dennis Potter, Pennies From Heaven; Michael Mann, Thief; Michael Weller, Ragtime)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro, REDS (2nd: Alex Thomson, Excalibur, followed by: Jost Vacano, Das Boot; Vilmos Zsigmond, Blow Out; Gordon Willis, Pennies From Heaven; Douglas Slocombe, Raiders of the Lost Ark)

ART DIRECTION: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Das Boot, Pennies from Heaven, Reds, Excalibur, Ragtime

COSTUME DESIGN: EXCALIBUR, Pennies from Heaven, Reds, Ragtime, Chariots of Fire, The Road Warrior

EDITING: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Das Boot, Reds, Prince of the City, The Road Warrior, An American Werewolf in London 

SOUND: DAS BOOT, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, The Road Warrior, Dragonslayer, Blow Out



ORIGINAL SCORE: John Williams, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (2nd: Vangelis, Chariots of Fire, followed by: Ry Cooder, Southern Comfort; Randy Newman, Ragtime; Dave Grusin, On Golden Pond; Colin Tully, Gregory's Girl)



ADAPTATION SCORE/SCORING OF A MUSICAL: Ralph Burns and Billy May, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (2nd: Trevor Jones, Excalibur, followed by: Richard O'Brien, Shock Treatment)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” from ARTHUR (Music and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, Burt Bacharach, Christopher Cross and Peter Allen) (2nd: “In My Own Way” from Shock Treatment (Music and lyrics by Richard O‘Brien) followed by: “One More Hour” from Ragtime (Music and lyrics by Randy Newman); “For Your Eyes Only” from For Your Eyes Only (Music by Bill Conti, lyrics by Mick Leeson); “Dream Away” from Time Bandits (Music and lyrics by George Harrison); “Never Say Goodbye” from Continental Divide (Music by Michael Small, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager); "Endless Love" from Endless Love (Music and lyrics by Lionel Richie); "Looker" from Looker (Music and lyrics by Barry DeVorzon and Mike Tower))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Dragonslayer, Clash of the Titans

MAKEUP: AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, Quest for Fire (won in 1982), Heartbeeps, The Evil Dead, Mommie Dearest

Happy Birthday, Burt Bacharach!

To me, he's the essence of cool. I could listen to his music 24 hours a day, even if it weren't required of me. Whether his impeccable notes are ringing along with the words of longtime writing partner Hal David or with lyrics provided by wife Carole Bayer Sager (or anyone else), Burt Bacharach's way with an orchestra or even with a simple piano is astoundingly delicate yet powerful enough to brand many of his tunes in our memories forever. His Wikipedia entry says it best: "Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters." His songs are supremely challenging for vocalists to tackle for these very reasons.

Yesterday, May 12th 2011, was Bacharach's 83rd birthday and, while a complete overview of his musical output is truly impossible here, a fairly thorough sampling of the music he's provided to the movies is certainly daunting but doable. So here goes:


It wasn't a hit, but it shoulda been. And Burt doesn't even get credit for writing the song! Yet the theme to The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., 58) might very well be his first great movie tune. (It is, of course, sung by The Five Blobs!)



A House is Not a Home (Russell Rouse, 64), was based on the memoir by 1920 NYC bordello madam Polly Adler. A vehicle for Shelley Winters (whom I imagine is well-cast), it's a rarely-screened film with a title song that long ago eclipsed both the novel and the movie in popularity. It's now a bonafide standard; Brook Benton ("Rainy Night in Georgia") was tapped to do the soundtrack version.



It's been ages since I sat through a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. Listening to Bacharach's title song for Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 64) is as close as I've come since I last tried Pillow Talk out again (and was left cold by it). Doris Day does have loads of charm, though, and I like this little number.



Promise Her Anything (Arthur Hiller, 65) was a Warren Beatty/Leslie Caron romantic comedy written by (of all people) William Peter Blatty (who went on to pen the Sonny and Cher movie Good Times before making history as the producer and writer of The Exorcist). The raucous title song is sung by a Mr. Tom Jones.



Of course, we all know this one. Even if you haven't seen 1965's Woody Allen-penned What's New Pussycat? (and there's very little reason you should), you have to admit you've heard this tune before. It garnered Bacharach and David their first Oscar nods. The song is, again, sung by Tom Jones. And here's where we get into the hits:



The following year, Bacharach augmented jazzbo Sonny Rollins' score to Lewis Gilbert's Alfie with two versions of the same song: one by American Cher, played over the closing credits, and the opening version by Brit Cilla Black. Again, Bacharach and David earned Oscar nominations for perhaps their first absolutely powerhouse movie song, sung as an ode to the womanizing lead character, played by Michael Caine in the 1966 original. This clip features Cilla Black recording her vocals (you'll hear the final track), with Burt Bacharach colorfully conducting the orchestra at London's famed Abbey Road studios (the Beatles were likely recording Sgt. Pepper down the hall).



Also from the same year is this sly title song from the Peter Sellers farce After the Fox (Vittorio De Sica, 66). Sellers performs a sneaky spoken-word counterpoint to the vocals, performed by The Hollies. Next to "The Blob," this is perhaps Bacharach/David's weirdest movie tune.



Obviously, in 1967, we are now at the peak of Bacharachosity, with the charts of the day filled with his songs. That year, the composer/producer/conductor/arranger arrived with what is considered by vinyl-loyal audiophiles to be the finest record with which to test your stereo equipment's dynamics: the soundtrack to Casino Royale, the too-chaotic entry into the James Bond sweepstakes (the film has five people, including Woody Allen and Peter Sellers, portraying Ian Fleming's famed U.K. spy). It also sported five directors (including John Huston). It's a freaking mess. However, Bacharach's score remains its golden remnant. This particular YouTube offering first has Dusty Springfield resplendently delivering the movie's Oscar-nominated song "The Look of Love"--still an astounding ballad, and especially in this context. Afterwards, we're treated to an unusual trailer for the film which features Bacharach's snazzy title track with rarely-heard comic lyrics, sung by (I think) Peter Sellers. This is a real treasure!


Just now, looking at the album cover to Bacharach's soundtrack for The April Fools (Stuart Rosenberg, 69), I find I wanna see this movie more than ever. The sight of the arduous Jack Lemmon laying his head on the indifferent Catherine Deneuve's breast makes me wonder what details are contained in this movie. I had to include one instrumental entry in this overview, just to give readers an idea of Bacharach's impeccable arranging and conducting style. This track illustrates exactly what I adore about Bacharach's music: its bouncy, urbane, slightly melancholy pizazz.



There are those who blast the inclusion of Bacharach/David's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 69). They say it slows the movie down and dates it. I would agree. But I think these attributes add to the film's charm. I love the short-focus photography by Conrad Hall (he won an Oscar for it), and the playful editing (by John C. Howard and Richard C. Meyer). I also think the slapsticking by Paul Newman and Katherine Ross add a humanistic whallop to an already friendly (but deadly) film. Yeah, it's not The Wild Bunch, but not everybody can be Peckinpah. I fault Hill's lovely film not a whit for bending to 1960s tastes in this scene. I include this clip, rather than the full (#1 hit) single, because it spotlights not only B.J. Thomas' throaty vocalizing, but also Bacharach's seamless, rollicking instrumental break. The composer won two Oscars in 1969: one for his song (along with Hal David), but also for his short but very sweet score.



Also from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I have to include the vocal/instrumental break called "South American Getaway." Here, in the movie, Butch, Sundance and Etta Place have migrated to Bolivia after the U.S.A. has become too hot for their bank-robbing ways. This absolutely dazzling track is performed here by an unnamed vocal troupe (and I think it was this track that won Bacharach his second Academy Award of 1969). So, in tribute to these vocalists, I've deemed it necessary to include here a brilliant live performance of "South American Getaway" by a spot-on band called The Swingtones. If you love Bacharach, this is certainly worth watching; they're like the Gold Medal winners of the singing Olympics! By the way, the vocalists here (performing at a 2007 Lincoln Center Bacharach tribute) are, from left to right: David Driver, Chris Anderson, Julian Maile, Sheryl Marshall, Connie Petruk and Jenny Karr. They are superb; I envy them.




All throughout the 1970s, Bacharach still produced Grammy-winning hits like The Carpenters' "Close To You," but moviewise, he coasted comfortably on his many chart hits, which were being used in scads of films well beyond that decade. One of the great sadnesses of his spectacular career was that his one foray into writing an original musical for the movies, Charles Jarrott's 1973 remake of Lost Horizon, tanked badly with both critics and the public. In it, Liv Ullmann, Peter Finch, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman and Bobby Van star as new arrivals to that bastion of immortality called Shangri-La, with Charles Boyer as the territory's High Lama. The problem with the movie wasn't necessarily the score, but with the film's casting of non-musical talents in the leads, and with Jarrott's grating direction. Working on the project drove a wedge between Bacharach and his lyricist, Hal David, and they never collaborated again afterwards. Still, the film produced a few notable songs, including "Living Together, Growing Together" (covered in a chart hit by the Fifth Dimension) and this number, "The World is A Circle," led by Ullmann. By the way, I think a great movie musical could and should be made from Bacharach/David's Tony-winning Broadway show Promises, Promises, which bore the Dionne Warwick hit "I'll Never Fall In Love Again." In 2010, the production enjoyed an NYC revival with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth in the leads. Studios could do well in considering adapting Promises, Promises for the screen.


In 1981, upon meeting his future wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, Bacharach re-fired his movie songwriting career in spectacular fashion. His new collaboration with Sager bore gold when the couple, along with Peter Allen and Grammy-winning superstar Christopher Cross, composed "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" for the still inviting Dudley Moore comedy Arthur (Steve Gordon, 81). This is, in my opinion, Bacharach's peak in the 1980s. You can be cynical all you want, but it's a still great song--lilting, romantic, picturesque, and beautifully produced.


This song, co-written by Bacharach/Sager (post-marriage) with Bruce Roberts, was composed for what's widely considered to be one of the first movies to portray homosexuality with more than a modicum of acceptance. Making Love (Arthur Hiller, 82) starred Michael Ontkean as a married man (he's hitched to one of Charlie's Angels no less, in the form of Kate Jackson) who starts up an affair with later Clash of the Titans star Harry Hamlin. The hit song is performed by Roberta Flack, and ushers in a new era for Bacharach's music.


Also in 1982 came the first really notable film by future superstar director Ron Howard, called Night Shift. Cleverly written by comedy pros Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (they went on to write two other Howard comedies, Splash and Parenthood), the film follows the bizarre friendships between nebbish morgue attendant Henry Winkler (then playing WAY against type, after portraying Fonzie on TV's Happy Days for almost a decade), sizzling newcomer Michael Keaton (playing idea-man Bill Blazejowski to goofy-cool perfection) and a band of rudderless prostitutes led by Shelley Long. It's a charming movie, with four Bacharach/Sayer compositions dotting its soundtrack. But the one playing over the final credits, and sung by Rod Stewart, would become a worldwide phenomenon when remade in the mid-80s as an AIDS benefit single by Dionne Warwicke, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder. Very few people can recall this, but "That's What Friends Are For" is a song originally written for the movies. And the Oscar membership could hardly be bothered with it back in 1982 (even though "If We Were In Love" from the abysmal Luciano Pavarotti train wreck Yes Giorgio got a nomination).


Long after Bacharach's marriage with Sager ended, he produced one last piece of genius that threw back to his 60s output: his collaboration with Elvis Costello (I think they worked on the lyrics and the music equally) for the sideways musical biopic Grace of My Heart (Allison Anders, 1996). In the film, Illeana Douglas plays a Brill Building-era songwriter modeled after Carole King (with a little Carly Simon and Judy Collins thrown in). In the sometimes shaky film's most powerful scene, Douglas' character performs a new composition for a Brian Wilson type, played by a bespectacled Matt Dillon. Douglas lip-synchs to a performance by the remarkable Kristen Vigard. This stands as one of Bacharach's most indelible songs, through and through. Costello and Bacharach went on to collaborate on a fantastic album, called Painted From Memory (on which Costello performs a perfect rendition of this song).


Finally, I thought I'd include the extremely sweet credits sequence for P.J. Hogan's 1997 comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. Hogan is obviously a Bacharach fan herself, because she peppered this romantic comedy with a litany of the composer's tunes. Its pink-tinged opening sequence takes as soundtrack Bacharach's 1964 hit called "Wishin' and Hopin'," originally recorded by Dusty Springfield. Here, it's sung by Diana King and performed on screen by Jennifer Garrett, Kelly Sheerin, Bree Turner, and the extremely cute Raci Alexander. I love this little scene, and even though the arrangement isn't Mr. Bacharach's, I like to think he approved of this gently modulated version. I think this callback to his 60s-era output serves as a fitting end to my tribute.

For me, Burt Bacharach is not only a giant of musicianship. He is a stone-cold shaper of movie history. He will always be one of my most loved artists. Happy birthday, Mr. Bacharach.