LAVERNE AND CARMINE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A SINGING LESSON. HE IS TEACHING HER "THEY WERE YOU".
LAVERNE
How was that, Carmine?
CARMINE
That was an interesting interpretation. Let me be honest, Laverne.
LAVERNE
I know what you're going to say, Carmine. I need to work on my scales.
CARMINE
(SARCASTIC) Oh, good, scales again.
The aired scene just starts with him telling her to do scales. Lenny was supposed to enter from the front door, but I think the blocking works better as is. And in the script he says that the singing finger stick was out in "the work shed," as well as that it's "only nineteen ninety-eight, not sold in any store."
Also in the script, Laverne suggests she sing "the love song from Mondo Cane. You know, the movie where they ate the dogs." Carmine "looks skeptical."
There are again no stage directions for Laverne and Lenny to touch each other. However, onscreen when Lenny says he doesn't know what song he'll do, Laverne says she doesn't know either and then he suggests they do "that song we used to do." Here's how it went in the script:
LENNY
Aw, I don't even know what song to sing.
LAVERNE
How about that song you and I sang at Senior Talent Night?
LENNY
Oh, I remember that.
And then onscreen after they sing a bit, he says she sounds so good in that song and repeats that they should sing it together, but she insists on singing "a real pretty love ballad." She adds that he wouldn't want to sing a duet with her to Sabrina, and he guesses she's right. However, in the script, Lenny objects after a couple lines, "Nah, I can't sing that. Elvis never did a duet. Except when he sang with himself in 'Kissing Cousins'."
The DVD copy has loud going-to-commercial music when Laverne says she's going upstairs, suggesting that at least some of the omitted last portion of this scene is due to a copyright edit. Here's how it goes in the script:
LAVERNE
...I've got some more song books upstairs. (SEES BEATLES) It's right under my nose.
LAVERNE STARTS UP THE STAIRS SINGING "IF I FELL".
LAVERNE (CONT'D)
(SINGS) IF I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU
WOULD YOU PROMISE TO BE TRUE...
THE BEATLES FALL OFF THE WALL.
LAVERNE (CONT'D)
Look at that. I floored 'em. (THEN) Oh, this is a good one.
LAVERNE EXITS TO BEDROOM, SINGING "SINCE I DON'T HAVE YOU".
CARMINE
(PICKS UP FINGER AND STICKS IT IN HIS EAR) Boy, I wish I had two of these.
Thoughts:
- We can see Carmine wearying of giving Laverne voice lessons earlier than he does onscreen.
- Laverne somehow is oblivious to his criticism and thinks he's just teasing.
- Where is this work shed and who uses it?
- Did Lenny make the singing stick or did he acquire it outside of a store?
- Mondo Cane (1962) was shocking in its day and so presumably the joke is that it wouldn't have a love song. (The title is Italian for Doggish World.)
- So here it's Laverne who wants to sing a duet with Lenny, which changes the whole episode. Her advice to be like Elvis backfires. (Elvis plays identical cousins in the 1964 movie referenced here.)
- How on earth could they have sung a suggestive song like that at Senior Talent Night in the mid '50s?
- Apparently they remember the song well a decade later, which makes me wonder if they've sung it off and on over the years. And I wonder, as always, who in canon wrote it, because it feels like a Lenny song, but it's not specified as such, as "In Love with Laverne" obviously is.
- The Beatles cut-out literally falls when Laverne sings their song about falling. And still she can't take a hint.
- Now I have a mental image of Carmine trying to block out Laverne's singing with the giant padded finger.
The two of them at senior talent night help.
ReplyDeleteThat would've been adorable!
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