Happy Birthday Ann-Margaret and Lionel Barrymore
To celebrate Ann-Margaret’s birthday I watched Twice In A Lifetime. She plays the other woman. Gene Hackman plays a married man celebrating his 50th birthday in a bar with his friend. A new waitress, Ann-Margaret, catches Gene’s attention. They start meeting and fall in love. She knows what she is getting into and plays the role with maturity and grace and very low key. Gene decides to leave his wife, Ellen Burstyn. They don’t have an unhappy marriage, but it is dull and Ann-Margaret “is new” as Ellen states. I think the character is best summed up by Gene, “she is not young, but she thinks young“. When Gene and Ann-Margaret talk about going to his daughter wedding, she says ‘look around, see if that is where you belong”. He gives him an out to decide what he really wants. If he doesn’t return to her, she will be sad, but wants the best for him.
As a side note, I have never seen a film that people were watching All In The Family before. It is kind of nice. I remember sitting on the floor while my parents watched that program. Most of it was over my head.
A year or two ago I saw Ann-Margaret perform live at The Moon River theater in Branson, Missouri. She would sing alone and duet with Andy Williams. She still looks and sounds good.
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