I lose a bet on Come September

One day one of my friends in ATTI announced that a new and wonderful movie has come to town – he had seen the trailer and loved what he saw. He wanted me and a couple of other friends to accompany him to watch the movie. I wanted to know which movie and he did not divulge anything – he only made a bet that he would pay for the tickets in advance but whoever accompanies him must repay him twice the amount after seeing it - if he liked it.
The proposition was an attractive one because he did not mention the name of the movie but he did mention the name of the hall and, if I remembered correctly, the Bengali newspaper in its Friday movie review section did not rate it high – in fact, the reviewer did not have many nice words to say about it.
The damaging statement was that the attendance at the opening show left much to be desired and that influenced my decision to accept my friend’s bet. In my mind’s eye, I knew that my friend would lose the bet – hence, I readily agreed. But the quartet of Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee changed all that. The song ‘multiplication, that’s the name of the game’ was lovely as was the drunk parrot perched on its stand – when touched, it just rolled over with its claws still clutching the stand. And, the theme music of Come September is still one of the best and has been copied in many other movies.
Incidentally, the movie ran to packed houses and became a super hit and whoever had written the review must have had a hard time explaining to his bosses why he chose to derate it. (to be continued …)