REVIEW POTPOURRI: Patti Page; The Accountant

Patti Page

by Peter Cates

Patti Page

Patti Page – Because Him is a Baby; Goodbye Charlie; Mercury 71510, seven-inch vinyl 45, recorded 1959.

Patti Page (1927-2013), along with Doris Day (1922-2019), were two fabulous golden girls of 1950s pop music in combining outstanding musical and commercial success in pop singing (Time and space limits me from naming several other personal favorites).

Born Clara Ann Fowler, in Oklahoma, one of her first musical gigs came at the age of 18 in her native state on a 15-minute local radio show sponsored by the Page Milk Company – hence her stage name. During the late ‘40s, she sang with a band in Chicago led by Benny Goodman who gave Peggy Lee a jumpstart in her career.

The windy city was also the home of Mercury Records where Page would record for over ten years. How Much is that Doggie in the Window; and The Old Cape Cod were huge hits during her Mercury years.

Interestingly, this 1959 coupling is one of Miss Page’s rarer records. The two songs combine her gifts for beautiful contralto singing and songs dealing with immature adults – (Because Him is a Baby) – and disloyal lovers — (Goodbye Charlie) – who cause chaos, themes similar to her 1951 megahit Tennessee Waltz, where “My friend stole my sweetheart from me.” (Around the same year, comedy band leader Spike Jones did his own Tennessee Waltz utilizing a chorus of cackling old ladies.).

The arrangements on the 1959 disc were imaginative ones by the gifted Pete Rugolo (1915-2011) with lovely woodwind and brass details. He did phenomenal scorings for the progressive big band jazz leader Stan Kenton whose music making was otherwise quite the distance from that of Miss Page.

In 1962, she appeared in the comedy film Boys Night Out with James Garner and Kim Novak and lent considerable charm to her role as a suburban wife.

The Accountant

During two successive evenings, I viewed the 2016 suspense film The Accountant and the 2025 The Accountant 2, starring Ben Afleck, as an autistic genius level accountant and highly lethal assassin of bad people, Christian Wolff.

Two films of his I have seen previously are the 2002 thriller Changing Lanes with Samuel L. Jackson and Amanda Peet; and the 2006 Hollywoodland in which Afleck portrayed actor George Reeves (1914-1959) who was the star of the justly successful TV series, The Adventures of Superman, which ran from 1951 to 1957.

The bio film was quite fascinating in its depiction of Reeves’s struggles with typecasting and Afleck’s facial resemblance to Reeves but at the same time the film was difficult to watch because I was so used to Reeves as Superman and couldn’t accept Afleck’s credibility in the role.

The merits of both Accountant films are of different degrees. The 2016 film has much in the blood and gore and narrow escapes which sustains interest at that level. The remake of 9 years later, while still dealing with highly dangerous criminals, has a much more nuanced development of character in Christian Wolff’s confronting of issues in his personal life and relationships. The visibly late middle aging of Ben Afleck, now 53 years old, is brought very consummately to bear in his portrayal of Wolff and his relationship with his younger brother Braxton, aptly portrayed by Jon Bernthal, from whom Christian was estranged for several years; Braxton is also a similarly lethal killer who doesn’t quite have the moral qualms of Christian.

However, he is immensely helpful to Christian as they reconcile and head to a remote Mexican compound to rescue several dozen children kidnapped by traffickers who now plan to massacre them for purposes of expediency.

Good supporting roles were provided by Portland native Anna Kendrick and John Lithgow in the 2016 film and J.K. Simmons in both 2016 and the remake.

***

Donizetti: La Favorita – Una vergine (Like an Angel); Florencio Constantino, tenor; Victor Red Seal 64090, ten-inch one-sided acoustic shellac disc, recorded May 22nd, 1907.

Tenor Florencio Constantino (1869-1919) didn’t have the pipes of Enrico Caruso but he did have a lovely lyrical high, middle and low register and gave a very nice performance of this aria. He had a solid career until a 1917 lawsuit resulting in a nervous breakdown led to his early death in a Mexico City hospital.

***

Jimmy Dorsey – Holiday for Strings; and Ohio; Decca 18593, ten inch 78, recorded 1944.

Clarinettist/bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957) and older brother of Tommy Dorsey (1905-1956) recorded a very jazz swing rendition of David Rose’s famous Holiday for Strings and brought a captivating scoring for the brass section to a piece of music that is still crappy.

Side 2’s Ohio is a decent pop standard from the World War II years and featured in a 1944 musical, Four Jills in a Jeep.

Jimmy’s own records didn’t quite have the vibrant beauty of Tommy’s but he did have the immensely enjoyable singer Kitty Kallen, unfortunately not featured here.