[Fictionary] THE BIRDS AND THE BEES results

[Jean-Joseph Cote]

By the way, if anybody really does want to watch the real movie, it's on 
YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnmyMRHU0Ig

On 7/8/2021 12:08 PM, Jim Moskowitz wrote:
> Hello, fellow fictioneers!
>
> Thank you all for indulging me in my variety round, and thank you Beth Bruch for making a return appearance after something like eight years! Thanks too to Jed, who submitted votes for the first time in a long while.
>
> And now for the results: Apparently we collectively need more practice in inventing plausible Hollywood plots. The actual synopsis of The Birds and the Bees, (starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, and David Niven; directed by Norman Taurog; and written by Sidney Sheldon based on an idea by Preston Sturges) got twice as many votes as any other entry!
> (On the other hand, it didn’t win the Most Want To See prize, which goes to Ziv and the talking pet parrot.)
>
> Among the fake entries… we have a TIE, between Hutch and Eric at 4 points each, so I’ll ask them to confer privately and decide who gets to run the next round.
>
>
>
> HUTCH:  Two friends from very different circumstances decide to trade places at a high-society party. Each meets the girl their parents expected the other to meet. Confusion and comedy follow.
>     Eric - I think this definition and my own are both more like madcap
>        comedies of the '30, but I don't know much about movies. Maybe
>        they made those in the '50s as well?
>     David - 2 points.
>     Pierre - 2 points.
>     Jed - If that last sentence had been “Hilarity ensues” I might have voted
>        for it. :) (https://www.kith.org/words/2000/09/10/rrreviews/)  I think I’ll give
>        this my “most want to watch” vote, though a lot would depend on the tone
>        of the movie. I’m thinking it might have the general flavor of _The Reluctant
>        Debutante_, which could be very enjoyable.
>     
>
> DAVID RANDALL:  A lost Japanese fisherman and his two children are rescued by a menagerie of animals that have become super-intelligent in the wake of an atomic explosion on a tropical island.
>     Ziv - I think this wins my "want to watch" award, but only if it were made
>        more recently -- I can't imagine 1950's America having Japanese
>        protagonists at all, much less ones portrayed with any kind of sensitivity…
>     Eric - I know we're supposed to only get one vote for which movie we’d
>        like to see, but it's hard.  Two watching points.
>     Jean-Joseph - 1 point, if for no other reason than that that I'm amused thinking
>        about the Mr. Ed-like special effects that would have been in play back
>       in 1956.
>
>
> ERIC COHEN:  When an out-of-luck reporter signs on as caretaker at the Bird Nature Sanctuary, he hasn't bargained on all the Birds -- formidable great-aunts Lucy and Helena, rowdy schoolgirl Rhoda, or the lovely Diane.
>     Ziv - 2 points -- sounds like 1950 gender politics to me…
>     Pierre - 1 point.
>     Jed - I like this one quite a bit (especially the idea that Bird is a family name),
>        but where are the bees? 1 point.
>
>
> JEAN-JOSEPH COTE:  Two rival all-female motorcycle gangs battle over turf in Southern California, culminating in a choreographed rumble.
>     Ziv - Then, in the sequel, the victorious Bees meet up with the Sharks
>        to find out who is US Street Rumble Champion.
>     Eric - I know we're supposed to only get one vote for which movie we’d
>        like to see, but it's hard.  One watching point.
>     Ranjit - 1 point, and tied for most want to watch.
>     Jed - Nice. 2 points.
>
>
> BETH BRUCH:  A bee keeping widower and ornithologist widow clash while trying to keep their teenaged children from dating. As tempers flare, so does the chemistry between the parents; they resist until the teens step in to teach their elders a lesson about the birds and the bees.
>     Ziv - 1 point.
>     Pierre - I'd like to watch this one.
>     Jed - I like this, but I feel like it might be more 1970s than 1950s. (Huh, but
>        I now see that _The Parent Trap_ (which this description roundaboutly
>        made me think of) was made in 1961, at least ten years before I thought
>        it was, so maybe 1956 isn’t too early for this sort of thing.)
>
>
> THE IMDB:  On an ocean voyage, a card shark and her father cheat a naive man out of his money. Things take a twist when the girl falls in love with the man  she's just fleeced.
>     Eric - 2 points.
>     David - The Lady Eve [Jim adds: I confess, when I chose this movie I had
>        no idea it was a remake of the more famous film David mentions!]
>     Ranjit - 2 points, and tied for most want to watch.
>     Jean-Joseph - 2 points for the shipboard romance.
>     Beth - 2 points.
>
>
> PIERRE ABBAT: Biologists studying pollinators in the Amazon rainforest are abducted by the Ye'kwana tribe. Anthropologists and missionaries in neighboring tribes cooperate to try to free them.
>     Pierre adds: I was going to say the Yanomamö tribe at first, but Yanomamö
>        (which I think was considered a single language at the time) is spoken in
>        only a small area and not related to anything else, whereas Ye'kwana is
>        Cariban, and Cariban languages are spoken in a wide area, so there would
>        be more outsiders who could talk with them.
>
>
> ZIV STERN:  A newly orphaned boy must learn to navigate first love with the help of a new authority figure: his father's talking pet parrot.
>     Eric - I hope this isn't true, but it might be. 1 point.
>     David - 1 point, and most want to see.
>     Jean-Joseph - I guess this last one is the movie I'd most like to see.
>     Beth - 1 point, and most want to see.
>
>
> General comments:
>
> Eric - This was great fun.
>
> Pierre - This is tough! Maybe because I don't watch movies.
>
> Jean-Joseph - I think this worked out quite well, where all of the entries seem well-written and plausible to me. Kudos to all!
>
> Linda - This ballot makes no sense.  I have been enduring a heat wave plus family stuff--not so bad, as family stuff was fun and now it is cooler.  sorry not to help out this time.
>
> David - The vote for The Birds and the Bees
> Was slow, for we lay at our ease
> In summer siestas,
> Or played in fiestas,
> Far away from our Macs and PCs.
>
>
>
> -Jim
>
>

-- 
J-J Cote
jjcote at alum.mit.edu