Sultry Saturday ~ Moonglow from Picnic

The sexiest dance number in cinema history.

 

 

“Theme From Picnic” was composed by George Duning. The films Musical Director Morris Stoloff blended the movies theme with the song “Moonglow” aka “Moonglow and Love” composed by Will Hudson and Irving Mills in 1933 and was first recorded by Joe Venuti and his Orchestra then in 1934 by Benny Goodman.

And still to this day I believe this dance between William Holden and Kim Novak is one of the sultriest scenes done. The chemistry was total magic done to perfection.

Holden was reluctant to do the part for the mere fact he totally did not know how to dance at all and feared he’d make a fool out of himself. Director Joshua Logan got Choreographer Miriam Nelson to work with him and you can see from the outcome it turned out to be one of the sexiest scenes ever danced in any film.

William Holden was among my favorite actors and made the films he played in favorites because of him. Another sexy man who aged like fine wine who I wished had been around a lot longer.

Picnic ( 1955 ) was nominated for 6 Academy Awards in all, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Arthur O’Connell, who reprised his stage role), Best Director, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (George Duning) and Best Picture.

It won two Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Film Editing. How it never won for Best Music still mystifies me but in my opinion the dance scene alone should of won one. Unfortunately they just don’t make films like this anymore. When actress Verna Felton who played the elderly neighbor Helen Potts stated in the scene “aren’t they graceful” to me it was a gigantic understatement.

William Holden and Kim Novak made this film unforgettable.

For a man who didn’t know how to dance, he made it look so natural as if he had done it all of his life.