My Fair Lady With A Little Bit Of Luck

Um dos momentos seguramente mais esfusiantes e divertidos de cinema protagonizado por um excelente Stanley Holloway, curiosamente um dos primeiros actores secundários cujo rosto e cujo nome fixei, a partir do visionamento original quase acidental [no extinto S.N.I. salazarista, integrado numa retrospectiva do cinema inglês] de um filme que, de imediato, se tornaria num dos meus mais próximos e mais íntimos "filmes de cabeceira", o esplendoroso "Brief Encounter" de David Lean, baseado em Noel Coward, numa sua curta peça intitulada "Still Life", onde este Holloway que vemos aqui "explodir" numa coreografia verdadeiramente empolgante, arrebatadora, cheia de "pep" e de um particularíssimo "wit" cintilantemente "cockney" desempenhava o papel do chefe da estação onde 'Laura' [Celia Johnson] e o médico [Trevor Howard] vivem o seu inesquecível e impossível romance, o "breve e melancólico [des] encontro" do título...

Aqui, Holloway, é 'Alfred Dolittle' ["Faz Pouco", "Fainéant", em francês] um semi-vagabundo "cockney" preguiçoso e oportunista e a letra da canção onde ele se apresenta e se auto-caracteriza é um verdadeiro achado de picante cinismo onde a crítica que, no texto original do "Pygmalion" de Shaw, que serve de base temática a este "My Fair Lady" era, como se sabe, uma presença constante e um elemento absolutamente essencial para a compreensão da peça, se converte numa espécie de bem-humorado e pícaro, truculento, amoralismo que representa, de algum modo não muito dificilmente demonstrável, a versão londrina do pícaro espanhol, de Quevedo e do seu "Buscón" ao autor anónimo do primoroso "Lazarillo de Tormes" ou até de alguns momentos mais característicos da verve vicentina portuguesa, subjazendo a todas essas representações-variantes do "fura-vidas" um, no fundo, análogo panorama de miséria e exclusão económica e social que as explica e situa.

With a Little Bit of Luck

[Stanley Holloway; Gordon Dilworth, and Rod McLennan
Words and music by Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe

The Lord above gave man an arm of iron
So he could his job and never shirk;
The Lord above gave man an arm of iron
But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
Someone else will do the blinkin' work!
[With a little bit, with a little bit]
[With a little bit of luck you'll never work!}

The Lord above made liquor for temptation
To see if man could turn away from sin;
The Lord above made liquor for temptation
But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
When temptation comes you'll give right in!
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of luck you'll give right in.]

Oh you can walk the straight and narrow
But with a little bit of luck you'll run amok...

The gentle sex was made for man t'marry
To share his nest and see his food is cooked;
The gentle sex was made for man t'marry
But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
You can have it all and not get hooked!
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of luck you won't get hooked
With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of bloomin' luck.]

They're always throwing goodness at you
But, with a little bit of luck a man can duck!

The Lord above made man to help his neighbour
No matter where on land or sea or foam;
The Lord above made man to help his neighbour
But with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
When he comes around you won't be home!
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of luck you won't be home]

A man was made to help support his children
Which is the right and proper thing to do;
A man was made to help support his children
But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
They'll go out and start supporting you!
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of luck they'll work for you!]

Oh it's a crime for man to go philandering
And fill his wife's poor heart with grief and doubt;
Oh it's a crime for man to go philandering
But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck
You can see the bloodhound don't find out!
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of luck she won't find out!]
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of bloomin' luck. ]

[He doesn't have a tuppence in his pocket]
[The poorest bloke you'll ever hope to meet]
[He doesn't have a tuppence in his pocket]
[But, with a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck]
[He'll be movin' up to Easy Street]
[With a little bit, with a little bit]
With bit of luck I'm movin' up]
[With a little bit, with a little bit
With a little bit of bloomin' luck. ]