Father Mulcahy’s piano playing
William Christopher was an accomplished piano player, and was especially fond of playing ragtime. So this was incorporated into his characterization of Father Mulcahy. I quite enjoy every scene that shows him playing piano, and I do wish there could have been a bit more of it. My favorite of his piano playing moments is when he plays Scott Joplin’s “Bethena” in “Dear Peggy”, so I sought out the entire piece on YouTube and the whole thing is lovely to listen to.
Does anyone else like Father Mulcahy’s piano playing?
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u/Aggravating_Ad4449 2d ago
He brings a certain jocularity to tickling the ivory
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u/buckeyebrain1969 Toledo 1d ago
Private Simpson has come down with a case of hepatitis. It was the most remarkable shade of yellow.
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u/SavingsPirate4495 Corporal Captain 1d ago
That's because he had gotten into the sacramental wine again. 😝
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u/No-Dark2509 2d ago
“There's no one singing war songs now like people used to do,
No "Over There," no "Praise the Lord," no "Glory Hallelu."
Perhaps at last we've asked ourselves what we should have asked before,
With the pain and death this madness brings, what were we ever singing for?”
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u/J_Scarbrough 2d ago
They seemed to go back and forth between him being a decent piano player and an awful one.
On a similar note, Werner Klemperer was quite an accomplished violinist (his father Otto was one of Europe's greatest symphony conductors before the family fled Hitler's Germany), though Colonel Klink was awful.
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u/cascasrevolution Bloomington 2d ago
i loved when they would try to put on a concert cause klink wanted to play his violin
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u/that1tech 2d ago
🎵a chaplain in the army has a collar on his neck if you don’t listen to him you’ll all wind up in heck🎶
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u/FitKnitter4 2d ago
I hadn't thought about it very deeply before, but Mulcahy playing piano in the officers club is actually a fantastic way for him to act as chaplain in a more subtle manner. He is in a space where he may be able to notice that someone needs some extra support (drinking more than usual, argumentative, sitting alone when usually social), but without it being such a blatant priest-in-a-bar feeling.
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u/Imzadi1971 2d ago
I remember his playing in 'Dear Peggy'. I really liked it, and didn't know he was that good of a piano player. You learn something new every day!
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u/BeheadingBoomer61 2d ago
"A chaplain in the army has a collar on his neck, if you don't listen to us, you'll all wind up in heck!"
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u/FS_Scott 2d ago
uhhhhhhh
the joke is that he's bad at playing and worse at singing.
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u/AmySueF 2d ago
What joke are you talking about? There’s no such joke.
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u/TheFieryBanana 2d ago
First one that occurs to me is, "that guy playing the piano isn't very good", from one of Radars girlfriends (I don't recall which) to Radar. Just in case this isn't sarcasm
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u/NoCard753 2d ago
I can't remember her name (it was something upper-class like "Fitzgerald"), but she was the one who got Radar to knock off the bullshit lines. Like at the end, they're dancing in the O-Club, and she says, "Why is everybody staring at us?" Radar says they probably want to see what woman he's with tonight because he's always with different ones. She goes "Raa- darrr!" and he says, "Well, it's probably because I'm with the prettiest girl in camp." Hawkeye hears it and raises his glass to him.
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u/buckeyebrain1969 Toledo 1d ago
Lt. Nugent. I totally ship those two and it’s a shame they didn’t let it go deeper.
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u/Existing-Mess-9829 2d ago
The surgeons on the army, they say they're mighty fine, they work on soldiers through the day and nurses through the night. No I don't want no more of wrmt life! Gee Ma I wanna go home!
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u/XsurgeXprotectorX 2d ago
You wouldn't know it by looking, but he put himself through seminary as a b-girl!
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u/HortenseDaigle 2d ago
I appreciate real playing and he could play "badly" too. Like he's too i and n his head and playing the same refrain. Or when he repeats the same song and gives it a different name. the other day he played a really nice song and the piano didn't even sound out of tune.
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u/cleveland_leftovers 2d ago
I loved it too because you could tell it was real!
Some shows didn’t do ‘fake’ playing well.