Duo Harma -- The Razor and the Sharpener

Here we have two most excellent scenes from the1950 movie "Come To Uncle" (or possibly "Come To Daddy") including the above-mentioned "Razor and the Sharpener" and "Like a Mouse With a Cat".   The singers are the real-life couple Tolis and Litsa Harma, backed up by the Moutstatsos Trio with two extra guitarists.

Here's a short summary of what you will see, should you choose to view this wonderful video.  The older generation is chatting about things that definitely do not interest the young woman at the table (Smaroyla Giouli).  She sends a big cup down the hatch then, if my non-Greek ears are right, she says something to the effect of "Maestro - can you play some rebetika?"  The band obliges and strikes up a tune, and she scandalizes the table (but not the captivated Nikos Stravridis) by getting up and doing a fine, if relatively tame, Zembekiko dance. 

As it turns out, this is one of the earliest cinematic examples of a woman dancing the Zembekiko dance (for more on this see Anna Richmann's fine 2022 article in the Greek Reporter "When Women Started Dancing Zeibekiko").

There is a quick transition and we switch to a different scene where Nikos Stravridis (who was at the original table, but has moved to a new table and is now at a state of intoxication that P.G Wodehouse might describe as "oiled, boiled, fried, plastered, whiffled, sozzled and blotto") gets up, takes off his jacket and does his own zembekiko dance to the delight of the highly engaged crowd.  We met the delightful Nikos a few months ago in our two clips from The Swindlers -- apparently "Come to Uncle" was his film debut.

Here are the lyrics to The Razor and the. Sharpner (as translated by our bestie Google...)

The razor and the sharpener slaughter and hurt

and your black eye, how it oppresses me (x2)

the razor and the axon slaughter and hurt

 

Bead rosary beads to pass the night

drip drip the medicine drips in the heart (x2)

bead bead rosaries to pass the night

 

Note note the bouzouki to merklotsi

you don't turn to look, I'm going crazy (x2)

note note the bouzouki to be melancholic...