movies | dual personalities

December 16, 2014

Lest old acquaintance be forgot

by chuckofish

It is that time of year when “TCM Remembers”. Here is the 2014 edition:

We lost so many wonderful actors and actresses and directors et al this year from James Garner and Lauren Bacall to Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney to Robin Williams. In fact, there were so many that no one really gets much of a spotlight. I’m glad they put Shirley Temple at the end singing “Auld Lang Syne” from Wee Willie Winkie.

Lest we forget, watch it and remember. Remember Angus Lennie in The Great Escape? Rosemary Murphy in To Kill a Mockingbird? Marc Platt in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters? Juanita Moore in Imitation of Life? Martha Heyer in The Sons of Katie Elder?

Enjoy your Tuesday!

4 Comments

December 12, 2014

Friday movie picks–Christmas edition

by chuckofish

It being that happy season of Christmas movie viewing, I thought I’d just remind you of my favorites. Here are my top five:

1. White Christmas (1954)

Oh, I do love this movie and have blogged about it here. I just watched it last weekend for probably the 50th time. It never gets old.

2. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

A wonderful film with a stellar cast–and it’s about Episcopalians!

3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Here’s another one that never gets old. I watched it over the Thanksgiving holiday and enjoyed it anew.

4. Home Alone (1990) This one still makes me laugh out loud. Do not, however, waste your time on Home Alone 2 (1992).

5. 3 Godfathers (1948) This John Wayne classic is my all-time favorite Christmas movie!

Other favorites include Scrooge (1951), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), and A Christmas Story (1983).

Other movies I like a lot which can’t really be categorized as Christmas movies, but include a Christmas element are Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The World of Henry Orient (1964).

Here’s a blast from the past that is available on YouTube: A Smoky Mountain Christmas, which was first aired on TV in 1986. It stars Dolly Parton, Lee Majors and John Ritter, and, although admittedly a bit hokey, I liked it then and I still do.

Have I left out anything? I think I’ll hunker down this weekend and get in the mood. It sounds like a plan to me.

11 Comments

December 10, 2014

This and that

by chuckofish

Our grandmother Catherine Cameron 1966

Remember when people received so many Christmas cards in the mail that they could use them as a decorative device at home? Well, times have certainly changed, haven’t they? I get fewer and fewer every year. As of 12/10/14, I have received five.

Mine are ready to go in the mail. Maybe I’ll get a few in response. Some people seem to wait and see who sends them before they return the favor. Please. Oh well, c’est la vie, but I like getting cards! Don’t you?

Here’s a link to an interesting story about Billy Graham and Louis Zamperini, the hero of Unbroken, the bestselling book by Laura Hillenbrand. You won’t see anything about Billy Graham in Angelina Jolie’s movie adaption of the book, but he was the guy who saved Zamperini’s life after he survived WWII. I knew when I read the book that this would be the case. Hollywood would never tell the whole story.

Indeed, Zamperini survived the war and years of incarceration in a Japanese prisoner of war camp against incredible odds, but he was a broken man when he returned to California. He was angry and bitter and could not get back on track. The happy ending came, however, when he went in 1949 to one of Billy Graham’s first revivals and literally had a come-to-Jesus moment.

On the night of Oct. 23, Zamperini heard Graham say: “If you suffer, I’ll give you the grace to go forward.”

Hillenbrand, drawing on more than 70 interviews with Zamperini for “Unbroken,” tells how he recalled all the miraculous moments when his body might have broken and yet did not.

But on that night, Zamperini’s broken soul was touched. He walked down the sawdust aisle toward the Graham.

Over the next six decades, hundreds of thousands heard those words and did the same.

“God has spoken to you,” Graham said then, and ever after. “You come on.”

Zamperini became a devout Presbyterian and spent his life “giving back” and working with young people. What a made-for-Hollywood ending! But, of course, Hollywood no longer sees it that way. Perhaps that is why no one goes to the movies anymore.

And for all you LEGO nerds out there:

LEGO Christmas tree in Sydney, Australia

Pretty cool, eh?

And to wrap up this and that, here is a good prayer for the Feast Day of Karl Barth, which was yesterday, December 10:

Almighty God, source of justice beyond human knowledge: We offer thanks that thou didst inspire Karl Barth to resist tyranny and exalt thy saving grace, without which we cannot apprehend thy will. Teach us, like him, to live by faith, and even in chaotic and perilous times to perceive the light of thy eternal glory, Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, throughout all ages. Amen.

Have a good Thursday!

7 Comments

December 3, 2014

“Who Sir? Me sir?”*

by chuckofish

I have been very busy at work since Thanksgiving and yesterday I had an allergy attack that sent me into a tailspin of sneezing and nose-blowing. Zut alors! And I had two meetings off-campus. It was not pretty.

So, as you may have noticed, my blogposts are somewhat lacking in content this week. Today I will just note that the TCM star of the month is Cary Grant! So go crazy setting your DVR in December.

They will be showing a few of my favorites: Gunga Din (1939), The Awful Truth (1937), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Houseboat (1958).

I’m not sure why they don’t seem to be showing one of the best Christmas movies ever, which also happens to star old Cary Grant: The Bishop’s Wife (1947)–but you can be sure I’ll be watching it sometime this month.

What is your favorite Cary Grant movie?

*Cary Grant in Houseboat

5 Comments

November 27, 2014

Count your blessings or “Are you saying I could be stuck in Wichita?”

by chuckofish

N.C. Wyeth

Whether you are entertaining a large group or a very small one like me, enjoy the day.

We’ll miss daughters #1 and #2 who are staying put this holiday.

We’ll miss you! Can’t wait ’til Christmas!

In the meantime we’ll raise a glass (or two) to absent friends and loved ones! And then we’ll watch our favorite Thanksgiving movie starring these two guys:

I mean what would Thanksgiving be without Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)? Meanwhile, I’m still a million bucks shy of bein’ a millionaire…

5 Comments

November 20, 2014

“I am not steak. You can’t just order me.”*

by chuckofish

Because Mike Nichols (November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) died yesterday, I thought I would choose one of his films as my Friday movie pick.

The winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, he was definitely one of the cool kids. He made 22 movies, but I’m sorry to say I’m not really a fan of any of them.

Two of his films took place at or near Smith College. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) was filmed in a house across from Sage Hall. The swing in the yard was still there 10 years later when I was a student there. It was fun to imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton hanging out on my campus.

This is a great film, I suppose, but difficult to watch–all that drunken mean-ness and diatribe–somehow it always hit a little too close to home. So although I can recommend it, I won’t be watching myself.

Carnal Knowledge (1971) is about two Amherst College roommates, played by Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, and their lives after they graduate. I saw it thirty years ago–because part of it had been filmed at Smith–and was appalled by it. I’m sure it wouldn’t shock me now, but it did then.

Candace Bergen as a Smith girl.

Of course, The Graduate (1967) is a great favorite of many people, but I am not one of them. Dustin Hoffman just seems so mis-cast to me.

Working Girl (1988) starring Melanie Griffith is a cute movie worth watching to see Alec Baldwin in a very early part as Tess’s tacky Irish boyfriend. Joan Cusack is pretty great too.

It’s all about the hair.

I may see if I can find this movie to watch, but I seem to remember that the big lesson learned is to dress for success and tone down the hair while you’re at it. Sigourney Weaver plays a grade A bee-atch who tries to steal night school-educated Melanie’s good ideas, but she shows her, right? Harrison Ford is the stand-up guy who looks uncomfortable in a suit. Everyone thought this movie was so radical. It was really just a 1930s re-tread updated a little.

So what to recommend? How about “Lady Bouvier’s Lover” from season five of The Simpsons? Mrs. Bouvier!!

Have a great weekend! I’ll be getting ready for the big feast on Thursday which will be at my house this year. What about you?

*Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) in Working Girl

4 Comments

November 14, 2014

What news on the Rialto?

by chuckofish

Did you see this funny post on the subject of pet peeves by Emily McDowell on Cup of Jo yesterday?

It got me thinking about my own pet peeves. Here are a few of mine.

1. Newscasters/journalists who make grammatical errors. Zut alors! It is reaching epidemic proportions and it really drives me crazy. I also hate when TV news reporters mispronounce words, such as “thee-A-ter” and “IN-surance”. I mean really.

2. People who microwave smelly frozen dinners for lunch at work and then the whole place smells disgusting all afternoon.

3. When there are many, many empty spots on the fourth floor of the parking garage and I park far away from everyone and someone comes and parks right next to me.

4. People who use the word “folks”.

5. Overuse of the F-bomb in 21st-century films. Ye gods! Is this really necessary? Do people really talk this way? Would it take that much effort to write dialogue without the F-word? (P.S. Emily McDowell overuses this word too.) There is, of course, one exception to this pet peeve:

I laughed when I saw the pet peeve (of Emily’s) that was “excessive movie quoting”. Certainly my family has been guilty of that on occasion (okay, a lot)–but we keep it within the family (I think). However, I think this has been going on since Shakespeare’s time. “Get thee to a nunnery!” “What news on the Rialto?” It is just human nature to quote and to feel hip and in on the private joke doing so.

I realize these pet peeves make me sound old, old, old, and I guess I am. Daughter #1 calls me “Oldie Hawn” (btw, overuse of Simpson-quoting is not a pet peeve in my world.) Oh, well. C’est la vie.

Thank goodness it is less than two weeks until Thanksgiving when we can indulge in mega-movie-quoting while watching the above-mentioned movie. Until then, I am thinking of watching another favorite-to-quote-from movie tonight:

“So what else is on your mind besides hundred-proof women, ninety-proof whiskey, and fourteen-carat gold?”

How about you?

8 Comments

November 11, 2014

“He was a good man. Make sure that it says so on the patrol report.”*

by chuckofish

Our grandfather’s grave in San Francisco

Veterans Day was once known as Armistice Day. The term comes from an armistice between Germany and the Allied Nations on November 11, 1918. World War I actually ended on June 28, 1919, during the Treaty of Versailles. The first Armistice Day was acknowledged on November 11, 1919.

On June 1, 1954, Armistice Day had its named changed to Veterans Day, so that the veterans of WWII and all the men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces would be honored.

So take some time today to think about your ancestors who served their country in the Armed Forces. A favorite fighting ancestor of mine is Moses Wheeler who fought in the French and Indian War. He was a soldier on the frontier as early as 1746,

and was one of the company of Capt. Stevens in his celebrated defense of the Fort at No. 4…and was also with Hobbs in his terrible encounter with Sackett…[Wheeler] was a very large man, yet of good proportions, and was said to have been, in his prime, the strongest man in the cordon of forts on the frontier. One time Wheeler and five others were detailed to take a cannon to the top of Hoosac Mountain. It appeared to some of them a hard task and they stood around it a long time earnestly discussing the way in which it should be done. At length, tiring of their suggestions, Wheeler threw up his arms, at the same time exclaiming “Stand aside boys, I am going to take the cannon up the mountain myself,” and swinging it upon his shoulder bore it to the place which had been designated for it, pausing only once for rest upon the way.

It is related that the reason of his pausing as he did was to get a drink from a spring which he saw bubbling up beside his path. As soon as he saw this he flung his cannon from his shoulder and throwing himself flat on his stomach, the more readily to get at the water, he commenced drinking, as the soldiers expressed it, “like a horse.” Thinking he would kill himself they warned him to desist, but as he gave no heed to their admonition three of them seized one leg and two the other and drew him forcibly away. He thought it rather hard usage but concluded on the whole it was best to submit to it. After resting awhile he again resumed his cannon and bore it to its place, when he found that he had burst his shoes open which were new when he started from the foot of the mountain, and his pantaloons were such a wreck that they were good for nothing afterwards. The officers and soldiers were, however, so pleased with his exploit they they clubbed together and very generously more than made up the loss. After this he became quite a hero to the Indians, who, whenever they came where he was, always wanted to see “The Strong Man.”

(History of Charlestown, New-Hampshire by Rev. Henry H. Saunderson, 1876)

If this story sounds a bit familiar, it is because James Fenimore Cooper used some of Wheeler’s story to embellish a character in The Deerslayer. In the 1957 movie he was played by Forrest Tucker.

Is it any wonder that 240 years later we named the boy after this ancestor?

If I had a copy of The Deerslayer, I would surely watch it tonight. I’ll find something suitable. How about you?

*John Wayne in Operation Pacific

10 Comments

November 7, 2014

Friday movie pick

by chuckofish

The other night I tried to watch Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) on TCM, but I didn’t make it to the end. I knew how it was going to end, and it was pretty depressing.

Indeed, there was nothing uplifting in the story of the hapless Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra and their downfall and ultimate murder. I remember seeing it at the movies back when it came out. My mother thought it was great and wept through much of it, but seeing it again, I was unmoved. And I should note that the soundtrack was terrible.

The next night I watched Anastasia (1956)–the film adaption of the stage play starring Ingrid Bergman in her second Academy Award-winning role and the great Yul Brynner.

It was pretty great. It is the story of an opportunistic Russian businessman (Brynner) who tries to pass a mysterious woman (Bergman) off as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. However, she is so convincing in her performance that even the biggest skeptics, including the Dowager Empress herself, believe her.

So Anastasia is my Friday movie pick. Check it out. Although Yul’s part is not nearly big enough to suit me, it is a good movie and the soundtrack by the great Alfred Newman is terrific.

Have a great weekend!

4 Comments

October 31, 2014

“We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”*

by chuckofish

I am certainly not a fan of horror films. I have never understood the human desire to be scared, whether it be at the movies or at the amusement park on a roller coaster. These are thrills I do not seek. Call me dull, whatever.

However, I do have a few suggestions for Halloween-y movies to watch tonight. If you are like me, you turn off the lights and pretend you are not home and spend the evening watching a movie. Call me dull, whatever.

1. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

In this romantic story set in the early 1900s, young widow Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) moves to the seaside English village of Whitecliff despite the fierce disapproval of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. She falls in love with and rents Gull Cottage, where she takes up residence with her young daughter Anna and her devoted maid Martha. On the first night, she is visited by the ghostly apparition of the former owner, a roguish sea captain named Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), who “allows” her to stay. Eventually they write a book together which saves her from financial disaster. I say this a lot I know, but truly, they do not make movies like this anymore: low-key, touching and, yes, romantic. I watched this movie recently and it made me cry.

2. Signs (2002)

Signs is my favorite film in the M. Night Shyamalan oeuvre. Written and directed by the brilliant Shyamalan, it was scary the first time I saw it, but not so much now. However, it is worth watching over and over, because it is also a great movie about an Episcopal priest who has lost his faith. Yes, there is a lot more to this movie than extraterrestrials! By the end of the movie (spoiler alert!) the hero/minister has found his faith again and donned his collar, having saved his family from extraterrestrials in the bargain. Mel Gibson (not a favorite of mine) is really good in this movie, as are Joaquin Phoenix and, as the children, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin. I saw this movie recently and it made me cry.

3. and 4. Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989)

In the first Ghostbuster movie misfit parapsychologists Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Ackroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) lose their jobs at Columbia University and establish a paranormal extermination/investigation service known as “Ghostbusters”. They go on to save New York City. In the sequel (which unlike most sequels, is pretty darn good) they save NYC again and all is once again well in the world. Also I should note that these movies are funny without being overly vulgar. There is a funny joke about a guy being “Dick-less”, but it is pretty restrained by today’s standards.

Venkman: Or you can accept the fact that this city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.

Mayor: What do you mean,”biblical”?

Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff!

Venkman: Exactly.

Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!

Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!

Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!

Venkman: Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!

Mayor: Enough, I get the point! And what if you’re wrong?

Venkman: If we’re wrong, then nothing happens! We go to jail; peacefully, quietly. We’ll enjoy it! But if we’re right, and we can stop this thing… Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.

Please Note: This movie will not make you cry, unless you laugh ’til you cry.

Do you have any suggestions? Young Frankenstein (1973)? The Addams Family (1991)? What will you be watching? Personally, I may hunker down and binge-watch Angel, Season One.

Don’t judge me.

If you are not in the Halloween mood at all, you could choose to celebrate the birthday of the late, great John Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994), who is a particular favorite of mine, by watching one of his movies.

Recently I was channel surfing and found Uncle Buck (1989) which I watched for awhile. I laughed so hard I was literally (literally) weeping during one scene where Candy goes into the empty Men’s Room at an elementary school and finds a wall of mini urinals. The man was a comic genius. I should note that the OM watched this scene with the great stone face, never breaking so much as a smile. He was not amused. What can I say? To each his own.

*Bill Murray in Ghostbusters

9 Comments

Tag: movies

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish