50 Years Too Late

Move Over, Darling ... In Real Life

2013-01-12T21:13:00.004-06:00

I love watching my old movies with my husband. He never complains and he often offers a new perspective on movies I've seen dozens of times. Sometimes he has deep insights that I've never thought about before. Other times (maybe most of the time) his observations are along the lines of, "This story line is getting really ridiculous."

Such was the case the other night when we watched Move Over, Darling, the Doris Day/James Garner classic. The husband may be right. The story line gets somewhat out of control towards the middle and it's not helped by Doris Day and her sometimes ... enthusiastic ... acting. But it's called entertainment, man. Someday I will show him My Favorite Wife. Somehow that one feels a little less ridiculous even with the same story. Also, Cary Grant. Can't go wrong.

Anyway, halfway through the movie my husband started wondering if there have been cases like this in real life, which prompted a quick Google search. We found that there is a legal precedent for this very situation called the Enoch Arden law, based off a poem with a similar, though much more tragic story. In addition, the movies are based off this poem as well and use the name Arden. It's all coming together!

Just when I was getting discouraged at the fact that I wasn't finding any actual stories with this theme, I ran across this amazing article from the Toronto Daily Star on November 19, 1945 profiling 11 cases of the Enoch Arden law and their outcomes after lots of men were presumed dead during World War 2. Read it, it's fantastic.

So I got much more than I bargained for after watching a silly Doris Day movie. I guess I need to keep showing my husband some classics. And pretty soon he won't even notice when a store line is getting really ridiculous.

I've Missed You

2013-01-12T16:08:00.000-06:00

Well, it's a travesty that I haven't posted on this blog in about a year and a half! I'm ashamed. But I had a baby in September 2011 and things have just been ... busy.

Even more disturbing is that my viewing of old movies has decreased dramatically. And after two years of watching crappy new movies and every single episode of LOST on Netflix, it's time that I come back to the good stuff. None of those things are as satisfying as a good old, sex, violence, and language-less movie. I miss old movies. I miss this blog. So I'm going to try to start writing regularly again.

It'll be fun!

What Happens in Brigadoon Stays in Brigadoon ... Literally

2011-08-05T08:06:00.000-06:00

Last night I watched Brigadoon for the first time, which is kind of surprising because it's been recommended, or at least mentioned to me, plenty of times over the years. I just never sat down to watch it. So thanks to Netflix, the time finally came.

Let me just say, it was not what I expected. I knew it was a musical and I knew it was set in Scotland, but that's about all I had to go on. Little did I know the insanity that would ensue!

I don't want to give away to much because Brigadoon, unlike most musicals, actually has some plot twists. Amazingly, I couldn't guess everything that was going to happen within the first ten minutes.

The film revolves around Gene Kelly and Van Johnson getting a little lost in the Scottish hillside. While wondering around, contemplating the meaning of life, they notice a little town down the road that, strangely, isn't on their map. At this point, I thought the movie could easily turn into a horror movie, and I still maintain that it would be a valid premise for a future remake.

Anyway, they head down to this little town hoping to be able to rest and find some food. They quickly notice that the locals are a little weird (still almost a potential horror movie), until Gene Kelly meets (and instantly falls in love with) Cyd Charisse. He proceeds to follow her around and sing and dance with her while Van Johnson stays in town and gets drunk.

From here, the movie turns into a strange mixture of every 50's musical, Kate & Leopold, and The Village.

The movie is very original, I'll give it that. Unfortunately, I can't say much else for it. I realize some people really love this movie, but it just didn't win me over. The songs were mostly forgettable and the dancing was just ok. Being a Lerner and Lowe musical I was expecting a little more.

However, the story was interesting, if not a little strange, and it mostly kept me guessing so it was certainly worth a viewing!

Most importantly, it made me desperately want to watch every other musical I own after a sad hiatus in musical-watching due to general busyness and not wanting to force my husband to watch them all with me. But now I've decided he can handle it.

It's All in the Family

2011-07-07T10:30:00.000-06:00

No, this isn't a post about Sabrina. But it is a post about movie-loving genetics.

My grandmother likes to talk about her mother who, in her older years, would visit her local movie theater just about every day to see the latest films. This sounds like great fun, and it's often made me wonder if all my movie-loving runs in the family.

My grandmother also loves movies and is responsible for my My Fair Lady and Judy Garland obsessions. Little did she know what would come of our afternoons watching old movies together.

Genetics or not, this movie-loving provides a special bond with both these ladies--a bond strengthened further by the fact that my husband and I sometimes visit the very theater my great grandmother did more than 50 years ago. It's been completely renovated, but original elements still exist and it's exciting to share that same space with her.

Now I'm having a daughter of my own in just a few months and I hope she gets this movie-loving gene too. Naturally, we've been listening to plenty of Judy Garland to prepare her for the exciting world of musicals. And her nursery will be Mary Poppins themed. So I'm not sure she has a choice on this one.

Does a love of movies run in your family?

Tippi Hedren In Person

2011-03-31T08:33:00.003-06:00

Last week, I dragged a group of friends and family to see The Birds at a local movie theater. And as if going to see The Birds on the big screen isn't exciting enough, Tippi Hedren herself made an appearance. (Yes, this is the same event at which I ran into Veronica Cartwright in the bathroom a few years ago. She was not there this time.)

When we arrived an hour early Tippi wasn't even there yet. Reports said that she was sitting in her limo eating dinner. Now, I understand that we all need to eat dinner, however, there was quite a line forming to get her autograph and she was a half hour late. Not to mention, those in line wanted to also get decent seats in the movie theater. And she was supposed to talk to the audience before the movie started. It quickly became apparent that none of this was going to go as scheduled. Prima donna? Maybe a little. However, she's quite old and we don't want her passing out or anything.

Anyway, all was forgiven when Tippi finally showed up and she was lovely and seemed very nice. My friends and I stood off to the side near where she was coming in and thanks to one of my particularly loud friends and her enthusiastic clapping, Tippi just kept walking toward us, despite the fact that she was supposed to make a right turn to get to the autograph signing area. She seemed delighted that everyone was clapping for her and she actually looks quite good for being like 80 (and wearing tight leather pants). She was seemed very pleased to be there and spent plenty of time talking to each fan who came for an autograph. There was one lady there with birds taped all over her dress.

The Birds on the big screen was excellent as usual. Watching movies like that by yourself at home can't compare to sharing the experience with a theater full of people. After the film, Tippi came in and played a trivia game with the audience and answered some questions. Most of the questions were pretty standard fare, but one audience member asked about the rumors that Hitchcock prevented Tippi from working after Marni when she was highly sought-after, thereby ruining her career.

Tippi said that Hitchcock developed an obsession with her that caused her to refuse to make more movies for him. However, she still had a contract with him for two years after Marni which he refused to break, preventing her from working during that time. She joked that he did essentially ruin her career, but then awkwardly tried to take it back when the audience seemed completely disgusted with Hitchcock. No doubt Hitchcock had borderline disturbing relationships with most of his leading ladies. I'll just try not to think about that.

On a side note, we almost got attacked by birds while walking into the movie theater. In the Chicagoland area, seagulls tend to hang out in parking lots. It's just a thing that happens, I don't know why. Anyway, there must have been some food thrown near the door to the theater because just about all the seagulls who live in the parking lot were circling near the theater entrance. At first I figured the theater planned this, but it only happened for a short time and then never again, so I'm not giving them that credit. Nevertheless, it was slightly disturbing and made our experience that much more exciting.

Amazon Deals on Classic Films

2011-01-20T18:06:00.002-06:00

Amazon has a few great deals on some classic films this week:

- The Wizard of Oz Blu-ray is half off--only $12.49 for the 70th anniversary edition.

- The Sound of Music 45th Anniversary 3-disc edition with Blu-ray and DVD is only $20. This is the one with Christopher Plummer's highly entertaining commentary.

- Gone with the Wind Blu-ray is only $9.99, regularly $24.99.

- A bunch of the TCM Classics Collections are just $11.99. My personal favorite is the musicals set.

- And Audrey Hepburn's blind lady thriller, Wait Until Dark is just $6.99.

Check out the rest of their classics on sale.

Why "Just Go with It" Won't Be as Good as "Cactus Flower"

2011-01-20T11:02:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned earlier, they've remade the classic Cactus Flower into an Adam Sandler comedy. I personally am a big fan of Cactus Flower so I'm not sure I can be completely objective, but it just seems like the new one isn't going to be nearly as good. Here's why.

Cactus Flower Remake

2011-01-17T08:44:00.001-06:00

Apparently they're remaking one of my favorite films, Cactus Flower, as a dumb Jennifer Aniston/Adam Sandler romantic comedy, Just Go With It. What made the original great were the three main stars and the incredibly corny '60's music and dancing and weird catch phrases. So, I have little hope for this new one that looks like every other boring romantic comedy they come out with these days.

The Best Classic Comedies You Haven't Seen

2011-01-11T10:02:00.000-06:00

Most of my favorite old comedies are a little on the obscure side. Sure, the big names are fabulous and you should definitely watch them, but sometimes the lesser-known ones are just more fun. Plus, they're more corny, giving you even more to laugh at! I wrote an article on the more obscure classic comedies that I love. Which ones am I missing?

Woman of the Year

2010-12-30T11:02:00.000-06:00

For Christmas I received the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romantic Comedies DVD, which features four Katherine Hepburn movies. I found it interesting that TCM apparently believes Katherine Hepburn has some sort of monopoly on classic romantic comedies (No Doris Day??), but they're all great movies so I was pretty excited to add it to my collection. The DVD features The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, Adam's Rib, and Woman of the Year, all films I've seen before but expect to watch many more times.

I've always really enjoyed Katherine Hepburn's movies with Spencer Tracy. They're kind of a strange couple when you think about it, but they manage to make it work, maybe because of their off screen, slightly scandalous romance. But they're mostly interesting because they almost always try to carry some sort of forties-feminist message. Not really a surprising role for Katherine Hepburn, an independent, strong, pants-wearing woman in real life.

In Woman of the Year, she plays ... woman of the year, Tess Harding, a serious journalist who runs all over the country, rubbing elbows with countless important political and world leaders. Her life is ridiculously busy and work-focused until she meets Spencer Tracy who plays Sam Craig, an average joe sports writer. He's instantly smitten with her and they begin a somewhat abnormal romance, consisting of him escorting her to her various engagements and attending her crowded parties.

The relationship is clearly strained by her crazy schedule and his obvious desire for a conservative housewife, but they marry nevertheless. It doesn't take long for things to start coming between them and just when Tess is named Woman of the Year, Sam decides to move out. She soon realizes that all her success isn't as sweet without him and she comedically attempts to be the housewife she thinks he wants.

I would love to hear a 1940s audience's take on this film. By today's standards, the only thing that seems extreme is Sam's desire for a stereotypical housewife--someone to make him dinner and wait on him when he gets home from work. But I would guess that quite the opposite was true 70 years ago.

In the end they both learn to compromise. He no longer wants just a housewife. He respects her for her work, and she learns that some of her career may need to be put on the back burner if she wants a good marriage.

This seems like a perfectly fair compromise and it's exactly why I like these films. They're sort of feminist--the woman works, she's important and well respected. But she also respects her husband enough to make some sacrifices in order to build a strong marriage. It's a message that's often lost today in a world where women are encouraged to do anything they want to, even at the expense of their marriage or family.

I'm not sure these films had a particularly grand effect on the feminist movement, but certainly Katherine Hepburn paved the way for many women and brought in a new way of thinking. They may not be exactly cutting-edge feminism, but they bring up some issues that many classic comedies gloss over. And all that mixed with some great comedy and two legendary stars make for some really fun movies.

Christmas in Connecticut

2010-12-14T09:45:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend, I showed Christmas in Connecticut for our December Old Movie Night. I'd not yet seen this movie, but it had been recommend to me on several occasions and in the interest of not having to watch yet another Christmas movie I've seen thousands of times, I decided to give it a shot.

Remember how I said that young people take kindly to innuendo in old movies? Well this movie is no exception. It's not as blatantly skanky as Some Like it Hot but the implications of some of the dialogue is pretty questionable for a 1945 film.

It goes like this: Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a Martha Stuart type who runs a very popular column in a magazine for housewives. The problem is she's far from a housewife. She's single and living a wild life in the city. That's all fine until a dreamy sailor just back from the war wants to visit her farm for Christmas. Her publisher, who's in the dark about her many lies, approves the visit and lands her in quite a pickle.

Enter John Sloan, Elizabeth's special "friend," a mediocre-looking architect who's been proposing to her for years with no success. When she realizes John has a farm in Connecticut, she quickly promises to marry him if he allows her to use his farm to pull off her charade for the holiday and keep her job.

Needless to say, things get sticky and awkward when the dreamy sailor shows up, and still thinking she's married, proceeds to hit on her on more than one occasion. And she, a sort of married woman, can't keep her hands off him. It's a moral dilemma, but it isn't. The whole concept outraged us even though in reality none of it was that shadey. But the characters don't know the reality, so they are a little shadey. It's a deep philosophical question that I'm not going to explore here.

Anyway, you can imagine what kind of insanity ensues when Elizabeth tries to keep up with her lies and the rest of the characters learn more and more of the truth.

By far the best part of the film was Elizabeth's Uncle Felix, played by S.Z. Sakall, everyone's favorite crazy, roly poly actor. He accompanies Elizabeth to Connecticut to help her cook and basically ends up messing with everyone's heads and orchestrating complicated conspiracies. He also comes with his own special catch phrases that don't make sense and provides multiple laugh-out-loud moments.

This film is definitely going on my annual Christmas movie viewing list!

William Castle + Joan Crawford = Insanity. Literally.

2010-11-29T13:24:00.000-06:00

My weekend of holiday happiness and Christmas decorating was punctuated with possibly the most disturbing Joan Crawford movie I've ever seen. I think the poster says it all.

In Straight-Jacket, Joan Crawford plays Lucy, a wife and mother who brutally axes her cheating husband and his girlfriend to death. The problem his, her young daughter sees it all. Lucy is quickly whisked away to the loony bin.

Fast forward 20 years and Lucy's getting out of the asylum on good behavior, and she's sent to live with her daughter, Carol, now in her twenties and engaged to a nice young man.

Carol and Lucy attempt to repair their relationship by getting Lucy a makeover, but pretty soon Lucy starts going crazy again, hearing voices and having disturbing hallucinations. Then, of course, people start getting mysteriously axed to death.

I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you. But rest assured, it's disturbing and surprisingly graphic, and everything you'd want from a William Castle film starring Joan Crawford in her 60's "I'll do anything" period.

Highlights of the film include:

Joan Crawford looking crazy

Joan lighting her match on a spinning record in a moment of drunken insanity:

Needless to say, Straight-Jacket has further cemented my love for all Joan Crawford movies.

Confessions

2010-11-11T16:04:00.000-06:00

I have some confessions to make. Old movie related ones:

1. I don't really like Breakfast at Tiffany's. Everyone talks about how great this movie is, but I can't say I've ever enjoyed it that much. I especially hate the end with the cat and the rain. It upsets me.

2. I fast forward over musical numbers in non-musical movies. This mostly applies to every Doris Day movie in which she sings a pre-sex song. Also, every song in The Parent Trap.

3. The Wizard of Oz - not my favorite. I'm not saying I don't like it, it's just not my favorite Judy movie. Or my favorite in any category, really. But I have to act like I'm a big fan since I'm a big Judy fan and usually nobody's heard of any other Judy movies. Plus it's fun to collect the memorabilia.

4. I haven't seen any of Judy Garland's movies from the 60's. I'm pretty sure I've seen all of her films except these ones. They just seem weird and sad.

5. I don't get TCM. I'm not made of money, people! Meanwhile, Netflix more than makes up for it.

6. I don't really like watching new movies. And by "new" I mean old movies that I haven't seen before. I'd much rather just watch the same movies that I know I love over and over again. But I know the new ones are usually worth watching, so I make myself do it.

7. I don't think the Marx Brothers are that funny. I don't hate their movies and certainly I've had some good times while watching them, I just wouldn't do it on a regular basis.

8. I like the new Sabrina better than the old Sabrina. This one's easy because I just wrote about it.

9. It's possible that I've never watched the entire Climb Every Mountain scene in The Sound of Music. I hate the song and avoid it at all costs.

10. I've never seen Citizen Kane. And I don't have plans to. I'm pretty sure I won't like it.

The Fly and The Scream

2010-11-01T14:40:00.000-06:00

Warning: This post will contain spoilers, because they're the interesting parts.

Great Halloween at my house last night. Old Movie Night featured two ... interesting Vincent Price films, The Fly and The Last Man on Earth.

The Last Man on Earth is about just that. After a terrible disease plagues the entire earth, Vincent Price is the last man standing, having gained immunity to the terrible disease through a bat bite years earlier. So for three years he lives alone, fending off the zombie-vampires that the disease has created. This film wasn't particularly scary (and I'm a jumpy one), but if you enjoy watching Vincent Price talk to himself, it's definitely the movie for you!

That brings us to The Fly. Basically the perfect 50's horror film, The Fly offers up screaming women, sexist children, scientist men, big machines that make futuristic noises, and insects.

Half the film is presented in flashback form as Helene Delambre tries to explain to her brother-in-law (Vincent Price, who's conveniently in love with her) and the inspector why she killed her husband. He turned into a fly, that's why. He got a little over-zealous with his "matter transporting" equipment and some of his "matter" gets a little mixed up. Now he's got a fly head and hand and somewhere out there buzzing around is a white-headed fly-man.

The second half of the film involves Vincent Price searching high and low for the white-headed fly that will prove Helene's insane story and get her off the hook for her husband's murder. His search finally leads him and the inspector to a spider web where a tiny little fly-man, yelling "help me!" a million times in a little fly voice, is about to get eaten by a spider.

This is the point in the movie at which the entire group at my house screamed. For an excessively long time. I can't really explain this scream and why it went on for so long. After all, this is a not-so-scary 50's horror movie. But seeing a fly-man get eaten by a spider is slightly disturbing. Plus, the special effects were basically horrific. So the scream went on for some time, laughing, screaming, confusion, general noise. It was exciting and an old movie night first. I'm not sure what to make of it.

But after all the screaming stopped and we calmed down, emotions were mixed. The premise was disturbing. But there were some sweet, touching moments like when the man-fly wrote "love you" to his wife on the chalkboard before getting squashed to death like any fly should. And who couldn't be happy when Vincent finally ends up with Helene whom he loved all along now that his sexy, smart fly-brother is squashed? And how can you not be appalled at their dumb little sexist son, spouting zingers like, "you know how women are"? This movie has it all. We laughed, we cried, we cringed, and we screamed.

The Sound of Music Reunion

2010-10-29T14:31:00.000-06:00

Well I do love The Sound of Music so I was very excited to discover that the cast reunion on Oprah is now on Youtube.

It's not a Time Traveler, People

2010-10-28T15:25:00.000-06:00

It's clearly an alien.

I'm not sure why we're so desperate to have time travelers show up in old movies. There are lots of reasons this person could be doing what they're doing:

1. The actual feasible explanation of the hearing aid.

2. Itchy ear

3. Insanity

4. Hiding

5. Alien

Also, for the record, I think it's a man dressed as a woman. Or an alien dressed as a man dressed as a woman.

Follow That Blog!

2010-10-28T13:19:00.000-06:00

I started a Twitter for this blog because sometimes there are comments I want to make that just don't warrant an entire blog post. You can find me here.

Trifecta

2010-10-27T11:52:00.001-06:00

In the midst of all this contemplation of Sabrina and remade movies I realized, to my horror, that I've never written about the ultimate remake series: The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail. A trifecta of hatred, romance, and comedy. A couple months ago a group of very dedicated friends sat down and watched all three movies with me, for a marathon of awesomeness.

The Shop Around the Corner started it all in 1940 with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. It's a nice little movie, based in Hungary (??), our main characters work together in a gift shop and quickly grow to hate each other, all the while unknowingly writing love letters back and forth. It's funny and sweet, but I don't especially love it. The problem is, it has an unfair advantage considering that I loved the two later movies long before I even saw this one.

In the Good Old Summertime was the first of these three that I saw, during my childhood Judy Garland obsession. I believe that my loyalty to Judy and the sentimental value it holds for me make it my favorite of the three. It continues our themes of love blooming from extreme hatred, with our two main characters working together in a music shop. It's entertaining and fun, however, Judy is extra mean in it and many of the songs are forgettable.

So that brings us to You've Got Mail. Basically the same story, lead characters hate each other in real life, but love each other on paper ... or email as it were. Look, I love this movie. It's funny and romantic and basically lovely. I can't bring myself to say that I like it more than Summertime, but I don't like it less. And I can't really think of anything bad to say about it.

So is this another case of a superior remake (or two)? I'd say yes, though I know there are many people that love the original. I would highly recommend watching all three of them together if you're into that sort of thing. There are quotes and gags and characters that survived all three films, and they're all quality movies.

Sabrina vs. Sabrina

2010-10-07T21:03:00.000-06:00

The other night I made my husband watch the 1995 version of Sabrina. I picked this film because I really wanted to watch a girly, romantic movie that my husband can also enjoy. And since Harrison Ford is in some of my husband's favorite movies, I figured this would be a good option. It's basically the same as Indiana Jones, really.

So a lot of people (by "a lot" I mean just a few) argue passionately (by which I mean, discuss briefly) which version of Sabrina is superior: 1995 or 1954. Despite my loyalties to films made before 1970, I have to say I think I prefer the new Sabrina, and here's why:

1. Harrison Ford. Look, Humphry Bogart could never even come close to comparing to the loveliness, manliness, and general awesomeness of Harrison Ford. He is dreamy. Humphry? Old. Kinda ugly. No comparison.

2. The mom. Holy smokes, the mom in the new Sabrina is a riot!

3. Sabrina doesn't try to kill herself. It always very much bothers me when Audrey Hepburn tries to kill herself over David in the old one. It's very extreme and kind of disturbing.

4. Harrison Ford. Yeah, he's that important.

Now I'm not saying I don't love the old Sabrina because I do. And I am an Audrey Hepburn fan, she may be better than the new girl. It's just that, the whole point of a romantic comedy is to feel warm fuzzy at the end. To get us so sucked into the love story that we lose touch with reality and are incapable of having normal relationships in real life on account of the inflated expectations of love and romance that these films provide. The old one just doesn't do that for me.

Tony Curtis

2010-09-30T08:06:00.000-06:00

Well it's true, people, Tony Curtis is gone from us forever. It's too bad because he was a funny, inappropriate old man. It's always hard to lose one of those.

I got to see him a few years ago at a movie theater near me and he was very entertaining. I took some terrible quality, illegal videos, but you get the idea:

Sound of Music Happenings

2010-09-29T09:28:00.001-06:00

Well, this year marks the 45th anniversary of The Sound of Music and to celebrate, Oprah is hosting the entire cast on her show on October 29th. Even Christopher Plummer will be there, which should be interesting since he's generally offensive and bratty when discussing the film.

They're also releasing a 45th anniversary edition of the DVD/Blu Ray to add to the 85 previous copies that you've already had to buy because they had new extras. But I'm sure this one will be even better and more necissary.

"Quit stealing my Captain"

Finally, the film itself will be showing in a number of theaters in sing-a-long form October 19 & 26. I've been to the sing-a-long maybe 4 times and it's fun, but one thing has always bothered me. One of the sing-a-long activities is hissing at the baroness every time she's on screen. First of all, this is annoying because she's on screen a lot. That's a lot of hissing. Secondly, I understand we're not really supposed to like her, but what did she ever do to us? What are her real offenses in the movie? Ok, she tries to get rid of Maria. Who wouldn't do that if the nanny was making a play for your dream-boat captain? It's somewhat less forgivable when she talks about sending the kids off to boarding school, but seriously people, there's seven of them. I bet even Maria wanted to send them off to boarding school sometimes.

Fast Forward

2010-08-10T21:27:00.002-06:00

The other night I was watching the classic, Annie, with my husband.

Sidenote: Yes, I made my husband watch Annie. I felt it was important for him to see this movie that I watched many, many times as a child.

Anyway, to make it a little less painful for him, I told him we could watch my "edited" version in which I fast forward through all the parts I don't like. This appalled him.

The thing is, I've spent most of my movie-watching years fast forwarding through the parts of movies that I don't like. Sometimes there just isn't enough time to watch the entire film. Or sometimes there are some just plain boring parts that I don't want to waste my time on. Once you've seen a movie enough times, it's easy to find some fast forward moments.

So I thought I'd compile a list of my top fast forward moments from some of my favorite movies:

1. The Sound of Music. To be honest, I fast forward through a lot of this movie. Basically any scene without Maria is a good candidate for some fast forwarding. Also, pretty much anything after Maria and The Captian return from their honeymoon.

2. Summer Stock. That terrible dog song at the very end. Also the Howdy Neighbor reprise with those truly awful outfits.

3. Easter Parade. That scene when Judy and Peter Lawford are in the restaurant and the waiter goes into way too much detail about their salad. It literally takes 10 minutes. Fast forward.

4. My Fair Lady. This is probably my least fast forwarded movie, but I've never been a big fan of the part when they go to the embassy ball. It's just a bunch of rich people dancing for like 10 minutes. I also don't usually watch the parts with Eliza's father. They're silly, but not that great. I have more important things to do.

5. Mary Poppins. Anything before Mary shows up is subject to skipping. Also when the dad brings the kids to the bank and they sing that dumb song. Actually, it's possible that the taped-off-TV version I had as a child cut out that song, so now I just don't see a point in it.

6. The King and I. This goes without saying, but the Uncle Tom's Cabin part. I don't know that I've ever watched more than 30 seconds of it and it literally goes on for 20 minutes. And this leads me to ...

7. Oklahoma. What's with the super weird, long ballet/interpretive dance in the middle of the movie? Fast forward.

8. Singin' in the Rain. My favorite part of this movie, when Cyd Charisse shows up in her green dress, is followed by my least favorite part: when the dance sequence goes on for an hour and a half!!

9. The Parent Trap. Any parts involving camp or camping.

10. The Music Man. One word: Shipoopi.

Truthfully, my list could go on and on. Am I the only one who likes to fast forward? I doubt it.

What do you fast forward?

Ode to Netflix

2010-07-22T11:22:00.001-06:00

Last week my husband and I signed up with Netflix and so far it's been life changing. I read this ridiculous "poem" and it inspired me to become a poet, because it clearly doesn't take much. Here's my Netflix poem.

Judy Garland
Cary Grant
I know I should stop
But I can't

Streaming live
Always connected
My husband wishes
He wasn't neglected

The Seven Year Itch

2010-07-21T10:58:00.000-06:00

I just got Netflix. It's becoming a bit of a disturbing obsession, but on the bright side, I think it will allow me to watch more old movies than I ever thought possible.

My first Netflix old movie was The Seven Year Itch. I'd never seen it before, which is probably bad since it's so iconic, but honestly I just haven't watched that many Marilyn Monroe movies and I have a sneaking suspicion that none of them will live up to Some Like it Hot.

But I watched it anyway because I was curious and my husband was up for it. Basic premise: Nerdy middle-aged man lives in New York City with his wife and son. Wife and son shove off for the summer leaving nerdy husband at home by himself to work (and maybe have an affair) which was apparently the norm. Nerdy man, home alone, suddenly realizes there's a super hot blond living in the apartment above him. Nerdy man spends the rest of the movie trying to have or not have an affair with hot blond. The End.

So first of all, did this actually happen in the olden days? The women and children leaving for the entire summer? Don't get me wrong, it sounds fabulous and I think if it still happened many more women would be stay at home moms. It's just not anything I'd heard of and the insinuation that all the men were going to go have affairs with the hot single women that were left behind for the summer was a little disturbing.

But anyway, the movie ... It was ok. I wasn't blown away by it, but there were some funny moments. Half the movie was spent inside the nerdy man's quite delusional imagination where he was fawned over by every woman who came along. But when he finally gets attention from the hot blond, he gets a little freaked out and has a serious moral dilemma.

Marilyn played her usual ditzy blond character, so if you're a fan of that, you'll probably like the film. She had some cute outfits which I also enjoyed. And yes, she shows some leg in the skirt-flying-up scene, if that's your sort of thing.

But other than that, it just didn't feel like there was much to the movie. It's some light entertainment if you're interested in a Marilyn Monroe film, but don't expect it to change your life or anything. Unless, of course, you're a nerdy NYC man left all alone for the summer.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Old Movies

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10. Corny jokes. Sometimes you just need a corny joke in a world where everyone's always trying to be clever and witty and off-color. Yes, a corny joke may be super cheezy and kind of embarrassing, but I bet you'll still laugh at it.

9. Gayness. Yeah, they say "gay" a lot in old movies. It's a little bit funny every time.

8. Memories. No, I don't have memories of seeing these movies when they originally came out in the theater, but I do have great memories of watching them as a child and singing and dancing along with the musical numbers. Every viewing brings back some warm fuzzies.

7. Trailers. Have you watched some old movie trailers? They're almost as entertaining as the movies themselves. Especially when they're announcing "the most unusual picture in many years."

6. Cary Grant. What else do I have to say?

5. Scary, but not too Scary. I can't watch these new-fangled horror movies. They are violent and disturbing and give me nightmares. But I can take some Psycho any day. Old scary movies are scary, yes, but not so gratuitously graphic.

4. Singing. Old movies have great songs. And great singers. They can't be beat by these wannabe singers/actors who come around today with their mediocre voices and lack-luster songs. MGM Musicals especially had it down. They knew where to place a song in the movie and how to stage a highly entertaining musical number. Perfection!

3. Dancing. Kind of goes with the singing. But seriously, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly? It doesn't get much better.

2. No sex. I'm not that into watching people have sex. I appreciate that in old movies, I do not have to witness this.

1. They make me happy! Probably for all the reasons listed above.

Why do you like old movies?