September-24-10, 05:35 PM #1
tponetom
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/images/...er-offline.png DetroitYES Member
Join DateMar 2009Posts190
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/images/icons/icon1.png Paging Ray1936, Tponetom
Paging Ray1936, Tponetom
I was going to respond to the “Three Favorite Films, and why?” but I did not see any “old dinosaurs” responding, except you.
Your selection of “Casablanca” restored faith in my humanity. I was not alone.
To begin with, there is no single, greatest ‘Movie’ for any and all Movie Buffs.
My credentials for being a ‘Movie Buff’ are as follows:
I have 325 Movie tapes and 250 DVD’s. That does not make me an expert in anything. It just reflects my tastes in Movies.
As a child, in the 1930’s the Movies gave me Shirley Temple, [[Heidi), Errol Flynn, [[Robin Hood), Judy Garland, [[The Wizard of Oz) and Clark Gable, [[Gone With The Wind).
WW2 gave us a plethora of War Movies. Casablanca [[1942-43) was non-pareil in being at the right time and in the right place and, most essentially, in the right mood. It had war, romance, music, heroism and righteous justice for evil.
When you have Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Dooley Wilson, Paul Henried, Conrad Veidt and S. Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, [[with a supporting actor named Humphrey,,something or other…), you have the Movie Studio philosophy at its best.
Now you may think that I have watched this movie a number of times. Well, you
would be wrong. I doubt if I watch it more than six,,, or eight,,, or ten times a year, for the last 15 years when I recorded it.
It does not take any particular mood for me to fetch out my snap brim hat and my London Fog raincoat, and then slouch down in my La-Z-Boy, pour a Scotch and visit Rick’s Place. I do not gamble, by the way.
In 1946 a Class “B” movie came out entitled, “Till the End of Time.” It starred Dorothy McQuire, a very young Guy Madison and Robert Mitchum, [[in his first movie). It is a simple but accurate story about young, returning veterans of the war, trying to fit in to a society that was foreign to them.
Six months later a big block buster premiered. “The Best Years of Our Lives.” It won a bunch of Academy Awards. Same story as Till the End of Time. I did not care for it. It had Fredric March, 50, and Dana Andrews, 37, as the returning vets.
I have 40 musicals from the thirties to the seventies. Hello Dolly and the Music Man top the list.
“To Each His Own” That’s another story.
Recently, I have adopted Kevin Spacey, in any thing. [[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and Matt Damon in any action picture and Robin Williams, in anything.
And so, a note to anyone. If you can locate a copy of “Sweater Girl,” circa 1941, let me know. The title is very placid. College kids putting on a show, introducing a song called, “I Don’t Want To Walk Without You, Baby.” Such are the witherings and whinings of an old Dinosaur.
