Archive for the Category »1940′s Movies «
A Fabulous Films of the 1940s Blogathon and the Academy Awards ceremony coming up in a just a few short days gave me the motivation to watch a movie I had been eager to watch for a few months now, The Heiress.
As I mentioned in my post about my favorite movie podcasts, I love the “A Year at the Oscars” series hosted by Jason O’Brien on his radio show, Oscar, Oscar where in each show covering a separate year of the Academy Awards, he gives an in depth analysis of the year’s nominees and winners.
The most recent episode from November covered the year 1949, when All the King’s Men won the award for Best Picture. Although he had some positive things to say about that movie, two movies that he thought were more deserving were The Bicycle Thief and The Heiress.
As he was praising The Heiress for its many great qualities, I couldn’t remember if I had seen it before but had a vague recollection that I had many years ago . . . and didn’t like it. So I consulted my trusty spreadsheet where I keep track of whether or not I like the movies I watch, and sure enough, right next to the movie’s title were the words “didn’t like.” Continue reading »
As silly as it may sound now, when I first became a classic movie fan many years ago, I had a dream of one day owning a theater that showed nothing but old movies. Not understanding at the time what a difficult if not impossible undertaking that would be, I actually thought that dream would come true.
In the excitement of planning the kind of movies I’d show at my theater, I started to keep a list of all the movies that I watched and put them in either a “show in theater” or “don’t show in theater” column based on whether or not I liked them or thought they would draw a crowd. Although I know now that I’ll never be using it, I still keep that list today to remind myself of those early days when I thought anything was possible. 
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***A quick note before the start of my post: I actually started writing this a few days ago but didn’t get a chance to finish it. When I got online today, I discovered that it is the 16th anniversary of the death of legendary actor and dancer Gene Kelly, one of the subjects of this post. The timing is totally coincidental since I didn’t realize this day was coming up, but I just wanted to say a quick word to acknowledge the date, which I know is a very sad one for many of his fans, and dedicate this post to his memory.***
Gene Kelly in Cover Girl (1944)
Do you love Gene Kelly? I do! But it had been so long since I’d watched one of his movies that I had forgotten just how much I loved him and his dancing. When I watched a YouTube video of one of his dance numbers from the movie Cover Girl (1944), it reminded me that I really needed to get back into watching his movies. Since I thought the aforementioned dance routine, commonly referred to as his “Alter Ego” number, looked amazing and I had yet to see Cover Girl, I decided to watch it earlier this week.
On a side note, I found that video in a series of blog posts put together by Kelli, one of the contributors to a site devoted to Gene Kelly called Gene Kelly Fans. I’d encourage you to visit that site to learn more about him and also to read her six part series highlighting an interview she did for a documentary called “Dancing in the Rain: Gene Kelly” which celebrates Gene’s life and career. If you love Gene Kelly, you will really enjoy them. If you are not yet a fan, I think there is a good chance you will be after you get to know him better. Continue reading »
This post is my entry into the Ida Lupino blogathon being hosted by Jen at her blog Miss Ida Lupino. Please be sure to visit her blog on August 3 to view a list of all those who participated.
When I decided to participate in the blogathon, I didn’t know very much about Ida Lupino other than that she is often associated with film noir. As a fan of film noir, I’d heard her name mentioned many times before often accompanied by high praise of her work, but for some reason I never made it a point to watch more of her movies. But knowing that Jen is such a big fan of Ida Lupino that she would devote a blog entirely to her (something I once thought about doing for my fave, Jimmy Stewart) I decided that Ida was someone worth getting to know.
To become more familiar with Ida Lupino’s work, I chose to watch the movie Road House (1948) for no particular reason other than that it was the only Ida Lupino movie they had in stock on the shelves at my local library. I guess you could call it a case of serendipity, because it turned out to be a wonderful choice! Not only did I really enjoy the movie and Ida’s performance, but the special features included with the DVD were as interesting and as much fun to watch as the movie itself. Continue reading »
I know this is getting posted very late in the day, but I’d like to wish all my U.S. readers a happy Independence Day! I hope you were able to celebrate and enjoy the day!
If you remember any of the Chevrolet commercials from the 1970’s, you might also remember the “good ‘ole USA” being associated with baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. So on this day that honors the birthday of the United States, I hope you don’t mind me talking a little about baseball, which happens to be one of my favorite sports.
Today is the anniversary of the famous farewell speech given by former New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig after he was diagnosed with ALS, which is more commonly referred to today as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Even if you don’t like or follow the history of baseball, you may still be familiar with one of the more well known lines from that speech, “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.” Continue reading »
Just a few minutes into The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry I realized it was one of those films that I would probably like to some degree regardless of how good the actual movie was. After the opening credits when I got the first glimpse of the small New Hampshire town the movie was set in, I figured the scenery alone could be enough to make me like it.
Sometimes I’m easily pleased, and that’s all I need. I love movies that are set in small, scenic towns like the one where this story took place, and I have always been enamored with pictures of states like New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut. So I was excited to watch it right from the start. Continue reading »
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