- Cottage to Let/Bombsight Stolen (1941) - Michael Wilding, Alastair Sim, John Mills
- The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943) - Warner Baxter, Lloyd Bridges, Reginald Denny
- The Years Between (1946) - Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson
- The Captive Heart (1946) - Michael Redgrave
- Twelve O'Clock High (1949) - Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Dean Jagger
- Don't Go Near the Water (1957) - Glenn Ford, Gia Scala, Earl Holoman, Anne Francis, Eva Gabor
- The Sheepman (1958) - Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Neilson, Pernell Roberts
- The Best of Everything (1959) - Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Diane Baker, Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Louis Jourdan
- Almost Angels (1962) - Vincent Winter, Sean Scully, Peter Weck, Denis Gilmore
- The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980) - Robin Ellis, Raymond Burr, Eva Marie Saint, Wendy Hiller
- Father of the Bride (1991) - Steve Martin & Diane Keaton, Kieron Culkin
- *Prince Caspian (2008) - William Mosely, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes
- *Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) - Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter
- Queen & Country (2014) - Callum Turner, Vanessa Kirby
- Little Women (2019) - Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scalen
- Tolkien (2019) - Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Anthony Boyle
- The Boys in the Boat (2023) - Joel Egerton, Callum Turner, Hadley Robinson
Monday, April 1, 2024
Movies I Watched in March
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Sunshine Blogger Award #???
Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy nominated me for a Sunshine Blogger award and I was able to answer her questions quickly so I actually completed it (I legit have like three old awards in my drafts that I never finished lol).
Rules:
- Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
- Thank the person who nominated you.
- Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
- Answer your nominator’s questions.
- Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
- Ask your nominees 11 questions.
- Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.
1. What's the first movie you have a memory of watching?
2. Have you ever written a fan letter to a celebrity? (If so, did you get a reply?)
No. I've wanted to but never got around to it. I really need to write Robert Wagner...
3. What are the three funniest movies you have ever seen?
4. What movie do you really want to change the ending of?
5. What movie do you wish had a sequel, but it doesn't?
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2016)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(
6. Who were your favorite actor and actress when you were a teen?
John Wayne and Judy Garland.
7. Who is your favorite actor and actress now?
8. Does anyone else in your family love movies?
9. If you could pick an actor/actress to play you in a movie, who would you choose?
That would be a really boring movie lol. Maybe Natalie Wood for little me.
10. Do you ever watch a movie in the theater more than once?
Only one I went back to see a second time so far was The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2016).
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Movies I Watched in February
This month wasn't as good as last month... I read We'll Always Have Casablanca by Noah Isenberg. If you are watching Masters of the Air, I highly recommend Harry Crosby's memoir, A Wing and a Prayer. It is on both the Internet Archive and Hoopla (free with your library card) - both e-book and audio book. The Making of Masters of the Air Podcast is really good too.
* indicates a rewatch
- Young and Innocent (1937) - Nova Pilbeam & Derrick De Marney
- *Suspicion (1941) - Joan Fontaine & Cary Grant
- The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) - Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum
- *Notorious (1946) - Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
- Champagne for Caesar (1950) - Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Barbara Britton, Art Linkletter
- The Lusty Men (1952) - Robert Mitchum, Susan Hayward, Arthur Kennedy
- Track of the Cat (1954) - Robert Mitchum, Tab Hunter, Beulah Bondi, Teresa Wright
- Guns of Darkness (1962) - David Niven & Leslie Caron
- The Victors (1963) - George Hamilton, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, James Mitchum, Michael Callan, Romy Schneider, Mervyn Johns (father of Glynis!)
- Ransom for a Dead Man (1971) - Peter Falk, Lee Grant
- Gosford Park (2001) - Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren
- The Lightkeepers (2009) - Richard Dreyfuss, John Brown, Blythe Danner, Mamie Gummer, Bruce Dern
- *Mirror Mirror (2012) - Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer
- *Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) - Kristin Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth
- The Lucky One (2012) - Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling
- Austenland (2013) - Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Seymour
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Movies I Watched in January
I watched a lot of British films this month. Glynis Johns led to more Kenneth More and also Jack Hawkins. I discovered a "new" TV show, The Four Just Men starring Hawkins, Dan Dailey, Richard Conte, and Vittorio De Sica (they alternate episodes). There are several episodes on YouTube.
* indicates a rewatch
- Beauty and the Barge (1937) - Jack Hawkins, Margaret Rutherford
- He Couldn't Say No (1938) - Frank McHugh, Jane Wyman, Diana Lewis
- Hold That Kiss (1938) - Maureen O'Sullivan & Dennis O'Keefe, Micky Rooney
- *Rebecca (1940) - Joan Fontaine & Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, Reginald Denny, George Sanders, C. Aubrey Smith, Gladys Cooper
- *I Know Where I'm Going (1945) - Wendy Hiller & Roger Livesey
- Black Narcissus (1947) - Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Sabu, Jean Simmons
- *Miranda (1948) - Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, David Tomlinson, Margaret Rutherford
- No Highway in the Sky (1951) - James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns, Kenneth More
- Appointment with Venus (1951) - David Niven, Glynis Johns, Kenneth More
- One Minute to Zero (1952) - Robert Mitchum & Ann Blyth, William Talman, Charles McGraw, Richard Egan
- Second Chance (1953) - Robert Mitchum & Linda Darnell, Jack Palance
- Genevieve (1953) - John Gregson & Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More, Kay Kendall
- *Mad About Men (1954) - Glynis Johns, Margaret Rutherford
- Front Page Story (1954) - Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Allan
- *The Enemy Below (1957) - Robert Mitchum, Curt Jergens
- The Two-Headed Spy (1958) - Jack Hawkins & Gia Scala
- *The Defiant Ones (1958) - Tony Curtis & Sidney Poitier, Lon Chaney Jr.
- The 39 Steps (1959) - Kenneth Moore & Taina Elg
- The Angry Hills (1959) - Robert Mitchum, Gia Scala, Sebastian Cabot
- How to Frame a Figg (1971) - Don Knotts, Yvonne Craig
- The Lady Vanishes (1979) - Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, Angela Lansbury
- Dominick and Eugene (1988) - Tom Hulce, Ray Liotta, Jamie Lee Curtis
- Miss Austen Regrets (2007) - Olivia Williams, Hugh Bonneville
Friday, January 19, 2024
2023 Movie Stats
In the year 2023 I watched 158 new-to-me movies and 55 movies that were rewatches for a total of 213.
New to me: 158 (118 pre-1970, 40 post-1970)
Rewatches: 55 (31 pre-1970, 24 post-1970)
Total: 213 (149 pre-1970, 64 post-1970)
Where I watched them:
TCM: 76 (11 rewatches)
Library (DVD & Apps): 8 (3 rewatches)
Personal DVD: 20 (13 rewatches)
YouTube & OK: 32 (6 rewatches)
Paid Streaming Services: 32 (15 rewatches)
TV & Free Streaming Services: 44 (6 rewatches)
Theater: 1 (1 rewatch)
Here are my top ten movie discoveries:
Q Planes (1939) - Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Valerie Hobson
Good Sam (1948) - Gary Cooper & Ann Sheridan
The Mating of Millie (1948) - Glenn Ford & Evelyn Keyes
A Woman of Distinction (1950) - Ray Milland & Rosalind Russell, Edmund Gwenn
The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951) - Lloyd Bridges, Carlton Carpenter, Ernest Borgnine
Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957) - Robert Mitchum & Deborah Kerr
The Admirable Crichton (1957) - Kenneth Moore, Sally Ann Howe
Advance to the Rear (1964) - Glenn Ford & Stella Stevens, Joan Blondell, Melvyn Douglas
Nickelodeon (1976) - Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Tatum O'Neal, Brian Keith, Stella Stevens
The Cheap Detective (1976) - Peter Falk, Madeline Kahn, Ann-Margaret
Classics I finally watched:
A Christmas Carol (1938) - Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart
Gilda (1946) - Glenn Ford & Rita Hayworth
Tokyo Story (1953-Japanese) - Setsuko Hara
The Big Heat (1953) - Glenn Ford & Gloria Graham, Lee Marvin
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1957) - Julie Adams, Richard Carlson
The Italian Job (1969) - Michael Caine
Airport (1970) - Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Van Heflin
Field of Dreams (1989) - Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta
Number of movies per decade:
1910s: 0
1920s: 2
1930s: 20 (9 rewatches)
1940s: 47 (9 rewatches)
1950s: 62 (10 rewatches)
1960s: 17 (3 rewatches)
1970s: 14
1980s: 9 (4 rewatches)
1990s: 16 (4 rewatches)
2000s: 14 (7 rewatches)
2010s: 10 (8 rewatches)
Number of movies per month:
January: 17 (4 rewatches)
February: 17 (6 rewatches)
March: 9 (2 rewatches)
April: 13 (10 rewatches)
May: 18 (4 rewatches)
June: 19 (5 rewatches)
July: 15 (6 rewatches)
August: 30 (6 rewatches)
September: 19 (2 rewatches)
October: 15 (1 rewatch)
November: 22 (4 rewatches)
December: 19 (5 rewatches)
Number of Foreign Language Films: 3 (1 rewatch)
Stars I discovered/grew to love/crushed on: Lloyd Bridges, Glenn Ford, Ray Liotta
*To see last year's stats, click here.
Did you keep track of the movies you watched in 2023? Was there a star or movie you discovered that you can't live without now? Let me know in the comments!
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Double Feature: Two Hitchcock Remakes
I recently discovered British actor Kenneth More in The Admirable Crichton (1956) and, by searching Tubi to see what other films of his were available, that he had starred in a 1959 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935), which is a great favorite of mine. This led me to also discover that there was a 1979 remake of The Lady Vanishes starring Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, and Angela Lansbury. I ended up watching them back-to-back and decided to jot down a quick post with my thoughts.
While enjoyable, The 39 Steps, directed by Ralph Thomas, had none of the suspense of the original. More acted as if he were simply on holiday and there was never any real feeling that his life was in danger. The women in the film - the lady who was murdered in his flat, the wife at the house he took refuge in, and finally Miss Fisher (Madeline Carroll's role) - weren't quite right either. The first was too matter of fact, the second a "fortune teller," and Miss Fisher not nearly annoyed enough. All of the tenseness of the original scenes simply wasn't present. The impromptu political speech Hannay gives in the original is replaced with a botany lecture at a girl's school that isn't nearly as tense or funny and the final scene fell a little flat. It's still worth a watch and the color scenery was lovely, though not as harsh and dramatic as in black and white. It helped lend to the more "holiday" feeling.
The Lady Vanishes, directed by Anthony Page, faired better. I've only seen the original once (as opposed to I think four times for The 39 Steps plus the book by John Buchan). Cybill Shepherd plays the heroine differently than Margaret Lockwood (I do wish Sheperd didn't talk so loud the entire time) but it was a fun film. Again, not as tense as the original but that film also had more of Hitchcock's humor. I would say the remake had a slight screwball element to it as well with Sheperd's portrayal as a seemingly flighty heiress with multiple marriages and on her way to another. It was set in 1939 and had a stronger N*zi presence - our introduction to Shepherd's character is her doing a H*tler impression. There was on-location shooting in Austria, so this film had lovely scenery as well.
Have you seen any remakes of Hitchcock films (aside from the one's he remade himself)? What did you think of them? Did you like them better than the original?
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Movies I Watched in December
Didn't watch as many Christmas movies this month as in past Decembers. I'm still watching Father Knows Best and started Frasier - I've been wanting to rewatch it for a while. Was very excited to receive Allison Macor's book, Making The Best Years of Our Lives, for Christmas! I also got the Wizard of Oz "Horse of a Different Color" Hallmark ornament (unfortunately the batteries it came with were already corroded and I haven't bought any new ones yet so I haven't actually seen it light up).
- A Christmas Carol (1938) - Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Ann Rutherford
- Q Planes/Clouds Over Europe (1939) - Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Valerie Hobson
- 49th Parallel (1941) - Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Glynis Johns
- A Stranger in Town (1943) - Frank Morgan, Richard Carlson
- Black Angel (1946) - Dan Duryea & June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford
- Gilda (1946) - Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford
- Fun on a Weekend (1947) - Eddie Bracken & Priscilla Lane, Tom Conway, Allen Jenkins
- I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) - Don Castle & Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey
- Good Sam (1948) - Gary Cooper & Ann Sheridan
- *On Dangerous Ground (1951) - Robert Ryan & Ida Lupino, Ward Bond
- All I Desire (1953) - Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Billy Gray
- *White Christmas (1954) - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes
- The Admirable Crichton (1957) - Kenneth More, Sally Anne Howes
- A Night to Remember (1958) - Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith
- *Sail a Crooked Ship (1961) - Robert Wagner & Dolores Hart, Ernie Kovacs, Carolyn Jones
- Experiment in Terror (1962) - Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stephanie Powers
- Prescription: Murder (1968) - Peter Falk, Gene Barry, Nina Foch
- *Elf (2003) - Will Farrall & Zoey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, James Caan, Ed Asner
- *The Holiday (2007) - Kate Winslet & Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Cameron Diaz & Jude Law