The main reason I love Sunset Blvd., aside from the sharp dialogue and narration, is that it’s literally the story of my life. Well, kind of… well, I hope I don’t end up like William Holden does at the end. He plays a struggling writer who quits his newspaper job to pursue writing Hollywood scripts, … Continue reading
Category Archives: 100 Movies in 100 Days
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 40 – The Third Man (1949)
Five reasons The Third Man rules! 1.) The opening narration and the mandolin that plays throughout. I love the tone and accent of the narrator as he casually sets up the story for us. And without wasting time, bang, we’re right in the middle of a who-dun-it murder mystery. And to add to the mandolin, … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 39 – Bicycle Thieves (1948)
So today was a bit tricky. I had a choice between three excellent movies, including one that has a 100% freshness rating on RottenTomatoes. But Bicycle Thieves was the movie that ended up arriving from Netflix so I went with that. A quick note though that The Treaasure of Sierra Madre (that’s the 100% rated … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in100 Days – Day 38 – Out of the Past (1947)
Well, I can say onething for certain – 1947 was a slow year in movies. My choices really boiled down between this noir crime drama and Miracle on 34th St. and considering it’s still four months til Christmas, it would’ve felt a bit weird to be watching a holiday movie in mid-September. The problem I … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 37 – My Darling Clementine (1946)
So for today’s viewing, I decided to do a compare and contrast with John Ford’s My Darling Clementine and George Cosmatos’ 1993 Kurt Russell-Val Kilmer masterpiece Tombstone, since they both center around the story of Wyatt Earp. Henry Fonda vs. Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp – Fonda plays Earp really straight, dark and serious. There’s … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 36 – Brief Encounter (1945)
Wow, what a boring movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well-directed but the story is just so pedestrian and every time the housewife (Celia Johnson) would drift off on her endless self-narration of her affair with the middle-aged horny toad doctor, I wanted to punch her in the mouth. Well, OK, not really. I don’t … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 35 – Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
This play has such nostalgic qualities whenever I watch it. See, back when I was in those blissfully awkward high school days, Arsenic and Old Lace was one of the first plays I ever acted in. I played Gibbs and the Officer O’Hara. I remember on the second performance, I forgot some of my lines. … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 34 – The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
This is one of those odd instances where both the book and the movie are equally good. I do however have to give the edge to the movie version simply from the silent fury of Henry Fonda’s piercing eyes. The Ox-Bow Incident is part-Western movie, part racial drama. The story focuses on two drifters who … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 33 – Casablanca (1942)
I was tempted to watch my grandfather’s favorite movie ever, Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney, but decided to go with the more mainstream classic, Casablanca. Watching this movie again, it’s funny how many great one-liners there are. There’s even a YouTube video for them. That been said, while it remains an American classic, it’s … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 32 – Citizen Kane (1941)
If there were ever a movie that was mandatory for film students to watch, it’s this one. Citizen Kane is the film student equivalent of having to read 1984 the Weekly Reader in grade school. Honestly though, I didn’t know what the big deal was about this movie. Even when I watched it the first time in … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 31 – His Girl Friday (1940)
I’m going to keep this entry short. I didn’t want to watch Pinocchio for a second time in three months so I switched over to His Girl Friday, for the simple reason that I had a copy of the movie sitting in my DVD library. I would have watched The Grapes of Wrath or Fantasia, … Continue reading
100 Years of Movies in 100 Days – Day 30 – The Wizard of Oz (1939)
I freakin’ love this movie. I love the sepia colored beginning and the switch to vibrant color part-way thru. Back when I first saw The Wizard of Oz, about a couple decades or so ago, I had a bit of a crush on Dorothy (Judy Garland) and the flying monkeys freaked the hell out of … Continue reading
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