Scratch that, new plan!

September 24, 2012

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I've been sticking with my one film a day challenge for a little over a week, but I decided I'm not going to blog about each movie. The main reason being that some movies just don't inspire much thought outside of "I liked that movie" and that doesn't really constitute a blog post. I also feel like one post a day is just going to annoy the heck out of anyone who is still reading this blog (if there is, in fact, anyone still reading this blog lol)

Anyway! I'm going to make a list to keep track of the films I'm watching instead. Sometimes I'll still post about a movie if I feel like I have something to write about, but otherwise I'll just be adding it to this list here. Also I decided that if I'm really short on time, an Alfred Hitchcock Presents (hereafter referred to as AHP) episode will suffice as a movie.

1. Come Blow Your Horn (9/15/12)
2.  The Honey Pot (9/16/12)
3. The Lady Vanishes (9/17/12)
4. Theodora Goes Wild (9/18/12)
5. The Birds (9/19/12)
6. AHP: Premonition [S1 E2] (9/20/12)
7. Hot Enough for June (9/21/12)
8. Aladdin (9/22/12)
9. Hercules (9/22/12)
10. Sabrina (9/23/12)

Theodora Goes Wild and The Birds

September 20, 2012



On Tuesday night I watched Theodora Goes Wild with Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas. It's a really fun screwball comedy from 1936 about a girl from a stuffy town who secretly writes a risque best-seller, and the big city cover artist who tries to save her from her small town chains. I've seen this one countless times, and I think I love it more with each viewing!

My favorite Irene Dunne film is The Awful Truth, and my favorite scene in the movie is when she pretends to be Cary Grant's sister. Well in Theodora Goes Wild she spends a good deal of the movie acting the same way she did in that scene. It's absolutely marvelous!

For yesterday's movie I went to see The Birds on the big screen! I'm sure pretty much everyone with a classic film blog did the same ;) It was so exciting!! I was bedecked in birds to suit the occassion... a bird dress, a bird necklace and a bird from the craft store affixed to my bun. I wrote a little bit more about my fantastic movie-going experience on my other blog, here :)

The Lady Vanishes

September 18, 2012



Last night I watched The Lady Vanishes (1938)

I'm incredibly ashamed to admit that I've never seen the whole movie! I always seem to come in at the end, so yesterday was the first time that I saw the beginning. I absolutely loved it! I'm completely worn out and a little brain dead today so that's about all I have to say... I just wanted to at least make a record of the fact that I watched it ;p

Come Blow Your Horn and The Honey Pot

September 17, 2012

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Something really bad has happened to me over the last two years. I've stopped watching movies as often as I used to and that is catastrophic. Ever since I was 13, my world has revolved around movies. I didn't start a classic film blog because I sort of like them... I started it because I'm obsessed with them.

So the fact that I've probably watched only a couple dozen films in the last 20 or so odd months is really earth-shattering. And I need to do something about it. No matter how busy I am, no matter how tired, worn out, overworked or stressed I am, I want to watch at least one movie a day. It can be a re-watch (both of the ones I've started with fall into this category) or something new, but I need to watch one a day. I'm going to try to hold myself to this by blogging about each movie as well. Here goes nothing!



I started yesterday with Come Blow Your Horn (1963)

The film is about a young man (did I just say young man? eww) who breaks away from his parents to go live in the big city with his big brother, a swingin' sixties bachelor in a swingin' sixties bachelor pad. That hep cat with the awesome digs is none other than Mr. Frank Sinatra.

I've been a serious Sinatra fan since February of 2000 (I remember these things) and this had always been one of my least favorite of his films. I'm not going to lie... it's because I thought he looked like he was getting older. Don't judge, one of the main reasons I'm a serious Sinatra fan is because I have a serious crush on the guy.

Since the last time I watched it, however, something has changed. I'm getting older myself and my eyesight isn't quite what it used to be. Now that I'm no longer 20/20 I discovered something absolutely mah-velous: Sinatra in Come Blow Your Horn looks like Sinatra in The Tender Trap if you don't wear your glasses! ;D So this improved my opinion of the movie considerably.

Aside from Frankie's wrinkles and receding hairline I was never quite fond of Lee J. Cobb's blusterous performance or Tony Bill's neurotic, nervous turn as the younger brother. They didn't bother me too much this time though. I'm still not super fond of either of them, but it wasn't like "please kill off this character already!!" anymore.

Ok, enough about what I didn't like. What I did like: THAT APARTMENT, all the orange everywhere, the theme song (of course!), Frank Sinatra's blurry face, Barbara Rush being her amazing self, Jill St. John's makeup and the line about artificial fruit: "it's like the fruit version of The Picture of Dorian Gray!"



Today I watched a personal favorite, The Honey Pot (1967)

I'm pretty sure that I forced somebody to watch this once and they hated it, because every single time I watch it now I think "how could that person have hated this?!?!" although I completely forget who it was.

The plot is a little hard to describe without giving things away, since it's very Agatha-Christie-esque with lots of twists and turns. Basically a very, very rich man decides to play a little trick on three of his old girlfriends by sending them each a letter summoning them to his (fake) deathbed. The very, very rich man is Rex Harrison and the ladies are Susan Hayward (I love her to pieces, but her fake Texas accent was a little grating) Capucine and Edie Adams. The cast also includes a young Maggie Smith and my beloved Cliff Robertson.

Except for the phony Texas draw, I love everything about The Honey Pot. I think the twisty plot is exceptional, the acting is phenomenal and, well, Cliff Robertson ♥

psst! Come Blow Your Horn and The Honey Pot are both on Netflix instant if reading my jumbled thoughts has made anyone want to watch them :)