There has been a rash of bloggers talking about their favorite movies, and I cannot pass up a good idea. The problem is where to stop, because the number of movies that I like to watch is simply huge. I have no idea how bloggers pick their favorite ten. My first draft was nearly one hundred. I went through agony taking off Kiss Me Kate, because I rarely watch the whole movie, but I watch the “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” scene with Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore doing softshoe. My list isn’t the list of necessarily what I think are the best movies; it is the list of movies that I watch again and again. Schindler’s List is a magnificent movie, about unexpected heroism in the midst of vast depravity and evil. But I cannot repeatedly watch it. Living in Europe is tough enough. Todd Browning's Freaks is an extraordinary movie, but I prefer to be able to sleep at night. With a few exceptions, I can do without depressing. I’m an academic; I don’t need the movies for miserable, depressing, or corrupt. I like John Wayne, I like Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy, I like Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn, I like Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Julie Andrews, and Judy Holliday. This is how one of my heroes, Mike Royko, put it:
I never went to a John Wayne movie to find a philosophy to live by or to absorb a profound message. I went for the simple pleasure of spending a couple of hours seeing the bad guys lose.
And I still refuse to go to movie that have unhappy endings, or movies in which the villain wins, or movies in which the hero whines, or movies in which the hero isn’t a hero, but a helpless wimp. If I want to become depressed, why should I spend three dollars at the movies. I can go to work, instead.
That’s why the Duke’s fans went to his movies. We knew he would not become bogged down in red tape, or fret about losing his pension rights, or cringe when his boss looked at him, or break into a cold sweat and hide in his room, or moan about his impotence, or figure the odds and take the safe way out.
He would do exactly what he did in True Grit, my choice as his greatest movie, when he rode out to bring in Dirty Ned Pepper, whom he had once shot in the lip.
As all John Wayne freaks recall, he was along, as a hero should be, and he was sitting on his horse confronting Ned Pepper across a long, lovely valley. Ned Pepper was accompanied by several villainous friends.
Wayne informed Dirty Ned he was bringing him in – dead if need be.
And Dirty Ned sneered and said something like: “That’s mighty bold talk for a one-eyed old fat man.”
Who can ever forget the look of thunderous rage that enveloped John Wayne’s face. True, he was fat. True, he was old. True, he had only one eye. But did Dirty Ned have to be so rude as to mention it?
Ah, it was a wonderful moment. And it got better when Wayne, in a voice choked with anger, snarled: “Fill yer hand, you sonofabitch!”
And it got even better when he stuck the reins between his teeth, drew his pistol with one hand, a repeating rifle with the other, and galloped full speed into the valley, steering his horse with his teeth and blazing away with both weapons.
At the time, a movie critic – a man in his thirties – wrote that he was so overwhelmed by that scene that he abandoned his critical poise and stood on his seat in the theatre, waving his arms and screaming: : Go, John, go!”
In that spirit, I offer, in no particular order, my favorite movies (some have comments, some, such as Casablanca, simply do not need comment).
The Big Sleep
(“She sat on my lap while I was still standing up.”)
Goldfinger
(what nut case does not like Bond? This one remains my favorite)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(Lorelei Lee is one of the movies’ great characters, and diamonds really are a girl’s best friend)
Some Like it Hot (you can find the script here)
SUGAR: I come from a very musical family. My mother is a piano teacher and my father was a conductor.
JOE: Where did he conduct?
SUGAR: On the Baltimore and Ohio.
Arsenic and Old Lace
(the best black comedies, and proof that Cary Grant was a comic genius)
Mary Poppins
(with Julie Andrews around, how did the British lose their empire?)
Sound of Music
(rain drops on roses, and whiskers on kittens, . . .)
Magnificent Seven
(not as good as Kurosawa's original, but the theme music is unforgettable, and nobody, but nobody does cool like Steve McQueen)
Adam’s Rib
(the best Tracy –Hepburn collaboration, with Judy Holliday tossed in)
Born Yesterday
(Judy Holiday’s masterpiece, with Broderick Crawford at his best as the thug torn between his love of his girlfriend and himself, and William Holden, one of the few actors who could credibly do intelligent; a pox on the remake, John Goodman notwithstanding)
Yankee Doodle Dandy
(who said that a Jimmy Cagney love scene is where he doesn’t kill anyone? No matter. It has George M. Cohan songs, great dancing, and some unabashed patriotism thrown in)
The Music Man
(the best musical, and yet the male lead barely sings)
Witness for the Prosecution
(my favorite Laughton role, an awful choice with so many options. I like this one because it includes Elsa Lanchester and Marlene Dietrich, and it gave Tyrone Power a rare chance to show that he was a really good actor)
Guys and Dolls
("One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider.")
Charade
(Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, dazzling script, and a creepy Walter Matthau)
The Court Jester
(Much though I like White Christmas, this is easily my favorite Danny Kaye movie)
Posted by sjostrom on August 04, 2003 10:24 AM
Comments:
Your point of view about movies is the same as mine:
If I want to see greed, lust, agony and death, I can stay home.
Cheers!
Posted by: jon ravin on August 5, 2003 07:08 AM [Permalink]
Yeah, Bedazzled had better be on that list! (Readers, the "cult thing" is a University of Chicago thing -- nobody attends the U of C without seeing that movie at least once.)
