Hollywood Public Library
So for many years (I’ve lost track of when I started) I’ve been working my way through AFI’s Top 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. My checklist has been pinned to several different refrigerators in at least two states, and by now I’ve ticked off about 80 of the 100. I’ll earnestly watch a trio of westerns or Hitchcock flicks, then lose interest in mainstream Hollywood and wander off into a Bollywood marathon or a documentary spree (or maybe even see a slew of new movies), only to return to the project months later for another round. By no means do I dig all of these movies, but I sure love checklists!
Let’s see. It happened one night recently that I finally got around to watching It Happened One Night. Solid Frank Capra entry. Good show! Check!
Bringing Up Baby, on the other hand, didn’t happen one night. No, it took me the past three evenings to get through this assault of a screwball comedy. The sensation of watching it was vaguely reminiscent of trying to chase away (catch?) little Jeremy Martin, the fastest runner in my fourth-grade class, as he took schoolyard name-calling to an interesting new level by mercilessly taunting me: “Katherine Hepburn! Katherine Hepburn! Katherine Hepburn!”
The best thing about the Bringing Up Baby DVD (another generous loan from The Best Library) was the gallery of trailers for other Howard Hawks films. This trailer for Rio Bravo is kind of a giddy thrill, especially when the rockin’ baby-faced Ricky Nelson breaks into song and then breaks character to address the movie-going masses. (”There’ll never be another like the ragged woman-wrecked castoff called Dude.” Those folks obviously never predicted the coming of The Big Lebowski.)
Even more enduring a thrill is the reference interview fantasy that introduces The Big Sleep. Check it out!
May 9th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
The Queen of the Green offers homage to the Empress of the Best List, though your Princess Sis had a pretty good one going, too, of the best 100 books. I enjoy the abiding pleasure of (swack!) checking off another goal accomplished, since most of life, mine at least, involves repetitive tasks that can never really be done. Hooray for Ricky Nelson, whose baby face I hope to see someday when not protected by a filter here at work; he remains one of the dreamiest of my fantasy loves, crooning so sweetly with such luscious lips, such soft hair and skin, such a fluid river of liquid harmonies. You know he died doing drugs in a plane that crashed and left twin boys with his voice? They flamed briefly as Nelson, was it? I digress.
I recommend to cinemaniacs a whimsical French film called Avenue Montaigne in English (Fauteuils d’orchestre) that is currently playing in our art cinema. Delightful.
Forgive me if I rush out of the screening room - I’m having visions of Matthew McFadden striding across the meadow at dawn, a soft breeze lifting his hair, a proposal on his timorous lips. I’m off to seek him.
Hooray for Cinema!
PS On a random note, did anyone else blink twice when Sesame Street decided to change Cookie Monster to Veggie Monster? He’s crunching carrots now. Let’s all go and do likewise….
May 26th, 2007 at 10:31 am
“I liked that… I’d like more.”
RIO BRAVO is Howard Hawks at his absolute best, although I could just as easily recommend ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, BALL OF FIRE, RED RIVER, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT or TWENTIETH CENTURY.
But remember, this comes from some one who thinks BRINGING UP BABY is the bee’s knees!