High Noon

Well, it's been another year... and a half. Yikes...
One post in the last three years. That is not a good track record.

Turns out I kind of needed a break from this little project of mine. There were so many other things to watch. I started getting together with a group every other week to watch a movie from RedBox. i.e. recent popular movies. Netflix and all their TV shows. (I couldn't figure out the plural of series...)



"High Noon" #33/27 1952 

Also, remember how I was going to use this blog as a way to remember all of these movies?
That would require blogging about a movie soon after watching it. And not waiting over a year...

I had at least started this post, with some random thoughts that I wanted to get in here.

Okay, High Noon.

A Western.

The movie includes a lot of conversations. Over the course of one day. There is this bad guy coming back into town. And everyone is terrified. Except the Marshal Will Kane. (Cue Gary Cooper)

The Marshal is ready to take the guy on. (again, that's why the bad guy is not currently in the town). 

And he starts recruiting help. He goes around, struggling to get people on board, people who were on board jump ship. And basically every would rather run away and hid in fear than face the baddie and his buddies. 

So, the Marshal takes him on alone. Well, not entirely, his wife is actually there, which is kind of awesome. (played by Grace Kelly. Also awesome)

When the gang arrives, in the final moments leading up to the big fight, there was intense background music and long shots of every character. Every single character. And it was this big climatic moment, and I found it hilarious. Did we need to get everyone's individual reaction shot on that?

Well, like any good western, the good guy wins! He and his wife take down the group. And the people of the town crawl out of their cowering places and surrounds them as they climb onto a horse-pulled carriage. This was the Marshal's last act, he is leaving town.

Before going, he needs to give his Marshal badge to his successor. He takes it off, and looks around at the people who deserted him, and throws it onto the ground.

Which was epic.

I felt so good that his final small gesture was so powerful. 

Now, I don't know that the awesomeness of those three seconds is worth watching the whole movie. But, I know that I do love a good ending. 

North by Northwest

"North by Northwest" #40/55, 1959
This was kind of a funny movie. A New York executive gets mistaken for a government agent by some baddies and they hunt him down. It's funny to see Cary Grant so bewildered by all the spy stuff. And of course there is a pretty young love interest that forces him to keep up with the spy stuff.
At the end, there is this epic, though intensely unrealistic, chase scene on the top of Mount Rushmore. It really was just so fake and unrealistic, but oh well.
I liked the movie, and of course, as he does in most of his movies, Alfred Hitchcock has a nice cameo at the beginning of the movie, where he runs into the door of a bus as he is attempting to board. And I'm not quite sure why, but it really made me laugh.
Here's a video of the opening credits, and his cameo takes place at the very end, around 1:45. Ah... makes me laugh every time.
This movie is not really all that great or bad. I give it a shoulder shrug and an "eh."

The African Queen

"The African Queen", #17/65, 1951
This movie takes place in 1914, at the very beginning of World War I. It takes place in Africa, and the African Queen is the name of a boat that Humphrey Bogart's character, Charlie, operates. He's a rough around the edges, blue collar worker, with a heart of gold. And he teams up (through a series of unfortunate events) with Katherine Hepburn's character, Rose, who is a proper, timid missionary (pretty petticoat and fancy hat).

The film was originally #17, and then drastically dropped to #65, which was the biggest drop in rank (without being removed from the list entirely).

This film has all sorts of interesting trivia to it. First of all, the first choice of actors for the two lead roles were not Hepburn and Bogart. But, it seemed to work out well for the filmmakers to end up with these two, as they are true superstars. Just like the Top 100 Movies list, AFI has a list of 100 Stars. Humphrey Bogart is the #1 male star, and Katherine Hepburn is the #1 female star.

Rose is living in an African village with her brother, as missionaries. Charlie has some kind of connection with them, I think delivering mail and just being the missionaries' connection to the outside world. Charlie shows up, and has lunch with them. There is this pretty hilarious scene over lunch with long, awkward, silent pauses between their forced small talk, and Charlie's stomach keeps growling in the pauses.
Then, the movie really kicks off when the Nazi Germans come in and destroy the whole village. And it was the most awful scene, they just run in with guns and set everything on fire and round up the villagers and haul them off somewhere, and leave Rose and her brother. But, dealing with the travesty proves too much for the brother and he passes away. Shortly after that, Charlie shows up and rescues Rose from this helpless, empty state she's left in and they board the African Queen.

The rest of the movie is this cute story of them living on this boat, getting to know each other, falling in love with each other, and having these desperate attempts to stop the Nazis. It gets really drawn on and slowly paced, but at the same time, it wasn't bad. The slowness just gave the audience the same feeling that the characters in the movies had of this drawn-out, never ending but still striving feeling, growing ever more hopeless, but still filled with this incredible motivation to get things done.

Nearing the end of their journey, there was a part where the river gets so narrow, covered by weeds, and current-less, that the boat simply won't move, so Charlie gets out, walks through the water while pulling the boat. (I tried to find the clip on youtube, but no such luck). When he gets back in the boat, he's covered in leeches. And Charlie is freaked out and shaking over them while Rose is putting salt on them to get them off. It's a scene that shows great acting by Bogart, and when asked in an interview about it, Bogart assured everyone that it was not great acting, he was thoroughly afraid of leeches.

This movie is not one I would particularly seek out to watch again, but if I was flipping through channels and came across it, I would stop and watch, at least for a little while. I think ultimately, the slow pace would lead me to change the channel again. But, it really was a great film, and I certainly think it belongs on the top movie list.

And, the last piece of trivia for you... The role of Charlie in the "African Queen" is the only Oscar of Humphrey Bogart's career.

Some Like It Hot

"Some Like It Hot", #14/22, 1959
This was a cute movie! It takes place in 1929, during prohibition. Though, everyone seems to know where to find the alcohol.
The movie is about two men who are musicians struggling to find a job. And there is a perfect job for them, except it requires two women. Then, when the men need to leave town (Chicago) to avoid getting killed, they decide to take the perfect job and get over the one thing that's not perfect, by dressing up as women.
It has the standard humor surrounding many comedies about men dressing up as women... getting used to high heels and nylons, and of course, our guys falling in love for women who are confiding in them as friends because they think our guys are women, and men who fall in love with our guys, thinking they are women.
The one particular women they're infatuated with is Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe. With a name like Kowalczyk, it has to be good. Just kidding, they clearly called her Sugar (just don't tell the feminists).
This movie was pretty entertaining. It had good humor, great comedic timing, a relatively unique approach to the whole switch-gender thing, some good chase scenes, some nice musical numbers, and ultimately some pretty clever lines/scenes. I would definitely watch this again, and recommend it to others.
Here are some good lines, which may not make sense if you haven't seen the movie, but they certainly make me smile.

Jerry: Will you look at that! Look how she moves! It's like Jell-O on springs. Must have some sort of built-in motor or something. I tell you, it's a whole different sex!

Jerry: I'm engaged.
Joe: Congratulations. Who's the lucky girl?
Jerry: I am!
Joe: There's another problem.
Jerry: Like what?
Joe: Like, what are you gonna do on your honeymoon?
Jerry: We've been discussing that. He wants to go to the Riviera but I kinda lean towards Niagara Falls.

And, my favorite part, which I can't find the exact quote for, and I don't remember exactly how it goes as I watched this movie back in September (about 4 months ago), is when the two men are about to take the car out of the garage, and the garage attendant asks if they needs some gas (for their 100 mile trip) and they ask for 'about 50 cents worth' or something like that. I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember wishing that gas prices today were much more like gas prices back then.

Oh, one more thing I just remembered! Spats! There was this baddie named Spats Colombo, and I suppose he got his name from his love for spats. Spats are this kind of shoe covering. They go under pants and over the top of the shoe. And Spats Colombo was very particular about his spats, and it was super entertaining. These need to make a comeback in the world of fashion.

From Here to Eternity

"From Here to Eternity", #52/removed, 1953
So is a war movie, kind of. It's about a bunch of soldiers stationed in Hawaii in 1941. It's an interesting movie. A lot of the plot is about a new soldier to the unit who doesn't want to fight (box), and all of his fellow soldiers harassing him about it, except for one friend, played by Frank Sinatra. The movie has all of the good plotlines... romance, bullying, friendship, love, lust, pride, integrity, murder, singing, dancing...
And, a very surprising ending that, even though it is really odd, it is actually kind of perfect.
I would be up for watching it again, but I wouldn't say that I particularly recommend it, so if you watch it and don't like it, don't blame me.

All About Eve

"All About Eve", #16/28, 1950
This movie was surprisingly good. There was wonderful character development and a pretty good plotline. It's all about Eve, who is this young, innocent person interested in acting. And she attaches herself to her idol, Margo. Then we find out, she's not so innocent. And Eve connives her way into Margo's place. Again, it was pretty good. I think I would watch it again, but it did get kind of long. It was only two hours, but the pace of the movie was pretty slow.
There was actually a remake of this that came out in 1973 called Applause. Maybe that one would be better paced? I don't know.
Overall, it was good. If it's on TV, you should watch it.

Rebel Without A Cause

"Rebel Without A Cause", #59/removed, 1955

So this is a pretty famous movie because it stars James Dean. Most people know the story of James Dean because he's referenced in a whole bunch of songs like "Vogue" by Madonna and "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel, and I feel like he shows up in a lot of TV programs that look back movie stars and what not. But, in case you don't know, James Dean was in a crap ton of movies from 1951-1954, but just had minor roles. Then he started to get leading roles, and his biggest role was in this movie. He had just been signed to be the star in nine movies. And then he tragically died when his car collided with another at age 24 in 1955. (Ironically he had just made some Drive Safe PSAs). So, even though he only starred in three movies, the combination of a sudden, tragic, ironic death at a young age while he was very much on top made him on of the actors that will long be remember. (Also a side note, the movie Giant was released after his death, so Heath Ledger is not alone in that).

So, this movie starts late one night when three teenagers are at the police/juvenile center all for independent reasons. And then either the next night or soon after, they all go to school. And the movie follows them throughout the day, and into that night and probably early the next morning. Other than that, you really need to watch this movie because it is the role that James Dean will also be remembered by, and it is a good movie.

The first thing that I noticed was when the teenage girl came on screen. I recognized her, and after checking imdb.com (the best website ever and the one that makes writing this blog so much easier) I verified that it was the same actress who played the lost/captured girl in The Searchers - Natalie Wood. She, like James Dean also died tragically, but not quite so young. She was out on a yacht with her husband and friends when she fell into the ocean and drowned (in 1981 at age 43)

And the actor who played the third main character in this movie was Sal Mineo, who also died tragically. He was stabbed and killed in 1976 at age 37.

Sorry this blog post turned so morbid, but I just really find it interesting that these three actors played the three main characters in Rebel Without A Cause and they call died tragically, but James Dean is the only one who is really remembered.

Oh, also I have no idea why this movie was dropped from the anniversary list. Yeah, really not sure what that's about.

Okay, so to sum up... watch the movie-it's pretty good.

A Streetcar Named Desire

"A Streetcar Named Desire" #45/#47, 1951
This movie was not so great. It's about this girl, Blanche, who goes to visit her sister, Stella, in New Orleans. And Blanche clashes majorly with Stella's husband, Stanley, played by the very studly Marlon Brando. First of all, I loved the old names in this movie. The fact that I actually remember them is something, because I honestly don't pay much attention to character names. But, the old names were just about about all I loved. One thing however, is that I couldn't guess what was coming. At first, Blanche is kind of flirty with Stanley, and I was very worried that some kind of horrible affair was going to happen, but it did not. So it probably was a good film in that it keeps the audience guessing and whatever, but it is not one I plan on watching again. So, since I'm not really recommending that you watch this one, I'm going to ruin the ending for you. You can stop reading if you have any major objections to that. In the end, Blanche goes crazy. Like, literally crazy, and they bring people from the insane asylum to take her away. Except, instead of it just being Stella and Stanley at home, there is like a party going on... it's Stella, Stanley, two of Stanley's friends, including the guy she dated in the movie, the neighbor. It was weird. It tied up a lot of things character wise and it did save some time because instead of the news being passed from person to person and seeing each of the reactions individually, the audience saw it all at once and it wrapped up nicely. But, if anyone ever calls the insane asylum on me, please promise that you will limit the number of people around when they come to take me away.

The Searchers

"The Searchers", #96/#12, 1956
Oh yes, a John Wayne western. Well, it was alright. Maybe the western thing is growing on me? Now that I'm actually the one choosing to watch it. Maybe it was that I hated westerns because I always wanted to be watching something else. Who knows? Well anyways... this movie lapses a few years, and it's all about searching for this little girl who was captured. The characters in it are all very amusing. It's got adventure, love, cowboys and indians, and a happy ending. So, if you like westerns, watch it, but if you're not really a big fan, then it's probably not worth your time. The thing that intruiges me the most about this is the huge jump this movie made. On the orinigal list, it was number 96, and on the anniversary list, it was number 12. How can it jump 84 places like that? I'm not quite sure why it's the movie that rose the most between the two lists, but that must mean it's a good film.

Shane

"Shane", #69/45, 1953
I wasn't very excited to watch this movie. It's a western. And I do not appreciate westerns. However, it was a pretty good movie. The basic set up is about a group of men who are farming/ranching and just making a small living, but they are getting all sorts of grief from a big ranch who think they are the shiz and deserve the land of the small farmers. And naturally there is a whole big fight thing going on, and everyone has to take matters into their own hands as the nearest law enforcement is 3 days away. Shane is a stranger to the town. He was a gunslinger, but wanted to get away from that, so he stays with the main leader of the small group of farmer/ranchers and trys out the farmer/rancher thing while offering moral support to the group. In the end, Shane becomes the hero by returning to his gunslinger ways, taking care of the bullies so that the famer/rancher heros can raise their family in peace.
So, not a bad movie, especially for being a western.