Robert Wise Blog-a-thon

Today begins the Robert Wise Blogathon hosted by Octopus Cinema. They have a list for pre-reading and are adding posts as writers submit them. It looks great already. I just love blogathons. They give me an excuse to watch movies I might otherwise not see.

The wikipedia article on Robert Wise is here. FilmReference.com says, "Through the wide range of his work, Wise proved himself to be a highly versatile director." The American Film Institute has information on him. Bright Lights Film Journal has an interview. Memory Alpha's page is here.

I'll add links here as I see more movies by him:

The Body Snatcher (1945)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Haunting (1963)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)

I saw more of his movies before I started blogging than I've seen since. It may be time to re-visit some of them. I don't have any of his films in the stack to be watched.

Now, on to the pre-reading!

The picture at the top of the post came from Octopus Cinema.

The Spirit of Ed Wood Blogathon

The Husband has been wanting the film Ed Wood for quite some time, so I'm using this Spirit of Ed Wood Blogathon as an excuse to buy it.

I'll link to my posts on Ed Wood films here:

Bride of the Monster (1956)
The Astounding She-Monster (1957)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Revenge of Dr. X (1970)
Ed Wood (1994)

Bright Lights Film Journal has an article on Ed Wood. FilmReference.com says he "typifies the ultimate in filmmaking independence." Images Journal says, "Surely any lousy, boring mainstream movie is worse than the constantly surprising, intensely weird, totally personal, never dull Wood films." Cinema Styles lays the blame for the bad reputation on Wood's writing, saying, "So why the reputation? It's all in the writing" and "it was his writing, his god-awful painfully awkward dialogue that did him in. Nothing can redeem the dialogue of Edward D Wood Jr."

Claude Chabrol Blogathon

An embarrassment of riches! After a while with no blogathons to play with, I have 2 in a row. The Claude Chabrol blogathon is in honor of the director's 6/24 birthday and is hosted by Flickhead, where it looks like there'll be a lot for me to read. I know nothing about this director and have never seen any of his movies.

When I watch his movies, I'll link to the blog posts here:

Les Biches (1968)
Nada (1974)
Madame Bovary (1991)

Film Studies for Free offers links to resources for the blogathon. Senses of Cinema says his "name is famously associated with the path-breaking criticism of Cahiers du Cinéma and the rise of the French New Wave," calls him "a craftsman productively immersed in the conventions and compromises of mainstream filmmaking" and describes him as "Highly regarded as one of French cinema's elders". Images Journal closes their consideration of his work with this:

He is undeniably a filmmaker of some significance, as much an antidote, then, as a slavish follower of Hollywood models of film narration.

FilmReference.com begins by pointing out the balance in Chabrol's work:

Chabrol's work can perhaps best be seen as a cross between the unassuming and popular genre film and the pretentious and elitist art film: Chabrol's films tend to be thrillers with an incredibly self-conscious, self-assured style—that is, pretentious melodrama, aware of its importance. For some, however, the hybrid character of Chabrol's work is itself a problem: indeed, just as elitist critics sometimes find Chabrol's subject matter beneath them, so too do popular audiences sometimes find Chabrol's style and incredibly slow pace alienating.

The Guardian calls him "forever young and impish, dependably macabre" and closes with this:

If you crave crisp, elegant, precise and disturbing film-making, and you've never seen a Chabrol film, start with The Girl Cut in Two, then settle back for 50 years' worth of movies just like it. There's a mother lode of sick pleasure to be had here.

The New York Times describes him as

a filmmaker who can thrill without thrilling, who can solve a murder mystery without implying that he’s solved the mystery of life and who can, at his best, use the predictable to illuminate the unpredictable.

Japanese Cinema Blogathon

What fun! It's been a while since I've seen a blogathon, and this one looks enjoyable. Wildgrounds is hosting, and the list of participants and the comments promise lots of interesting reading.

Here are a couple of online resources:
Bright Lights Film Journal has links to their articles on Japanese film.
Wikipedia has a chronological list.

I'll link here to Japanese movies (many of which are available online) I've watched and have blog posts on, and I'll add new ones here in future as I watch more:

1920s:

A Page of Madness (1926)

1930s:

An Inn in Tokyo (1936)
Osaka Elegy (1936)
Sisters of the Gion (1936)

1940s:

Ornamental Hairpin (1941)
Sanshiro Sugato (1943)
No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Drunken Angel (1948)
Here's to the Young Lady (1949)
Late Spring (1949)
Nora Inu (1949)

1950s:

Rashomon (1950)
Scandal (1950)
Wedding Ring (1950)
Repast (1951)
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)
Ikiru (1952)
Life of Oharu (1952)
Lightning (1952)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Ugetsu (1953)
Gojira (1954)
Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Sound of the Mountain (1954)
I Live in Fear (1955)
The Burmese Harp (1956)
Warning from Space (1956)
Ghost in the Well (1957)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Ghost of Chibusa Enoki (1958)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (1959)

1960s:

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Jigoku (1960)
The Naked Island (1960)
Ghost of Oiwa (1961)
Yojimbo (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
Matango (1963)
Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964) (and Attack from Space)
Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Kwaidan (1964)
Onibaba (1964)
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)
Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965)
The Sword of Doom (1966)
The War of the Gargantuas (1966)
Cruel Ghost Legend (1968)
Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)

1970s:

Silence (1971)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Hausu (1977)
The Little Match Girl (1977 animated short)
Empire of Passion (1978)
The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

1980s:

Kagemashu (1980)
Virus (1980)
Angel's Egg (1985)
Ran (1985)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Princess from the Moon (1987)
Akira (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

1990s:

Dreams (1990)
Ninja Scroll (1993)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Cure (1997)
Perfect Blue (1997)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Ringu (1998)
Audition (1999)

2000+

Cowboy Bebop: the Movie (2001)
Metropolis (2001)
Pulse (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
Suicide Club (2002)
Appleseed (2004)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Steamboy (2004)
Paprika (2006)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007)
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

James Bond Blogathon

Today is the first day of Lazy Eye Theatre's Licensed To Blog: The James Blog-A-Thon. It officially goes through 11/14, but we plan on watching Bond films until we've had our fill of them. Since it's been years since I saw any of them besides the 1st Craig movie that may take a bit more than the 3 days included in the blogathon proper.

Films watched for the event:

Dr. No (1962, Sean Connery)
From Russia with Love (1963, Sean Connery)
Goldfinger (1964, Sean Connery)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, George Lazenby)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974, Roger Moore)
Goldeneye (1995, Pierce Brosnan)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997, Pierce Brosnan)

exploding car total so far: 10

I've found some bizarre James Bonds out there:
Tom Hanks
Mr. Incredible
Wall-E
Batman

Our Man Flint is a James Bond parody.

There is a video documentary with composers John Barry and David Arnold here.

This video has all those gun barrel film openings (and the one opening that's different) through 2006:


Here are all the posters:


Cinematical has an annotated list of their favorite Bond films. They name these 7:

1. Goldfinger
2. Thunderball
3. From Russia With Love
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
5. GoldenEye
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. Casino Royale

Movies About Movies Blogathon

Goat Dog is hosting a Movies About Movies Blogathon. Blogathon posts are being archived here. What with vacation, the Olympics and the upcoming political circuses I hadn't planned much film-watching, but I'm going to try to watch something in observance of this blogathon. I have 8 1/2 (reviewed for the blogathon by Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies here) sitting in the stack to be watched as we speak.

He links to a list of suggestions.

From that list these are the ones I've seen:

Behind the Screen (Silent, 1916)
Felix in Hollywood(1923)
45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926)
Man With The Movie Camera (Soviet Union, 1929)
The Masquerader(1914)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
A Star Is Born (1937)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)

I've seen these and they seem appropriate for the blogathon, but they are not on the list:

King Kong

Ones I've not yet seen:

2LDK (Japan, 2003)
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945)
Adaptation(2002)
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)
The Auteur Theory (1999)
Auto Focus (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
Baadasssss!
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Barton Fink (1991)
Benny's Video (1992)
Beware of a Holy Whore (Warnung vor Einer Heiligen Nutte) (West Germany, 1970)
The Big Picture (1989)
Bollywood Calling (India, 2002)
Bollywood Dreams (India, 1995)
Bollywood/Hollywood (Canada, 2002)
Bollywood Queen (UK, 2002)
Bombay Talkie (1970)
Bombshell(1933)
Boogie Nights (1998)
Bowfinger (1999)
The Brothers Skladanowsky (Die Gebruder Skladanowsky) (Germany, 2002)
Il caimano (Le caiman; The Cayman(Italy / France, 2006)
Camera (2000)
Camera Buff (Amator) (Poland, 1979)
The Camerman (Silent, 1928)
Celebrity (1998)
Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) (Italy / France, 1988)
Close-Up (Nema-ye Nazdik) (Iran, 1990)
Contempt (Le Mépris) (France / Italy, 1963)
Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938)
David Holzman's Diary (1967)
Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine) (France / Italy, 1973)
Day of the Locust (1975)
Ed Wood (1994)
8 1/2 (Eight and a Half) (Italy, 1963)
Electric Shadows (Meng ying tong nian) (China, 2004)
Evidence of the Film (1913)
The Extra Girl (1923)
The Festival: Disaster Film Has a Whole New Meaning (TV series, 2005)
Ficció (Spain, 2006)
The Film Fan.(1939)
Film Geek (2005)
The Fluffer (2001)
For Your Consideration (2006)
Free and Easy (1930)
Get Shorty (1995)
The Girl of Your Dreams (La Niña de tus ojos) (Spain, 1998)
Gods and Monsters (1988)
Hijacking Hollywood (1996)
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
Hollywood Capers.(1935)
Hollywood Daffy(1946)
Hollywood Ending (2002)
Hollywood Steps Out.(1941)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Hollywoodland (2006)
Hurlyburly (1998)
Illusions (1983)
Inland Empire (2006)
Intervista (Italy, 1987)
Irma Vep (France, 1996)
The Lady Killer.(1933)
Last Action Hero(1993)
The Last Tycoon (1977)
The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra(1928)
Lisbon Story (Germany / Portugal, 1994)
Living in Oblivion (1995)
Lumiere et Compagnie(France / Denmark / Spain / Sweden, 1996)
Malibu Beach Party (1940)
Man Bites Dog (Belgium, 1992)
Millennium Actress (Sennen joyu) (Japan, 2003)
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938)
Movie Crazy (1932)
Movie Star (1916)
My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005)
Newsfront (Australia, 1978)
Om Shanti Om (India, 2007)
Once Upon a Time Cinema (Ruzi Ruzagari, Cinema) (Iran, 1992)
Passion (1982)
Peeping Tom (UK, 1945)
Pittsburgh (1971)
The Player (1991)
Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
La Ricotta(Italy, 1963)
RKO 281 (2000)
Safe Conduct (Laissez-passer) (2002)
Sex Is Comedy (2002)
Shadow Magic (China / Germany / Taiwan / USA, 2000)
Shadow of the Vampire (UK / USA / Luxembourg, 2000)
Sixteen Millimeter Shrine(TV 1959)
Slugs (Nacktschnecken) (Austria, 2004)
Soigne ta droite (Keep Your Right Up!) (France, 1982)
Speaking Parts (1982)
A Star Is Born (1954)
A Star is Hatched (1938)
Star Maps (1997)
Stardust Memories (1980)
State and Main
State of Things (Stand der Dinge) (West Germany / Portugal / USA, 1982)
The Stunt Man (1980)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Super 8 1/2: A Cautionary Bio-pic (1995)
Swimming With Sharks (1994)
Tango(Spain / Argentina, 1998)
Twilight (1997)
Ulysses' Gaze (To vlemma tou Odyssea) (1995)
Valley of the Dolls (1967)
What's Cookin Doc? (1944)
Who's Camus Anyway? (Kamyu nante shiranai) (Japan, 2005)
You Ought To Be In Pictures(1940)

Political Satire Family Film Festival

The Husband found a list of political satire movies at yahoo, and we decided to have our own private blogathon of sorts with a focus on political satire and questioning authority. We're inspired by these movies and will watch some of them and others that seem to fit a celebration of the revolutionary July 4th.

The yahoo list:

Duck Soup
Dr. Strangelove
The Rules of the Game
Putney Swope
Network
The Road Warrior
Brazil
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Our additions:

The President's Analyst
The Mouse That Roared

The photo at the top of the post is from uhuru1701's Flickr page.

Dads in Media Blogathon

Today is the first day of the Dads in Media Blogathon hosted by Strange Culture, who hosted last year's Film + Faith Blogathon. I've been gathering together some movies to watch to celebrate the theme of this blogathon and am looking forward to reading the posts.

Here are the films we watched during the 4-day event:

Life is Beautiful
Foyle's War: The German Woman
The Princess Bride
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow

I do so enjoy it when folks host these blogathons. I learn to see things I've never noticed before and watch films I've never heard of or made time for.

Indiana Jones Blogathon

Today begins the Indiana Jones Blog-a-thon being hosted May 16th - May 23rd by Cerebral Mastication. The contributions to the celebration are being archived here.

We devoted our evening to a viewing of the first in the series: Raiders of the Lost Ark. We watched it back in August when The Younger Son saw it for the first time, and tonight The Daughter had her first experience of it. She had seen the other 2, so I'm not sure how she managed to miss this most worthy one, but there ya go.

I was sharing with The Offspring how much I enjoy Karen Allen in this film, how much I missed her in the next 2 and how much I look forward to the 4th installment solely because she appears in it. I've also seen Karen Allen in Animal House and Starman (with Jeff Bridges -we recently saw him in Iron Man). When I said I was disappointed she had not been cast in the other Indiana Jones movies the kids said that she wouldn't have been a good fit in them. But that's my point exactly! The other movies would have been completely different with her in them and that -especially in the case of installment #2- would have been a Good Thing.

Bob Costas interviewed her in 1991. Part 1 of 3 has spoilers for Starman:

Part 2
Part 3

We have gotten a lot of mileage out of the government warehouse scene, but really we know where the Ark of the Covenant is: Ethiopia. At least that's what the people say who have charge of the Ark in Ethiopia.

5/26/2008:

BankRate.com has an interview with Karen Allen, looking at her in a whole new light.

Invitation to the Dance Blogathon

5/10:
A Chorus Line

update:
later on 5/9:
The Red Shoes

The Dance Blogathon is hosted at Ferdy on Films. Tomorrow is the last day, so I'm coming to the dance late, but I've been looking forward to watching a couple of films and reading the archived posts.

As I look back I haven't seen too many movies that feature dance since I started this blog, but I do remember these:

Royal Wedding

Maya Deren included dance in some of her work.

The Skeleton Dance, a 1929 cartoon short, is the 2nd film embedded in this post.

The Blue-Footed Booby Dance

Matt dancing around the world. Twice.

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895 short) is 1st on this page.

A Buffalo Dance, Imperial Japanese Dance, Sioux Ghost Dance... are embedded here.

Scrooge Ballet

It seems like the big musicals I've seen that had lots of dance numbers in them are ones I watched before keeping the blog. I do have a couple of new ones in mind to watch for this blogathon.

Val Lewton Blogathon

The Evening Class is hosting a Val Lewton Blogathon this week. Updates are here. I remember the first time I saw Cat People, which he produced. I was 13 or so, I guess, and saw it on tv one summer afternoon. It had a big impact on me, and, though I didn't see it again for years, I always remembered it. Val Lewton produced a series of horror films in the 1940's. I wish we had cable (I know, I know...) and could watch the film on him set to air tonight on TCM.

Carl Sagan

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1996 of Carl Sagan, one of the most well-known popularizers of Astronomy. His Cosmos series "has been seen by 500 million people in 60 countries". He has an official site here. There is a memorial blogathon here,where posts in his memory are being offered. Perhaps billions and billions of people will participate. There are tribute pages scattered all over the web, including one at The Planetary Society. There are nice obituaries at CNN, APOD and CSICOP. Here is Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit.

The memorial blogathon is being updated here.

Short Film Blogathon

Check out the blogathon, co-hosted by Culture Snob and Only the Cinema, here.

I am looking forward to seeing what short films the blog participants look at this week. I haven't done any critical evaluation in my posts, but here are short films I've blogged in the past, and I will add new ones to this list as I watch them:

My first project is to post a sample of short films from the early history of film. I've been watching some of them as I've run across them and sought out others specifically with this in mind. These early film makers had genius! A few shorts from early film history:
before 1894
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898

Alice comedies

George Landow

Ernie Gehr

Felix the Cat

Fernand Leger

Max Linder

Winsor McCay

Jean Rouch

Rene Clair

Robert Breer

Chris Marker

Mary Ellen Bute

Marcel Duchamp's 1926 short film Anemic Cinema

Rose Hobart (1936)

The short films of Michael Dudok de Wit

The short films of Harry Smith

Shorts directed by J. Searle Dawley:
Rescued From an Eagle's Nest (1908)
Frankenstein (1910)
Snow White (1916)

The short films of Maya Deren

The films of Georges Melies:
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Man with the Rubber Head (1902)
The Infernal Cakewalk (1903)
The Monster (1903)
The Infernal Cauldron (1905)
The Black Imp (1905)

Cartoons for Halloween

Short films based on short stories:
The Sealed Room (1909), inspired by Poe's The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), based on the Poe story
The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) based on Poe
There Will Come Soft Rains is a Russian animated short film based on a Ray Bradbury short story.
Betty Boop as Cinderella and Snow White
Icarus, a retelling of the myth with robots
Lot in Sodom (1933) re-tells the Bible story.

Short films watched for the Luis Bunuel Blogathon

Jean Renoir's A Day in the Country -at 40 minutes- is perhaps pushing it for length to be a "short" film, but I tend to think of that as being the defining line. So, in my ignorance, I think of anything shorter than 40 minutes as being "short". Perhaps I'll learn more about the parameters during this blogathon.

So, Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct... It's 41 minutes long. Much too short to be considered a feature film, it qualifies as a "short" in my mind. How do you define "short"?

La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922), a Germaine Dulac short and one of the first (is it the first?) feminist films.

Links to lots of videos I watched for the Slapstick Blogathon, many of which were film shorts:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4, part 1
Day 4, part 2

Piotr Kamler's short films

I'm not including music videos as short films, but I couldn't ignore the Jefferson Airplane/Star Trek White Rabbit.

I'm also not counting educational/informational films, but, again, I couldn't leave out A Fair(y) Use Tale. And there are a couple of great videos speaking to the copyright issues involved in DRM here and here. And then there is video of historic events, such as I included in my post on the Galveston hurricane.

Animator vs. Animation 1 and 2

Top SF videos online

Beware the Chub Chubs. I do love this one.

Remember Matt? Well, I don't know where the hell he is now, but you can see where the hell he was in these travel narrative dance videos.

Beneath the Willow Tree, a Chinese Tale

Since it's winter Fisherman's Nightmare and that old Bud Ice Penguin TV ad lend some seasonal atmosphere to the project.

Elephants Dream made a big splash when it first came out, but if there've been ripples since I've not noticed.

Rashomon

Flimsquish is hosting a blogathon on the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. We've been buying his films one at a time since we heard about the event and saving them up to watch during this week.

We're going to try to watch several Kurosawa films during this "Kurosawathon". I'll add links to those posts as I write them:

Sanshiro Sugato (1943)
No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Drunken Angel (1948)
Stray Dog (1949)
Rashomon (1950)
Scandal (1950)
Ikiru (1952)
Seven Samurai (1954)
I live in Fear (1955)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Yojimbo (1961)
Kagemashu (1980)
Ran (1985)
Dreams (1990)

inspired by Kurosawa:

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Seven Swords (2005)
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

As of 11/14/2007 the only film I have seen by this director is Rashomon, which I watched back in February.

I'm recopying that post (with a couple of edits. Well, more than a couple...) here to get a start on things:

This 1950 Japanese film tells the story of a crime from four different perspectives including those of the perpetrator and the victim. The film is available on DVD from Criterion and can also can be viewed online:

I wish these links were stable.

The wikipedia entry on this movie is here. Where is the truth in these stories?

There are more recent examples of how events are interpreted differently according to the perspective of those involved. A comedic example from All in the Family:

There was a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called "A Matter of Perspective" which dealt with this same issue.

I admit to seeing both the Archie Bunker and ST:TNG episodes on tv first-run, but I had no idea then that there was a name for what they were doing.

Cinemathematics offers the stories on which Rashomon was based here ("In a Grove" by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa) and here ("Rashomon" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa). The Listening Ear has a blogathon post on this movie. Movie Moxie also wrote about Rashomon for the blogathon.

The House Next Door has a review.

NPR reports that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

has launched a three-month tribute to the director, anchored by a restored version of Rashomon — Kurosawa's legendary study of truth, memory and perspective — along with rarely seen sketches in the director's own hand.

Criterion Confessions has a post of Kurosawa-related art. BFI has a centennial article online.

Film + Faith Blogathon

Miscellaneous posts related to this blogathon:

Christ Figures in Film
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo


I am looking forward to reading the posts in the Film + Faith Blogathon and thought I would take this chance to look back over the ArtsAndFaith.com list of 100 most spiritually significant films and perhaps watch a few more. We are trying to discern some common element in these movies, some common reason they were chosen while others were not included.

Here's the entire list.

The Luis Buñuel Blog-a-Thon

Flickhead's Buñuel-a-Thon begins today and goes through 9/30. I am lucky in noticing that some of his works are in the list from the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and in looking them up see that some are available for online viewing. Jackpot!

You can watch Un Chien Andalou at googlevideo here. (11/11/2007: available here) (10/14/2007: It is no longer available online that I can find.) (9/26/2007: Broken Projector wrote a post on this short film for the Flickhead Bog-a-thon.)

L'Age D'Or:


(9/26/2007: CinemaStyles has a couple of L'Age D'Or posters.)

Las Hurdes:


This is a French documentary (English subtitles) on Buñuel:

William Wyler Blogathon

Today begins the 9/21-9/23 William Wyler Blogathon. William Wyler directed a lot of films, many of which received Academy Award nominations. Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben Hur won best picture awards. I'm just beginning to pay attention to particular directors in history so had never realized that he had directed such varied pictures.

I have seen relatively few of his movies. We watched The Best Years of Our Lives recently. I've seen his 1939 Wuthering Heights, 1953 Roman Holiday, 1959 Ben-Hur and 1968 Funny Girl, but it's been a long time. My, he was eclectic!

The ones of his I would most like to see of those I've missed are The Letter with Betty Davis and How to Steal a Million with Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn, but I've spent all my discretionary entertainment funds buying DVDs for the Akira Kurosawa Blogathon coming up in November. I've only seen one of Kurosawa's films. (sigh) So many movies, so little time....

Slapstick Blog-a-Thon

Slapstick Blogathon, Day 2
Day 3
Day 4, part 1
Day 4, part 2
Day 4, part 3

Day 1:
I thought The Husband might appreciate the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon, and sho nuf, he got out The Three Stooges VHS containing A Pain in the Pullman (viewable online in two parts, part 1 and part 2), Gents Without Cents and Termites of 1938 (view online here).

Niagara Falls (from Gents Without Cents) was one of the few Stooges bits I thought was funny, but we acted out Slowly I Turned a lot when we were kids. Here it is: