Update

Hi all!

Just to let you all know, NO the blog is not over yet :) I've received some rather menacing threats regarding my blog but rest assured it was only a small break! A couple of weeks of traveling to New York City, North Carolina and Georgia in addition to a rush of Mootinis orders had me swamped! All of that being said, it was nice to get a few moments without movies....WHAT?!! Did I just say that? I guess 70+ movies in is about as far as I can go before I feel worn down! I will pick up again very shortly - please don't leave me :)

......and leave me comments!! You know who you are! ;)

Mickey Rooney's Impersonations of Clark Gable & Lionel Barrymore

After reading Julia's comment on Captains Courageous, I found a great video of Mickey Rooney doing impressions of Gable and Barrymore :) Hilarious!!!

Day #74 - The Guns of Navarone

IMDB Link

Ooooh, good movie :) Gregory Peck - le sigh. I loves me a rugged tall man :) Hahaha - ok really, I enjoyed this movie - another good WWII movie, though much more palatable than some of the others I've seen. The plot was easy to follow which I appreciate because some war movies are hard to follow if you don't come in already knowing about the situation or the people involved.

The Guns of Navarone was made in 1961 by Columbia Pictures - directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn (LOVE) and David Niven. The Guns of Navarone were actual guns that were positioned on a cliff in Greece overlooking the Aegean Sea - their location enabled them to sink Allied ships while maintaining a spot which was heavily protected and fortified. Peck, Quinn and Niven were part of a selected group of soldiers sent on a near impossible mission to destroy the guns. As the guns were positioned on the edge of a cliff, the beginning and end of their mission involved scaling the straight up and down face.

I love Gregory Peck as much as any woman with a brain but I'm not sure military roles are really his strong suit. He has a very signature look on his face all the time - like he is amused....or smug? How do I describe it? He always looks like such a nice guy - it works great if you are playing Joe Bradley or Atticus Finch but I'm not sure it's quite as convincing as a military commander. All I see when I look at David Niven is the Pink Panther so that took him out of the game - and Anthony Quinn, well, I just love him. I also saw him in Lawrence of Arabia but I have to admit, and I am NOT ashamed to say, that I FIRST saw him in A Walk in the Clouds. Yes, thank you.

The Guns of Navarone won an Oscar for Best Special Effects but was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Score, Best Sound and Best Screenplay.

Day #73 - Captains Courageous

IMDB Link

Awww, this movie was really cute :) It took me awhile to get into it - I was afraid it wouldn't hold my interest but it eventually did - about 45 minutes in. I was really looking forward to seeing this since my Mother-in-Law recommended it as a great Spencer Tracy movie - and as this challenged has led me to become a great fan of his, I knew I was in for a treat. I didn't expect this kind of a role though! Tracy played a Portugese fisherman who spoke in broken English, which, at first, was really annoying - but I got used to it after a bit and it wasn't so bad. I guess at first I didn't understand he was Portugese and so I though he just sounded uneducated.

Captains Courageous centers around a young boy named Harvey - Harvey's father is very wealthy and his lack of attention to his son has led Harvey to become spoiled and entitled. He bribes kids at school to get what he wants and has few friends to show for it. One day he admits to a teacher that he had tried to bribe him to make his history exams easier and got kicked out. When his Father hears the news, he is shocked, mostly because he really doesn't know his son at all. He decides to take Harvey with him on a ship to Europe - when Harvey accidentally falls overboard, he is picked up by the fisherman Manuel (Tracy). Harvey spends the next several weeks with Manuel and the other men on the fishing boat - Manuel takes an interest in him, teaching him how to fish and telling him stories of his own Father who had died at sea. Harvey sees how little his own father had taught him and really latches on to Manuel, learning many valuable lessons before returning back to the mainland - I won't ruin anything else from the ending :)

I just really loved the relationship between Manuel and Harvey - Manuel could appreciate the simple things in life and found very little value in money and material things - quite the opposite of how Harvey had been brought up. In one of the scenes in the movie, Manuel challenges another one of he fisherman to a contest to see who can catch the most fish. When Manuel finds out that Harvey ruined the other guys line so that he and Manuel could win, Manuel forfeits the challenge and treats Harvey to silence. I really liked this bit of plot because Harvey was learning things about integrity and honesty when he had been so oblivious before. I enjoyed Freddie Bartholomew as Harvey - he was prett insufferable as the snotty kid at school but once he got on the fishing boats he was much more tolerable :)

Spencer Tracy won a Best Oscar for his role as Manuel. The movie was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Editing in 1937.

Ohmygosh, can I please take a second to talk about Lionel Barrymore? He played the Captain of the ship and I just saw him a couple of weeks ago in You Can't Take it With You. He is so hilarious - Chris and I were constantly laughing at him because he has this way of yelling his lines where I have NO idea what he's saying! It just all runs together! I like him a lot :)

Day #72 - On the Waterfront

IMDB Page

WOW. On the Waterfront was fantastic. Marlon Brando - fantastic. If there is one actor that all actors worship, it is Marlon Brando - the king of the Method, he had a style that many since him have tried to emulate. Throughout the course of this challenge his name has come up constantly as other actors list who they admire and respect. I was really excited to see him in this movie as I knew it was one of his most famous roles.

On the Waterfront is about Terry Malloy, an ex-boxer who works on the docks of New Jersey - not only is he a dock worker, he works with the mob that runs the local union. The mob is headed by Johnny Friendly (Lee Cobb), whose right hand man Charlie Malloy (Rod Steiger) happens to be Terry's older brother. The men of the dock follow the "D&D" rule - Deaf and Dumb - they know that you simply don't speak out against the mob unless you want to swim with the fishes. After one of their own, Joey Doyle, is killed for speaking out against Friendly and his men, Terry starts to wonder if what they are doing is right. One day he runs into Joey's sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), who is dedicated to finding out who killed her brother. As his interest in Edie grows, she works with Father Barry (Karl Malden) to help Terry follow his conscience and speak against the mob in court. Meanwhile, Friendly warns Charlie to keep his brother in line - leading to the famous scene between Charlie and Terry in the back of the cab. Charlie has basically been sent to kill Terry but can't to it - and Terry shares with Charlie the loss he feels over the life he could have had if he had been allowed to box without the intereference of the mob ("I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody"). In the end, Terry must stand up to Friendly and win back the rights of the union workers.

Watching Brando to me is a bit like watching Spencer Tracy just in the sense of naturalism. I imagine that the things he does are not written on the page - that he starts with the script but then adds in mannerisms and gestures that are subtle yet make him feel like a real person. He really feels vulnerable to me - specifically, there is a scene where he is talking to Edie in a salloon and she forces him to face his conscience - he kneels down on his knees and looks up to her, asking her what is wrong. It's such a tender moment and yet he can turn around and be just as tough in the next scene- really amazing.

On the Waterfront was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 8 - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Brando), Best Actress (Eva Marie Saint), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. The three Oscars it did not win all came from Best Supporting Actor nominees to Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee Cobb. The quote "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which I am" was #3 on AFI' list 100 Movies, 100 Quotes, behind "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" and "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."

Elia Kazan was the director of On the Waterfront and apparently used this movie as a vehicle for telling his own story of ratting out colleagues to the House Un-American Committee - Roger Ebert covers this really well in his review which is linked below:

Roger Ebert's Review

Day #71 - Ben Hur

Ben Hur. I can't believe it's taken me so long to see it. I guess I thought I had magically watched it sometime without realizing it - but honestly none of it was familiar. I thought it was absolutely amazing - I loved the story and was moved by the set design and effects, especially in Rome. Ben Hur follows the story of Judah Ben Hur, a wealthy native of Jerusalem at the time when it was being taken over by the Roman Empire. When Judah turns against the Roman placed Governor - coincidentally his boyhood friend Masalla, and is wrongly accused of attempted murder on a Roman soldier, he is banished to the gallows and his mother and sister are placed in jail. He vows revenge on Masalla, his anger and hate fueling his will to live. After saving the life of a Roman General who commanded the ship he worked on, Ben Hur was adopted by him, living in Rome for a short period of time becoming a champion Charioteer. He leaves Rome to search for his family and find his revenge on Masalla, eventually defeating him a chariot race which leads to Masalla's death. I don't want to say much more about the plot as I don't like to give away too much - the movie continues as Judah reunites his family and finds his faith through the witness of Christ's crucifixion. I had a couple issues with the ending but overall really loved the movie.

There were a number of things that I loved about this movie - first of all, Charlton Heston. Throughout my challenge I have found a couple of people who I could cast in the story of my life - and for the role of my Grandpa Eckelman I am casting Charlton Heston. I can't quite put my finger on it but I believe it's something in how he moves his mouth. Mom and Melissa, any thoughts? I'll find a good pic for above. Anyhoo - Heston was really great in the role of Judah Ben Hur. I haven't seen him in a movie before and was surprised at how much I liked him. He had a good mix of strength and masculinity but at times he was also a bit feminine (for lack of a better word). Interesting. So another thing I loved was the story of Jesus - although not the primary story, I think that the question of faith and hope is really important in this movie and in the end plays a huge role. Throughout the movie you hear talk of the man from Nazareth - I just like that you never see the face of Jesus and the story only exists to strengthen that of Ben Hur and his family. Finally, wow - enough can't be said for the chariot scene. Apparently it took 5 months to film and of course that was before there were any computer effects so it was all straight camera work - amazing.

Ben Hur saved MGM from bankruptcy - a huge gamble, it really paid off by earning $75 million at the box office. It also won 11 Academy Awards - a feat only equalled by Titanic and Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. What I simply CANNOT understand is how it won 11 Oscars and lost only one for Best Screenplay - how on EARTH can you win Director, Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Set Decoration, Costume Design, Cinematography, Special Effects, Film Editing, Sound and Music and NOT Screenplay!? Are you kidding? Impossible.

Day #70 - You Can't Take it With You

I got crazy swamped with Mootinis so unfortunately my movies took a backseat - I actually watched You Can't Take it With You a few days ago but haven't posted yet - I'm so behind! Tonight I am starting on Ben Hur - I think I will post in two parts since that's how I'll have to watch it. Very excited :)

You Can't Take it With you is a 1938 Frank Capra movie starring Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold and Jean Arthur, amongst others. It's VERY Capra-esque, very similar in many ways to It's a Wonderful Life. The story is basically about love/family/friends vs. money/what money can buy. Alice (Jean Arthur) lives with her family in a crazy home - they have picked up many strangers over the years which has led to a wild and interesting bunch of people bunking together. Alice's grandfather (Barrymore) truly feels that one should only spend their life doing what makes them happy and places next to no importance on money and material things. Alice spends her days working as a secretary for the Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart). As part of the Kirby family, Tony has a ton of money and power as his Dad controls much of the going-ons in the city. When Tony and Alice fall in love, Alice's family only cares about her happiness and so they are supportive - however, Tony's family is none too happy. They think Alice is far below what Tony deserves and they think her family is absolutely out of control. One night, the Kirby's are visiting Alice's family and all goes haywire, resulting in everyone getting arrested!! While everyone is in jail, Alice's grandfather tries to tell Mr. Kirby that if he were take away his money, he would have no friends, because, after all, "you can't take it with you.". This was my favorite part of the movie - I really like the message in the movie, that money may buy you nice things, but in the end, it's the people that care about you that really matter. In a very "Capra-esque" turn of events, Mr. Kirby eventually sees the errors of his life and makes friends with Alice and her family.

You Can't Take it With You was the 1938 Best Picture Oscar winner. Frank Capra also took home the Best Director statue :)

Jimmy Stewart is, of course, so cute. I love him. ...and I really enjoyed Lionel Barrymore. I definitely recommend this movie - and give it some time. It took awhile to grow on me and in the end I was really happy with it:) Chris really liked Jean Arthur, as he also did in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I liked her a lot until I found out she didn't like working with Jimmy Stewart, at which time I declared her to have no soul.