Happy 75th Birthday, ELVIS!

I have always loved Elvis Presley's music. There isn't a song of his that I don't like. One thing that I want to do is see ALL of his movies, which I haven't done. I have a couple of them taped from his all day TCM birthday salute, in addition to, a couple of documentaries.
If I had to pick my favorite Elvis film, it would probably be "Jailhouse Rock". I get a kick out of two great lines that he says in this movie. He goes to a party with his record executive friend. The exec's parents are throwing a party. A bunch of stuffed shirts. A discussion comes up about some crap, and the mother asks Elvis his opinion. He responds, "Lady, I don't know what the hell you're talking about", and walks out of the house. AWESOME! Then, he makes a pass at his "business" friend. She says, "How dare you try such cheap tactics on me!". Elvis comes back with, "Those ain't tactics honey. Thats just the beast in me". COOL!
HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY, ELVIS!

This Movie Sucked!

I taped "Two For The Seesaw" on TCM the other day. With Robert Mitchum and Shirley McLain in it, I thought it might be a treat. Boy, was I wrong! This movie was crap. It looked like it might be a good romantic story, but it was a painful look at two messed up individuals.
Mitchum plays an attorney from Nebraska, who moves to New York City to start over, after being in the process of divorcing his wife. He meets Shirley, and everything just goes downhill from there. The dialogue is monotonous, and its just downright boring. Instead of listening to her crap, and saying "to hell with this broad", Mitchum hangs around, while McLain acts so frickin' weird, that its hard to tell if she wants this man in her life or not.
This film definitely falls into the category of "Why in the hell was this movie ever made?" A total piece of shit!

I Always Like Obscure Movies

There are obviously movies that come on repeatedly like "Casablanca"(which I have never understood why that is considered a classic, it bored the hell out of me), but once in awhile, when
channel surfing, I will spot a movie that I haven't heard of before, so I take a stab at it.
Now, being a huge fan of westerns, I saw that Fox Movie Channel(which does show the same movies repeatedly), had a flick from 1956, "The Proud Ones" with Robert Ryan and Virginia Mayo(God, she was beautiful). It has a great supporting cast of Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan, Arthur O' Connell, Whit Bissell, and Richard Deacon(Mel Cooley from the old Dick Van Dyke Show).
Middleton and Ryan have a past and don't like each other. Jeffrey Hunter tries to be a badass, but doesn't pull it off. He's mad at Sheriff Ryan for killing his father, but Ryan has to set him straight on exactly why he had to do it. Once Jeffrey sees that Ryan is on the up and up, he becomes Ryans deputy.
Middleton runs a gambling house, and likes to hire dealers who cheat. Well, Ryan cuts in on him, and the Middleton gets some gunslingers to put Ryan down for good. With Jeffrey's help, Ryan takes down the bad guys. Meanwhile, Virginia just wants to get out of down and marry the sheriff.
I really enjoyed this flick. Good action, and a great cast.

Bardot and Connery in A Western?

Watching my favorite channel once again, Turner Classic Movies showed a film that I had only seen bits and pieces of before, and it was on my huge list of movies to see completely, and so I did.
Its a 1968 oater entitled "Shalako", with Bridgitte Bardot(with a huge amount of eye makeup) and Sean Connery. A hunting party is in the Southwestern United States trespassing on Apache land. Along comes Shalako(Sean) who has to save the group from being annihilated by the indians. Woody Strode plays one of the Apaches, and eventually, he and Sean have a one on one encounter to the death, although noone dies.
There is one really awful scene where Honor Blackman(Pussy Galore in Goldfinger), after pretending to be dead from an Apache attack, is approached by one of the indians. He wants to see if she is breathing, so he takes a handful of dirt, and starts putting it in her mouth. The other indians take turns toying with her, until the original bad guy forces her down on the ground to eat some more dirt. She comes up with the idea to pull out a bracelet that she had, showing it to see if that will save her. Nope. The bad guy decides to make her eat the bracelet, then forcing her to swallow it. End of Honor Blackman. Yikes!
I really enjoyed it. Of course, there aren't very many westerns that I don't like.

James Stewart Starts The New Year on TCM

Jimmy Stewart is definitely in my Top 10 Favorite Actor Category of All Time. I like all of his movies, but the one characteristic that I really enjoy is when Jimmy gets mad in a picture. Take for instance, "Anatomy of A Murder" from 1959. Pitted against two attorneys, one being George C. Scott, Jimmy loses his temper, and slams the palm of his hand down on a table. "What are you and Dancer trying to do, railroad my client into the clink?" is just a little of the great dialogue. Its classic Jimmy Stewart getting really pissed off!
My favorite channel, Turner Classic Movies, featured Jimmy all day on New Year's Day. "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "The Man From Laramie", and the awesome "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", were just some of the highlights. Of course, I have seen all of these multiple times. "Liberty Valance" has John Wayne and a REALLY EVIL Lee Marvin.
There are so many great Jimmy Stewart films that I know TCM has done this before, but one month maybe again they will make him their Star Of The Month.

January 1, 2010-My New Classic Movie Blog

I have been wanting to create my own personal classic movie blog for quite a long time, and after putting it off for so long, here it is. I wanted to wait until the 1st day of 2010, so now that its here, its time to get started.
Movies have been one of my passions since I was a kid. On the 13th of this month, I will be 50 years old. I have watched a lot of film in all those years, and I will be discussing whatever crosses my mind. And, I have a very long memory when it comes to flicks.
As a kid, I stayed up late to watch all kinds of movies. Really bad ones, horror, you name it. I didn't care, and still don't. Like anyone else, I have my favorite and least favorite actors, actresses, and movies. I will talk about those. Also, I have my favorite time periods for movies. The years I prefer are from the silent era until the 1970's. So, I will be sticking to that time frame.
Another area to discuss are types of movies. My two favorite are western and war. My least favorite are what I call, "artsy-fartsy" movies, such as an English movie with nothing but endless dialogue. I am not crazy about musicals, either. There are a few that I like though, A VERY FEW.
So, without much further ado, its time to TALK CLASSIC MOVIES!

My favorite movie of all time is "Elmer Gantry" from 1960. Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, and Patti Page are just some of the wonderful cast. There are so many things that I love about this film, with Burt being the top choice.
Now, I read the book. I thought it stunk. It wasn't anything like the movie. Oh, well. There are so many terrific scenes in this classic, and too many for me to go into on here. But, if you are a fan of Burt, you gotta check it out.