White Christmas

The movie White Christmas will always be a sentimental favorite of mine because my mom loved it so much.  Every time I watch it I think of her so I was thrilled to be able to see it on the big screen last night in honor of its 70th Anniversary (I bought a ticket as soon as the Fathom's Big Screen Classics series lineup was announced last December!).  After collaborating on a Christmas show while fighting in World War II, Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) continue performing together after the war and become big stars.  They meet the Haynes Sisters, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen), after they are tricked into seeing their act.  Wallace and Davis eventually follow the sisters to Vermont where they are booked for the holidays at the Columbia Inn and discover that their former General, Tom Waverly (Dean Jagger), owns the inn and is in financial trouble due to the lack of snow.  Bob has the idea of staging their show on Christmas Eve to bring people to the inn and Phil has the idea of getting Bob and Betty together.  I have seen this movie so many times and I eagerly anticipate all of my favorite scenes, including the iconic number "Sisters" performed by the Haynes Sisters (my sisters and I can recreate this for you for a small fee) and, more hilariously, by Wallace and Davis (Danny Kaye is having way too much fun in this scene), the big song and dance numbers as Wallace and Davis rehearse the show (my favorite is "Mandy" as Vera-Ellen is flipped over and over as she descends a set of stairs), the scenes where Emma (Mary Wickes), General Waverly's housekeeper, eavesdrops on every phone conversation in her role as President of the New England chapter of Busybodies Anonymous (I laugh at everything she says), the emotional reunion of the 151st regiment to honor General Waverly (this always brings tears to my eyes), and, of course, the title song at the end of the show complete with snow falling in the background.  I don't think I will ever get tired of watching this Christmas classic and it was so much fun to see it with a big crowd (I don't think there was an empty seat) who clapped and cheered after every musical number.  You have one more chance to see this on the big screen tonight (go here) and I highly recommend getting a ticket.

Note:  The full lineup for the 2025 Fathom's Big Screen Classics series hasn't been announced yet but the January selection is The Goonies.

Rear Window

I haven't been to many movies in the Fathom's Big Screen Classics series this year but I just couldn't resist Rear Window in honor of its 70th Anniversary.  Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors and this is widely considered to be one of his best movies so I was really excited to see it on the big screen for the first time.  I found it to be incredibly riveting.  L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is a photojournalist who has been incapacitated by a broken leg and is confined to a wheelchair.  Because he has nothing else to do he spends most of his time watching all of his neighbors across the courtyard from his window.  After he hears a scream in the middle of the night and sees a man named Lars Thorwald (Raymund Burr) leaving his apartment with a large suitcase multiple times, he becomes convinced that Lars murdered his invalid wife when he doesn't see her the next morning.  He enlists the help of Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), his socialite girlfriend, Stella (Thelma Ritter), the nurse hired to care for him, and Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey), a buddy from the war now working as a detective in the NYPD, to help him investigate.  However, the man he views through the telephoto lens of his camera eventually gets a little too close for comfort.  What makes this so compelling is that we in the audience are also voyeurs just like Jeff because we see everything from his POV (many of the shots are framed as if being viewed through his telephoto lens) so we are just as eager to solve the crime as he is.  It is an incredibly clever conceit.  The suspense is almost unbearable, particularly in a scene where Lisa is in danger of discovery from Thorwald because Jeff cannot do anything to save her.  I loved the dichotomy in the characters of Jeff and Lisa because he is a man of action but cannot take any action while she is viewed as frivolous but is more capable than she appears.  All of the technical aspects, especially the complicated set, the atmospheric lighting, and the diegetic sound design, are very well done and definitely enhance the mood.  I was surprised by how much more I enjoyed this movie seeing it on the big screen so I definitely recommend this series.  Go here for more information if you are interested.

Gone with the Wind

Last night I got to see Gone with the Wind on the big screen in honor of its 85th anniversary and it was an amazing experience to see this epic movie presented as it was meant to be seen!  On the eve of the Civil War, the spoiled and petulant Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) thinks only of attending genteel parties at neighboring plantations and of catching the eye of the soft-spoken Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard).  Her life is forever changed when war is declared and when Ashley marries Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).  Through sheer determination and force of will she does whatever it takes to survive the horrors of the war and keep Tara, her family's plantation, during the turbulent days of Reconstruction all while continuing to pine for Ashley.  However, she meets her match in the rakish blockade runner Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and she eventually marries him despite the fact that she doesn't love him.  It takes a tragedy for Scarlett to realize that her love for Ashley was an illusion, just like life in the South before the war, and that Rhett is the one she truly loves.  She begs him for a reconciliation but he tells her that it is too late which prompts her to return to Tara which is the source of her strength.  While this movie is very problematic, especially how it romanticizes the Antebellum South as a time of chivalry with knights and their ladies fair and the portrayal of slaves as docile and content to be owned by their benevolent masters, I really love the underlying story about perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds (especially by a woman), the iconic performances of both Leigh and Gable, and the stunning cinematography (the wide shot of Scarlett walking among the Confederate dead and wounded and the silhouettes against the burning of Atlanta are breathtaking).  It was so much fun to see this with a crowd because there were cheers during all of the familiar quotes and applause at the end.  There is one more chance to see this as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics series (go here for information and tickets) and I highly recommend it.

A Christmas Story

I love the movie A Christmas Story so it was really fun to see it on the big screen last night to commemorate its 40th Anniversary (this makes me feel old because I remember seeing it in the theater when it was first released).  During the week before Christmas in 1940, nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) desperately wants an official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time but his Mother (Melinda Dillon), the Old Man (Darren McGavin), his teacher Miss Shields (Tedde Moore), and even Santa Claus (Jeff Gillen) all tell him that he'll shoot his eye out!  There was a really big and boisterous crowd at my screening (one large family took up all of the other seats in my row so they adopted me as a member) and I loved hearing everyone laugh out loud at all the funny moments, especially when Ralphie and his friends are chased to and from school by Scut Farkus (Zach Ward) and Grover Dill (Yano Anaya), when Schwartz (R. D. Robb) triple dog dares Flick (Scott Schwartz) to stick his tongue to the flag pole, when Randy (Ian Petrella) eats like a piggy, when the Old Man wins a Major Award, when Ralphie says the F-dash-dash-dash word while helping the Old Man change a tire, when Santa Claus pushes Ralphie down the slide, when Ralphie is forced to wear the bunny costume given to him by Aunt Clara, and when the Bumpus hounds eat the turkey forcing the Parkers to eat Christmas dinner at the Chop Suey Palace.  I had to stop myself from saying all of my favorite lines aloud ("Randy lay there like a slug.  It was his only defense.")  I look forward to watching this every Christmas Eve (several times because it is on for 24 hours) but I'm so glad that it was part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics this year (I love this series) because it put a huge smile on my face!

Note:  The movies in the Fathom's Big Screen Classics series for next year are The Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, Labyrinth, Gone With the Wind, Steel Magnolias, South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut Sing-A-Long, The Never Ending Story, Rear Window, Blazing Saddles, Mean Girls, The Fifth Element, and White Christmas.  Are you excited for any of these titles?

The Birds

I am a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock (my rankings change all of the time but he is definitely one of my top three favorite directors) so I was really excited to see The Birds, which is back in theaters in honor of its 60th anniversary, last night.  I have seen this movie many times but it was a very different experience seeing it on the big screen!  Socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) meets a man named Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet store as he attempts to buy two lovebirds for his eleven-year-old sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright).  On impulse, she decides to buy the birds and take them to him at his family home in the small Northern California town of Bodega Bay where she meets his former girlfriend Annie (Suzanne Pleshette) and his disapproving mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy).  As the relationship between Melanie and Mitch develops, the town is inexplicably and viciously attacked by a variety of birds.  What is so brilliant about this movie is the almost casual introduction of the romance between Melanie and Mitch with subtle foreshadowing of the horror to come.  Then, when the birds finally begin attacking, the tension is almost unbearable.  I was especially unnerved by the suspense as Melanie waits for Cathy outside of the schoolhouse while birds ominously gather on the playground and when Mitch, Melanie, Lydia, and Cathy anxiously wait inside their house for an attack they know is coming.  The practical effects, involving both real and mechanical birds, really hold up because they are quite disturbing, particularly the attack on the school children as they are running away, the attack on Melanie as she is trapped in a phone booth, and the attack on Melanie in the attic.  The sound design is absolutely brilliant because the sound of the birds attacking is terrifying but the use of silence is even more effective at creating an atmosphere of dread.  Finally, the ending is so bleak (my audience sat in stunned silence even after the lights came back on) but it is the perfect way to emphasize the fact that we are all powerless against the forces of nature.  This is one of Hitchcock's best movies, in my opinion, and I'm so glad I got to see it on the big screen (especially during the month of October).

Grease

My sister Marilyn and I are huge fans of the movie Grease so we were really excited that it was being released in theaters again to commemorate its 45th anniversary (what?) as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics series. We went to see it last night and we both loved it (we tried hard not to sing along to every single song but we may or may not have been successful).  Grease is the quintessential high school movie featuring a love story between bad boy Danny Zuko (John Travolta), the leader of the T-Birds, and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), a good girl who has recently transferred to Rydell High from Australia.  They have a summer romance but it takes a little help from the rest of the T-Birds (Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, and Kelly Ward) and the Pink Ladies (Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, and Dinah Manoff) to get them back together by graduation.  I love all of the songs, especially "Grease" during the opening and end credits, "Summer Nights," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Greased Lightnin'," "Sandy," and "You're the One That I Want," and the choreography is so much fun and definitely stands the test of time (I actually prefer the movie adaptation to the stage version because of the new songs that are used and the choreography).  I love Newton-John (it was a little bit sad to see her on the screen after her recent passing) and Travolta as Danny and Sandy because, even though they both look way too old to play high school students, they have so much chemistry together, especially during "Born to Hand Jive." I also really love all of the cameos by popular stars from the 1950s, such as Sid Caesar, Eve Arden, Alice Ghostley, Joan Blondell, and Frankie Avalon.  Finally, even though I didn't grow up during the 1950s, I love all of the nostalgia for the era with all of the leather jackets, letterman sweaters, poodle skirts, malt shops, drive-in movies, and fantastic cars.  It was so much fun to see this on the big screen with my sister and we are now looking forward to seeing The Birds in October and A Christmas Story in December as part of the Big Screen Classics series (go here to see all of the movies in this series).

Note:  Every time I watch this movie as an adult I am always really shocked by the suggestive lyrics because my sisters and I used to sing them at the top of our lungs whenever we watched it as kids!