Dignity, Always Dignity

I know I know its been forever, but I have been watching movies and just picked up another. So before I watch it I have to tell ya'll about the classics I have already watched, namely Singin' in the Rain! This is one of my family's favorites and for understandable reasons.
So to begin Singin' in the Rain was done by MGM in 1952 co directed by Stanley Donen and the great Gene Kelly. Gene Kelly was also the top choreographer and the STAR! I love Gene Kelly and his ability to make difficult athletic dance look so effortless. His feet just flow, and if you are an MGM fan than you probably have already seen Anchors Away, but that has some of the greatest dancing. Of course the classic scene is "Singin' in the Rain." That clip always makes me want to get caught by police for singin' and dancin' in the rain.
Little fun fact for you, Debbie Reynolds couldn't dance before this movie! Did you know this? I was shocked. She does such a good job for an untrained amateur. This is probably due to the fact that she lived in the dance studio for weeks so that Gene Kelly could properly train her. And from what I have heard of Gene Kelly he was intense. I am impressed that Debbie could survive such a dance boot camp. She said her feet in fact bled and she passed out. Oh all in the name of great movies! Also this is one of Debbie Reynolds early films. She was a little too immature for such a great part. In fact that part would have been logically suited for Jean Hagen, otherwise known as Lina Lamount. She was a seasoned actress who should have been the star. Small parallel drawn between reality and what was portrayed on the big silver screen.
Another fact I found out about while researching the film was made in 1952, which is about the time the television became a big competitor for Hollywood. In Singin' in the Rain talkies become the new thing in Hollywood that changes the face of film. The parallel drawn makes the show that much greater and I can't help but love it even more.
Oh there are so many things I could say even more about this show, but instead I'll give you my top favorite songs.

1.Singin' in the Rain
Ok it was to be expected, but I can't bear to put it any lower. Its too great!
2. Make 'Em Laugh
This song makes you realize that Donald O'Conner is the coolest! When he takes 3 steps up that board you gotta get on your knees and worship the man. That was no stunt double, that was the real deal.
3. Good Morning
Debbie Reynolds is so cute in this number, and I wake up singing this song...or stay up late singing this song. It truly appropriate for any time of the day.
4. Moses Supposes
Straight up great dancing. That's all it needs to be.
5. Fit as a Fiddle
So it may seem weird that I have this one up in my top 5, but if you watch the whole montage that it is in you'll understand. Dignity, always dignity.
6. Broadway Melody
This clip is random to me in the middle of the show, but I get so carried away in it that when it ends I think the show is over. I would probably be ok with that ending. And oh my can I just say Cyd Charisse your legs are amazing!
7. All I Do Is Dream of You
This is a catchy song and you'll be singin' in for days if you listen to it. Be warned.
8. Would You?
This is starting the decline. I don't really like this song. Done well, but not that great. At least its short.
9. You Are My Lucky Star
This song on the other hand is way way way too long.
10. Beautiful Girl
Why is the the bottom you ask? Weird. Straight up weird! "Anyone for tennis?" I mean what is that? I'm sorry the posed girls can't even hold their stance. Ugh. ha ha! You'll get a laugh I am sure.
Next to talk about is Gone with the Wind. Be tellin' you about it soon...very very soon.

Raging Fool

So I had saved Raging Bull to watch when I had sufficient time. I also racked up crazy fines for it, but I thought it would be worth my time. FALSE! So I started to watch it and it looked like it was going to be sweet. Its rated R so clearly I knew the language wasn't going to be great, but I was not prepared for the epic Scorsese De Niro combo. I only watched for 15 minutes before I had to turn the show off. I mean I listen to Dane Cook and the Breakfast club is my favorite movie, you think I would be able to handle the f word a few times, however I was sadly mistaken. When I was sick and tired of it I said one more time and I'll turn it off. We didn't even make it 30 seconds without it happening again. So that was the end of that.
Great films should also emcompass great writing. One word repeated as often as it was in Raging Bull was not intelligent nor worthy of the 100 greatest films of all time. Now I can appreciate that Scoresese likes to show low income citizens as they truly are, but I think that does a disservice to the low income families. They gotta be better than that. Ugh! Awful.
So if anyone knows an edited version they can loan me I am up for it. Thank goodness Singin' in the Rain is next. I love that movie.

Here's Lookin' At you Kid

Ah one of the classics! So I watched this show along time ago, but just haven't had the time to sit down and tell ya all about it. So I watched another one of the great documentaries on this show to get a little back story and learn more about its amazing writer and director. Oh the amazing things you can learn. Lets make a list of funny things I learned about Casablanca.

#1. The screenwriters Jules J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch didn't know how they was going to finish the show until they were driving over to the set on the day they shot it. They thought it would be fun to simply play it out to see what would happen. "Gather up the usual suspects" was a line they came up with in the car.

#2. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman couldn't stand each other off set and didn't really want to do the show in the first place. Amazing actors.

#3. May sound dumb that I didn't know this, but Casablanca is actually based off a play called "Everybody Comes to Rick's." However this play was unproduced so poor guys who wrote it all never really got their reward.

#4. Warner Brothers the studio who produced this cranked out a film a week and this was meant to be just another one. Little did they know it would be one of the greatest movies of all time.

#5. Here's Lookin' at you was the original line from the play. The screenwriters just added the kid part. It was the greatest change they could have made and made the line infamous!

The amazing writing in this film is my favorite. I don't think any movie has writing as great as this. Perfectly quotable. Favorite lines follow.

"I like to think you killed a man. Its the romantic in me."

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world. She had to walk into mine."

"Play it once Sam, for old times sake."

"How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Someday they may be scarce."

"Ricks the kind of man that... well if I were a woman, I should be in love with Rick."

I sure hope you all enjoyed this and can watch the show sometime. Next for me is Raging Bull and it has been collecting rental fines and dust while laying on top of my DVD player. I need to get on that.

I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse

I had to hunt to find this movie, which is weird considering its the 2nd greatest movie of all time. Mind you of course I live in Logan, Utah, but still. I went to Books of Yesterday on Mainstreet in Logan, because I am a poor college student and their rentals are only $1 for a week. Turns out though you get what you pay for the second tape doesn't work. So luckily for me this Sunday on AMC they had a Godfather marathon. I think God just wanted me to see this show edited, it makes a better Sunday activity.
Anyways... Its incredible and was well worth the hunt to find it. I am learning slowly though that the movies on this list aren't necessarily there for their content, although that is great, but they're on the list because of the controversy they caused. I figure most everyone has seen this show, although I hadn't, so I won't waste too much time with summary.
The Godfather follows the Corleone family and their "business." Marlon Brando plays the head of the house Don Vito Corleone and of course Al Pacino plays Micheal Corleone his son who inherits the business. Of course we all know that this is a mafia family, although the word is only said once in the movie. So Corleone has 3 sons and a daughter, Sonny, Fredo, Michael, and Connie. Here is basically their descriptions in a nut shell. Sonny is a crazy hot head, ends up dead. Fredo is a complete idiot, but he sets up a business in Vegas, the location of the 2nd film. Michael is the sweet war veteran who eventually becomes the worst and most violent of all. And then there is Connie, oh poor Connie. She is married at 18, gets pregnant quickly and ends up having the crap beat out of her by her husband. Vicious scene. So Vito in his old age won't make a deal with the new rising drug trade headed up by Sollozzo, because he thinks that is too dirty. Sollozzo is angry with the Corleone family for not supporting his business and tries without success to murder Vito. So Michael goes to kill Sollozzo to better the family business because after all its not personal its business. Then Michael goes to hide out in Sicily where he is happily married, but Sollozzo's men find him and kill his wife. He returns takes over the business once his father dies and shockingly kills off all the other heads. THE END.
The end shocked the heck out of me!!! Michael is so freakin' nuts by the end! Gotta love your main character being the worst of the bunch. I was also shocked however when Apollonia died. I wanted to cry a little inside for the loss of a perfectly amazing Sicilian girl. I of course have heard the line a million times of "leave the gun take the canoli" so I was very happy when I got to hear that, and of course the horses head is as classic as expected. I loved the movie, but then as I learned more about the making I began to respect it even more.
The Godfather was originally suppose to be a cheap quick movie, Francis Ford Copolla's specialty, but because of the filming location it caused a great deal more drama. NYC is never a cheap place to film, but its even more expensive when you have the actual mafia working against you. In order to be able to film without constant distractions Hollywood had to allow the mafia to read the script before the first scenes were filmed. It was at the demand of the actual mafia that the word mafia never be used in the script. Not only did they require this, but they also made Hollywood hire some of their own men to act in the film. That just makes it all the more legit!! So with all of this dealing the FBI didn't really approve, but who cares about them right!? A great film is so much better than whatever the FBI thinks.
I recommend this movie to anyone, mind you I did miss out on some of the violence since I did see it on TV, but the pregnant beating was enough for me. I can't wait to watch the second in the series, because I hear it is loads better than the first. Well Casablanca is up next and I am super excited. My brother tells me that it should be the first on the list.

A "Singer"

Oh man I watched Citizen Kane on Monday and loved it. So to tell all those people who are like me and knew nothing about this show it won an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Original Screenplay, but was actually nominated for 9 Academy Awards. Just goes to show you that awards are based on popularity are not actual content. It was directed by Orson Welles and he was also Citizen Kane. What a crazy talented man at only 24!!!!
The story follows the life of Charley Kane a driven ambitious man with more money than God. In the show he is already dead, but his life is told by his close friends and lover. He is pretty much sold off by his mother when he is very young to a wealthy man, Thatcher, so Charley can get an education and a better life. His career peaks in the journalism business rather early in life, and then you slowly watch his decline. So the whole goal of the movie is to find out what his dying word, "Rosebud," meant. You don't find out what it means until the end of the show, but the killer irony is that no one else in the show ever figures it out. You realize what it means at the end when all of Kane's workers are burning his numerous belongings and you see an old sled with "Rosebud" written across the top, the sled from his childhood.
"Rosebud" means so much more than just a sled. One of the characters in the show asks if maybe Rosebud is something Kane lost or always wanted. Of course it was!! Kane just wanted his childhood back, that had been ripped away from him so early in life. Kane tried for the rest of his life to fill this giant hole with alcohol, women, and possessions. His monstrous house Xanadu was just a monument to this fact. Although you see Kane is this vicious light through most of the movie you can't help but just feel bad for the guy at the end. Its just like MJ he just wanted to be a little boy again.
Aside from the main story this movie has great writing with a good mix of comedy and drama and amazing cinematography. I am still laughing that they called Kane's lover a "singer." ha ha!! So perfect! I also loved the part where Kane moves to New York and just steals all of the amazing writers for his own paper. Oh the things you can do when you have money coming out of your ears. The cinematography was WAY ahead of its time, and I am still shocked that the show didn't win the award for that one. I realize that there are a lot of similarities between it and Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchock in 1940, but it should still be recognized for its genius.
So because it is the greatest movie of all time I had to do more research on the show and the life of Orson Welles. So after reading reviews by Tim Durks and Robert Ebert and watching a documentary called "The Battle over Citizen Kane" made in 1998. I learned that Citizen Kane is actually based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, the insane journalist and owner of The New York Journal. So when this movie was made in 1941 Hearst was in his late 70s and on the decline. Gotta say Welles had some balls!! To basically make fun of a man and his loved ones while he is still alive is gutsy, and he ended up paying dearly for it. Hearst tried desperately to make sure the movie never got to the theaters, but Welles was determined to expose Hurst as much as possible, and now, well its the greatest movie of all time. Nice try Willey! Epic Fail! Although props to Willey for ruining Welles career and pushing him into bankruptcy so early in life.
Clearly there are some major differences between Kane and Hearst, like the fact that Hearst was born with loads of money and Kane had a classic "rags-to-riches" story. The script makes more sense however when you realize that Orson Welles was an orphan by the time he was 8. He was shipped off to boarding school where he was quickly realized for his genius and made it big. So although Hearst believed the movie was about his life I don't think he realized that Welles was really telling his story too.
All in all an amazing film with a killer ending. I would recommend this to anyone, and to my fellow Mormons out there its PG. Hope you all have already seen or will see this show and love it as much as I did.

The Quest

Old films have always been my forte. I've sat by myself watching TCM films until all hours of the night. Although I have enjoyed some amazing films, I've slowly begun to realize that I have to yet to watch sooo many classics. It was then that I began to hunt for a list that would fulfill all of my needs. Greatest movie lists are a dime a dozen, but I have found the best. It is an AFI list, but a rather old one. The new AFI lists are done by categories, which is not what this quest was about. To learn about classic American films I must watch THE best, not the best animation or the best science fiction. My list can be found here http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0760906.html Citizen Kane is the first on the list, and I have never seen it before. I can't wait to see THE greatest movie of all time, and escape from my college student studies for a few hours.