Friday, February 22, 2008

Favourite Movies - part1

I haven't gone to a movie theater in years. I can't stand people talking during the movie - unless they are telling me a visual detail that this old blink missed on screen! I prefer watching a movie at home on the couch and being able to hit the rewind button to catch what I miss. I'm probably one of the few people left who doesn't own a DVD player! But I still love watching movies.

The Oscars are this weekend and since I haven't seen any of the nominees. I started thinking about old movies that I have on VHS (mostly taped off movie channels in 90's). I looked through my list and came up with several suggestions for your next "movie night". I don't know how many of these are on DVD but a good rental place should have some of the titles. You can always keep an eye on TV listings for them as these have all been on at various times over the years.

Peter Sellers;
"A Shot In The Dark" 1964
"The Party" 1968
"Being There" 1980
"The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu" 1980

"Purple Rose Of Cairo" 1985
(Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels)
"Maxie" 1985 (Glenn Close, Mandy Patinkin and Ruth Gordon)
"Harold And Maude" 1971 a very dark comedy, but wickedly funny if you are in the right mood! (Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort)
"The Villain" 1979 (Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, Arnold Schwarzenegger...) - this is a western take off on Road Runner cartoons but funny if you are in the mood!
"Boris and Natasha" 1992 (Sally Kellerman and Dave Thomas) This is a spin on The characters from "Rocky and Bullwinkle" but funny if you are in the mood for something silly.
"The Cheap Detective" 1978
(Peter Falk and Ann-Margret)
"Clue" 1985 (Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn...)
"The Couch Trip" 1988
Dan Ackroyd and Walter Matthau)
"The In-laws" 1979
(Peter Falk and Alan Arkin) This is the original - not the remake.
"Roxanne" 1987 (Steve Martin) Watch if only for the nose jokes!
"Pete 'n' Tillie" 1972
(Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett)

Any movie co-starring Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau!

A lot of the early James Stewart (non western) movies such as
"Harvey" 1950 or any of the ones he did for Hitchcock such as "Rear Window" 1954, "Rope' 1948 or "Vertigo" 1958 are also very good.

As you can probably tell I love the old comedies and mysteries. I've never been a big fan of westerns, action or sci-fi but, hopefully you will find a few of these funny or worth the rental!

For info on any of these movies check out

http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp or http://imdb.com/

I also have several favourites in romantic comedies and "chick flicks" but I'll save those for tomorrows post!

dn

2 comments:

videonick said...

Greetings.

You mentioned some pretty great movies there. I'm not a real movie-goer either. But, there have been a few that I've liked over the years too. You mentioned a few of them.

I got a real charge out of "The Villain", "The Party", "Harold and Maude".

I really liked "Purple Rose of Cairo". I saw that back in the Superchannel days. I actually hadn't really heard of it until I stumbled across a preview of it on TV. The trailer they showed amused me so much, I decided I had to see it. I was glad I did. I always liked the play-within-a-play type story and this movie does it beautifully. If you are reading this blog and haven't seen it, go find it. Find it now. Stop reading, go find it!! I don't hear much finding happening. :-)

dn, you mentioned Western spoofs. One of my favourites is "Blazing Saddles". Oddly enough, I only saw it a few years ago, for the first time. That is good because now, with the age I am at, I can better appreciate the humour in it.

Take care all. Have a great day.

dnsyl57 said...

It was really hard to choose which movies to list because there are so many out there, but the ones you highlighted are pretty high on my list as well. As I recall, I was the one who introduced you to "Harold and Maude" and possibly "The Villain"! BTW - you're welcome!

The reason you don't hear people "finding" "Purple Rose.." is because they are enjoying reading my posts! lol They will look later! So don't tell them to STOP reading. That's what your blog will be for!!! LMAO