1. Debbie went out to Pinehurst Elementary School this afternoon and worked on getting ready to return to work on Monday. Later in the evening, she gave herself a Covid test and it was negative.
2. Bill, Diane, and I had a fun session on ZOOM this afternoon. We talked quite a bit about our experiences watching movies on television when we were young and how those memories have stuck with us. Bill and Diane, on their end of ZOOM, can show movie trailers or clips from movies and we looked at pieces of It Happened One Night, The President's Analyst, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Uninvited, and others. It was fun not only reminiscing, but talking a bit about how our experience watching movies was influenced by what happened when we were children. We experienced the magnetic power of movies and watching movies with other family members created bonds that lasted.
I mentioned that I have watched nearly fifty movies since around the end of July (and little earlier) since working to teach myself more about movies at Vizio University. I made a list of those movies and if you'd like to see it, I'm going to include it at the end of this post.
3. Since I discovered that Turner Movie Classics is a channel on YouTube TV, I now record the Saturday night/Sunday morning show Noir Alley. Every week, film noir expert Eddie Muller introduces a film noir movie, the movie runs, and Muller provides comments after the movie ends.
I enjoy Eddie Muller a lot for his manner and his expertise. This weekend's movie was, he told us, an obscure, rarely watched one featuring Anthony Quinn, Ann Bancroft, Farley Granger, and Peter Graves in a Brooklyn/Manhattan gangster story, The Naked Street.
I enjoyed how this movie blended the domestic, family life of Phil Regal, the thug portrayed by Anthony Quinn, with his life as a ruthless crime boss. The character played by Ann Bancroft, Rosalie, is Phil's sister and she gets caught in the middle of Phil Regal's divided loyalties. Peter Graves plays a New York newspaper reporter who gets so involved in the story of Phil Regal that he's essentially an arm of the DA's office as well as a suitor, looking to become Rosalie's lover.
I've read some reviews of this movie and not one reviewer expresses much enthusiasm for The Naked Street. I didn't feel nearly as critical of it as many critics did. I accepted The Naked Street on its own terms as combination gangster movie and morality tale and made up my mind to enjoy watching it unfold and watching some terrific actors perform.
I had a lot of fun doing so.
Here's the list of the movies I've watched at Vizio University:
Earlier this summer, I decided to immerse myself in the world of movies, most of them released fifty or more years ago. I’m keeping an ongoing list.
If you want more information about these movies, a quick trip to its page on imdb.com will fill you in on the year it was released, director, cast, and crew.
When We Were Kings
Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story
The King of Marvin Gardens
A Brief Encounter
Double Indemnity
Stagecoach
Red River
High Noon
The Harder They Fall
The Gunfighter
High Sierra
Movies Under the Influence
Laura
My Voyage to Italy
Out of the Past
Visions of Light
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Masters
Mildred Pierce
The Naked City
In a Lonely Place
Anatomy of a Murder
Witness for the Prosecution
The Set-Up
The Verdict
The Card
Blithe Spirit
Murder, She Said
Murder at the Gallop
Murder Most Foul
The Curious Case of Margaret Rutherford
Passport to Pimlico
The Smallest Show on Earth
The Inspector Calls
The Lavender Hill Mob
Sweet Smell of Success
Brighton Rock
63Up!
He Ran All the Way
Obsession
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Whipsaw
Manhattan Melodrama
The Happiest Days of Your Life
Murder, My Sweet
Bad Reputation
Room at the Top
Whiskey Galore!
Crook’s Tour
Bad Day at Black Rock
Detour
Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen
Invasion from Mars
Hobson’s Choice
The Naked Street
No comments:
Post a Comment