Hump Day Classic Movie: The Kid (1921)

Hard to believe considering how much of a movie buff I am, but until recently? I hadn't seen a Charlie Chaplin movie. Weird, I know.


The Kid is considered one of his best movies, and it's easy to see why. Despite the lack of dialogue and the weird, double speed that sometimes occurs in silent films, this movie is hilarious, sweet, heartbreaking, and never dull.

I was also struck by how earthy the movie was. There's unwed motherhood, drinking, violence... Something that in today's Puritanical movie ratings would earn this film at least a PG rating. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it.

Hump Day Classic Movie: Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)

Every once in awhile, Netflix coughs up a recommendation for a movie I haven't seen and end up loving. Blackbeard's Ghost is one of those. It features Peter Ustinov as the hilarious Captain Blackbeard, a selfish ghost who likes his rum too much.

I really loved this movie. It has that old-school feel, but because it wasn't made in today's sanitized family movie environment, it gets away with quite a lot. The hero of the story is played  by Dean Jones (of Love Bug fame), and watching him try to balance talking with ghost only he can see with not wanting to be thought bat-shit crazy is fun.

It's filled with quirky characters, a fantastic script, and overall great pacing, but honestly, Peter Ustinov steals the show. He's perfect in this.

Description from Netflix: In this Disney family favorite, Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones and a perky Suzanne Pleshette deliver plenty of laughs. A college track coach is desperate when he faces off against a group of racketeers who plan to turn his house into a casino. Out of options, he calls upon his ancestor, the great pirate Blackbeard, to defeat the motley crew of criminals. The film's special effects were groundbreaking for its time. Robert Stevenson directs.

Hump Day Classic Movie: It Happened One Night (1934)

This is one of the oldest movies I've really enjoyed.  Normally, some of those before the 1940s are cursed with the overacting that resulted from the switch from stage to screen and silent to talkies. Not so this one. It's fantastic and Clark Gable is a total hottie in it.

The movie also stars Claudette Colbert who nails the clueless, naive, but determined socialite on the run from a wedding she no longer wants.  There is lots of humor and charm in the script. The acting is superb. It's definitely held up well in the 81 years since it was released. 81 years!

You can watch it on Amazon Prime. It's also available on DVD.

Hump Day Classic Movie: The Trouble with Harry (1955)

I've been using my DVD Netflix subscription this summer like crazy, catching up on my suspense and film noir queue. (My internet is too pokey to reliably stream). So far, the highlight has been this dark comedy with a very young Shirley MacLaine.

I like to think of this as the original Weekend at Bernies. Poor Harry is dead, and so many people in this small town are trying to cover up his death. He is stumbled upon—literally—by person after person. Instead of getting help, they are all convinced they somehow accidentally killed him. 

The Trouble with Harry is part screwball comedy, part quirky small town, and part mystery. Hitchcock goes a little over-the-top with the physical humor, and the romantic part of the story irritates me. No, wait...that's MacLaine. I've never been a fan. There's enough sly humor, though, to make me chuckle. I really enjoyed how genre-defying the movie was. There aren't many out there like this one.

The Netflix description: Alfred Hitchcock's second American comedy demonstrates the director's flair for gallows humor. The trouble with Harry is ... he's "expired," and the residents of a quaint New England tourist spot just can't seem to get rid of him. Shirley MacLaine makes her film debut, and that's Jerry Mathers (the Beave himself) as the bewildered boy. See if you can spot Hitchcock in his customary cameo (hint: he's strolling past a limo).

You can find it on Netflix or on Amazon here.

Hump Day Classic Movie: Double Indemnity (1944)

There are a lot of noir films out there.  Finding a place to start can be intimidating. Fortunately, Google is my best friend. If I find a movie on multiple Top 10 lists, I bump it up in my Netflix queue. Double Indemnity is on just about every list out there. It's iconic, not the least because of Barbara Stanwyck's performance. I spotted a clip featuring her scene in the bath towel playing in the background on NCIS last night.

Fred MacMurray, probably best known for his Disney goofball roles in the Absent Minded Professor and the The Shaggy Dog, plays an insurance agent who winds up getting in over his head with an unhappy housewife who manipulates him into planning the murder of her husband.

Directed by Billy Wilder (who co-wrote the screenplay with Raymond Chandler, based on James Cain's book) the movie has some intricate, razor-sharp dialogue. There's plenty of action, too, but to get the most out of this movie, you have to really listen.

Hump Day Classic Movie: Gaslight (1944)

There are creepy movies, like last week's Wait Until Dark, that show criminality, greed, and desperation. Then there are movies like Gaslight that show just how subtle evil can be.

Ingrid Bergman didn't shy away from challenging roles, and this one is no exception. She plays Paula, a young woman who has suffered trauma upon finding her famous aunt's body as a child. She's sent away to school and returns to London 10 years later. Recently married, Paula is uncomfortable in the house and unsure of her relationship with her husband.

What follows is probably the creepiest, scariest act of evil as Paula is ever-so-slowly isolated from everyone by her husband. He limits her outings, spreading tales of how "fragile" she is. He avoids contact with the neighbors. He lectures and belittles Paula. And then he begins a campaign to slowly drive her insane by pretending that she's forgetting things, losing things.

What makes it so scary is that this is a classic set up for domestic abuse. It's a classic example of emotional abuse. And this was filmed in 1944.

Angela Lansbury, in her first big role,  plays a perfect accomplice. I love how even with her thick accent, she still sounds so very much like Angela Lansbury.

If you haven't seen Gaslight yet, you're missing out. It's a fantastic—if creepy—classic.

Hump Day Classic Movie: Wait Until Dark (1967)

Hey, they're back! It's Hump Day Movies again! Since the summer, I've treated myself to a DVD Netflix account (our internet is too pokey for streaming) and have been indulging in classic movies I can't get anywhere else.  I've come to appreciate Netflix's recommendation tool because it's recommended quite a few movies (new and old) I hadn't heard of before that I ended up really enjoying.

Wait Until Dark is one of those movies that on its surface is really simple. Blind lady gets terrorized by thugs...but what makes this movie so darn creepy is the performances of the stars and the way the story builds on itself. The audience watches as Audrey Hepburn's character, Suzy, is manipulated. Lied to. Threatened. They are in on it. Suzy is not. It's like watching something awful happen to someone and being powerless to stop it. That sense of helplessness the audience feels is what makes this movie work. It's immersive. And Hepburn sells it completely.

Alan Arkin is amazing in this, although he's so young it took me a long time to recognize him. You can find it on Netflix or on Amazon in digital format or DVD.

Hump Day Movie: Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Special

© Henstooth Video

For me, a child growing up in the 1980s, the Claymation Christmas Special made far more of an impact than the 1960s stop motion Rudolph and Frosty movies did. The Raisins and their friends were funny, they were unusual, and they were "modern."

Watching them today, the only thing that seems really dated to me is the sophistication of the claymation work. The California Raisins commercials were HUGE when I was little. Of course, I lived in California, but they made TOYS out of them. Those were some of the first toys *I* could ever remember being made from commercials. And they were raisins!  The Will Vinton Christmas Special took that stop-motion technique even further, using unusual characters to share a wide variety of carols.  The hosts are dinosaurs. The Carol of the Bells is done with goofy bells hitting themselves. It's silly, innocent, and still one of my favorite memories of the holidays as a child.

You can still find it on DVD, but I have yet to see this show in-store anywhere. Amazon has it for $20.

There are clips available on Youtube. I love We Three Kings . The shoes and mustaches on the camels kill me.

What's your favorite childhood holiday movie? Have you seen this one?

Hump Day Movie: Back to the Future (1985)

I recently purchased the original trilogy on Blu Ray, because I didn't own a copy. This seemed to be a huge oversight, given how much I love Michael J. Fox.  I hadn't seen this movie since VHS days, so there's a lot I had forgotten.

Things I didn't remember:
Crispin Glover and Huey Lewis are in this movie
Marty's mom is very, VERY forward.  Ew.
This was made in 1985. That's 28 years ago for those who hate math.

Also, there's a ton of jokes that didn't age well. They went completely over my kids' heads because they didn't get the cultural references. This makes me sad.

The kids didn't really enjoy this one, although they did like the 3rd installment. Go figure.

Hump Day Classic Movie: The Stranger (1946)

I decided it was time to let (force) Oldest watch some film noir with me. After all, he's a bit of an unhappy ending junkie (not really sure how that happened since I tend to be all about HEAs myself). This is his cultural education we're talking about. His grandma has already perverted his film education with Godzilla and Mothra marathons. I've gotta do something!

Enter, a quick Google search of Film Noir classics. Every week, I'm going to torture  treat him to a new-to-him classic movie. I might even let him eat some junk food while we watch. I'm a cool mom, sometimes.

We're starting with The Stranger. Just because. I think we can mock the way nobody in this film is able to follow anyone else with any semblance of stealth. Plus I can sneak in some historical reference points, too.

You can find it on Amazon Prime for free or, if you're not a Prime member, for rent.

Here's the synopsis: The great Orson Welles directed and stars in this tense thriller about as a respected small New England town college professor who will stop at nothing to conceal his shocking and deadly past.

Hump Day Classic Movie: His Girl Friday

It's pouring rain outside today and the weather experts say it will be raining all week. Time to break out the classics!

His Girl Friday is one of the quintessential romantic screwball comedies. It's famous for its frenetic, witty banter, and rightly so. I've probably watched this movie twenty times, and I catch something new every viewing. You'll need to crank up the volume to hear some of the dialogue.

Something I really love about this movie is how modern it is, even with the telephones and typewriters. It was made in 1940, adapted from a play, but the characters are so edgy. The two main characters are ex-spouses and in the newspaper business.  Hildy is going to be remarried, and Walter, confronted with the permanent loss of a wife he still cares for, sabotages her plans by using her love of the news business against her.

The dialogue is hilarious:

Hildy: "Walter, you're wonderful in a loathesome kind of way"

Walter: "There's been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey... here."
Hildy: "Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago. "

They remade this movie with Burt Reynolds, Kathleen Turner, and Christopher Reeve as Switching Channels in 1988, and it was nowhere near as good.

If you're a Prime member, His Girl Friday is free to watch via streaming.

Hump Day Movie: Batman (1989)

While listening to a new-ish song by Prince the other day, we were trying to explain to my eldest son how influential Prince was (and is) as a musician and songwriter. And talking about that eventually led to the whackadoodle soundtrack he made for the 1989 version of Batman. A movie, we discovered, we no longer owned since donating our VHS collection to charity...to which my darling child replied, " a VH--what?"

*Cue sadness and a feeling of being old*

Anyway, despite Heath Ledger's creepy performance as the Joker in the Dark Night, Jack Nicholson's performance is still a favorite with our family. It's been awhile since we've watched it (clearly) so I'm curious to see how it holds up after 23 years.

Yes, I did the math. It's really been that long. *more sadness*

Hump Day Classic Movie: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

I am currently raiding my mom's epic stash of monster movies for Halloween movie marathons. Here is one that we watched this week. One that I had, surprisingly, never seen.

While absolutely silly, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is an important one in the history of special effects and science fiction. It is an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury work (the first film made from his work according to the back blurb) AND it has a Ray Harryhausen monster.

The picture at left is a little blurry, so here's what all of those words say:

"The sea's master-beast of the ages—raging up from the bottom of time!"

"They couldn't believe their eyes! They couldn't escape the terror! AND NEITHER WILL YOU!"

"You'll see it tear a city apart!"

Amazon has it in a double movie set, along with THEM! The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

Hump Day Movie: Stand by Me (1986)

While I normally love happy movies, I occasionally like revisiting movies that MOVED me. A movie that stuck with me, even if only parts, will sometimes demand a rewatching. Stand by Me is one of those films.

I never understood quite why this film bothered me until I found out it was based on a Stephen King story. Stephen King freaks me the hell out. Even his works that aren't supposed to. He makes me squirm in an uncomfortable way with his ability to delve deep into human behavior. *creepy*

On the film history angle, the sheer number of future stars contained in this film is astounding. And not just "stars" but TALENTS. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell. I dare you to watch this film and not have some kind of visceral reaction to it. Good or bad.

Hump Day Movie: Flatliners (1990)

This is the movie that makes the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon so easy. Not only does it have Bacon, it has Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, William Baldwin AND Oliver Platt.

This is a relatively tame horror movie despite its R rating, but the sheer number of BIG NAMES in it made it a must-see for me when I was in high school. I think I've seen it maybe once since then. Luckily for us all, it's free to stream for Prime members on Amazon. Woohoo! And it's fairly cheap to purchase, too.

Here's the synopsis:

Are you afraid to die? Kiefer Sutherland isn't. He's an ambitious, charismatic medical student who persuades classmates Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon to take part in a reckless experiment. To see if there is life after death, they will kill themselves: temporarily shut down ("flatline") their heart and brain functions to briefly experience clinical death. After Sutherland survives the first experiment, the others flatline for increasingly longer intervals. But their horror begins when they realize that although they've come back alive... they haven't come back alone. Flatliners is a chilling suspense thriller of obsession, fear and redemption that will take you across the line to a place where terror lives forever. 
 
Oh, and while researching the whole Six Degrees thing I found this little gem on Wikipedia:

According to the Oracle of Bacon website approximately 12% of all actors cannot be linked to Bacon using its criteria (ie. cannot be linked to Bacon no matter how many steps)

Those poor souls...

Hump Day Movie: Man From Snowy River (1982)

[Photo: ©1982 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation]

 This is one movie from the 1980s that I think those of us born in  the late 1970s and early 80s got heartily sick of. It was on TV every time you turned around for decades. But I haven't seen it in a long time, and since it's a Disney movie, thought it might work for something to watch with the boys.

The good news: the makeup screams 1980s, but other than that, it's still very watchable.

My favorite part of The Man from Snowy River, besides the lovely scenery, is Kirk Douglas. I just loved him in anything he ever did. Especially when they gave him a quirky role (or two) in a movie that let him have a bit of fun.

This is a WESTERN. It's set in Australia, but has every genre convention found in just about every western movie ever made. Coming of age, overcoming adversity, falling in love with the boss's daughter...you name it, it's here. The Man From Snowy River is worth revisiting. If only to get that famous film score stuck in your head for weeks.

Hump Day Movie: Thunderheart (1992)

This is one of those movies that surprises you. You think you're going to get a standard thriller with some cultural appropriation, and instead you get a thoughtful exposé on real events that happened during the 1970s in South Dakota.

Thunderheart stars Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Graham Greene. I think this is one of the first movies I ever saw Greene in, and it's definitely the one where I developed my crush on him.

Kilmer plays an FBI agent in the 1970s sent as a liason to an Sioux Reservation to investigate a murder because he is 1/4 Sioux. The problem is that he doesn't identify with his Native American heritage, and to the people on the rez, he's just another white man in a suit. Once he arrives, he discovers that there is far more going on than a "simple" murder. He steps into the middle of a war, and some machinations by greedy people that have turned the South Dakota Badlands into the murder capital of the country.

There is a bit of "Hollywood" to the story, but enough heart remains to make this one of the more memorable Kilmer movies. It's one I recently re-watched on Amazon Instant Streaming, and it's held up just fine. It's also available on DVD for around $6.

It is very violent, however, and more than a little disturbing given the subject matter. If you haven't seen it, you've missed out.

Hump Day Movie: Short Circuit (1986)

Yes, I've been on an 80s kick lately. I can't help it. So many movies are being redone from the 80s, they are making me nostalgic. Plus, who couldn't use a good dose of Steve Guttenberg. Whatever happened to him, anyway?

We watched Short Circuit so many times when I was younger. In fact, I sometimes catch myself saying "No disassemble Number 5!" when I want to keep the boys from taking something apart. Of course, since they haven't seen this yet (soon to be remedied!), they have no idea what I'm talking about.

This is really a sweet movie, even if does have the hit-you-over-the-head 80s staple of humanizing the 'alien' in it. (If you wonder where Wall-E gets many of his mannerisms, look no further) And it spawned a not-quite-as-good sequel, too. I'm betting that once you watch this one, you'll want to break out Cocoon and Three Men and a Baby, too. Steve G is just so darn cute.

Hump Day Movie: Willow (1988)

Warwick Davis has an impressive résumé, but this is the movie I will always remember him for.  It's also the first movie I saw where Dwarfism wasn't presented as a disability. All to the good.

Not only does Willow  have Val Kilmer in it at the height of his career and attractiveness (he did NOT age well IMHO), it also has the future ex-Mrs. Kilmer, Joanne Whalley (who I think is just stunningly gorgeous).

Willow is one of those movies that didn't hold up well in the special effects department, but it was one of those movies I've never forgotten. It has action, adventure, romance and heart all set in a fantastical world.

Hump Day Movie: Overboard (1987)

During the Oscars, they had those interviews that featured actors talking about their favorite movies.  And Reese Witherspoon's was Overboard. I *loved* that movie when it came out. Even though it has some elements that would NOT be considered even close to okay now.

My favorite parts: Goldie Hawn's ridiculous eyelashes and her catatonic blubbering after spending all day with the boys. I know I feel like that on rainy days when I'm trapped inside with the kids. Buh, buh, buh, buh...

I really miss Kurt Russell movies. He was a huge star in the late 80s and early 90s, but we don't see him very much anymore. He had this smarmy charm that really worked when he had the right co-star. And his long relationship with Goldie Hawn, which began just before filming, makes the chemistry in Overboard smoking hot!