Junto Boys

THE MOVIE MEM

I found this on Terry Teachout a few weeks ago and have been meaning to post it with my own answers. Please do so yourself.

1. Total number of films I own on DVD and video.

40 or so

2. Last film I bought.

I think the last thing was Miller’s Crossing. I buy very few these days choosing to rent them on Netflix instead.

3. Last film I watched.

Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) Otto Preminger

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order).

THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) – I can’t believe they’ve never done this as a stage play. It’s mostly dialogue and yet it seems action packed. Bogart is at his cynical best. Sydney Greenstreet is captivating. Peter Lorre is oddly amusing. John Huston first directorial effort.

MILLER’S CROSSING (1990) – The Cohen Brothers witty take-off on Dashiell Hammett’s novel THE GLASS KEY. Great cinematography by Barry Sonefeld.

RIO BRAVO (1959)– My favorite Western. Great Cast of the veteran gunfighter (John Wayne) his sidekick (Dean Martin) the old man (Walter Brennan) and young gun (Ricky Nelson) that team up for justice. Angie Dickenson never looked better as the girlfriend. Howard Hawks last great film.

REAR WINDOW (1954) – My favorite Hitchock film. I know what happens and yet I still love the moment when Grace Kelly is finally won over to Stewart’s POV.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) – Full of that Americana stuff that I just dig with a kind of darkness that it doesn’t get any credit for.

5. If you could Be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?

Thinking about this question I realized that most characters are more fun to watch than to be. In fact, so many interesting characters face one pain the ass after another. Imagine having to be Tom Joad or LB Jefferies or Roger Thornhill or Indiana Jones or Tom Reagan.

Sky Masterson from GUYS AND DOLLS isn’t bad. He gets to shoot some dice and then he gets Jean Simmons. He spikes her milk with rum and she doesn’t even mind.

I’ve always liked the Gregory Peck character from ROMAN HOLIDAY. The movie begins with a poker game. Through dialogue you realize that he’s so broke that he’s stuck working in the Roman office of an American newspaper. It doesn’t seem like a hardship considering that he has a nice veranda to see the city and that regular card game. He even gets to meet and woo Audrey Hepburn. The downside is that returning to all of those things wouldn’t be so exciting once Hepburn returns to her unnamed European country.

It would be somewhat fun to be SAM SPADE and get to say things like. . . “Mrs. Spade didn’t raise any kids dippy enough to makes guesses in front of a District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney and a Stenographer.”