Movies

1. The Student Prince
2. Casablanca
3. Peyton Place
4. A Summer Place
5. In Harm's Way
6. Where the Boys Are [Paula Prentiss and Delores Hart version]
7. All the Fine Young Cannibals
8. Scrooge (A Christmas Carol] with Allister Sims

Others: All James Bond with Sean Connery, Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, The Parent Trap, The Learning Tree, It's a Wonderful Life, No Highway in the Sky and other James Stewart films, Beach movies with Frankie and Annette. For science-fiction, you just have to see The Day the Earth Stood Still and Tremors

The Student Prince has been sort of "dark horse" in the list. It came from the mists in 1996 to be a continually watched movie. In 1997 I wached it 8 times, but in 1998 I had to finally limit myself to once per month. It has great music and that old world academic atmosphere. I think it marks my mourning for the death of that lifestyle. Modern consumerism has taken it from us. A classic film to me! Mr. Roberts, staring Henry Fonda, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon, traces the USS Reluctant through World War II. At the same time it mirrors the plight of most people. Their dreams exceed the reality of their lives. In Casablanca Bogart and Ingrid Bergman cast a giant shadow over North Africa and world film making. This film was shot on the fly by people who were just hacking it along, but they achieved the classic and definitive look at love and honor. All The Fine Young Cannibals stars Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner in a classic of love and hurt. They play two wild kids fighting against their worlds and themselves in attempts to find love and peace. Through triumph and death they finally come to realize that they must be themselves and, only on that basis, can they make it through life. In Harm's Way is John Wayne, Patricia O'Neal, and a fine supporting cast getting World War II under way. This is a view of the traditional nature of the American people and government prior to the triumph of the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy of the government is wrong, but the person in charge and in the field always has the proper perspective and guts to make the right choices and win the day. What else would the Duke ever do? What else can we look to in times like ours except the anti-bureaucratic Duke. Where the Boys Are [the original version with Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton, Connie Francis, Yvette Mimieux, Delores Hart, Chill Wills, and Frank Gorshen] is a classic of the 1960s. The period was a time of innocence, according to the movies. Peyton Place and A Summer Place are aging visions of coming of age in America. The tension of good and evil are shown in their reduced forms compared to the ugliness of postmodern America.

Of course, always good for a nice time are the films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Naughty Marietta has a great conclusion. Rose Marie is a classic. Maytime is a tear jerker.