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Movie Quote of the Day – Light in the Piazza, 1962 (dir. Guy Green)
Meg Johnson: Signor Naccarelli?
Signor Naccarelli: Yes?
Meg Johnson: During my stay in Italy, I have been told on several occasions that Anglo-Saxons know very little about passion. Is that what you ware working up to?
Signor Naccarelli: You think me insincere? You find me unattractive?
Meg Johnson: No, I find you quite attractive, but there are plenty of American men who appreciate women just as much as you do.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Longest Day, 1962 (dir. Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton and Bernhard Wicki)
The trailer for The Longest Day calls this one of the most ambitious films ever made and I think that is still true today. It would take multiple posts to write about everything there is to write about with this film. Instead, I am going to write about a few of my favorite performers in the film (look at that cast list; it’s insane!). You can read a lot about the production of the film here. I used to love this movie when I was a kid and was lucky enough to see it on the big screen at the TCM Film Festival in 2012 (first thing in the morning, too!). If you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen, don’t miss it! It’s amazing. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two: Best Film Editing, Best B&W Art Direction, Best B&W Cinematography (won), Best Special Effects and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty, To Kill a Mockingbird and winner Lawrence of Arabia.
From The Warner Archive: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, 1962 (dir. Tony Richardson)
I love the British New Wave. I really, really do. One of the first films from the era/style that I saw was Tony Richardson’s film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner from 1962. I saw it on TCM as part of group of films hand-picked by guest programmer Benjamin McKenzie (some day, I’m gonna track him down and talk kitchen sink dramas with him!) and I was blown away by how great it was. Like many of the films in the wave, it’s based on a short story by Alan Sillitoe. Clearly, I need to get to reading his stuff.
Movie Quote of the Day – How The West Was Won, 1962 (dir. John Ford, Henry Hathaway & George Marshall)
Parson Alec Harvey: The laddie’s health the reason you’re heading west?
Zebulon Prescott: Partly, only partly. Mostly our trouble east was rocks. I had me a farm where some years I’d raise a hundred bushels of rocks to the acre.
Rebecca Prescott: Now, Zebulon, you hadn’t oughta lie to the man like that.
Zebulon Prescott: Wife, I’m a god fearin soul and I tell the truth as I see it. Now I never used a plow, I’d blast out the furrows with gunpowder. And then one morning, I hauled the bucket up from out of the well and so help me the bucket was full of rocks. Rocks! I just stood there, right still, tryin’ not to blaspheme, and I said to myself, “You’ve got a son that’s ailin, you’ve got a twenty year old daughter what won’t take to herself a husband, there she sits over there, moonin as usual, and you’ve got another daughter who just don’t seem quite right in the head”. Lilith! Now, I remind you sir, I’m still standin’ there, holding a bucket full of rocks, and starin into a bleak old age. So I made me a vow right then and there, I said, “If I can find a man with five hundred dollars, who likes rocks, then there’s going to be another fool ownin this farm. Well sir, the Lord provided such a man, and here I am.
Rebecca Prescott: He ain’t told you one word of truth, Mr.Harvey. We had the best farm in the township.
Zebulon Prescott: Yeah, Rockville Township it was. Stone County.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Trial, 1962 (dir. Orson Welles)
Inspector A: None of this is going to show up very well in the record, Mr. K. My men say you even tried to stop them from putting this down [points to notebook].
Josef K.: Well, I tried to stop one of them from making a fool of himself. [pointing] Yes, yes: ovular.
Inspector A: What’s that?
Josef K.: Ov-u-lar.
Inspector A: There’s no such word.