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Movie Quote of the Day – It Should Happen To You, 1954 (dir. George Cukor)
Pete Sheppard: Good luck to you, Gladys. I sure hope you make a name for yourself, if that’s what you want. If that’s what you really want, you’ll get it.
Gladys Glover: How?
Pete Sheppard: I don’t know. Just a theory of mine: that not only ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’. . .but, ‘where’s there’s a way, there’s a will’. See?
Oscar Vault Monday – Born Yesterday, 1950 (dir. George Cukor)
I absolutely adore this film. Since it was recently added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, I thought it would be a great time to explore this film. It’s one that is often overlooked and I think there’s some irrational anger aimed at it because of Judy Holliday’s win over both Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. and Bette Davis in All About Eve. But I think that is a load of baloney. This is a great film and while Holliday’s performance may not have reached the iconic status of those other two performances, it is most definitely a deserved win. Billie Dawn is a remarkable character and Holliday plays her to perfection. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one: Best B&W Costume Design, Best Screenplay, Best Actress Judy Holliday (won), Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, Sunset Blvd. and winner All About Eve.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Marrying Kind, 1952 (dir. George Cukor)
Chet Keefer: See the only trouble is I can’t promise it’ll be no different. They way I am, that’s the way I am.
Florrie Keefer: Me too.
Chet Keefer: I know everything wrong with me. Too ambitious, delusions of grandeur and all that.
Florrie Keefer: What about me getting nervous?
Chet Keefer: I get nervous, too, don’t I?
Florrie Keefer: It’s a nervous world.
Chet Keefer: I guess we found that out.
Florrie Keefer: Yeah.
Chet Keefer: Listen, Florrie. . .you think so?
Florrie Keefer: I’m too scared. I mean, when we got together finally the first time, I never imagined it could be different or we could bust up or anything. Now I’d always be thinking about it.
Chet Keefer: What makes you think I’d let you?
Florrie Keefer: What I mean is, at least I’d know it’s possible.
Chet Keefer: Maybe it’s a good thing to know it’s possible.
Florrie Keefer: Maybe.
Chet Keefer: I’d like to make a promise that everything is going to be different. I mean, but how could I promise that? I’ll tell you what I can do. I can tell you I’d certainly try.
Florrie Keefer: I would, too, from the bottom of my heart.
Chet Keefer: So what’s wrong with that? So. . .okay?
Florrie Keefer: If we could only remember not to blame one another when things went the wrong way.
Chet Keefer: So okay I come over there?
Florrie Keefer: I don’t see any stop sign, do you?
Movie Quote of the Day – Bells Are Ringing, 1960 (dir. Vincente Minnelli)
Ella Peterson: Susanswerphone.
Larry Hastings: [on the phone] This is Larry Hastings calling; any messages?
Ella Peterson: Just a moment. Blake Barton, the actor, called. He wants to know if there’s a part for him in your new production, “The Midas Touch”.
Larry Hastings: [on the phone] Blake Barton? Never! I’m sick of actors who won’t wear suits and who sound as if they’ve got a mouthful of marbles.
The Castro Theatre, Ryan O’Neal and Other Film-Watching Exploits In August
So I managed to watch a little bit less new-to-me films in August than I did in July. That’s okay, though, because I saw so many great films at the Castro theatre (I’m quite the regular there now). I saw The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Moulin Rouge!, Meek’s Cutoff (new-to-me), Limbo (new-to-me), Bad Education, Law of Desire (new-to-me), Talk To Her, All About My Mother, The Flower of My Secret (new-to-me), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (new-to-me), 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (new-to-me), Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Days of Heaven, Badlands, The Philadelphia Story and Holiday. All of those were double features except Moulin Rouge! and all of them were well worth the admission price. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: nothing beats seeing a great film on the big screen. I’m just glad all these great films were showing in the month between the summer semester and the fall semester so I had time to see them. I also read a handful of screenplays (hey, I’m studying to get an MFA in screenwriting, I better be reading screenplays!) So far I’ve read L.A. Confidential, The Piano, Good Will Hunting, American Beauty, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The English Patient, The Last Detail and Chinatown. It sure is interesting to see how a story starts out on the page and winds up the same, but different, on the big screen. As for my new-to-me list, most of the films I saw I loved (this was another month were it was hard to come up with just five featured films), but I also saw a few I really hated. Today is the first day of the fall semester and I’m taking three classes, so I have no idea what my free time is going to be like or how many new-to-me films I’ll manage to watch. Gonna shoot for at least one new-to-me a day though. As always, the full list of my August new-to-me films is after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – Born Yesterday, 1950 (dir. George Cukor)
Billie Dawn: All that stuff I’ve been studying, what Paul’s been telling me. It just mixed me up. But when you hit me before it was like everything knocked itself together in my head and made sense. All of the sudden I realized what it means. How some people are always giving and some taking; and it’s not fair. So I’m not gonna let you anymore. [beat] Or anybody else.
Oscar Vault Monday – Sunset Blvd. 1950 (dir. Billy Wilder)
When I first netflixed this film I watched it three times before sending it back – twice back-to-back and then a third time the next morning. I was completely blown away with how wonderful it was, from start to finish. I know a lot of people consider Some Like It Hot to be Billy Wilder’s best film and as much as I like that one, I have to disagree and go with Sunset Blvd. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning three for black-and-white Art Direction, Best Writing – story and screenplay and Best Score. For Best Picture it was up against Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, Born Yesterday and lost to All About Eve. All About Eve wound up winning six Oscars in all. Another tight race that year was Best Actress, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. was up against Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve, but all three lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday. Having watched all three of those films within a few days of each other it is my belief that, although Holliday’s performance was stunning, the other three women spilt the vote so severely that Holliday won by default. I’ll say it up front, I enjoyed All About Eve, but I deeply love Sunset Blvd. and think it is by and far the greater of the two films.
Beware: there be spoilers after the cut.
the diary of a film history fanatic 