Sunday Stealing

A Movie Meme

I thought this meme would be a piece o'cake for me, but it really was very difficult and took a lot of thought!

1. What is your all-time favorite "costume" movie or period piece?
I don't watch a lot of period movies, so I don't have a long list from which to choose.  In fact, I just checked a list of the top 30 period movies and have seen almost none of them.  But I'm a sucker for movies about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I so I'll go with the 1998 Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett.  Seems to me I remember the costumes in that one being amazing.  Oh! Oh!  I know ... My Fair Lady!

2. What classic film would you nominate for a remake?
None.  They are called "classics" for a reason, and as a general rule they are lessened, not made better, by having a remake.  There have been some genuine disasters in trying to remake what was perfect to begin with. Can you imagine Gone with the Wind with a different cast?  Casablanca?  Citizen Kane? The one exception was the dramatic A Star Is Born remade as a musical in 1954.   The remake with Streisand was terrible.

3. Name your favorite femme fatale.
Sally Rand.  If you've ever seen a video of her fan dance, you'll see why.

4. Name the best movie with the word "heaven" in its title.
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison

5. Describe the worst performance by a child actor that you’ve ever seen.  
Sorry, but it has to be Drew Barrymore in E.T.  At that time she was a "Barrymore" and I'm sure that got her the role, but it was years before she really became an actress.

6. Who gets your vote for most tragic movie monster?
Frankenstein's monster, who never asked to be created and, once created, was just looking for someone to love him.  Also King Kong who was forced to leave his home and be treated like a freak.  He, too, was just looking for a friend.  An extension of my feeling about captive elephants and other wild animals.

7. What is the one Western that you would recommend to anybody?
Oh, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  I don't really think of it is a western, but as a buddy film, but it had horses, cowboys, train robberies, a purdy gal, and shoot outs in it, so I guess it classifies as a western!  Second would be The Frisco Kid, which is lesser known, but it's Harrison Ford as an outlaw before anybody thought of Han Solo, and Gene Wilder in one of my favorite roles of his as a rabbi trying to get from New York to California on horseback.  Another great unlikely buddy movie. Very, very funny.
8. Who is your ideal movie-viewing partner?
We've never watched a movie together, but I'd love to watch a really tacky move with my friend Ron. Watching movies with gay guys has to be the best.

9. Has a film ever made you want to change your life? If so, what was the film?
Interrupted Melody, the story of Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence, who contracted polio.  I was in my "polio terror" years when I saw it, and watched her overcome her paralysis to get back on stage again.  I decided I would become an opera singer and must have driven my poor mother bonkers with practicing scales in ranges my voice was never intended to reach.  (Needless to say, I never did become an opera singer, and my plans to do so were short-lived.)

10. Think of one performer that you truly love. Now think of one scene/movie/performance of theirs that is too uncomfortable for you to watch.  
I didn't much care a lot of Judy Garland in A Child is Waiting, her second-to-last film

11. On the flip side, think of one really good scene/performance/movie from a performer that you truly loathe.
I don't "loathe" anybody.  There are actors I don't like, but usually I don't like them because of their personal life (Tom Cruz, Russell Crowe) or views with which I disagree vehemently (Mel Gibson).  That said, they can turn in wonderful performances that I probably won't see just because they make me so upset off the screen.  I did enjoy Bravehart, for example, though now I tend to avoid Gibson movies just in principle.

12. What movie has the best soundtrack?
Anything by John Williams

13. Favorite actor with a mustache? (i.e: Charlie Chaplin, William Powell)
I dunno.  How about David Niven.

14. Shadowy film noir from the 1940's or splashy colorful musicals from the 1950's?
I adored the musicals of the 50s.  It was only later in life that I came to an enjoyment of film noir (and if anybody tells me they are going to remake The Third Man, have him shot).

15. Favorite classic Disney?
Bambi.  It still makes me cry.  Close second, Dumbo, which also makes me cry.  That lullaby with Dumbo's mom rocking him in her trunk while she's in "jail" gets me every time.