Friday, November 25, 2011

Favourite Things Friday: Classic Movies

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. –Alfred Hitchcock

I've mentioned before that I have a fondness for going to the movies. I've also talked about how much I like musicals. Most musicals fall into the Classic movies category and that's what I want to talk about today. Classic movies. One of my favorite musicals from my insomniac-PBS-watching days is Bells Are Ringing with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. This adorable switchboard operator at an answering service does more than just take and give messages. She is a counselor, a friend, a helper, a muse, a confidant to her clients. As she gets involved in the lives of these people, her world is turned upside down in a series of hilarious hijinks.


Another favorite {in the non-musical category} is Yours, Mine and Ours, staring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. The 2005 re-make with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo was fun, but the 1968 original is still my favorite. Jumping back to musicals, With Six You Get Eggroll and Pillow Talk are a couple of my favorite Doris Day movies. As a matter of fact we're crossing over a little bit into my love of Barbie, with the recently released Pillow Talk Giftset. Doris-Day-Barbie looks so beautiful in her white gown and Rock-Hudson-Ken is very debonair in his classic black suit.

Another great Doris Day movie is The Man Who Knew Too Much, co-starring Jimmy Stewart. This movie is kind of the trifecta of classic movies; Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock. Over the years, I've watched most of the Jimmy Stewart movies, as well as most of Alfred Hitchcock's movies. In the category of “really great movies” {or any other category, for that matter}, I don't think that I could narrow it down to just one absolute favorite, but pretty high on the list of all-time greats is Rear Window, an Alfred Hitchcock production starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.


It is a psychological thriller, which I absolutely love. Movies that make you guess at motivations and put pieces together like a puzzle are absolutely the best, in my opinion. In another cross-over {this post is just full of them}, the Grace Kelly Barbie from Rear Window is amazing. She has such beautiful features, but how could she not considering the inspiration?

In 1998, a Rear Window remake for television came out, starring Christopher Reeve {another favorite; he will always be Superman in my book} and Daryl Hannah, which was pretty good right up until they changed the ending. And while clickety-clicking around the web for this post, I discovered that the 2007 film, Disturbia, starring Shia LeBeouf, was based on Rear Window, so now I'm interested to see how it stacks up.

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8 comments:

Shay said...

I'm a fan of Classic movies too but my taste runs more to any musical type movies. Singing in the rain , Seven brides for seven brothers, anything with Judy Garland. Old movies are fantastic.

A great favourite that we share E!

Michelle said...

Rear Window is a great classic! And thanks for reminding me of Jimmy Stewart. What a great actor.

Baa-Me Kniits said...

I like the old movies better too :-)

Jennifer Lovell said...

I thought I knew a lot of old classics, but you have just shown me a couple that I had never heard of. I'm sometimes a chicken when it comes to thrillers though, so I don't know if I'll get around to seeing all of them (Dusturbia looks really scary!), but that was a really fun post! I'm glad that we have this in common too--maybe someday we'll get to snuggle down late at night with our pjs and popcorn and a Hitchcock movie...if you warn me of the scary parts then I'll try to be brave! : )

thea said...

I love the Jimmy Stewart movies too! and Rear Window is one of my favorites. I need to get my children to watch it so it can become one of theirs too.. Thanks for reminding me of these great movies.

Paulette said...

I haven't seen a whole lot of classics, but enjoy a good movie whenever it was made. I'll have to look for some of the ones you mentioned. Some I've seen that I liked were Giant (James Dean) and, of course, It's a Wonderful Life. Love Jimmy Stewart in that movie. My favorite classic is Wizard of Oz.

When we were kids, my sister and I would try to sneak downstairs to watch those hokey Elvis movies that came on later at night.

Michelle Ridgway said...

All great favourites!!! Love Pillow talk (Doris Day fan)Calamity Jane also being a favourite....Love James Stewart too.

Jill said...

The Music Man was on TV (PBS!) the other night, and we sat and watched it. My boys were able to catch a few minutes of it before bed, and my 1st grader was like "I want to watch all of it!"
Classics are the best.