Wednesday, July 11, 2018

old movies

Do you watch old movies? Do you like them? What's an "old movie" to you? I like to cruise through the menu for Turner Classic Movies. They have old movies! I watched part of a movie called Reefer Madness, made in 1936. It's the craziest movie!!! You should check it out if you ever get the chance.
The opening Foreword says;
"The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been          possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace          which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly-increasing numbers. Marijuana is      that drug - a violent narcotic - an unspeakable scourge - The Real Public Enemy Number One! Its first effect is sudden, violent, uncontrollable laughter; then come dangerous hallucinations - space expands - time slows down, almost stands still...fixed ideas come next, conjuring up monstrous extravagances - followed by emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions...leading finally to act of shocking violence...ending often in incurable insanity......"

I have definite favorites;
Them! from 1954, about the giant ants
Rebecca from 1940
The Day The Earth Stood Still  from 1951
Forbidden Planet from 1956 and the original, The Body Snatchers.
Gone With The Wind, 1939!!! Man does this movie stand the test of time! Not to mention The Wizard of Oz. Last night, I watched Earthquake, one of the original disaster movies! Oh my gosh, it was so lame. I laughed out loud and I'm pretty sure they didn't mean it to be funny. It is fun to see what's in the movie though - like, cops in uniform drinking in a bar. I guess that was ok in 1974? Funny. And the clothes and hair styles. That always cracks me up. I'm still waiting to see some of the real classics though. Like Spartacus, Singing In The Rain, Rebel Without a Cause, Vertigo or any movie with Marilyn Monroe.

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