Film Favorites

The holidays were filled with so much - baking, cooking, relaxing with family! We went to see Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker - it was SO good - I don’t often cry at movies - yes I cried. JJ Abrams has written and directed a masterful closure to the series. Obviously I’m a huge fan of the franchise. We own all the Blu Rays and can’t wait to add this latest installment to our permanent collection.

One that very same night I stayed up super late (2am late) and caught two great movies on PBS A River Runs Through It and The Other Boleyn Girl. It started me thinking about all the great films I’ve enjoyed in my life - so here’s my list - it’s long my friends and truly I could have kept going because I love film.

Jesus Christ Superstar: I love this movie and the music today as much as I did when I saw it when I was a child. One of my older brothers had the double album too!

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: The music friends! The Oompa-Loompas! Charlie finds one of the five golden tickets that will let he and his Grandpa into Mr. Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory.

Paper Moon: Filmed in black and white - about a Con Man and the little girl who might be his daughter and the partnership they forge is simply so fun.

Breaking Away: I love this movie for the never die and underdog messaging and I clearly remember seeing this film with my sister!

Sixteen Candles: The first film I saw myself up on the screen. (also as a natural red-head this was really the first time besides Annie!). I mean there had been movies with kids in them before - another vehicle for Tatum O’ Neal was the Bad News Bears and I remember going to the movie house to see it… but, this film was really about Walter Matthau ’s characters unwanted role of mentoring the team and not about the kiddos.

Reality Bites: This film has a treasured place in my heart. It was released when my Mother was sick - I remember Rita encouraging me to go see it and I did - by myself! The first and only time I’ve gone to the movies alone. I also was a Gap employee! Another film where I saw bits of myself up on the screen.

When I was little every Sunday evening we watched The Wonderful World of Disney. I watched amazing movies through this program: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins and Swiss Family Robinson to name a few.

Cars 2: OK friends I must admit as a NASCAR fan I couldn’t love this movie any more and throw the international aspect and a bad Land Rover! I’m all in!

Frequency: This flick has an interesting phenomenon aspect when the son tries to save his father's life from 30 years in the future. Both Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel are wonderful as father and son.

Wedding Crashers: Who doesn’t love this charming romp also, it was partially filmed at the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels MD a beautiful spot I’ve had the good fortune to enjoy.

Poltergeist: This movie made you think about happened to all the bodies in the cemeteries when a road or development goes through. And the famous line: “All are welcome. All welcome…”

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Now, this friends is downright frightening. Gary Oldman is serious and sexy as the Prince Dracula.

Valley Girl: Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. It’s sweet, funny and has some silly moments…but, the music is as much fun as the great lingo!

Farewell My Concubine: This was my first foreign language film. It has with two intertwining stories of two male performers in the Beijing Opera and the woman who comes between them.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Casey Affleck is one of my favorite actors both he and Brad Pitt are exceptional. Jesse James had a man who idolized him since boyhood but, there is a fine line between hero worship and jealousy.

Les Miserables: I think any Les Miserables is a wonderful watch. These are the two versions I like best: The 1998 with Liam Neeson, The 2012 with Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe and Anne Hathaway.

Black Swan: Natalie Portman is brilliant as a committed dancer struggling to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".

Many of my favorites were first enjoyed when I was a child.

All About Eve: An ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. Bette Davis is all knowing in this tale of duplicity.

Auntie Mame: An orphan goes to live with his fun loving free-spirited auntie. His aunt tries to hide her eclectic lifestyle from the executor of her late brother’s estate. I love this movie for the sets!

Dark Passage: Humphrey Bogart is marvelous as a man convicted of murdering his wife who escapes prison and works with Lauren Becall to prove his innocence.

Laura: Gene Tierney was never more lovely than playing this lead character who a police detective falls in love with while investigating her murder.

Mildred Pierce: Mildred separated from her husband, takes a job waitressing to support her daughters which she hides her from her pretentious elder daughter Veda, who thinks it demeaning. Mildred opens three successful restaurants and Veda enjoys Mildred’s financial success but increasingly turns ungrateful and openly condemns Mildred and anyone else who must work for a living. I love this movie and this is definitely a top 3!

Now Voyager: Who doesn’t love Bette Davis as a woman trying to build a life for herself away from her overbearing mother.

Rebecca: A young woman tries to adjust to her role as an aristocrat's new wife in this Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. I love this movie and its a top 3!

Suddenly Last Summer: Elizabeth Taylor was a tremendous actress - she started as a child in Black Beauty and was amazing in so many movies - In this she plays Catherine who saw her cousin murdered and is going mad from it.

The Heiress: Olivia de Havilland falls for a handsome young man who her emotionally abusive father suspects is a fortune hunter. Montgomery Clift is superb as the suitor.

I watched many classic films on the Million Dollar Movie program on NYC Channel WOR TV 9. It featured top-tier movies, where each feature would run for an entire week, airing twice nightly. This is where I first watched Gone With the Wind.

The 4:30 Movie on ABC was the other place to see old films before the invention of Turner Classic Movie Channel or Cable TV for that matter.

The actor who is a fan favorite here at the Chalet is Cary Grant. We love all his films bur, there are few that stand out. North by Northwest, Philadelphia Story, Suspicion but, our favorite is: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House - this is one of my top 3!

Beloved Holiday Movies: A Christmas Carol, White Christmas, Its a Wonderful Life.

Honorable mentions: American Beauty, Back to the Future, Cast Away, Dead Again, Midnight Express, The Godfather Part II, The Accountant, The Departed, The Miracle Worker, Whiplash, Young Frankenstein.