MT Salutes - Dr. No

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--BKHgF4NuQ

Strangers on a Train

Thrills (#32)

Very well written murder story.  Two men meet on a train and discuss how to commit the perfect murder.  One doesn't take the other too seriously, but when the second man actually follows through, the first has to figure out how to tell the police without implicating himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AVQJ_3A5rA

MT Salutes - Dances with Wolves

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR4AaJxduek

Coming Home

Passions (#78)

It should come as no surprise that a movie about Viet Nam vets starring Jane Fonda isn't exactly honoring to those who served.  What a waste of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIUw4ZS1J_A

MT Salutes - Roxanne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_GoRsuEQ8

Born Yesterday

Laughs (#24); Stars - William Holden (#25)

A mobster wants his dumb blonde moll to be able to hold a semi-intelligent conversation so that she can play along with his cons.  He hires William Holden to tutor her. 

Well, aside from the obvious (the two end up falling in love), the educated Holliday realizes that she has rights and doesn't have to be pushed around by Crawford anymore. 

It's a swell romantic comedy, with a few Capra-esque moments thrown in as Holden teaches Holliday about the self-evident truths that make our country great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY&feature=relmfu

MT Salutes - The Sound of Music

Welcome to our new feature post, in which one of the greatest classical theaters of all time, Monsterpiece Theatre, salutes some of AFI's best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrKoU_gO2aE

Fargo

Top 100 (#84); Laughs (#93); Heroes - Marge Gunderson (#33)

Fargo is a dark comedy about an extortion/kidnapping gone terribly wrong.  It's ok, but gruesome.  Frances McDormand is good, and all the references to Steve Buscemi being funny looking are humorous ("Funny looking?  In what way?" "I don't know.  Just funny looking.")

I'm not sure why it's called Fargo, since it takes place in Brainerd and the Twin Cities.  However, Minnesota boys Joel and Ethan Coen aren't too up on their Minnesota geography anyways.  It apparently takes four hours to drive from Brainerd to Minneapolis, and if you're driving to the Twin Cities from Fargo, Brainerd is right on the way.  And seriously, except for old people up on the Range, Minnesotans don't talk like that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUFTm6cJXM

Pillow Talk

Passions (#99)

Sweet and sexy, and pushing the proprietary limits, this is a great romantic comedy.  Rock Hudson and Doris Day are wonderful together.  This should have been ranked higher on the list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXVXcquINw

The Spy Who Loved Me

Songs - Nobody Does It Better (#67)

Somebody does it better, and that somebody would be Sean Connery.  I don't think Roger Moore was the best choice for James Bond.  Other than that, this movie was pretty much the same as the other 007 ones that I've seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX4pN7GPQhw&feature=relmfu 

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Top 100 (#30/38); Thrills (#67); Stars - Humphrey Bogart (#1); Quotes - "Badges?  We ain't got no badges!  We don't need no badges!  I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" (#36)

Humphrey Bogart is very good as a miner driven crazy by his greed.  He sets out with two other men to find a legendary lode of gold, but is overcome with paranoia and gold fever.

A bit long, but very well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgITBzujCS0

Swing Time

Top 100 (#90 Revised); Stars - Fred Astaire (#5), Ginger Rogers (#14); Songs - The Way You Look Tonight (#43); Passions (#30)

I have to give people like Lerner & Loewe and Rogers & Hammerstein credit, because before they came along, plots of movie musicals were rather thing. 

However, these movies weren't so much about the plot as they were about song and dance, and that's where we get wonderful songs like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs2nH9gSXOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVLbk_3UeU

The Searchers

Top 100 (#96/12); Stars - John Wayne (#13); Top Ten - Western (#1)

When John Wayne's niece is captured by Indians, he and his adopted nephew set off on an impossible quest to find and retrieve her.  The search takes years, but he doesn't give up.

I'm not big on westerns, but I liked this movie.  And I'm thinking it has the biggest jump between the original Top 100 list and the revised one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpuHzllobQ

Cat Ballou

Laughs (#50); Top Ten - Western (#10)

My husband and my father both like this movie, about a schoolmarm turned bandit to save her pa's farm.  It was okay - it had its funny moments.  But I saw it, and now I can cross it off the list, and that's fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3dm5J5r0A

Blue Velvet

Thrills (#96); Stars - Laura Dern (Current - Not Rated); Villains - Frank Booth (#36); Top Ten - Mystery (#8)

I debated watching this one, decided to go ahead, then shut it off after about half an hour. 

It starts off innocent enough.  All-American boy MacLachlan teams up with small town girl Dern to investigate some mysterious goings-on.  Then it gets creepy and yucky.  I think Lynch purposely started things all sweet and innocent to make the contrast between that and the twisted underworld the teenagers discover that much greater.

Yeah, um, not what I want to be watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSeceN11Dm4

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Thrills (#82); Cheers (#67); Top Ten - Science Fiction (#5)

Aliens come to earth to warn earthlings that they'd better start getting along and be friends, or else the aliens will kill them. 

Inspiring world peace message.

What I don't get, though, is why the woman carried by the alien robot in the poster doesn't look remotely like Patricia Neal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPAOxrH7Ro 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Thrills (#47); Top Ten - Science Fiction (#9)

Pod-like aliens invade earth, possessing the bodies of humans.  Only one man and one woman dare to resist. 

Much too cheesy to be even remotely scary - but at least it has the classic horror movie scream (I can't find the clip, but you know the one - where the woman holds her hand up to her cheek as she screams).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacAgQO9vvo

Monkey Business

Laughs (#73); Stars - The Marx Brothers (#20)

This time the Brothers are stowaways on a cruise ship.  It has its moments, but it's not my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sfnQDr1-o&noredirect=1

Random Harvest

Passions (#36)

An amnesiac war veteran falls in love with a dance hall girl and they get married.  Some time later, he remembers who he was, but forgets his wife.  She desperately tries to get him to remember her.

Sappy, but it fits in with the romantic dime store novel movies of the day, like Now, Voyager and Dark Victory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWbjqpmYKrw