True Grit (1969)

Just as valuable as the 2010 reboot but in different ways.

Props to Kim Darby (Yes, this Kim Darby), for bringing emotion to the table despite the silliness of her voice, acting style, and astoundingly Justin Bieber-like haircut.

When you watch this you'll be treated to another serendipitous and excellent minor role for Dennis Hopper. The more I see of his older work the more I want to watch of everything he's ever done.

I think my favorite part of watching this John Wayne classic was gaining a greater appreciation of the richness of the modern adaptation's roots. Each actor in the update really drew from and yet moved beyond the now charmingly outdated original.

It helped me understand even more why the recent adaptation of True Grit was nominated for best picture. Yay!

Giant (1956)

Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson play an extremely wealthy couple living on a cattle ranch turned oil field in rural Texas, and a hugely absurd James Dean comes along for the ride.

Rock Hudson's character struggles to overcome his racism against Mexicans, while Elizabeth Taylor's character struggles to look realistically dirty and appropriately upset in the dusty, often hostile setting.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. Even though it went on for two hundred years (it literally had an intermission) and was at times amusingly dated (both visually and subject matter-wise), I genuinely wanted to sit through all the way to the end.

An interesting minor role by Dennis Hopper, who I only really knew for his amusing roles in two of my childhood favorites, Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Waterworld (1995), and of course for his disturbing turn in creepy David Lynch's creepy Blue Velvet (1986).

Bonus points to anyone who can remind me what film essay (assigned during my time at Northwestern) specifically discussed the upsetting/hilarious Thanksgiving dinner scene in which the couple's small children realize they're about to eat the turkey they've been patiently feeding for a month.

Overall: likely to be enjoyable to you if you like Taylor, Hudson, Dean, or movies from the '50s. Otherwise, skip it.

My Little Chickadee (1940)

W.C. Fields and Mae West team up in this tale from the Old West involving masked bandits, shoot-‘em-up train heists and crooked sheriffs.

This seemed like it was going to be a surefire entertainer from yesteryear because of the personality of the two stars involved. I expected plenty of laughs and lots of racy gags. Maybe some antiquated humor I couldn’t quite grasp. Outdated sexual innuendo. The usual.

Unfortunately this movie was so boring I had to turn it off midway through. This is something I almost never do. I hate giving up on something halfway—I’ll watch a stinker all the way through to the end just to have a complete picture of what I’ll later complain about to my friends.

But the issue with My Little Chickadee wasn’t that it was bad in the sense of being tasteless, humorless, or illogical. There were some jokes worth a chuckle or two. The problem was that the story was just outright boring. Apparently relying on the charisma of the two stars to carry the thing forward, no one bothered to put much stock in plot. Unfortunately both West and Fields fell totally flat in this one, and so without any kind of interesting action to fall back on, the whole thing just completely fell apart.

Wah-wah-wahwahwahwahhhh! (Disappointed trumpet.)

Up Next, Either:
New York, I Love You
Or
Where the Wild Things Are

Monkey Business (1931)

While I was watching Monkey Business last night I slowly became aware that it is not the Marx brothers’ movie I was thinking about when I wrote my Top Ten off the Top of My Head List a while back. Boy oh boy do I feel foolish.

Not only does Monkey Business not contain the lemonade scene I mentioned before; it also does not have the peanut stand scene or the really lengthy immigrants on deck singing scene that (I thought) made the movie memorable to me. But because it is a Marx brothers’ movie and it is set on a ship I somehow mixed it up with the mystery movie I so happily called my favorite.

I wasn’t at all disappointed that this was not the movie I was thinking of, however. This one had its share of hilarity and gags, with plenty of slapstick and racy humor thrown in. If you have never watched any Marx brothers I would suggest starting with this one. It has a fairly logical storyline and plenty of still relevant and fresh jokes.

I later discovered, via Google and Youtube, that the lemonade and peanut stand scene I was thinking of came from Duck Soup, but I’m still not sure if the immigrant singing on deck scene came from that one or a different one. The most likely scenario is that I am taking many funny scenes from different movies and somehow irrationally trying to convince myself that they are all from the same movie.

Awesomely, what this confusion means is that I’ll just have to re-watch all the Marx brothers’ classics to try figure it out!