Silver Screen Savvy

I'm a big fan of the silver screen. I love old movies. My children think it's strange when some of their friends have never heard of men like Cary Grant, Danny Kaye or Fred Astaire. In our house, it's standard fare to have an old movie playing at least once a week. And, every year as a family, we gather around the fireplace, pop some popcorn, snuggle up in blankets and watch White Christmas. When we watch it, we sing along with all the songs and laugh at all the bad jokes, again. Sometimes we even dance while they are dancing. It really is a lot of fun. I know it seems like an unorthodox family tradition, but we like it.

Some of my favorites are movies like Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Their frolicsome antics and slapstick humor is unforgettable, and in this one, we even get to hear Cary Grant sing!

Speaking of Katherine Hepburn, who is perhaps the greatest actress of our time, we just recently watched Pat and Mike, the wonderfully funny and surprisingly heartwarming film with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey. It's hilarious how, with a little Jiujitsu, Pat takes out the thugs who are trying to hurt Mike. But the interplay between those two actors is never better than in the great film called, Without Love. Endlessly entertaining and interesting, these two actors should have been granted immortality. The world would be a better place now if they were still in Hollywood.

One of my quirky tastes is that I love old British films. Alec Guinness, in The Ladykillers is a British theater/ film mix that is absolutely unmatched for sheer cleverness. I also love him in The Swan, where he plays a crown prince with Grace Kelly as a princess. Funny, sad, thoughtful and unexpected, I loved every minute of it. Movies with Alec Guinness in them are sometimes hard to find, but with the help of Youtube, Netflix and Amazon, I am having a little better luck. One of my recent finds was an old, old one called Barnacle Bill, where Alec Guinness plays a sea captain who gets seasick but who finds his niche running a little pier carnival. Insightful and tender, funny and ridiculous, this movie is one I will keep around to show to my grandchildren!

A few years ago, I also discovered a terrific singer who was famous in the 1930's and 40's. The first time I heard her sing, I just couldn't believe it. What a voice! She had an amazing career as a young singer/actress and then, after ten years of tremendous success, she left the movies and never went back. She disappeared from public life altogether. But, cinematography has kept an archive of her films which are a real treasure for any music lover. Starting with Mad About Music, her debut film, then First Love, which is a sort of Cinderella story and going on to It's a Date, His Butler's Sister and Lady on a Train among about a dozen others currently available, Deanna Durbin is one of the best singer/actresses of all time. She rivals Julie Andrews for singing and has a youth and bubbliness that became her charming trademark.

And where would musical theater be without dancing? Gene Kelly, with his captivating smile and amazing dancing skill, is a favorite at our house. In Summer Stock, a movie with Judy Garland, Gene Kelly shows the scope of his talent for singing, dancing and acting. He and Judy make a terrific couple and they literally sweep you off your feet.

Today, we've got a lot of computer graphics and I'm told that you don't even have to be able to act to be successful. You just have to have the right company doing your special effects. I don't know; It's just not the same. My idea of good special effects is Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling in the movie Royal Wedding. I think my problem is that I was born an old fogie. I'm always saying things like: They just don't make movies like they used to. So, when I'm tired of the glitz and glamor, shock and awe, death and gore, I turn to the black and white, song and dance, clever and friendly. Can you blame me?