7.29.2011

guess who.

As a teen, he worked in an ice cream shop.

He attended USC as an undergrad and majored in pre-law.

His first job at the film studio was a job in the prop department, which he got in exchange for USC football tickets. At the time, he was on the football team, but later had to quite after a bodysurfing injury.

His favorite drink was Sauza Commemorativo Tequila, and he often served it with ice that he had chipped from an iceberg during one of his voyages on his yacht, "The Wild Goose.".

He once made a cameo appearance on "The Beverly Hillbillies". When asked how he wanted to be paid, his answer was "Give me a fifth of bourbon - that'll square it."

Among his favorite leisure activities were playing bridge, poker, and chess.

His birth name was Marion Robert Morrison.

7.27.2011

on location: pennsylvania

Unstoppable


Rocky


That Thing You Do!


Groundhog Day


Angels in the Outfield


See you back here on Friday, 07/29!

7.26.2011

abc's: g

Girl Happy


Goodbye, Mr. Chips


Guys and Dolls


The Great Race


The Great Muppet Caper


The Glass Bottom Boat


What are your favorite "G" movies?

7.24.2011

quotes: washington, dc

1. This country and its institutions belong to the people who inhibit it.
InHABit.
InHABit it.

2. It never fails to amaze me what a man will do to get into the Oval Office.

3. It's surrounded by guards and video monitors and little families from Iowa and little kids on their eighth grade field trips.

4. No, sir, I'm afraid not, no sir. I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard of again. No sir. And we might as well all get together on this yielding business right off the bat, now.

5. You want to know about politics in Washington? Four words. Watch your back, Jack.

6. Last time I checked, I thought we lived in a free country, so...
No, we don't.
No?
It's the United States of "Don't Touch That Thing Right in Front of You."

7.22.2011

guess who.

He was so fanatical about wine that he often sent bottles back if they were not to his liking, sometimes even to his own wine cellar.

He was almost completely blind in the left eye as the result of a childhood bout of measles.

He once punched Frank Sinatra in the jaw, thinking the singer was hitting on his wife, Lilli Palmer. Afterwards the two men became good friends.

He said, after viewing The Sound of Music, “That was the only time I've ever rooted for the Nazis.”

His son recalled sitting watching a storm with his father. When a bolt of lightning obliterated a tree in their yard, his father exclaimed, “Well hit, God!”

7.21.2011

the 3 lives of thomasina


the year: 1964

the genre: drama


the cast: Patrick McGoohan (Andrew McDhui); Susan Hampshire (Lori MacGregor); Karen Dotrice (Mary McDhui); Matthew Garber (Geordie McNab)


the plot: Set in the town of Inveranoch, Scotland in 1912, the story centers around Andrew MacDhui a widower veterinarian, his seven year old daughter Mary, her cat Thomasina, and "Mad Lori" MacGregor.


don't miss: Mary's friends Geordie, Jamie and Hughie.


listen for: "They started out by calling me Thomas, but when they, um, got to know me better, they changed it to Thomasina."


did you know: Paul Gallico wrote this story. He was a prolific writer of fiction best known for Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Snow Goose.


extra bonus points: if you can name the two other Disney movies (besides this one) that Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice starred in together.

7.20.2011

twister


the year: 1996

the genre: disater, I guess.

the cast: Helen Hunt (Dr. Jo Harding); Bill Paxton (Bill Harding); Cary Elwes (Dr. Jonas Miller); Jami Gertz (Dr. Melissa Reeves); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Dustin Davis)


the plot: TV weatherman Bill Harding is trying to get his tornado-hunter wife, Jo, to sign divorce papers so he can marry his girlfriend Melissa. But Mother Nature, in the form of a series of intense storms sweeping across Oklahoma, has other plans. Soon the three have joined the team of stormchasers as they attempt to insert a revolutionary measuring device into the very heart of several extremely violent tornados.


don't miss: Cary Elwes as the bad guy. GOOD bad guy. I hated his guts.


listen for: "He really is in love with himself. I thought it was just a summer thing."


did you know: I found the tornado in The Wizard of Oz scarier than any in this movie. Good thing there were flying cows.


extra bonus points: if you know what they used for the sound of the tornado.

7.19.2011

abc's: f

Follow the Fleet


Follow Me, Boys


Flawless


Finian's Rainbow


Father Goose

What are your favorite "F" movies?

7.18.2011

quotes: san francisco

Match the movie with the quote:

Vertigo
The Wedding Planner
After The Thin Man
The Princess Diaries
Sneakers
What's Up, Doc?
The Maltese Falcon

1. Whaddaya mean "illiterate"? My father and mother were married right here in the city hall!

2. "Be a beacon"?!

3. Oh no, darnit... I just remembered that I promised my friend's brother's godmother that I would help her change her fax cartridge because she's going out of town tomorrow... on an African safari.

4. Joseph, can we eighty-six the flags please?
No. The flags allow me to park anywhere. We keep the flags.

5. People lose teeth talking like that. If you want to hang around, you'll be polite.

6. The one who isn't my fiancée doesn't call me Howard and the one who isn't my wife doesn't call me Howard because the one who isn't my fiancée is also the one who isn't my wife. The other one who ISN'T my wife, the one who IS my fiancée... she doesn't call me "Steve." She calls me Howard. Do you see?

7. That's the kind of greeting a girl likes! Not this "Hello-you-look-wonderful" stuff, just a good straight "Who do you know that's an authority on San Francisco his - -"

7.15.2011

guess who.

When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.

He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.

He watched very little television except boxing matches.

He had a fear of flying, and made all long journeys across America by train.

Adolf Hitler esteemed the film star above all other actors, and during the war offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and return this star (who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was flying combat missions over Germany) unscathed to him.

He enlisted in the army in honor of his late wife, Carole Lombard. She had been killed in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds.

He gave his 1934 Oscar to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the star’s family after his death.

He disliked his most famous film, which he regarded as "a woman's picture".

7.14.2011

butch cassidy and the sundance kid


the year: 1969

the genre: western


the cast: Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy); Robert Redford (Sundance Kid); Katherine Ross (Etta Place)


the plot: Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, and Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia".


don't miss: the friendly banter between Butch and Sundance.


listen for: "Is that what you call giving cover?" "Is that what you call running? If I knew you were going to stroll..."


did you know: this movie was filmed on the sound stage next to Hello, Dolly! Director George Roy Hill believed that the studio would allow him to film the New York scenes on "Dolly's" sets, since the two films' daily shooting schedules were totally different. After production started, though, the studio informed him that it wanted to keep the sets for "Dolly" a secret and refused him permission. To work around this, Hill had Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross simply pose on the sets as photos were taken of them. He then inserted images of the three stars into a series of 300 actual period photos and spliced the two different sets (real and posed) together to form the New York montage.


extra bonus points: if you know why Sundance doesn't want to jump off the cliff.



disclaimer for Erika: the ending is bittersweet.

7.13.2011

my life in ruins


the year: 2009

the genre: comedy


the cast: Nia Vardalos (Georgia); Richard Dreyfuss (Irv); Alexis Georgoulis (Poupi Kakas)


the plot: Georgia is an American academic who's lost her teaching job in Athens and taken a job as a tour guide - which she hates (and it and it shows). Her latest group of tourists is much like the others - bored with history and more interested in shopping - and includes a frat boy, a sullen teen, a feuding couple, divorcées on the prowl, a silent driver and lots of other fun characters. AND the bus doesn't have air conditioning. But thanks to an unlikely friendship, some daisies, an ice-cream cone, the history of syrup, and the Oracle at Delphi, Georgia may have a shot at finding her kefi during this four-day tour.


don't miss: the stereotypical tourists. And how Nico gets payback.


listen for: "Sweet marble cake! She speaks American."


extra bonus points: if you know who plays the creepy hotel clerk.



disclaimer: there's one make out scene to skip. You'll know it when you get there.

7.12.2011

abc's: d - e

Darling Lili


Daddy Long Legs


Emporer's New Groove


Easter Parade


El Dorado

What are your favorite "D and E" movies?