Movies I Watched in March

This shot of George Sanders in Ivanhoe cracks me up :D

This month was more Robert Taylor (I mean, after last month I might as well watch any that TCM shows that I’ve never seen before, right?) and, fittingly, disaster movies.

I’ve been wanting to rewatch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for some time now and finally got around to it. I noticed it was based on a book in the opening credits (by R. A. Dick) and so checked it out and read it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main differences were that she also had a son, her meddling sister-in-law was even more meddlesome, and  she only saw Captain Gregg in a dream at the beginning. The rest of the time she only heard his voice in her head. She also met Miles differently. Oh, and she called Martha back to apologize for getting angry. That part made me happy.

I also downloaded the Hoopla library app and HOLY COW!!!! So many good books!! There’s also a small selection of classic movies and television shows. I’m reading Me and Jezebel by Elizabeth Fuller. Fuller is a psychic so some parts are kind of different (she speaks to spirits and holds a séance) but I’ve discovered that first-hand accounts of Bette make for delightful reading.

1. Battling Butler (1926) - Buster Keaton
2. The Divorcée (1930) - Norma Shearer & Chester Morris, Robert Montgomery 
3. Pygmalion (1938) - Leslie Howard & Wendy Hiller
4. The Long Voyage Home (1940) - John Wayne, Ian Hunter, Thomas Mitchell, Barry FitzGerald, Arthur Shields, Mildred Natwick 
5. Lucky Partners (1940) - Ronald Colman & Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson, Spring Byington
6. Johnny Eager (1941) - Robert Taylor & Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Edward Arnold
7. Bombardier (1943) - Pat O’Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Robert Ryan
8. *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) - Gene Tierney & Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Natalie Wood, Vanessa Brown
9. B. F.’s Daughter (1948) - Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Richard Hart, Keenan Wynn, Spring Byington, Margaret Lindsey
10. I Want You (1951) - Dana Andrews & Dorothy McGuire, Farley Granger & Peggy Dow, Martin Milner, Jim Backus
11. Ivanhoe (1952) - Robert Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders
12. Knights of the Round Table (1953) - Robert Taylor & Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer
13. The Master of Ballantrae (1953) - Errol Flynn
14. D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) - Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, Dana Wynter, Edmond O’Brien
15. The Law and Jake Wade (1958) - Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens
16. Countdown (1968) - James Caan, Robert Duvall
17. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) - Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowell, Leslie Neilson
18. The Swarm (1974) - Michael Caine & Katherine Ross, Richard Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Richard Chamberlain, Slim Pickens
19. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) - Michael Caine, Sally Field, Karl Malden, Telly Savalas, Shirley Jones, Slim Pickens 
20. Best Friends (1982) - Burt Reynolds & Goldie Hawn, Jessica Tandy, Keenan Wynn
21. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) - Mel Gibson & Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
22. The River (1984) - Mel Gibson & Sissy Spacek

The Sea Around Us (1953)

Even in a WWII movie Robert Ryan's face is made for noir.

Least Favorite Film: The Long Voyage Home was kind of depressing and The Swarm was kind of ridiculous. The first half of Knights... was slow but I finally got into it.

Favorite Film: Lots of solid movies but none really stood out. I loved Ronald Colman in Lucky Partners.

I love Burt Reynold's goofy grins :)

The Greer Garson Blogathon is HERE!!!

It’s here!! The Greer Garson Blogathon is here!

Musings of an Introvert kicks things off with the classic The Winsome Qualities of Greer Garson in the 1940 Pride and Prejudice.

Taking Up Room discusses Garson’s most famous role as Mrs. Miniver (1942).

Movies Meet Their Match watches Garson for the first time in Sunrise at Campobello (1960).

Hope this Blogathon was a welcome distraction from the world! Don’t worry if your post is late. I’ll happily accept them all week. Hope all of you stay healthy and thanks so much for participating!!

Movies I Watched in February

 

 

Drums Along the Mohawk

February is 31 Days of Oscar month on TCM and it is usually a rather slow month for me as I've already seen a majority of the films or they are ones that air several times a year anyway. However, this time I made an effort to finally watch some of the films I say I'm going to watch every time TCM shows them but never actually get around to viewing (three that have been on my watchlist for some time are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dark Victory, and Separate Tables). This month also ended up being a Robert Taylor (5) and Greer Garson (7) month for me, as you will see. And I enjoyed Madame Curie so much I am currently reading the biography of the same name by her daughter Eve Curie as well as A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson by Michael Troyan.  I also just announced The Rose of MGM: The Greer Garson Blogathon.

1. The Painted Desert (1931) - Bill Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees, Clark Gable
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) - James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Anita Louise, Dick Powell & Olivia de Havilland. Joe E. Brown, Ian Hunter, Frank McHugh
3. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) - Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, C. Aubrey Smith
4. Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell & Robert Taylor, Buddy & Vilma Ebson, Una Merkel
5. Born to Dance (1936) - Eleanor Powell & James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel, Buddy Ebson 
6. Three Comrades (1938) - Margaret Sullavan & Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
7. *The Cat and the Canary (1939) - Bob Hope & Paulette Goddard, Gale Sondergard
8. Dark Victory (1939) - Bette Davis & George Brent, Geraldine FitzGerald, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan 
9. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) - Henry Fonda & Claudette Colbert, Edna May Oliver, Ward Bond
10. *The Ghost Breakers (1940) - Bob Hope & Paulette Goddard, Willie Best, Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, Anthony Quinn
11. *Pride and Prejudice (1940) - Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier, Ann Rutherford, Marsha Hunt, Frieda Inescourt, 
12. Blossoms in the Dust (1941) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Marsha Hunt
13. *Mrs. Miniver (1942) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney, Dame May Whitty, Henry Travers, Reginald Owen
14. Madame Curie (1943) - Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Dame May Whitty, Robert Walker, Van Johnson
15. None Shall Escape (1944) - Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry. Travers
16. The Valley of Decision (1945) - Greer Garson & Gregory Peck, Marsha Hunt, Preston Foster, Jessica Tandy, Gladys Cooper, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Marshall Thompson, Dan Duryea, Reginald Owen
17. Danger Signal (1945) - Faye Emerson, Zachary Scott, Rosemary DeCamp
18. That Forsyte Woman (1949) - Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Robert Young, Janet Leigh, Walter Pidgeon 
19. Quo Vadis (1951) - Robert Taylor & Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov
20. All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) - Robert Taylor, Ann Blyth, Stewart Granger, Keenyn Wynn, Betta St. John, James Whitmore, Lewis Stone
21. *River of No Return (1954) - Robert Mitchum & Marilyn Monroe 
22. On the Waterfront (1954) - Marlon Brando & Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger
23. Magnificent Obsession (1954) Rock Hudson & Jane Wyman, Agnes Moorehead 
24. Executive Suite (1954) - William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Walter Pidgeon, Fredric March, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Tim Considine
25. Written on the Wind (1957) - Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone
26. Separate Tables (1958) - Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper, Rod Taylor, Audrey Dalton
27. The House of the Seven Hawks (1959) - Robert Taylor & Nicole Maurey
28. Pepe (1960) - Cantinflas, Shirley Jones, Dan Daily
29. The Facts of Life (1960) - Bob Hope & Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey, Don DeFore 
30. The Rare Breed (1966) - James Stewart & Maureen O’Hara, Juliet Mills, Brian Keith
31. A Warm December (1972) - Sidney Poitier & Esther Anderson
32. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton
33. Mrs. Soffel (1984) - Diane Keaton & Mel Gibson
34. Spaceballs (1987) - Mel Brooks, John Candy, Bill Pullman
35. Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (1993) - Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen, Cloris Leachman
36. *Maverick (1994) - Mel Gibson & Jodie Foster, James Garner, James Coburn
37. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) - Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Phieffer, Chiwetal

Least Favorite Film: Didn't like how Three Comrades ended...

Favorite Film: Lots of solid films but I really loved Madame Curie.

 

 

Three Comrades

 

What Oscar winning films did you finally watch this month? Was there a CLASSIC that you enjoyed more than you expected? Was there a star you watched more than any other?

ANNOUNCING “The Rose of MGM: The Greer Garson Blogathon”

In the month of February I ended up watching five new-to-me Greer Garson films and revisited two that I had seen before. I also started reading her biography, A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson by Michael Troyan. I decided it was time to hold a blogathon for Miss Garson and settled on the weekend of April 6th, the 24th anniversary of her death.

Since Garson appeared in under 30 films, I will allow two duplicates. However, it would be fantastic to have all of her films covered. Posts on her television appearances, frequent co-starrings with Walter Pidgeon, her many Oscar nods, or her impact on women during WWII are also welcome and encouraged.

To claim your topic, please comment with your choice and link to your blog. Then take one of these banners to display!

ALREADY CLAIMED TWICE:

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Roster:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: Madame Curie (1943) & Greer Garson’s appearance on Father Knows Best

The Midnite Drive-In: Mrs. Miniver (1942)

The Wonderful World of Cinema: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Musings of a Classic Film Addict: Remember? (1939)

Musings of an Introvert: Pride and Prejudice (1940)

Movies Meet Their Match: Sunrise at Campobello (1963)

Rebecca Deniston: Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Movies I Watched in January

Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead (1949)

This month I ended up watching several short movies. I also ended up watched several of Patricia Neal's films (TCM's star of the month). I used to not like Patricia Neal but that was because I didn't like the first two movies of hers that I saw. Then I saw her in Hud and was impressed by her Oscar winning performance. And last year I ended up seeing a handful of her films that I was watching for a co-star (Eleanor Parker, Jack Carson, etc.). When I looked at her filmography I realized that by watching a few more of her films I would have watched all her work up to 1954 (there are two movies I'm going to watch online from 1952 that TCM didn't show to complete that). Because of that, Neal will definitely end up on my end-of-year stats for 2020 as one of the stars I watched most (7 this month!).

1. Our Dancing Daughters (1928) - Joan Crawford, Anita Page, John Mack Brown
2. The Secret 6 (1931) - Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable
3. The Phantom of Crestwood (1932) - Karen Morley, Ricardo Cortez, Anita Louise, H.B. Warner
4. Is My Face Red? (1932) - Ricardo Cortez, Helen Twelvetrees, ZaSu Pitts
5. Before Dawn (1933) - Stuart Erwin & Dorothy Wilson, Warner Oland, Jane Darwell
6. Bachelor Bait (1934) - Stuart Erwin & Rochelle Hudson
7. Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935) - Gene Raymond, Walter Brennan, Henry Travers, Eric Blore
8. Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) - Dick Powell, Adolph Menjou, Gloria Stuart
9. Things to Come (1936) - Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson
10. Topper Takes a Trip (1939) - Roland Young, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke
11. The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939) - Rosella Towne, William Gargan 
12. Sporting Blood (1940) - Robert Young & Maureen O’Sullivan, Lewis Stone, William Gargan 
13. Background to Danger (1943) - George Raft, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall 
14. The Verdict (1946) - Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
15. The Stranger (1946) - Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles & Loretta Young, Richard Long
16. Repeat Performance (1947) - Joan Leslie & Louis Hayward
17. The Search (1948) - Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Wendell Corey
18. The Hasty Heart (1949) - Richard Todd, Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal 
19. The Fountainhead (1949) - Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey
20. Bright Leaf (1950) - Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal, Lauren Bacall, Jack Carson 
21. Raton Pass (1951) - Dennis Morgan & Patricia Neal, Steve Cochran
22. *Operation Pacific (1951) - John Wayne & Patricia Neal, Ward Bond, Martin Milner
23. Weekend with Father (1951) - Van Heflin & Patricia Neal, Gigi Perreau
24. Washington Story (1952) - Van Johnson & Patricia Neal, Louis Calhern
25. You for Me (1952) - Jane Greer, Peter Lawford, Gig Young
26. Sombrero (1953) - Ricardo Montalban, Pier Angeli, Vittorio Gassman, Yvonne de Carlo, Rick Jason, Cyd Charisse, Nina Foch
27. The World, The Flesh and the Devil (1959) - Harry Belafonte, inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
28. *Sunday in New York (1963) - Jane Fonda & Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson 
29. The Great Escape (1963) - Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn
30. The Cincinnati Kid (1965) - Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margaret, Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Joan Blondell
31. Knives Out (2019) - Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon

Conquest of the Air (1940) - Laurence Olivier
Scandal: The Trial of Mary Astor (2018)

Patricia Neal wore the same exact wedding dress and veil in both Bright Leaf and Raton Pass!

Least favorite film: Knives Out. The puking storyline turned me off. I wouldn't have even watched it had I known about it.

Favorite movie: The Search was beautiful and heartbreaking and I sobbed at the end. I also liked The World, the Flesh and the Devil, especially the first half (before Mel Ferrer showed up). The Mary Astor documentary was fascinating!

2019 Movie Stats

This year I watched 190 new-to-me movies and 44 movies that were rewatches.

New to me: 193 (161 pre-1970, 32 post-1970)

Rewatches: 45 (33 pre-1970,  12 post-1970)

Total: 238 (194 pre-1970, 44 post-1970)

Where I watched them:

TCM: 157 (15 rewatches)

Library: 36 (13 rewatches)

Personal DVD: 19 (13 rewatches)

YouTube & OK: 7 (2 rewatches)

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu: 12 (+ 4 from Netflix dvd, 1 a rewatch)

TV: 3 (1 rewatch)

Theater: 1

Here are my top ten eight movie discoveries:
(ones with an * I was obsessed with)

1/25 Cactus Flower (1969)
2/12 Lost Horizon (1937)*
4/22 I Know Where I'm Going (1945)*
4/26 My Bodyguard (1980)*
9/12 12 Angry Men (1957)
10/19 The 39 Steps (1935)*
10/29 Scared Stiff (1953)
11/4 River of No Return (1954)

Classics I finally watched:

The 39 Steps (1935) - Robert Donat & Madeleine Carroll 

Murder, My Sweet (1944) - Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley

Angel Face (1953) - Robert Mitchum & Jean Simmons 

The Three Faces of Eve (1957) - Joanne Woodward, Lee J. Cobb 

12 Angry Men (1957) - Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb 

A Patch of Blue (1965) - Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - Sidney Poitier & Katharine Houghton, Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn, Cecil Kellaway

The Sting (1973) - Paul Newman, Robert Redford 

Number of movies per decade:

1910s: 2 (0 rewatches)
1920s: 3 (0 rewatches)
1930s: 41 (6 rewatches)
1940s: 62 (13 rewatches)
1950s: 60 (10 rewatches)
1960s: 26 (4 rewatches)
1970s: 9 (0 rewatches)
1980s: 4 (3 rewatches)
1990s: 6 (3 rewatches)
2000s: 9 (3 rewatches)
2010s: 16 (3 rewatches)


Number of movies per month:

January: 22 (1 rewatch)
February: 17 (2 rewatches)
March: 23 (3 rewatches)
April: 21 (3 rewatches)
May: 16 (4 rewatches)
June: 16 (4 rewatches)
July: 11 (6 rewatches)
August: 10 (0 rewatches)
September: 29 (7 rewatches)
October: 35 (5 rewatches)
November: 13 (4 rewatches)
December: 25 (6 rewatches)


Most Watched (Leading) Movie Stars:

Eleanor Parker - 11 films
Adam Baldwin - 8 films
Robert Mitchum - 7 films

Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Dennis Morgan, Dick Powell - 6 films

Robert Young, Bette Davis, Robert Ryan, Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray - 5 films


Stars I discovered/grew to love/admire want to see more of:

Helen Hayes                                                Susan Hayward

*To see last years stats click here

Did you keep track of the movies you watched in 2019? Was there a star or movie you discovered that you can't live without now? Let me know in the comments!

Movies I Watched in December

Carefree

My apologies for the slightly late post. I decided to start off the new decade with a bad cold... I don’t like to get on the ol’ household desktop when I’m sick and there are a few things I can’t do on my iPad in order to have my posts ready for publishing. Look for my end-of-year movie stats post later this week!

This month I didn’t rewatch as many Christmas movies as I usually do. I feel like I watched a more unusual assortment of films than normal. If you follow my blog Facebook page (linked on the side of my blog), you’ll know I took advantage of Bette Davis being November’s Star of the Month on TCM and took tons of screenshots of her hats to be used in another Bette’s Hats and Reviews post sometime this year. Speaking of Bette, I read ‘I’d Love to Kiss You...’ Conversations with Bette Davis by Whitney Stine, which I absolutely loved and highly recommend. I also started Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen.

* indicates a rewatch

1. Sherlock, Jr. (1924) - Buster Keaton
2. The Millionaire (1931) - George Arliss 
3. Imitation of Life (1934) - Claudette Colbert, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson
4. Carefree (1938) - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy
5. Private Detective (1939) - Jane Wyman, Gloria Dickson
6. Murder in the Big House (1942) - Van Johnson & Faye Emerson 
7. Crime by Night (1944) - Jerome Cowen & Jane Wyman, Faye Emerson, Eleanor Parker 
8. God is My Co-Pilot (1945) - Dennis Morgan, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Dane Clark
9. *Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Barbara Stanwyck & Dennis Morgan, S.Z. Sakall, Reginald Gardiner, Sydney Greenstreet
10. Cornered (1945) - Dick Powell, Walter Slezak 
11. Yolanda and the Thief (1945) - Fred Astaire & Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, Mildred Natwick
12. The Stork Club (1945) - Betty Hutton, Barry FitzGerald 
13. *June Bride (1948) - Bette Davis & Robert Montgomery, Fay Bainter, Mary Wickes
14. Sitting Pretty (1948) - Robert Young & Maureen O’Hara, Clifton Webb
15. The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke 
16. Where Danger Lives (1950) - Robert Mitchum & Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O’Sullivan
17. The Star (1952) - Bette Davis & Sterling Haydn, Natalie Wood
18. *White Christmas (1954) - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, Mary Wickes
19. *Sissi (1955-German) - Romy Schneider, Magda Schneider 
20. Wuthering Heights (1958-TV Movie) - Richard Burton & Rosemary Harris
21. *Imitation of Life (1959) - Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Susan Kohner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee
22. McHale’s Navy (1964) - Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway, Gavin MacLeod 
23. *Home Alone (1990) - Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Catherine O’Hara, John Candy
24. Christmas Getaway (2017-Hallmark) - Travis Van Winkle & Bridget Regan 
25. Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy (2019) - Maggie Lawson (Psych)

Least Favorite Film: I couldn’t see the appeal of the Mr. Belvedere character as portrayed by Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty. 

Favorite Film: Don’t really have a favorite this month (hard to compete with those Christmas movies!). The only time I watch a Hallmark movie is when Maggie Lawson (Psych) is in it, but when I saw that Christmas Getaway starred two actors from The Last Ship I had to check it out. The fact that they knew one another prior to filming greatly helped their chemistry, which has been lacking in the three Lawson films I’ve watched. It’s one I would definitely watch again.

Sitting Pretty