Who will be my most watched movie star of 2022 and how many movies will I have watched? Leave your guess in the comments. Hint: it DOESN’T start with Robert ;)
Here’s who had the top spot for the past few years (I didn’t track who had the most in 2016 & 2015 when I started my stats, but for 2016 it was probably Olivia de Havilland).
2021 - Robert Young with 16 (Elvis Presley in second with 15)
2020 - Robert Taylor with 20 (Elvis Presley in second with 13)
2019 - Eleanor Parker with 11
2018 - Robert Ryan with 16
2017 - Clark Gable & Chris Pine tying with 14 each
What movie star did YOU watch the most movies of this past year?
This month was a pretty good month. Aside from these movies, I also watched season 5 of The Crown (only episode I really objected to was ep. 6). My brother bought the new Planes, Trains and Automobiles release with a disc of never-before-seen deleted and extended scenes that were recently discovered among John Hughes things - some adult/crude humor but very funny. I also started watching season 3 of Leave it to Beaver. I’ve probably seen most of them but so far I’ve only watched the first two seasons in order (you may remember this post of June’s season 1 dresses. I’ve spotted a few of them in season 3 too).
Lady of the Tropics (1939) - Robert Taylor & Hedy Lamarr
I’ll Be Seeing You (1944) - Ginger Rogers & Joseph Cotten
*Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O’Hara & John Payne, Natalie Wood
On Our Merry Way (1948) - Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurrey, William Demerest
Fate is the Hunter (1964) - Glenn Ford, Suzanne Pleshette, Rod Taylor, Nancy Kwan, Dorothy Malone, Jane Russell
Freebie and the Bean (1974) - James Caan, Alan Arkin, Valerie Harper, Loretta Swit
Silkwood (1983) - Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher
Suspect (1987) - Cher, Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson, John Mahoney
*Funny Farm (1988) - Chevy Chase
Rush Hour (1998) - Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker
The Christmas Chronicles (2018) - Kurt Russell, Darby
The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020) - Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn
Least Favorite Film: Definitely The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two. It had none of the charm, humor, and originality of the first one. I wish the elves had been like the ones in Elf, instead of gremlin-like. There were some parts of Freebie and the Bean that I didn’t care for, though I liked the buddy chemistry between Caan and Arkin. They could have had a good buddy cop tv show.
Kurt Russell sings an Elvis Christmas song in the first film.
He still has the moves from when he played Elvis in the 1979 TV movie!
Favorite Movie: Aside from Silkwood (which I shouldn’t have watched before bed) and my least favorite movie listed above, I really enjoyed all of them! I’ve been wanting to see I’ll be Seeing You for a long time based on the image below. It wasn’t what I expected but I really enjoyed it. I’m not always a fan of how Ginger Roger acts but she was very good in this one and Joseph Cotten was excellent (sadly he doesn’t mention the film in his autobiography). On Our Merry Way can only be described as quirky. If you ever get a chance to watch it, do. Suspect was really good (except for the first 7 minutes with a suicide, murder, and upsetting robbery/assault). I’ve seen parts of the Rush Hour movies so I knew I’d enjoy it. They don’t make funny movies like that anymore..
I finished watching all of M*A*S*H. I had stopped after Winchester replaced Frank but my brother told me to give him a chance and I'm glad I did. They are definitely more drama than comedy as opposed to the first five seasons, but I was sad when I got to the end. As you can see, the result is I didn't watch a ton of movies.
A sad thing that happened this month is that the WatchTCM app is no longer supported on my 2016 iPad. Now if I want to take a screenshot of a costume I'll have to do so on my laptop, which is a lot more time consuming than just pressing two buttons at the same time :( However, there are only 4 movies showing on TCM in November that I want to watch so I will probably watch more old movies on YouTube and Tubi.
Good Girls Go to Paris (1939) - Joan Blondell & Melvyn Douglas
So Ends Our Night (1941) - Fredric March, Glenn Ford, Margaret Sullivan, Frances Dee
Sylvia and the Phantom/Sylvie et le Fantรดme (1946 - French) - Jacques Tati, Odette Joyeux
The Company She Keeps (1951) - Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer, Dennis O’Keefe
The Tall Men (1955) - Clark Gable & Jane Russell, Robert Ryan
Cowboy (1958) - Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Brian Donlevy, Dick York
*Clambake (1967) - Elvis Presley & Shelley Fabares, Bill Bixby, Gary Merrill
Deepwater Horizon (2016) - Mark Wahlburg, Kurt Russell, Kate Hudson, John Malkovich
Irving Thalburg: The Prince of Hollywood (2005)
Least Favorite Film: Cowboy had some cruel scenes and was a little more down than I thought it would be. Still a good movie though. Twice Blessed was a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a long time with its “Parent Trap” storyline. I’m not a fan of Preston Foster though so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
Favorite Movie: Sylvia and the Phantom was a nice non-scary ghost movie for October. The score was lovely. It was fun seeing famous femme fatale's Scott and Greer in a The Company She Keeps together. There aren't enough old movies with two women leads that aren't "women's pictures." I really liked Glenn Ford's performance in So Ends Our Night.
Fun fact: I was watching The Tall Men (which has a score by Victor Young) and at the 25:45 mark (on YT) I suddenly recognized about 15 seconds of part of the Shane soundtrack (also Young)!
The Trouble with Harry (1955), The perfect autumn film.
Didn’t get a lot of movies watched this month with the death of Queen Elizabeth (if you follow me on Twitter you know I mostly post Royal family stuff) and going on a mini vacation to the North Carolina Outer Banks (the weather was perfect) - naturally on the same weekend. I also went on a day trip to a large outdoor flea market, where I bought several Elvis movies for $2 each, including his first two movies (VHS).
Mad About Music (1938) - Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, Gail Patrick, Arthur Treacher, William Frawley, Marcia Mae Jones, Helen Parrish
*Road to Singapore (1940) - Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Coburn, Anthony Quinn
For the Love of Mary (1948) - Deanna Durbin, Edmond O’Brien, Don Taylor, Jeffrey Lynn
Tokyo Joe (1949) - Humphrey Bogart
*Hondo (1953) - John Wayne & Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, James Arness
*The Trouble with Harry (1955) - Shirley MacLaine, John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick, Jerry Mathers
Wild in the Country (1961) - Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, John Ireland
Operation Crossbow (1965) - Sophia Loren, George Peppard, John Mills
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) - James Coburn, Aldo Ray
The Hot Rock (1972) - Robert Redford, George Segal
Nights at Rodanthe (2008) - Diane Lane & Richard Gere, Christopher Meloni, Viola Davis, James Franco
Least Favorite Film: Well, I didn’t like the end of Nights at Rodanthe (which I watched because I was going to be driving through there on the way to Avon for a few days - I saw the Rodanthe Inn from the road as we drove through!).
Favorite Movie: Of course I liked Wild in the Country (listen to my favorite song from the film below). I didn’t remember much of Hondo but I liked it much better this time around.
This month I started watching M*A*S*H again (I had stopped after Frank left). So far I've watched season 6-8. They are definitely more serious in tone. I also started The Persuaders (1971-1972), starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. I liked the first couple of episodes enough to buy the complete series on dvd ($10 on Amazon for 24 episodes).
* indicates a rewatch
A Lady of Chance (1928) - Norma Shearer
Cynara (1932) - Ronald Colman & Kay Francis
My Dear Miss Aldrich (1937) - Edna May Oliver, Maureen O’Sullivan & Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson
The Drum (1938) - Sabu, Roger Livesy, Raymond Massey
River’s End (1940) - Dennis Morgan, George Tobias
Meet the Stewarts (1942) - William Holden & Frances Dee
In Which We Serve (1942) - Noel Coward, John Mills, Celia Johnson, Richard Attenborough
Dear Ruth (1947) - William Holden & Joan Caufield, Edward Arnold
*Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) - Cary Grant & Betsy Drake, Franchot Tone
Little Women (1949) - June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O’Brien, Peter Lawford, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Rossano Brazzi
Barricade (1950) - Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Ruth Roman
*Shane (1953) - Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde
Dunkirk (1958) - John Mills, Richard Attenborough
*Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) - Steve Martin + archive footage of old Hollywood stars
Captain Ron (1992) - Kurt Russell, Martin Short
Little Women (1994) - Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Wickes
We Are Marshall (2006) - Matthew McConahay
*The King’s Speech (2010) - Colin Firth
*The Tourist (2010) - Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp
Elvis (2022) - Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia Delange (in theaters)
Least Favorite Film: Cynara. No one likes a girl who steals another woman’s husband than gets hysterical when he goes back to her.
Favorite Movie: Meet the Stewarts was really cute and funny. I also really enjoyed the 1994 Little Women. I've never really been a huge fan of the book (when I first read it I saw that one of the girls died and didn't finish it). I really liked Christian Bale as Laurie. In most adaptations the character of Laurie is forgettable, or too... for lack of a better word, feminine - maybe it's because his name is similar to mine (Laura). Anyway, Bale did a great job and I think this adaptation is my favorite, followed by the 1978 TV mini-series, which had a great cast. Captain Ron was pretty funny.
I thought Elvis (2022) would be added to HBO Max in early August and, since I hadn't gotten around to going to see it in theaters yet (I like early weekday showings when there's not a lot of people - even pre-covid I preferred it that way), I had decided to wait. Then they pushed the date and, since it stayed in theaters so long, I finally had a chance to go. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen. Not going to lie, the first hour dragged a little but once we got to the '68 Special it was really good. That was my favorite part of the movie, partly because it was more like a regular biopic, had more actual Elvis songs than the first hour, and had less of Colonel Tom Parker. Austin Butler, who I thought he was a horrible choice when he was cast (despite having never seen him act), was absolutely incredible. He had the moves and voice down to a T. He even managed to catch that twinkle in his eyes that Elvis had. I really do hope he is nominated for an Oscar and wins. He seems like a pretty humble guy in his interviews too and seems to genuinely love Elvis. I hope that one day an extended cut is released. I sobbed at the end of the movie and had trouble holding it together the entire drive home (20 min - while listening to an Elvis cd). The end was perfect (I usually stay until the credits finish but it moved on to a rap song so I hot footed it out of there). The film was added to HBO Max today.
Post your four favorite photos of Alan Ladd and a gif
Say why you like them
Tag four other people
Of course I have to start with a picture of Ladd in character
as Shane, as that is the movie that made me a fan.
I know smoking is bad for you, but those Old Hollywood
stars sure looked cool and classy when they lit up.
Ladd made several noir films, and this shot is super cool. You can't get this effect with color folks!
On the other end of the spectrum, here's a sweet photo of Ladd with his daughter Alana.
I'm going to one up the gif to a video of Ladd saying my name. This is from the movie Guns of the Timberland (1960) and he pronounces my name, Laura, EXACTLY the way I like it pronounced. People from the north and west tend to pronounce it "lore-ah," which I don't like.
And lastly... I always struggle with the tag part so since I'm already two months late I'm going to skip it ;)
BONUS: some Alan Ladd recipes I came across while picking out my four photos.
Isn't this floating card table in Maisie was a Lady (1941) amazing?
This month was much better movie-wise. I even started back up watching White Collar! Also I FINALLY watched both The Lady Vanishes and Brief Encounter! Loved both of them! If you like Brief Encounter you should watch Falling in Love (1984). It's not a remake but it's very similar. I've never been a fan of Meryl Streep but I really liked her in this one. She actually reminded me of my cousin's teenage daughter. I watched it on Kanopy.
Bravetown (2015) - Lucas Till, Josh Duhamel, Laura Dern
*The Lost Husband (2020) - Leslie Bibb & Josh Duhamel
Least Favorite Film: The Sharkfighters wasn't very good. Some of Number One was good but then some was like ??
Favorite Movie: Tough Guys was really funny. Eli Wallach was hilarious, especially the part where he picks up the walker. Also Brief Encounter and Falling in Love.
Favorite Quote:
A dream is alright. It's an island everybody can sail to. But you can't stay on it or make a life on it.
~ Alida Valli in Walk Softly, Stranger (1950)
I hope I spot this gown from Maisie was a Lady (1941) in another movie someday!
It looks like it has a sparkly crescent moon on the front. And love the back too!
