Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Top Ten Reasons I Love Old Movies



10. Corny jokes. Sometimes you just need a corny joke in a world where everyone's always trying to be clever and witty and off-color. Yes, a corny joke may be super cheezy and kind of embarrassing, but I bet you'll still laugh at it.

9. Gayness. Yeah, they say "gay" a lot in old movies. It's a little bit funny every time.

8. Memories. No, I don't have memories of seeing these movies when they originally came out in the theater, but I do have great memories of watching them as a child and singing and dancing along with the musical numbers. Every viewing brings back some warm fuzzies.

7. Trailers. Have you watched some old movie trailers? They're almost as entertaining as the movies themselves. Especially when they're announcing "the most unusual picture in many years."

6. Cary Grant. What else do I have to say?

5. Scary, but not too Scary. I can't watch these new-fangled horror movies. They are violent and disturbing and give me nightmares. But I can take some Psycho any day. Old scary movies are scary, yes, but not so gratuitously graphic.

4. Singing. Old movies have great songs. And great singers. They can't be beat by these wannabe singers/actors who come around today with their mediocre voices and lack-luster songs. MGM Musicals especially had it down. They knew where to place a song in the movie and how to stage a highly entertaining musical number. Perfection!

3. Dancing. Kind of goes with the singing. But seriously, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly? It doesn't get much better.

2. No sex. I'm not that into watching people have sex. I appreciate that in old movies, I do not have to witness this.

1. They make me happy! Probably for all the reasons listed above.

Why do you like old movies?

Friday, April 9, 2010

Vincent Price + Tim Burton

A friend of mine sent me this video, knowing my affinity for Vincent Price. It's kind of awesome and definitely worth a watch. Or two. Or three.



Meanwhile, last weekend I thoroughly enjoyed watching House on Haunted Hill on TV. It had been awhile since I'd seen it, so I was overjoyed when I happened to flip to it. It was fantastic, as always, and even more-so given the fact that I was rather over-tired and a little loopy. Old movies are always better taken that way.

The only downside was it was playing as part of one of our local channel's ridiculous "Svengoolie" programs which featured multiple airings of the most terrible commercial I've ever seen, advertising a t-shirt with a giant chicken shooting lasers out its eyes.