Robert Goulet

So I'm sure we've all heard the sad news that Robert Goulet is in the hospital awaiting a lung transplant. If I had a lung to spare, I would certainly give it to him.

This afternoon, I was talking to my boss and another coworker. My boss was running through a list of famous people she's seen in Vegas and Robert Goulet was part of the list. I was slightly disturbed that she would just assume I know who Robert Goulet is. What twenty-something knows who he is?? I do.

Then my coworker asked who Robert Goulet is. It was then that I realized there is no way to explain who he is to anyone under the age of 50. Certainly they've seen him before, but where? Emerald Nuts commercials? Will Ferrel Saturday Night Live skits? 60's TV? None of these flew with my coworker; she had no idea what we were talking about. I shyly admitted that I knew him from Camelot. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Hitchcock Weekend

'Tis the season! On Saturday, AMC ran a Hitchcock Marathon. It was good, but it would have been infinitely more enjoyable without the commercials, stupid AMC. I only watched two movies, but I hadn't seen either of them in some time.

Dial M for Murder was first. I really haven't seen this movie in years and I forgot most of the story. I definitely did not remember how complicated the end was. Not as complicated as Vertigo, but close. Anyway, great movie! Pretty typical Hitchcock fare; a bit of suspense in the beginning followed by lots of detective work and some crazy explanation at the end. I have to say, even now I'm not sure I could tell you exactly what happens and how they figure everything out. That's what makes it great. You can watch it over and over again and always find something new.


Rear Window was next. This has always been one of my favorite Hitchcock films despite the fact that, as my roommate so astutely pointed out, nothing actually happens. It really should be the most boring movie ever. You sit there, watching bits and pieces of random peoples' lives across the courtyard without any kind of concrete story surrounding any of them. There isn't even much of a story regarding the main characters. Jimmy Stewart broke is leg and he thinks Grace Kelly is too good for him. To top it off, the ending is really pretty boring, with no shock or twist or anything. Nevertheless, I love it! I don't know why. Maybe it touches close to home. Are we all secretly waiting for our neighbors to do something suspicious so we can speculate about them? I know I am. Also, I'm a little bit in love with Jimmy Stewart.

Deborah Kerr :(

Deborah Kerr died on Tuesday at age 86. I found out when I received the dreaded "TCM Schedule Change Alert" email. This email almost always means that someone has died and they're going to show some of their movies in the next few days. Sure enough, TCM is going to be showing From Here to Eternity and Separate Tables on Sunday night. Hardly enough of a tribute, if you ask me.

A few years back, I went through a Deborah Kerr stage. I love her. She's so classy. She must have been Star of the Month on TCM at the time, because I have quite a few of her movies on tape; many of them are rather obscure.

Of course, I absolutely love An Affair to Remember. This may be my favorite Deborah Kerr movie and definitely one of my favorite movies of all time. Her and Cary Grant make a lovely couple and I kind of want to cry just thinking about it. Incidentally, Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr were in a much less popular picture a few years before this one called Dream Wife. It's a pretty cheesy movie, but I can't help but like it.

Here are some other Deborah Kerr favorites:

• The King and I, of course. It's a little painful that her singing was dubbed, and slightly more painful that it was dubbed by Marni Nixon who dubbed for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady causing Eliza and Anna to basically sound the same and remind me of my bitterness. But I can look past that. Also the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" thing goes on waaaaay too long. Even still, it's a great movie!


• Tea and Sympathy. This movie is interesting and slightly disturbing. Basically, Deborah Kerr is the wife of the headmaster of a boys' school and she feels bad for this one guy that's not as masculine as the others, and is made fun of as a result. She has a little too much sympathy, I'd say.


• Beloved Infidel. Probably not the best movie, but Gregory Peck is in it and I really love him.


• The Grass Is Greener. This movie is pretty silly, but entertaining none the less. Plus, Cary Grant is in it.


• The Innocents. I haven't seen this is quite some time, but I think I need to rent it. It's a scary movie which is a little unusual for Deborah Kerr, but it's very well done.


• Marriage on the Rocks. Ok, this movie is lame. But Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin are in it, and there are some funny moments.

And now, I will go home and watch An Affair to Remember.

Classic Halloween

I have to admit, I love old scary movies. I love them because they're scary enough for me to be temporarily freaked out, but not scary enough for me to have nightmares. I can't watch the new scary movies, they're too much.

I was pleased to find out that AMC will be showing Hitchcock Movies all day next Saturday. I was planning to watch Psycho with some friends for Halloween, but I'm guessing I won't be able to resist watching it next Saturday either. Can one watch Psycho twice in a week? The answer is yes. AMC is also running "Monsterfest" the week before Halloween, but I'm not sure if I'd classify most of their scheduled movies as classics, which is why I don't like AMC!

TCM is showing Classic Horror Directors every friday. I haven't really seen any of the scheduled films, so I can't say whether or not they're worth a watch. Last night, I watched 13 Ghosts and I got kind of bored. But really you can't go wrong with a corny scary movie. They're also featuring Boris Karloff this month. I've always been fascinated by him even though the only movie of his I've ever seen is Frankenstein which, strangely, they aren't showing.

Ok, now for my person favorite old scary movies:

—Psycho is probably my favorite. It's disturbing. I'm looking forward to showing it for Old Movie Night. I have lots of friends who haven't seen it.
—Frankenstein, the Boris Karloff one, of course. This movie has been remade too many times. The original is the best. When I was maybe 10 or so I watched it at a friend's sleepover party and had nightmares. Luckily, I doesn't affect me quite as much these days. Hopefully.
—Basically anything with Vincent Price. I love that guy, I don't know why. He has a good line of incredibly corny, scary movies. House on Haunted Hill is one of my favorites, along with any of the Edgar Allen Poe based movies. They're over the top, but great! A few of them are on TCM this month. House of Wax is also enjoyable.

I'm looking forward to a corny scary movie-filled Halloween!

Happy Birthday Julie Andrews!

Today is Julie Andrews' 72nd birthday. She looks pretty fabulous for her age, though I think it's pretty clear she's had some...cosmetic help. But for some reason, that's ok with me. I don't really have much to say about her that I haven't already said. I will point out that she's probably the only person I really like (celebrity-wise) that is still alive. That's something.

So in honor of Julie's birthday, I will now list my top 10 favorite Julie...things. That was not meant to be an incredibly lame reference to a certain Julie Andrews song, it just happened.

10. Thoroughly Modern Millie
Not my favorite Julie Andrews movie, but it has some good moments. And Carol Channing is crazy.

9. Victor/Victoria
It's funny and entertaining.

8. Two Ellen interviews.
One from 2005 and one from 2007. Ellen's pretty funny.

7. The Princess Diaries
As much as I want to, I cannot deny that I love this movie.

6. Carol Burnett.
They're friends, I love Carol Burnett, it's great.

5. Rachel Ray Interview. It's just cute!

4. Mary Poppins

3. Camelot (Original Broadway Cast)
I also love her singing the finale which she did not do it the actual show. Her dress in this video is especially enjoyable.

2. The Sound of Music

1. My Fair Lady - Original London Cast Recording

Tony Curtis: The Video

Here's the video of Tony Curtis at the theater the other night. I'm not sure they can actually be called videos considering you can't really see anything since it was so dark in the theater and I was using my little point and shoot camera. But the audio is ok and the stories are pretty entertaining. And the way he talks is pretty amusing in itself. There are lots of short videos. Here they are:

Tony and Jack going into the women's bathroom in their womens garb.

Filming Some Like it Hot and Tony's favorite Marilyn Monroe memory.

Story about Natalie Wood during the filming of The Great Race.

Talking about being on the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album.

Talking about Cary Grant.

Story about loosing his cufflink after appearing at a theater.

Costume stories from Some Like it Hot.

Tony Curtis

To continue my string of seeing famous old people at random movie theaters (see this, this, and this), I saw Tony Curtis this weekend. He introduced a showing of Some Like it Hot at the Hollywood Blvd. theater in Downers Grove (Chicago suburb). It's possibly the most hilarious movie ever, and it's not even skanky or obscene in any way (sort of).

I was really looking forward to seeing the movie on the big screen—it's one of those I can watch lots of times—seeing Tony Curtis in person was, frankly, just a bonus. Now, I figured this was going to be a pretty popular event, so we got there about an hour early. It was a bit more crowded than I had anticipated; the theater was basically packed, and the line to meet Tony was out the door. Luckily, I wasn't planning on meeting Tony. He's cool, but I wasn't going wait in line for an hour and pay $20 to get his autograph.

We did, however, want to get a good seat in the theater and we had to do some sneaking around in the lobby to get to the front of the waiting crowd. Luckily, 95% of the people there were 70 years of age or older, so we had no problem taking them down on our way into the theater. It was so packed that they decided to show the movie on two extra screens, but luckily we made it into the main one.

We sat for a few minutes waiting for Tony to show up in the theater. They had a little couch set up at the front for him and a microphone which is definitely more than they've done for anybody else we've seen there. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Tony Curtis. I know that he was married to Janet Leigh and he's Jamie Lee Curtis's father, but that's about the extent of my Tony Curtis knowledge. So I wasn't sure if he'd be interesting, or really boring, but I figured any stories about Some Like it Hot have to be good.

Tony finally made his way into the theater and the audience loved him. They stood for him as he wobbled down the aisle...he had a knee problem apparently. Not really surprising, seeing as he's about 100 years old. He went and sat down on the couch in the front while the manager of the theater tried to get him to use the microphone. He didn't want to use it, but it was definitely needed. So then he held the mic but kept talking with his hands and moving it away from his face. But it was ok because he was completely hilarious! I thought he might be a little crazy and weird, but he was actually really clever and mostly normal. He had some great, entertaining stories to tell that everyone enjoyed. He got another standing ovation the way out. Adorable!

The best part was, the manager of the theater was trying to ask Tony questions and keep things on track, but Tony would have none of it. He was going to talk about what he wanted to talk about. He wasn't going to be held back by silly questions. It was great.

Overall, the night was a huge success. Tony Curtis is by far the most interesting person we've seen at this theater. I took some video on my point and shoot digital camera and it's really dark so you can't see much, but the audio itself is entertaining. I'll be posting it once I get it uploaded.