She's Got Bette Davis Eyes

I can't believe I've never written about Bette Davis. I apologize for that gross oversight. She's amazing!

Anyway, this evening I enjoyed a fabulous Bette Davis picture, Dead Ringer. In it, Bette plays a down-and-out middle aged bar owner in desperate need of a corset, who murders and assumes the identity of her well-to-do, corset-wearing sister (also played by Bette, of course) who married the man she was in love with some twenty years earlier. Unfortunately, she doesn't plan things out quite as well as she should have and things quickly go awry, making for a fantastic picture. I like to think it could make a nice sequel to The Parent Trap.

This is just one of the many weird, creepy Bette Davis movies I love. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is, of course, a favorite. I tend to like the old, creepy Bette to the younger, creepy Bette. She's really quite interesting; at times she can be rather glamorous, but at other times she's downright disturbing. I guess that's what makes her great.

I recently saw All About Eve for the first time, which was excellent. I vaguely remember this Mr. Skeffington movie, featuring a more glamorous Bette.

The sad thing is, these are about all the Bette Davis movies I've ever seen. I also realized tonight that I've never actually seen a color Bette Davis film. I'm not even sure that she made any movies in color. I need to look into this.

The Bad Seed

Wow, this movie is incredible. If you like movies about blond little girls murdering people, this one is for you!

I won't divulge too much of the story because there was a nice little message at the end of the film asking me not to. But basically, the prim and proper 8 year old Rhoda is all sweetness on the outside, and all evil on the inside. And when her nemesis at school drowns mysteriously, everyone starts to wonder about sweet little Rhoda. And things just get better from there.

I'll be honest, this movie is incredibly corny. On the bright side, the joke possibilities are endless. It's not supposed to be a comedy, but it certainly can be with little effort. There's lots of 50's psychological theories thrown around, which is always ... enlightening. There's also a fabulous drunk lady that points at people a lot.

The first half of the movie is a lot of talking, but in the second half, when everyone starts freaking out, things really pick up. Yes, it's very, very corny, but there are enough disturbing parts to make it so worth the watch.

Max and Elsa Sittin' in a Tree

Ok, maybe this is a thought everyone's had, but I just realized it yesterday: Max and Elsa are perfect for each other!


I'm talking The Sound of Music, of course. I stayed home sick yesterday, and seeing as daytime TV is incredibly lame, I threw in The Sound of Music figuring I could try to fall asleep to it. As I laid on the couch with my eyes closed just listening to it, I realized that Max and the Baroness are meant to be.

First of all, she laughs at his ridiculous jokes that no one else thinks are funny. He must appreciate that. Secondly, they're equally conniving and manipulative. Together they'd be unstoppable! Thirdly, when the Captain dumps her, she states that she needs someone who needs her money. Certainly no one needs her money more than Max. He's basically a leech! Plus it's very convenient that the Von Trapps leave Austria; Max and Elsa are free to express their love without any awkwardness between Max and the Captain.

Granted, the Baroness is way too pretty for Max, but really that shouldn't matter. He probably should have made a move right after the Captain dumped her before she left for Vienna, but I think he still has time. Hopefully he realizes how perfect she is for him and takes some action. I think they'd be very happy together.

Cary Grant + Grey Suit = Love

Wow, Cary Grant is amazing. I watched North by Northwest last night for the first time ever. Of course I’d seen the scene with the plane and the end where they’re on Mount Rushmore, but I never had any idea what was actually going on.

This movie is incredibly long, but I didn’t get bored. There were a couple parts that probably could have been cut shorter, but they weren’t too bad.

Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, a Madison avenue exec, who gets mixed up with some bad guys, out of no fault of his own. They think he's this Kaplan fella, a guy the CIA made up in order to trap them. Thornhill realizes they’ve made a mistake, but can’t convince them, and manages to get into all kinds of trouble (and meet a very forward blond) ... all while wearing the same grey suit. He wears this suit for like 3 days straight at least. Lucky for him, he looks pretty hot in it. And it matches his hair nicely.

This movie is one of the more confusing Hitchcock ones, I think. Not quite like Vertigo (I still get confused about that one), but there’s a lot to it and you have to pay attention. But isn’t that what’s great about Hitchcock? He doesn’t miss anything.

As far as Hitchcock movies go, I probably still prefer Psycho or The Birds, but this is definitely one I’ll be watching again.

Did I mention I love Cary Grant in a grey suit?

Dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirepus

So, Mary Poppins fans across the country are all up in arms about this report on ABC News the other night. They claim that Mary is lying when she tells Bert she can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious backwards. First of all, why the heck did this make it onto the news? Second of all, duh! I've known it was wrong basically my entire life, but never actually bothered to get into it because it really doesn't matter. But now they've made it an issue.

The real problem is not that she doesn't really say it backwards, but that she is inconsistent in her delivery. For most of it, she's just saying pieces of the word forward by letter but in backward order until she gets to the "repus" part when she suddenly puts the letters backward. The thing is, if she would have said the entire word backward, letter by letter, it would have sounded ridiculous. Like this kid.

Meanwhile, are we all just going to ignore the fact that Mary Poppins itself is basically one huge lie? Pretty much everything that happens in that movie is completely impossible; Mary flies around, jumps into a chalk pavement picture, tidies up rooms with a snap of her fingers, etc ... In light of all that, can't we just let this Supercal thing slide?

This does become an issue when Julie Andrews herself runs around at her one of her public appearances, and fulfills a request from one of the innocent children in the audience to say Supercal backwards. Now she's lying as a real person, in real life, to real children sitting in the audience blindly believing her. That is the real outrage.

Bond, James Bond

Well, I experienced my first James Bond film last weekend, Goldfinger. It was fabulous. And I realized what a tragedy it is that I've not seen any James Bond films until now.

Yes, it's incredibly corny, but that's the fun part. Plus he has all kinds of fun 60's gadgets, including a rather primitive GPS system. And I had already seen the Mythbusters James Bond special, so I was pleased to finally get to see their inspiration.

I'm guessing that all the Bond films are pretty similar, but in this one, James is attempting to stop a certain Mr. Goldfinger from stealing the country's gold. There are a number of car chases, lots of explosions, and a couple deaths-by=hat. And along the way, James makes out with every single blond girl he runs into. One of them gets painted gold because of him and his skanky ways. That was the best part. I started to have trouble telling the difference between the women, they basically all looked the same, but it didn't seem to cause a problem. They're really just there for James to make out with and then they die so he can meet a new one.

In the end, it was silly and over the top and completely unbelievable, but beyond entertaining. And the song during the opening titles sung by a crazy 60's lady with excessive vibrato was fantastic! I definitely need to see some more Bond films!

TCM Fun

I wish my ipod looked like this. And played these videos!