The 100 Best Action Movies: Time Out

Posted on November 13, 2014 at 8:00 am

Time Out Magazine went to the experts — action directors and stars — to make a rock ’em sock ’em list of the all-time best action films. I immediately guessed #1, did you? Here’s a hint — it was featured in my book, 101 Must-See Movie Moments because of the scene where the hero and the villain first see each other.

The All-Time Best Movie Sandwiches

Posted on November 12, 2014 at 8:00 am

Slate has a wonderful compilation of the top ten movie sandwiches of all time. But they left out my favorite, which was the inspiration for my 101 Must-See Movie Moments, the sandwich made by the daughter of the main character played by Van Johnson in “Wives and Lovers.” Here’s an excerpt from my book:

Can I make a tuna sandwich?” Julie (Claire Wilcox) asks her dad Bill (Van Johnson), who is working on his typewriter in their cramped tenement apartment. Julie is 7¾ years old. Bill distractedly gives her his permission, and then realizes, with horrified fascination, that her idea of making a tuna fish sandwich is to put four small plates on the table, place lettuce on one, tuna on one, mayonnaise on one, and bread on one, and then take a pinch of each with her fingers and put it in her mouth.

Any parent will identify with Bill’s inability to prevent himself from making the obvious comment and asking her what she is doing. She looks up at him as though he is a little slow and explains she is eating a tuna fish sandwich. Again, knowing he probably should not, he explains that most people combine the ingredients, and she tells him she does not like to have her foods touch each other. Like every parent going back to the cave days, when Cro-Magnon patiently explained that wooly mammoth tastes better when it is combined with some greens, Bill tells Julie that when it all gets to her stomach, it will be touching, and she says with a little shudder, “I don’t want to hear it.”

Later in the film, Bill takes Julie to Sardi’s. She does the same thing with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it is just as charming.

Movies Are Mirrors: Seeing Ourselves in Movies

Posted on November 8, 2014 at 8:00 am

Three Films About What We Discover About Others and Ourselves When We See and Hear What People Do When They Think No One is There

Posted on November 2, 2014 at 8:00 am

Professor Drew Morton deftly shows the connections between three films about listening or looking in secret and what secrets are discovered or uncovered: Blow Up, Blow Out, and The Conversation

List: My Favorite Movie Ghosts

Posted on October 30, 2014 at 8:00 am

Happy Halloween! Here are ten of my favorite movie ghosts. (NOTE: Some of these have inferior remakes — stick with the originals.)

Topper Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are the most sophisticated, witty, and glamorous ghosts ever in this delightful comedy about a young couple who are killed in a car accident and come back as ghosts to brighten the life of a shy banker.

The Uninvited Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey play a brother and sister who move into a house on a Cornwall cliff. It turns out someone is already living there — a ghost. This movie introduced the jazz standard “Stella by Starlight.”

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir A ghost romance? Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison play the title roles in this story of a widow who moves into a house inhabited by the ghost of a handsome sea captain.

The Canterville Ghost Margaret O’Brien teaches her distant cousin Robert Young about noblesse oblige when American troops are bivouacked a her family’s ancestral home. It turns out their mutual ancestor is staying there, too, a ghost (Charles Laughton) who has to show some courage before he can go to heaven.

Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson battle a number of ectoplasmic manifestations in this classic comedy (soon to be remade with an all-female team).

13 Ghosts People often ask me if I’ve ever walked out of a movie. The answer is: just once, and it was this movie when I was 9. I was a little freaked out by the special glasses you had to wear to see the ghosts, but it was when the Ouija board pointer was lifted off the board by a ghost that I turned to my mother and said, “I have to go home now.” I’ve since developed real affection for all of William Castle’s films, including this one.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is my favorite Christmas story and I love just about every version, but I think the best is the one starring Alistair Sim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbthuKFuFA

Pirates of Caribbean: Curse of Black Pearl “You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner… you’re in one!” Geoffrey Rush is the ghost captain of a pirate ship with a ghost crew in this rollicking adventure inspired by the Disney theme park ride.

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken Don Knotts is the nervous aspiring reporter assigned to spend the night in a haunted house. Or is it?

The Haunting Julie Harris stars in this classic of psychological horror about investigators who spend the night in a haunted house.