Wednesday, December 15, 2010

"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"

Hmmm...so I wrote this last Decemeber, I guess I was planning on being less of a loser and posting a year ago, but it appears I abandoned this, much like many other things in my life.  But, I don't want to be an abandoner especially when I've actually been dedicated and good at something for a change.  So I'll finish up this post and then maybe, possibly post again today or tomorrow or at least before another year goes by. Yes, I know...been awhile.  Yes, I know...I suck.  I'm posting mostly because I'm procrastinating (yet again).  The semester is actually finished, I got As in two of my classes, but there's this one stupid assignment for this Pass/Fail course that I just cannot seem to finish, it's haunting me, plaguing me, not getting done, I was going to finish it this weekend, but I ended up getting sick and not able to do much of anything, except watch movies.  So in honor of that I'm going to update and continue to not get this assignment done (yes, I know I'm an idiot).  So here are the next few movies from the list:


  1. Queen Christina (1933) starring Greta Garbo, I recorded this movie from TCM (woo TCM!) in 2003.  Wow 2003 was a long time ago.  I enjoyed the movie, I always intend to watch more Greta Garbo movies and then never get around to it, but I love her understated-ness and her ability to do so much by doing so little.  And of course it's always interesting to see movies that star real-life couples.  I think that's one of my favorite things, sometimes awesome and sometimes slightly bizarre Hollywood couples.
  2. Las Hurdes (1933) aka Land Without Bread.  Directed by Luis Bunuel aka director of the super creepy eyeball cutting movie Un Chien Andalou.  I believe I couldn't find this movie on DVD and I ended up finding at my local library on VHS, I can't recall the year and I didn't write it down.  I'll have to check my other notes, but yeah it was an interesting 30 minute short about a struggling community, that seemed to be representative of perhaps impoverished areas of Spain...perhaps.
  3. King Kong (1933) was brought to me by TCM, thanks TCM.  I watched this movie in 2003 (I can't believe I've been working on this list for over 7 years...pathetic? or awesome?  you decide).  Anyway, great to see the original King Kong.  I had seen the 1976 Jeff Bridges/Jessica Lange version of King Kong and the Peter Jackson 2005 edition as well, both of which I enjoyed.  But, I always feel like I've done myself a disservice by seeing the remakes before getting to experience the originals, just because the original always seems a little slower, or a little less impressive.  Even though it should be revered as the trailblazer.
  4. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), I couldn't find this movie ANYWHERE! I searched high and low and couldn't believe that a Frank Capra film should be so hard to find.  I luckily found it at my local library on VHS in 2007, as of today it's still listed as unreleased at Netflix, but it looks like it's part of a Barbara Stanwyck box set!  This movie didn't feel like your typical Frank Capra cinematic adventure, but I still enjoyed it and it was interesting to see a lesser known possibly forgotten classic.
  5. Sons of the Desert (1933) was my first Laurel and Hardy movie and I loved it.  They're so funny and endearing, some of their little gags are a tad violent, but it's all in good fun.  I found this movie in 2003 at Rocket Video on VHS, it still doesn't seem to be available on DVD at this point in time.  I enjoyed this movie, it was just frustrating to watch at times, it's hard to believe so much could go so wrong for 2 people, but most of the time it happens in a humorous way.  While I did enjoy this movie, I think my favorite Laurel and Hardy movie is, The Music Box (1932), which I happened to catch on TCM on Essentials Jr.  I watched it with my dad and we couldn't stop laughing.
Below are some handy-dandy links to most of the movies mentioned in this post; If you're a crazy movie collector, like me, they might come in handy.  And I must say I'm surprised that Queen Christina is so reasonably priced!  I love having the ability to link to specific movies at Amazon, sometimes it's so hard to track down these movies. 















Anyway, that's enough from me for today.  I'm going to try to post again soon, because I have some excited 1001 must see movie news!