We began the year hoping to see and review a movie a week, with a week or two off for vacation or especially busy times. That notion devolved pretty quickly to every other week, and we struggled with that. Even with Barbara not working for a few months we found other things to do. So we finished with seventeen potential classics, which averages one for every three weeks. If we can keep up the same pace in 2015, I guess we’ll be satisfied.
Of the movies themselves, only one was considered a miss by both of us, My Little Chickadee, made by W. C. Fields and Mae West after both were past their primes. Barb wasn’t sure The Onion Field qualifies as a classic either, though it and all of the other sixteen titles qualify in my book. Agree? Disagree? Post your comments on each movie if you have a strong opinion to express.
Barb, who picks a potential classic from batches of five which I present to her, has yet to choose a foreign film or a silent film, though I am sure we will get there eventually. She tends to stay away from really long films . . . although she prefers longer books when she reads. Who knows? The point is to keep visiting the oldies, and the not-so-oldies (any potential classic before 1990 is fair game), trying to determine whether these films continue to offer viewing rewards to modern audiences, and appreciating them all the more when they do. Our list of seventeen films watched in 2014 is below, followed by their reviews by Barb and myself.
Our 2014 classics:
# 1: The Naked City (1948)
# 2: Elmer Gantry (1960)
# 3: Experiment in Terror (1962)
# 4: Grand Hotel (1932)
# 5: All About Eve (1950)
# 6: My Little Chickadee (1940)
# 7: The Longest Day (1962)
# 8: Inherit the Wind (1960)
# 9: Island of Lost Souls (1932)
# 10: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
# 11: The Westerner (1940)
# 12: The Onion Field (1979)
# 13: Q Planes (Clouds Over Europe) (1939)
# 14: Executive Suite (1954)
# 15: The Professionals (1966)
# 16: It Came from Outer Space (1953)
# 17: Gunga Din (1939)