List my 100 favorite movies (movies you'd watch over and over again)

Groucho’s ability to continually spout witty one-liners never ceases to amaze me. There are several such memorable spoutages in this film. Two of my favorites:

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.

Business is business…and water is water…and East is East, and West is West, and if you stew cranberries like applesauce, they taste a lot more like prunes than rhubarb does! Now tell me what you know.

Poor Mrs. viii has a hard time watching this one with me. If I’m watching it and she walks through the room she’ll make a comment to the effect of, “I don’t know how you can stand this. It isn’t funny at all.”

It’s the time of year that I enjoy watching a Christmas movie.

This is certainly one of the funniest. There are numerous humorous incidents which take place in the film, here are a few of my favorites:

1. Driving out to get the family Christmas tree, Clark gets his car stuck under a logging truck.
2. Then he barely avoids hitting a snowplow, hits a snowbank, and makes an uncontrolled landing in the parking are of a Christmas tree lot. His first words after the crash? “We’ll we certainly made good time.”
3. The surprise visit from cousin Eddie and his family. I always enjoy cousin Eddie. It reminds my of when Mrs. viii’s family drops in to see us.
4. Aunt Bethany. “Is Rusty still in the Navy?” I like when she is asked to give the blessing on the food and ends up reciting the Pledge of Allegience.
5. Uncle Lewis, when he lights his cigar, throws the match down, and the Christmas tree goes up in a fireball.
6. Watching the cat chewing on the electrical wires and seeing the burn mark on the carpet where the cat once was.

And call me crazy if you will, but I believe that there is a reference to a scene from Star Wars V, The Empire Strikes Back in the opening animation sequence. Has anybody else noticed it?

Another Hitchcock masterpiece. The premise is very frightening. Two strangers share a train compartment. During the course of the journey they converse. One man talks about problems that he his having with this father and how is life would be much better if his father wasn’t around. The other man talks about the problems that he is having with his estranged wife, and how his life would be much better if she wasn’t in the picture.

One of the men said that he couldn’t kill his father, for the same reason that the other man couldn’t kill his wife, because everybody would know who did it.

The first man comes up with an interesting concept: suppose that a stranger were to commit the murder, someone with no apparent link to the victim? Nobody would ever be able to figure out who did it, and life would suddenly become much better.

The other man concedes that it could indeed work, and improve the lives of both the murderers, but didn’t say he would go along with such a scheme.

A short time later the man’s wife turns up dead, murdered. There is no motive and no suspect.

Then the stranger from the train suddenly appears. He tells the man that he did his part, by killing the wife. Now he is informed that he must make good on his end of the bargain and kill the other man’s father. Of course he refuses, and says that he is going to go to the police. At that time the murder tells the man that he has some personal items belonging to him which he will plant at the scene of the crime if he doesn’t live up to his end of the bargain.

A very frightening movie. It makes you wonder about the things that you say to people, even in jest.

An Alfred Hitchcock thriller, starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.

Jimmy Stewart’s character has a broken leg and is confined to a wheelchair in his New York City apartment. He receives regular visits of encouragement from his girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly.

To pass the time away he watches the various dramas unfold in the lives of the people who live in the surrounding apartment buildings. It becomes something of an obsession with him. Before long he knows the stories (although not the names) of the lives of many of his neighbors.

In one particular case he observes an unhappy couple who frequently argue. Then one day he notices that the wife has mysteriously vanished. The husband has been seen scrubbing down the bathroom and taking out large heavy bundles. There are also fresh diggings in the garden below his apartment.

Jimmy Stewart sends Grace Kelly across the way to do some snooping around. She finds the man’s name on the mailbox. She slides a note under the door to his apartment asking what he did with his wife. She even sneaks into his apartment to look for evidence. While in the apartment the man comes home and catches her. Stewart looks him up in the phone book, calls him up and confronts him.

Eventually the man figures out who is behind the harrassment. He comes over to put an end to Stewart once and for all.

The movie is thrillig from start to finish. All of the action takes place within one setting, which actually adds to the excitement and the suspense.

Yes, I know that I just broke my own rule that I laid out in #9: movies should be at least ten years old before they hit this list. OK, maybe it’s more of a guideline than a rule. Now where have we heard that before.

This movie rarely makes the list for the critics’ choice. Yet it will always be a favorite of mine. I watch The Red Green Show quite regularly. It is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

The movie is not as good as the show overall, but it does have its moments.

I guess the very best part about this movie is that Mrs. viii and I were extras in it. We spent a day filming one scene which is near the begining of the movie. I am highly visible in it. Mrs. viii is also pretty easy to spot as well.

It was a great experience. I even got to talk one-on-one with the star of the show. It turns out that he and I have something in common.

Before I go on about this movie, just to set the record straight; in my list of 100 favorite movies I am listing only movies which are at least ten years old. Why? I think that too many times lists of all-time favorite movies are slanted too heavily in favor of recent releases. I figure that if I still like a movie after it’s more than ten years old, then it must really be a good movie. That explains why things like Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter won’t make it onto my list for a while yet.

Passage to Marseille was made during World War II. Humphrey Bogart plays the part of Mr. Matrac, who was a reporter when the German army invaded France. He was a vocal critic of the collaborationist government set up in Vichy. Because of his political views he was framed for a murder which he didn’t commit and sent to Devil’s Island, leaving behind his wife and their unborn child in France.

While at Devil’s Island he and several other inmates take part in a plan to escape and return to help the Free French. The plan was devised by an elderly man who was once a prisoner at Devil’s Island but now lives nearby as a free man. The man helps the inmates escape and gives them a boat and money. They are picked up at sea by a French ship. The crew and passengers on the ship are divided as to whether they should take the ship to France to help the Vichy government or to take the ship to England to help the Free French. A big struggle ensues, and after a fight on board and a battle with the Luftwaffe, the ship turns for England.

Matrac joins the Free French Air Force flying bombing raids over Germany. After each mission his plane diverts and flies over the house in occupied France where his wife lives. Matrac drops a metal tube with a streamer attached out of the airplane. Inside is a love letter to his wife and child.

The story has a tragic ending which I won’t reveal. The Bogart is reunited with many of the same actors who played in Casablanca, such as Claude Raines, Sidney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre.

A very, very funny movie. I think that this is the best of the Pink Panther series.

Peter Sellers was one of the funniest actors ever. He was brilliant as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. Whenever Clouseau did something wrong that inadvertantly saved the day he was always able look momentarlily surprised and then to act as if he had intended to do it that way all along.

This movie is resplendant with great lines:

Clouseau: Tell me do you have a reum?
Hotel Clerk: I do not know what a ‘reum’ is.
Clouseau: [looks up the word ‘room’ in his German dictionary] Zimmer.
Hotel Clerk: Ah, a ‘room’.
Clouseau: That is what I have been saying, you idiot. Reum. Zimmer.

[after Clouseau accidentally reduces a piano to a pile of splinters]
Mrs. Leverlilly: You’ve ruined that piano!
Clouseau: What is the price of one piano compared to the terrible crime that’s been committed here?
Mrs. Leverlilly: But that’s a priceless Steinway!
Clouseau: Not anymore!

and my personal favorite:

Clouseau: Does your dog bite?
Hotel Clerk: No.
Clouseau: [bowing down to pet the dog] Nice doggie.
[Dog barks and bites Clouseau in the hand]
Clouseau: I thought you said your dog did not bite!
Hotel Clerk: That is not my dog.

The first time that I watched this was when I was in elementary school. I can still remember being in about fourth grade. The whole school was brought into the auditorium/multi-purpose room. We sat on the floor and watched this while one of the big sixth graders got to run the 16mm projector.

I just finished watching it again. R9 had to watch a movie and talk about it for a merit badge in Boy Scouts. This was one of the suggested movies, so we ran out and rented it yesterday.

This movie is a classic. I enjoy a good story from World War II. The acting in this movie was generally really good. I liked Gregory Peck. But to me Anthony Quinn was the one that I liked best in this movie. Not only did Quinn do a great job of acting, but the character he portrayed was a tough, motivated, get things done type of a person.

I love old movies.

The Marx Brothers were brilliant comedians in their time.

In this movie Groucho Marx plays the part of Otis B. Driftwood, a man who is trying to con a rich widow out of her money. At the same time Chico and Harpo are trying to help two young lovers, opera singers both, who are about to be torn apart by a scheming leading man.

The paths of these men all cross as Chico and Harpo stow away on a ship. One of the memorable scenes from this film is where Groucho opens his very large steamer trunk in his very small stateroom and finds Harpo, Chico, and a friend of theirs all in the trunk. So with four men and a large steamer trunk already in the small room, in comes the engineer to fix the pipes, the engineer’s assistant to help out, the manicurist to do Groucho’s nails, room service, the electrician to fix the phone, and a host of others. They end up having to literally climb over each other to get into the room and move around enough to do their jobs.

Groucho was the expert at brilliant one-liners. Some of my favorite lines from the movie:

Mrs. Claypool: I’ve been sitting right here since seven o’clock.
Otis B. Driftwood: Yes, with your back to me. When I invite a woman to dinner I expect her to look at my face. That’s the price she has to pay.

Lassparri: Never in my life have I received such treatment. They threw an apple at me.
Otis B. Driftwood: Well, watermelons are out of season.

Henderson: You live here all alone?
Otis B. Driftwood: Yes. Just me and my memories. I’m practically a hermit.
Henderson: Oh. A hermit. I notice the table’s set for four.
Otis B. Driftwood: That’s nothing – my alarm clock is set for eight. That doesn’t prove a thing.

Mrs. Claypool: Get off that bed. What would people say?
Otis B. Driftwood: They’d probably say you’re a very lucky woman.

[Fiorello and Driftwood go over the first clause of their contract]
Otis B. Driftwood: Now pay particular attention to this first clause because it’s most important. It says the, uh…”The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.” How do you like that? That’s pretty neat, eh?

Otis B. Driftwood: Now, it says, uh, “The party of the second part shall be known in this contract as the party of the second part.”

What you must know is that I’m a big Star Trek fan, so one of these was bound to come up sooner or later.

When the first Star Trek movie was released I was initially very excited, until I actually saw the movie anyway. It was something of a disappointment to me.

However, The Wrath of Khan was a much welcome relief. It had had a good strong tie to one of the original Star Trek episodes. There was a lot of good action and suspense.

The movie is fun for an old Star Trek fan to watch. I like to look for inconsistencies in it. One of the most glaring is when Khan looks at Checkov and says “I never forget a face Mr. Checkov.” However, the episode Space Seed where Khan appears was from the first season of the original series before Checkov joined the crew.

I also enjoy the scene where the Enterprise, heavily damaged hides in a nebula to escape from Khan and his crew. They realize that Khan is accustomed to thinking only in terms of two dimensions and are able to use that to their advantage and defeat him.

There are also a few good classic lines from this movie:
*The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.
*From hell’s heart, I stab at thee.
*Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?

Another interesting point of the lasting influence of this movie is the fact that I will sometimes hear people refer a no-win situation as a Kobayashi Maru scenario.