Movies - March 2011

March has been busy, but a week at the beach with a stack of DVDs helped me get caught up on a few things I had been meaning to watch. The article I wrote about Rango ended up drawing a lot of traffic over on Examiner, and it's now closing in on 2000 hits. I hope it will overtake the Leslie Nielsen obit soon because I feel terrible making money (even just a little) off of someone's death. It seems ghoulish that people only want to read about classic movie stars when they die. Anyway, here's the March movie viewing log.

River of No Return (1954) - Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe make a pretty good Western
The Wizard of Oz (1939) - showed this one to my LearningQUEST group for part of our series of musicals
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) - seen it before, but enjoyed watching it again.
Rango (2011) - the whole family really loved this smart take on the spaghetti Western. Can't wait for the DVD to come out so we can analyze it more minutely.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - The kid picked this one, and I didn't care for it. The book is much better.
The Scar (1948) - Almost unwatchably dull. Poor Paul Henreid! Also known as Hollow Triumph.
Vertigo (1958) - Having been to San Francisco a few times since I last saw this film, I appreciated it a lot more! It's like a twisted love letter to that gorgeous city.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - Kid picked this one, but we all loved it. I'm a sucker for the campy charms of 50s sci-fi horror.
Young Frankenstein (1974) - Another kid pick. She has been quoting it ever since. Like Frederick Frankenstein, I might have created a monster.
On Dangerous Ground (1952) - Gorgeous melodramatic noir, with even more gorgeous Ida Lupino.
They Drive by Night (1940) - Bogart and George Raft drive trucks, with more Ida Lupino (I have a thing for her right now).
Gunga Din (1939) - Boy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom makes WAY more sense to me now! Cary Grant is cheeky fun, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is unbearably handsome.
The Philadelphia Story (1940) - One of my favorites; showed it to the kid for the first time, and she loved it, too. Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart are a tough combo to beat!
Woman of the Year (1942) - Hepburn and Tracy in their first pairing. I liked it while I watched and then was bothered more and more by the implications after it ended.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) - A kid pick; she does love Shirley Temple. This time Gary Cooper and Gloria Stuart join the team.
La Strada (1954) - I mean to watch more foreign cinema. Good thing there's a lot of it on Netflix Instant right now. Really found this Fellini picture engaging, but was amused that film historian David Thomson has such disdain for it.
The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) - Apparently Davis didn't like this team-up with Cagney, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Funny, she LOOKS like she's having a good time, except for when she falls on the cacti.