King Kong
Saturday May 12 at noon is our next installment of the Saturday Matinee. King Kong is the main feature, How to Sleep is the b-feature, Flash Gordon is the serial and the New Car by Ub Iwarks is the cartoon. King Kong is the Classic from the 30's with Fay Wray as the original Scream Queen. I think everyone's seen it and if you haven't you should. It's still far better than any of the remakes. There are two curiosities in this month's Matinee. How to Sleep and the New Car. How to Sleep won an academy award for best live action short for 1935, and Ub Iwerks was the animator for Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. After leaving Disney, Iwerks had his own studio but since his cartoons were for adults as well as kids, like Betty Boop his work seldom made it to a Baby-boomer's Saturday morning fun fest. Betty Boop has a cult type following but Ub Iwerks is now almost forgotten
Our Matinees have not been a success. Attendance is not worth the effort. I'm disappointed but not surprised. To me movies, cartoons, two-reeler shorts, and television are a big part of American cultural literacy. John Wayne, Sam Spade, Archie Bunker, and Marilyn are woven through the fabric of who we are as Americans. I think we take their impact for granted and I'm not the only one that thinks so. The Library of Congress is trying desperately to save this piece of American heritage before it is lost. Already many of the movies from the silent era are gone. Lost forever. Even now parts of movie history are being spliced out of history in the name of political correctness. Step-and-fetchit has almost completely disappeared while Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto have been shoved under the carpet.
This is sad. I think about the movie Moby Dick. It's based on the novel by Herman Melville with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury. It was directed by John Huston and stars Gregory Peck, Orson Wells, and Richard Basehart. It's not on most "Best" lists and rarely gets anything better than a so-so review. The critics didn't like it and still don't but its a fabulous movie based on a tremendous book. The detail, the writing, the acting, everything about the movie is first rate. I'll watch it every time it's on. I sometimes wonder if this isn't a candidate for the chopping block because it's about 'whaling'. Are the PC police lurking around the corner? Catch them while their hot at the Rogers Public Library Saturday Matinee
Our Matinees have not been a success. Attendance is not worth the effort. I'm disappointed but not surprised. To me movies, cartoons, two-reeler shorts, and television are a big part of American cultural literacy. John Wayne, Sam Spade, Archie Bunker, and Marilyn are woven through the fabric of who we are as Americans. I think we take their impact for granted and I'm not the only one that thinks so. The Library of Congress is trying desperately to save this piece of American heritage before it is lost. Already many of the movies from the silent era are gone. Lost forever. Even now parts of movie history are being spliced out of history in the name of political correctness. Step-and-fetchit has almost completely disappeared while Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto have been shoved under the carpet.
This is sad. I think about the movie Moby Dick. It's based on the novel by Herman Melville with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury. It was directed by John Huston and stars Gregory Peck, Orson Wells, and Richard Basehart. It's not on most "Best" lists and rarely gets anything better than a so-so review. The critics didn't like it and still don't but its a fabulous movie based on a tremendous book. The detail, the writing, the acting, everything about the movie is first rate. I'll watch it every time it's on. I sometimes wonder if this isn't a candidate for the chopping block because it's about 'whaling'. Are the PC police lurking around the corner? Catch them while their hot at the Rogers Public Library Saturday Matinee
posted by Rob Finch at 9:21 AM
1 Comments:
I was actually shown that Moby Dick movie in high school English class. Gregory Peck's Captain Ahab was wonderfully insane!
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