1. What is your all-time favorite Grace Kelly costume?
Whatever she was wearing as she makes her first appearance in Rear Window. Red lips, wetly parted, mostly. Humina.
2. What classic film would you nominate for a remake?
To me there are two kinds of movies that should be remade: one with a good idea not fully realized (i.e., the first two versions of The Maltese Falcon before John Huston and Humphrey Bogart got hold of it and finally did it right), or a hardy perennial every generation should leave its stamp on—Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare.
Perchance that will suggest something to you.
3. Name your favorite femme fatale.
That's easy, Jane Greer, the only femme fatale in movie history I'd let shoot me.
4. Name the best movie with the word "heaven" in its title.
Best? Can't say. Favorite? Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, which I wrote about here.
5. Describe the worst performance by a child actor that you’ve ever seen (since Laura gave me the idea).
Whoever the kids were in the Cary Grant-Sophia Loren comedy Houseboat. Utterly charmless, throughly annoying. And I like kids.
6. Who gets your vote for most tragic movie monster?
Frankenstein's monster, who I wrote about here.
7. What is the one Western that you would recommend to anybody?
Rio Bravo, I think. If you don't like Westerns and you see this one and don't like it either, you can safely skip all the rest. Right, Stumpy?
8. Who is your ideal movie-viewing partner?
Why, Katie-Bar-The-Door, of course. But let's face it—she's my favorite everything partner.
9. Has a film ever made you want to change your life? If so, what was the film?
There are definitely films that have changed my life, which isn't quite the same as saying they made me want to change my life. Here is the story of one of them.
10. Think of one performer that you truly love. Now think of one scene/movie/performance of theirs that is too uncomfortable for you to watch.
Every great star makes at least one true stinker—Cary Grant in The Pride and the Passion, for example—and lots of them hung on long after they should have hung it up (think of Joan Crawford in Trog).
But uncomfortable?
I'm sure I'm forgetting something obvious. Katie-Bar-The-Door will read this and immediately chime in with "What about ...?" When she does, I'll post an addendum.
11. On the flip side, think of one really good scene/performance/movie from a performer that you truly loathe.
Well, I was never particularly a fan of Norma Shearer, but I wound up giving her a Katie-Bar-The-Door award for the comedy Private Lives. Because, frankly, she deserved it.
12. And finally, since it will be New Year's soon, do you have any movie or blogging-related resolutions for 2012?
To keep my eyes on the prize, i.e., finishing the "Silent Oscars" series.
I enjoyed reading your answers, particularly your response to the second question! Seeing the way new generations adapt classic works of literature is an excellent gauge for viewing a particular moment in pop culture history ... though, in retrospect, I'm not quite sure what it says about my generation that our film versions of Shakespeare are represented by movies like O and Baz Lurhmann's take on Romeo + Juliet (both of which I personally loathed). And yet, at the same time, I must (begrudgingly) admit a strange fondness for the Taming of the Shrew knock-off Ten Things I Hate About You ...
ReplyDeleteHmm... I loved the kids in 'Houseboat.' Considering their loss, and feeling their father wasn't crazy about them, I think they acted like real kids. But with Sophia Loren, who notices kids?
ReplyDeleteI approve of your answers, sir. I can barely remember Houseboat with the exception of this one annoying song Sophia Loren was singing. She looked beautiful, though.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the BBC are the ones busily churning out literary adaptions, while Hollywood snoozes.
Thanks for answering!