Blogging Challenge #8

Quite awhile back, I accepted a blog challenge, but leading up to, and in the aftermath of 4.0’s arrival, I missed a whole lot of posts. Then the challenge took a little hiatus, too. But just in time for Easter, it has been resurrected and we’re both back in action! So here’s what we’re tackling this week:

What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?

Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we get stuck to watching some pretty interesting Old Hollywood quite often.

The one he tortures me with …imposes upon me … has goaded me with lately is Mildred Pierce. All because it came on PBS one Saturday night and I said “I just can’t take watching this one,” explaining that I was too tired to watch such a dull sedate B&W movie (that we’ve seen before) that night. Oh how he thinks he’s a laugh riot with his interpretation of that reaction!

It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.

So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.

North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.

Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”

Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.

Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.

It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.

Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.