How Many Times Can You Watch That Movie?

My Favorite Colors: Black and White!

Oprah calls them "Aha Moments," those moments in life when you are struck by a clarity of purpose and discover your defining passion in life. As a movie-mad kid, that moment came for me when, after watching the same Abbott and Costello movie countless nights in a row on TV, my father finally exploded and said "how many times can you watch that movie?" That's when I knew I was different from everyone else in the house. I could watch it endlessly!

Anyone who grew up in the New York Metropolitan area in the 1950s and early 1960s should remember  WOR-TV Channel 9's "Million Dollar Movie." The same movie aired every night from 7 pm - 9:30 pm. "King Kong" and "Mighty Joe Young" were aired frequently, but I was transfixed by Abbot and Costello's "The Time of Their Lives."

I was already a fan of Bud and Lou (courtesy of their TV show, which aired in the afternoons after school), but this  movie contained many of the ingredients that would forever constitute the recipe for favorite films: humorous men, a beautiful woman, a suspenseful atmosphere, menacing supporting players, a mystery and some history. In case this little classic passed you by, Lou plays a tinker at the time of the American Revolution. Bud is a bad guy with bad relatives. In a plot that involves George Washington, traitors loyal to the British, a purloined letter hidden in a clock, and thwarted romance, Lou and Marjorie Reynolds (playing a lady of higher social standing than he), are patriots who get killed. Their bodies are dumped in a well because they are mistaken for traitors. Only the letter in the clock can exonerate them! They roam the earth as ghosts, waiting for someone to discover that letter and set their souls free. Finally, in 1946, the old estate is due to be purchased by some relatives of the baddies who crossed Lou and Marjorie back in the time of the Revolution. Gale Sondergaard, as a creepy housekeeper straight out of "Rebecca" is on hand for some sinister humor. Hilarity ensues, the letter is discovered, and Lou and Marjorie's souls are set free to be re-united with their respective loves.

Unfortunately, Lou's long-awaited admission into Heaven is delayed, due to a certain holiday.

1940s-style special effects: good enough to provoke laughter

I loved every minute of it, but the one scene that delighted me every single time was the one where Melody (Marjorie's charcter), investigating the fashions of 1946, comes upon some nylon stockings. In the middle of modeling them, she is interrupted by the residents of the house. She makes herself invisible, but, alas, the stockings are real. When she runs up the staircase, only the stockings are visible. Well, I was a kid (but I think I'd still laugh at this scene today - just for old times sake).

While my brothers could view "King Kong" and "Mighty Joe Young" frequently, I was the only one who was faithful night after night to a movie I loved. If I loved it, I never tired of it. Over the years, those favorite films became like old friends. Movies are always the same no matter how many times repeated. They, unlike life and people, never change.You can always count on the movies.

And so it is today. Some of my very best friends:

Sunset Boulevard

Vertigo

Laura

North by Northwest

Gigi

Singing in the Rain

City Lights

The Apartment

Some Like it Hot

Charade

Love Me or Leave Me

Gone With the Wind

Notorious
The Philadelphia Story
Citizen Kane
Shadow of a Doubt

And the list goes on....

If I love it, I never tire of it. Just like a true friend.

Thank Heavens For Movies!