“In a world where there are no longer books we have almost all of us read, the movies we have almost all of us seen are perhaps the richest cultural bond we have. They go on haunting us for years the way our dreams go …
The 1982 musical comedy Annie was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Musical Score. That’s no surprise to anyone who’s seen it and couldn’t get the tune and lyrics to the themesong “Tomorrow” out of their head for several days. Based on the storyline …
The classic 1980 comedy 9 to 5 has something in it for every woman who has ever worked for a boss who treated her badly. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton star as working women with a horrible boss. Jane Fonda plays Judy, whose …
Beaches – A Friend who Stuck for Life The tagline of Beaches, a 1988 film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, says a lot: “Friends come and go but there’s always one you’re stuck with for life.” The film—which would be worth watching for the …
When I went to movies as a child, there was always a short film, a cartoon, or part of a serialized western before the main film. Now movies are longer and are preceded by previews of coming attractions, commercials for what the concession stand …
The 1953 romantic comedy How to Marry a Millionaire ushered in Cinemascope’s long narrow screen. It starred Marilyn Monroe (Pola), Lauren Bacall (Schatze), and Betty Grable (Loco) as beautiful young models pooling their resources to share a Manhattan penthouse. This put them in the right …
The Miracle Worker, based on Helen Keller’s book The Story of My Life, was released in 1962. Shot in black and white, the strarkness of the film showcases the gravity of the situation. Anne Bancroft plays Annie Sullivan, the woman who taught a blind, deaf …
The original 101 Dalmatians movie was a Walt Disney animated classic, made in 1961, that my kids loved. Often when animated human characters become real humans in a film remake, the result suffers. But when the 101 Dalmatians remake hit the big screen in 1996, …
Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner lit up the technicolor screen in the 1956 Hollywood adaptation of a Broadway musical, The King and I. It won five Academy Awards with Brynner named Best Actor. In 1862 Anna Owens, a widowed schoolteacher, moves from England to Siam …
Lucky Seven was a made-for-television movie in 2003 that you probably didn’t see. However, in looking for it, I was surprised to see it had made someone’s internet list of the top 30 romantic movies. (For those who want to see it, someone has uploaded …
