My 1,000th Movie!
I've done it; I've watched 1,000 old movies!
gif by me
In February 2019, after a string of movies on TCM by Bette Davis, Doris Day, Carole Lombard and Ginger Rogers—movies I'd never seen before—it struck me just how many movies there were out there that I'd never bothered to search out.
I'd kept track of the movies that won Oscars, the movies by my favourite actors (like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly), and the movies that topped those AFI greatest lists. But there were so many movies by actors I loved that I'd never seen; and so many classics that I'd always ignored because they weren't on some pre-cursor list.
And so, after watching Fog Over Frisco, Lover Come Back, The Gay Bride and Monkey Business back-to-back-to-back-to-back, I decided that I'd start sourcing out new-to-me films over all these prestige pictures on these 'greatest of all time' lists, and I began dutifully tracking them in a notebook.
a shot of my movie notebook. (is it narcissistic to say that I'm in love with my own handwriting? cause i am. it needs to be a font.)
It became a labour of love: soon I was watching films I'd never heard of during the 31 Days of Oscars. Then, when Summer Under the Stars came around, I decided I'd watch one movie every single day. The only caveat was that it had to be a new movie (this works out except on Audrey Hepburn Day or Esther Williams Day, but then those Summer Under the Stars days just turn into movie marathons).
Then I started looking at actresses I'd always loved, like Bette Davis, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, Olivia de Havilland, Ginger Rogers, Joan Fontaine and Joan Crawford, and wanted to know what else they'd done. So I started searching through the search function on my DVR to see when their movies would be on; I'd consult the TCM schedule online (RIP the old way the site used to look, btw); I'd see what I could find...other ways.
And I'm so glad I did because how else would I have found The Major and the Minor or Third Finger, Left Hand. When would I have ever stumbled upon Bachelor in Paradise or Seven Sweethearts? And from watching the movies starring the actors I knew, I stumbled upon the others that I 'discovered' and now treasure.
I'd never seen a single Esther Williams movie until I started tracking this stuff. I'd bought her autobiography, Million Dollar Mermaid, because I loved the title and had only heard of this woman when she died in 2013. But then I saw Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Duchess of Idaho and Bathing Beauty in rapid succession, and long story short, she's a favourite.
Before I started this, Shirley MacLaine was just the actress who said "I deserve this" as she collected her Oscar for Terms of Endearment. I discovered her in the Martin and Lewis film Artists and Models (1955) and ever even considered that she probably had an illustrious career before Terms of Endearment! I quickly followed that up with All in a Night's Work (1961) and then What a Way to Go! (1964) and I've been on a roll ever since.
Likewise, Debbie Reynolds was just Grace's mom on Will & Grace, and the cute star of Singin' in the Rain. But I found Athena on TCM and Tammy and the Bachelor on Silver Screen Classics and realized, Holy smokes! She's fantastic! and now I only have a few of her films left to see.
Sandra Dee was just a throwaway name in a line from a song from Grease; Suzanne Pleshette was Karen's mother on Will & Grace; Catherine Deneuve was a French actress that a patient said resembled one of the doctors on Grey's Anatomy. Claudette Colbert surely reached her peak in It Happened One Night (spoiler alert: no way!); Rock Hudson only lost his heart to Doris Day, so the Grease song goes; Natalie Wood was just a tragic Hollywood story.
Now I can't imagine not knowing these wonderful actors. I can't imagine not knowing who Ray Milland or Robert Young or Melvyn Douglas or Robert Montgomery is. I want to watch nothing but Beach Party movies; or see everything Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins and Constance Bennett created in the Pre-Code era. I want to watch Robert Mitchum all day. I want to see what Spencer Tracy was like before he was Spencer Tracy. I want to see Lana Turner's progression over her 50-year career. I want to watch more silent movies; more foreign films; more epics.
Every time I think, That's it, I can't possibly find another new actor or actress to follow, I'm proven wrong. Just this morning, I added Ann Sothern and Jean Simmons to my checklist; and Adrienne Ames, a now-forgotten star of the early '30s who captured my attention in some Pre-Code Carole Lombard films.
And I love seeing how what I previously knew slots into what I know now. How Audrey Hepburn fits into the wider workings of Hollywood, and what made her so magical. What Grace Kelly had to work to become and what kind of hole she left when she packed up for Monaco. How Elizabeth Taylor's scandals affected the popular consciousness; and how Ginger Rogers really did do everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. And how Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are flip sides of the same talent but both equally important to the movie musical genre.
When I started tracking movies back in February 2019, I would've said without a doubt, that my favourite movies are from the late '30s. But now I can definitively say that I'm the biggest fan of late '50s films. I love '60s sex comedies. I love aquamusicals. I love ensemble pictures like Ocean's Eleven or Tales of Manhattan. I love how hedonistic Pre-Code movies are. I love those '30s films where they live in glamorous Fifth Avenue apartments and wear the long gowns and dine out and say glamorous things in mid-Atlantic accents.
So all of this to say, I can't believe I've gotten this far, and I can't wait to tread forward and see what else is out there. Here's to the next 1,000 movies!
(And by the way, Forever Female was great!)
I loved this great post! I found myself smiling throughout, as I went along with you on your cinematic discoveries. What an accomplishment to have tracked your movies this way -- I only this year decided to write down in my phone every new-to-me movie, only so I could know at the end of the year how many films I'd discovered in 2022. I can't imagine identifying all of the classic I'd every seen. Such an impressive effort! Interestingly, I'd only seen one Esther Williams movie (a film noir) before I read her autobiography for the classic movie book challenge I do every summer, but after I read it, I actively sought out her films and TCM was right on time! I saw her just yesterday, BTW, on a episode of The Donna Reed Show, which is on Tubi if you'd like to check it out. I loved seeing her in such a different environment!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a fun post to read! Namely because I can relate to it exactly! In fact, I started a journal just like yours nearly twenty years ago and am still writing titles in it. Everytime I think "that's it, I've seen every classic film I would want to see" I discover a slew of "new" titles. Now I realize it's a lifetime of discovering. I'm at the 4,100th title. Wait till you fall in love with British films and people like Roger Livesay, Anna Neagle, Richard Green, and Wendy Hiller become favorite stars. And then there's the wonderful world of Pre-codes ( e.g. Beauty for Sale ) and 1930s B-films with such forgotten classics as The Keeper of the Bees and Romance of the Limberlost. :-) Isn't it exciting? ( as Paulette Goddard said in "The Ghost Breakers" )
ReplyDelete