Thursday Thirteen # 11

13 Favorite Classic American Movies

Casablanca (1942)

Romantic drama of wartime sacrifice set in Nazi-occupied French Morocco. Humphrey Bogart, as jaded and cynical American idealist saloonkeeper/nightclub owner Rick Blaine, sacrifices the love of a lifetime to join the world's fight against the Nazis. When the picture debuted, it marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship with generations of moviegoers. With a crackling script and the classic song, "As Time Goes By," it won an Academy Award for Best Picture. "Here's looking at you, kid."

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling "Immortal tale of the old South", The famous film is cinema's greatest, star-studded, historical epic film of the Old South during wartime that boasts an immortal cast in a timeless, classic tale of a love-hate romance. The indomitable heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, struggles to find love during the chaotic Civil War years and afterwards, and ultimately must seek refuge for herself and her family back at the beloved plantation Tara. There, she takes charge, defends it against Union soldiers, carpetbaggers, and starvation itself. She finally marries her worldly admirer Rhett Butler, but her apathy toward him in their marriage dooms their battling relationship, and she again returns to Tara to find consolation.

Singin' In The Rain (1952)

Gene Kelly makes a splash as Don Lockwood, a Hollywood leading man who reflects on the production of The Dueling Cavalier - a film that becomes The Dancing Cavalier when the studio takes advantage of a new invention called sound. Reynolds and O'Connor are his energetic, supportive sidekicks, helping to devise a clever way to cover the grating voice of his co-star Lina Lamont, played by Hagen. Furious when she learns of their plan, Lina asserts herself by screaming, "Why, I make more money than, than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!" Delightful musical send-up of the transition-conversion from silent to sound films, with many memorable and delightful song and dance musical numbers, including "Make 'Em Laugh," "Broadway Rhythm," and the incomparable title song. This musical set in Hollywood has Kelly singing, dancing and splashing in puddles.

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Moving fable of disillusioned family man who is visited by a guardian angel and shown what the world would be like if he had never been born. This beautiful Christmas classic features a complex & engrossing performance by James Stewart as George Bailey, a suicidal man redeemed by friendship and the recognition that each person's life touches many others. Remember every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Lean's sweeping adaptation of Boris Pasternak's epic novel, set amid the turmoil of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, stars Omar Sharif in the title role as the married Russian doctor-poet with feelings for two women. One of the two is Lara, played by Julie Christie, who inspires him to write beautiful love poems that contrast with the stark realities of life in Russia after the 1917 Communist Revolution.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Divine adaptation of the Philip Barry marriage comedy features three of the screen's biggest stars at their wittiest and most beautiful. Katharine Hepburn reprises her stage role as a haughty heiress (who is "lit from within") who is about to wed a pompous self-made man. Reporter James Stewart is covering the society event and helps her down from her pedestal - especially during a tipsy wedding-eve encounter - and into the arms of ex-husband Grant. Memorable drunk scenes between Stewart and Hepburn, and Stewart and Grant.

The Sound of Music (1965)

Phenomenally popular film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical about the singing Von Trapp family and their escape from the Nazis. Julie Andrews is Maria, a nun who becomes governess to the von Trapp family. Maria falls in love with the children and their handsome widowed father just as Austria is being annexed by the Nazis. The film's songs include the title song, "Do-Re-Mi," "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," and "Climb Every Mountain." Memorable opening sequence with Maria and the Alps.

An American In Paris (1951)

Academy Award-winning film about American artist finding love with Frenchwoman. The music and the dancing of Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron are at the center of this fluid, visually beautiful love story set in post-war Paris. Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is "discovered" by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound. The ballet sequence, filmed in the style of Impressionist paintings, is legendary. Songs include "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "S'Wonderful," and the title song.

My Fair Lady (1964)

Lush adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe musical, an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, that features Rex Harrison reprising his stage role as Henry Higgins, who takes a bet that he can transform the young spirited cockney Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into a proper lady.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, goes to town to get a wife. He convinces Milly to marry him that same day. They return to his backwoods home. Only then does she discover he has six brothers -- all living in his cabin. Milly sets out to reform the uncouth siblings, who are anxious to get wives of their own. Then, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam develops an inspired solution to his brothers' loneliness . . . kidnap the women they want!

Gigi (1958)

Gaston, the scion of a wealthy Parisian family finds emotional refuge from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society with the former mistress of his uncle and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi. When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt, who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man's mistress, enjoin on him to become her provider and on her to accept such a golden opportunity. However, love adds a surprise twist to this delightful turn-of-the 20th century Cinderella story.

Meet Me In St Louis (1944)

St. Louis 1903. The well-off Smith family has four beautiful daughters, including Esther and little Tootie. 17-year old Esther has fallen in love with the boy next door who has just moved in, John. He however, barely notices her at first. The family is shocked when Mr. Smith reveals that he has been transfered to a nice position in New York, which means that the family has to leave St. Louis and the St. Louis Fair.

Love Story (1970)

Told as a flashback, this is an uncomplicated love story between two star-crossed lovers-students, Harvard pre-law hockey player Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) and Radcliffe music student Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw). Their love triumphs over different economic-class backgrounds. Their main obstacle to romance is that his rich, powerful and snobbish father, Oliver Barrett III (Ray Milland) objects and threatens to cut off funding. The two young lovers marry anyway and eventually move to New York city. After meeting many obstacles and making sacrifices, she is diagnosed as terminally ill when she is tested for pregnancy, and dies in his arms at the hospital in a tear-inducing closing. In the final scene, Oliver quotes his late wife, after his father tells him he's sorry that she has died, Oliver responds in the last memorable line of the film, quoting an earlier remark of Jenny's:

Love means never having to say you're sorry.

He then walks out into a snowy Central Park to contemplate what life might have been in a touching finale, as the award-winning musical score builds in the background.