An Even Dozen

     Before I start, just a note of apology to Mr. Fahr. I had already written this and had come online to post it when I read his blog post from this evening, "Christmas tradition." I intended no copy-catting.

     As the Christmas season approaches, many people look forward to once again watching their favorite Christmas movies. It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and A Christmas Story are oft watched. For me, though, the Christmas movie to which I most look forward is Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Gig Young, Joan Blondell, and Dina Merrill.  First of all, Katharine Hepburn has long been my favorite actress and my nominee as the greatest movie actress of all time. Secondly, any combination of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy on screen was electrifying because their off-screen chemistry transferred so well to their work. Add to those two factors a story of a group of very smart and independent women at a time when "a woman's place was in the home" and a huge dollop of comedy, and we have a movie that I will watch every single time I get a chance. Even after all these years I laugh until tears run down my face at the scene where the assistant asks EMERAC about Corfu, and the computer spits out the nearly two hundred verses of "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" as Ms. Hepburn stands by reciting it from memory.

     My husband is a movie junkie and there are lots of movies that he watches over and over simply because they air on television. I tire of seeing many of them. My reflections on Desk Set, however, got me to thinking about other movies that I can watch time and again without regret, and I developed a list of eleven others that along with Desk Set make up an even dozen. These are not listed in order of preference, but are just listed.

     My list includes two other Katharine Hepburn movies. The Rainmaker, released in 1956, stars Ms. Hepburn as Lizzy Curry, Burt Lancaster as Bill Starbuck, and Wendell Corey as Deputy J. S. File. Lizzy is very insecure about her status in life as she is fast approaching the age when she qualifies for old maidhood, a dread intensified by pressure from her father and brothers. She has a suitor in the person of Deputy J. S. File, but he is too shy to declare his feelings. Along comes conman Bill Starbuck, billed as the Rainmaker, and sweeps Lizzy off her feet. This movie is intelligent romance at its best. The second Hepburn movie is seldom seen on television and probably unheard of by many. It is The Madwoman of Chaillot, released in 1969, starring Ms. Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Donald Pleasance, and Danny Kaye. Set in France, four prominent men wish to make more money than they already have, are told there is oil in the middle of Paris, and decide to acquire the rights to drill for it regardless of how the citizens of Paris feel about the issue. Ms. Hepburn plays elderly eccentric Countess Aurelia who lives where they plan to drill and determines to stop them. It is the classic "the little guy wins" story.

     The next movie on my list is the 1961 release of The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, and Brian Keith. I first saw it in 1962 at age 13, a year after my own parents had separated. Hayley Mills' characters (she played twins) were able to accomplish the reunion of their parents, and I have forever admired the movie for that. Another movie that highlights a large feat accomplished by a little girl is Fly Away Home, released in 1996 and starring Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels, and Dana Delaney. This movie about a father and daughter who lead a small group of Canada geese on a fall migration from Canada to a wildlife refuge in North Carolina is based loosely on the story of Canadian Bill Lishman who accomplished a similar feat and wrote a book detailing the journey. The sequence near the end of the movie where Amy Alden (Anna Paquin) is flying the ultra-light by herself over the North Carolina coastline while Mary Chapin Carpenter sings "10,000 Miles" is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinematography I have ever seen. In the words of Charlene Darling, "That one always makes me cry." A third movie centered on a child being more of an adult than the grownups around her is Eve's Bayou, released in 1997 and starring Jurnee Smollett as the young lady, Samuel Jackson as her father, Lynn Whitfield as her mother, Debbi Morgan as her aunt, and Diahann Carroll as the fortune teller Elzora.

     Having grown up in the sixties amid the racial tensions of that time, I have always appreciated the film A Patch of Blue, released in 1965 and starring Sidney Poitier, Shelly Winters, and Elizabeth Hartman. Ms. Hartman's young, white, and blind character falls in love with the character played by Mr. Poitier. The theme of the movie is obviously that skin color is only a visual difference and should have no bearing on one's valuation of another human being. It was an important lesson in 1965 and well worth remembering in 2009. 

     One movie on which both my husband and I agree is O Brother Where Art Thou, released in 2000 and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. How can a film team go wrong with Homer's The Odyssey reset in the Tennessee Valley during the 1930's Depression. Add to that music as good as or better than that done by Flatt and Scruggs in Bonnie and Clyde or "Duelling Banjos" from Deliverance, the fact that we both grew up with stories of how our own family members handled old home places being flooded when Lakes Norfork and Bull Shoals were created, and lots of mountain humor, and one has a movie we both love.

     The last four movies that make up my even dozen are comedies. The 1954 version of Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, and Humphrey Bogart simply makes me smile with its mixture of comedy, romance, and brotherly love. Ruthless People, released in 1986 and starring Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Judge Reinhold, and Helen Slater contains what I consider to be one of the funniest lines of all time, "I've been kidnapped by K-Mart!" 1988's Big Business starring Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Fred Ward, and Michele Placido is the classic country mouse visits city mouse story overlaid with a "little people overcome big business" motif. Finally, Diary of a Mad Black Woman combines the broad humor of Tyler Perry playing Madea (who can forget her taking a chain saw to that sofa?) plus the very real angst of spousal betrayal, drug abuse, and Christian forgiveness triumphing over a desperate need for revenge, plus the romance of two people from very different social strata who discover they are alike in all the ways that matter.

     These are an even dozen movies that I will watch anytime anywhere with all the enjoyment of the first time I saw them and an even greater appreciation. I recommend them to you. Until next time, happy rummaging.