How to Watch Old Movies: The Opening Credits

Yeah, okay, so opening credits in old movies can be kinda boring, just a few title cards, a minute and a half of text and no cinema exactly, just flat, static cards with a bunch of names, like the movie equivalent of the theater playbill, accompanied by the bombastic orchestral score of the movie's theme. Not like today's movies that start right in with the action -- with the movie -- not even worrying about telling us who is in the thing, just get us right to the story, BAM!

Well, I get it. The way movies start nowadays, it's more cinematic. More organic. Not as stilted and artificial as the old title cards in the old movies.

But.

But there's something oddly comforting about the way old movies do their opening credits. It's like the movie is inviting us in, welcoming us, easing us into the experience of the movie. Preparing our brains for the wonders to come, but only hinting at those wonders, only giving a few fleeting glimpses of what we can hope to expect.

I would totally watch a Glenn Miller Band halftime show

This is a perfect example of why I love Kathy Shaidle.

This is for all the people who complained about The Who playing the Super Bowl half time show. You are forgiven:

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to one of the stars of KINGS ROW! He also did some other stuff later in life as well.

KINGS ROW (Sam Wood, 1942) is one of my favorites in the crazy, over-the-top, weird-ass 1940s drama category. Implied incest, crazy nymphos, diabolical doctors, amputations, insanity, and then amidst it all a rather touching love story (between the Oomph Girl and the future leader of the free world). Also, hands down, one of the best musical scores of any picture from that era.

Groan-opoly

This is lame.

First of all, the board is blah. Just because it's a circle doesn't mean it's suddenly "modern." It might surprise Hasbro, but they did have circles back in the 1930s, believe it or not. I guarantee you, most board game players don't look at a square board and think, "How old fashioned! How positively squaresville! I don't want to play on a square board!" And most board game players don't look at a circular board and think, "Ooooooo! How futuristic and cool! Why, I never imagined a board game could have a circular board! Gosh, now I want to play!" Most of the people who play board games couldn't care less about the shape of the board unless it has some bearing on the actual game play (i.e.: the board needs to be shaped a certain way for the game to work). Changing the Monopoly board from square to circle does nothing to impact game play; it's just a cosmetic change meant to make the game "cooler."

Video Madness!

This Week's Classic Cinema Obsession: MOONRISE (Frank Borzage, 1948)

This week's obsession is a movie I haven't seen. Yet.

It's MOONRISE (Frank Borzage, 1948) and it's playing Wednesday night at 10:00 PM EST on TCM and I cannot wait.

It's one of those movies that cinephiles and in-the-know types are hep to but it's not available on DVD and it wasn't a big hit at the time of its initial release in 1948. In other words, we're talking cult status, forgotten masterpiece stuff. I've never seen it and I'm dying to catch a glimpse.

MOONRISE falls into a sub-genre of noir that I think is best described as "Romance Noir" (NORA PRENTISS is another example of the type, which I briefly reviewed here).

Lyrical romance with a side dish of psychological melodrama is the order of the day in the rundown diner of Romance Noir. Sure, there's murder and violence in these types of films, but the real pulse of Romance Noir is found, of course, in the love story. That's one of the reason's I'm excited to watch MOONRISE -- I want to get lost in the love story, a love story with a dark noir-ish sensibility, all shadows, forbidden love, a little masochism, the kind that hurts so good, etc. etc., all that angsty wounded-hearts film noir suffering....

"But remember," the Romance Noir seems to be saying, "love never fails, love might even save, there might be a light at the end of that long, dark, black-hearted tunnel, there might be redemption in the arms of someone you love...." I have a feeling this is where MOONRISE is coming from and if I'm right, it's gonna be good. Count me in.

Video Madness!

The Zombies!!!