After Ben Shapiro first submitted the article that created such a hailstorm yesterday, here’s what our email exchange looked like:

Ben,

Hey, you’re right, Scorsese hasn’t made a movie worth a shit since ‘96, but…. David Lean??? Hitchcock??? We must have a vigorous debate over many beers.

Ben responded:

Yes, and then you can explain the plot of Mulholland Drive to me!

The only thing that comes close to the pleasure of watching movies is the pleasure of debating them. And that’s what was so invigorating about Ben’s list of the Top Ten Overrated Directors Of All Time and the just as invigorating response from the readers.

We could all come up with lists like this, lists that defy the conventional wisdom in one area or another. Taste is subjective. Certainly there are those who somehow find themselves in the enviable position of being “cinematic tastemakers.” But… (more…)

Maybe it’s the boomer in me. Or perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that I’m the product of a dad who once was an usher at the local movie house I literally grew up in. The celluloid son-of-a-lovin’ father who used to let my mom sneak in the side door of the theatre during the Saturday afternoon matinee just so they could be together. Even when I was born, he asked his best friend and fellow usher at the Coolidge Theatre, Mikey Citino, to be my godfather when I was baptized. Who knows? Whatever it is or was, I don’t care.  I love movies.

As a kid, for me, goin’ to the movies was like goin’ to church. It was something special. I remember my older cousin, Eddie Cassassa, taking me to the show, when I was about 4 or 5. I’ll never forget him sitting me in the front row, to watch Boris Karloff  in “Frankenstein,” one fine Saturday afternoon. I was scared stiff and loved every minute.

A few years later, it was the same cousin Eddie who got us thrown out of the theatre during a matinee of “The Devil at 4 O ‘Clock” starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy. He laughed his ass off as the usher escorted us to the exit door, while I was just humiliated. Like gettin’ thrown outta church! (more…)

I’m not someone with many hopes and dreams, 17 years of bill collecting will do that to you, but for me sitting across from The Mighty Robert Osborne and guest programming an evening of Turner Classic Movies would be like hitting the Powerball. I’m not sure how one gets invited to do such a thing, and can tell you from experience that a letter explaining you have only six-weeks to live doesn’t help, so in the meantime we’ll all have to live vicariously through Dennis Miller or play guest programmer right here.

Sharing great movies with those who haven’t seen them is a passion of mine, so that would be the focus of my choices (and why I love Miller choosing “Dodsworth“).

1. Springtime in the Rockies (1942) — Check this cast out: Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Harry James, Charlotte Greenwood and Edward Everett Horton. Twentieth Century-Fox had them some stars and TCM would just have to make a phone call to Fox and borrow this simple, sweet, unassuming color musical packed with a dozen lovely tunes over a very well-paced 91 minutes. Fox could never compete with what MGM was doing in the musical department, and to their credit didn’t really try. So instead of aspiring to create classics they went for escapism, and sometimes those are the best movies of them all.   (more…)

There’s much to love about TCM’s Mighty Robert Osborne. His introduction to an evening’s film will frequently offer up an insight that makes a repeat viewing essential, and his summation after the fade is always a perfect capper. Osborne’s warm dignity, passion for classic cinema and film knowledge is second to none, but that wouldn’t mean a thing if he lacked the class required to keep politics out of it.  

Reagan, Jane Wyman, and Wayne Morris in Brother Rat

One of the primary elements that makes Turner Classic Movies so special is its lack of politics. Regardless of the film he’s introducing, Osborne keeps everything within a historical context even if what’s on that night’s schedule is political in nature. TCM is one of the great sources of pleasure in my life, and were it to go off on some ideological deep end… I don’t even want to think about it. (more…)