15 Movies in 15 Minutes - A Meme

[starshadow_rivaulx]

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Have omitted the "tag 15 other people", but feel free to pass the meme along, y/y?

Note: Not in any order of preference.

The Ten Commandments: Yul Brynner as Pharaoh, scornfully pronouncing Moses' (Charlton Heston) name - there will never be another like him. Obviously the pre-CGI era parting of the Red Sea was totally awesome in my eyes. You just have to love Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, for never was there so insistent and insidious a villian, and I was glad when he got his just deserts.

Ben Hur: Yay,Charlton Heston again, and a chariot race sequence that I do believe can never be replicated. I have a certain fondness for those vintage Biblical epics, with the costumes, stunts and special effects, and the timeless magic of the stories they told. I think they were a major factor in keeping me Catholic.

Gone With The Wind: Clark Gable. Need I say more? *grin* To this day, I screech in rage at the way Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) treated Rhett. No way would a studio today spend the money to stage the burning of Atlanta scene, I bet - it would all be CGI.

Platinum Blonde: Jean Harlow stars as a socialite who marries journalist Robert Williams, just for the fun of it - much to the dismay of his colleague Loretta Young (at one point filling out an evening gown in a very delectable way) who secretly loves him. It's sweet and sexy and funny - by the time the end comes around, you will be going "Awwwww...." at the way the romance is resolved. This is the movie that started my love affair with Frank Capra movies.

The Godfather: Bits and pieces of dialogue from this movie pepper my conversation with Ramon, who also considers it one of his all-time favorites. We picked up quite a bit of vocabulary as well: "button man", "consigliere", "infamita","capo di tutti capi", and so forth. We both read the book before watching the movie, and agreed the film remained true to the spirit of the novel.

The X-Files: Fight The Future: Mulder and Scully kiss! Well...I would like to believe that the lips locked before that inconvenient bee got in the way. I watched this more for the UST than anything else, including the conspiracy. Every now and then, I pull it out of the video library, and smile.

French Kiss: Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline as one of the most lovable rogues on screen. Also, the classic rendering of "Beyond The Sea/La Mer" in French, by Kline.

Pretty Woman: Hector Elizondo made this movie for me. Seriously! I loved his role as the hotel manager who tried to help Julia Roberts become the kind of polished young woman he was used to seeing in his hotel. His dialogue with Julia about her status in relation to Richard Gere is priceless - "And you are...? His niece. Very well. You have no other uncles in this hotel, I take it?" That little sequence is often reprised in marital conversation, especially when I describe people who give monosyllabic answers.

Star Trek XI (aka Reboot!Trek): I have been to very few movies over the past several years, and none of them stole my heart the way this movie did. I love the entire cast, but I swear Karl Urban had to be channeling DeForest Kelley, because he got McCoy down. Am looking forward to the DVD, as I need to have my fill of squeeing and laughing out loud without disturbing an entire theatre audience. Also? John Cho with that kick-ass space-age samurai sword? Beyond awesome.

Robin Hood: I speak here of the Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland version, which to me defines what an adventurous movie should be like.

Mogambo: Clark Gable. Again. In a love triangle with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly - where I was firmly on the side of "bad girl" Gardner from the moment she laid her eyes on Gable. She is adorable in this picture!

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Of all the Indiana Jones movies, the first continues to remain the best.

Captain Blood: Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland. Again. de Havilland was only 18 when she made this movie, and she just lights up the screen. Flynn does well as Sabatini's respectable doctor turned slave turned pirate - setting my personal standard for pirate movies from the moment I laid eyes on it, which was on afternoon TV back when I was in grade school. *nods*

It Happened One Night: Clark Gable. AGAIN (shut up, they don't make men like The King any more, and you know it). Claudette Colbert demonstrating the classic method for catching a ride, by hitching up her hemline to expose those lovely, lovely legs. Gable adorable as the hardened news reporter looking for a story, and willing to sacrifice love to make Colbert happy. You will never hear the phrase "the walls of Jericho" in the same way, ever again, after seeing this movie.

The Thin Man: William Powell and Myrna Loy, in the first of a series of movies based on Dashiell Hammett's original novel. William plays a detective (Nick Charles) who gives up his day job after marrying Myrna Loy (Nora Charles), a socialite of the first order. Not having much to do, he spends his time being tipsy or getting drunk, until the day he is asked to investigate a murder. But this isn't your Maltese Falcon type of investigation with angst and drang, oh no! It's got strange suspects and cops and an assortment of lovable characters from the wrong side of town. It's got repartee and banter as Nora joins the investigation, and Nick continues to down any and all forms of alcoholic beverage that he can lay his hands on. Really, one wonders the mystery ever got solved...but it does!