I watched The Philadelphia Story last night with my wife. Since the movie makes my wife’s “top 5 movies of all time” list, it was a must watch movie. I’ve always wanted to see the movie anyways with it being on the AFI’s top 100 list, and I am slowly progressing through that list of movies (I’m making good headway).
Jimmy Stewart has always been a favorite actor of mine. The guy who never quite gets “it” but you are always rooting for him. Stewart was by far the best part of the film. Katharine Hepburn on the other hand tends to annoy me in movies. I don’t see her as belivable or credible as a character at all, but that’s flowed over into other movies of her’s as well (i.e. The African Queen). The rest of the supporting cast and Carey Grant did an excellent job.
When I see lists of old movies and hear about how good they are, I tend to not really belive that they are that good. Maybe it’s that I don’t think that some 60 year old movie can really hold me the way a more modern movie can. I’ve been finding that pleasantly wrong. With my wife I’ve been starting to buy and watch older movies like “All About Eve” and “Funny Face”. These movies entertain, without having to resort to blowing up a building. The feelings and emotions carry the same weight all these years later.
Problem is I want to start buying them left and right. With the Criterion Collection and the Fox Studio Classics, and their infernal numbering system that makes you want to have a complete set, and other major studio releases of Hitchcock classics and other director and star driven movies of old, I’m on a classic movie kick. Nice part is, I can somewhat justify getting the movies from time to time, with the wife loving them already, she’ll want to own them, right?
