Look at me, all happy

I returned to my movie group Saturday night for the first time in ages ... well, at least since the Cubs began their glorious playoff run. I've missed the classics and my fellow film fanatics, and this week we watched one of my all-time favorites, 1944's Laura.

Mark meets Laura

NY detective Mark McPherson is assigned to solve the summertime murder of Laura Hunt, a glamorous Manhattanite who had appeared on the society pages on the arms of a variety of suitors. As he interviews her mentor, her fiance, her maid and and her aunt, as he reads her diaries and letters, he finds himself falling for the ultimate unattainable object: the murder victim herself.

It's romantic, it's twisty, it's well-acted (especially by Clifton Webb as the divine Waldo Lydecker). The clothes are beautiful. I've seen it about a million times, but this was the first time I've viewed it with an audience. That made it all the more fun.

The other thing that made Saturday night special for me is that three of the regulars: Will, Betty and, of course, Joanna, made a point of telling me how they thought of me throughout the World Series.

Baseball, classic movies and friendship ... how great is this!