13 movies I guess are my favorites. Do you know Letterboxd? It's an online diary where movie lovers can track their viewing. I checked my stats and discovered which movies I have seen most often since I began keeping this diary in 2020. I'm surprised because while I like them all, they aren't necessarily my favorites. Some ended up on the list because I can easily access them from my DVR, or because TCM and the Movies! channel show them often.
Still, there's not a clunker on the list and I'm sure I'll enjoy them all again ... and again.
1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946): Six times. George Bailey sees what life would be like if he hadn't been born. I love this movie very much. Every time I see it, I get something different from it. In 2023, I realized how very imperfect George was. He's jealous, he's frustrated, he has a bad temper. But aren't we all imperfect? I think it's the relatable depiction of his faults that anchors the film and makes it easier for us to accept the supernatural aspects. Also, I still think that moment where Mary and George share the phone receiver at the foot of the stairs is one of the most romantic kisses ever.
2. Casablanca (1942): Five times. A love triangle during WWII. Romance, intrigue, and duty. Good versus evil. A celebration of antifa. Here's looking at you, kid.
3. Holiday (1938): Five times. You're not familiar with this one, are you? It's my all-time favorite from the Golden Age of Hollywood and if you can find it, I recommend you watch. Cary Grant is Johnny, a promising young business who takes a quick pre-Christmas ski holiday and meets a pretty blonde. In snowy Vermont they seem to want all the same things and impulsively get engaged. It's back in Manhattan, in real life, that they learn how incompatible they are. The blonde is an heiress to a massive fortune, and she assumes Johnny will snap at the opportunity to perpetuate it. Johnny, who has just made a little money on a wise business deal, wants to take a holiday for a few years and return to work again when his nest egg is depleted. Then work will feel meaningful. His fiancee and her father are appalled. So were audiences. In 1938, Americans were unemployed and hungry and the idea of turning down a job seemed frivolous and ungrateful. But ever since I first saw this movie in the 1970s, I've loved it. It's romantic and challenging and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are so very wonderful.
Here's Johnny explaining his worldview to Linda, his fiancee's sister.
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): Five times. This has been called the most entertaining Western ever made, and I agree. It celebrates individuality and friendship. I love the tension William Goldman's script creates between the smart-ass banter and impending doom. Most of all, I love Newman and Redford.
5. The Apartment (1960): Four times. Bud Baxter works at a soul-sucking corporate job, just one of many drones but beloved by his bosses because he has an apartment nearby. These married men use Bud's place for quick assignations. Bud feels he's just playing the corporate game by their rules until he falls in love with Miss Kubelik, who operates the elevator in their skyscraper. Suddenly lending out his apartment seems shabby and ugly. It's a romantic and grown up movie but also very, very funny. Jack Lemmon is wonderful and I think this is Shirley MacLaine's best performance.
6. Jailhouse Rock (1957): Four times. OK, this is not a great movie. But I grade Elvis movies on a curve, and it's one of his best. Certainly his most famous. The best musical numbers he put on film. My classic film nerd friends sniff at Jailhouse Rock, but I love it unapologetically.
7. Pillow Talk (1959): Four times. In the 50s, party lines were common as the need for phones outpaced the Bell Telephone's ability to install service. So often two or more people shared a phone number. Doris Day is an interior decorator with a great apartment and a wonderful wardrobe, but she's stuck sharing a party line with a horny songwriter (Rock Hudson). Through a series of rom-com coincidences, they fall in love. And so do I. They were never funnier than they are here. If Rock Hudson doesn't make you smile at least once, then I question whether you have a sense of humor.
8. Murder on the Orient Express (1974): Four times. An all-star cast brings Hercule Poirot's greatest case to life. I never tire of Albert Finney's portrayal of the Belgium sleuth. He's all in. You won't see a trace of the sexy, irreverent Finney of Tom Jones here. He's a methodical, brilliant, fussy narcissist, the greatest Poirot I've ever seen. Lauren Bacall is as good as she could be, too.
9. Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970): Four times. Elvis preparing for his Las Vegas engagement. It's a straightforward concert film, but it's The King at his peak and he's hypnotic. You also can't watch and listen without knowing what he doesn't -- that his fall will be swift and he'll be dead before the decade is over. I'm surprised this film made my list. Entertaining as it is, I'd never include it in a list of my favorites. I did have it on as background often at the end of my work-from-home days in advertising. I can't write in silence, and Elvis made good company.
10. King Creole (1958): Four times. Elvis' best acting performance as Danny, a New Orleans kid who can't catch a break. The only thing he has going for him is that he can swing a guitar, and so instead of pursuing his education he begins performing in nightclubs and is seduced by the town's seamier elements. Directed by the same Michael Curtiz who gave us Casablanca, this is not just a good Elvis movie but a good movie. Period. I will die on this hill.
11. Dial M for Murder (1954): Three times.
A retired tennis pro discovers his rich wife is cheating on him and figures murder is the best way to be rid of her while keeping her cash. Things go wrong. It's a good (but not great) Hitchcock thriller. Grace Kelly is beautiful as the faithless wife. It's entertaining, but I'm surprised it made my list.
12. A Letter to Three Wives (1949): Three times. It's a small town. Four women are frenemies. One suddenly skips town and leaves behind a letter to the other three explaining that, on the way out, she took one of their husbands. 1940s tech being what it was, the three have to wait until this long day is over to see which husbands return home, and which one doesn't. I love everything about this movie, including the reveal. Knowing the end doesn't ruin the movie, it enhances it on repeat viewings. (Though Bonnie from my movie group, who always gets everything wrong, feels the ending is ambiguous and up for debate. I have no doubt which husband evil Addie set out to steal.)
13. BUtterfield 8 (1960): Three times. A soap opera. A melodrama. Trash. Elizabeth Taylor's first Oscar and her least favorite film (she was literally forced to make it when MGM threatened to sue her). Yeah, whatever. Liz is fanfuckingtastic in this movie. She's not only staggeringly gorgeous -- I mean, her beauty is next level -- she's genuinely talented. The movie begins with Liz waking up alone in a strange bedroom. She wordlessly tries to figure out where she is and how she got there. We watch her get her bearings as she gets dressed and we learn everything we need to know about her by watching her face. A fine performance in an entertaining (but trashy) movie.
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