The Silver Screen Oasis

Was that the Cary Grant Monkey Business or the Marx Brothers Monkey Business. Engaged parents want to know!

I forgot to mention that I usually get a "pass" around Halloween to screen a classic monster film. I tell them (tongue in cheek) that it's part of their entertainment heritage.

intothenitrate wrote:Was that the Cary Grant Monkey Business or the Marx Brothers Monkey Business. Engaged parents want to know!

Marx Brothers made Monkey Business in 1931, Directed by Norman Z. McLoed

Cary Grant starred in Monkey Business in 1952, Directed by Howard Hawks

I'm a little confused by your comment "Engaged parents want to know!" here?

They both did :!: ... Is this help

[u][color=#40BF00]JackFavell[/color][/u] wrote:Maven, that story of The Manchurian Candidate is oddly familiar, because my young Alice, picky as she is, once sat and watched The Grapes of Wrath with me at age 7 or 8. I kept expecting her to turn away, or tell me that she didn't want to watch, as she usually does with classic films ("This is boring mom"). But she sat through the whole thing spellbound, and cried and cried at the end. I am so glad she watched it, because it's the movie that most affected me as a young person, teaching me about the haves and the have-nots in this world, and to always be tolerant.

Unfortunately, this is the exception to her "no old movies" rule.... Maybe she would like The Search.....

Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and Hercules are staples from my childhood in front of the TV. It's hard for me to believe that kids now never see these movies at all...

Jack, I wonder if it is that kids have sooooooooo many choices of media today. As you wrote: "Because we had nothing else to occupy our time. No video games, no computers. It was old movies or the parents' bookshelf."

Ha...I often wonder 'what's the matter with kidz toooooo-day?'

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Uhmmmm...are my shoes squeaking?

HA! That's it! I've turned into Paul Lynde!

intothenitrate wrote:Was that the Cary Grant Monkey Business or the Marx Brothers Monkey Business. Engaged parents want to know!

I forgot to mention that I usually get a "pass" around Halloween to screen a classic monster film. I tell them (tongue in cheek) that it's part of their entertainment heritage.

I forgot there was two, my kids like the Cary Grant version, they think the whole film is a hoot and it is, how I love Charles Coburn, he's someone who makes Cary Grant look like a novice with comedy. I've never watched the Marx Brothers version, I've not quite got into the Marx brothers groove yet.

Halloween is good for classics, but my kid is still picky. So far the only ones Alice likes are Frankenstein (whew! if she didn't like that one I'd really wonder about her) and The Blob.

What's interesting about Hawks' MONKEY BUSINESS is that it's not his best comedy. It's not his second best, nor even his third. Yet, it's quite charming! The man knew how to tell a story.

We just finished watching Sunset Boulevard, and now the boys are asleep. Henry (13) was up late last night playing video games at a sleep-over, so he fell asleep during the show. Felix (11) watched it all the way through with me.

Before we started, I told them about Billy Wilder, how he came to America, grew to love it, and made films that reflected our culture (in some ways) even better than we could reflect it ourselves. I said that if he were here, and found that we wanted to watch something else after twenty minutes (my standard rule when we're screening one of my old films), he would take the blame.

Well, the narration of a dead man in that jaded, film-noir tone of voice, Franz Waxman's polished bee-bop-esque underscoring, and the brisk cutting completely captured their attention. By the twenty minute mark, with Norma appearing from behind the blinds and a dead chimp upstairs, they were hooked. Watching it with them made me realize that it's as atmospheric as a good monster movie. Felix even asked, "Is this going to be scary?"

He found it touching how well Max took care of Norma, and really liked his accent. He had a lot of sympathy for Norma, which surprised me, because her character borders so closely on being monstrous. At the end, when Max assumes the posture of a film director to help the police get Norma out of the house--that was a big payoff for him.

I don't get a chance to do this often, but it was really nice and I made sure to thank him for watching it with me.

My kids are 9 and 6, a girl and a boy with very different tastes, Libby loved The Pilgrim when she was younger and then graduated onto The Circus. She loves books, hopefully her world will expand to my classic film collection.

I'm so glad they appreciated the film! I can't think of a better pick for the age, when they are so into the macabre anyway.

It's funny, it's taken me years to see Norma's monstrous side. One feels so sorry for her. As kids, I think we know less of the world and of how awful her strong grasp and manipulation is.

They (the kids) didn't seem to have any problem with the Holden character becoming a "kept man." At their age, that part of the plot went right over their heads. It looked like he got a good deal... and all he had to do was put up with a little creepiness and eccentricity.

RedRiver wrote:What's interesting about Hawks' MONKEY BUSINESS is that it's not his best comedy. It's not his second best, nor even his third. Yet, it's quite charming! The man knew how to tell a story.

I agree, it's not what I'd rate as his best, in fact it feels like a bunch of actors having a good time with a good story, it's plot seems like a hark back to the days of silent comedy when this kind of gag would run and run, there's no sophistication or inside jokes, just some of the top comedy actors of the time and a rather silly story line but I've always loved it.

I accidentally found a way to have my son watch one of my movies. It happened like this. I put a movie on (The Great Victor Herbert (1939), part of my Susanna Foster collection.. The conversation went like this—
My son (Kendall) walked past, and said “She looks alright, who is she?
Me-- That`s Mary Martin.
Kendall—Never heard of her.
Me—Do you remember we used to watch a tv show, I forget the name. There was a sheila who used to jump out of a bottle?
Kendall—I Dream of Jeannie!
Me—That`s the one. Remember Major Nelson?
Kendall—Yes, Larry Hagman.
Me—Well, that`s his mum.
He sat down and watched the show right through.

HA! That's too funny!

That doesn't work anymore with my 11 (going on 35) year old. She thinks mom's crazy bits of trivia are too much info, now that she's so old and she knows everything.

My lady friend is fifty. I find myself saying, "This was directed by...who also did...and you're not at all interested in this, are you?"