The Silver Screen Oasis

knitwit45 wrote:Judith, have you ever seen the episode of "Friends", where Phoebe and the crew are watching "Old Yeller"? At the crucial moment at the end, Phoebs gets up and turns off the tv. Seems her mom always did that, and she is completely clueless as to the real ending. tooooo funny.

Nope, sorry, I've never seen it, as I can't stand Friends (although I do like Lisa Kudrow).

I think The Kids in the Hall also did something with an Old Yeller theme - several brief scene of a boy taking the rifle from his father, saying "He's my dog, I'll do it," each time with different, siller, consequence.

Humph! Some things one simply does not joke about!

Judith, as soon as I posted that, I knew it was not in keeping with the theme of this thread. I just hated the movie (because it was so sad) and so every time someone mentions it, I see Lisa Kudrow walking over to the tv and turning it off. Keeps me from tear-ing up I suppose.

so huge apologies, and back to the topic!

Nancy

knitwit45 wrote:Judith, as soon as I posted that, I knew it was not in keeping with the theme of this thread. I just hated the movie (because it was so sad) and so every time someone mentions it, I see Lisa Kudrow walking over to the tv and turning it off. Keeps me from tear-ing up I suppose.

so huge apologies, and back to the topic!

Nancy

Perfectly understandable, since that is my reaction to "Old Yeller" as well. I change the channel immediately, because seeing even a few seconds of it reminds me of what's going to happen and I can't bear it.

Now Voyager does it to me every time. "You see no one ever called me darling! " always chokes me up..

vallo

I "discovered" this movie about 18 months ago, and it shot to the top of my favorite movies list. I even purchased the book at Amazon, it is so old, the pages are brittle. From beginning to end, "Don't let's ask for the moon...we have the stars".... at least a half box of tissues!!!

This has been one of my favorite recent threads; thanks Ken! And I'm wondering if any of you out there ever experienced the odd phenomenah I'm about to describe. As a kid, whenever I revisited a particularly sad film (like THE CHAMP or THE YEARLING for example) I did so with the feeling that it might not end the same way. That some miraculous event would take place and eradicate the sadness that originally overwhelmed me and everyone would live happily ever after. I did this consistently and with the absolute certainty that things would always wind up differently, but of course such was never the case. Am I alone in this, or did others of you experience the same thing when watching sad movies as little kids?

I STILL think Conrad Veidt is going to shoot Bogie, and Ilsa is NOT going to get on that plane......

"A" movie? I am such a sap I can't limit myself to boo-hooing over just one:

How Green Was My Valley
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Young Mr Lincoln
One-Way Passage
Algiers
Waterloo Bridge
Random Harvest
Ten North Frederick
Peter Ibbetson
Arch of Triumph
Casablanca
GWTW
Imitaton of Life (Lana's)
Madame "X" (Lana's)
Love in the Afternoon (the last scenes)

Reading over the posts I realized how many good ones I left off. "Old Yeller" and "The Yearling" of course! And BORN FREE, oh I flood the universe on that one alone.

Now, Voyager, Dark Victory, All This and Heaven, Too and City Lights! What a catastrophe I am by the end of all of those.

Miss G, I'll start gathering the animals....Random Harvest, Now Voyager, Since You Went Away, Best Years of Our Lives, The Searchers, last scene of Sabrina....I can float the boat on any one of them!

knitwit45 wrote:Miss G, I'll start gathering the animals....Random Harvest, Now Voyager, Since You Went Away, Best Years of Our Lives, The Searchers, last scene of Sabrina....I can float the boat on any one of them!

Yes me too, on all of those! Hee! Or should I say, "boo hoo"?

Dewey asked:

Am I alone in this, or did others of you experience the same thing when watching sad movies as little kids?

As a little kid? I watched Somewhere in Time with my teen daughters several times and still hoped Chris Reeve would get back at the end. And I'm also hoping Ilsa doesn't get off the plane. And Stella Dallas' daughter should come running out of her wedding and find her mother.

And, and, and . . . I could go on and on. There have been so many times where I wished for a different ending, and swore it would change with the next viewing!!

Anne

I cry at the end of "City Lights," but then most people do.

I cry at some unexpected films too. Perhaps the most unusual is that I can't make it through "Lili," the Leslie Caron film about the girl whose only friends are puppets, without crying.

Another thing that makes me weep is Vincent Price's death scene in "Edward Scissorhands" (Yes, I know it is post-1970, but it always makes me cry.)

MikeBSG wrote:I cry at the end of "City Lights," but then most people do.

Another thing that makes me weep is Vincent Price's death scene in "Edward Scissorhands" (Yes, I know it is post-1970, but it always makes me cry.)

Edward Scissorhands makes me pretty weepy too. It really is a beautiful fantasy fable of a film, and it's not just Price's wonderful scene that gets me, but Depp's entire performance. I'd call it somewhat Chaplinesque - I think in decades to come a larger appreciation of his work generally, and this movie in particular, will happen. I find the ending of Edward Scissorhands almost too emotionally intense, sort of like Old Yeller.

jdb1 wrote:I think The Kids in the Hall also did something with an Old Yeller theme - several brief scene of a boy taking the rifle from his father, saying "He's my dog, I'll do it," each time with different, siller, consequence.

Humph! Some things one simply does not joke about!

Yep, that was in season 3. Best comedy group ever.