Barbara Frank

Casablanca

I used to have a poster just like this one on my wall, because when I was a teen, my favorite movie star was Humphrey Bogart. The fact that he died the year before I was born made no difference to me. I grew up watching his films on television and thought he was the best actor ever.

Since then, I’ve widened my knowledge of films and the people who appear(ed) in them, but I still enjoy his work. This past week, my husband and I watched two of his films with dd17 in hopes of teaching her how to recognize and appreciate good movies. (Note: we tried this with our older two with mixed results. Hopefully, three’s the charm!)

First up, “Casablanca.” This very famous movie was made during World War II and includes a wonderful cast beyond Bogart, including Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Raines, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. Romantically bittersweet, it has a theme of personal sacrifice. It’s a terrific film and well-worth watching with your teens.

Next is “Sabrina,” a Billy Wilder film about a chauffeur’s daughter who finds romance in the wealthy family that employs her father. Many believe that Bogart was miscast in this film, and I admit that he often seems uncomfortable. The climax of the film is quite unbelievable. And yet somehow it works.

By the way, “Sabrina” is a showcase for Audrey Hepburn, and a great introduction to her work if you don’t know much about her. My daughter already knew who she was, having seen her recently in “Roman Holiday” (another great movie about personal sacrifice) and “Charade.”

While “Casablanca” would be of interest to both sexes, “Sabrina” is more of a chick flick, although I’m sure someone as poised as Audrey Hepburn would have come up with a more elegant way of describing it. 

Hope you’re spending today with the ones you love! You’ll find one of our family’s Valentine’s Day traditions (along with my recipe for a Giant Heart Cookie…well, actually two) right here.

BTW, another tradition we started a few years ago is our annual viewing of “Some Like It Hot,” a very funny movie which includes Chicago’s infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in its plot. No, I wouldn’t recommend it for kids, but older teens and adults will find it amusing.

I think it’s hard for anyone born after 1975 or so to understand how exciting movies used to be.

Going to the movies was an event, because we didn’t have all the television channels there are now, nor access to DVD players, Netflix, or online movies. If you saw a movie you absolutely loved at the theater, you knew you wouldn’t see it again unless you lucked out and it was eventually shown on network television. Back then, the only two ways to see a movie were in the theater and on television. Or so I thought.

When I got to college, I discovered that different campus groups had access to movies as fundraisers. They’d reserve an auditorium, obtain a movie and show it on a Friday or Saturday night for 75 cents a person. Each week there would be flyers all over campus advertising the coming weekend’s offerings.

That’s where I first saw “Young Frankenstein,” in an auditorium packed with rowdy college students. And it was so much fun! Some kids had seen the movie enough times on the weekends (the groups tended to show the same films over and over) that they yelled out the best lines as they occurred. It made for an entertaining evening. After that, I often saw my favorite movies two or three times, just because I could.

We watched “Young Frankenstein” here the other night. The audience was just three of us. But the movie is so funny that we laughed out loud pretty often.

The film is a Mel Brooks original, which means it’s a spoof. In this case, it’s poking fun at the original 1931 movie “Frankenstein” and also “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935). So if you’ve seen those films, you’ll fully understand why Brooks made “Young Frankenstein’ the way he did.

We were always pretty strict about which movies we allowed our kids to watch (I can hear my adult kids now chiming in from two different states, “You sure were!”), and so I can’t recommend this movie for the under-16 crowd. But it’s a stitch for older teens, and for 50-year-old parents who still remember their fellow classmates whinnying loudly in the Auditorium every time one of the actors mentions “Frau Blucher.”

I noticed banners for the movie “Fireproof” on a few blogs last week.

I mentioned the movie to my husband on Friday.

On Saturday I saw in the newspaper that “Fireproof” was at our local theater. We decided we should go see it sometime.

At church on Sunday, the pastor mentioned that he had just seen ”Fireproof” and that he wanted to recommend it to everyone, and especially to married couples. He said we could buy discounted theater tickets after the service.

We’re not dense. We can take a few hints.   We bought tickets, and went to see the movie on Monday.

Definitely worth it! The movie has a great message, and it has humor in it despite some heart-wrenching moments. I read an interview with the star of the movie, Kirk Cameron (one of the kids on TV’s ”Growing Pains” from back in the last century). What I found most interesting is that when his character was supposed to kiss an actress in the movie, he substituted his own wife. She’s also an actress, and she put on the lead actress’ dress and did the scene with her husband. How cool is that?

Do you and your honey a favor. Go see “Fireproof.” And bring Kleenex.

I’ve been a classic movie fanatic since I was a little kid. The movies of today have done nothing to change my opinion that the old films are the best.

Case in point: This weekend we watched the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story (Two-Disc Special Edition) for the first time in quite a while, and it was as enjoyable as ever. It stars three of my favorite actors (Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn) and is based on the hit Broadway play of the same name. It’s the story of an heiress who expects perfection in herself and everyone around her, and how she learns that “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”

James Stewart won an Oscar for Best Actor for this film, and Katharine Hepburn reversed the impending failure of her career by buying the rights and starring in it. Cary Grant is wonderful as always. The supporting characters are all very interesting, and there’s a particularly funny turn by Virginia Weidler as the main character’s precocious younger sister.

There’s no swearing, no sex, no violence (well, except in the first scene, lol) and lots of laughs along with just a few serious moments. Young children won’t appreciate this movie, but some teens might (primarily girls, I would think.) If you need a laugh, check this one out!