Work, Work, Work...
Hello, Boys!
Dear JL and JB:
Imagine how great my joy was in discovering “Stuff You Gotta
Watch”! Allow me to be succinct; I looove it! You
both are just such top-notch writers that I find myself wanting to read
your opinions more than I want to see the films! I especially
enjoy, of course, the fact that I get to hear your opinions on the Marx
Brothers. You have written before about the possibility of doing
a Marx Brothers website, and SYGW is the next best thing. Thanks
for sharing your talents.
And just one or two observations to give you a moment’s distraction:
1) Your review of Planet of the Apes caused me to run right out and rent that puppy again. When I was a lad (btw I was born in 1964) I loved the Apes films. I especially enjoyed the Apes costumes; you had the elders wearing their pretty-cool light-brown outfits, the scientists in their pretty-cool green and black, and then the, uh, “hench-apes” in their SUPER-cool dark outfits with the high boots. Man, I thought those togs were cool…You point out that the films got worse over time; I don’t especially remember that, but having just seen POTA a couple of days ago, I was surprised at how small-scale it seemed. All I mean is that except for the scenes near the beginning of the Apes rounding up the humans (which is a great set-piece), it does feel a bit like this whole film was done on just a couple of sets. However, I was also struck at how intelligent the film was…I didn’t remember it being so heavy on very good dialogue. And the ending is quite dramatic, isn’t it? You don’t get “just” the statue, but you really feel what is churning inside of Taylor. “A lot of love-making, but no love,” he told Nova earlier, and that I suppose that is just it, eh?
2) I agree that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is not as funny as it could be, but it is still utterly wonderful. The adventure enjoyed by these two men is just so, well, cozy, silly, seems-like-a-lot-of-fun. I adore my lovely wife, yet the adventures I have shared with my male friends are something special, and are in their own class entirely. (Maybe that is why I love Laurel and Hardy, eh?) The ending makes me cry, and my favorite scene? When they escape the hotel together after crashing into the room in their trashed car. I also enjoy the music (of course you realize that song is “Red River Valley” played super fast. Remember how Benny Hill played Beethoven fast on his show? Err…you boys do love Benny Hill, right?)
3) I finished re-watching The Adventures of Robin Hood just last night. The film actually made me melancholy, as I thought there was a time when I believed in good guys like Robin of Loxley and Richard the Lionhearted, and I don’t seem to be able to muster those feelings anymore. Olivia de Havilland is so lovely as Marion (my wife and I had a tortoise-shell colored cat that we named Marion, because in the Kevin Costner Robin Hood [a mostly horrible film], Marion wears oak leaves in her hair, which were the exact same color of our cat. We got our kitty and rented the Costner movie the same day). A rollicking good time all-in-all, but the color is a bit gauche.
4) So you wanna talk James Bond, eh? Ok, I promise to be brief…Goldfinger is great, but only up until they land in Kentucky, at which point I feel the movie seriously tanks, except for the final showdown between Oddjob and Bond. (By the way, my family met Oddjob in Hawaii in 1981, where he parked cars as part of a tour. I have his autograph on one of my dad’s business cards, which he signed “Oddjob…007”…and then drew a little picture of a hat!) From Russia with Love is far and away the best Bond film, so good that I don’t even really think of it as a “Bond” film so much as a great film. It is cozy yet grand, sexy and exciting, romantic and simply beautiful. I adore Tatiana, and Bond’s friend Karim Bey. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is wonderful, although I always thought the earlier scenes seemed very forced. By the time we hit the bull fight, however, it is an almost perfect film (but I hate the ending.) Oh, and you may have made a mistake: you say that Live and Let Die is the only time we see Bond’s pad? Hmmm…isn’t that Bond’s apartment that Sylvia Trench breaks into near the beginning of Dr. No? I don’t think it is a hotel…they are in London…and she is playing with his golf clubs…
I had better stop now!
John Brennan and John Larrabee, your work is the BEST thing I have EVER found on the net. Thank you for sharing. If you send me a street address, I can send you a decent thank you card. Stay well and know that I remain,
Most truly yours,
Tory Paul Mitchell in Portland, Oregon
Dear JL and JB:
Imagine how great my joy was in discovering “Stuff You Gotta
Watch”! Allow me to be succinct; I looove it! You
both are just such top-notch writers that I find myself wanting to read
your opinions more than I want to see the films! I especially
enjoy, of course, the fact that I get to hear your opinions on the Marx
Brothers. You have written before about the possibility of doing
a Marx Brothers website, and SYGW is the next best thing. Thanks
for sharing your talents.And just one or two observations to give you a moment’s distraction:
1) Your review of Planet of the Apes caused me to run right out and rent that puppy again. When I was a lad (btw I was born in 1964) I loved the Apes films. I especially enjoyed the Apes costumes; you had the elders wearing their pretty-cool light-brown outfits, the scientists in their pretty-cool green and black, and then the, uh, “hench-apes” in their SUPER-cool dark outfits with the high boots. Man, I thought those togs were cool…You point out that the films got worse over time; I don’t especially remember that, but having just seen POTA a couple of days ago, I was surprised at how small-scale it seemed. All I mean is that except for the scenes near the beginning of the Apes rounding up the humans (which is a great set-piece), it does feel a bit like this whole film was done on just a couple of sets. However, I was also struck at how intelligent the film was…I didn’t remember it being so heavy on very good dialogue. And the ending is quite dramatic, isn’t it? You don’t get “just” the statue, but you really feel what is churning inside of Taylor. “A lot of love-making, but no love,” he told Nova earlier, and that I suppose that is just it, eh?
2) I agree that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is not as funny as it could be, but it is still utterly wonderful. The adventure enjoyed by these two men is just so, well, cozy, silly, seems-like-a-lot-of-fun. I adore my lovely wife, yet the adventures I have shared with my male friends are something special, and are in their own class entirely. (Maybe that is why I love Laurel and Hardy, eh?) The ending makes me cry, and my favorite scene? When they escape the hotel together after crashing into the room in their trashed car. I also enjoy the music (of course you realize that song is “Red River Valley” played super fast. Remember how Benny Hill played Beethoven fast on his show? Err…you boys do love Benny Hill, right?)
3) I finished re-watching The Adventures of Robin Hood just last night. The film actually made me melancholy, as I thought there was a time when I believed in good guys like Robin of Loxley and Richard the Lionhearted, and I don’t seem to be able to muster those feelings anymore. Olivia de Havilland is so lovely as Marion (my wife and I had a tortoise-shell colored cat that we named Marion, because in the Kevin Costner Robin Hood [a mostly horrible film], Marion wears oak leaves in her hair, which were the exact same color of our cat. We got our kitty and rented the Costner movie the same day). A rollicking good time all-in-all, but the color is a bit gauche.
4) So you wanna talk James Bond, eh? Ok, I promise to be brief…Goldfinger is great, but only up until they land in Kentucky, at which point I feel the movie seriously tanks, except for the final showdown between Oddjob and Bond. (By the way, my family met Oddjob in Hawaii in 1981, where he parked cars as part of a tour. I have his autograph on one of my dad’s business cards, which he signed “Oddjob…007”…and then drew a little picture of a hat!) From Russia with Love is far and away the best Bond film, so good that I don’t even really think of it as a “Bond” film so much as a great film. It is cozy yet grand, sexy and exciting, romantic and simply beautiful. I adore Tatiana, and Bond’s friend Karim Bey. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is wonderful, although I always thought the earlier scenes seemed very forced. By the time we hit the bull fight, however, it is an almost perfect film (but I hate the ending.) Oh, and you may have made a mistake: you say that Live and Let Die is the only time we see Bond’s pad? Hmmm…isn’t that Bond’s apartment that Sylvia Trench breaks into near the beginning of Dr. No? I don’t think it is a hotel…they are in London…and she is playing with his golf clubs…
I had better stop now!
John Brennan and John Larrabee, your work is the BEST thing I have EVER found on the net. Thank you for sharing. If you send me a street address, I can send you a decent thank you card. Stay well and know that I remain,
Most truly yours,
Tory Paul Mitchell in Portland, Oregon