Movie Memories

Films have been such an important part of my life. I know in my September and November years I've been going to a lot of movies. But, in fact, I've always gone to a lot of movies. And remembering the oddest things about them. I can see Gary Cooper in Sergeant York licking his thumb and then transferring spittle to his rifle sight, giving his little turkey call, then picking off Germans who stick their heads up to see what’s going on. I can see that unpleasant bar where Ray Milland lost himself in Lost Weekend, but even more vividly I can see the shadow of the bottle he’d hidden in the overhead light fixture in his hotel room. I can see Alan Ladd and Van Heflin laboring over that tree stump in Shane. Also the shootout in the bar with nasty Jack Palance. And the final scene with Brandon De Wilde calling out to the receding horse bearing the wounded Shane into the setting sun, “Come back, Shane! Come back!” I still shudder when I remember that final scene in The Innocents, when Deborah Kerr kisses the dead boy Miles. You must remember, films in 1961 didn’t take up such issues as sexual relationships between adult governesses and their young charges. The shocked silence as we all exited the theater was memorable. I remember the acknowledging salute his pursuer gave to Cornell Wilde when he successfully escaped him in Naked Prey. I can still see that open book flipping its pages in a ghostly breeze in The Uninvited. Other odd remembrances involve the audience rather than the film itself. Sometime in the Fifties, I was seeing Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and midway, a guy several rows in front of me, issued the loud and surprised comment, “Oh, he’s im-PO-tent!” You had to be there. Another time, Rosalie and I were attending a high school play, and someone in front of us was telling a seatmate how much he liked the music from "Guy Guy" (Gigi). Such silly things to remember. I’ll probably think of a bunch more now that I’m tuned into this game.