The Awful Truth (1937)

Ligia and I just watched The Awful Truth (1937) for the second time. We love it! The cast was perfect for the roles, the script was witty, and the direction was wonderful. Cary Grant plays Jerry Warriner, a husband who finds his wife Lucy’s tale (Irene Dunne) of car trouble hard to swallow when she tells him she spent an innocent night at her father’s cabin with her music instructor. He, of course, has his own tall tale to tell — or rather, avoid telling.

They argue, and they divorce, but there’s a 90-day grace period. And of course, there’s Mr. Smith, the dog — Jerry uses him as a pretext to visit Lucy. During that time, each does his and her best to split their rebound romances through all sorts of wacky shenanigans. It’s a pleasure to watch them dog it out, each motivated by the love they still bear for the other. There’s a wonderful conclusion to the film, driven home eloquently by the director’s use of a grandfather clock and his/her figurines, animated by Cary and Irene. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Reviews

Night at the Museum (2006)

Ligia and I saw Night at the Museum (2006) last night, and we loved it. We knew we had to see it when we saw the trailer a few months ago. It looked like a really fun, enjoyable movie, and it sure was! I really like movies that don’t get weird on me — by that I mean the plot is simple and enjoyable, the characters are likable, the storyline is appealing, and the movie is fun to watch. This movie met all of those criteria. Call it a family movie, call it a comedy, a very light romance if you will, but most of all, call it great fun. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t leave me with a headache or stress me out unnecessarily. My life is busy and stressful enough already. When I watch a movie, I want to relax and laugh a little. I tell you, Night at the Museum worked for me. I loved it, and Ligia loved it too. Highly recommended!

Thoughts

Digitizing my VHS library

Over the past few months, whenever I get some free time, I stick in an old VHS tape into my trusty Samsung SV5000W VCR, and using my Plextor ConvertX PVR (PX-TV402U), I digitize it. I’m really mostly interested in my library of Disney movies (feature-length animation). I have tapes from as early as 1992, and those poor things are in dire need of resuscitation. The colors are fading fast, there’s static when I watch them, and even their plastic cases have started to show signs of wear and tear, even though the only thing they’ve been doing all this time is sitting in my bookcase.

I realize I could easily purchase the DVDs, and for some of the movies, I did just that. I have the special edition Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, for example. But it’s kind of nice to save my old VHS tapes. I have very fond memories of my Disney movies. When I started to buy them, my parents and I had just come to the States from what used to be communist Romania. That meant no access to Disney cartoons unless someone had a badly dubbed bootleg copy of some movie. We got 10 minutes or less of cartoons on Sunday afternoons around 1 pm, and that was that. If we were lucky, we got a Tom and Jerry short. If we weren’t, we got some half-baked French or Romanian cartoon, mostly stick animation. Yuck!

When I came to the States in 1991, I was starved for good cartoons. Unfortunately, we were also starving. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but when you start from scratch, you don’t have a lot of spare cash. My parents had a hard time making ends meet in those first few years. So when I wanted to get my first Disney movie in 1992, that was a big deal. Twenty-five dollars is a lot of money to spend when you’re making minimum wage. As I started working in high school, I’d scrimp and save to have enough to buy my Disney movies. My my memories of these tapes are fond indeed. I’d wait months to be able to get one, and when I did get it, I enjoyed it very, very much — and I still do.

So here I am, dubbing my tapes to digital format. As I watch them again, bygone times come to mind. The nice experiences were all the nicer because they were in scarce supply. Digitizing my movies puts them and those times in cryogenic suspension, so to speak. They remain, in their current, fuzzy state, for as long as I keep them, always a memory of those first, few, rough years in the States.

Places

Impressions from Walt Disney World – Part 4

This post is part of a series on Walt Disney World. Click on each link to access Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

There’s a ride called the Backlot Tour at Disney MGM Studios. At first sight, it seems like nothing fancy: just a tour bus that takes you around various places. But if you assume that and never go on it, you miss out on a whole lot of fun.

The Backlot Tour is actually made up of three segments: a pre-ride special effects show (with audience participation), the actual tour in the buses, and a very nice post-tour walk through the on-site AFI (American Film Institute) Museum, which is packed full of actual movie props and costumes.

The special effects show involves mock action sequences from Pearl Harbor, and the audience is shown how stunts like the ones in the movie were created. You also get a sense of the scale of those special effects, and of the incredible effort and planning that went into creating each action scene, even if it lasted only a few seconds.

The backlot tour gives the visitors behind-the-scenes glimpses at the work that goes on at the studio, which is supposedly in use for various movies from time to time. As the tour guide speaks, the bus snakes its way among various cars and objects used in past and recent movies.

There are rare gems, like Walt Disney’s personal plane. He used it to fly over the Florida Everglades when he surveyed the land he would later purchase for Disney World. Toward the end of the tour, you’ll be taken through the costume department. There’s a tunnel built right through the building where the staff works on costumes, and large windows line it. You’ll be able to look right in and see them at work on the various costumes worn by WDW cast members.

You’ll get an unexpected shock as you experience a fire and water stunt at a specially-designed canyon. Tens of thousands of gallons of water will rush past you. It’s quite a sight to see!

But what I thought was really interesting was the AFI Museum, available at the end of the tour. There was no time limit, and we could look at the various movie props and costumes as long as we wanted. It was a treat!

Places

Impressions from Walt Disney World – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my series on Walt Disney World.

Lights, Motors, Action! is one of the shows at Disney MGM Studios. It runs only a few times a day, and it involves tightly coreographed action and stunt sequences with cars and motorcycles. The setup is that they’re filming scenes for an upcoming action movie. The truth is, they’re just trying to involve the audience a little more. I have mixed feelings about making everything seem like the movies, but I can certainly agree with this: the show and the stunts are great!

The set is built to resemble a small, Southern French town.

There’s an introduction, where the audience is told what to expect, then the stunts begin, with little breaks to allow the crew to set up the various scenes.

I understand the stunt drivers go through a set of tires in three days, and since the show began, they’ve worn down the pavement on the set by several inches, and it will need to be repaved. There’s also a surprise: you’ll get to see Herbie during the show!

Raoul Pop

One man's life

Tag Archives: movies

The Awful Truth (1937)

Night at the Museum (2006)

Digitizing my VHS library

Impressions from Walt Disney World – Part 4

Impressions from Walt Disney World – Part 3

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