Old Movies

Ahh the joy of sitting at home and watching old movies. Gene and I randomly came across two old movies last night that made me remember that I do like movies - quite a lot actually - just not a lot of the modern ones.

The first movies we came across was an old favorite of mine entitled Murder by Death ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074937/ ). It is a parody of the old murder mystery/detective story movies. The main characters are spoofs of all the famous dime store novel detectives. For example Agatha Christie's Miss Marple & monsieur Poirot are now Miss Marbles and monsieur Perrier. Charlie Chan is Sidney Wang and Sam Spade is now Sam Diamond. They are all invited to a gloomy old house for a dinner party by an unknown host (ala Clue). Once there they are locked in and informed that a murder will occur at exactly midnight. They are to discover who the murderer is and why they have committed this crime. If they do so, they will be known world wide as the best detective alive. Hi-jinx ensue with missing, dead, and naked butlers and cooks, revolving rooms, poison gas, and all the usual murder mystery tricks for knocking off guests. Great puns, one-liners, and parodies ensue which make it all-around fun if you are or were a fan of this genre.

It had an all-star cast (well, all-start for 1976) including Peter Sellers, Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven, and Maggie Smith (my personal favorite).

The other movie was entitled The Cheap Detective ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077321/ ) and was again a parody of the detective story. Only this is very much an open parody. The story opens with the main character's partner being killed and the main character being the prime suspect. The main character, Lou Peckinpaugh (played by Peter Falk), is a cheap private eye who has been having an affair with his dead partner's wife. The rest of the story continues to mock standard crime flicks of the 50s such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. It has even better one-liners and puns than Murder by Death but isn't as sophisticated. It's a fun, laugh-a-minute kind of movie.

It also has a pretty all-star cast including Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing, Dom DeLuise, and Madeline Kahn.


So, if you are bored sometime these are two pretty funny movies to check out.

New Post

So, I've been nagged to make a new post; however, I am too tired to make a new post - therefore I shall leave this post as it is - - a rambling run-on sentence with hopes of sometime during Spring Break becoming a a true post instead of a pretentious, overbearing diatribe on how I am too tired to write posts.


:)

The Show

Okay, as of now my life officially goes on hold until Monday, March 13th.

The show must go on.