Steve Bailey

Thank you, Cinema Maven and Steve Bailey of MovieMovieBlogBlog, for nominating me for the Liebster award, and for being so patient with my horrible tardiness in giving responses! Everybody check out Cinema’s Maven’s responses to the questions she was asked, which are so funny and awesome. She also nominated 10 wonderful blogs I’m honored to see next to mine, as did Steve. Steve’s answers are also wonderful; I highly recommend reading #1 in his facts about himself. Hilarious.

For the award, my task is to nominate some folks for the award myself, answer questions, and ask my own. I don’t think I’ve yet honored these great bloggers. In no particular order:

Christina Wehner, K-Drama Today, A Person in the Dark, Critica Retro, Caftan Woman, MovieMovieBlogBlog, Carole & Co., Nitrateglow, Speakeasy, The Vintage Cameo, & Love Letters to Old Hollywood (I will try to remember to notify you as well, which I neglected to do on a similar occasion.)

To accept the award, answer my eleven questions, share eleven things about yourself, ask eleven of your own questions, and nominate up to eleven bloggers to answer them. If you don’t have the time right now, just know that I am a fan and wanted to give you a shout-out.

My Responses to Cinema Maven’s Great Questions

1. You’re a casting agent. Tell me, what two stars who never acted together would you most like to see in a film? Barbara Stanwyck and Cary Grant in a comedy. It would have been perfection.
2. What is your favorite line in a movie? “You know, junk food really doesn’t deserve the bad rap it gets. Take these fried pork rinds. This particular brand has 1 percent of the RDA—that’s Recommended Daily Allowance—of Riboflavin.” The Sure Thing.
3. What is your favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, and briefly…why? Notorious. Perfect casting. The terrifying concept of living with your enemy—and being in his power. Plus, a creepy mother-in-law.
4. Clark Gable or Cary Grant? Why? Cary Grant. He could do everything—and make it all look SO easy. I like Gable, but he was far less versatile (& no acrobatic skills).
5. What movie should never EVER become a re-make? To Sir with Love.
6. What classic film star would you like to interview? Full disclosure. They’d hold nothing back during your interview. Mae West. I wouldn’t want her to hold anything back.
7. What movie or actor or actress ( pick one ) was absolutely, positively, unequivocally robbed of an Academy Award? For what film? Briefly, why should he/she/it have won? Barbara Stanwyck. For Ball of Fire. Also, for pretty much every movie she was in. Because there has never been another actress that natural on the screen, before or since.
8. What classic film star, at the height of his or her fame, would you like to show up with you at your prom? Fred Astaire. Because he could make even me look like I could dance. 
9. Which endings resonate MORE with you: movies with happy endings or movies with sad endings? ( Do NOT say, “that depends” ). Name the film. And why? I’m a sucker for a happy ending if it’s earned. The Shawshank Redemption is a good example.
10. What actor or actress do you find too hyped up and over-rated OR what actor or actress do you find totally under the radar, and should be much more well-known? Tell us why. Anthony Hopkins—too theatrical. Johnny Depp—great taste, but not much talent (let the attacks begin).
11. If you didn’t have classic films in your life, where else would your passion lie? What would your hobby be? My classic movie admiration reached its obsession stage when I started teaching writing and was too overwhelmed to read more than I already was. I suspect I’d go back to being the hardcore bookworm I am naturally.

My Responses to Steve Bailey’s Great Questions

1. “All-time favorite movie” is too tough. What is your favorite genre, and what is your all-time favorite movie in that genre? The screwball comedy. Ball of Fire.

2. “Theatrical” is too easy. What’s your all-time favorite TV-movie? I like the truly bad Lifetime ones. As a kid, I loved the If Tomorrow Comes TV miniseries (jewel thief love story–no lie). Surely Slugs was a TV movie? Also a favorite.

3. The Great Movie Genie is allowing you to permanently change the ending of one movie. Which one do you choose, and why? Four Weddings and a Funeral. Andie MacDowell’s unbelievably, comically flat delivery of the raining line, which nearly ruined an otherwise funny comedy. Also, it’s a dumb line.

4. You’re the latest heinie-kissing Hollywood exec, slavishly following trends. Which movie, good or bad, would you like to sequelize or remake? Clan of the Cave Bear was actually a fascinating book, and that movie was AWFUL. I’d like to see it done well. Never gonna happen.

5. Name the movie whose screening you’d like to co-host on TCM with Ben Mankiewicz. I’m No Angel. Who can’t talk about Mae West?

6. Describe your most memorable movie occasion — not necessarily your favorite film, but a movie you enjoyed with friends, one that evoked a particular memory, etc. Great question. Arsenic and Old Lace is attached to so many memories it deserves its own post. Also watching The Princess Bride with my younger sister. She knows every line.

7. What is your favorite line of movie dialogue? I answered this one above in #2 for Cinema Maven. Also, any  five minutes of The Thin Man. 

8. Why are movies special to you? I have many answers to this question, so I’ll just give one: Because I can feel pessimistic about everything around me, and walk out of a theater 2 hours later, inspired.

9. What do you enjoy most about blogging? Finding so many people who love what I do.

10. What is your favorite book about movies? Drama Queens by Autumn Stevens. Not great literature, but gossipy and so funny.

11. You have your favorite movie actor or actress to yourself for 24 hours to do with what you will. Name, please. Not my favorite actor, but Marlon Brando in 1951. I don’t think that requires an explanation.

11 Facts about Me

1. Once when I returned a movie to Blockbuster, the woman at the counter said, “I won’t lie to you. That’s the worst fine I’ve ever seen.” That’s when I started buying movies.
2. When my friends used to tan in high school and college, I’d hold up my pale, freckled arm so that they’d feel good about their progress.
3. Cinema Maven, one of my very funny nominators, reminded me of my own cooking past. I tried to boil oatmeal once without any water. I guess that home ec class in middle school didn’t work.
4. I used to excel at winning baked goods at the cake walk in school carnivals. I took great pride in this accomplishment.
5. My parents used to send me to my room when it was messy, telling me I couldn’t leave until it was clean. I liked being in my room. I read there. I am a slob to this day. Let this be a lesson to parents out there.
6. I have a gift for finding the coolest cat in the animal shelter, and not just for myself.
7. The GPS changed my life. I spend much less of my time driving in circles now.
8. I fear hail. It’s followed by tornadoes. The fact that I now live somewhere without them hasn’t changed my instinctual reaction.
9. I am a hopeless klutz but can paddleboard. This means you all should try it.
10. I’ve always attributed my good taste in friends to the caliber of people my sisters are. Unfortunately, my siblings hate classic films; nobody’s perfect.
11. I think I have Fletch memorized.

Eleven Questions for My Nominees
1-5. What’s your favorite movie when you’re feeling:
*Blue?
*Angry?
*Nostalgic?
*Giddy?
*Undercaffeinated? Why (for any/all of the above)? Do they help you get over the mood, or intensify it?
6. What invention in your lifetime has affected you the most?
7. Which actor or actress (the performer/character he/she plays) would make the best superhero in your estimation? Why?
8. Which classic movie character would you ask romantic advice?
9. Which movie character (classic/current) would give you terrible advice about everything?
10. Which literary/movie character would you ask to help you with your least favorite errand?
11. Which actor/actress are you surprised you like? Why?