Quiz 6

A buddy asked me to do a quiz on John Wayne.  He's betting he can answer 'em all.  (Actually, I think this is one of the easier quizzes I've done.)  Let's see how you do.

The Directors: Peter Weir

It was in the late seventies that I bumped up against the Aussie film industry.  I had been and remain pretty snooty about my American films but there was room for more.  Hadn't I already seriously embraced British films well before that time and some French films too?  What I had known about Aussies focused mainly on Rod Taylor, who had become pretty identified with America, or Peter Finch, who I actually thought was British. 

REVIEW: The East

 

Directed by Zal Batmanglij
2013 Drama
1 hour 54 minutes
From Fox Searchlight

Starring
Brit Marling
Alexander Skarsgård
Ellen Page
Toby Kebbell
Shiloh Fernandez
Patricia Clarkson
Julia Ormond
Jason Ritter
Jamey Sheridan
Pamela Roylance

MGMs Sopranos I

When Leo the Lion stopped roaring at the beginning of an MGM film, that lovely soprano voice often heard from the mid-forties to the early fifties likely belonged to Kathryn Grayson.  It signaled the beginning of a light musical, one that wasn't too taxing on a weary brain and one that could allow you to forget all your troubles for about two hours.

REVIEW: Man of Steel

Directed by Zack Snyder
2013 Action Fantasy
2 hours 23 minutes
From Warner Bros. and
Legendary Pictures

Starring
Henry Cavill
Amy Adams
Michael Shannon
Laurence Fishburne
Antje Traue
Christopher Meloni
Diane Lane
Kevin Costner
Russell Crowe

The Caddy

When I moved with my family to Los Angeles in the mid-50s, they only knew two couples. One was an old Navy buddy of my father's with whom we stayed in Woodland Hills. The other was someone a great aunt of mine had known by the name of Rudy Rauschkalb. Naturally being new to California, my folks wanted to connect with others they had known in Illinois.

The Quintessential Disney Mother

Lovely Dorothy McGuire is the only actress to show up in three of my 50 Favorite Movies... A Summer Place, Old Yeller and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.  While I loved those stories and likely still would have had she not been in them, there is no doubt that she added immensely to my delight at seeing them.  The truth is she really turned me on.  No, no, not that way but her presence I always found luminous.  She had such a kind face and spoke so softly and with such care and concern that I always thought she was speaking to only me.  I never caught her acting.

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: Favorite Movie #11

1960 Drama
From Warner Bros.
Directed by Delbert Mann

Starring
Robert Preston
Dorothy McGuire
Shirley Knight
Eve Arden
Angela Lansbury
Lee Kinsolving
Frank Overton
Robert Eyer