North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock in 1959 – I was just 10 years old, a lot of the sexual banter went over my head. But even as kid – I immediately understood why Roger O Thornhill (ROT – a joke I missed back then) was disrupting the art auction so he could get out of the auction alive by being arrested. On top of all that – we saw this movie at Radio City Music Hall in New York – which at the time must have been the biggest theater in the whole country.

The second one was Lawrence of Arabia (1962)- we also saw that film at Radio City Music Hall. The scope of that film was beyond anything else I had seen before it.

Though I first saw those films almost 50 years ago.It was a huge event for us to go to a movie in New York City as we lived 40 miles a way. I still recall them so clearly.

In fact, nowadays the impact of those films still reverberates. I now have my own blog in which I wrote about those films.

JustMeMike

Dad took my sister and I to see “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in the 60s (love those re-releases). As the Queen begins her transformation into the witch he said clearly and loudly “Isn’t she a bastard!”. We wanted to die! It’s a favourite memory.

I’m proud to say that my parents are huge fans of TCM and still hit the movie theaters often, so in that sense we certainly have some common ground. But when I think back on the nunsploitation film I saw last week, which featured an unfortunate convent dweller in full habit having her entrails fed to a demon coming out of a vagina-like opening in the cave wall, then I’m guessing the answer would be “not so much.”

This was very amusing to read about, though I suspect that some of these experiences marked you for life–in a good way, of course. Well written, and I absolutely loved that photo.

My dad was more than capable of being “bad cop” to my mom’s “good cop” when required, but it sounds like yours went too far. Thank goodness your mother was more supportive of your passions. As a Humanities and Film double-major at the university I got more than my share of ridicule from many people who also thought such knowledge was worthless, but my parents were never anything but supportive.

Last night I screened THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON to my parents, which ended up being an ironic choice for Father’s Day because the first father never recovers from the tragedy of losing his son to WWI and disappears, the second father abandons his son (almost drowning him first), and then… well, I don’t want to give out any spoilers, so let’s just say that abandonment seems to be an ongoing theme.

Thanks for sharing your story, and I’m also glad to hear you can learn from other people’s mistakes (lung cancer is no fun way to go).

Movies and my father? Two memories stand out.

We were killing time and my father took me, a youngster, to the cinema. I missed a plot point and asked him about it. He screamed at me to shut up and said I was making him miss the movie.
Another memory? When I went to college (on the G.I. Bill) and I was living at home, he ridiculed me for buying books about movies and becoming knowledgable on the subject. He said such knowledge was worthless. (Of course, I know thats not true.)

I probably wouldn’t have shared this if I hadn’t written in to you guys so many times on so many subjects.
By the way, my mother was great! She was the movie lover. We moved to the neighborhood we did because there was a theater nearby. Of course, it closed two years later. When I was little, she took me to see “The Wild One” and “Long Long Trailer,” among other movies.

Both my parents died over 30 years ago from lung cancer. They were heavy smokers. I have never smoked.
So, I envy you your happy memories and wish you and your dad well.