Whenever I hear about the story, I think of that Conan O'Brien "In the Year 2000" bit where they say Central Park is reopened to the public for the first time after the Pocahontas Riots of 1995.

Well, there were some darker hints.

Oh yeah, definitely. But you start out thinking, "Well, I *know* she's trouble" and then find out that maybe she isn't. I dimly remember being most annoyed by all the adults who wouldn't just let the kid play by herself. "She's just an introvert; it's not a psychological problem you need to fix!"

...I may have been projecting a little bit.

Guess what I got for xmas.

Taunter.

I love The Magnificient Ambersons. I think I feel more affection for flawed masterpieces, because then there's something to talk about. I don't care for the Sound of Music, but I don't hold a grudge against Wise for that. Anyway, The Set-Up has been added to my queue. They don't have Blood on the Moon. I'm being deprived of Robert Mitchum. Unfair!

I'm a big ol' Sound of Music sap! Love the music, love the scenery, love the characters of Max and the Baroness, love Julie Andrews.

I think I feel more affection for flawed masterpieces, because then there's something to talk about.

Strangely enough, in a painful deathmatch on my music geek forum over favored movies, this is the same justification many people stated when voting for The Wild Bunch over The Rules Of The Game.

I blame To Kill a Mockingbird for my long-held and completely inaccurate impression of Gregory Peck as fatherly. (In the best sense, but, fatherly.)

I credit Duel in the Sun as the movie that opened my eyes as to the hotness, dangerousness, and massive sexual magnetism that is also Gergory Peck.

So sorry, Greg! It wasn't till I was 19 that I was able to think of you outside of the context of a collared sweater!!

They don't have Blood on the Moon. I'm being deprived of Robert Mitchum. Unfair!

Totally unfair! Blood on the Moon is coooool. It's super moody and noir - on the short list of 10 Noir Western it's #1 or 2. Also, there's much plaid. Also, Robert Preston is a sinister bad cowboy and there's a big, violent brawl between him and Mitchum. That's right, it's the Music Man vs. Max Cady, and one of them is wearing plaid.

Okay, it's a little slashy too.

Mitchum is just a wee bit handsome all scruffed up.

For Nutty, Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun.

Peck attempts the rare and difficult to master doorframe slounge.

I'm a big ol' Sound of Music sap

Oh, I don't think it's a bad movie. I'm just not big on musicals.

Mitchum is just a wee bit handsome all scruffed up.

Well, yeah. So few men can look wry and sleepy at the same time.

I grew up with musicals! In addition to the last vestiges of Hollywood big-screen attempts in the genre (the first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Sound of Music, in the now-long-defunct Princess Theater in downtown Joliet during its second or third run in the early 1970s), not getting a VCR or cable until sometime in high school meant that afterschool TV viewing was a lot of old-time musicals, Three Stooges and Our Gang comedy shorts, and reruns of The Mickey Mouse Club. A big part of my New Years Eve babysitting gigs in junior high was the Astaire/Rogers movies that the local PBS station always showed.

I seem to deal best with musicals if they're either completely surreal or completely... not. Sunday in the Park with George is fine, Yankee Doodle Dandy is fine. It's when they alternate between real and surreal that I get thrown.