I think I've talked about my Wise affection before when he died, but he also did the classic noir The Set-up (boxing film with Robert Ryan) and the very cool, yet little known noir-western Blood on the Moon (which we jokingly called Plaid on the Moon around my house because of certain costuming decisions).

Oddly, despite the number of stone classics he worked on as director or editor, he was frequently dissed by cinephiles. He was seen as a studio hack -- plus they wouldn't forgive him for Sound of Music.

The Cultural Attache at the embassy in Athens, that is, the man responsible for promoting American culture overseas, deemed The Haunting "the worst movie I have ever seen."

If he was talking about the Jan DeBont remake, he's not too far off the mark. In and of itself it's a wretched movie; as a version of the novel or even as just a remake of the Wise version, it's a crime against humanity (especially since they had a cast that could have easily pulled off a REAL version of the story).

Wise also did West Side Story, which had that brilliant opening shot of zooming in from above to the closeup of the Jets on the playground.

The Haunting is a nearly perfect movie in every way. ETA And I do mean the Robert Wise version. The remake was execrable.

Another strong contender is Rosemary's Baby, which is so true to the novel, it's a little freaky. (It's also one of my favorite books, so I may be biased.) I will say, though, that much as I like Mia Farrow, she wouldn't have been my first choice for Rosemary, since R. was supposed to be Midwestern to the bone and Mia Farrow came across as a bit too cosmopolitan.

Another strong contender is Rosemary's Baby, which is so true to the novel, it's a little freaky.

Heh. I heard that the reason for that is because it was Polanski's first attempt at adapting someone else's work and he didn't realize you didn't necessarily stay that close to a novel.

Movies I've seen a lot and still watch fairly regularly: Miller's Crossing, Batman Returns, Donnie Darko, Unforgiven, Yankee Doodle Dandy. ("One of these things is not like the others...")

Movies I've probably seen as many times, but not in the past decade: Back to the Future, Aliens, original flavor Star Wars, Bladerunner, Heathers, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Runners-up: Tapeheads, Casablanca, Star Trek 2, Buckaroo Bonzai, A Fish Called Wanda, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Shadow of a Doubt.

It occurs to me that I've seen The Secret of My Success an unholy amount of times.

I've watched The Haunting (the Wise version), The Day The Earth Stood Still, and Nosferatu quite a number of times, too.

Now that it's been more than ten years, can I expunge the near-daily viewings of Encino Man from my record?

Someone needs to check the rule book for Jesse.