I am making my silly Movie Google Docs semi-public if anyone wants some structure to a movie watching project. Of course just watching what is comfortable is always a great choice. This messy spreadsheet documents Oscar nominees for several years and which ones I watched and then has a tab with 1971-2017 Best Picture nominees and then another tab with 1970 - 2001 10 highest grossing films per year.

[link]

I've been wondering if we should do some sort of group watch thing.

In theory I'm still doing my Century Plus of Cinema project, but it stalled somewhat due to my work schedule in February and now, with the Math Greek here, it is not really feasible to be mainlining silent movies from the 1910s and 20s. (In fact, he has a maddening tendency to want to watch things that are not part of the plan, or freely available, at all.)

Right now, I'm trying to keep us focused on what is expiring from Criterion at the end of the month, which is mostly the Burt Lancaster and Danny Kaye collections. The Court Jester anyone?

yeay, verily, yeay

Group watch sounds fun

Burt Lancaster? Is Trapeze available?

Burt and Tony Curtis play a team of trapeze artists -- and then along comes Gina Lollobrigida. Incredibly strong HoYay for a 1950s movie, even if it's all subtext.

Incredibly strong HoYay for a 1950s movie, even if it's all subtext.

See also: Burt and Tony Curtis in "The Sweet Smell of Success".

Match me, Sidney.

Is Trapeze available?

Sadly, no, because it sounds like I might need to see that. Of the ones we hadn't yet seen (there are 18 films total in the collection and I think we've seen about half), we've only watched Elmer Gantry. Next up is likely The Professionals (my choice) or Birdman of Alcatraz (the MG's choice). Then maybe The Rainmaker. But The Court Jester before that I think.

If it was up to me, we would burn through most of both collections before they go away on the 31st, but, like I said, the MG is maddening in his tendency to choose things other than what is RIGHT THERE and EXPIRING (e.g., we paid to watch The Eyes of Laura Mars on Amazon Prime last night). And we do try to alternate picks to be fair since I have apparently become my father.

The Rainmaker is excellent - with bonus Katherine Hepburn. If you want to go for some early, very cheesy Burt Lancaster, see The Crimson Pirate and The Flame and the Arrow. Both have Nick Cravat - Lancaster's friend from childhood - they ran away and joined the circus together, which meant they did a lot of their own stunts.

I haven't opened the Criterion app for weeks, but I did yesterday and they put Local Hero on the service! I haven't seen it in decades but it seems like a perfect type of movie to group-watch in a time like this. To keep with the theme, Burt Lancaster is in it, I believe.

He is!