When I Was A Kid

At the Movie Addicts group on LinkedIn, someone asked, What were some of your favorite movies when you were a kid?

When I think back to my kid days, the late 1950's to early 1960's, I was truly a movie (and TV) addict, watching just about everything that the New York stations had to broadcast, especially channels 5, 9 and 11.

I loved anything having to do with horror, ghosts, sci fi, adventure...you name it. And classic comedy, especially Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, even the Bowery Boys.

So here are some of the films that really resonated with me when I was a kid:

- The March of the Wooden Soldiers. To this day, I can sit and watch this timeless classic comedy with Laurel & Hardy and still laugh my butt off over their old jokes ("Good night, Ollie.")

- Mighty Joe Young. I still choke up during the climactic fire rescue scene.

- King Kong. A classic of cinema, period.

- The Wizard of Oz. Ditto my last comment. One of the top ten films of all time.

- The Time Machine starring Rod Taylor, with its excellent music score by Russell Garcia.

- Jason and the Argonauts. For mythic adventure and strange creatures, this one has it all, courtesy of animation master Ray Harryhausen and composer Bernard Herrmann.

- The Day the Earth Stood Still. When Patricia Neal approaches Gort the giant robot, to stop it before it destroys the Earth by saying "Klaatu barata nikto," you have one of the most terrifying moments in film history. Plus score by Bernard Herrmann.

- Hold That Ghost. One of Abbott and Costello's early efforts has gangsters, ghosts, and the Andrew Sisters!

- The Magnificent Seven. What a cast. What a story. What music (by Elmer Bernstein)

- Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Maybe the best mix of comedy and horror ever. And the score by Frank Skinner is a favorite.

And one more I just remembered:

- The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. A Czech film with striking visuals that look like drawings come to life.

Posted by Terrence Seamon, July 10, 2010