Chalk another one up for Frank Capra. He's one of the few directors able to manipulate my emotions to the point of agony. Every time I watch It's a Wonderful Life I can feel my agitation grow; my palms get sweaty and I'm filled with a sense of dread as I await the scene where George Bailey's Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) will lose the savings & loan's money and it winds up in Mr. Potter's evil hands. It's always been a source of aggravation to me, but George Bailey is "the richest man in town", so I guess if they can forgive and forget, then so can I. No hard feelings, Uncle Billy. Besides, we can always depend on the our banks to keep our money safe, right? BTW, Thomas Mitchell has managed to irritate me in two classic movies. He also made me resentful of him in High Noon, where Mitchell played the mayor of Hadleyville, and he practically talks the churchgoers out of helping Gary Cooper's desperate Marshal Will Kane. But then again, if Mitchell's characters don't do the things they're supposed to do, we don't get two of the greatest movies ever made.
"Who Cares?" Dept: Hollywood Dreamland has a new computer and after getting used to its quirks, I can say that we are back on track. So no more blogging at work with my head on a swivel. Maybe I can even edit the text before posting! Nothing's worse than knowing that my fellow bloggers will see the numerous sentence fragments, misspellings, and hastily cut and pasted text while I'm "distracted" by my job.
I hope that everyone will have a grand olde Christmas and that your gifts will include some classic movie DVDs. I can't imagine the day without at least one of my cinematic heroes or heroines staring back at me from the DVD box!
Merry Christmas!
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