DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939)o o

[Bill Anderson]

Here we are: another weekend, another lesson in movie appreciation for the
18-year-old.

Last weekend didn’t go so well. I do my best to pick not necessarily
“classic“ movies so much as movies everybody of my generation has seen,
movies that might conceivably come up in everyday conversation. Once I
tried to show him BLAZING SADDLES and we didn’t get very far into it before
he became extremely offended by use of the N-word and I had to turn it off.
I certainly couldn’t justify it to him at his age. Maybe in a few years
Irony will be easier for him to handle. Last week I thought I had picked
something he would love, something right up his alley: FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY
OFF. Remember, my objective is not to pick “great“ movies; merely movies
that are notable enough that a movie aficionado should want to know about
them. It turned out that a snarky comedy about an 18-year-old high school
senior skipping school maybe hit a little too close to home for him.
Whatever, he was having none of it and we had to turn it off. It’s always
possible he has even better taste than I give him credit for.

This week I went back to the classics and had far greater success. He loved
every minute of DESTRY. Jimmy Stewart looked familiar to him: “I’ve seen
that guy before.“ And then Jimmy Stewart demonstrated his Impossibly
accurate six gun skills and the comment was, “He is great!“ His assessment
of Marlene Dietrich was, “She’s really good but she isn’t actually very
pretty.“ He didn’t enjoy “See what the Boys in the Back Room will Have”
nearly as much as I did, but that’s OK. He’s allowed a mistake now and
then. He was brokenhearted when the sheriff was killed, and I actually
thought he was going to cry when Frenchy got shot. “Is she hit? I can’t see
any blood! Oh no! Is she really going to die?” He was really into the
story. I am beginning to think the boy instinctively knows the difference
between the great movies and the lesser ones.

After it was all over and he was headed off to the computer to play his
games, I just happened to have a poster of Citizen Kane displayed on the TV
because I am considering it for next week. When he walked by he froze and
said in awe, “That’s the dude: Harry Lime.” He’s learning.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog

[moviePig]

Fwiw, I think an appreciation of CK requires some cinematic scholarship.
(An oldie that holds up against successors is NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.)

[Bill Anderson]

Good suggestion. I am still on the fence about Citizen Kane.

[gtr]

Agreed!