Coming Soon to a Computer Near You

In response to many of your e-mails, I am going to try a new weekly feature here starting tomorrow. From my various movie commentaries on this blog, more than one of you (that's a lot in my book) have asked me to compile a list of my Top 25 personal favorite movies. Not sure why anybody would care, but it was actually tons of fun for me to sit down and rate some of my favorite cinematic pleasures.

So, I will start to count them down one per week, starting at #25. What constitutes a favorite movie in my lexicon? Well, it's a film that I visit regularly. Like meat loaf and gravy on a winter's day, these are movies that are visual comfort food for me. Movies that I watch to re-experience the exhileration of seeing them for the first time or the seventeenth time. Films that, despite repeated viewings, I still find something new in with each successive viewing.

I will detail each film's place in my life. More than just a discussion of the movie, I will recount the reasons why it holds a special place on my mental shelf. In this case, it will be more than just the actor, the director, or the story that moves me. It will be all about the complete cinematic experience and how these movies came to be the warm sweater in my closet.

I'm looking at the complete list right now and I can give you these sneak previews.
There is only one movie on the list that was made after 1975.

There is one silent movie.

There is one Woody Allen movie, but not one you would expect.

There are six musicals among the top 25.

There are seven movies that won the Best Picture Academy Award.

There is one movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

There are two movies directed by William Wyler.

There are three movies written and directed by Billy Wilder.

There are two movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

There is one movie that features James Cagney and another with Ann-Margret.

There is one film with Hattie McDaniel playing a maid and it is not "Gone With the Wind."

There are no cartoons listed nor any Star Wars movies.

There is surprisingly not one single entry produced by Walt Disney.

The only stars that show up more than once on the list are Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray, Rock Hudson and Cyd Charisse.

In breakdown by decade, there are two movies from the 1930s, 6 movies from the 1940s, eleven films from the 1950s, three pictures from the 1960s, two movies from the 1970s, and one from the Eighties.

And that's all you get for now.

Tomorrow, we start with #25.

Dinner last night: German cervelat sandwich with German potato salad.