Here are the movies I've watched on the boob tube during the third quarter of 2012. I know Citizen Kane has been at the top of a number of Best Movie lists, but I can't jump on board that train. The two movies below which I've graded "A" (Bonnie & Clyde and The Sting) I have seen before, and still found them worthy, whereas Dark Passage and The Great Escape did not quite strike me as being as good as I recall from viewings long ago.
1. Bonnie & Clyde (1967 drama; Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway go on a bank robbing crime spree in the 1930s, becoming folk heroes even though they are murderers) A
2. Citizen Kane (1941 drama; Orson Welles is a multi-millionaire narcissist who owns an empire of newspapers) B
3. Dark Passage (1947 drama; Convicted killer Humphrey Bogart escapes from San Quentin, evades the cops with Lauren Bacall's help, undergoes facial plastic surgery, and works to find the real killer) B-
4. The Days Of Wine And Roses (1962 drama; Jack Lemon and Lee Remick can't lay off the booze, and that spells trouble) A-
5. The Great Escape (1963 war drama; Richard Attenborough masterminds an escape plan for dozens of Allied prisoners, including Steve McQueen and James Garner, from a POW camp in Germany) B
6. Lolita (1962 drama; college professor James Mason can't take his eyes off Sue Lyon, the daughter of his landlady, Shelly Winters) B-
7. The Magnificent Seven (1960 western; besieged Mexican villagers hire Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and five other gunmen to help them thwart the band of cutthroat marauders led by Eli Wallach) B
8. The Sting (1973 drama; Paul Newman and Robert Redford, two con artists extraordinaire, seek to avenge the loss of a good friend by pulling The Big Con on the gangster who killed him, Robert Blake) A
9. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 drama; insurance investigator Faye Dunaway figures out that Steve McQueen is the head of a gang that stole $4 million in a bank heist, but will she let her heart get in the way of doing her job?) B+
10. Three Coins In The Fountain (1954 drama; Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara are three secretaries working in Rome who have their hearts set on author Clifton Webb, prince Louis Jourdan and translator Rossano Brazzi, respectively) C+
11. To Have And Have Not (1944 drama; Humphrey Bogart is a professional fisherman on the island of Martinique, pre World War II, who romances singer Lauren Bacall while simultaneously (and reluctantly) agreeing to help the French patriots outsmart the Nazis) A-
12. The White Cliffs Of Dover (1944 drama; American Irene Dunne travels to London, marries English nobleman Alan Marshal who goes off to fight in WW I, and gives birth to a son who ends up fighting in WW II) B
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Only a B for Citizen Kane, ay? This one gets an A from me. I don't remember why, but I do remember watching it in Mr. Bakken's high school film studies class with my buddies Todd Joseph, Andrew M, and The Big Punisher. Nostalgic reasons are enough to give it the high grade for me.
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