Movie stars (of all silly things)

Archive: Watching

Until I started living with Charles the only mainstream movies that I?’d watched since childhood were the ones featuring vampires or hateful aliens (no patience for anything of the ET ilk). My knowledge of Hollywood?’s most glittering was close to nil.

I?’ve never been able to remember the difference between Rob Low(e?) and Matthew Broderick. A couple of months ago I learned that Conan O?’Brien isn?’t Dennis Miller, and it was only yesterday I discerned that the latter isn?’t Dennis Leary.

Over the last few months it has become clear to me that people are looking for Carmen Diaz for different reasons than the search for Carmen Sandiego. Even though I?’ve seen the former in two movies I don?’t have any idea what she looks like. At least with Angelina Jollie, having watched part of Tomb Raider I feel that I can at least recognize her breasts if they knocked at my door.

Growing up watching AIP and Hammer movies people like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were the actors I knew best. And the folks on TV: Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Elizabeth Montgomery. While I didn?’t know the names of folks like Jesse White who appeared in hundreds of episodes of TV shows in the 60s a glimpse of one that I haven?’t seen for years always rewards me with a flush of nostalgia.

In the 80?’s I got a TV and cable and became the fan of actors, actresses, directors and scriptwriters long dead. Often actors with all too short careers. Marion Davies time in talkies was too short. The Seven Year Itch and The Girl Can?’t Help It made me a Tom Ewell fan but illness and drink put an early end to his career.

There are plenty of famous names from early movies I?’ve grown fond of but often it is the bit players that cheer me: Edward Arnold, Edward Everett Horton, Alan Jenkins (all under contract to Warner Bros. I think).

There are a few modern folk whose work I enjoy: Reese Withspoon, Lisa Kudrow even if many of her movies are uneven.

Hugh Grant I like a lot. His manner can save even an awful script. I can easily imagine being a kid and wanting to grow up with such reserves of affability and charm.

Today?’s film stars have more power and wealth than their predecessors. But they may leave much less to posterity. How many Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant movies would?’ve gone unmade if they hadn?’t been under contract?