Favorite movies

Carly

I don’t think I even knew there was such a thing as a color movie until I was in junior high. OK. That may be a slight exaggeration. But, to be honest, other than cartoons, most of what I watched as a child was in black and white. Growing up in Alaska, we didn’t have regular television stations, so videos were our main form of entertainment. Of course we had the requisite Disney flicks. Among my faves were “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella” and later “Beauty and the Beast” and the “Little Mermaid.” I hated “Snow White” and “Bambi” and “Dumbo” were just too sad for my young sensitive soul. But, those movies were not the ones that I wore through.

Nope, as a child I was more apt to throw in an old Cary Grant or Gene Kelly movie than any cartoon. Wierd, right? I loved “Singing in the Rain” and “New York, New York.” But those are classics; everyone loves those. I was also infatuated with movies that were probably popular at their time  — 25 years before I was born — but not much later. I watched Doris Day movies like “Glass Bottom Boat” over and over again. I loved “Cheaper by the Dozen. I adored actresses like Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.

But the movie that I quite literally wore through so that my mother had to buy me another copy was “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” I can’t explain it. I loved it. I don’t honestly know another person who’s even seen it. But I love love loved it. It’s the sort of movie I would fast forward (at a time when we actually fast forwarded) to different spots each time I put it in the VCR because it didn’t matter where I picked it up. I wish I had a copy now.

It’s funny how we get so attached to movies, and how they end up representing our childhood. Some of the people I spoke with at the theatre had a hard time coming up with a movie at first. Not because they didn’t have a favorite, but because they had so many.