1. Charlie Chaplin was British.
2. Flickering lights, shirtless dudes laboring, and sweaty sluts: every Hollywood rendition of hell before 1960 looks exactly like a rave and there is no way I can keep a straight face for that crap.
3. I have not seen so much as a clip of Webster for at least 10 years and yet the barest glimpse of Alex Karras in a movie and I automatically think, hey, Webster's dad. That's in my stupid brain. Also, I had to look up his name just now but I did not have to look up "George Papadopolis." Disappointing.
4. It amazes me that there was a year when It's a Wonderful Life and The Best Years of Our Lives were in theaters within a month of each other. They were brand-new and people knew about them and talked about them, hey did you see the new Jimmy Stewart movie? I can't really explain, I guess, why this idea tickles me so much.
Anyway if you have not seen It's a Wonderful Life, what the hell are you doing, it is great. The Best Years of Our Lives, I had never even heard of until I found out it totally nabbed Best Picture from It's a Wonderful Life. So I watched it and figured out why: it is fucking incredible. For instance the kid with hooks for hands, who was injured during a training exercise? Was played by a kid with hooks for hands who was injured during a training exercise. Not an actor, an actual kid from the actual war, which ended the year before this movie came out. It follows three servicemen and shows how hard it is for them to acclimate to nonmilitary life after being in battle. It is moving in unexpected ways and it knocked me absolutely on my ass. If you see it, please tell me.
