I think you will, though I know what you mean about being pre-conditioned to dislike a movie.

Watch it in the dead of winter as opposed to on St. Patrick's Day. And focus on O'Hara, not Wayne. That may help.

That provides much of The Quiet Man's charm; if you thought the Emerald City was green, wait until you see John Ford's Emerald Isle. 

And as the Emerald City is a dreamlike version of 1930's Hollywood, Ford's Ireland is a dreamlike version of Ireland. Think Doc Martin's Portwenn, if you know that series.

1936 nominees for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject.



The Country Cousin, Walt Disney Studios. Director: Wilfred Jackson. Producer: Walt Disney.

Disney's Silly Symphonies gives us another adaptation of an Aesop's Fable, this time of The Village Mouse and the Country Mouse.  Our country protagonist gets a telegram telling him to come visit his city relative and have a good time.  But as soon as he gets there we can see something is amiss.  Regardless we are treated to a great mouse-eye view of a well set table, and the typical food shenanigans ensue, including our country cousin getting soused.  Of course the down side of the City is there's a cat in the house that takes umbrage at the mice and ultimately the country mouse is out in the city and on his way home. 

This was another outing for the animators to work out kinks on the way to Snow White.  This time around it was working on the characterization of the animated characters.  This is a cute and pretty funny film, but there's nothing ground-breaking here. 






The Old Mill Pond.  Harmon-Ising Productions.  Directed by Hugh Harmon.  Produced by Harmon & Ising.  

This is less a story and more an animated music video.  Set at the mill pond and populated mostly by frogs this is essentially a night at The Cotton Club complete with caricatures of Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, The Mills Brothers, Ethel Waters, Bojangles Robinson and (sigh) Stepin' Fetchit.  As such we get both the good (the music) and the bad (the racism) of the era and the venue.  For what it is, this is a pretty good short.  But what it is, isn't nearly as compelling as a lot of other shorts in 1936.  







Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor.  Fleischer Studios.  Directed by Dave Fleischer.  Produced by Max Fleischer.  

Throughout the 30s, the Popeye cartoons were the funniest series of cartoon shorts.  Disney was king and the Disney studios' films were beautiful and always on the cutting edge technologically.  Warner Brothers' Merry Melodies were desperately trying (and failing) to be Disney throughout most of the decade while the Looney Tunes were almost never interesting until Tex Avery came on board in 1936.  Harmon-Ising could sometimes push Disney but almost never surpassed them.  Everyone else was an also-ran.  But the Fleischer studios Popeye cartoons were always funny and were innovative within the framework of the Popeye, Olive and Bluto triangle, with innovative settings and some top-notch technical animation.

This film was a pretty big departure for the studio.  A three-strip technicolor two-reeler with a story-line that could have been pulled from E.C. Segar's daily comic strip.  The Popeye comic strip was frequently a globe-spanning adventure strip mixed with a huge dose of humor.  Until this film the Popeye cartoons had been more like a gag-a-day strip.  This one told the world that the Fleischer Studio was fully capable of competing with Disney on the lushness and quality of color animation and was, as of 1936, a half step beyond on longer more fully realized stories.  Of course that would all change a year later with a Snow White.  




So did they get it right?  Oh Hell to the No!  Popeye Meets Sinbad is unquestionably the best animated short of 1936.  And between the three actual nominees it's not even close.  Neither of the other two are anywhere close when it comes to story or to technical innovation.  The Country Cousin wasn't even the most interesting film that Disney put out in 1936.  Thru The Mirror is arguably the best solo Mickey Mouse film ever. Mickey's dream trip beyond his bedroom mirror is a hilarious and technically brilliant outing for the little fellow.  If you don't want your mouse solo Moving Day uses Mickey, Goofy and Donald to great effect in a pretty hilarious film.  Either are far better films than The Old Mill Pond.  For that matter so is I Wanna Singa, Tex Avery's sixth time directing and his first truly successful short film.  

Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Academy Award for Best Screenplay -- nominated





I absolutely get both why this was nominated for best screenplay and why it didn't have a prayer of winning. Wes Anderson's style is a pretty difficult one to grasp, even if you love his films. His odd mix of deadpan humor and serious emotion, arbitrary details and subtle symbolism are hard enough to grasp once the thing has been filmed and edited. Without the help of visuals, music, and pacing, it's an odd mess that could arguably be seen as brilliant and meticulous, careless and clumsy, or anything in between. I love this film, but I'm frankly amazed it was nominated for this award and not for best cinematography, or even best picture.

Winner, winner, left over turkey dinner! Egads! I really didn't have a chance for much movie watching in November with training not 1,  but 2 new hires this month. I did truly enjoy what I was able to watch though and surprised at my win. So then, without further ado,  shall we call December: 'Tis the Season! Any movies touched with a bit of Christmas delight within their story may qualify! So now you can dig out your classic seasonal treasures like White Christmas and A Christmas Carol, or indulge in some comedic joys like Jingle all the Way or Planes, Trains and Automobiles or you can share some good cries with endless Hallmark Channel holiday movie viewings.

Pour up a cup of hot cocoa or tea, sit back with some chocolate covered pretzels or peppermint bark and let the Christmas cheer flow...

Sure do. See if you can dig up a Kwanza film for extra points!

I might come up with a big zero for this one, since I'm not a great fan of Christmas movies in general and the handful that I do like I don't feel like re-watching right now. However, I'll be home for Christmas again this year so it's possible I might see something that my mother has playing on the tv set.

My goal for this month will be to find something that can reasonably be called a Christmas movie and that I really do want to watch, not just something I can put up with for the sake of not posting a zero. Also, hopefully, something I haven't seen before.