Citizen Kane Minute #6 – I’ll Have To Close This Place in 60 Years

6 responses to “Citizen Kane Minute #6 – I’ll Have To Close This Place in 60 Years”

1. I greatly enjoyed the discussion about how some younger people look at “old” black and white films. I work with a 25 year-old co-worker who refuses to watch any movie older than she is. I have chastised her for being so close-minded. Luckily I, and a lot of the geeks I know, have raised our kids to appreciate older films, mostly though genre films. In particular the Universal Monster films are probably the oldest films my kids have watched and rewatched repeatedly.

   I have never understood others’ desires to tear something great down, just because they are tired of it being “great”. Sure, you can think something is overrated, you have a right to that opinion. But to be gleeful over something being toppled like that…well, thats just petty.

   Chris

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2. I don’t think it was mentioned in this installment, but the talk about “old” movies reminded me of the line from “Captain America: Civil War”, where Spider-Man said that his idea for taking down Giant-Man was inspired by that “old” movie, “The Empire Strikes Back”.

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3. Rob mentioned Rod Serling’s “Patterns” which started out as a live TV drama. It’s well worth watching as an indictment of the capitalist system. Everett Sloane is terrific.

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4. Here is Joseph Cotten at the AFI salute thanking Welles for changing his life.

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5. Another great episode. Rob, you referred to someone who wouldn’t watch The Godfather because it’s an “old movie.” A story…

   About five years ago, I met a a young guy, probably no older than 25. And he did what people (too) often do when I tell them I run a trivia business: He asked me to ask him a trivia question. And as I always do when I get this annoyingly open-ended request, I asked him for a topic. He said, “Movies. I’m the master of movie trivia.”

   So I asked him, “What’s the only specific role for which two different actors have won Academy Awards for portraying?” (Yes, I know, there is now a second valid answer.)

   He puzzled it over it for five or so minutes before giving up and asking me to reveal the answer. I told him, “Don Coreleone.” He asked what movie that was from. I looked at him, amazed, and said, “The Godfather. Marlon Brando in the original, Robert De Niro in the sequel.”

   And he—the self-proclaimed “master of movie trivia”— said, “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of The Godfather.” And walked away.

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6. I have really been digging this podcast! I haven’t seen the film in quite a while, but each of the scenes you describe are instantly, indelibly recalled! Regarding the “old movies” discussion, I have two things. First, on a recent Power Records podcast, Rob asked Chris if he had had a black and white T.V. On this podcast, Rob and Josh discussed the strangeness of non-color video of recent generations. I am less than 10 years older than Rob. We did not have a color television in our house until I was in high school. (It was such a treat to visit the grandparents’ and other friends who had color T.V!) Every movie I saw on T.V. was in black and white! Most of the stuff that was shown on the tube, not the new network stuff but the bulk of UHF programming, was old B & W movies and T.V. shows. The Universal catalog, Abbot and Costello, Bowery Boys/Dead End Kids, all the cheapie Columbia pictures, the westerns, the war movies, Dick van Dyke, Bilko, I Love Lucy, Our Gang, Stooges, Gilligan, Twilight Zone, etc. I guess mine was the last generation that was used to it. The second thing is I want to boast about my daughter. We have raised her to have a love of old movies. It is no exaggeration that for at least the last three years, the only reason she gets out of bed on Sunday morning before 10 am is to watch Noir Alley on TCM. Just yesterday she found a raincoat that looks like a Humphrey Bogart raincoat, at a church yard sale, and she was so happy! The torch may be dimmed, but is is being passed on!

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