Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Homo Box Office

Well, that didn't take long. "In Bruges" arrived on schedule midweek but we never got around to watching it. (You may recall that I signed up for the one-at-a-time plan because we're not the "movie-renting type," but was hoping to at least watch one a week.) I ended up working Thursday (one of my usual nights off) and then Michael's upstairs neighbor flooded the bathroom AGAIN and all hell broke loose. (The guy's being evicted and now contractors are coming to repair Mikey's ceiling all over again -- and then some.)

Despite this minor setback, I have come up with a few more titles for my queue. My brother tells me the documentary about the legendary New York diner Shopsins, "I Like Killing Flies," is available (ADDED IT). And my friend Greg's recent interview with Cameron Mathison about "54" reminded me that I'd never seen that one. (It was considered a disappointment, but I'm still curious.) My friend Mary saw the font documentary "Helvetica" and said it was worth a look, so I added that one, too.

Then I got in the mood for a classic, but no matter how hard I looked for Hitchcock's 1940 Laurence Olivier-Joan Fontaine classic, "Rebekah," I just couldn't find it. Ditto for the Shirley Temple musical comedy, "Rebekah of Sunnybrook Farm." Two great films I was dying to see but struck out on. Guess Netflix isn't what it's cracked up to be after all.

11 comments:

Brent said...

Um, why are you spelling the biblical way? "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" is there and it looks like "Rebecca" will be added so you can save it to your queue; you'll get it when it becomes available.

Anonymous said...

Kenneth, both movies are available on netflix - use the spelling Rebecca in the titles. When you cannot find movies by title, trying searching by an actor's name. A misspelled word or even an accent mark in the title can be problematic.

Enjoy the movies! Maybe, Netflix is all that.

Anonymous said...

Is that a joke? I had no trouble a moment ago finding "Rebecca" on Netflix.

Anonymous said...

Well you might have found them if you tried searching for "Rebecca".

Charles Lambert said...

Wait a minute. You did find it! I may be missing something here...

Charles Lambert said...

It's OK, I'm reading your posts backwards. I now understand everything and feel very small, and stupid.

Anonymous said...

"Rebekah of Sunnybrook Farm", eh? Ha, ha, ha... Well, I suppose if Shirley Temple didn't spell it that way, it must be wrong!

I might point out that the translations into English of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures -- and then the reclamation of certain Biblical spellings (Rebekah, Yeshua for Joshua and Jesus, etc.) might be seen seminal over and against the film industry's sometimes tortured orthography - but I'd be wasting my time, I suppose!

Hurts to have your horizons broadened, but you'll thank us later. Before you know it, you might even have a decent "Jew-dar" for a boy from the desert Southwest. When you can ask for a schmear with your bagel and not a smear, then you'll know you're a New Yorker!

Anonymous said...

Netflix has "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (note the spelling) and "Rebecca" (1940) (spelling again).

Dang english language.

Danny in WeHo said...

To quote my friend, Dennis Hensley's favorite retort slung at him, "You obviously haven't been reading my blog!"

southernfriedjordan said...

pay attention, people

Richard Wall said...

No one should watch ANY Shirley Temple eexcept maybe "LIttle Miss Broadway" (which could also me my life story!!).

Like my new photo?