# Describe a movie you saw and liked as a kid but can't remember its title **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911 "2014-01-04T23:41:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/423 "2016-02-19T03:54:15Z")
Quote: Originally Posted by Nancie View Post I saw a movie sometime in the 1960’s when I was a kid. I have this vague memory of a father leaving his two children either at the beach or on an island and they are crying. I’m pretty sure they called him papoon. I know this is very vague, but if you can solve this mystery, you’d be my hero. Apparently, this scene made an impression on me, but I’ve never been able to figure out what movie it is from. > [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > Poppi? Yeah that sounds a lot like the Alan Arkin 1969 film _ **“Popi”** _. The synopsis: Abraham (Alan Arkin) is a Puerto Rican single parent with two boys. He is becoming very worried about them living in their run down neighborhood when one day he notices that Cubans who escape are lionized and given exceptional benefits. He thinks up a plot to have his sons washed ashore as cuban immigrants who will be adopted by rich anglos. I vaguely remember seeing this film (I was 8 yrs old) at the Drive In. I probably didn’t stay up for the whole film as those days Drive In’s were great for parents to see films while their kids fell asleep in the back seat. ---
**Author:** ![ultimate11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/49beb7/32.png) [@ultimate11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultimate11)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/424 "2016-02-19T15:19:33Z")
I’m trying to remember this film my father showed to me that I assume was from the mid-to late 80s (if I recall, the film had a somewhat Spaceballs look to it). In one scene, this man enters a tribe and obtains a weapon, walks to a castle to get his wife, capture by an alien king or something (because they got on that planet somehow in the beginning of the film- I forgot how) and during the trip, he encounters some soldiers. He deployes the weapon, and the soldiers, fascinated by it, touches it and vanishes. Because the soldiers are idiots (and don’t know when to _not_ touch it after seeing 10 men die from it), they fall one by one, and the man gets to a castle. What I remember is that this alien dictator or king or something has capture his wife and in preparation for a wedding, kisses the wife in the world’s weirdest kiss. Then there’s this next scene where the man enters the wedding in a Trojan Horse, and the next thing I remember (since I forgot much of the structure anyways), the ending of the movie, the family drives back to earth, flying through the highway like an airplane in their station-wagon or their car or something. That’s all I remember. Anyone can help me out with that? ---
**Author:** ![Orpington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cc9497/32.png) [@Orpington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orpington)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/425 "2016-02-19T18:19:17Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I saw a movie in the mid-1970’s. It was shown in my school, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else. It was in color, and the plot was about Loch Ness (or possibly some lake that was just like it but in the U.S.) which was supposed to have a legendary monster in it. A businessman was buying up land around the loch (lake) and to save their homes or preserve the environment or something, a boy and a girl pretended that they’d seen the monster, which got a lot of publicity. (I don’t think they built a fake monster, I’m a big fan of the book **The Mad Scientists’ Clu** b and would have recognized that plot.) Anyway, the businessman was suspicious, and followed the kids (who were in a rowboat) in a rowboat of his own, and somehow found proof that they were lying. (Maybe they did make a fake monster?) He loudly rejoiced that, “There’s no monster in this lake!” (Or something.) Needless to say, the next shot was of a sea monster angrily lifting up its head from the lake floor, surfacing, and scaring the living daylights out of the businessman. He gave up his plan (don’t think he died) and the day was saved. > > Any ideas? Magic in the Water with Mark Harmon and a very young Joshua Jackson? (Sorry I don’t know how to do links) I saw this a few years ago (on Ion or thistv or something like that) on a sick day and found it charming. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/426 "2016-02-19T18:41:25Z")
> [@Orpington](#): > > Magic in the Water with Mark Harmon and a very young Joshua Jackson? (Sorry I don’t know how to do links) I saw this a few years ago (on Ion or thistv or something like that) on a sick day and found it charming. Sorry, this is from 1995, and I saw the movie I’m asking about in the 1970’s. Thanks anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Orpington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cc9497/32.png) [@Orpington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orpington)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/427 "2016-02-19T19:43:20Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Sorry, this is from 1995, and I saw the movie I’m asking about in the 1970’s. Thanks anyway. Oops, I skimmed right over the 1970s reference. It sounds like exactly the same film. I wonder if Magic in the Water was (perhaps unconsciously) copied from your film. ---
**Author:** ![kjbrasda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@kjbrasda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjbrasda)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/428 "2016-02-24T02:16:07Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > These: > > 1. Saw it early to mid 60s; I don’t think it was too old at that time. I’d woken up with a bad dream so my aunt let me watch a movie with her and my older cousin. It was funny, but the only scene I can remember is a swimming pool filled with suds/bubbles. And maybe trucks with loads of bubbles that drifted up and away as they drove. The Thrill of it All! With Doris Day and James Garner. There is one movie/show I’ve wondered about since I was little, but I only have one scene. The adults were watching it while the kids were playing in other rooms, and I remember sneaking peeks of what I remember as a spooky, eerie, show. The only scene I remember is a nightmarish feeling bit that included a flood of feathers falling down a narrow (attic?) stairway. Would have been mid 80s maybe. ---
**Author:** ![kjbrasda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@kjbrasda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjbrasda)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/429 "2016-02-24T03:05:38Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > I’ve tried this before but no luck. > > I saw it on TV sometime in the 90’s, probably early to mid. > > An middle to older-ish woman is in a bed. She’s tied there by duct tape, her hands are bound kind of above her, her mouth is taped. There’s another woman in the room, she’s the one who’s responsible but she’s like, nervous or freaking out or something, definitely not like “ha ha, now I’ve got you” mood. A black guy comes into the room, he’s like “OMG WTF?!” and he tries to free the woman in the duct tape. > > The other woman panicks, she obviously wants to keep her prisoner, she looks around frantically and picks up a pair of scissors and stabs the black guy in the back. He flails around trying to pull it out until he finally collapses and dies. The duct taped woman can only watch as all this is going on. > > In another scene that I’m pretty sure was the same movie, a man and another woman was in bed, you see her from her back as she strips. They fuck but you don’t see it, the scene cuts away to her leaving the bed. > > I don’t remember anything else about the movie. I mostly want to look it up so I can figure out why that woman was duct taped to the bed. Made me think of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? but that’s obviously too early, so I went looking, and there was a [remake in 1990](https://youtu.be/7NfoCXqeud0). Scene is at about 1:04:20 ---
**Author:** ![cobregon56](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@cobregon56](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cobregon56)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/430 "2016-04-21T05:50:23Z")
I saw this silent b&w movie on tv around 1972. Very ancient movie. Might have been from the 1920’s or even the 1910’s I think it was an European production on the Nibelungs or other scandinavian tales with viking like characters. The scene which stuck on my head is one where I think a witch comands either the moon or an animal (a dragón? A wolf? ) to swallow the sun. After several scenes the sun is liberated b y the same moon or animal. This scene is shown in silouette fashion almost like a cartoon. I buoght some vhs with a movie very much like it, it was German, silent and b&w but it Was not the one I saw in the 70’s. I think the movie might have been swedish or norweyan, Nordic, in one word. If anyone can help, Thanks!! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/431 "2016-04-21T06:03:53Z")
> [@cobregon56](#): > > I saw this silent b&w movie on tv around 1972. Very ancient movie. Might have been from the 1920’s or even the 1910’s > I think it was an European production on the Nibelungs or other scandinavian tales with viking like characters. > The scene which stuck on my head is one where I think a witch comands either the moon or an animal (a dragón? A wolf? ) to swallow the sun. After several scenes the sun is liberated b y the same moon or animal. > This scene is shown in silouette fashion almost like a cartoon. > I buoght some vhs with a movie very much like it, it was German, silent and b&w but it Was not the one I saw in the 70’s. I think the movie might have been swedish or norweyan, Nordic, in one word. > If anyone can help, Thanks!! [The best known silent film version of Die Nibelungen was by Fritz Lang in 1924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Nibelungen) but you seemed to have ruled that one out. [There was a short Italian version made in 1910](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1427004/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_28) but IMDB doesn’t offer much description. ---
**Author:** ![cobregon56](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@cobregon56](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cobregon56)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/432 "2016-04-24T20:36:25Z")
Thank you NDP, I saw this movie on TV at the US while I was living there (I’m from Guatemala) and it made a big impression on me. Yes, the version of the Nibelungs that I have on VHS is the one by Fritz Lang and it is a really beautiful movie (two parts) but even if I have been looking for the scene I described carefully, it never came on… I will try to follow the leads you described on your responce and I thank you for taking your time answering me ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/433 "2016-04-24T21:08:00Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > –a clip from a spoof of forties B-movies where there was a “no necking” public announcement between the features. I think this was [It Came from Hollywood](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084156/). I was so young when I saw it that I didn´t realize they were actual films. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/434 "2016-04-24T21:39:15Z")
> [@Vervain](#): > > When did it come out? maybe late 70’s early 80’s > Who was in it? Don’t know > What plot if any do you remember? Group of kids live alone and try to live a normal life going to school and such. > What was special to you about it? Grew up poor was one of the very few movies I was able to see. > > Any other clues you can think of? In one scene the principle of the school they attend insists on meeting the parents. Seems like the kids are on the run a lot. Could it be [Tex](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084783/)? It was just the two kids living alone, although they weren´t on the run. The principle of the school asks to see the parents after Tex and Johnny Collins (played by a _very_ young Emilio Estevez) replace the typewriting class´s typewriter ribbons with toy gun caps. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/435 "2016-04-25T17:03:31Z")
I remember watching one film approximately 35 years ago about prohibition era gangsters, except that all of the actors were kids (portraying adult characters) and their guns fired creme filled pastries instead of bullets. Also, does the phrase “king of the flots” ring a bell for anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/436 "2016-04-25T17:25:22Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > I remember watching one film approximately 35 years ago about prohibition era gangsters, except that all of the actors were kids (portraying adult characters) and their guns fired creme filled pastries instead of bullets. **Bugsy Malone**. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/437 "2016-04-26T17:53:11Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > **Bugsy Malone**. Thx! ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/438 "2016-04-26T21:30:49Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > Thx! You’re welcome. I really liked this movie. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/439 "2016-04-27T00:04:41Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > A couple of submarine movies including the one that starred Tony Curtis. There was another one wherein the submarine was painted pink, and another that had women on board and they had to jettison even women’s brassiere to fool the Germans. > > Two James Cagney pilot movies. One wherein he was test flying a plane with de-icers through a snow storm, and another wherein he had to ram an enemy fighter head-on. As already noted, the first is _ **Operation Petticoat** _, which has everything you describe (i.e., there was only one movie, not two). They weren’t trying to fool the Germans; IIRC, they were sending a message to a US ship that had mistaken them for a Japanese submarine. I believe the other two scenes are also from one movie, _ **Captains of the Clouds** _. IIRC, Cagney and Alan Hale Sr are former test pilots who ferry bombers across the Atlantic for the RCAF. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/440 "2016-04-27T00:16:01Z")
Maybe I’ve already posted this, maybe not: In the summer of 1967, I saw a movie on late-night TV that was obviously a European import. I believe it was Swedish with English dubbing. It was about a zany bunch of soldiers dressed in what looked like WWII British uniforms, but with Swedish (I think) flags sewn on their shoulders (or maybe the flags were UN instead of Swedish). The only scene I remember takes place when they go on leave in the country: A horny soldier spies a really stacked half-nude babe striking poses at the end of a pier over a forested lake. He lets out a whoop and goes clumping down the length of the pier to get his jollies. He reaches the girl and spins her around, but her face is train-stopping ugly. Hilarity ensues as he backs off in shock and falls into the lake. Ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/441 "2016-04-27T00:20:32Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe the other two scenes are also from one movie, _ **Captains of the Clouds** _. IIRC, Cagney and Alan Hale Sr are former test pilots who ferry bombers across the Atlantic for the RCAF. The theme for this movie was used many times in Warner Bros. cartoons; you would probably recognize it instantly if you heard it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911/442 "2016-04-27T00:26:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The theme for this movie was used many times in Warner Bros. cartoons; you would probably recognize it instantly if you heard it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QakxXMDnhIM/hqdefault.jpg "Captains of the Clouds - Trailer Twi") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakxXMDnhIM) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-a-movie-you-saw-and-liked-as-a-kid-but-cant-remember-its-title/677911.md?page=23)