I remember before the internet and before streaming flipping through the channels and seeing what is on there was one movie I always had to stop and watch. One memory I have is while I was in graduate school, studying for finals I took a break and flipped through the TV channels just to kill a few minutes and clear my mind and I came across THE MOVIE and of course I watched it. For any other movie I could have put in a VHS and recorded it. For this one I had to stop and watch.
That movie was Stalag 17. If I came across it, I had to watch, even if it was almost over.
I grew up watching Hogan’s Heroes and this was the father of the show. While it had its humorous moments it also showed the tragedy of war. I just searched and there is a Blu Ray for $10.00. I may need to go ahead and buy it.
There are a lot of movies that I have to stop and watch, even though I’ve seen them before (often many times before). Stalag 17 is one of those.
Movies that stopped me the first time I stumbled across them on TV, so I HAD to watch them:
**Dr. Strangelove
Manhunter** (the Michael Mann version, which first introduced us to Hannibal Lector (spelled “Lektor” here))
**The Hidden
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders** (a TV movie)
** The Odds** – a 1984 episode of George Romero’s Tales from the Darkside, a series I had not heard of. Danny Aiello’s performance just grabbed me, and made me wonder what the hell I’d stumbled on. It was like a good episode of the old Twilight Zone.
Moon of the Wolf - Early '70s TVM featuring David Janssen (not even close to being a favorite of mine) investigating a series of murders in small Southun town. Barbara Rush is outstanding. Guess what’s killing the people? We know, they don’t.
Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction usually catch my attention.
My aunt recently mentioned that it can be 1:00 am and if she notices that The Godfather is on, she’ll stay up and watch it. She has a ‘normal’ schedule, she just stays up really late.