They Made Me Laugh

I sometimes imagine being a guest programmer on TCM, being asked to pick out movies that were meaningful in my life.  My childhood movie memories are mostly about movies that made me cry--and I cried easily.  The one I remember sobbing over more than any other was the Dog of Flanders--I remember nothing about the movie, except that someone beat a dog, and I sobbed and sobbed.  I haven't had the nerve to see the movie again.  Bambi's mother dying; Old Yeller being shot.  I rented Dumbo to watch with my nephew when he was about 5 and I was about 35; I burst into tears when they took Dumbo's mother away and chained her.  Perhaps the Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie; they showed it every year.  It mostly reminded me that we must have been the last people to get color TV, because Oz was a colorless as Kansas, and we didn't have to bother trying to adjust the set.  Judy Garland singing Over the Rainbow--it's a poignant, sad song that resonated with me more than any other song.  Because I wanted to fly away.  And even when I was in high school, I had to leave the room during the part with the flying monkeys--I still find them creepy and scary.

But the movies that mean the most to me are the ones that make me laugh.  I was a freshman at the University of Michigan, battling depression and anxiety--sometimes I would walk across the Diag doubled over in pain--not sure from what.  I had a binge eating disorder before it had a name.  In an era before cable TV, videos and DVDs, there were film guilds and series--one of my friends suggested we go.  They would show movies in the evening in various auditoriums around campus, and would attract long lines of students interested in film and looking for a diversion.  I saw many of the most famous movies for the first time--Casablanca, the Seventh Seal,  Key Largo, Sunset Boulevard.  The most memorable line from Casablanca--the one that got laughs and applause--was "...there are certain sections of New York, Major, I wouldn't advise you to try to invade..."  (After Michigan and Ohio, the largest number of students came from New York--many from NYC and suburbs.)

 But the movies  I remember most--that saved me, I believe--were the ones that made me laugh.  I had never seen a Marx Brothers movie, or a Charlie Chaplin film.  I had heard of Charlie Chaplin, but didn't really get why the Tramp was so well known.  I knew who Groucho Marx was, from You Bet Your Life, but for some reason the popular movie trio when I was growing up was the Three Stooges.  I didn't like, and didn't watch, their movies.  They never showed a Marx Brother movie on TV that I know of.  The first one I saw at Michigan wasn't even one of their best--it was called the Big Store.  But I laughed, and fell in love with Harpo.  I though the curly hair was real, and blonde--found out later it was a red wig, and was crushed when I learned he was bald.  I saw the Gold Rush, with some hilarious visuals, and the later Chaplin movies--Modern Times, the Great Dictator, City Lights.  And of course I went to every Marx Brother movie they showed--the Coconuts, Horse Feathers, A Day at the Races, Duck Soup, Animal Crackers.  But my favorite was a Night at the Opera--I couldn't catch my breath after the stateroom scene, I was laughing so hard.

I also discovered Alec Guinness and the Ealing comedies.  I knew who he was, from Bridge on the River Kwai, but had no idea he had done a series of brilliant comedies.  The Man in the White Suit was the first one I saw; it was a revelation--and hysterically funny in parts. I saw it on TCM some years back and it didn't seem quite as funny. But then again, I didn't laugh as hard at the stateroom scene when I saw years later--a lot of the humor was in the surprise.  My favorite Alec Guinness movie is Kind Hearts and Coronets--I didn't see that at Michigan, but on TCM--I wish they would show it again. It would be on my list, if I'm invited to guest host...

Of course, there are other movies that I count among my favorites--anything with William Holden (I love his voice);  Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright are also favorites--I love their voices); the Wizard of Oz, and, yes, Casablanca.  And there have been other movies since college that have made me laugh.  But the ones I saw in college, when I was struggling, mattered most, and meant the most.  They may have saved my life.