Today’s film is a drama with scenes that happen on January 9. Watch this film tonight.
ANOTHERLIFE
Edith Graydon is a dreamer who eventually marries shipping clerk Percy Thompson, but carries on an adulterous affair with merchant sailor Frederick Bywaters, a friend of her brothers. Her letters to him reveal her hopes for a future with him and her attempts to kill her husband. Finally Frederick kills Percy. Edith says she had no part in the murder, but in spite of Frederick’s testimony that he impulsively acted alone, both are convicted.On January 9, 1923 [1:32:34 to 1:36:13] Edith and Frederick are hung.
Today’s movie is a drama with scenes that happen on January 1. Watch this film tonight.
FRUITVALESTATION
On the last day of 2008, Oscar Grant argues with his girlfriend, tries to get his old job at a grocery store back and decides to not sell pot. He goes to his mother’s birthday party and then on to the New Year’s festivities in San Francisco. On January 1, 2009 [00:36 – 1:59; 52:44 – 1:19:50] while returning to Oakland he is recognized by a former customer of the grocery store. As a result he is spotted by a former fellow inmate who assaults Grant. This causes BART police to intervene. At the end of the ensuing confrontation, Grant is shot in the back by a BART police officer and later dies.
The date is given in the film at 00:40
Producers - Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker
Today’s movie is a romantic comedy with a scene that happens on December 31. Watch and enjoy this film tonight.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Lucy Moderatz is a young woman who works as a ticket taker for the Chicago Transit Authority, and gradually develops a crush on an attractive guy who passes through her ticket booth everyday.The guy comes through her booth and while standing on the platform two punks try to mug him. He falls onto the tracks and is knocked out. Lucy keeps him from being run over by the train. At the hospital a nurse mistakenly thinks Lucy is the fiancée of the unconscious man.When his family arrives, they like Lucy, so she decides not to tell them that she is not Peter’s fincee, as she thinks this might cause his grandmother to have a heart attack.Lucy goes to the delayed Christmas celebrations with the family of Peter Callaghan. Peter’s brother Jack goes to Lucy’s apartment house. The obnoxious son of the owner lies and tells Jack that he is dating Lucy. Lucy, who learns Peter has a cat goes to his apartment to feed it and runs into Jack. Jack is suspicious of her relationship with Peter, but when Lucy tells them that Peter only has one testicle, a fact that she accidentally learned from a co-worker of Peter, they naturally believe her. Saul, Peter’s godfather who has learned the truth tells her not to tell the family yet. Lucy goes with Jack to deliver a sofa to Peter’s apartment and learns Jack no longer wants to work with his father in the estate furniture business, but wants to make furniture.Lucy and Jack are attracted to each other, but don’t want to acknowledge it. Lucy has to fight off the unwanted attentions of the landlord’s son and Peter’s family gets the mistaken idea Lucy is pregnant. On December 31, 1994 [59:36 to 1:06:46] Jack follows Lucy to a New Year’s Eve party. Then Peter wakes up, but when he doesn’t know Lucy, they think he has amnesia. Jack finally tells his father how he fells about the business. Saul persuades Peter to propose to Lucy. Then Ashley shows up. Peter had proposed to her, but she said no and moved to Portugal. Peter rejects Ashley and proposes to Lucy who accepts. Jack visits Lucy, but when she asks if he can giver her any reason why she should not marry Peter, he says he can’t. Just as the wedding is about to begin, Lucy stops it. She confesses all and says she loves Jack. Ashley arrives and objects to the wedding, while Lucy sneaks out. Later Jack slides an engagement ring into her token tray. He comes into her booth and with the entire Callaghan family watching he proposes. They get married and honeymoon in Florence, her favorite city.
A wonderful romantic comedy. Just quirky enough to get out of the usual track of such films. Jack Warden and Glynis Johns steal the show with their performances.
Sign at 1:02:31 says “Happy New Year”
Screenplay - Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric LeBow
Producer - Roger Birnbaum and Joe Roth
Director - Jon Turteltaub
Runtime – 1 hour 43 minutes
Released - April 21, 1995
Starring -
Glynis Johns as Elsie
Peter Gallagher as Peter Callaghan
Bill Pullman as Jack Callaghan
Today’s movie is a crime drama with a scene that happens on December 30. Watch this film tonight.
THE DELIBERATE STRANGER
In 1974 Ted Bundy is a handsome law student living in Seattle with his girlfriend. Meanwhile the police are investigating a series of disappearances of young women. Witnesses come forward saying they had been approached by a young man who called himself ‘Ted’ who drove a VW bug. Ted leaves Seattle for law school in Utah. The police start to find the bodies of the missing girlsand Ted’s girlfriend starts to suspect him. Ted continues killing girls. Then a girl escapes from Ted. The Seattle police use a new innovation, a computer, to look for links in the cases and the Great Basin police forces start to work together on the case. Ted is arrested for evading arrest. The girl who he tried to kidnap identifies him. We learn that Ted was illegitimate.Ted is convicted of kidnapping. He is indicted for murder in Colorado. Ted escapes from the courthouse, but is recaptured. On December 30, 1977 Ted escapes again from the county jail where he was being held pending trial. [2:40:33 to 2:44:39] He is arrested a month later in Florida after he had killed several more girls. Ted is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
A very scary movie. Mark Harmon did an excellent job of portraying Ted. He conveyed the surface ordinariness of Ted while hinting at the evil beneath. .
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (Signet, New York, 2001) at page 271 and the film at 2:41:13 give the date of his successful escape
Today’s movie has a scene that happens on December 29. Watch and enjoy this film tonight.
MARLEY AND ME
John Grogan had a dog while growing up. After his marriage to Jenny they move from Michigan to Miami and get jobs at competing newspapers. Jenny soon gets major stories, while he gets stuck with obituaries and such. When Jenny hints about wanting to have kids, John’s friend Sebastian suggests he get her a dog to take care of. They adopt a Labrador retriever and name him Marley. He soon turns out to be a disobedient dog. John is pressured into writing a twice-weekly column, even though he really wants to write hard news. Marley is so poorly behaved that he is expelled from a dog obedience school and also almost kills himself and the Grogans by leaping out of the car on the way to be neutered. Marley’s antics provide much of the material for John’s increasingly popular column. Jenny gets pregnant, but loses the baby early in her pregnancy. They go to Ireland on a second honeymoon, but Marley terrifies the dog sitter, who can’t control him during the thunderstorms that occur frequently in south Florida. Jenny gets pregnant again and has two boys in succession. After a neighbor is stabbed in a robbery they move to a more expensive and safer neighborhood. John reluctantly agrees to write a daily column to get his salary doubled. Jenny gets postpartum depression and feels overwhelmed. She insists they give Marley away, but later relents. Sebastian meanwhile lands a job with the New York Times, the apex of a newspaper reporter’s career as far as John is concerned. With Jenny’s blessing he takes a news reporter’s job in Philadelphia, but soon realizes he’s a better columnist than reporter. Marley, who is 14 by this time, has an attack of gastric dilation volvus and almost dies. When he has a second attack the vet says he would not survive surgery. John decides to have Marley euthanized on December 29, 2003 [1:40:08 to 1:48:24]. The family buries him in their front
yard.
A sweet and funny story. It functions both as the story of a marriage and a dog movie. Both Anniston and
Wilson give very natural performances here.
Marley: A Dog Like No Other by John Grogan (Collins, New York, 2007) at page 178 gives his death date
Today’s motion picture is a horror film with a scene that happens on December 28. Watch this film tonight.
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
In a house in Amityville, New York a family of six is murdered. A year later the Lutz family looks at the house and buys it. While they are cleaning their priest arrives to visit. Flies appear in the room he’s in and a voice tells him to “Get Out!”. When he tries to call the Lutzs to tell them about this the phone line is all static and the phone burns his hand.The father, George Lutz feels cold in the house, their son falls downstairs and light bulbs explode. George starts waking up every morning at 3:15 a.m. (which he later learns is the time of the murders) and finds lights on and closed windows are now up.Objects move themselves and black muck appears in the toilets. When a nun visits, she senses evil. Mrs. Lutz has a nightmare and on the way to see the Lutzes, the priest’s car malfunctions. When Mrs. Lutz’s brother gets married $1500 of his money disappears and a babysitter is trapped in a closet. Their priest’s superiors think he’s nuts to be suggesting a supernatural cause of these problems. On December 28, 1975 a couple visit the Lutzs and the wife, Carolyn feels fear. [58:14 to 1:03:22] A window tries to crush the son’s hand. George wakes up at 3:15 again and sees flies in the room. Windows and the front door are blown off their hinges. The police are called. Mrs. Lutz tries to call the priest, but only gets static. Mrs. Lutz has a vision of a man and then of eyes in the window. George goes to a bar and uncharacteristically for him almost gets in a fight. Their friend Carolyn says the house was built by a witch from Salem. She identifies a spot in the basement where their dog digs. They find a red room and have a vision of the killer. Carolyn gets possessed briefly. The Lutzes try blessing the house themselves. The priest is blinded and the Lutzes fight about the house. Mrs. Lutz reads about the murders. George is apparently possessed by the killer’s spirit and the walls start to bleed. They flee, but George goes back to save the dog. He almost drowns in a pool of muck that appears in the basement, but the dog saves him. They all leave.
I remember the buzz this film generated at the time.However, it now seems kind of a yawner. The story seems kind of over the top and told with a “can you believe this’ kind of style. Actually, no I can’t but if you like horror films you might be interested in one of the first in the genre.
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977) at page 5 gives the date they moved in as December 18, which is day one, so day 11 as given at 58:33 is December 28.
Awards- Lalo Schifrin's musical score was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost
Director - Stuart Rosenberg
Runtime - 1 hour 57 minutes
Released - July 27, 1979
Starring - James Brolin as George Lutz, Margot Kidder as Kathy Lutz, Rod Steiger as Father Delaney, Don Stroud as Father Bolen, Murray Hamilton as Father Ryan , Helen Shaver as Carolyn
Today’s movie is an action/adventure film with scenes that happen on December 27. Watch and enjoy this film tonight.
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Lieutenant Chris "Longhorn" Burnett and his pilot Lieutenant Jeremy "Smoke" Stackhouse are assigned to fly a photo recon mission on Christmas day by Rear Admiral Leslie McMahon Reigart after Burnett annoys the Admiral by announcing he plans to resign his commission. Burnett talks Stackhouse into veering off-course over the demilitarized zone where they photo Serb Bozniack forces burying massacred civilians in mass graves. The Serbs shot down the plane, but both Burnett and Stackhouse eject. The Serbs find Stackhouse and execute him. The French Admiral commanding NATO forces refuses to let the admiral launch a rescue mission. The admiral leaks the story of Burnett’s shootdown to the press. On December 27, 1995 [1:02:32 to 1:38:58] Burnett is picked up by Bosniak guerillas. The Serbs attack, but Burnett changes uniforms with a dead Bozniak soldier and flees. The Serbs present the dead body wearing his uniform as Burnett’s, which causes a NATO rescue mission to be aborted.Burnett returns to his ejection seat and activates the beacon, notifying the Navy and the Serbs of his location. The admiral, in defiance of orders leads a rescue mission. Burnett kills the sniper tracking him, finds the disk with the photos of the mass graves and escapes with the rescue force. The Admiral is retired while Burnett stays in the Navy.
Producer - John Davis
Director - John Moore
Screenwriters - David Velez and Zak Penn
Runtime – 1 hours 46 minutes
Released – November 30, 2001
Starring –
Owen Wilson as Lieutenant Chris "Longhorn" Burnett
Gene Hackman as Rear Admiral Leslie McMahon Reigart
Gabriel Macht as Lieutenant Jeremy "Smoke" Stackhouse
Charles Malik Whitfield as Captain Glen Rodway, USMC
