The Pre-Apocalypse Holiday Movie Quiz
1) Favorite unsung holiday film?
The Ref.
Too famous, you say?
Well, I would like to take some of the credit for that, because I have flogged it as "best Christmas movie ever" for a very long time.
Each year, I shock several people with its discovery, who then take it to their breast and swear to pass the word.
I will not rest until every person in America embraces me when I exclaim: "Slipper Socks. Medium."
This entire holiday quiz is brought to you by film fiend Dennis Cozallo at The Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule blog.
You'll find more fascinating answers at the source!
2. Name a movie you were surprised to have liked/loved.
Virtually every 20th century combat classic you could name.
I was very late to war movies. My family was pacifist, it was the 1960s, and I missed the whole shebang.
One year my lover put on some Nazi-kick-ass classic and I said, "Wow, can we watch another?" I've still got dozens more to go.
3) Ned Sparks or Edward Everett Horton?
Edward Everett Horton. Fractured Fairy Tales.
4) Sam Peckinpah's Convoy-- yes or no?
Full-throated YES!
5) What contemporary actor would best fit into a popular, established genre of the past?
Kelly McDonald in any classic weepie, a face made for melodrama.
6) Favorite non-disaster movie in which bad weather is a memorable element of the film’s atmosphere?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - European Cold War grey misery with a soundtrack that just won't quit.
7) Second favorite Luchino Visconti movie?
Death in Venice, because The Damned was my favorite. I think Death in Venice was the first film I ever saw at a 70s "gay" film festival, an avant-garde notion at the time.
8) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD/Blu-ray?
Theaters: The Disappearance of Shere Hite.
DVD/BluRay: Homicide series
9) Explain your reaction when someone eloquently or not-so-eloquently attacks one of your favorite movies
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're alone
10) Movie star of any era you’d most like to take camping
Making s'mores with Marilyn Monroe over an open fire, horse-riding together and talking softly.
11) Second favorite George Cukor movie?
Omg, there are so many I love. Let's go with... Little Women. Here's a scene that SHOULD be in a gay film festival.
12) Name a movie you loved (or hated) upon first viewing, to which you eventually returned and had more or less the opposite reaction.
I'm pretty consistent, title to title. I still like the films I loved as a kid.
A genre exception: I was raised to be a child film snob. I never thought pulpy movies would appeal to me; I never saw an exploitation film. When I'd occasionally see a B-movie trailer, I would say, "Ugh," just like my parents.
The snobbier I got, the more book-educated I became about film, the more curious I was about explotiation, and in particular porn. I was reading about David Friedman before I saw David Friedman!
I decided to "unpack" it. As I did, enjoying all the intellectual kicks, I also found the genuine thrills that everyone else had experienced the first time round.
13) Alain Delon or Marcello Mastroianni?
Marcello, in glasses. In terms of sheer wet panties. They're both a couple of my favorite actors.
14) Your favorite opening sequence, credits or no credits
For credits, The Untouchables opening sequence. I wake up in the middle of the night and play it sometimes.
15) Director with the strongest run of great movies?
Billy Wilder, for one. I'd always pick a writer/director for a question like this.
So many things have to come together to even have the chance. To have a hit, then two.... more than two? It's a miracle.
Is elitism a good/bad/necessary/inevitable aspect of being a cineaste?
It's where healthy discrimination lives!
17) Favorite movie made before you were born that you only discovered this year. Where and how did you discover it?
I feel dated by this question.
My favorite discovery from the past is the Niles Silent Film Theater and going to see any of their special events!
18) Actor/actress you would most want to see in a Santa suit, traditional or skimpy
There's any number of laps I'd like to squirm in, soft and furry optional.
How about Alan Hale?
19) Best/favorite final film by a noted director or screenwriter
Well, this is personal, because it's the only time I've been close to a filmaker who told me he was soon to die, and this was it: Arthur Bressan's Buddies. We saw it together at the Music Box theater in Chicago and hugged goodbye.
This is a clip from a documentary Artie made, called Gay USA.
20) Monica Vitti or Anna Karina?
Monica! In a heartbeat.
21) Name a worthy movie indulgence you’ve had to most strenuously talk friends into experiencing with you. What was the result?
Well, I didn't have to twist arms too much, but I must say, the group viewing of The G-Spot Fraud Detection Squad was the hands-down best group viewing experience I've ever had.
22) The movie made by your favorite filmmaker (writer, director, et al) that you either have yet to see or are least familiar with among all the rest.
The Front Page by Billy Wilder. I'll have to rectify that this Xmas season!
23) Name a prop or other piece of movie memorabilia you’d most like to find with your name on it under the Christmas tree.
I used to like to browse those old used bookstores on Hollywood Blvd that had sheafs and sheafs of movie actor memorabilia, stills, contact sheets, head shots, publicity scrapbooks. Just lock me in there for a few hours and let me go wild.
24) Best holiday gift the movies could give to you to carry into 2024?
Bring back my local repertory theater, The Nickelodeon, which has been closed since COVID began. They were the only place within many miles to see indie movies, and we miss them terribly!
Love to all of you this end of year, and I hope you get to catch up on lots of music, movies, and stories! — Susie
Love Billy Wilder's FRONT PAGE with Lemmon and Matthau; you must have seen HIS GIRL FRIDAY Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell
Every X-Ma$ I watch two movies:
A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim. The very best! I also re-read Dickens for it's a brilliant attack on capitalism.
Then, Since You Went Away. This is a totally hokey four hanky movie about the homefron during WWII. It stars Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotton, Hattie McDaniel, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple and more. The ending is so politcally correct, so woke that if DeSatan saw it he would ben all movies.
Happy Holidaze.