POPCORN FRIDAYS: DOUBLE FEATURE

WHY POPCORN FRIDAYS

I believe that in times like the present, where the pressures of the pandemic, plus our general economic hardships, added to the lockdowns that still exist around the world, there is nothing better than making a bit of popcorn on a Friday night and watching an old… a very old movie.

It can be in black and white or color, although, I love black and white and mono sound movies. They bring your brain down to a level of simplicity in terms of “processing power”, that is hard to beat.

For a start, the monochrome picture is asking a lot less to decipher from your brain. A full blast color 7 channel surround movie will exacerbate your brain functions so as to deal with all that complex, multi-layered information. A B&W mono sound movie just floats in, and relaxes you, while still being entertaining. On top of that, the stories are from a reality that is not our own in this day and age, so as we watch, it will feel a lot more like one of those stories mom or dad used to read to us before we went to bed.

The end result, is utter satisfaction, relaxation, and the discovery that these stories turn out to have a lot more in common with our lives that we expected, albeit far from the technological wizardry, and imbued in certain innocence that seems so distant from of our contemporary daily lives.

So, I hope you enjoy these popcorn Fridays.

TODAY´S MOVIES

This time we are going for a double feature. First, definitely a classic ,plus some crazy noir.

Frank Capra´s “MEET JOHN DOE” (1948). A man needing money agrees to impersonate a non-existent person who said he’d be committing suicide as a protest, and a political movement begins (you may have seen a more recent remake a few years ago). Director:  Frank Capra. Writers: Richard Connell (based on a story by Robert Presnell Sr.). It stars Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward Arnold.

Next it is the turn of “THE AMAZING MR. X”. A very underrated film in which a woman is haunted by the specter of her dead husband and soon becomes involved with a spiritualist… Director: Bernard Vorhaus. Cast: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Richard Carlson, Cathy O’Donnell. From 1941.

Enjoy!

Until next time!
Ignacio

©2021 by Ignacio Alperin Bruvera