by Sam Juliano
After a two-year absence, caused by the COVID-19 crisis, our long-running Academy Awards party will be held again this year on Sunday, March 12th at the Tiger Hose Firehouse in Fairview. Lucille and I look forward to seeing many of our friends, and plenty of hot food will be offered, courtesy of Gandolfo’s in North Bergen. Any of our readers planning to be in the area that night are urged and welcome to attend.
Meanwhile, our Greatest American Films polling is in full swing and will continue until Friday, March 10th at 5:00 P.M. Many thanks to Mark Sadler, Mark Smith and James Horsefall -not to mention over 30 others who have voted on the corresponding FB post – for casting ballots so far, and to those planning to in the upcoming weeks.
The fabulous cover art and graphic design for Irish Jesus in Fairview has been completed! I will be releasing it very soon!
I thought it would be amusing to post a link to our Oscar party short from a few years ago.
Wishing everyone a great week!
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Wonders in the Dark 
HA! Loved the Oscar party film! Jealous of all your friends that were there in person. I’m with your friend who asked how you see so many films… your answer has to be “there are more hours in my day.” Excited to see the upcoming “Irish Jesus in Fairview” reveal!
You also have a great week, Sam! Great news you shared!!
1. The Graduate (Nichols)
2.City Lights (Chaplin)
3. Sunset Boulevard (Wilder)
4. Sunrise (Murnau)
5. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
6. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
7. The Producers (Brooks)
8. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra)
9. The Godfather (Coppola)
10. Cabaret (Fosse)
11. Double Indemnity (Wilder)
12. The Grapes of Wrath (Ford)
13. There Will Be Blood (Anderson)
14. Amadeus (Forman)
15. Citizen Kane (Welles)
16. The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
17. The General (Keaton)
18. The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich)
19. Sex, Lies and Videotape (Soderburgh)
20. The Godfather II (Coppola)
21. Good Fellas (Scorsese)
22. West Side Story (Wise-Robbins)
23. Midnight Cowby (Schlesinger)
24. 12 Angry Men (Lumet)
25. The Wizard of Oz (Fleming)
26. The Killers (Siomak)
27. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
28. Casablanca (Curtiz)
29. Singin in the Rain (Donan-Kelly)
30. Psycho (Hitchcock)
31. Angels with Dirty Faces (Curtiz)
32. The Crowd (Vidor)
33. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Allen)
34. March of the Wooden Soldiers (Meins)
35. The Bride of Frankenstein (Whale)
36. The Night of the Hunter (laughton)
37. Network (Lumet)
38. Schindler’s List (Spielberg)
39. Fargo (Coen)
40. Duck Soup (McCarey)
RANKED TOP 40
1. Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
2 The Navigator (Buster Keaton)
3 The Killers (Robert Siodmak)
4 Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
5 Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
6 Sunrise (Frederick Murnau)
7 Johnny Guitar (Nick Ray)
8 City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
9 The Circus (Charles Chaplin)
10 Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
11 North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
12 The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
13 The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
14 Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
15 Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
16 The Graduate (Mike Nichols)
17 Child’s Play (Sidney Lumet)
18 The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich)
19 Singin in the Rain (Donan and Kelly)
20 Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)
21 The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
22 Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey)
23 Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
24 Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
25 The Sound of Music (Robert Wise)
26 Good Fellas (Martin Scorsese)
27 The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
28 The Godfather II (Francis Ford Coppola)
29 Network (Sidney Lumet)
30 Rebel with a Cause (Nick Ray)
31 Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
32. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
33 The Searchers (John Ford)
34 West Side Story (Wise and Robbins)
35 The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
36 Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
37 Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg)
38 Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
39 Lost in Translation (Sophia Coppola)
40 Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper)
A sad “So long” to TCM Underground tonight. Just last fall the delightfully delirious Millie De Chirico introduced many, myself included, to the pioneering GGRC series of movie parodies, all done in drag—Always on Sunday, The Roman Springs on Mrs. Stone, Spy on the Fly (a choice double entendre, that; James Bond spoofery with Agent 0069), All About Alice (Margo and the kid—junior, that is), and What Really Happened to Baby Jane.
I hadn’t laughed that hard since the last time I watched Aldrich’s original, a classic I’ve never been able to take seriously (although stalwart Joan Crawford at least tries to give a performance).
The much abused “Plan 9 from Outer Space” airs in the wee small hours.