THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Daniel Truhitte, Charmian Carr, 1965, TM and Copyright (c)20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

Oh my gosh, what a wasteland modern Hollywood is! I was flipping through the channels, desperately  seeking to be entertained by something. Its pretty bad when you’ve gotten too old for the Lone Ranger and Laramie. Yesterday I discovered 17-3 Charge plays several hours of CHiPs in the afternoon. That’s good for about an hour. Whenever I start thinking about the dearth of wholesome, quality, family fare, I think of the Gold Standard: The Sound of Music.

Seriously though, without trying to sound like an old “Stay off my lawn!” geezer, what has Hollywood come up with in the ensuing 55 years? Its still #1 in ticket sales. They always want to talk about the newest and greatest highest “grossing” movie, but that’s only because of ticket price inflation. As far as butts in theater seats, I’m pretty sure SOM is still number 1. It reminds me of the pop song American Pie. Its a good song, don’t get me wrong, but the reverence in which it is held shows how bad the competition is. We should have had more songs in 50 years that were capable of using metaphor, parable, poetry and analogy than just this one song. It stands out cause, ‘Baby, baby, baby! Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ is so weak.

In the 70’s Benji was a wholesome family movie.  Low budget, but nice. There were a bunch of good movies, but I wouldn’t call them family fare. John Wayne movies, Clint Eastwood movies, the first Star Wars movie. ET? A few Disney flicks, Lion King, the Little Mermaid, but those weren’t movies adults could get into also, just the kids. A few live action Disney movies over the years, but nothing in the last 40 years. I’ll have to come back later and add to this list the ones that will inevitably come to me, but as of right now its a desert.

[Charmian Carr was an interesting bird. She made one more movie after SOM with that nut job Anthony Perkins and that was it! If ever there was a natural for the movies it was her. Exquisitely beautiful with those glacier blue eyes, a wonderful charisma,  she puts 99% of Hollywood to shame. She chose instead some area of decorating as a career as I understand it. Of all the obnoxious louts that the industry forces on us, to have a gem like that getaway…. and then God took her home at just age 74. And in the movie Ralph chooses the Nazis over her, my ass. Not a chance.]