Reel Adventure

Sitting in the Wood Theatre on a hot summer afternoon. The musty air conditioning smell mixed with popcorn and candy. Your feet sticking to the floor. Cartoons and coming attractions and finally the main feature, and it's a day of bliss. Bathed in the glow from the movie, clutching boxes of Dots,Black Crows and Root Beer Barrels. I like to sit towards the back of the theatre, under the balcony just in case there's too many kids who "accidentally" spill something.
There always seems to be a Jerry Lewis movie, even though he's beginning to look too old to keep playing the same old part. This year it's "The Nutty Professor", his version of the Jekyll and Hyde story. He's his old nerdy self as the professor who is trying to get the attention of the girl he loves and he does that by concocting a potion that turns him into a greasy-haired smarmy ladies man named Buddy Love. Buddy Love is a thinly-veiled version of Jerry's heroes Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and he just looks even sillier. I go to see it, but I'm not impressed.
Hardly a summer goes by when there's not some sword and sandal epic. Steve Reeves as Hercules or the Son of Spartacus. "Ben-Hur" and Spartacus himself played to frantic perfection by Kirk Douglas.
This summer we get "Jason and the Argonauts", and stop motion special effects by Ray Harryhausen. It's not a great movie, but it's fun and there's a lot of adventure. My favorite part is when the teeth of the Hydra are sown by the bad guy and the skeleton warriors pop up out of the ground and attack Jason and his men. Scary and exciting all at the same time.
My favorite family night movie is "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". A wild and wacky tale with almost every comedian and comic actor known at that time, all searching for a suitcase full of money buried under a big W in California. It's a laugh-a-minute riot with Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett trying to fly a plane when the pilot gets knocked out, and Sid Caesar and Edie Adams trying to get out of the basement of a hardware store they're locked in. Dick Shawn trying to come to the aid of his blustery mother Ethel Merman, and Jonathan Winters destroying a gas station with his bare hands. We'll talk about this movie all summer.
My favorite movie of the summer of 1963 is of course, a war movie. Dad takes us to the drive-in to see "The Great Escape", the ultimate prisoner of war film of all time. Just like a "Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World" it has a star-studded cast and that exciting motorcycle chase featuring tough-guy Steve McQueen. It's a movie I never forget and one I will watch over and over and over again.
And I can't forget the Late Show on TV. I don't know who's programming the movies in Philly, but I'm grateful for the showing of "Tarzan and His Mate" and putting on the one with the nudity left in it, sitting in the dark with my mouth wide open in disbelief. They also show the animated version of "Animal Farm" and Marx Brothers movies and W.C. Fields and another summer they show "Lord of the Flies" and a German war movie called "The Bridge" about hastily recruited young boys who end up defending their town against the Americans. Thanks, Late Show guys.
My love of movies will continue to grow this summer of 1963.
Sitting in the dark looking up at the silver screen, or staying up late at night in the glow of the tube.
Movies...