Frankly, my dear...

Yep, I watched most of the AFI 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time. I'll admit, I'm something of a movie buff, and I agreed with most of the choices. I'm not even quibbling with the top quote--Rhett Butler's famous "Frankly, my dear" farewell to Scarlett O'Hara, even though it contains a word I never use.

A few observations, though:



--The movie with the most quotes cited was Casablanca, the classic love story featuring Humphrey Bogart and a luminously beautiful Ingrid Bergman:

#5--"Here's looking at you, kid."
#20--"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
#28--"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" (Frequently misquoted as "Play it again, Sam."
#32--"Round up the usual suspects."
#43--"We'll always have Paris."
#67--"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

Now, my admission: I've never seen Casablanca.

I know, pummel me with wet noodles if you like. My daughter has seen it and loves it. I never had much of a desire to see the movie, but now I want to, along with several of the other movies that are quoted in the list.

But here's the problem: it's HARD to find those classic movies at the video store. And I don't necessarily have the patience or the funds to order them off the internet. I've been trying for ages to find "High Society," with Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

One summer, my son Jonathan and I decided to try to find and watch several movies that are on many film critics' lists of all-time best movies. We succeeded in finding "Citizen Kane" and "Bladerunner." I think we ended up getting "Citizen Kane" at the library.

Blockbuster! Why don't you have a Classic Movie section? It's just downright annoying. I heard someone say the other day, in effect, "OK, we have the first season of 'Queer as Folk' on DVD, but classic movies are next to impossible to find?" What's up with that?!?

--What? NOTHING from "The Princess Bride"? I know The Princess Bride is comparatively recent, but hey, the list contained quotes from Titanic, Jerry Maguire, The Sixth Sense and When Harry Met Sally.



In my humble opinion, The Princess Bride has some of the best movie quotes ever.

C'mon, AFI people! What about "As you wish"? or "Inconceivable!" or "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Yep, I found that omission disappointing. But even the head of the American Film Institute, Jean Pickering, realized the list would be controversial: ""Great movie quotes become part of our cultural vocabulary. When you consider that any phrase from American film is eligible, you realize this is our most subjective topic to date. We expect nothing less than a war of words as we reignite interest in classic American movies."

By the way, I loved Alison Strobel Morrow's comments on my blog:

"My favorite 'Princess Bride' line is: 'True love _is_ the greatest thing in the world! Except for a nice MLT--mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich--when the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe...they're so perky, I love that.'

"Oh, and of course the wedding scene--'Mawage! Mawage is what bwings us toogevah tooday...' The family friend that did my wedding actually based his entire sermon on The Princess Bride because he knew it was one of my favorite movies, and started his sermon with that opening line. We were all cracking up--especially me and the girls in my bridal party, because we'd all quoted the entire scene while waiting in the bridal dressing room. Actually, his message was really good--his three points were 'as you wish' (serving each other in marriage), 'true love' (and what that really is), and 'inconceivable'(which is what God's love for us is). It was the first time he'd ever done a wedding and we told him he set the bar way too high and he'd better quit while he was ahead."

(By the way, Alison happens to be the daughter of Lee Strobel (The Case for Faith, The Case for Christ), and she is the author of a recently-released novel, Worlds Collide.)

On a totally different subject:

The fascination with Evie continues



It all started when a casual mention of Evie Tornquist Karlsson on my website opened the gates to a steady stream of hits from people wanting to find out what she's doing and where to get her music, lyrics, guitar tabs, what have you.

I decided if there was that much interest in the 70's Christian music icon, I'd try to track her down and do a radio interview with her. Which I did, and you can read the transcript here.

Well, that opened the floodgates for more inquiries about Evie. Where can I get her music? How can I get ahold of her? etc, etc.

Please don't ask me for Evie's e-mail address, because I honestly don't think she wanted me giving it out for all and sundry. However, I'm going to contact her again and strongly encourage her to develop her own website. Obviously, her music still holds huge appeal for a lot of people.

In the meantime:

Some Evie-related news!

A young man named Aaron, who heads Videos for the Family, will be interviewing Evie later this week and posting the interview on his website.

Also, he has gotten ahold of a limited quantity of "Songs for His Family," a cassette tape by Evie and the Karlssons. Aaron says they are never-used tapes, and he's selling them for 4.95 including shipping and handling. If you're one of the legions of Evie fans still out there, it's worth checking out.