Greetings from a fellow movie fan:

Sitting on the floor in front of me are several disc-storage albums full of DVD’s. They comprise a collection of movies that has been growing for about a dozen years. It’s the latest iteration of collecting for me which began when I saved up my nickels and dimes as a boy to buy those 3 to 5 minute 8mm films you could get in the local camera shop: tiny little clips from Hopalong Cassidy or a Ski Adventure short.

Later on, there were home movies, and big reels of spliced-together family picnics, vacation trips and the occasional backyard games of Cowboys and Indians with the neighbor kids. I have no Idea where those films ended up, but it would be fun to see them again.

Of course there were the weekly visits to the downtown Paramount theater, to see a double feature, a serial and ten gazillion cartoons with every other kid in town. It was kind of a rite of passage for me when I turned old enough to have to pay a quarter for a ticket instead of 10 cents. I was now one of the “big kids”.

I remember walking down the long, white-tiled entrance to the Paramount, and often seeing the big film cans on the floor by the door: last week’s feature waiting for pickup, or maybe the new movie ready to show the following Monday. I used to think: “Wouldn’t it be great if I was rich enough to own a Movie. My very own Full-Length movie. Wow. I could show it any time I wanted to!”  Who knew?

As I grew older, I remember going to nearby Williamstown to see films with my dad that were not likely to ever find their way to the Paramount. I was introduced to Olivier’s “Richard III” and the film version of Rod Serling's classic “Requiem for a Heavyweight” at the Walden theater.

My first date with the woman I’d spend my life with was at a Drive-in movie, the title of which I don’t recall for some reason. Marcie and I saw quite a few movies together after that, including the 70mm visual stunner “Dr. Zhivago”, which became “our movie”. We’ve never owned it  on DVD or any other medium...somehow it’s not right to see it without a massive screen and a theater full of people.

Movies on the small screen do have their place, though. I remember many a happy night on the fold-away couch with my boys, watching “Godzilla” and “Mothra” and the two tiny singing girls as Tokyo was destroyed multiple times in black and white, then later in color.

Fun, precious memories. Maybe not too different from yours.

So, I’ve decided to dig into the collection, and watch some these old celluloid friends again, and just put down what comes to mind or comes back to mind. I invite you to do the same in the comments...not so much critical review; there’s plenty of that out there. I’d just like to see what gets stirred up in the way of impressions, memories, ideas, etc. Since I tend to be kind of movie-geeky I’ll probably talk about cinematography and camera angles and stuff like that, too, but mainly the feelings, the ideas, the memories the films bring out. Some will age better than others, I’m sure, just like the actors in them, and who doesn’t like talking about that?

So let’s just take the best seat in the house: right in the center, fifth row back from the screen, sit back and relax…