Weisenheimer Wednesday

Here I is - Dr. vonBloggenschtern, MD* - with yet another installment of Weisenheimer Wednesday.

[* MD = Doctor of Malarkey]

Today's Complete Idiot's Tome of Knowledge is "The Guide to Classic Movies", by a certain Lee Pfeiffer.

Truth be told, I was kind of expecting Lee to provide a lot more background scoop on the movies. Some on-set gossip, maybe. Some "Did you Know - 'Reel'y?" sort of stuff. But what can I do, when part of my rules to these segments is to pull the first orange spine I see off of the library shelf, check it out, and do the research after the fact? You gets what you gets.

I did find out that African-American Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel opted not to attend the 1939 premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in Atlanta, because state law still enforced segregation in theatres.

Sadly, these factoids were few and far between.

However, it was not all skim-worthy and disappointing. At the back of the book was a fun list of the America Film Institute's Top 100 Films of All Times.

Two things about this:

1) This book was written in 2006, so the list may have been changed; after all, the cinematic genius that is - oh, what's that guy's name again? Benjamin? No, no, no.

Not Benjamin.

Indiana? Nope.

Not Indiana.

Wally?

Him neither.

Oh, yeah.

Paul.

Paul Blart, Mall Cop - didn't happen until late last year.

2) I did not personally write this list, so don't be giving me any grief either over entries or omissions. I can only assume from the title that these folks are somewhat the authority on these things. Or at least I think so because of the name:
a) American - implies that they are unequivocally correct. Even if they're wrong.

b) Film - note here the hoity-toity word. Not 'flick', nor even 'movie'. Film, darling. A word associated with art houses and Galoise-smoking, beret-toting bohos. Puff puff, snap. So hip.

c) Institute - a place where important things happen. Not 'shack; not 'duplex' (although I'm sure some very pivotal events occur in these as well...).

Institute, though. Think crazy.

Crazy smart.

Like the kid's summer reading list, maybe we should make this our summer viewing list.

Here goes this list - what percentage have you seen*?

America Film Institute's Top 100 Films of All Time
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. Gone With the Wind (1939)
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
7. The Graduate (1967)
8. On the Waterfront (1954)
9. Schindler's List (1993)
10. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
11. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
14. Some Like it Hot (1959)
15. Star Wars (1977)
16. All About Eve (1950)
17. The African Queen (1951)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. Chinatown (1974)
20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
24. Raging Bull (1980)
25. ET, the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
26. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
27. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
28. Apocalypse Now (1979)
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
30. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
31. Annie Hall (1977)
32. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
33. High Noon (1952)
34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
35. It Happened One Night (1934)
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. Double Indemnity (1944)
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
40. North by Northwest (1959)
41. West Side Story (1961)
42. Rear Window (1954)
43. King Kong (1933)
44. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
46. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
47. Taxi Driver (1976)
48. Jaws (1973)
49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
51. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
52. From Here to Eternity (1953)
53. Amadeus (1984)
54. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
55. The Sound of Music (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. The Third Man (1949)
58. Fantasia (1940)
59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
61. Vertigo (1958)
62. Tootsie (1982)
63. Stagecoach (1939)
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
66. Network (1976)
67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
68. An American in Paris (1951)
69. Shane (1953)
70. The French Connection (1971)
71. Forrest Gump (1994)
72. Ben-Hur (1959)
73. Wuthering Heights (1939)
74. The Gold Rush (1925)
75. Dances With Wolves (1990)
76. City Lights (1931)
77. American Graffiti (1973)
78. Rocky (1976)
79. The Deer Hunter (1978)
80. The Wild Bunch (1969)
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Giant (1956)
83. Platoon (1986)
84. Fargo (1996)
85. Duck Soup (1933)
86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
87. Frankenstein (1931)
88. Easy Rider (1969)
89. Patton (1970)
90. The Jazz Singer (1927)
91. My Fair Lady (1964)
92. A Place in the Sun (1951)
93. The Apartment (1960)
94. Goodfellas (1990)
95. Pulp Fiction (1994)
96. The Searchers (1956)
97. Bringing up Baby (1938)
98. Unforgiven (1992)
99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

*39% for me. How pathetic.

(I think I should get an extra 60 percent, though, for seeing both Ben-Hur and 2001 before I was 9 years old.)

So, 99%.

Ah, much better.

(not that I'm competitive, or anything. Just don't want you thinking I'm a complete idiot)