Movie-A-Day #322: Fantasia (1940).
Mickey Mouse made his debut in Walt Disney’s animated short “Steamboat Willie” on this day in 1928. Sure he’s become ubiquitous since then, and has been the inspiration for the gradual oppressive intensifying of international copyright laws in recent years. But his iconic appearance as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the original “Fantasia” is still a lot of fun.
Movie-A-Day #321: National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978).
Delta Phi, the nation’s oldest continuously operating college fraternity, was founded at Union College in New York on this day in 1827. While they weren’t the inspiration for “National Lampoon’s Animal House” – that honor goes to Dartmouth’s chapter of Alpha Delta Phi – it’s still a good excuse throw on a toga, kick your heels up and shout.
Movie-A-Day #320: Oklahoma! (1955).
Oklahoma – where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain – earned its statehood on this day in 1907. Go Sooners!
Movie-A-Day #319: In Cold Blood (1967).
On this date in 1959, four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered during a home invasion on their farm in Holcomb, Kansas. Truman Capote’s book about the case, “In Cold Blood” – begun with the research help of his friend Harper Lee while the killers were still at large – was a runaway bestseller and a pioneer in the true crime genre. Richard Brooks’ film adaptation, starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, doesn’t match the scope of the book, but is low-key and chilling nonetheless.
Movie-A-Day #318: Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).
On this date in 1889, pioneering woman journalist Nellie Bly of the New York World newspaper (sort of the plucky Mary Tyler Moore of her time) began her journey to find out if the time frame in Jules Verne’s popular novel “Around the World in 80 Days” was possible. Armed with only the clothes on her back, a small travel bag and a modest stash of money, she set out over the Atlantic, then across Asia, the Pacific Ocean and the western United States using only steamships and railroads. Along the way, she stopped to interview Verne, visited a leper colony and even bought a monkey. She made most of the journey unchaperoned (highly rare for the times) and made her return to New York on January 25, 1890 – just 72 days later.
Desuko Movie Spot. 