Remembering Andy Griffith

Though he was best know for his tv sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-68) which was set in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina; the town was based on the town of Mt.Airy in northwest North Carolina, which is located near Pilot Mountain and the Virginia border, Andy Griffith, who died this week at age 86, was also known for his towering performance as Lonesome Rhodes in the Elia Kazan film ("A Face in the Crowd").

Griifith is a North Carolina icon, and in this month issue of "Our State" magazine, a travel and leisure state magazine for North Carolina, Griffith was among those featured, along with NASCAR star Richard Petty and famed tv preacher Billy Graham.

"The Andy Griffith Show" is still popular in both the Greensboro, NC, and Roanoke, Va., markets where the reruns continue to run on weekday evening.

With Griffith's death, the oldest member of the adult cast (Ron Howard who played Opie is know an Oscar-winning film director) is Jim Nabors, who is 82.

Best Ten Films of 1951

Last year, I listed my favorite films from 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000, on my two blogs. So, this year, I figured I would list my ten favorite films from 1951 until 2001.

We begin with the ten films that I percieve to be the best, or my personal favorites, from 1951, a year in which Marlan Brando yelled Sttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaa in "A Streetcar Named Desire," which made the cut.

Here is the list:

1. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (dir. Robert Wise)

2. "Strangers on a Train" (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

3. "The Diary of a County Priest" (France. dir: Robert Bresson)

4. "Early Summer" (Japan. dir: Yasujiro Ozu)

5. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (dir. Elia Kazan)

6. "The Steel Helmet" (dir. Samuel Fuller)

7. "The African Queen" (dir. John Huston)

8. "A Place in the Sun" (dir. George Stevens)

9. "The Thing" (dir. Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks)

10. "An American in Paris"* (dir. Vincente Minelli)

*-Oscar winner for Best Film

Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

We thought it might actually be cooled to link this week's Quote of the Week to last week's Quote of the Week, especially since this blog is moving very slower (we should blame Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but he seems to have other concerns at the moment) than normal.

So, here is our quote from Martin Scorsese, whose brilliant cinematic letter to the late iconic film director Elia Kazan was broadcast on PBS last week:

"The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists. But, in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits."

SIDEBAR: For those of you following us in Armenia, Bulgaria and Paraguay, who may have been wondering, it appears we did misspell actress/Revlon spokeswoman Halle Berry's name in our previous entry. We will blame that on Mark Zuckerberg* too, regardless if we spelled his name right or not!

*- Hey, it appears we got it right. Maybe, we can go ahead and fire our interns now....