Earliest film memory?

[Johann]

Let's hear all the stories of the first film you remember seeing.

My mom took me to see On Golden Pond when I was 7. I sat still through the whole thing-her orders- she had seen it already! She said "You pay attention-this is an important story!" I remember it like it was yesterday.
I subsequently remember most of my cinema trips: (dating myself)

King Kong Vs. Godzilla
Superman II
Flash Gordon (w/ Max von Sydow)
First Blood
E.T.
Grease 2
Goonies
The Ice Pirates (w/ Robert Urich! jealous, huh?)
The Man with Two Brains
Moscow on the Hudson
Gremlins
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Those were good times.

[Russ]

The first film I recall seeing was actually on television. I was about 5, and it was "This Island Earth" (apparently I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a kid - but I can't really recall it)

I remember "This Island Earth" scared the dickens out of me. Thinking about it now it was probably responsible for my love of SF.

[bix171]

"Mysterious Island" is the first movie I remember. I was terrified out of my wits by the giant bees and a huge ostrich (or something).

I also remember being really scared by "Two On A Guillotine" with Connie Stevens, Dean Jones and Cesar Romero. There's a dream sequence in which Connie's being buried alive in a casket with a window. It was filmed in Panavision, in which I had never seen a film presented. To this day, I get a flashback when I see a film's presented in Panavision, with its greenish tint. I'm not kidding. Geez, with all my frights, it's a wonder I like movies at all.

Fortunately, there was "Lady And The Tramp" and "Mary Poppins" so all was well.

[docraven]

Originally posted by Johann
Let's hear all the stories of the first film you remember seeing.
How about hearing from the old guy.

I cannot actually remember which was first, but I do still think fondly of Saturdays in the early 1940s at the old Walnut Park theatre in Portland, Oregon. Those were the days when there was always a cartoon, and for the matinees on Saturdays we had serials like Superman, Dick Tracy, Captain Midnight, and the like (and Flash Gordon long before Van Sydow). How many of the rest of you remember serials? We really looked forward to them, and we loved trying to figure out how the hero would escape the weekly cliffhanger.

I remember many Abbott and Costello flicks, Hop Along Cassidy, Roy Rogers — all that B stuff. But I also remember Sergeant York, The Sands of Iwo Jima, and other patriotic flicks. Then, too, there were some of those great Disney animations (on first release). I especially remember Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi.

That was also before TV had taken hold, and there were newsreels and special subjects like Time Marches On (very much like the News on the March sequence from Citizen Kane, which I do not remember seeing at that time). I remember seeing a rerun of The Gold Rush with my folks at a drive-in movie house.

The first foreign film I ever saw was in the early 50s — Don Quixote, projected in 16mm at a bookstore in Nelscott, Oregon, not far from where I have now returned in retirement.

Now, does that date me?

[Johann]

It dates you, but I would kill to have seen those serials "as they happened"- you know, waiting a week to see what's next. (I've always thought I was born too late)
Why doesn't some filmmaker convince a studio to try a serial? I would go to the multiplex once a week (at a discounted price?) to see some long running piece of entertainment.
One hour installments would be perfect!

I bought the 1940's Batman & Robin serial two-tape vhs set and was impressed by the starkness of the series. Low budget sets, time dragging storyline, etc. but really engaging. Cheesy costumes & dialogues, but hell, I'll watch that before I'll watch "Friends". God I hate that show.

Any more stories? Interesting to hear what shaped your young minds...

[docraven]

Originally posted by Johann
Any more stories? Interesting to hear what shaped your young minds... Johann--

Batman and Robin. Wow! I'll have to look into that. I still remember the series, but vaguely.

I do have some other early memories, and they were not far from where you live. My mother was Canadian, and her father and brothers worked in the coal mines out of Hillcrest, Alberta. We spent summers with them. The little town of Hillcrest was about a two mile walk along the edge of the Frank Slide to a little town called Bellvue--the nearest movie house. I remember walking that pathway with my cousins, 15 cents in hand (a dime for the movie and a nickel for popcorn). In Canada there were many of the same movies, but also more from England. I especially remember seeing the English comedian, Alastair Sim as Sergeant Bingham, the comic sidekick, in the Inspector Hornleigh series.

I erred on my first memory. It was not Time Marches On. The series was called The March of Time.

[Johann]

For some reason I envision you sitting with crossed legs smoking a pipe, wearing a smoking jacket & bunny slippers-and a copy of Sherlock Holmes in hand... ;)

[Johann]

Even though I saw all the "blockbusters": Raiders, Star Wars, Superman, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, et al, The first time I got REALLY excited about the movies was Rambo. First Blood is a very real film for a kid to see. You feel the injustice inflicted on John J.

When we went to the drive-in to see Part II, I was more wired than C-3PO. I had to remember to WATCH the movie I was yapping so much. Rambomania was all my rage after that.. I got the action figures, the cartoons, the sticker books, the toy uzi, the whole shebang. Kind of cheesy now, but hell, if I ever have a son, as soon as he's 6-7 yrs old, he's having a rite of passage: The Rambo Trilogy

[FilmWolf]

It would have been when I was around 8 or 9 years old (1970/71) and my mother, being that she probably couldn't find a sitter at the time, took my two younger sisters and I to the old Uptown Theatre (which is sadly long gone) to see a rerelease of "Gone With The Wind".

I remember being entranced by the color and by the costumes (the scene where Clark Gable looks up the stairs and sees Vivian Leigh for the first time has remained stuck in my mind) and I recall feeling a little sad during the parts where the Civil War was raging, because those pretty homes were being destroyed and that those people would never be able to have those wonderful parties anymore (yes folks, the Civil War really WAS all about the North destroying the South's ability to throw weekend barbecues...*lol*)

My earliest memories of watching films on television made for both sides of a very unusual "coin". There was the perennial TV favorite "The Wizard of Oz" (I always cried during the scene where Dorothy told her friends goodbye prior to leaving Oz) and the 50's sci-fi classic "The Blob", which NEVER failed to scare the heck outta me, because this was one monster (unlike the growling Wolf Man or the shuffling Frankenstein Monster) that you couldn't hear sneaking up on you!...

FW

[docraven]

Originally posted by Johann
For some reason I envision you sitting with crossed legs smoking a pipe, wearing a smoking jacket & bunny slippers-and a copy of Sherlock Holmes in hand... ;) Bunny slippers? Hhmmm! I may see what Santa brings this year, but I don't have any right now. I like the idea of the pipe, but, alas, I do not smoke.
I imagine you with a cup of black Kenyan coffee and a close renewable supply. How on earth could you have seen all the films you mention? Amazing for a young man (by comparison), but a phenominal viewer. Just don't catch celluloid anemia.
…and have a happy holiday.

[Johann]

Martin Scorsese said

"THE ONLY CURE FOR WATCHING TOO MANY FILMS IS MORE FILMS"

Why is it that if you read 4 books a day they call you a scholar, but if you watch 4 films a day they call you a fanatic?

All the best for the holidays, gentlemen & rogues....

[bix171]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by FilmWolf
[the old Uptown Theatre (which is sadly long gone)

Ah, the Uptown. I grew up in that theatre (as well as its sister, the Riviera, across the street). I cannot tell you how many movies I saw there. I used to go every Saturday afternoon during the mid-Sixties with all my friends to the double (occasionally triple) feature. I also saw "The Ten Commandements" for the first time there ("So it shall be written, so it shall be done") as well as "The Sound Of Music".

As for the Riviera, it was where my mother took me to see "Cleopatra" and where I saw "2001 A Space Odyssey" for the second time. (The first was at the Cinestage in that wonderful format Cinerama.)

About a mile north was the Bryn Mawr theatre. If you could wait (and wait and wait) EVERYTHING played there. I went to the last show (Robert Zemeckis' "Used Cars") and cried real tears after it closed.

[stevetseitz]

The first televised film I remember was an ABC Sunday Night Movie presentation of "Live and Let Die" a decent Roger Moore outing as 007. The first Beta video tape I watched repeatedly was "The Great Escape" recorded off some Chicago station. "Star Wars" was the first theatrical movie I vividly remember. I the line was so long someone ordered a pizza and ate it by the time we moved. For a young kid, That was weirdly memorable.

[docraven]

OK. Here's another one that dates me. It's not one of my early memories, but was stirred up by your first theatrical memory, stevetseitz.

I had no idea what STAR WARS was to become, and was not particularly interested. However, my high school age son, and my junior high daughter talked me into taking them to see it. I had promised, so even though I had the flu, I took them. At the theatre I took my medication and was stoned through most of it. By the time it was over, I was back on earth and able to drive home safely.

A couple of years later my kids got me to take them to a preview of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. There was such a good crowd at the theatre that the theatre manager invited everyone to stay to see the regular feature -- DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. I have a particular aversion to Steve Martin, so they had to talk me into staying. I loved that flick, but I still don't think much of Steve Martin (I know. Most people think he's actually funny.).

[stevetseitz]

Back when I was a know-nothing youth, I had little interest in who directed what film, in fact I scarcely knew what made a film a good film beyond the basic human aesthetic response to what I was seeing. This was my state when I wandered into the theater hoping to see "Superman II", much to my dismay it was sold out and I had to settle for a little film called "Raiders of the Lost Ark" WOW! How lucky was I? "Raiders" was an awesome flick while "Superman II" was only so-so.

[Johann]

Back when I was a know-nothing youth, I had little interest in who directed what film

This would be an interesting sub-topic. When DID you start taking notice of the director?

Myself, I was aware of Spielberg and Lucas due to their enormous popularity, but I didn't start "taking names" until Stone's The Doors. Sad to say, but I became a film fan for real in 1991 (age 16). I knew that this was the guy who directed Platoon, but I was still oblivious to the say, Kubricks & Coppolas of the world. Then I started to know Cameron (T-2), Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Tarantino, etc.
Now I could probably list 200 directors and 3 films by each easily.

What kicked it into overdrive:
a friend lent me A Clockwork Orange and it was all over but the cryin'.

[tabuno]

This Is Cinerama" was produced in 1952 three years before I was born showing a wide-angle 146 degree, tri-panel panoramic picture using three projectors and showing the sensation of riding on a roller coaster. How the West was Won (1962) was also shot in this same format. Both these movies required large, big theaters and The Villa which still operates, though not the same screen, was one of the precursors to stadium seating built probably somewhere in the 1950s. I imagine that I must have been around six or seven years old when I was my first movie This Is Cinerama" at The Villa where there was even an intermission and popcorn stands on wheels would be wheeled out in the aisles of the theater.

[Marina]

I was about 8 when ET came out, that's my first film memory. My grandmother took me to the theater to see it. My parents took me to see it a second time, at the drive-in (which is now gone! So sad, the demise of the drive-in). It was a double feature: ET and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. ET was first. I remember struggling to stay awake during the second feature. It didn't work. So The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a blur. I'm guessing I didn't miss much there ...

Another first was the first time I had a real Film Experience ... can anyone relate to this? The first time a movie was a revelation and stayed with you for a long time afterwards ... when you first realized that there was something to this movie thing. That was when I was in fifth grade and went to see Amadeus. Actually, a friend's mother dragged us to it. All we knew was that it was about Mozart, I thought it was going to be some boring old black-and-white movie. (At that age, black-and-white always meant really boring.) I was so enthralled. I remember the feeling really well, my heart was racing and my throat was dry.

- Marina

[docraven]

Marina--

Interesting… were these experiences in France? -- just curious about growing up with film in countries other than the U.S.

[tabuno]

Wait Until Dark when I was in junior high school had the biggest earliest impact. It was played in the junior high school and I was sitting amongst hundreds of other students in (what would be considered old now) theater in the front row of the balcony. The theater was constructed in such a way that the screen was relatively close and sitting in the balcony it was closer (at least that is what I recall) when Wait Until Dark was being shown. By the climax, there was utter silence throughout the entire auditorium, pitch black, practically no light. It was scary!

[Marina]

Originally posted by docraven
Marina--

Interesting… were these experiences in France? -- just curious about growing up with film in countries other than the U.S.

-------------------------
No, I'm American and grew up in the US. I'm just here in Paris researching for a while. It's the best city I know for film buffs ...
you couldn't find enough time in the day to go to all the great movies playing.

- Marina

[tabuno]

Marina - It was suspicious that your English was so good. I hope your French isn't to bad either.

[Johann]

I'm planning a trip to Paris this year and making my own documentary/home movie. I'm well aware of the film scene in that city-they have more theatres per capita than any other city on earth.
I plan on taking shots of famous film graves: Ophuls, Truffaut, Signoret, Montand, Guitry, Bernhardt, etc.. The film museum there has the robot from Metropolis on display.

I'm sure "I'll have a lovely time" to quote The Beatles...

[docraven]

How interesting that the film museum in Paris has the robot from METROPOLIS! I wonder how that came about.

Three years ago I visited the UFA studios in Babelsberg near Potsdam. A film theme park that attracted crowds on the order of a very small Disney World was attached. While at the theme park you could take a tour of the studios. At the time I was there they were making a film about Marlene Dietrich and had reproduced her California home as a set. There was also a set for a film about the Berlin Wall.

At the UFA Film Museum several miles away there were many interesting memorabilia displays about the studio before Hitler's time -- THE BLUE ANGEL, METROPOLIS, CALIGARI, FAUST, etc. The UFA studios were located in what became East Germany after the war. Since the fall of the wall there has been some effort to restore the stuio and the museum.

I have been looking for the two films I mentioned, but have not seen any reference to them here in the U.S. Has anyone heard about any recent releases from the restored UFA, especially ones that might deal biographically with Dietrich, or that might involve escapes over the wall from a German perspective?

[tabuno]

Historically, France and to some extent Germany were leaders in the motion picture industry. France had the reputation of being in the forefront of leading edge film making with the original development of movies at the end of the 19th century. There must be some great historical treasures over there in Europe and many "earliest memories preserved" for movie fans.

[Marina]

Originally posted by Johann
I'm planning a trip to Paris this year and making my own documentary/home movie. I'm well aware of the film scene in that city-they have more theatres per capita than any other city on earth.
I plan on taking shots of famous film graves: Ophuls, Truffaut, Signoret, Montand, Guitry, Bernhardt, etc.. The film museum there has the robot from Metropolis on display.

I'm sure "I'll have a lovely time" to quote The Beatles...

---------------------------------------
That sounds like an interesting project. If you do come, I can give you the names of some wonderful theaters. (In general, it's really easy to find that stuff anyway -- there are guides put out every week with all the movie listings. The best one is called Pariscope, you can buy it at any Parisian newsstand for 40 cents. You can also find it at pariscope.fr.)

- Marina

[Johann]

Marina- thanks for the tips.

I plan on visiting the great Grand Rex and the Cinemateque Francais, as well as a chinese pagoda that screens films.

Yes Doc, the museum has the robot and a set from Children of Paradise- a landmark of french cinema. can't wait, really. I wanna sit on that bench behind the Notre Dame that was featured in Bitter Moon.

[pmw]

So I dreamed about a movie I saw a long time ago and perhaps this is my earliest/creepiest film memory. I dont know the title but perhaps someone else does:

The film was the cinematic equivalent of one of those depressing inspirational posters ("A team breeds success" etc) that you find in offices, meant to rally the troops. It was basically about some BMX kids who had a long standing rivalry. The ultimate build up was that one fell in front of the other as they neared the finish line of some big race. Instead of finishing the race, and winning, the kid who was still riding stopped and helped the other back up, and they both ended up losing. But he did the right thing apparentally. I think I was mostly confused. Seemed like falling was a big part of racing to me....

Anyways, I watched this super 8? projected on a wall at church with a bunch of other 4 year olds, eating sugar cookies, and all probably wondering the same thing.

Not my brightest film memory but perhaps the earliest.

[JustaFied]

Empire Strikes Back. 1981. Yoda in the swamp. Do or no do, there is no try.