This is WoC (Wife of Cogerson). While I frequently make tech-support visits, I rarely ever contribute in visible ways. But, I wanted to do my own page. And I’m going to have fun with it, so I’m calling it
And that’s me, in a corner. Cogerson looked at me like I was nuts when I asked him to take that picture. That was at least half the fun. Probably closer to 75% of the fun if I’m honest. And if he doesn’t like it… I’ll change his password. Hah.
One of the things I get asked ALL the time – “What’s it really like living with Cogerson?” Well, I’ll tell you. Everything is movies. The pandemic of 2020 – in a movie. Life with the kids – in several movies. My career, his career (his other career) – both of them in movies. And, as you can imagine, the movie accoutrement in our house is extensive. Heck, we take full vacations around the idea of gathering more movie information.
Where am I going with this? Well, I’ll tell you. I found this book the other day, 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter by Jeremy Arnold
And while Cogerson remembers every movie he saw and where he was and why he watched it, I have not similarly spent brain power to commit these facts to the vault.
And, while he might be the perfect critical audience and reviewer, I believe I am the perfect movie participant. I cry, I laugh, I cringe, I hide under blankets, I shake with adrenaline, and I shake with fear. I don’t care what other movies this performer was in, I can’t list it and I only care if I believe them in this role.
With 52 movies in the title – it’s just begging for one movie a week. Like a book club with movies. That’s what I was thinking.
So, for as long as it lasts, I’m going to start the first UMR Movie Club.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept, (I think that’s a movie quote), is to watch one movie a week with me and discuss. I’ll compile the comments and add them to the trailer page for each movie as we go.
The first movie is going to be Rear Window. Watch it by Monday 5/11/2020, and then comment here.
| Movie Title | Watch By Date |
| Rear Window (1954) | 5/11/2020 |
The whole list, because Cogerson insisted:
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | B.O. Rank by Year | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | S |
| 1 | Lawrence of Arabia (1962) AA Best Picture Win |
Peter O'Toole & Omar Sharif |
41.50 | 595.9 | 595.90 | 1 | 94 | 10 / 07 | 100.0 | |
| 2 | Gone with the Wind (1939) AA Best Picture Win |
Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh |
56.60 | 2,179.1 | 3,842.80 | 1 | 92 | 13 / 08 | 100.0 | |
| 3 | All About Eve (1950) AA Best Picture Win |
Bette Davis & Marliyn Monroe |
8.90 | 198.9 | 282.30 | 9 | 92 | 14 / 06 | 100.0 | |
| 3 | On the Waterfront (1954) AA Best Picture Win |
Marlon Brando & Rod Steiger |
12.00 | 281.2 | 281.20 | 20 | 92 | 12 / 08 | 100.0 | |
| 5 | Casablanca (1942) AA Best Picture Win |
Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman |
11.80 | 440.2 | 807.80 | 5 | 95 | 08 / 03 | 100.0 | |
| 4 | Ben-Hur (1959) AA Best Picture Win |
Charlton Heston & Stephen Boyd |
58.80 | 1,056.7 | 2,725.00 | 1 | 91 | 12 / 11 | 100.0 | |
| 6 | The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) AA Best Picture Win |
Myrna Loy & Fredric March |
19.30 | 595.2 | 965.60 | 1 | 90 | 08 / 07 | 99.9 | |
| 8 | Annie Hall (1977) AA Best Picture Win |
Woody Allen & Diane Keaton |
48.90 | 236.4 | 236.40 | 11 | 92 | 05 / 04 | 99.9 | |
| 7 | It Happened One Night (1934) AA Best Picture Win |
Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert |
5.20 | 243.9 | 402.40 | 3 | 90 | 05 / 05 | 99.9 | |
| 12 | In the Heat of the Night (1967) AA Best Picture Win |
Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger |
24.00 | 213.8 | 213.80 | 11 | 84 | 07 / 05 | 99.9 | |
| 10 | Rocky (1976) AA Best Picture Win |
Sylvester Stallone & Burgess Meredith |
117.00 | 592.1 | 1,137.70 | 1 | 79 | 10 / 03 | 99.8 | |
| 11 | All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) AA Best Picture Win |
Lew Ayres & Louis Wolheim |
4.60 | 248.8 | 248.80 | 7 | 84 | 04 / 02 | 99.8 | |
| 13 | Jaws (1975) AA Best Picture Nom |
Robert Shaw & Richard Dreyfuss |
262.50 | 1,380.4 | 2,488.10 | 1 | 93 | 04 / 03 | 99.7 | |
| 14 | To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) AA Best Picture Nom |
Gregory Peck & Robert Duvall |
22.90 | 328.6 | 328.60 | 7 | 90 | 08 / 03 | 99.7 | |
| 15 | Double Indemnity (1944) AA Best Picture Nom |
Fred MacMurray & Barbara Stanwyck |
8.40 | 282.4 | 282.40 | 21 | 94 | 07 / 00 | 99.7 | |
| 16 | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) AA Best Picture Nom |
James Stewart & Claude Rains |
9.60 | 369.6 | 369.60 | 3 | 89 | 11 / 01 | 99.6 | |
| 17 | Bonnie and Clyde (1967) AA Best Picture Nom |
Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway |
57.00 | 507.8 | 507.80 | 3 | 87 | 10 / 02 | 99.6 | |
| 18 | Grand Hotel (1932) AA Best Picture Win |
Greta Garbo & Joan Crawford |
3.50 | 172.9 | 363.20 | 9 | 81 | 01 / 01 | 99.5 | |
| 18 | Some Like It Hot (1959) | Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis |
23.20 | 417.2 | 417.20 | 5 | 93 | 06 / 01 | 99.5 | |
| 20 | The Graduate (1967) AA Best Picture Nom |
Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft |
103.50 | 921.9 | 1,723.70 | 1 | 85 | 07 / 01 | 99.4 | |
| 20 | Rear Window (1954) | James Stewart & Grace Kelly |
23.20 | 543.6 | 543.60 | 2 | 94 | 04 / 00 | 99.3 | |
| 24 | Roman Holiday (1953) AA Best Picture Nom |
Gregory Peck & Audrey Hepburn |
9.10 | 163.3 | 163.30 | 22 | 89 | 10 / 03 | 99.2 | |
| 21 | North by Northwest (1959) | Cary Grant & James Mason |
19.20 | 344.1 | 554.50 | 7 | 93 | 03 / 00 | 99.2 | |
| 22 | Singin' in the Rain (1952) | Gene Kelly & Debbie Reynolds |
12.40 | 242.4 | 371.30 | 6 | 93 | 02 / 00 | 99.1 | |
| 25 | Sunset Blvd. (1950) AA Best Picture Nom |
William Holden & Gloria Swanson |
6.70 | 150.8 | 150.80 | 24 | 90 | 11 / 03 | 99.0 | |
| 26 | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) AA Best Picture Nom |
Peter Sellers & Directed by Stanley Kubrick |
14.30 | 163.8 | 163.80 | 11 | 94 | 04 / 00 | 99.0 | |
| 27 | King Kong (1933) | Fay Wray & Bruce Cabot |
9.10 | 428.5 | 666.60 | 1 | 89 | 00 / 00 | 98.8 | |
| 28 | The Searchers (1956) | John Wayne & Natalie Wood |
14.00 | 274.4 | 371.40 | 14 | 89 | 00 / 00 | 98.8 | |
| 29 | City Lights (1931) | Charles Chaplin | 9.90 | 505.7 | 505.70 | 1 | 88 | 00 / 00 | 98.7 | |
| 32 | Now, Voyager (1942) | Bette Davis & Claude Rains |
6.10 | 226.2 | 443.60 | 25 | 84 | 03 / 01 | 98.7 | |
| 31 | Adam's Rib (1949) | Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn |
8.30 | 206.9 | 274.90 | 18 | 87 | 01 / 00 | 98.6 | |
| 32 | Swing Time (1936) | Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers |
5.40 | 233.4 | 376.30 | 12 | 85 | 02 / 01 | 98.6 | |
| 33 | The Third Man (1949) | Orson Welles & Joseph Cotten |
7.20 | 181.1 | 181.10 | 24 | 90 | 03 / 01 | 98.6 | |
| 34 | Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) | Judy Garland & Directed by Vincent Minnelli |
13.60 | 458.2 | 626.60 | 4 | 83 | 04 / 00 | 98.4 | |
| 35 | The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) | Boris Karloff & Elsa Lanchester |
5.70 | 256.7 | 256.70 | 2 | 85 | 01 / 00 | 98.4 | |
| 36 | Leave Her to Heaven (1945) | Gene Tierney & Vincent Price |
14.20 | 449.6 | 449.60 | 3 | 81 | 04 / 01 | 98.4 | |
| 37 | The Red Shoes (1948) AA Best Picture Nom |
Moira Shearer | 5.80 | 156.0 | 156.00 | 52 | 87 | 05 / 02 | 98.3 | |
| 38 | Citizen Kane (1941) AA Best Picture Nom |
Orson Welles & Joseph Cotten |
3.20 | 123.0 | 160.20 | 76 | 93 | 09 / 01 | 98.1 | |
| 40 | The Lady Eve (1941) | Henry Fonda & Barbara Stanwyck |
4.50 | 173.9 | 173.90 | 36 | 87 | 01 / 00 | 97.4 | |
| 41 | White Heat (1949) | James Cagney & Virginia Mayo |
6.10 | 152.4 | 242.70 | 36 | 91 | 01 / 00 | 96.7 | |
| 41 | The Thin Man (1934) AA Best Picture Nom |
William Powell & Myrna Loy |
2.60 | 123.9 | 204.90 | 29 | 87 | 04 / 00 | 95.8 | |
| 42 | Winchester '73 (1950) | James Stewart & Rock Hudson |
6.40 | 144.4 | 144.40 | 32 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 95.0 | |
| 43 | Out of the Past (1947) | Kirk Douglas & Robert Mitchum |
4.00 | 117.7 | 166.90 | 87 | 88 | 00 / 00 | 93.1 | |
| 44 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) | Walter Wanger & Kevin McCarthy |
6.00 | 117.6 | 117.60 | 47 | 82 | 00 / 00 | 91.0 | |
| 45 | Duck Soup (1933) | Marx Brothers | 2.10 | 99.9 | 99.90 | 32 | 86 | 00 / 00 | 90.6 | |
| 46 | Metropolis (1927) | Directed by Fritz Lang | 2.30 | 76.0 | 76.00 | 22 | 91 | 00 / 00 | 89.5 | |
| 47 | Seven Samurai (1954) | Toshirô Mifune & Directed by Akira Kurosawa |
1.90 | 43.5 | 43.50 | 126 | 95 | 02 / 00 | 88.0 | |
| 48 | Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) | Henry Fonda & Charles Bronson |
5.30 | 43.5 | 43.50 | 60 | 90 | 00 / 00 | 85.4 | |
| 49 | Gun Crazy (1950) | Peggy Cummins & John Dall |
2.40 | 52.9 | 52.90 | 134 | 81 | 00 / 00 | 82.3 | |
| 51 | This Is Spinal Tap (1984) | Billy Crystal & Directed by Rob Reiner |
4.50 | 14.4 | 14.40 | 115 | 91 | 00 / 00 | 81.2 | |
| 50 | Breathless (1960) | Jean Seberg & Jean Seberg |
1.70 | 26.8 | 118.10 | 109 | 85 | 00 / 00 | 80.2 | |
| 52 | Bicycle Thieves (1948) | Directed by Vittorio De Sica | 0.30 | 8.1 | 8.10 | 196 | 88 | 01 / 00 | 78.5 |
If you want to buy this book…..here is a link to do just that.
Since this is a different type of page, I won’t answer the way I usually do with a list of my favourites. Instead, I will say that I have seen all but Annie Hall and Rocky.
I don’t have this book, but I am familiar with it because I watch TCM all the time and it is one of their books.
This sounds like fun. I log my seen films on Letterboxd. I have done so since 2016 since Bruce turned me on to this site.
Now – Rear Window:
Rear Window happens to be my favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie of all time. It was my first Hitchcock movie and I decided to watch it because Raymond Burr had recently died and it had been the only film of his he was proud of making. I had always been a big fan of Perry Mason. I loved the movie and from then on started watching more Hitchcock films based on the stars that were in Rear Window and branching out. Rear Window also happens to be the only Hitchcock film I have seen on the big screen. Mom and I went into Vancouver to see it.
I have lost track of the number of times I have seen it.I have it on DVD.
There is a top notch cast. Stewart and Kelly have fantastic chemistry. Thelma Ritter steals her scenes. There is a building suspense to a great climax.
Thanks for the checking out WoC’s corner. We have 14 of the movies in the house…leaving 38 for me to track down. I would normally have my awesome libraries to get movies…but I have not been to a library since mid-March. So sad.
Thanks Flora! I am looking forward to watching it. This one was picked because Cogerson ordered it for our own collection. He sold me on it by saying that the camera stays in the one room for the entire movie. That is an interesting concept I wouldn’t think many could pull off.
Whoa! Just 3 films on that list that I haven’t seen – The Bicycle Thief, Now Voyager and Breathless. Too many favorites to list, more than half the 52!
I did finally see The Best Years of Our Lives on TCM (Flora cheers), good film, good acting, but not a favorite.
I will try and watch Rear Window again this week WoC, for the umpteenth time. Maybe I can spot something I haven’t seen before.
Btw wearing masks isn’t mandatory here in the UK yet and we’ve successfully avoided wearing them here in the Lensman abode, come to think of it we haven’t bought any. I do have gloves but they’re driving gloves. Last time I wore a mask it was shaped like a skull and I drove around with it just to see people’s reactions as they pulled up next to me and I turned slowly to look at them. Well, I was young, that’s my excuse. 🙂
Did I mention I like that list? Vote Up!
Good to hear that you finally saw The Best Years of Our Lives, Steve, even if it is not a favourite.
Hey Steve…..do you know the trivia about the piano player in Rear Window? WoC and I watched Rear Window last night….and after I was looking up trivia at IMDb….actually…WoC was…..and she told me something interesting.
Steve in a skull mask? Very interesting….are you sure you were not part of the movie The Purge? LOL.
Wow….stop the presses. Steve finally saw The Best Years Of Our Lives? Awesome…..next thing you will be saying you finally saw Mrs. Miniver. I agree with your mini-review. Pretty sure I have only seen it once. When I do a page on Harold Russell….that might break James Dean’s record for fewest movies on an UMR page.
Masks aren’t mandatory here, but recommended. They are mandatory at my work. The one you see in the picture I made. I’m looking forward to hearing what detail you pick up in the movie this time.
1/
Shame on you Mr Cogerson! One thinks of all the legendary stalwart screen America husbands and lovers like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life; Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights; and Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing who stands up to his sweetheart’s dominating father and insists
“NOBODY puts Debbie in a corner!”
2/
“One of the things I get asked ALL the time – “What’s it really like living with Cogerson?” This quote from above reminds me of an interview that Bernie Schwartz gave after he had completed the making of 1956’s Trapeze with Burt Lancaster and Bernie was asked what it was like working with the highly energetic Lancaster to which Bernie replied “It was like being near a furnace the whole time.”
3/
The top of this page reminds me of the television detective series Columbo. Columbo’s wife is frequently mentioned throughout the series but you never actually see her and she is never referred to by her own name but simply as “Mrs Columbo”. On any occasion where she has to be physically present at a gathering in a room the scene is always manipulated so that you never properly catch site of her. It strikes me therefore that the image at the top of this page would have been an appropriate one for W o Columbo in the TV series.
On the 3rd line from the very bottom of my 5:17 am post “site” should of course read “sight”. Apologies to ‘Mrs Columbo’!
Comparing Cogerson to the legendary stalwart screen husbands and lovers…. I’ll have to think on that one for sure!
I accept the comparison to Mrs. Columbo. I did not know about that prior to writing this, but it is a great idea.
HI W o C
Nice hearing from you. I can understand why you have to think about your husband in his capacity of hubby and lover: it must be crowded in that marriage of yours when you have to share it with Sir Maurice Micklewhite and Bruce Giimme More and Alexander Archibald Leach.
In the British World War 2 TV Army sitcom “Dad’s Army” the wife of Captain Mainwaring the commander of the local Home Guard is never seen though she is referred to as “Elizabeth”
In one episode Captain Mainwaring invites his platoon to his house for drinks and he announces that Elizabeth is upstairs and will join them soon. Anticiapation rises that the platoon will at last see her and sure enough there is silence as she can be heard treading the boards one by one coming down the stairs.
She is just about to come into the sight of the gathering below when an air raid siren sounds a warning and she can be heard quickly turning around and cantering back upstairs again at a huge rate of knots and and that is the nearest TV audiences ever come to seeing what Elizabeth Mainwaring looks like!
Good job WoC. I like your photo in the corner. I like your WoC’s Corner logo. I like your idea. You are awesome. Rear Window is a great one to start with….as we have some serious Alfred Hitchcock fans here.
The 52 movies list is very interesting and I am most grateful to you two for sharing it with viewers. My great idols like the Duke and Jimmy Stewart made so many films [and many of them before I ever started to watch movies] that I would have tortured myself if I had set a target of seeing them all so for the most part I just took them as they came conveniently.
Brando had just 38 cinematic releases [about half the total of those of many of my other idols] so I was able to watch 36 of them with ease. The two that I haven’t seen are Night of the Following Day and Christopher Columbus. If I wanted to be able to say that I had seen “every” Brando movie I could quite easily catch up on the outstanding ones – but I have absolutely no interest in either one so I will resist completing the viewing of all Brando films.
The reason that I often split post into more than one part is not that I feel that they are so important that they deserve multiple parts [they ARE of course!]but rather that I try to avoid any one set of comments being too lengthy. However I accept that lists like the ones that you produce would probably be robbed of continuity/impact if you broke them up too much.
Bravo for not seeing the two Brando movies for the reason that you have no interest in them. Some people would feel pressured to watch them anyway just to cross them off the list.