Posted on 11/28/2013 7:48:11 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
CLEVELAND (AP) - Even after three decades, the triple-dog dare doesn't get old.
The film "A Christmas Story" opened 30 years ago to mixed reviews but has shown its staying power as a holiday family favorite. Cleveland, where parts of the movie were filmed and hard-luck Ralphie dreamed big, is celebrating the anniversary with iconic leg lamps, holiday store windows like the ones that drew Ralphie's wide-eyed stares and stage and musical versions of "A Christmas Story."
"It becomes part of your fabric for your whole life," said Kevin Moore, managing director of the Cleveland Play House, where the stage version of the story has become a holiday staple.
In the film, starring Darren McGavin as the father, 9-year-old Ralphie was transfixed by the brightly decorated storefront windows. And he dreamed of getting an air rifle as a Christmas gift, despite warnings that he might shoot his eye out.
The plot follows his determined gift-begging, his encounters with bullies and his family's daily hopes and dreams - including a lamp in the form of a shapely leg.
The Cleveland house where Ralphie's film family lived will highlight the anniversary Friday and Saturday with appearances by original cast members and a BB gun range in the backyard.
(Excerpt) Read more at tucsonnewsnow.com ...
Never been able to watch more than five minutes of it. I’ve tried.
Every young boy who ever had a toy gun daydreamed of fighting off “Black Bart”. Men like the movie because we all had so many of the same experiences as Ralphie.
There was a sequel with the same actors, except that Ralphie, then older, was played by a young Matt Dillon. Instead of Christmas, it centered around the 4th of July and a big baseball game between two Catholic schools, Sacred Heart and Immaculate Conception. The game eventually devolved into a huge brawl with players, spectators, and clergy all participating. One of the sub-plots was Ralphie’s father had bought a kit house that was missing half the small parts and did not have clear instructions.
A crummy commercial?
It's "NOTAFINGA!"
“It’s.....it’s......soap blindness!”
“Ohhhhh, ffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge.”
“Only I didn’t say ‘fudge’....”
“He looks like a demented Easter rabbit.”
My favorite line from the book version, which never made it into the movie:
“Santa’s warm, moist breath poured down over me as though from some cosmic steam radiator. Santa smoked Camels, like my Uncle Charles”.
I was the only one in the audience!
“He looks like a demented Easter rabbit.”
And that is where FReepers got the idea to put bunny ears on the photos of John Kerry several years ago.
Maybe it’s a regional thing? I don’t know. I attend Church of God and our Christmas sermon is the Sunday before. Thats pretty around here.
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