A moment of Oscar zen

Future movie historians will note: The Wolfman and Citizen Kane each won the same number of Oscars. One.

Another momet of Zen

Whenever I make pop-culture references to my students, I have to keep in mind: When I was a freshman in college, Citizen Kane was 28 years old. For someone who's a freshman now... E.T. is 28 years old. And when I was a freshman, I thought Citizen Kane was this really great, really old movie.

Honey, get me rewrite!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The Houston Chronicle runs my tribute to great newspaper movies!

OK, if we're going to out Dumbeldore...

While teaching film history courses at University of Houston and Houston Community College over the past several years, I've occasionally had students ask me -- earnestly, not snickeringly -- if certain movie characters are intended to be interpreted as gay. They fully understand the censorious restraints placed on directors and screenwriters during the bad old days of the Production Code, so they realize that, from the 1930s to at least the mid-'60s, movies had to utilize implications and allusions -- had to be "coded," if you will -- to even hint that the hero's best friend might... might... well, might want to be a tad friendlier. But, you know, maybe a little knowledge really is a dangerous thing?

In any event: The two names that pop up most often during these "Is he or isn't he?" queries: Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) of Citizen Kane and Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) of Singin' in the Rain. For some odd reason, middle-aged female students seem to be the ones most curious about divining Leland's orientation. But the issue of whether Cosmo is a closet case is a four-quadrant obsession. As students of all ages and genders have repeatedly pointed out to me, Cosmo is the lifelong companion of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), spends an inordinate time at Don's home (at all hours), and expresses nothing but withering sarcasm when speaking of Don's romantic escapades. More tellingly, Cosmo has this to say when judging the attractiveness of a female star: "Yeah, Lina, you looked pretty good for a girl."

My take on this? Well, why the hell not? Anything's possible. And interpreting those characters in that way does indeed add a provocative new dimension to both films (Kane, especially). And, hey, if they were gay, they would have been among the very few non-hetero characters (or at least apparently non-hetero characters) who weren't objects of ridicule in films of the '40s and '50s. (Just compare them to, say, Peter Lorre's effete Joel Cairo.) So, I dunno, wouldn't gay folks be proud to claim them as two of their own?

What do you think? And do you have any names you would add to the list?

Still No. 1: 'Citizen Kane'

Take two: Nearly ten years after the AFI's first 100 Years... 100 Movies countdown, Vertigo (No. 9) and Raging Bull (No. 4) managed to collect enough votes to displace The Graduate (No. 17 now, No. 7 then) and On the Waterfront (No. 19 now, No. 8 then) for ranking in the Top Ten of the new Top 100. But Citizen Kane remains -- as before, and very likely forever -- No. 1. And, hey, you'll get no argument from me over that.

Other titles in the upper echelon: The Godfather (No. 2 now, No. 3 then), Casablanca (No. 3/No. 2), Singin' in the Rain (No. 5/No. 10), Gone with the Wind (No. 6/No. 4), Lawrence of Arabia (No. 7/No. 5), Schindler's List (No. 8/No. 9) and The Wizard of Oz (No. 10/No. 6). Safe titles? Maybe. Great titles? Definitely.

David Germain of The Associated Press compares and contrasts the 1998 and 2007 lists here.