The Movie Mom's Favorite Flicks

The Movie Mom's Favorite Flicks

No one should grow up without seeing the cinematic treasures of childhoods past. Movie-expert explains why these classics will be hits with children.

Rabbit Ear series (From 1980): Narrated by some of the finest contemporary actors, this collection of classic children's stories includes The Elephant's Child, read by Jack Nicholson. The Velveteen Rabbit, read by Meryl Streep, and Anansi the Spider, read by Denzel Washington.

Shari Lewis Videos : 1984-1991. The best thing about these delightful videos by longtime children's entertainer Shari Lewis is that they involve the children, with interesting activities that get little couch potatoes off the couch.

Tom Thomb (1967) : The tale of a boy no bigger than a thumb is brought to life with former gymnast  Russ Tamblyn in the title rôle. He is as irresistibly charming as his very own song as one of the musical numbers suggest. Villains Terry Thomas and Peter Seller try to get the diminutive hero to steal for them, but a good fairy thwarts them.

Disney Animation Classics (1937 to 1961): Older movies like Snow White (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Sleeping Beauty (1958), and 101 Dalmatians (1961) hold up exceptionally well, with gorgeous pre-computer animation and excellent music. Some children may be frightened by the villains, but familiarity with the story can help.

For Older Children

Captains Courageous (1937) : A wealthy and spoiled young boy traveling on a luxurious ocean liner is washed overboard and rescued by a sailor on a fishing boat. Forced to stay on the boat until it returns to shore, he learns the importance of earning respect from others, and from himself. There is a sad death, but the story ends with the boy becoming close to his father for the first time. Spencer Tracy stars in an Oscar- winning performance, with Lionel Barrymore, Mickey Rooney and FreddieBarthlomew.

Chariots of fire (1981): This is the true story of two athlets who raced in the 1934 Olympics, one a privileged Jewish student at Cambridge, the other a missionary from Scotland. Wonderfully evocative of the time and place, with superb performances, the movie shows us the source of the runners determination – for one, a need to prove himself, for the other, a connection to God. The movie won the Oscar for best picture.

A Young Actor. Photo by Elena.

The Day the Earth Stood Stiill (1951): A mysterious starship arrives in Washington in this Cold War classic. A man and a robot are inside, bringing a message that humans must stop making nuclear weapons. They are befriended by a young boy whose father was killed in WWII, and be a scientist. But not everyone wants peace, and it is up to the heroes to save the world from itself.

Fantastic Voyage (1966): A team of scientist is shrunk in microscopic size in order to perform emergency surgery in this exciting adventure. They must battle everything from white blood cells (attacking the, as though they were an infection) to an onboard traitor, to time itself, as they race to complete the operation and leave the body before the effects of the shringkin ray wear off and they return to normal size. Exciting and fun, this movie also teaches about the inner working of the body.

Lilies of the Field (1966): A black itinerant handy-man (Sidney Poitier) driving through the Arizona desert stops at a small farm to ask for some water. The farm is the home of a small group of nuns recent refugees from Eastern Europe. When this movie was made in the midst of the early 1960s civil right battles for integration and tolerance, a black man in the leading rôle made it seem that the movie was about race. Many years later, we see that race is just one of many differences the characters must understand in order to work together.

The Magnificent Seven (1963): Seven gunfighters join forces to protect a small Mexican farm community from bandits in the classic western (based on the Japanese movie The Seven Samurai). Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen lead the group. This is a thrilling American epic, with an unforgettable score.

The Miracle Worker (1962): The true story of Annie Sullivan, who found a way to reach her pupil, Helen Keller, a deaf and blind girl. Until Sallivan (Anne Bancroft) arrives, Helen (Patty Duke) is allowed to run completely wild. Sullivan's fierce determination to find a way to communicatte with Helen is looked upon by the family with reactions ranging from tolerant to scornful. Duke and Bancroft deservedly won Oscars for their roles. The moment when Helen realizes that language means something is one of the most indelible in movie history.

The Music Man (1962): A traveling salesman (Roebert Preston, repeating his Broadway rôle) comes to a small town in Iowa, planning to sell them a dream of a boys's band and skip town with the money. The skeptical town librarian (Shirley Jones) is the only one who isn't dazzled. As they fall in love, to some of the most joyously gorgeous music ever written, she learns about the importance of dreams from him, and he learns about the importance of responsibility from her.

A Night at the Opera (1935): Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx bring their sublime anarchy to perhaps its most appropriate venue – the opera. Groucho is a fast-talking fortune-hunter, and as usual chasing dim dowager Margaret Dumont. When she agrees to bring two opera stars to America (sweet Kitty Carlisle and cruel Walter Woolf King), Harpo, Chico, and romantic lead Allan Jones stow away. This movie contains many classic routines. The slapstick is zany and the wordplay riotous.

Sounder (1972): A rare movie about a loving and intact black family, this beautiful film about the coming age of a young man in the South of the 1930s is a quiet classic.

To  Kill a Mockingbird (1961):  A story of prejudice and injustice as seen through the eyes of a little girl, the daughter of a lawyer (Gregory Peck) who defends a black man against a black man against a trumped-up charge of assault in 1930s Georgia. The sense of time and place – not just the time in history, but the time in the lives of the little girl and her brother – is extraordinary. One of the best movies about childhood ever made.