Classic movie gush

Sometimes I read what I last wrote and I regret it. For example, in my last post, I sound smug when really all I wanted to say was, 'The Engine Room was really amazing and I hope lots of people go to see it.'

Anyway. Last week while buying a birthday card, I glanced to my right and saw something that immediately filled me with joy. It was the 40th Anniversary Edition DVD of The Railway Children movie that I had watched countless times when I was younger. I didn't care that it was ridiculously over-priced, I had to buy it immediately. One of the reasons being, I had never seen the first 15 minutes or so of the movie because my Mum had videoed it off TV and had missed the start, so when we watched the video it always started from when they arrived at Three Chimneys.

I loved this movie so much when I was younger, along with Little Women, and so wished I lived in a time when there were candles and lamps and long dresses, that one day when my Mum happened to make apple pie, I made her and my sister dress in shawls with me, close the curtains, light a candle, and pretend we were like the family in the movie when they arrive at the house and have the apple pie left for them by the housekeeper. One of the best things about my Mum is that she actually went along with many of my amazing ideas ('Can we dig a hole in the ground by the tree hut and make a little fire in it and cook things over it?' What kind of mother says yes to that? An AWESOME one).

I had told Alex this story when I was suggesting we watch The Railway Children for classic movie Sunday and explaining how excited I was to be able to watch the movie again and see the start for the first time. And because Alex is potentially the best person ever to live, look what she made to accompany the movie:

It was outstandingly delicious.

Someone at work had warned me watching the movie again would ruin it for me because it wouldn't be as good as I remembered (because obviously, having bought the DVD at lunchtime, I went back to work and talked a lot about how much I loved the movie, and how I wanted to go home right then and watch it, and told the apple pie and shawls story, and generally added to the ever growing number of reasons people at my work think I am unhinged).

I was adamant seeing The Railway Children again could only reinforce my love for it and I was right. The movie was just as amazing as I remembered, but better because it was even funnier than I remembered. Some of the comedy is intentional, some of it is the result of being 40 years old. I still love the station porter, Mr Perks, the best. And the Mum is such a babe.

Because of such modern conveniences as Wikipedia, I learned that the actress who played the middle child, Phyllis, was actually 20 when they made the movie and she was playing an 11 year old. Crazy. She's a pain in the movie anyway. Which was great for classic movie Sunday because we tend to shout at the TV screen and talk to the characters when they're annoying. Naturally.