Quarter of a Million Views…and Counting

When I started out in 2020 and could barely notch up 100 views a month it seemed like I would never make any significant impact in movie blog world. But now with views in the region of 11,000 a month, I have amassed a grand total of 250,000 views.

Seems an unlikely reward for doing something that gives me so much pleasure. I love watching movies – two, sometimes, three contemporary ones on my weekly Monday outing to the cineplex and then one a day for the rest of the week.  However, the bigger reward is being able to mine a decade that is scarcely touched by contemporary academics. I’m sure critical reappraisal, like everything, goes in cycles. I recall massive interest in the films of Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis. At various times horror or sci fi and noir have been the order of the day.

Although I grew up in the 1960s, I didn’t do much cinemagoing. I lived in the one town in the whole of Britain that – thanks to the planners of a new town – lacked a cinema. Excursions were limited to a family outing at Xmas – a roadshow trip to see The Sound of Music (1965) or Oliver! (1968) – and the summer holidays, which might mean the sumptuous Jason and the Argonauts (1963) or, more likely, less memorable Disney fare. One summer me and my brother were despatched into Glasgow for a matinee showing of El Dorado (1967) – I’m not sure my mother was so aware of Howard Hawks, but still. I also saw Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on reissue and when I could choose to spend my pocket money any way I liked I walked a couple of miles to the La Scala in Clydebank and plonked down my cash for a matinee performance of Custer of the West (1967), Krakatoa, East of Java (1968) and Carry On Again Doctor (1969).

I also sauntered once a week down to the main road to check out the giant hoarding that showed what was showing at the La Scala. Unusually, I was kept well informed of what was on at the main first- and second-run houses in Glasgow because I attended secondary school in the city center and, if I took a later train home, could potter along the two main intersecting streets and check out the stills outside eight cinemas and I learned if you pressed your glass to the window of the front door you could spot a poster advertising what was coming next. By that time I had started buying Photoplay and ABC Film Review.

But my real education started at university. I could rearrange my own schedule to suit and nip off to the cinema at any point and with the beginnings of the multiplex found there were even more movies on offer. I was astonished to discover the university offered a film course as part of a drama course so that was a movie a week, plus I joined the university film society and for a time reviewed movies for the university newspaper so that automatically extended by viewing pleasure to include both the esoteric and the common. I would also scour the city for older films putting in a rare appearance. I saw Spartacus (1961) – on a five-hour double bill – in the vast chasm of the Parade in Dennistoun, visited the Vogue in Riddrie, the Lyceum in Govan, the Odeon at Anniesland, the Mayfair in Battlefield, the Kelburne in Paisley and many others.

Thereafter, I had created a lifelong pleasure. When I moved to London, one of the joys of my Saturday afternoon was nipping into the West End and not just trawling past all the first run houses but also pottering along Wardour St and peering into the windows of all the major studio head offices and discovering forthcoming films that had hadn’t even been mentioned in the fan magazines or even the more esteemed Films and Filming.

I discovered, too, that I didn’t have to wait months, as in Glasgow, for a new film to turn up even at the first run houses, but could see pictures virtually the moment they appeared. Thus, I was one of the first in the queue for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, Midnight Express and if I didn’t care to fork out West End prices I had two triples close to my home.

Excepting my Monday outings, I don’t have to go anywhere. I just dig into my massive selection of DVDs, prop my feet up every evening and watch an old movie. I’ve no idea, really, why I decided on the 1960s as my chosen era. Perhaps it was because my cinematic education was formed in the 1970s and due to city planners and disinterested parents I had missed out entirely on the 1960s – I didn’t see my first James Bond until the 1970s.

My viewing doesn’t follow, thank goodness, any discernible critical or academic bent. I just pop into the machine whatever takes my fancy. But I’ve realized that students of movies usually stick to a tried-and-tested route, usually decided by previous academics who ignored the vast catalog of movies in favor of a select few and while claiming to study a “period” actually ignore the era because they don’t have a clue what audiences of the decade actually watched and would be shocked that their eclectic tastes were not reflected by the ordinary moviegoer.

Anyway, it’s thanks to you, my viewers, that I owe the honor of celebrating reaching the 250,000-view landmark. So three cheers to you for following me on my journey.