Classic Horror Movies available on You Tube

German influenced design

The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) Vincent Price Horror/Comedy
The Ape (1940)
The Bat Whispers (1930)
The Black Raven (1943)
The Black Doll (1938)
The Body Disappears (1941)
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) *
Cry of the Werewolf (1944)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920) *
The Ghost Train (1941)
Horror Island (1941)
House of Dracula (1945)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) *
Invisible Ghost (1941)
The Lodger (1944)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
The Mummy's Ghost (1940)
The Mummy's Tomb (1944)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Nosferatu (1922) *
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) *
Phantom Ship (1935)
Premature Burial (1962)
The Thirteenth Guest (1932)


* Silent Movies

Films I am ashamed of liking - guilty pleasures

Howard Hughes (reportedly) watched "Ice Station Zebra" over 100 times. I have never seen it... but here are my guilty pleasures, meaning I have watched them at least twice and wouldn't mind if they popped up on TV in the near future.
In no special order:
"Airport" (1970)
"Bring It On" (2000)
"The Wrecking Crew" (1968)
"The Maltese Bippy" (1969)
"10 Things I Hate About You" (1999)
"You Only Live Twice" (1967)
"Where Eagles Dare" (1968)
"16 Candles" (1984)
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1966)
"Gypsy" (1962)
"What a Way to Go!" (1964)
"Goldmember" (2002) the first five minutes are priceless (Cruise, Britney, Spielberg, Spacey and Quincy Jones!)
"Carry On Screaming" (1968)
"Clueless" (1995)
"The Holiday" (2006) great cast plus Eli Wallach as Hollywood yoda

any Universal Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolfman/Mummy movie before 1940

(this is a work in progress)

The A-Z of forgotten (but good fun) films

The Assassination Bureau (1969, Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg)
Bedazzled (1967, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore)
The Cat and the Canary (1939, Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard)
Danger: Diabolik (1967, see it just for John Phillip Law's bonkers underground lair)
Experiment in Terror (1962, who knew Blake Edwards could make thrillers?)
The Face of Fu Manchu (1965, typical Hammer Films class)
Hackers (1995, Jonny Lee Miller, and a punky Angelina Jolie)
Into the Night (1985, John Landis includes a truckful of his favourite directors in cameos)
The Jokers (1966, yes, Michael Winner can make a good film)
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977, see it for the Bruce Lee sendup movie)
Lady on a Train (1945, nifty whodunit, Deanna Durbin even gets a chance to sing)
Murder by Decree (1979,versatile director Bob Clark's take on Sherlock vs Jack the Ripper)
The Nanny (1965, another Hammer gem, Bette Davis chewing up the scenery)
The Only Game in Town (1970, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, George Stevens directed)
Pretty Poison (1968, the gorgeous Tuesday Weld and weirdo Anthony Perkins up to no good)
Queen of Spades (1949, atmospheric British gem)
Raw Meat (1972, cannibals in the London underground, originally titled Deathline)
Starstruck (1982, Australian pop music/media satire, great score, look out for Geoffrey Rush)
Take the Money and Run (1968, Woody Allen's first movie as actor/writer/director, patchy but some gags are the funniest he has every written)
The Uninvited (1944, ripper haunted house flick, Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey)
Valley Girl (1983, Martha Coolidge's 80's time capsule, Nicolas Cage has hair - gelled of course, great soundtrack)
What a Way to Go! (1964, huge cast, black comedy/movie genres satire, overblown but very watchable)
X - The Man with X-ray Eyes (1963, Roger Corman's creepy B sci fi set in Las Vegas, killer finale)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985, great production values, nice tone, stay around the post-credits scene)
Zulu (1964, riveting, excellent British cast, you won't forget the image of the warriors lining the ridge)

Add a word, ruin a movie

Saw this on Twitter. This is contagious. Here are mine. Apologies for Melbourne locales in some:

• "Last Tango in Paris Hilton"
• "La Dolce Vita Brits"
• "Pirates of the Caribbean Market"
• "The African Drag Queen"
• "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Boots"
• "Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert Trolley"
• "Raging Turnbull"
• "Night of the Tab Hunter"
• "Schindler's Shopping List"
• "The Deer Park Hunter"
• "Blade Runner Bean"
• "Jurassic Noble Park"
• "An American in Paris Hilton"
• "From Russia, with Courtney Love"
• "Goldfinger Buns"
• "Thunderball Sac"

These are credited to Luke Buckmaster:

"Dog Day Afternoon Tea", "The Life of Meat Pi", "Whatever Happened to Baby Bob Jane?", "Lawn Bowling for Columbine", "His Girl TGI Friday"

1964 - a good year for films

From a baby boomer's perspective, 1964 had some outstanding (English speaking) movie releases.
Here's my top 10 (in no special order, last 4 are strictly guilty pleasure flicks):

• "My Fair Lady"
• "Fail Safe"
• "Seven Days In May"
• "Goldfinger"
• "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
• "The Pawnbroker"
• "Marnie"
• "The Fall of the Roman Empire"
• "The Carpetbaggers"
• "What a Way to Go!"

The pain of being a crap blogger

You're about to go to sleep.... when you think of a great idea for a blog post.
Movies with exclamation marks in their title - it's a dead giveaway - they're either horror/exploitation movies (countless drive-in fodder), trying too hard ("What A Way To Go!), a pisstake ("The Informant!", "Airplane!", "Mars Attacks!") or a musical "Oliver!", "Moulin Rouge!", "Oklahoma!", "Mamma Mia!"). Well, that was my great (original?) idea. Sounds good at 11:30 at night.
Then I google the punctuated movie titles.
Crap ... stacks of posts already, better written and researched than the above.
FAIL.
But my theory stands.

Cannon Group Films, Golan-Globus Productions: Dodgy movies from the eighties

A trip to the video library in the 1980's meant shelves and shelves of Golan-Globus fodder. The output ranged from the arty farty like "Runaway Train" (Jon Voight) and "Company of Wolves" (both 1985), to the respectable - Meryl Streep's "Evil Angels"/"A Cry in the Dark" (1988) to the downright awful -  Bo Derek's "Bolero" (1984).
Mostly it was B action/exploitation movies: Chuck Norris dross, "Missing in Action" (1984), "The Delta Force" (1986) or youth-oriented break dancing movies like "Breakin'" and the sequel "Electric Boogaloo" (1984).
There were a few bigger budget efforts like "King Solomon's Mines" (1985), the Tobe Hooper's fascinating but nutty "Lifeforce", Tobe's remake of "Invaders From Mars" (1986) and the guilty pleasure that is "Superman IV, The Quest For Peace" (1987). By the end of the eighties the wheels were starting to come off the Cannon cart, sliding into bankruptcy by the 1990's.
You had to admire the chutzpah of these two Jewish cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Kings of the Video Library bargain bin.

Avco-Embassy, Joseph E. Levine guilty pleasure movies

Image Copyright Sony Corp/cinemadumeep.com

Joseph E. Levine was a movie producer who founded Embassy Pictures. He once said that you can fool everybody if the advertising is right. And he was a master. He produced classy pictures like "The Graduate", "The Producers", "The Lion in Winter", "Carnal Knowledge" and the war epic "A Bridge Too Far"; but mostly they were trashy but fun movies.

Being a teenager and a young adult in the 70's and early 80's I watched a lot of schlocky Avco Embassy films. Here's my guilty pleasures for what they are worth:

"The Carpetbaggers" 1964 roughly based on Howard Hughes, trashy = sex+Hollywood+planes+power, this ain't Scorsese's "The Aviator".
"Robbery" 1967, based on the Great Train Robbery in 1963.
"The Day of the Dolphin" 1973 Mike Nicholls directed this George C. Scott movie about training cute sea mammals to blow up the US President.
"The Manitou" 1978, Tony Curtis does horror (to pay his debts obviously)
"Murder by Decree" 1979 Christopher Plummer and James Mason (as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson) meet Jack the Ripper in this nifty Canadian production. Directed by Bob Clark - a versatile director - from teen flick "Porky's" (1982) to the delightful "A Christmas Story" (1983). Now that's a big jump!
"The Fog" 1980, John Carpenter horror
"Escape from New York" 1980, John Carpenter sci fi with Kurt Russell kicking butt.
"Scanners" 1980, David Cronenberg horror sci fi
"The Howling" 1981, Ground breaking werewolf makeup, Joe Dante has a lot of fun in this, avoid sequels.
"Swamp Thing" 1982, Wes Craven directed.


.

50 movies that shaped the baby boomer generation - from "A Summer Place" to "Summer of '42"

I was born in 1956. Baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964 according to U.S. Census definition. Most of the films listed are Hollywood produced. During this period, movies reflected changing mores and social change.

This film listing is from 1959 to 1972

My coding is as follows:

B = Big Box Office popularity
G = Ground breaking movies, taboos broken - sex/violence/language on the screen
A = Art house, new trends, political/social comments


1959 "A Summer Place" G
"Some Like It Hot" B, G
"Pillow Talk" B
"Imitation of Life" B
"North By Northwest" B

1960 "Psycho" G
"The Magnificent Seven" B
"The Apartment" G
"Spartacus" B

1961 "West Side Story" G, B
"La Dolce Vita" A, G

1962 "The Manchurian Candidate" G
"Lolita" G
 "To Kill A Mockingbird" G
"Lawrence of Arabia" B

1963"The Great Escape" B
"Tom Jones" G
"Dr No" B
"8 1/2" A

1964 "Dr Strangelove, Or: How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" A
"A Hard Day's Night" G, B
"Goldfinger" B

1965 "For a Few Dollars More" G
1966 "A Man and a Woman" A

1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" G, A
"The Graduate" G, B
"Blow Up" G, A
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" G
"In the Heat of the Night" G

1968 "Bullitt" G
"Rosemary's Baby" G
"Planet of the Apes" G
"2001: A Space Odyssey" G, A
"Midnight Cowboy" G
"The Producers" G
"Night of the Living Dead" G

1969 "The Wild Bunch" G
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" B
"Easy Rider" G
"Alice's Restaurant" A, G

1970 "Woodstock" G
"M*A*S*H"  G, B
"Five Easy Pieces" A

1971 "Dirty Harry" G
"The French Connection" G, B
"Shaft" G
"A Clockwork Orange" G, A
"The Last Picture Show" G
"Summer of '42"  B

1972 "The Godfather" B, G

1939 - the year of the classic movies

Check out the incredible films released in 1939, in no particular order:

Stagecoach, Goodbye, Mr Chips, The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, The Roaring Twenties, Of Mice and Men, Wuthering Heights, It's a Wonderful Life, Beau Geste, Destry Rides Again, Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Women, Dark Victory, The Cat and the Canary, The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, my only foreign pick), Only Angels Have Wings, Mr Smith Goes to Washington,
oh, and a little movie called  Gone with the Wind.

MGM Movies - my guilty pleasures

Image Copyright MGM corporation/fanpop.com

I am starting at 1959 (I was around 4 years old, old enough to remember a movie, I reckon).

1959  The World, the Flesh and the Devil post apocalypse  New York - stunning street scenes
1960  The Time Machine George Pal triumph, creepy Morlocks, loads of fun; Village of the Damned you will never look at fair haired kids the same way
1961  Atlantis, the Lost Continent George Pal again
1962  How the West was Won incredible cast, MGM pulled all the stops out, James Stewart segment the best, Alfred Newman's kick ass score is perfect
1963  The V.I.P.s   glossy crap but compelling, a young Maggie Smith steals the picture from Liz and Dick; The Haunting (see my post "Films that scared the shit out of me"; The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (George Pal must have had a BIG office at MGM)
1964  The Seven Faces of Dr Lao Tony Randall has a field day so does William Tuttle (make-up chief)
1965  The Loved One (a brave try, crazy cast) ; The Hill (Sean Connery and Sidney Lumet - very tough movie)
1966  Mr Buddwing (You can't beat a good amnesiac plot.)
1967  The Dirty Dozen  Everything works in this action movie.
1968  Hot Millions (nifty caper movie with Maggie Smith and Peter Ustinov); The Legend of Lylah Clare (over the top Hollywood celebrities and secrets, campy fun)
1969  Where Eagles Dare (can be watched numerous times, much to enjoy); The Maltese Bippy (forgive me)
1970  Kelly's Heroes (I was desperate); Dark Shadows (It was released as House of Dark Shadows in Australia); Get Carter gritty Brit thriller, one of the first <R> movies I saw
1971  The Boy Friend (Ken Russell, Twiggy, Max Adrian, Glenda Jackson - an absolute delight); Shaft (blaxploitation goes mainstream); Pretty Maids All in a Row (delightfully sleazy Roger Vadim black comedy with Rock Hudson as the murderer)
1972  nil
1973  Westworld (Michael Crichton in top form, in 1973, this was so fresh and inventive - much copied - Yul Brynner as robot gunslinger, truly inspirational)
1974  nil
1975  The Wind and the Lion (John Milius's most consistent movie, knockout cast - Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, John Huston, love Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt) co-produced with Columbia
1976-1980  it's embarrassing, the Lion didn't roar much
1981  Clash of the Titans lots to like here, check out the Gods on Olympus (Larry, Maggy and Ursula), avoid the remake.
1982 Victor/Victoria - everything works in this film. Robert Preston, what a star. That voice!
1983 A Christmas Story Amazingly none of the studio wanted to touch this story about a kid wishing for a BB gun that is now a seasonal classic. Bob Clark had just directed teen sex comedy Porky's. Talk about a change in pace! Apparently Jack Nicholson was interested in the father part. Darren McGavin is incredible though - warm, grumpy and flawed (like most dads).

Disney movies - guilty pleasures

Copyright The Walt Disney Company/wallsave.com

As I was born in 1956, I will start when I can first remember seeing a Disney film.....

1959  Darby O'Gill and the Little People   probably saw it in 1960.
The banshees' Death Coach scared the crap out of me. Would have made a good ride ("E" ticket at Disneyland). They don't use that term anymore. Also pre-007 Connery was on board.
1961  One Hundred and One Dalmatians - liked Cruella's mansion art design
The Parent Trap the thing I most remember was the incredible queues of cars outside the drive-in to see this (this was huge in Australia) also seeing TWO Hayley Mills (split screen was movie magic). Few years later TV ripped this off with The Patty Duke Show (another guilty pleasure .... maybe another post?)
1962  In Search of the Castaways  I remember a crazy avalanche (?) scene set in New Zealand, wildly imaginative, typical Disney class, superb art direction/special effects. Hayley Mills meets Jules Verne.
1963  The Sword in the Stone You can't beat a classic story. Madame Mim is a dead ringer for a former teaching colleague (but I digress)
1964  Not Mary Poppins too long (140 mins) for kids, well I got a wriggly bum.
1965-1969 - nothing of interest to me
1970  The Boatniks only because of Phil Silvers and Joe E. Ross
1971  Bedknobs and Broomsticks only because of Angela Lansbury (117 mins, why were Disney movies so long?)
1972 -1976  to me, Disney was uncool
1977  The Rescuers;  Freaky Friday a return to form (we won't mention Pete's Dragon....)
1978  Candleshoe  Jodie Foster (again) with a great Brit cast.
1979  The Black Hole (I think I was the only one in the cinema) a brave try, great John Barry score but the ending....??!!
1980  Not Popeye  ...R.I.P.   Robert Altman directed this!!
1981  Dragonslayer - slow to develop, but a stunning film, the dragon will knock yer socks off, Sir Ralph Richardson, Alex North musical score. Highly recommended.
1982  Tron - ahead of its time, staggering design but a bit of a bore.
1983  Something Wicked This Way Comes - flawed masterpiece, not a crowd pleaser, very atmospheric, creepy Jonathan Pryce and tarantulas.
1984  Splash - finally Disney gets a hit! Forget about The Black Cauldron (has its moments, but read the three books, Lloyd Alexander's The Prydain Chronicles)
1989  The Little Mermaid using Alan Menken and Howard Ashman really paid off for Disney
1996  The Hunchback of Notre Dame superb Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz score, too dark for kids
1997  Hercules wondrous Menken/Zippel score, reminiscent of Little Shop of Horrors, cool gospel singers/Greek chorus, James Woods as Hades. Perfect
2001  Spirited Away produced by Studio Ghibli, English version is very respectful though.
2004  The Lion King 1 and a half  Nathan Lane is hilarious, lovely movie send-ups; Howl's Moving Castle Studio Ghibli again but I found the Japanese version hazy, confusing in parts, talented voice cast - Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall, Christian Bale
2005  Sky High fun for adults and kids - the Disney formula (entertainment on two levels)
2007  Enchanted the ending drops the ball but the rest is smart and a delightful 'Disney princess' tribute. Amy Adams is such a versatile actress. Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz score is a delight.

The crappiest James Bond moments

In the interest of 'equal time', I am now going to slag off my favourite movie franchise.....

• the last few minutes of Goldfinger (Did they run out of money? The tropical island looks like they are in the local botanical gardens. You can see the wires on Goldfinger's plummetting Gulfstream jet.)
• Bond slapping his female colleague, Dink, on the bottom with the comment, "Run along, Dink... Man talk!"
• Roger Moore looking tired in A View to a Kill
• protracted underwater scenes in Thunderball
• in You Only Live Twice some of the space scenes look like an episode of Thunderbirds (thank God for John Barry's score)
• when Blofeld's white pussy goes apeshit (clawing desperately at Donald Pleasance) because of the explosions sounding off on the Pinewood set (volcano/rocket base), You Only Live Twice
• Bond and Tracey prancing around like some demented shampoo commercial to the strains of Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• all of Octopussy

I am sure you have others.

Warner Bros. movies - guilty pleasures

I will start from 1960, when I was four because I reckon from that age you can absorb and remember the film.

Copyright TimeWarner Company/tvtropes.org

• 1960 Ocean's Eleven; The Sundowners (Robert Mitchum does a passable Aussie accent)
• 1961 Splendour in the Grass (Warren Beatty + Natalie Wood)
• 1962 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?; The Music Man; Gypsy (a good year)
• 1963 Critic's Choice (Bob Hope&Lucille Ball)
• 1964 My Fair Lady
• 1965 The Great Race (too long but great production and superb Mancini score)
• 1966 Inside Daisy Clover; Harper/The Moving Target; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (another good year
• 1967 Hotel, Bonnie and Clyde
• 1968 Bullitt
• 1969 The Illustrated Man
• 1970 Trog (cringeworthy, Joan Crawford must have been skint)
• 1971 Dirty Harry, The Omega Man (vengeful mutants to a lovely Ron Grainer score)
• 1972 What's Up Doc?
• 1973 The Last of Sheila; O Lucky Man
• 1974 Blazing Saddles; The Towering Inferno (both comedies)
• 1975 The Yakusa (check out the talent: Mitcham, Paul Schrader, Robert Towne, Sydney Pollack)
• 1976 The Ritz
• 1977 The Late Show
• 1978 Capricorn One; Movie Movie; Superman
• 1979 A Little Romance (really sweet movie, old ham Lawrence Olivier, a teenage Diane Lane)
• 1980 Altered States (Ken Russell doing what Ken Russell used to do, Paddy Chayefsky was pissed off with adaptation)
• 1981 Body Heat; Excalibur (2 dynamite movies)
• 1982 Blade Runner
• 1983 The Right Stuff (remember when Hollywood blockbusters could still be intelligent and not comic/video game driven?)
• 1984 Razorback (giant pig demolishes house, lounge TV showing Don and Bert's Wheel segment - great first scene, Mr Mulcahy)
• 1985 Spies Like Us;  Mishimi
• 1986 Little Shop of Horrors (Steve Martin is sublime, great film adaptation)
• 1987 The Lost Boys; Innerspace

"Guilty pleasure" movies - from Columbia Pictures

I will begin when I was four years old, old enough to remember seeing the movie.

1960 Guns of Navarone *
1961 Mysterious Island
1962 The Notorious Landlady *  (great use of "A Foggy Day In London Town")
1963 Bye Bye Birdie *
1964 The Long Ships
1965 Bunny Lake Is Missing * (gripping black and white movie)
1966 The Silencers * (Dino is no Sean Connery, but Stella Stevens works)
1967 The Ambushers * (cringe-worthy dialogue, but great fun)
1968 Funny Girl *
1969 The Wrecking Crew * (last Matt Helm film - Sharon Tate is a trick)
1970 The Owl and the Pussycat * (stunning opening titles and score)
1971 The Anderson Tapes (great use of split screens); Dollars (another heist movie, ultra-long chase scene)
1972 Butterflies Are Free (Goldie Hawn again!)
1973 Oklahoma Crude *
1974 The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (all hail, Ray Harryhausen)
1975 Bite The Bullet; Stepford Wives (another deadheat, couldn't decide)
1976 Murder By Death (wet Neil Simon effort but knockout cast)
1977 The Deep * (John Barry does disco, Nolte and Bissett in the Caribbean)
1978 The Eyes Of Laura Mars *
1979 All That Jazz *
1980 Seems Like Old Times
1981 Stripes
1982 Tootsie (a near perfect film, so I suppose it isn't a "guilty pleasure")
1983 Blue Thunder
1984 Body Double (Brian DePalma doing another Hitchcock hommage)
1985 Fright Night (stands up well, better than remake, Roddy McDowell - nice touch)
1986 Stand By Me (best ever Stephen King adaptation)
1987 Hope And Glory (watch for John Boorman's son, Charley as crashed German pilot)



1988 Vibes (Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk in Machu Picchu - what is not to like?)

* denotes musical score of note (in my humble opinion)

Columbia Logo Copyright Sony Pictures Entertainment/logobuffer.com
Vibes images Copyright www.thereelbits.com

Films that scared the shit out of me as a kid

• Darby O'Gill and the Little People  (probably saw it in 1960, made in 1959) the wonderful special effects like the Banshees and the Death Coach were a bit of a worry for a four year old.
• I only saw the trailer of Psycho (1960) when I was four and a half. I refused to go back to the same cinema the following week, regardless of what was playing.
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth (the giant reptiles wedged in the caverns spooked me, the Bernard Herrmann music didn't help.  Scared shitless at the old Rosebud Cinema in 1960.)
• The chase through the woods, Scout wearing the Thanksgiving costume in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
• Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962). My parents took me to the drive-in. Were they mad?
• The Haunting (1963) also at the drive-in. Is there a theme developing here?
• The Innocents (1963)  the scene with the gamekeeper at the window, Peter Wyngarde?
• Zulu (1964) - nasty spearing scene caused me to dash off to the toilet and vomit on the shiny floor - a disgruntled cleaner gave me a mop - mother and usherette were royally pissed when they saw me white faced and mop in hand. I may have had the mumps. Memory hazy.
• The baboon scene in Sands of the Kalahari (1965).    
• A Man Called Horse (1970) I could not watch the complete Indian 'Vow to the Sun' ritual sequence when Richard Harris (Morgan) is suspended by his chest skin.  Grossed out rather than scared.     

 LATER....Two Dan Curtis TV movies:  The Norliss Tapes (1973) and Karen Black's African fetish doll in Trilogy of Terror (1975), see top right.


Image Copyright 1975 Dan Curtis Productions/ABC.

Baby names rant. Weird name = Child abuse???

Poor kids who have to put up with weird first names. The trend is pick names of places or adjectives to make the child stand out, unique and special. Flash forward 40 years. Having to spell out your esoteric name countless times in myriad situations - you would want to change it by deed poll. As an ex-teacher I have heard some doozies. Example: Girl's surname was Bux. Mum went with "Star". Gloria Jean is easier but not as funny. Will it be as funny in 40 years? It's like getting an extravagant tattoo as a teenager and be stuck with it when you have kids. But I won't get started on tats.
Traditional names LAST (endure). My daughter's name is May. We have never met another May. Popular as a middle name though. When my wife was pregnant we were looking for a Christian name. I flicked though my trusty copy of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide tome. The page fell on a Mae West movie and we had our name. Others in the running were Grace and Ruby. I heard today Dave Hughes's new daughter is named Tess Clementine. Love it.