Movies for the Day, Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Today's movies mark a Switzerland holiday, the birthday of Herman Melville, and a Spider-Man anniversary.







Heidi (1937) is the classic story of an
orphan girl in Switzerland.  Switzerland's
Confederation Day is August 1 (1291).  This movie
is set in 19th century Switzerland.  The author of
the book is Johanna Spyri.  This family musical has
been remade often under the same name:  in 1952, 1965,
1968 (TV movie), and 1993 (Disney TV movie).  See also
Heidi and Peter (1955), a followup to the 1952 movie,
and Heidi's Song (1982), an animated version.  The 1968
movie won an Emmy for Musical Composition.


Heidi









Billy Budd (1962) is the story of a
naive seaman in the British Navy in
1797 accused of murder.  This movie,
which pits good vs. evil, is based on the
classic novel by Herman Melville, born
August 1, 1819.





Billy Budd

Spider-Man 2 (2004) is based on the
comic book hero who first appeared in
Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962.
The first volume of The Amazing Spider
Man comic books was in March 1963.  This
movie won an Oscar for Visual Effects.  We
featured Spider-Man last year.  March 14 is
National Save a Spider Day.  See Spider-Man
3 (2007).



Spider-Man 2