This weekend we saw Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), which was pretty out-dated. Some pretty scenery, which I guess one expects in a Western. In addition to Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as 'Doc' Holliday, both looking very young, there were roles for Dennis Hopper (looking very young), and appearances by Lee Van Cleef and DeForest Kelley (some pics here). Despite being dated and kind of hokey, it was watchable, although I found the title song absolutely excruciating. I kept expecting DeForest Kelley to say, Jim! Jim!; then I guess Kirk Douglas would morph into Leonard Nimoy as 'Doc' Holliday/Spock, and Burt as Capt. Kirk. Hmm, maybe that was the subtext. (Update: no, no! Captain Kirk Douglas! Arrgh!)

Then, coincidentally, we saw Louis Malle's Atlantic City (1980), also with Burt Lancaster, this time older (no surprise) as well as a young, wide-eyed Susan Sarandon and a brief appearance by Wallace Shawn as a waiter. I enjoyed watching it, although the plot becomes increasingly unlikely in retrospect. For example the fact that a hot young babe washes her boobs facing a window where an old coot can peep at her. Maybe that's a French thing about sex; after all, Louis Malle also directed Le Souffle au coeur (1971) with an incest scene and Pretty Baby (1978; you know what that's about, right?). Then again, if I recall correctly, Le Feu follet (1963) didn't have much sex, just suicide. (My mother's favorite quote from that movie: "La vie est bonne, Alain.")