Cinematic Distractions...

[dulcedemon]

The Lost Weekend(1945):
It's a good movie for old New York city scenes. Directed by Billy Wilder. Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, and Phillip Terry are the principal players here.
A writer struggles with alcoholism. His brother, and his girlfriend try to help him get sober. Howard Da Silva as Nat the bartender, and Doris Dowling as Gloria(a bar crawling working girl) enrich the debauchery. As good as the main trio of actors are together, the best lines are delivered by Frank Faylen, who plays nurse 'Bim' Nolan in the alcoholic ward where Ray Milland's character ends up after one of his many benders. He essentially gives him a "Welcome to Hell" speech about the ward, its patients, and the DTs he will soon experience. It's cold, creepy, and wild:
"Like to make a little bet? After all, you're just a Freshman. Wait till you're a Sophomore. That's when you start seeing the little animals. You know that stuff about pink elephants? That's the bunk. It's little animals. Little tiny turkeys in straw hats. Midget monkeys coming through the key holes. See that guy over there? With him, its beetles. Come the night, he sees beetles crawling all over him. Has to be dark though."
During a second viewing, I had a little fun with the opera scene by playing Wonderful Wino by Frank Zappa over it, beginning at the part where Don Birnam(Ray Milland) slips a bottle of rye into his overcoat pocket while still in the lobby.

Yes, Minister: Season 1(1980):
Dry white toast, and droll...It's tea with scones in lieu of biscuits. It's a long way to go for a joke sometimes, but it's worth it.

Undercover: How To Operate Behind Enemy Lines(1943):
An OSS[Office of Strategic Services] training film for educating field agents on what to do, and what not to do in order to succeed at undercover espionage.
In the what not to do examples, we have:
The spy who pays with outdated currency.
The spy who uses the wrong imported hair oil.
The spy who fails at local slang.
This followed by a contrast of two rookie agents, a cautious one who does pretty much everything right, and a brash one who flubs everything.
John Ford directs and stars.

Inside The Marx Brothers(2003):
If you know nothing about the Marx Brothers, this documentary is a great way to start. It's also fun for aficionados. A lot of the old footage is fuzzy, and I'm fairly certain I've seen at least some of it presented in better quality elsewhere.
It pointed out a major problem with our Marx Brothers movie collection. We have a lot of beginning: Animal Crackers, The Cocoanuts, Duck Soup, and Horse Feathers, and we have the end: Love Happy, but no middle. Of middle I want to buy, A Day at the Races is the first to come to mind.

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus(2019):
This was on the previous list. I watched it a second time during which I paid attention to the animation over the dialogue. It's listed again for how damn good it looks.