MOVIE TRIPLETS

I was down in Georgia for Thanksgiving, visiting family that left Jersey for homes at half the price and twice the size, and taxes one tenth to one hundredth the amount.

Me and my ten-year-old took the overnight train, coach seats down, a sleeper back. Seventeen and a half hours. People ask if we didn’t get bored. But in fact, we brought along DVDs to watch on my laptop and never got around to it because time passed so quickly, making new acquaintances in the dining car and café car, and on the way down in our coach car, as well as checking out the sites as we passed them (very close to the Jefferson Memorial, a good eye line on nearby Congress and Washington Monument, etc. as we passed through DC for instance), reading (me) and game boy-ing (him), but mostly socializing with each other and fellow passengers. Lots of room (he could stretch his leg out and not touch the seat in front of him for instance, in the coach seats) and lots of walking around (the aisles twice as wide as in airplanes), and for the most part the dining car meals were excellent.

Anyway, I came down with an incredibly kick-ass cold while in Georgia, and it’s been waking me up at night ever since. So, last night, to put myself back to sleep, I thought I’d combine my two favorite list-making devices—trinities and alphabets—and came up with the idea of movie triplets. See if you can guess the connection that unites each set of triplets (at least in my mind), sometimes obvious, sometimes not so.

AMERICAN GRAFFITI
AMERICAN HOT WAX
AMERICAN POP

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE
BADLANDS
BAD BOYS (the one with Sean Penn)

CASABLANCA
THE CLOCK
CABARET

DUCK SOUP
DUMB & DUMBER
DOGMA

EATING RAOUL
EATING
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN

FORT APACHE (Wayne & Fonda!)
THE FOUR FEATHERS
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

THE GODFATHER I
THE GODFATHER II
GOODFELLAS

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
HELP!
HEAR MY SONG

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
I MARRIED A WITCH

JULIET OF THE SPIRITS
JACOB’S LADDER
JESUS OF MONTREAL

THE KILLERS (the 1946 Burt Lancaster one)
THE KILLING
KING OF NEW YORK

THE LADY VANISHES
THE LADY EVE
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (the Frank Sinatra original)
MANHUNTER
MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY

NATIONAL VELVET
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS

OPEN CITY
ODD MAN OUT
ON THE WATERFRONT

PALM BEACH STORY
PHILADELPHIA STORY
PAL JOEY

THE QUARE FELLOW
Q & A
QUADROPHENIA

RUGGLES OF RED GAP
RED RIVER
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY

SAPPHIRE
SHADOWS
SECRETS & LIES

TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH
TWELVE ANGRY MEN
TWELVE MONKEYS

UNION PACIFIC
THE UNFORGIVEN
UNFORGIVEN

VIVA ZAPATA!
THE VALACHI PAPERS
VINCENT & THEO

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
WAG THE DOG
WAITING FOR GUFFMAN

X—THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES
THE X-FILES
X-MEN

THE YOUNG LIONS
THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS
THE YOUNG SAVAGES

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz