The Post Goes Through Past Shows and Movies Featuring Locals
JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter
As a huge Goldie Hawn fan, planning a movie night to watch her old films was not to be missed during so many nights at home.
In our family, during warmer weather, we like to bring out the projector and watch movies outside. Choosing any two of her movies is destined to create a fun, light-hearted, double-feature to brighten the mood—even in a roundup, because there’s so many to choose from.
If you want to start at the beginning, Hawn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “Cactus Flower” in 1969 with Walter Matthau. The film is about a dentist who pretends to be married to avoid commitment but then falls for Hawn’s character.
Matthau’s questionable character requires suspension of disbelief, but Hawn carries herself in a way that’s relatable versus a victim as she declares: “All my life people have lied to me and I can’t stand it.”
Since then, she has made countless movies, and I try to watch all of them.
I have seen the 1987 “Overboard,” starring Hawn with longtime partner Kurt Russell so many times, if it was a book, it would be weathered and worn.
It is a comedy about a snobby heiress who is disparaging to her hired carpenter. When she falls overboard, loses her memory and her own husband doesn’t go to pick her up, the carpenter, played by Russell, takes her in from the hospital and convinces her they’re married with three children.
I also revisited the amusing 1980 comedy “Private Benjamin.” In this film, Hawn plays a high-society young woman who joins the United States Army on a whim and finds herself in a more difficult situation than she anticipated—and it makes for a good pick-me-up story.
Set locally in California, the outstanding 1978 romantic comedy mystery “Foul Play,” starring Hawn and fellow Palisadian Chevy Chase, is one of my favorites. It mixes crime solving and romance.
Hawn plays a shy but independent San Francisco librarian who finds herself being tracked down by criminals while she is unwittingly in possession of something they need. Meanwhile, the cop that comes to help her, Chase, turns out to be rather charming.
Whatever Hawn film you choose, I hope her bright personality and comedic acting chops will entertain your family as much as it does ours.
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