Recently in Great Movie Moments Category

Rotten Tomatoes salutes "Whip It" with a list of the best roller skating scenes in movies. My favorite is this one, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers skating to "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."

And I also love Gene Kelly's athletic tap dance on roller skates in "It's Always Fair Weather."

And also wonderful is Charlie Chaplin's roller skating in "The Rink," as graceful as dancing.

Another "moon" movie moment -- Audrey Hepburn sings "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Cinematical has a great tribute to one of my favorites, Doris Day's "The Thrill of it All." Day was so wholesome that it is easy to forget how talented she was, but she could do it all -- sing, dance, act, and above all, she is one of the best light comediennes in Hollywood history. I love The Thrill of It All!, a hilarious romp that as Cinematical notes makes some very sharp and timely points about our consumer society. Watch the scene they focus on and keep in mind that this film was made during the era now portrayed in the Mad Men television series.

Day plays the wife of a successful obstetrician (James Garner) who becomes an accidental media sensation when she starts doing ads for "Happy Soap." This creates enormous upheaval at home -- it was the pre-feminist era, and the movie's ending is so unabashedly sexist it will have you howling with either laughter or disbelief. But if that message is outdated, its commentary on the "organization man" and manipulative marketing still feels very apt. And it is always a blast to see two of Hollywood's most gifted performers doing what they do better than just about anyone. Plus, Garner drives his car into a swimming pool. The witty screenplay was written by Larry Gelbart ("Tootsie," the "M*A*S*H" television series) and Carl Reiner ("The Dick Van Dyke Show"), who appears in the clever trailer and the film, and the capable co-stars include Arlene Francis (who is adorable in the first scene as a wife with some very good news) and many of the top character actors and comics of the 1960's.

Many thanks to my wonderful daughter for showing me this fabulous compilation of Day's "mad" scenes.

On Idol Chatter, Kris Rasmussen has come up with a two-part list of haunting moments in movies that is well worth exploring and every one of the films and those added by the commenters is a worthy addition to your Netflix queue.

I like her definition of "haunting" -- "cinematic points in time that bring revelation to our souls in some big or small way."

The moments that haunt me tend to involve extraordinary kindness or devotion. Some that I would add:

1. The last moment in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. He has sacrificed everything to pay for an operation to restore the sight of a young woman who believed he was wealthy. In the last moment of the film, she touches his hand and realizes the tattered and almost broken man before her is her benefactor.

2. "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin.'" In To Kill a Mockingbird the children of Atticus Finch are sitting in the balcony of the courthouse with members of the African-American community and learn from the way they respond to him how important and meaningful his integrity is.

3. Helen Keller learns about language in The Miracle Worker. Teacher Annie Sullivan shows the blind and deaf girl that she can communicate.

4. A family farewell in A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More's family comes to say goodbye to him in prison after he has chosen almost certain death rather than compromise his principles.

5. Erin Brockovich visits the families. At one home she smiles at a terribly sick little girl and gently teases her about how she is so pretty she must be driving the boys crazy. For one moment the girl and her family get a glimpse of a life in which they have the luxury of worrying about boys instead of worrying about chemo.

Writing about the original version of "The Electric Company" reminded me of one of my all-time favorite short films by John and Faith Hubley, who later went on to work on the "Letterman" segments of that show. It is the story of two little girls playing and it is called "Windy Day."

When the Hubleys began making films, animation was very structured and scripted. Their great innovation was the use of improvised dialogue and impressionistic images and the result was fresh, natural, innovative, and remarkably touching. In "Windy Day," the dialogue is the private conversation of the Hubley daughters as they were playing. I first saw and loved it when I was just past the ages of those girls myself, and I thought of it often as I listened in on my own children at play.

The Hubleys created many more wonderful films, including "Everybody Rides the Carousel," based on the work of Erik Erikson about the psychological stages of development, and "The Hat" about two border guards (played by Dudley Moore and Dizzy Gillespie) who argue over what they should do when one's hat blows into the other's territory.

There is no better way to strengthen family connections than combining shared laughter and history. So every family should make time to watch the hilarious new PBS series "Make Em Laugh," the history of comedy on television and in the...

Someone assembled a marvelous collection of the greatest "This is our time"/"We can do it"/"Win one for the Gipper" movie moments: A great way to get you ready for new year's resolution writing! How many scenes can you identify?...

2008 was not a great year for romance on screen, as I have already noted. But there were four very touching movie love stories that deserve special mention: Wall∙E: Love brought two mechanical creatures to life in this tender romance...

Olivia Olson sings Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" in this clip from "Love Actually." And here is Mariah's version:...

Here's my very favorite scene from the best-loved Christmas classic of all, It's a Wonderful Life. Watch how George Baily (Jimmy Stewart) tries so hard not to be in love with Mary (Donna Reed) but just can't help it. Fans...

I love Kris Rasmussen's list of favorite holiday movie moments from Idol Chatter. Some of my favorites are included and I was especially happy to see one most people overlook, the Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn movie "Holiday:" Made by the same...

William Gibson, best known as the man who wrote The Miracle Worker, died this week at age 94. Gibson's sequel to "The Miracle Worker," "Monday After the Miracle," was not a success, but I thought it was a fine play....

Steve Martin plays a man trying to get home for Thanksgiving in his slapstick classic....

My very favorite cartoon character turns 80 today. Happy birthday, Mickey!...

The American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for Warren Beatty will be broadcast tonight at 9 pm EST on the USA Network. Beatty's notorious romantic life and political activism has sometimes distracted the media from his achievements as an...

USA Today's Jim Cheng said it best: "Talk about a career with legs." The beautiful dancer from Hollywood's golden age died today at age 86. Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, she was a professional ballerina at age 16...

They said she gave him sex and he gave her class. In eight heavenly movies from the 1930's at RKO Studios and then with one more -- their only in color -- at MGM, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced...

Today is the 142nd anniversary of the birth of one of the most extraordinary teachers in American history, Annie Sullivan, who gave a little blind and deaf girl the power of language. William Gibson, who wrote two plays about the...

USA Today has a terrific movie quiz. If you can recognize phrases like "La de dah," "Show me the money," "I see dead people," and "If anyone orders merlot, I'm leaving," you should be able to rack up an impressive...