In post-war Germany, I would save up all week the few "Pfennig" I was being paid for running errands for the housebound old lady two floors above us, or for delivering breadrolls door to door for the local baker, or for collecting acorns in the forest which I would sell back to the Forestry Department for their deers.
Fifty "Pfennig" gained me entrance to the local picture show to watch on the silver screen, for a magical one or two hours, whatever was showing that week. There were only ever two choices - "take it or leave it" - and so we watched whatever was showing on that Sunday afternoon.
Unlike today when we have all those channels on television; and then there's Netflix (which we don't subscribe to) and I've also heard about another one appropriately called Binge; and then there's my own ever-growing DVD collection (with my previous video tape collection already all boxed up in the shed), and then there is, of course, YouTube!
These days we are spoilt for choice, and it's really difficult to decide what to watch, which is why I bought myself the 960-page-thick "1001 Movies you must see before you die". If it's not in the "1001 Movies" I won't! (not unless you kill me which invalidates the title of the book!)
I've just found "The Fourth Protocol" on YouTube. I couldn't find it in "1001 Movies" but by that time I'd already watched Michael Caine as British spy John Preston blow up the safe in a British government official's house on New Year's Eve and I was hooked. As you will be!
Make that 1002 movies you must see before you die!
