For years Disney movies left me a total mess, crying wise. I’m thinking of flicks like Dumbo, Old Yeller and Bambi. Then there was the film adaptation of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ book, “The Yearling.” You know the one– with Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and the little blonde boy who dotes on his pet deer, Flag. Watching it causes bouts of uncontrolled boo hooing. I’ve moved on, however. Currently, my list of sad films includes: The Incredible Lightness of Being (TILOB) Midnight Cowboy (MC) The Miracle Worker (TMW) Ordinary People (OP) Days of Wine and Roses (DOWAR) On the Beach (ONB) The White Cliffs of Dover (TWCOD) How do they do it, these films? Turn this oh-so-cynical movie viewer to mush every time? Many times, it’s the music. Remember Henry Mancini’s wistful and lovely ballad in DOWAR? Or the haunting “Waltzing Matilda” in ONB and Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking at Me” in MC? When Helen Keller, played by Patty Duke in an Oscar-winning performance, finally understands the connection between hand-spelled word for water and the thing itself (as revealed to her by the wonderful Anne Bancroft playing Annie Sullivan), the music swells and your heart feels like it’s going to burst. Wow! That’s not to discount, though, the equal impact on one’s emotions of the wonderful performances of the cast in these terrific films, the skilled writing and direction andthe exquisite craftsmanship that went in to their production. Who isn’t, I wonder, profoundly moved watching ONB’s vivid portrayal of the end of all life on earth after atomic warfare? When I see the gut-wrenching pain of Timothy Hutton when he finally owns up to the guilt he feels over his brother’s death in a boating accident in OP, I’m devastated, if only for a few moments. My crying while watching the remaining films on my list– TILOB and TWCOD– is because the first film’s depiction of life’s transitory and beautiful offerings is so very spot on. Tears also ensue because of the second movie’s highly old-fashioned, but always effective, romance-torn-asunder-by-war plot line. Irene Dunne, one of my favorite actresses of the 30s and 40s, plays an American lass who falls for a handsome member of the British nobility just as WWI begins. I won’t give away too much of story. Suffice it to say that Irene rises to every trying occasion magnificently. The viewer, however, doesn’t fare quite as well. I, for one, am usually weeping wildly during much of the movie. I’m probably most embarrassed by my fondness for this last film–TWCOD. Its unabashed tugging at the audience’s heartstrings is a bit much. But then, considering that it was made when much of the world was at war, it works… at least for me. It’s great family viewing too.