TOP 10 CHICKEN MOVIES OF ALL TIME!!!

July 26, 2001

Chicken movies??? How do I get involved in these things? Particularly when I was only given 23 hours notice of the assignment?? Life is so unfair! As I have tried to tell Mr. Hewitt and anyone else who will listen, anyone can make up a list of the Top 10 comedies or westerns in about 15 minutes, but the Top 10 Chicken Movies takes a bit of time. And as you will see below, the top 2 Chicken Movies are pretty easy -- the skill (such as it is) comes with the next 8. In any event, here they are, the top 10 Chicken Movies of All Time!!!

	10.	Stroker Ace (1983): Admittedly, not a very good movie. But Burt Reynolds does have to wear a chicken suit, and his car is sponsored by a fried chicken magnate. Suitable for viewing only if absolutely nothing else is available.
	9.	The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982): Well, I'll admit that as far as I can remember, there aren't any real, live, feather-bearing chickens in this movie, but it does take place on the Chicken Ranch. And besides, how many chances to you think I'll have to list two Burt Reynolds movies in any given list?
	8.	The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942): Not available on video, but on a rare occasion you may be able to pick it up on one of the classic movie channels. Charles Laughton (one of film's truly great actors) stars as Jonas Tuttle, who loses the family plantation in a cockfight.
	7.	Rocky 2 (1979): So what does this have to do with chickens? How else can you train for a major heavyweight title prizefight (assuming you no longer have a cold storage facility full of beef sides around) other than by chasing a chicken around a yard? It was Burgess Meredith's idea, and I guess it worked. This time he won.
	6.	The Muppet Movie (1979): If you look in the bottom center of the video box, there she is: Camilla, the chicken. Although she doesn't have a lot of lines, she is a central character and an important part of the plot -- sort of. A fine and funny movie, by the way.
	5.	Down In The Delta (1998): Alfre Woodard and her children are sent by her mother (Mary Alice) to live with her Uncle Earl (Al Freeman, Jr.) in Mississippi, where she works in his restaurant called -- ta dah!! -- Just Chicken. Not many people saw this movie, and a lot more should. Fine performances all around.
	4.	The Wizard of Oz (1939): OK, I admit, this is a stretch. But at the start of the movie, everyone is more concerned about the broken incubator and the endangered chicks than they are about Dorothy. Which causes her to leave. So chickens are important. And besides, in the original book the chicken has a much bigger role.
	3.	Cool Hand Luke (1967): Actually, this is more of a pre-chicken movie. Paul Newman, as Luke, wins a bet to eat 50 eggs. Which might have become chickens. Maybe. Anyway, this is one of the great American movies, with fine performances all around, and one of the great, enduring lines in movie history (Strother Martin's immortal "What we have here, is a failure to communicate.")
	2.	The Egg and I (1947): The first of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Claudette Colbert stars as a new bride who learns that her beloved, Fred MacMurray, has purchased a run-down chicken farm -- not exactly her dream vocation. There they meet Ma (Marjorie Main, a wonderful and underappreciated actress) and Pa (Percy Kilbride) Kettle, and the laughs ensue. Well worth a watch.
	1.	Chicken Run (2000): If anyone's surprised by this choice, I'll be amazed. One of the best movies of 2000, this animated masterpiece is a must-watch for anyone who loves old World War II prisoner of war movies. Mel Gibson and Miranda Richardson provide the lead voices.

Cracked on the way out, with a broken yolk: