Tom Madden,  Founder & CEO, TransMedia Group

I suggest you take THE MADDEN MOVIE MEMORY TEST while watching classic films on TCM to check if your mind’s still firing on all cinema cylinders! 

Do you like old movies?  If you do, you can learn a lot . . . about yourself and how close or far off in the distance is Alzheimer’s!

You can use old movies for memory practice to check if your memory is still firing on all cinema cylinders.  It’s easy.  And fun.

If you’re over 50, just watch classic movies on TCM and without looking up who is in the cast, take the Madden Movie Memory Test.  See how many of the film’s stars you can name.  

Yes, I admit it.  I love to watch TCM showing many of my favorite movies from the 1920s to the 80s in those so utterly involving colors, black and white.  

Us die-hard film buffs call them classics, from “Some Like It Hot” to “Dr. Strangelove,” from sweeping and regal period pieces to the stylish film noir dramas by dark and sunny genius directors Orson Welles and Billy Wilder.  

I devour ‘em all, from The General (1926), City Lights (1931) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) to The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Roman Holiday (1953) and La Dolce Vita (1960), then flying off to Paper Moon (1973) or hanging out with Young Frankenstein (1974). 

And on and on, we classic movie lovers sit endlessly watching whether it’s an angry Bogart telling his piano-playing buddy for the umpteenth time: Sam, I thought I told you never to play . . . or Jack the Actor/Comedian Benny reciting To be or not to be, while furiously glaring at a member of the audience dare to stand up and conspicuously and despicably exit in the middle of his precious soliloquy. 

There’s something so alluring and captivating about black and white, almost like you’re drawn into scenes, dreaming you’re there having lunch with Gregory and Audrey at some outdoor Roman eatery where an un-impeccable Albert keeps spilling the beans. 

What made me think of Madden Movie Memory Test was watching the other day the classic film, “Executive Suite” starring . . . 

That’s when I found myself trying to remember the names of all the major stars in that film as they appeared scene by scene, and there were plenty of them. 

The powerhouse film started my memory itching, burning and churning while watching the giant manufacturing company’s largest shareholder, a strikingly beautiful woman whose relatively young husband, the CEO, had suffered a stroke and suddenly dropped dead at the outset of the film leaving her and a frazzled board of directors in a nail-biting quandary over choosing his successor. 

Yes, of course, playing the bereaved wife was nonother than—you guessed it-- Barbara Stanwyck.  Proudly, I came up with her name right off the bat!  

Now who was the opportunist seeking to replace her husband at the helm of the now rocking public ship.  Of course, (again trying to remember) . . . Fredric March!  

But next to him at the boardroom table, that’s . . .  that’s . . . Louis Calhern?  Or was it Walter Pidgeon?   No, it was Calhern.  In this part, the callous Calhern.

And who was emerging as the new heir to the corporate throne?  That’s easy, William Holden.  But who was Holden’s faithful, cheering, supportive wife?   

Her name slid into my memory as if it was on skis, June Allyson.  Naturally! 

Then who was board member Paul Douglas having an affair with?  Thank you, my brain, she is Shelly Winters.   And who’d want a better lover than that?

Then my memory hit a wall.  I was stumped.  What was her name?  I knew that actresses face, but the name just wouldn’t come. She was playing the deceased CEO’s emotionally distressed executive secretary.  

That name, I’m sorry, I had to look it up: Nina Foch!   Sorry Nina, my Queena. 

Still, I scored a 90 on the Madden Movie Memory Test.  Not bad!  

So maybe I can hold off taking those Prevagen tablets to boost my memory that I see advertised every night ad nauseum on TV.  

Don’t need ‘em . . . not yet!  Thank you TCM!   You’re keeping my mind fresh in a starring role.   

If my memory receives any Oscars, I’ll credit you! 

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About the Author: Besides an imaginative blogger and movie lover, Tom Madden is a former journalist and an author of countless published articles and five books, including his latest, WORDSHINE MAN, available in March on Amazon.   He is the founder and CEO of TransMedia Group, an award-winning public relations firm serving clients worldwide since 1981 and has conducted remarkably successful media campaigns and crisis management for America’s largest companies and organizations.