Sunset Boulevard is brilliant; not a wasted scene - what a cast, what a story, what an amazing script, and the cinematography is to die for.
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Great old movies!
- Thread starter zoran
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Sunset Boulevard is brilliant; not a wasted scene - what a cast, what a story, what an amazing script, and the cinematography is to die for.
It is, isn't it?
Kind Hearts and Coronets (a classic - one of many - that hailed from the Ealing Studios stable) is another favourite.
Exquisite.
Yes (Star Wars fans, take note. The many-years-in-the-future-Obi Wan Kenobi Alec Guinness is brilliant)!
Actually, Dennis Price is even better, to my mind.
But, yes, agreed, Alec Guinness is absolutely brilliant.
The scene (in the church) where all of the D'Ascoynes are first introduced to us remains one of the most acerbically barbed, biting and hilarious things that I have ever seen.
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@zoran & @KaliYoni: What date is your cut-off point for inclusion in a discussion of "Great Old Movies"?
If we can advance to the 1970s, I wouuld also include Monty Python & The Holy Grail and Monty Python Life of Brian (two of the funniest films/movies I have ever seen - clever, intelligent, sharp, and brilliantly witty).
And also Dr Strangelove.
If we can advance to the 1970s, I wouuld also include Monty Python & The Holy Grail and Monty Python Life of Brian (two of the funniest films/movies I have ever seen - clever, intelligent, sharp, and brilliantly witty).
And also Dr Strangelove.
Old movies is where my movie wheelhouse resides most of the time. Here are just a few of the movies I hold dear and watch on a regular basis on my server.
City Lights (1931)
Wings (1927)
The Big Parade (1925)
The Music Box (1932)
Dark Victory (1939)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Great Expectations (1946)
Harvey (1950)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
It Happened One Night (1934)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The Crowd (1928)
M (1931)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Sergeant York (1941)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Speedy (1928)
Tell it to the Marines (1926)
Waterloo Bridge (1931 version and 1940)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
You Can't Take it with You (1938)
The Thin Man (1934)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth of Essex (1939)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Northwest Passage (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Papas Delicate Condition (1963)
Little Big Man (1970)
Key Largo (1948)
Gunfight at the O.K. Coral (1957)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dark Passage (1947)
Captain Blood (1935)
The Best Years of our Lives (1946)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
City Lights (1931)
Wings (1927)
The Big Parade (1925)
The Music Box (1932)
Dark Victory (1939)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Great Expectations (1946)
Harvey (1950)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
It Happened One Night (1934)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The Crowd (1928)
M (1931)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Sergeant York (1941)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Speedy (1928)
Tell it to the Marines (1926)
Waterloo Bridge (1931 version and 1940)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
You Can't Take it with You (1938)
The Thin Man (1934)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth of Essex (1939)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Northwest Passage (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Papas Delicate Condition (1963)
Little Big Man (1970)
Key Largo (1948)
Gunfight at the O.K. Coral (1957)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dark Passage (1947)
Captain Blood (1935)
The Best Years of our Lives (1946)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Colorized or original? That "defacing" causes palpitations among some true fans.
My movies are original. I don't go for the early Turner days where a lot of movies were colorized.
Keeping in mind that some very good movies have been made in the last 22 years, I'll go with 2000 because I think 25 years–more or less–is long enough to see how well a movie has aged and if it can be considered great.
So I agree that the Pythons' 70's œuvre (I can't believe I just typed that word in connection with M.P., ha ha) is GREAT. But I fear that the gutting of school curricula over the past couple of decades has eliminated any chance of people continuing to laugh at M.P.'s TV and film humo(u)r other than the outrageous slapstick stuff.
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Anyone else share my love of The Third Man?
Another outstanding movie: Superb story written by Graham Greene, stunning setting (post war Vienna, actually shot on location), amazing cinetamatography, outstanding cast, excellent script (who can forget Orson Welles's words - as Harry Lime - on the Ferris wheel?), a brilliant soundtrack, and the exquisite ending, a homage to the bitter sweet integrity of art.
Another outstanding movie: Superb story written by Graham Greene, stunning setting (post war Vienna, actually shot on location), amazing cinetamatography, outstanding cast, excellent script (who can forget Orson Welles's words - as Harry Lime - on the Ferris wheel?), a brilliant soundtrack, and the exquisite ending, a homage to the bitter sweet integrity of art.
I hadn't seen this thread until now. I rewatched Apollo 13 on the weekend. I don't consider it terribly old, but it's sobering to realise that it was a historical movie when it came out (being released 25 years after the events), but the movie itself is now more historical than the events were at the time (it was released 27 years ago).
This thread is like catnip to me. I'm not close to retirement yet, but I'm actually looking forward to catching up with a load of classic movies, and try to see one a week.
Strange to have Tarantino as 'classic' or 'old' but really, there hasn't been anyone like him for a while. But absolutely love film noir too and will compulsively watch anything noir-ish when it comes on OTA.
Chaplin is worth watching as a child because you get to marvel over the stunts and the timing. It is very silly, and very funny. My kids laughed out loud along with me at A Dog's Life (1918). Then he's worth watching again as an adult, the social satire just keeps ramping up from the early short films to their fullest expression in Modern Times and The Great Dictator - two of my favorite films ever.
On that list you have Fritz Lang's M - what an impressive director. Of course, I first encountered his films through Metropolis (1927) based on his wife's book btw. But anything by Lang is worth seeing. M is very, very dark. And the other day I saw Western Union (1941), so completely and utterly different, firmly in the bright sunshine western genre. The Big Sleep (1946) is also his - Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. What range of genres, what a filmmaker.
I liked it, and other slapstick race films of the era, such as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.
I also like 50s sci-fi, such as War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Geordie from 1955 (apparently called Wee Geordie in USA) is a film I have a soft spot for, as it cheered me up when I was ill as a young boy.
All Quiet On the Western Front from 1930 is perhaps my favourite old movie, a very early anti-war film. The Dam Busters from 1955 is another war film I like, particularly as they flew from near where I grew up.
Gene Kranz never said 'Failure is not an option'. That was artistic license in the film and there's a story about how they came by it which is neat. But what is cool to me is this is something that upon hearing, Gene Kranz adopted for himself. He has a book about his years in Mission Control and that is the title of it.
He was known for the motto of 'Tough and Competent' after the Apollo 1 disaster, but that didn't make it into the movie.
If "film noir" is your thing, I'm sure that the (brilliant, timeless, classic) The Maltese Falcon is on your list.
If not, do try to ensure that you see it.
Oh, very much yes. Have seen it recently too, twice in the past 2 years. I could never take Bogart seriously as an actor when I was younger for some reason. But Casablanca, The African Queen, and The Maltese Falcon I've re-watched recently, and next on my list: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre! (Haven't seen it since I was 10)
Actually, as it happens, I agree with you completely about Bogart as an actor.
I, too, could never take him seriously as an actor.
However, there are exceptions - sometimes, striking exceptions - to every rule, and, in this instance, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon - and yes, you are absolutely right - The African Queen (all three of them movies with strong stories, exceptionally strong casts, and seriously good scripts, not to mention wonderful cinematography) certainly rank, to my mind, as classics, terrific movies where Bogart was simply superb.
My latest double feature: San Francisco + Valentina Cortese
Really good movies I discovered in College:
Casablanca (1942)
Maltese Falcon (1941)
The General (1926)
Of possible interest, it added to my desire to become a pilot, and the thought of being out there in the wind was so enticing, yet in the 1990s when I explored the realm of ultra-lites, and decided no, this was not the way I was going to kill myself.
Casablanca (1942)
Maltese Falcon (1941)
The General (1926)
My favorite of this genre if it can be called the race genre from this time period is Those Magnificint Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) I still love this movie, very romantic concerning human flight.
Of possible interest, it added to my desire to become a pilot, and the thought of being out there in the wind was so enticing, yet in the 1990s when I explored the realm of ultra-lites, and decided no, this was not the way I was going to kill myself.
My late father favorite movie was "Gunga Din" and I have even seen a few times myself. Though I just think he like the last line "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din".