Any old movie fans out there? (Pre-1960s)

[Rusty Blade]

I love old classic movies -- classic sci-fI, horror, film noir, b-films, dramas...anything between 1930 and 1960. Those were the golden years of movie making in my opinion. I don't particularly enjoy modern (post 1960) movies (Night of the Living Dead being one notable exception). Movies of today just don't grab me. There is too much hype, violence, sex and special effects. Movies are another YMMV thing...

IMO you just can't beat the old black and white films. What are some of your classic movie favourites? Or favourite movie stars? I have too many to list...but for starters any movie with Humphrey Bogart or Rita Hayworth, Jean Harlow, Jane Russell, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are tops for me. Just watched a string of great "atomic angst" movies from the late 50's early 60s that were great as well. How about you?

 

[Billski]

I also love the Black and White films.

But I am not paying for TV and my reception is not that great.

And I am now singing, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in my head.

 

[Rusty Blade]

I also love the Black and White films.

But I am not paying for TV and my reception is not that great.

And I am now singing, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in my head.

I find the best place to watch old classic films is YouTube.

 

[Quasimodo]

Yes I love old B&W movies too. Here are some of my favourites:

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Random Harvest (1942)
The Uninvited (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
He Walked By Night (1948)
The Snake Pit (1948)
The Heiress (1949)
Angel Face (1952)
Bend of the River (1952)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Innocents (1961)
The Haunting (1963)

 

[Chango]

I'm a Cary Grant fan.

North by Northwest, Bringing up Baby, and The Philadelphia Story are my favorites.

 

[G-Dogg]

Count me in. I want a good story, well told, well acted, and without an over-reliance on special effects. It seems to me that many modern-day films place too much emphasis on CGI and not enough on the basics. There are some honourable exceptions, of course: I thought Carol was one of the best new films I've seen in many years. An engaging story, good acting, and exquisite cinematography.

I'm a lover of the Charlie Chaplin silent films (less so his talkies), so my tastes go way back! But I always go back to film noir and will happily watch something like Double Indemnity or The Big Sleep over a lot of modern stuff. I'm not sure whether it's strictly speaking film noir, but Sunset Boulevard is probably my favourite film of all time.

I also like British films of that era, not least because it gives an insight into how social attitudes were changing at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s.

 

[BSAGuy]

I am with you, Rusty. Watch TCM all the time. Great stories because they didn't have CGI and ability to do all kinds of glitzy special effects. Hitchcock is great. Love the fashions, huge cars, and decor of the 1930's - 1970's.

 

[Lightcs1776]

I also love the Black and White films.

But I am not paying for TV and my reception is not that great.

And I am now singing, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in my head.

Roku (and probably other streaming media providers) has free channels that play old movies. You can catch things like Stagecoach or Queen of the Nile.

Sent via mobile

 

[Vespasian]

I thrive onTCM. Early talkies and noir are particular favorites. Pre-code Babyface, with Barbara Stanwyck, is one I love. Double Indemnity, Maltese Falcon, All About Eve, Now Voyager, Stage Door, Rear Window (a rare color pic), Citizen Kane... Children of Paradise.

 

[Joma12]

It would be a discredit to the industry to not mention one of my favorites, The Ten Commandments (1956). Charlton Heston in his prime was a frightening man. Also Gone with the Wind (1939) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

 

[Rusty Blade]

Wow...guys...those are some awesome titles. Classic actors/actresses, the clothes, the cars, the story lines....all come together to make great films. Black and white left more to the imagination. TCM is standard watching in my house.

 

[Antony]

I love movies in general, which includes pre-1960s.

I also have a thing for silent movies. 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,' has got to be my favourite silent movie of all time.

Post-Silent, 'The Bicycle Thieves,' is one of my favourites. Anything with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

And of course, 'Laurel and Hardy,' to bridge the gap.

So many great, great movies pre-1960s. Any list could go on and on.

 

[emwolf]

Lots of great movies. I love movies of all shapes and sizes and from all eras. When I had TCM I was a junkie, definitely. There are lot of great silent movies and it's a shame that a lot of very intelligent folks have never seen one.

 

[Antony]

Just look at the lighting in these two scenes from Sunrise, (1927). It's absolutely gorgeous. Not many modern movies make me fall so much in love with the screen as some of the old silents.

 

[auk1124]

I love the WW2 movies of the 40s and 50s. Michael Caine, David Niven, John Wayne, etc etc...

Cable television used to play those old war movies all the time. Can't hardly find them any more. A shame.

 

[YKMV]

John Wayne, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon and so on...

My all time tied-for-favorite is Casablanca.. lighting and music set the mood, great acting and great writing even for the minor characters ("Liebchen, what watch? Ten watch. Such watch? You'll do fine in America."
Just watched Winchester '73 with James Stewart, Rock Hudson and Anthony Curtis.
Casablanca ties for favorite with Some Like It Hot.... a much more mature Tony Curtis.. and don't forget Marilyn.

 

[Phog Allen]

All these great old films. I'll add a few more but really, you could go on for a long while.

Casablanca. Absolute class and the banter and character chemistry between Bogart and Claude Rains was one of the best ever.

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. A John Wayne/John Ford classic with a stellar supporting cast. Wayne was at his best playing captain Nathan Brittles. An officer nearing retirement and wondering what will become of himself. He was only about forty years old when he made the film but pulled off the distinguished elder pretty well. And what more can you say about support than Victor McLaglen as Sgt. Major Quincannon? When Wayne displayed to him the whisky bottle he had stashed in vase Quincannon asked; How long have you known? Brittles; Since the Second Battle of Bull Run. Quincannon; And you been deceiving me all these years?!!! Great stuff.

Rio Grande. Another of Ford's cavalry trilogy and one of the best. Wayne and Maureen O'Hara's chemistry was beyond the typical Hollywood screen couple. Those two were great friends and it showed how they played against each other on the screen. The scene where the company singers performed I'll take you home Kathleen was powerful. Wayne was Kirby York. Company commander dealing with his enlisted son. His wife(O'Hara) came to ask him to run the boy out of the cavalry. This led to odds of course. Yet during the song(performed by none other than a dashing looking Ken Curtis who was a lead vocal for Tommy Dorsey after Sinatra left) Kirby felt as if the choice may have been taken as a shot at their rough past. He said; This music was not of my choosing. Her reply; I am sorry Kirby. I wish it had been.

The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn. The Tasmanian playboy was at his very best.

I don't know. About a hundred others if you think about it.

 

[JimmyHAD]

I've got quite a collection of DVDs of the old classics. I must have watched The Maltese Falcon a hundred times, and I'm not tired of it yet, though I can damn near recite the dialogue. How about The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, or His Girl Friday, Cary Grant and Roz Russel, or Arsenic and Old Lace, Grant was such a great comedian.
White Heat, Jimmy Cagney, Detective Story, a very young Kirk Douglas with William Bendix. Richard Widmark in Pickup On South Street and Edward G Robinson in Scarlet Street. Silents are great too such as the Fatty Arbuckle & Buster Keaton shorts, Lon Chaney, William S Hart. To see the definition of charisma and screen presence personified, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in The Thief of Baghdad, or The Mark Of Zorro. I can never watch the end of City Lights with Chaplin without crying. Wowsa.

 

[Traveling Man]

I'll second the Ford/Wayne trilogy with my favorite being Fort Apache followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

I'll add to the Flynn work, especially Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk.

I also agree with what everyone else has said. Movies (and TV) are no longer about the story and the dialogue. Some of the greatest scenes in history are two people sitting in front of a stationary camera and having a conversation. Now, you have to have a moving/jerking camera and CGI to hold people's attention.

 

[Graybeard57]

I'm a regular viewer of Turner Movie Classics, and MGM channels. Big fan of noir in particular. The Atomic Age genre is lots of fun.

Favorite Bogart movie: To Have and Have Not. Bacall sizzles in that one.