Terrific black and white movies

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Before making movies in color became more economical, all movies were done in black and white.
In more recent years, for the sake of creativity, some movies were done in black and white.
Not necessarily in any order, here are some of my favorite black and white movies:

Casablanca
Shindler’s List
Citizen Kane
Dr. Strangelove
The Grapes of Wrath
12 Angry Men
To Kill A Mockingbird
High Noon
Key Largo
Raging Bill
Young Frankenstein
Pyscho
The Manchurian Candidate
Them!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
 
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To Kill A Mockingbird
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One of the all time best film adaptations of a book.

Although it is not as gritty and realistic as modern WWII movies, The Longest Day is a classic b and w movie. (also an adaptation of a book— a splendid work of non fiction by Cornelius Ryan about the Normandy Invasion)

Another classic — The Beatles 1964 movie “A Hard Day’s Night” which was far more clever than most other movies that were vehicles for musicians, and created the pop culture caricatures of John, Paul, George and Ringo that cemented them as individual people in the public mind, (rather than as just “that guy in the Beatles” ) worldwide.
 
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Pretty much all the old film noirs that used lighting and going up and down stairs as metaphors for good and evil were awesome. It’s fun to look for the symbolism in the shots.

Edited because I checked and it looks like Peeping Tom was in color. Asphalt Jungle is still B&W though.

Some good old scary B&W are “Vampyr” and “Vredens Dag” (Day of Wrath).

Was “Sunset Boulevard” B&W?

Among newer ones, Jarmusch’s “Stranger than Paradise” is close to my heart…the acting isn’t great but it captures very well what it was like to live in Cleveland at a particular time. Especially the snowstorm lake scene.
 
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Touch of Evil. Shadow of a Doubt. There were a lot of great black and white flicks.
 
I saw in an interview one time, this was Hitchcock’s favorite movie. Not as popular as most of his movies, but very well done.
 
Uncle Charlie letting his guard down about how he feels about widows:

 
I feel the Henry Fonda version was better than the remake. Black and white just seems to make it more dramatic.
 
When I think of Kirk Douglas I think of Spartacus, though it was not black and white.
How about Kirk Douglas and John Wayne, In Harm’s Way?
 
I think I have only seen the black and white version. I remember reading the play in English class years and years ago and then we watched the movie. This would have been the early 1990s, so the 1997 remake hadn’t even been made yet.
 
“And do you pronounce it Frooh-der-ick?”
Frood-der-ick Fronk-en-steen?
“I pronounce it, Eye-gore…”
 
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