What are your favourite old movies?

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Yes, WAOVW is intense, all right. One of the things I love about it is that Taylor’s performance proves she wasn’t just an insanely sexy and voluptuous woman: she really was quite a talented actress.
 
Black Narcissus is based on Rumor Godden’s early novel, before she became Catholic. I find it rather disturbing. Certainly dark. I don’t know if I’ve seen the movie version.
Anyone remember The Long, Long Trailer, with Lucy and Desi?
 
I’m actually watching the first film in a clint Eastwood collection. Fistful of Dollars. I’m halfway through it now.
 
Well, the plot is certainly one that wouldn’t wash in real life, though I suppose many plays and musicals suffer from unrealistic and even problematic storylines.

I must say some took things a fair bit further … Carousel, from memory, has quite heavy domestic violence and a female character making a virtue of putting up with it.
 
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I found an old movie on you tube that I never knew existed until now. It was what they call a “dark comedy”. The name of the movie was “The Cremator” and was black and white, and in a foreign language with subtitles. The story revolves around a man who is a major proponent of cremation. He has frequent meetings to convince people to be cremated when they die. This being a foreign country during WWII, the Nazis were occupying the place where this man lived. Hitler wanted him to work for the Reich because he was so good at what he did. However, when the crematory man finds out his wife and children have Jewish blood, he kills them because he was afraid he wouldn’t get in the good graces of Hitler if Hitler found out.

He gets his wife to stand on a stool, where he ties a rope around her neck and hangs her. He goes after his son and daughter as well. The funny thing is, I don’t remember exactly what happened at the very end, but I assume he probably went to work in one of the death camps without the encumbrance of a wife and two kids. This movie was strange and eerie. Unusual, unexpected, the whole bit. As I say, he was chosen for this special work, and he seemed happy with it.

Another movie I liked was about a young girl who befriends a fox in the wild. It was charming to watch as she and the fox bonded. The fox had babies, and she let the girl see them.

One thing went wrong. The child tried to tame the fox and take her home. That did not work out very well since the fox panicked and jumped out the second floor window, breaking the window and probably hurting herself. After that, the two friends were no longer close. The fox would not go to the girl anymore because she lost her trust. The child had to watch her from a distance from then on.
 
More:

A Raisin in the Sun (powerful!)

Clue (“Open the door, open the door!” “I can’t open the door without a key!” “Never mind the key! Open the door!”)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (“Never, ever doubt what no one else is sure of!”)

Being There

Karate Kid (“Wax on, wax off!”)

Stand by Me

I used to love Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Watching in my adulthood makes me realize that the kid was a sociopath.
 
woolycaterpillar said:
The name of the movie was “The Cremator” and was black and white, and in a foreign language with subtitles.
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Sound like “Spalovač mrtvol”, a Czech film by Juraj Herz. Saw it years ago when I was living in Poland.

Don’t recognize the second film.
 
I just thought of another one - The Bishop’s Wife. This is a fun thread!
 
DeniseNY said:
How old is “old”? I watched This is Spinal Tap again last night. It’s from 1984 and it’s absolutely hilarious.
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That was hilarious. My husband and I worked with a guy who was a dead ringer for Artie Fufkin and we used to call him that behind his back. “Kick me right here!”
 
I love 7 Brides! If you look closely there is one brother who couldn’t dance and was cut out of all the dance scenes. He was some guy on a studio contract that they wanted to use in the movie.

“West Side Story” is another one I love for the dancing. I read that it influenced Michael Jackson’s style.
 
Actually it was Benjamin (orange shirt). Adam (Howard Keel) wasn’t expected to dance as he had the lead singing role.

Benjamin was being played by Jeff Richards, a former pro baseball player who couldn’t dance.
Russ Tamblyn actually couldn’t dance either except for some tap, but the director found out he was a gymnast and put in a bunch of gymnastic stuff for him to do. After the movie was a hit Russ was regarded as a dancer. The other four brothers were all professional dancers.
 
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