What are your favourite old movies?

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I always like all of John Wayne’s films. Shootist, Quiet Man, Sands of Iwo Jima, Hondo, Green Berets, Conqueror.

Greatest actor of our day.
 
Ridgerunner said:
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7_Sorrows:
I have not seen Dances With
Wolves for years so I can’t comment on it historical accuracy.
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Oh, it’s enjoyable enough. Not being critical of anyone who likes it. I was just surprised when it portrayed the Pawnee as the oppressors of the Sioux, when it was very much the other way around.
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we do need to remember that although the Native Americans were not treated fairly by the government in many instances, they have honorably served in
the armed forces. for such a small percentage of the population, they have fought in great numbers beginning with the Revolutionary War.
we should remember the contributions they have made fighting for our country.
 
A great film. The Amish woman was Kelly McGillis and the boy was played by Lukas Haas. Peter Weir directed the movie as well as Dead Poets Society, The Plumber, and several other wonderful and/or offbeat films.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
A great film. The Amish woman was Kelly McGillis and the boy was played by Lukas Haas. Peter Weir directed the movie as well as Dead Poets Society, The Plumber, and several other wonderful and/or offbeat films.
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Harrison Ford was also in the movie I think.
 
Yes, he was the main star. The poster couldn’t recall the female lead.
 
Essentially, anything B&W is, by definition watchable. By the same token, anything in color must be vetted. When color arrived, volume went way up and often, quality way down.

Does 1983 count? The Scarlet and the Black, with Gregory Peck and Christopher Plummer.
 
There was a thread a while back where we diacussed the tendency back in the day to get Caucasian actors to ‘black up’ and play ethnically diverse characters. Not a practice I am fond of.

Now I have nothing but love for the Duke, but his role as Genghis Khan in Conqueror has to rank alongside the blonde blue-eyed Burt Lancaster’s portrayal.of a Native American in Apache as two of the worst examples of this phenomenon.

Both are, for me, as unconvincing and uncomfortable to watch as if they’d been asked to frock up and play Scarlett O’Hara.
 
“A Christmas Carol” staring Alistair Sim
“God bless us…everyone”

Dante
 
I have an easier time thinking of my favorite in particular genres, so for westerns I’d say ‘Once Upon A Time in the West’ directed by Sergio Leone. Not technically a ‘spaghetti western’ because it was filmed on location in Arizona and had an international A-list cast (with Henry Fonda as a villain!).
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
A great film. The Amish woman was Kelly McGillis and the boy was played by Lukas Haas. Peter Weir directed the movie as well as Dead Poets Society, The Plumber, and several other wonderful and/or offbeat films.
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Didn’t Peter Weir direct Picnic at Hanging Rock?
 
Dante221 said:
“A Christmas Carol” staring Alistair Sim
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This is my favorite CC film. The original British title is Scrooge. I love the use of the old folk song Barbara Allen on the soundtrack. It also has a subliminal meaning, since the fate of the (anti)heroine in the ballad is one that Scrooge narrowly missed suffering himself. My favorite character is Mrs Dilber, the charwoman. When the reformed Scrooge gives her a raise, a Christmas gift and the day off, her astonished gratitude is so moving it almost makes me weep. But then, when he shows up at the nephew’s house and begs forgiveness of Fred’s wife, who grants it happily with shining eyes, I really do cry. One of the greatest films ever made.
 
My sixth list (so far! 😜)
  1. Dead of Night(1945). Mervyn Johns attends a country house party and begins to get the odd feeling he has lived through this before. The other guests each tell a supernatural story that happened to them. The best one has Michael Redgrave as a ventriloquist whose dummy is really alive.
  2. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari(1920). An Expressionist nightmare, impossible to describe. If you haven’t seen it, do so at once. Being a silent film makes it even creepier, since you never hear a human voice.
  3. A Tale of Two Cities(1935). Ronald Colman is a rakish wastrel who makes the ultimate sacrifice for a man he scarcely knows. Blanche Yurka is terrifying as Mme DeFarge, the evil revolutionary who craves personal revenge under the guise of patriotism and concern for the downtrodden.
  4. Bagdad Café(1987). A Bavarian hausfrau is stranded at a remote American hotel, and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the irascible proprietress.
  5. Winter Light(1963). Gunnar Bjornstrand is a Lutheran pastor who loses his faith, then regains it in a stronger, more realistic form. Ingmar Bergman’s favorite of his own films. Heavy going, but you really feel for the characters and their plight. I have seen this more times than I can count.
  6. Cyrano de Bergerac(1990). Gerard Depardieu plays the lovelorn poet. A rare chance to hear the original French dialogue in a gorgeous realization.
  7. City Lights(1931). The Little Tramp moves Heaven and earth to help a blind flower girl. My favorite Charlie Chaplin movie. The final scene would make a stone weep.
  8. Mildred Pierce(1945). Joan Crawford as a self-sacrificing mother, and Ann Blyth as the most ungrateful daughter who ever lived.
  9. The Bad Seed(1956). A sweet little girl murders everyone who gets in her way. Strong stuff for the fifties; so strong, they had to tack on an ending where the villainess gets her ‘just deserts’.
  10. I Remember Mama(1948). Travails of a Norwegian immigrant family in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Irene Dunne is luminous as Mama.
 
Oh, The Bad Seed is fantastic! Rhoda, Rhoda, Rhoda! How could I forget that move?
 
kill051 said:
Some more that CAF wouldn’t let me list on my first post due to character limits:
  1. King Lear. This, the television video version from the 1980’s with Laurence Olivier in the title role, is technically not a film, but I could’nt bear to leave it out, being as it is the finest Shakespeare rendering I have ever seen, either live or taped. Olivier is all-encompassing in his rage, his madness, his grief and ultimately his foolishness. His gradual deterioration under the merciless browbeating of his wicked elder daughters is heartbreaking to witness. Diana Rigg as the evil middle daughter Regan is the personification of malice; her almost lustful glee when Gloucester’s eyes are being gouged out is hideous. But it is the reunion of the aged king with his banished youngest daughter Cordelia that is the emotional heart of this production. You will cry your eyes out, but oh boy, is it worth it.
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Thanks for the tip. I saw King Lear on stage a few years ago and was bemused by it.

I’ll try to get this movie.
 
tomarin said:
I thought he directed all Australian movies.
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🤣

Starting with The Cars that Ate Paris (1974). “Paris” being a small town in outback Australia, with a very unusual source of tourist income! I’ve mentioned it before in this thread. It’s a must!

But, we mustn’t forget Bruce Beresford (The Getting of Wisdom, Breaker Morant), Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career), and Baz Luhrmann… amongst others.
 
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