What are your favourite old movies?

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I would like to add two more movies to my previous list. An even 20 films now. They are both directed by Stanley Kubrick. No, not 2001: A Space Odyssey, although that’s good too. Rather, the infamous A Clockwork Orange and the beautiful, as well as depressing, Barry Lyndon. What a great director Kubrick was! I would place him in the same class as William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, and Woody Allen. And they are so different from one another.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
For ages I’ve been trying to find out which version of A Christmas Carol is the one with a tall, thin Marley.
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Could it be Leo G. Carroll? It says here he was 5 ft 10 in. (link below). He played Marley’s ghost in the 1938 version, with Reginald Owen as Scrooge.

www.imdb.com

Leo G. Carroll - Biography - IMDb

Leo G. Carroll. Actor: North by Northwest. One of the most indispensable of character actors, Leo G. Carroll was already involved in the business of acting as a schoolboy in Gilbert & Sullivan productions. Aged 16, he portrayed an old man in 'Liberty Hall'. In spite of the fact, that he came...
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
 
Kubrick was in a class of his own, brilliant though the others were.

To think the same person made films as diverse as Spartacus, Lolita, 2001, Barry Lyndon, and Dr Strangelove
 
Cruciferi said:
He’s funny :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
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Politics aside, I sometimes think our closest thing to Cary Grant these days is Tom Hanks. Funny, good actor, seems like a normal guy.

I don’t agree with him politically, but at least he doesn’t generate a lot of scandal.

(He’ll never be as good looking or as suave as Cary, though. And Paul - well, no one compares to Paul in my book.)
 
LilyM said:
‘In The Heat of the Night’ with Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier - great movie.

‘To Sir With Love’ - another Sidney Poitier classic.

Hmm, I sense a theme running here … 🙂

Another running theme - ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ and ‘Some Like it Hot’

And can’t go past ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’
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All good choices. How can one not like Sidney Poitier?
 
It’s a Wonderful Life (so uplifting) and (for horror fans), Night of the Demon (1957). Probably the best horror film ever made, with Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It’s absolutely terrifying. 😃
 
fredystairs said:
Yeah I completely forgot about Man for All Seasons - one of my favorites.
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That’s a really good, one esp. as a lot of Christian/Catholic movies are poorly done. But this one is really good, so is The Scarlet and the Black with Gregory Peck. That’s a good movie.
 
The Enchanted Cottage - watching the Thin Man Goes Home right now. Favorites: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Clifton Webb (A Night to Remember), Jimmy Stewart, Laraine Day.
 
Some more that CAF wouldn’t let me list on my first post due to character limits:
  1. Doctor Faustus. Richard Burton as the perennial pact-maker, with Elizabeth Taylor at her most voluptuous as Helen of Troy. The final scene in Hell is frightening.
  2. Fanny and Alexander. Many admirers of Ingmar Bergman were disappointed in this one, but I, as a fervent Bergman fan, loved it and still do. The five hour version is far preferable to the three hour theatrical release. The first two hours or so comprise the most joyful Christmas celebration I’ve ever seen on film.
  3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Liz and Dick again, a dysfunctional middle-aged couple tormenting a young couple in the wee hours. Intense, and when you finally learn the reason for the older couple’s rancorous behavior, it tears your heart out with pity and compassion.
  4. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World! Already mentioned by other posters, this is the screwball comedy to end all screwball comedies. Ethel Merman is every son-in-law’s nightmare, and Phil Silvers is a riot, but everyone’s good in this one.
  5. Bringing up Baby. Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant at their screwball best.
  6. 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.
  7. The Bride Wore Black. Jeanne Moreau is a young bride, widowed on her wedding day on the very steps of the church by a sniper working in collusion with several other men. After attempting suicide, she reconsiders, and begins tracking down and murdering the culprits in various creative and whimsical ways.
  8. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Maybe the most magical film ever made. The young Catherine Deneuve falls in love with a local boy, and things get worse from there. Beautifully filmed and acted, the dialogue is completely sung, to the melancholy strains of the music of Michel Legrand. Haunting, bittersweet and unforgettable.
  9. The Haunting (1963) Absolutely the scariest haunted house movie ever made. Julie Harris and Claire Bloom join paranormal expert Richard Johnson and rake Russ Tamblyn to research the ghostly goings on at remote Hill House.
  10. Black Narcissus. Deborah Kerr leads a group of Anglo-Catholic nuns to their new home in the Himalayas. This is also the only film I know that gets the same combination of velvety texture and deep, rich color that Disney achieved in Snow White, only this one is live action. Highly recommended.
Off to think of some more!
 
The plots of these films are thin but they do present a showcase for some great dancing and singing.
 
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Great film with two superb actors: Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole.
 
Thanks for trying but it’s not the one with Reginald Owen.
 
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It’s bizarre even for the 1970’s. There have been many offbeat films since then, but none I am aware of that pack such a punch, and a violent and disturbing one at that.
 
Kubrick was a true genius as a filmmaker. Many of his movies were not appreciated or understood by the critics of the day but have grown in stature through the years.
 
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a great film but not recommended for anyone who suffers from anxiety issues.
 
My CHILDHOOD favorites are:
Anything by the “Three Stoogies”
All “James Bond” movies starring Sean Connery
“Sound of Music” starring Julie Andrews
“The White Elephant”
 
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