Favorite Old Movies (from the 30s-50s)

[prplchknz]

what are they, ones that stuck out to you. Mine are
-Arsenic and Old Lace
-All About Eve
-Breakfast at Tiffany's
-The Wizard of Oz
-Casa Blanca
-Dial M for Murder
-My Fair Lady

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them

 

[Stansmith]

Haven't watched many movies from this period..

The 400 Blows (1959)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Death of a Cyclist (1955)

 

[prplchknz]

Haven't watched many movies from this period..

The 400 Blows (1959)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Death of a Cyclist (1955)

I haven't seen those, I might watch them if they look like something I'd like. I have heard of The Seventh Seal, and I've been wanting to watch it, but haven't gotten around to doing so

 

[EJCC]

Summoning [MENTION=10251]Red Herring[/MENTION] and [MENTION=8444]Mad Hatter[/MENTION] to this thread

My favorites off the top of my head are mostly by Kurosawa or Capra. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai...

 

[Red Herring]

Summoning Red Herring and Mad Hatter to this thread

My favorites off the top of my head are mostly by Kurosawa or Capra. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai...

Oh, great thread idea - thanks for calling me here. Hmm, 30s-50s is a very wild field, especially if there is no limit with regards to genre or nationality. There are so many great movies!

Several great movies have already been mentioned (Arsenic And Old Lace is one of my favorite comedies, The Seventh Seal is a fantastic movie that leaves you captivated, Rashomon was great and I'm a hardcore fan of Casablanca!!!). As much as I might be a film noir lover, few of them are real noir (and all are English language movies).

Sorry if most of these are insultingly obvious picks!

Off the top of my head I'd say some of my absolute favorites are:

- Casablanca (1942) (the movie to end all movies, there is even an essay by Umberto Eco on why that is)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) (marvelous movie, very atmospheric)
- The Big Sleep (1946) (the best of them, but honestly, everything with Bogart and Bacall in it will do!!!)
- The Third Man (1949) (similar in style and also by Carol Reed: Odd Man Out (1947))
- The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) (you can hardly go wrong with Preminger and this one is surprisingly modern in thinking))
- Laura (1944) (also by Otto Preminger)

Great comedies:
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) (great Ealing comedy)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)

This also the period of marvelous directors like Welles or Hitchcock (who had his golden age in the 50s, I think)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Vertigo (1958)

Great movies by Orson Welles (other than the obvious Citizen Cane, duh!):
- The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons has a beautiful intro sequence:

I'll make a more genre specific noir list...

 

[prplchknz]

Oh, great thread idea - thanks for calling me here. Hmm, 30s-50s is a very wild field, especially if there is no limit with regards to genre or nationality. There are so many great movies!

Several great movies have already been mentioned (Arsenic And Old Lace is one of my favorite comedies, The Seventh Seal is a fantastic movie that leaves you captivated, Rashomon was great and I'm a hardcore fan of Casablanca!!!). As much as I might be a film noir lover, few of them are real noir (and all are English language movies).

Sorry if most of these are insultingly obvious picks!

Off the top of my head I'd say some of my absolute favorites are:

- Casablanca (1942) (the movie to end all movies, there is even an essay by Umberto Eco on why that is)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) (marvelous movie, very atmospheric)
- The Big Sleep (1946) (the best of them, but honestly, everything with Bogart and Bacall in it will do!!!)
- The Third Man (1949) (similar in style and also by Carol Reed: Odd Man Out (1947))
- The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) (you can hardly go wrong with Preminger and this one is surprisingly modern in thinking))
- Laura (1944) (also by Otto Preminger)

Great comedies:
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) (great Ealing comedy)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)

This also the period of marvelous directors like Welles or Hitchcock (who had his golden age in the 50s, I think)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Vertigo (1958)

Great movies by Orson Welles (other than the obvious Citizen Cane, duh!):
- The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons has a beautiful intro sequence:

I'll make a more genre specific noir list...

Isn't this era considered the golden age of hollywood? Also I've seen a few of those movies and I really liked them. especially the hitchcock ones but the point is that I really like movies from this era. my favorites tend to be indies and movies from this time period. Not because I want to be different, but because most of the mainstream movies these days suck and don't really match my tastes. I might like foreign films, but don't like dubbing or reading subtitles. I should learn a different language

 

[ndovjtjcaqidthi]

Here are a couple I can think of.

Napoléon (1927)
All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Vampyr (1932)

 

[five sounds]

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)*
Sunset Boulevard (1950)

*Sorry I broke the rules. Only by 2 years though

 

[highlander]

The Magnificent Ambersons has a beautiful intro sequence:

I own that movie.

I tend to like the epic movies like The 10 Commandments, Spartacus and Ben Hur as well as old black and white romantic comedies, like Bringing Up Baby, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and It Happened One Night.

 

[Qlip]

Oh, great thread idea - thanks for calling me here. Hmm, 30s-50s is a very wild field, especially if there is no limit with regards to genre or nationality. There are so many great movies!..

I know, I've been eating up movies from the 50's on Netflix. I'm really tickled with American 50's movies, there's so much effort to stick to and stick it to the Hayes Code. It's fun to watch, like for instance, the lead character mentioning the 'interior decorators' who live upstairs in "The Seven Year Itch".

I'm also a sucker for anachronisms. I can't always tell if elements that are represented in this era are tropes of the era, or if the expected film narrative hadn't been as locked down as it is now. I watched "Duck Soup", and the presentation was so surrealistic, The Marx Brothers were The Marx Brothers and everybody else was a set piece, and it worked.

 

[Red Herring]

I know, I've been eating up movies from the 50's on Netflix. I'm really tickled with American 50's movies, there's so much effort to stick to and stick it to the Hayes Code. It's fun to watch, like for instance, the lead character mentioning the 'interior decorators' who live upstairs in "The Seven Year Itch".

I'm also a sucker for anachronisms. I can't always tell if elements that are represented in this era are tropes of the era, or if the expected film narrative hadn't been as locked down as it is now. I watched "Duck Soup", and the presentation was so surrealistic, The Marx Brothers were The Marx Brothers and everybody else was a set piece, and it worked.

How about that scene in Bringing up Baby (1938!) where Cary Grant is asked why he is wearing Kathrine Hepburn's nightgown and he answers that he "suddenly went gay" (which the other character simply ignores)?

 

[Qlip]

How about that scene in Bringing up Baby (1938!) where Cary Grant is asked why he is wearing Kathrine Hepburn's nightgown and he answers that he "suddenly went gay" (which the other character simply ignores)?

Okay, I'm watching that tonight! I just saw her in African Queen where she is older, I'd love to see her in 1938.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Favorites not yet mentioned:

Harvey (James Stewart)
The Manchurian Candidate (though I think this was 60s, I’m mentioning it anyway)
The Philadelphia Story (Cary Grant, James Stewart- I think this is the one where Grant pushes Hepburn over by shoving her face?)


I personally like almost anything with Cary Grant. Or anything done by Kurasawa.

- The Night of the Hunter (1955) (marvelous movie, very atmospheric)

Oh-h-hh Chi-i-ildre-e-en

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

My favorites are a lot like some people who have already posted. In no particular order:

Rebecca (1940)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Vertigo (1958)
Rear Window (1954)
The Third Man (1949)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Bambi (1942)
Rashomon (1951)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Peter Pan (1953)
Casablanca (1942)

 

[kquirk]

I made a quick list, then tried to remove any that have already been mentioned (you guys like some good movies). Also got some older ones on here (a few people have already broken that rule.)

A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The General (1926)
The Blue Angel (1930)
City Lights (1931)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Freaks (1932)
The Grand Illusion (1937)
Stagecoach (1939)
His Girl Friday (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
To Be or Not to Be (1942) <=== I wish everyone would see this movie.
Sahara (1943)
The Stranger (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Red River (1948)
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Sabrina (1954)
Rififi (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Killing (1956)
Giant (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Rio Bravo (1959)

 

[jacktorry]

One and only - Gone with the wind

 

[Lexicon]

(1942)

 

[❀༺♥༻ℭ𝔞𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔞_𝔄𝔦𝔰𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔤༺♥༻❀༺]

There's more movies that I want to see than I have seen, but here's a couple that I have watched c:

Follow The Fleet (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Alice I Wonderland (1951)
Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Peter Pan (1953)
Sabrina (1954)
Lady & The Tramp (1955)
Funny Face (1957)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)

 

[StrawberryBoots]

Recently, I saw Auntie Mame (1958). I thought it was funny and worth watching. I haven't seen many old movies. I'm just now starting to watch them as they're recommended to me.

 

[Tellenbach]

I was always scared of Bette Davis until I saw "All About Eve" (1950). She's excellent in this. No one's mentioned Gulliver's Travels (1939). I've seen it at least twice as a kid and still have fond memories. Here in SoCal in the 70s and 80s, there was a local tv show called 'The Family Film Festival' on KTLA that showed film classics Sunday mornings. I watched tons of great classics (but sadly can't remember their names).