Vintage Movie Bigotry

[Shrain]

Um, yep. Oops. I forgot there *was* an earlier version. *blushes*

[stacer]

I'm so glad you loved Wait Until Dark. I tried to share it with some roommates a while back and they made me turn it off after ten minutes because it was "too slow." It's always been very frustrating for me, because there are so many good classics out there that I would love to share with my friends, but most don't like them the way I do, and the people I'd usually watch movies with often are the kind of people who have something against anything filmed in black and white.

I love Alfred Hitchcock movies--or rather, about half of them--because of the smart intrigue rather than them being actually scary. Sure, some of them are dated--North by Northwest, for example--but some are funny. Try The Trouble with Harry for Hitchcock's morbid humor.

I also have to re-rent Barefoot in the Park at least once a year--Jane Fonda and Robert Redford as clueless newlyweds, and complete opposites in personality, and the way they figure out their first months of marriage. (comedy-drama)

I could just list my favorites, at least the ones currently on my shelf:

Stage Door, starring Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Lucille Ball before they were big--a comedy-drama about young actresses living in a boarding house trying to make it in New York theatre. An almost all-female cast, which I thought pretty stunning for a film made in 1938.

You Can't Take It with You--starring Jimmy Stewart. By the same director as It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra), but a little less sentimental, I think.

Bringing Up Baby--Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Fuzzy likes this one, too. Romantic comedy. In fact, speaking of Grant-Hepburn, if you ever get a chance to see Holiday, made in 1938--I believe it was Cary Grant's first American film--see it. It wasn't long after his days in the circus/vaudeville as a tumbler, and they do some tumbling. Rather fun

Gentleman's Agreement--Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire--a film ahead of its time about everyday racism

Speaking of Gregory Peck, definitely a must-see is To Kill a Mockingbird. He makes a great Atticus Finch.

Also, hilariously funny is Danny Kaye in, well, practically anything, but especially in The Court Jester, his crown piece, I think.

Then there's How to Marry a Millionaire--a comedy.

And My Favorite Wife, which is my all-time favorite classic comedy.

I could go on and on. I think I just listed about 2 or 3 of everything, except that I don't have a whole lot of titles on the suspense ones. Those are the ones to go for, not the ones meant to be horror. Like--watch the original French Diabolique--that's a scary one.

Um... Yeah. I'll stop now. It's about as bad as getting me going on children's literature, actually.

[stacer]

And these are ones that I wouldn't classify exactly as scary, but they're dang good suspense"
Charade
Rebecca
Notorious
Rear Window
Vertigo

Aha! Those are the exact Hitchcock titles I would have recommended, had I had them in my collection to refer to (as it was, I was too lazy to try to remember them). They're also movies I have to watch at least yearly. Well, I don't think I've seen Rebecca, and I've only seen Charade once years ago, but the other three are must-sees for me.

[Shrain]

... there are so many good classics out there that I would love to share with my friends, but most don't like them the way I do, and the people I'd usually watch movies with often are the kind of people who have something against anything filmed in black and white.

Uh huh. Same here. They think, B&W= boring. I've just resigned myself to watching stuff like this by my lonesome mostly. I'm really loving my netflix membership because I have access to so many great old movies I have or haven't seen. Currently, I've got some Hitchcock, Don Knotts, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart movies on my list. Yay!

[Fellfrosch]

If you're getting into old movies, do yourself a favor and see the original Producers. An excellent candidate for the funniest movie of all time.

[Parker]

I'll second that, Fell.  High-larious.  Love Gene Wilder in that film, and Zero Mostel does a great job, too.  I was disappointed to hear the reviews of the remake.  I had high hopes.  Haven't seen it yet, but I plan to sometime . . .  Just to see what happened.

[MsFish]

Ooooooo...Gene Wilder is awesome.  

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

That he is, which is why Young Frankenstein rocks too, and Zero Mostel is hilarious. Equally funny is a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Which has Mostel and Phil Silvers.

[Skar]

I just have to pipe up and add "Golden Earrings" to the list of recommended older films.  It's great but it's not on anybody's list that I've seen.  

It stars Ray Milland and Marlene Dietrich, takes place during and after WWII.  Great film.

[Fellfrosch]

My favorite "living in the wake of WW2" movie is definitely The Third Man, by Orson Welles.

[Parker]

I liked The Third Man, but I wasn't crazy about it.  Maybe it had been hyped up a bit too much for me.  It's the same way I felt about another Welles film--Citizen Kane.  Good movie, but it failed to live up to the "best film of all time" I'd heard so much about.

[MsFish]

I've seen Young Frankenstein.  That isn't *that* old, is it?

Has anyone seen See No Evil, Hear No Evil?  Now there's a great Wilder film.  

[Parker]

Silver Streak's pretty darn good, too.  Another Wilder/Pryor pairing, and one that's not rated R

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I've seen Young Frankenstein.  That isn't *that* old, is it?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072431/

older than you by almost a decade my dear.



Heck its older than me.

Just barely.

[Entsuropi]

Dude, how are you still alive? People that old only exist in fairy tales! D: