Decided to try and catch classic movies I have never seen. I have "It's a wonderful life" and "gone with the wind" up next. Boy did movies in 1947 suck... ok, ok, not that bad. But, I hope the others are better. The whole Santa Clause on trial thing was amusing. My grandmother is 85yrs old, lived her whole life in Kansas and has never seen the Wizard of Oz. (just throwing that out there) Does anybody recommend any other classics not on my list? I was born in 1973 so i am talking 40s,50s, 60's movies.
It Happened One Night is wonderful. Not a Christmas movie, but a classic sometimes overlooked by those born to color TV. I've never had someone say they didn't like this movie. Another Hornfan fave is The Best Years of Our Lives. It's about the return of three WWII veterans to their hometown. Even though it is not a combat movie, it is one of the best war movies out there. I usually can't turn it off when I happen by it on TCM. Introduce yourself to the wonderful Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Gary Cooper. Here Comes Mr. Jordan is the fun original that Warren Beatty turned into Heaven Can Wait, also very good. You may want to watch some of these black and white movies before watching Gone With the Wind or the Wizard of Oz. These movies set themselves apart technically as well as naratively. Watch It Happened One Night right before Gone With the Wind to get a hint of what it must have been like for film goers in the late Thirties. But I become tedious. Hope you like the movies.
To add a few more: Alfred Hitchcock movies - North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - Betty Davis and Joan Crawford. Shane - an old western. Vintage Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Casablanca and Citizen Kane. There are tons!
I have seen The last picture show. Really enjoyed that. I finaly saw Easy Rider about a year ago. I thought it was overated. It did create a lot off odd situations. For example, when the small town girls were checking them out on their bikes. It was just a weird/uncomfortable scene. How about some old westerns?
Yeah, a lot of old "classics" really don't hold up well. As previously mentioned, Hitchcock is still quite good.
Add Rear Window to the Hitchcock classics noted above. Morocco (1930) with Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich. Bogey is one of my favorites, so in addition to Casablanca, also see To Have and Have Not, The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, African Queen and The Big Sleep. I would love to be able to see all of those movies for the first time again.
An oft-forgotten classic Christmas movie is "We're No Angels," with Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov. It's one of my favorites, and not just during the holidays.
"The Westerner" and "Sergeant York" are both good movies, especially if you like Gary Cooper, which I do.
Another great Bogart film is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Bogart and Walter Huston get most of the acclaim but Tim Holt holds his own as an actor. Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya): "We are Federales... you know, the mounted police." Dobbs (Bogart): "If you're the police, where are your badges?" Gold Hat (Bedoya): "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges
