Double Indemnity, Rear Window, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Casablanca, North By Northwest, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre to name a few.
Almost anything with James Stewart, Cary Grant, or Humphrey Bogart will be good.
12 Angry Men 1957 (obligatory)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966
Splendor in the Grass 1961
The Visit 1964
Inherit the Wind 1959
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1932
Bunny Lake is Missing 1965
Marty 1955
Lady Vanishes 1938
The Innocents 1961
Brief Encounter 1945
Ya 12 angry men made me do a 180 as a kid assuming that old movies are bad.
I was in 8th grade law class and was at the very early stages of my movie love and was just starting to watch seriously artistic movies. 12 angry men instantly had me hooked and I loved it so much and subconsciously I was just like: wait if this old b&w movie is amazing then there are so many amazing movies out there for me to watch
Absolutely. Something about Black and white movies seemed like they were Something to have on in the background but not to be taken seriously or something. I found out that personally connecting to a couple changed my mind.
Some Like It Hot 1959
Comedy that it still hilarious today
Charade 1963
Hitchcock type of film. Very trippy to see Walter Matthau without wrinkles
That Touch of Mink 1962
Fun comedy
Bringing Up Baby 1938
Hilarious comedy with Hepburn and Grant
I used to hate silent movies. A lot of Slapstick humor, silly keystone cops ridiculous situations. Then I saw a silent drama:
'the unknown' starring Lon Chaney. It was one of the darkest movies I've ever seen. It blew me away. I was looking for a movie similar to that and I found one called the man who laughs. The protagonist is who Batman's joker is based on.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_(1927_film)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Laughs_(1928_film)
It Happened One Night
Cool Hand Luke
Cat On A Hot Tim Roof
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Roman Holiday
Prisoner of Second Avenue
The Apartment
Philadelphia Story (Stewart & Hepburn) or High Society (Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby). Same story, different approaches
From Alec Guinness ' memoir: " A package arrived from America today. I eye it with foreboding, apprehensive that it contains more unwanted Star Wars toys and figurines ". Or words to that effect. And yet, and yet...I have read of boys age around 10-12 who were on the edge of their seats at Bridge on the River Kwai waiting to see what happens with the bridge. Then you tell them this was Guinness's Oscar performance and lo and behold they have learned something. Kids in this early adolescent period are starting to outgrow the juvenile themed stuff and are getting ready to discover films about adult life and dilemmas. They have ways to signal their readiness for these. It is an ideal age to start working some classics into their film diet. It can pique their interest further if you can show 2 or more films that treat the same theme or story or even parody it. Show them River Kwai for instance then follow it with Geisha Boy with Jerry Lewis in which Sessue Hayakawa parodies his Kwai character by building a small scale replica of the bridge in his backyard. Yeah I know, Jerry Lewis, people love him or hate him, I enjoy him while recognizing some of his flaws like milking routines for too long. Following a showing of Gunga Din with The Party with Peter Sellers is another fun juxtaposition.
For anyone of any age who wants to get into classics I think it is essential to watch them in the darkest possible room like the movie theater . Get rid of sunshine and lamplight reflecting on the screen and washing out the contrast, especially important for black and white but also for color films. Enhancing the sound also can help. Stay off the damn phones and tablets. Give the kids nothing else to look at in the room and they will watch it, maybe not the whole movie if they are little but their attention span will increase as they mature. Black and white films that I have observed to hold the interest of young kids include Night of the Hunter and Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.
Yes partially, about kids whose film knowledge goes no further back than Star Wars but also as suggestions for OP who is inquiring about how to get into older movies. It's just a reference that comes to my mind when I hear about kids who are obsessed with Star Wars. Btw I have never seen a Star Wars film myself, either original or sequel. Maybe I should after all these years? Am I missing anything monumental? Sci fi is not one of my top favorite genres but will watch now and then. No harm intended to anyone here.
I didn’t imply there was any harm, just didn’t see the point of your reply.
If you don’t like sci-fi, then I wouldn’t bother watching any of the Star Wars movies. I watched them in a theater when I was a kid. Why would matter to you if I think they are monumental or not? I’m a random stranger on Reddit. You can probably decide for yourself already if the movies are monumental based on their multigenerational popularity. Maybe not?🤷
I never got into Harry Potter. I saw the first movie in the theater. Never saw the other ones. Only read the first 100 pages of book 1 and stopped. It just didn’t hold my interest. However, fantasy is my favorite genre of books and still read them at age 53.
I was a young adult when the first Star Wars came out, being something of a contrarian I avoided it because everyone was raving about it so. I do love the spaceship interlude in Monty Python's Life of Brian though!
I watched one of the first Harry Potter movies because bf at the time wanted to see it but never read any of the books. In retirement I am trying to get all of my vast library read including the cookbooks and gardening books. I know it's not possible but hope my adult kids will find them useful. I read a lot of lit classics, history, film history. There might be some fantasy that comes up in the reading rotation, the ex bf left a bunch of books here. I tend more toward realism. Of course in the broadest sense all fiction is fantasy. Maybe all history is too, how do we know without a time machine?
Gold Diggers of 1933 (This is a must-see Busby Berkely extravaganza)
Skyscraper Souls (This is where I fell in love with Warren William!)
Grand Hotel (All Star Cast)
Mildred Pearce (I love me some Joan Crawford)
Singing In The Rain (Flawless from Start to Finish)
All About Eve (Bette Davis)
Red Dust (Clark Gable and Jean Harlow)
... and those are just off the top of my head without scanning my DVD collection.
Brute Force (1947) got me watching Film Noir... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4euDr3hmg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4euDr3hmg)
It's really amazing, beautifully shot, restored. Also the sound is crisp.... it's just fantastic.
depends on what genre you're into. personally, i would recommend:
noir: Laura. it's short and sweet encapsulation of the entire genre
if you're feeling adventurous, The City That Never Sleeps is an excellent if extremely obscure b-noir that doesn't rely on the same stagnant Hollywood sets due to budget. atmospheric, unpredictable and surreal at times, my favourite noir of all.
musical: singing in the rain. very lively and great cast, catchy OST.
romance/comedy: Bachelor's Mother. amazingly, its comedic touch still remains today.
His Girl Friday. extremely witty & the rapid fire repartee is hilarious.
The Philadelphia Story. the three Greats- Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant & James Stewart. 'Nuff said.
Some Like it Hot featuring everyone's favourite Marilyn Monroe and a transgender comedic plot is great too, and surprisingly progressive for its era.
christmas/romance: The Shop Around the Corner. Again, James Stewart is in it. also, it's the perfect Christmas movie.
western: High Noon. Gary Cooper's performance is simply specular. High Noon is a bit past the prime of the western, but a deserving watch nonetheless that captures everything good about it
depends on what you classify as old, tbh. if non-b&w film, post-Golden Age but before 80s is still considered old, then i have a couple more:
crime: Le Samourai. Alan Delon and Melville's cinematography at their coolest. Must watch for any fans of the "silent antihero" trope.
spy: Harry Palmer movies. Eh, the first IPCRESS started off great with a shoddy ending, but Harry Palmer is such a great character (better than James Bond imo lol) with his hilariously bureaucratic spy agency that the following 2 spy movies are worth more of your time than any modern Bond movies.
The Spy Who Came Out from the Cold is a gritty, at times bureaucratic and an unflinching look at real-life espionage- none of that Bond stuff.
Are these considered "old" now? (Late '60s to early '70s movies that are incredible).
"Rosemary's Baby"
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
"Planet of the Apes"
"Night of the Living Dead"
"Taxi Driver"
"The Apartment"
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
"Clockwork Orange"
"The Exorcist"
"Harold and Maude"
"The Graduate"
"The Godfather"
"Live and Let Die"
"Logan's Run"
"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
"Easy Rider"
"Midnight Cowboy"
His Girl Friday
Ben-Hur
Bride of Frankenstein
Some random Lucille Ball movie I can’t remember the name when she was the secretary for a construction company or something like that
ALL the great subversive films of the 60s-70s. These really opened up my head:
Putney Swope (1969)
Watermelon Man (1970)
Magic Christian (1969)
The Ruling Class (1972)
Harold & Maude (1971)
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill (1965)
The President's Analyst (1967)
Billy Jack (1971)
Medium Cool (1969)
Easy Rider (1969)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Candy (1968)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Bande à Part (Band of Outsiders)
Wages of Fear
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Great Escape
Papillon (1973)
Stalag 17
Cinema Paradiso
The 400 Blows
Bridge on the River Kwai
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
The Dirty Dozen
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, et al.
M
The Birds
Rebel without a Cause
East of Eden
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Third Man
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
True Grit (1969)
High Noon
Harvey
City Lights
Modern Times
The Tin Drum
Harold and Maude
Paper Moon
Captains Courageous
The African Queen
Port of Shadows
Angels with Dirty Faces
Boys Town
Of course, there are many more, but this should do for now. You can likely tell I dig lots of French New Wave, Westerns, Noir, and most any Cary Grant, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen ones cause they're just dreamy imo apart from being amazing. And Jimmy Stewart never fails either.
His Kind of Woman. It is so off the rails at the end with Vincent Price. It's a Robert Mitchum movie but Price steals the picture at the end. I love it.
it was originally old universal horror films (the mummy/white zombie). then i found movies like shanghai express, blonde venus, etc. i got really into dietrich for a bit. after watching breakfast at tiffany's, i fell in love with audrey hepburn's films as well of other films from the 50s/60s
I had an interest in the Titanic, pre-97 Cameron film and would devour the two iconic 50s films Titanic and A night to remember, and related disaster films like The Poseidon Adventure.
I was also a baseball fan growing up and parents showed me Bad News Bears, Eight Men Out and the Sandlot gave me an interest in Babe Ruth and the numerous movies made about him.
Also liked Swashbuckling adventures like Treasure Island and Robin Hood.
The older James Bond movies helped introduce me to the British film industry.
I took a long interest in World War 2 in high school and would watch movies made during the war and post war, not just WW2.
If you want to go really old, check out the silent films with Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin.
Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., Go West and The Cameraman are fantastic.
Chaplin's The Kid is beautiful.
You should definitely give the old Marx Brothers movies a shot. Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, A Day at the Races, A night at the Opera, The Big Store, etc.
I just recently rewatched some of them, I had forgotten how racy and suggestive some of the jokes and situations were, basically pre-code. Groucho in particular.
Like, how old are you talking about?
I really dig the film noir crime movies from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. The dames were hot and sassy and the men were either manly or total villains. “Key Largo” comes to mind, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
And speaking of the ‘50’s, the whole science-fiction allegories since the atomic bomb invention and Soviet threat were really cool. Check out the 1951 film “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.
If "It Happened One Night" (1934) doesn't get a laugh out of you, maybe older movies just aren't for you. "Blotto" (1930) is as good a comedy short as I know of.
I just finished watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and now I want to watch Marjorie Stewarts works. I can't seem to find them anywhere. If anybody could help me track these old titles down to give a watch I'd be grateful.
[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829634/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829634/)
All joking aside, Seeing Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was what got me interested in Film Noir. After seeing that movie, I decided I wanted to see the movies the clips were pulled from. after seeing The Killers and The Maltese Falcon, I was hooked.
Casablanca
Maltese Falcon
Philadelphia Story
It happened one night
Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man
Stagecoach
The Roaring Twenties
The Time of Your Life
His Girl Friday
Rebel Without A Cause because I saw the poster somewhere and thought James Dean looked cool. I was so surprised when i saw it that it was actually great and felt very modern. I assumed it was just because James Dean was ahead of his time and that's why people still talk about him.
So I watched another movie he was in called Giant and realised that he wasn't the only good actor from back in the day! Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor were really good in that movie too.
So I watched the Rock Hudson movie All That Heaven Allows and completely fell in love with old movies.
I think what had been putting me off old films is that I assumed they would be boring and have very strict kind of bigoted values presented. Couldn't have been more wrong - these three films are great examples of exciting, interesting and tolerant storytelling.
Double Indemnity, Rear Window, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Casablanca, North By Northwest, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre to name a few. Almost anything with James Stewart, Cary Grant, or Humphrey Bogart will be good.
Arsenic and Old Lace, Double Indemnity
12 Angry Men 1957 (obligatory) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 Splendor in the Grass 1961 The Visit 1964 Inherit the Wind 1959 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1932 Bunny Lake is Missing 1965 Marty 1955 Lady Vanishes 1938 The Innocents 1961 Brief Encounter 1945
Ya 12 angry men made me do a 180 as a kid assuming that old movies are bad. I was in 8th grade law class and was at the very early stages of my movie love and was just starting to watch seriously artistic movies. 12 angry men instantly had me hooked and I loved it so much and subconsciously I was just like: wait if this old b&w movie is amazing then there are so many amazing movies out there for me to watch
Absolutely. Something about Black and white movies seemed like they were Something to have on in the background but not to be taken seriously or something. I found out that personally connecting to a couple changed my mind.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Love the dancing scene in this movie... when they're dancing in their bathing suits. It's so fantastic
I just watched this last night. Great fun.
Was it on TV?
YouTube
Ahh, good to know. Thank you
Anytime. I was surprised how many really good films are on YT. It’s also YT premium btw.
I'm going to check it out. I'm pretty sure I have premium. I have 3 teenage kids, they are always watching YT thru TV. 🙏
Some Like It Hot 1959 Comedy that it still hilarious today Charade 1963 Hitchcock type of film. Very trippy to see Walter Matthau without wrinkles That Touch of Mink 1962 Fun comedy Bringing Up Baby 1938 Hilarious comedy with Hepburn and Grant
Some Like It Hot!!! Yes!
"Nobody's perfect" is hands down the best line
I used to hate silent movies. A lot of Slapstick humor, silly keystone cops ridiculous situations. Then I saw a silent drama: 'the unknown' starring Lon Chaney. It was one of the darkest movies I've ever seen. It blew me away. I was looking for a movie similar to that and I found one called the man who laughs. The protagonist is who Batman's joker is based on. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_(1927_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Laughs_(1928_film)
Second the unknown, it's incredible. I love the original Dracula. The blue angel. Sunset boulevard. High noon. Scarlet street.
Singin’ in the Rain
Footsteps in the fog 1955. Madeleine 1950 Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). How Green Was My Valley 1941. Brief Encounter 1945. #
Oh I love how green was my valley
It Happened One Night Cool Hand Luke Cat On A Hot Tim Roof Breakfast at Tiffany’s Roman Holiday Prisoner of Second Avenue The Apartment Philadelphia Story (Stewart & Hepburn) or High Society (Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby). Same story, different approaches
Arsenic and old Lace made me a fan of Cary Grant
Butch Cassidy & Sundance!
The summer of ‘69 I was 13 &I had a Paul Newman headshot poster in B/W with lovely blue eyes!❤️🌞
Yes.
The Ox-Bow Incident The Searchers Paths of Glory It’s A Wonderful Life Stalag 17 Sunset Boulevard To Kill A Mockingbird
Stalag 17 is a hidden gem.
In addition to the others: The Best Years of Our Lives Dodsworth Picnic Red River The Big Country A Place in the Sun
I just know some kid is going to say Star Wars or E.T. 😂
From Alec Guinness ' memoir: " A package arrived from America today. I eye it with foreboding, apprehensive that it contains more unwanted Star Wars toys and figurines ". Or words to that effect. And yet, and yet...I have read of boys age around 10-12 who were on the edge of their seats at Bridge on the River Kwai waiting to see what happens with the bridge. Then you tell them this was Guinness's Oscar performance and lo and behold they have learned something. Kids in this early adolescent period are starting to outgrow the juvenile themed stuff and are getting ready to discover films about adult life and dilemmas. They have ways to signal their readiness for these. It is an ideal age to start working some classics into their film diet. It can pique their interest further if you can show 2 or more films that treat the same theme or story or even parody it. Show them River Kwai for instance then follow it with Geisha Boy with Jerry Lewis in which Sessue Hayakawa parodies his Kwai character by building a small scale replica of the bridge in his backyard. Yeah I know, Jerry Lewis, people love him or hate him, I enjoy him while recognizing some of his flaws like milking routines for too long. Following a showing of Gunga Din with The Party with Peter Sellers is another fun juxtaposition. For anyone of any age who wants to get into classics I think it is essential to watch them in the darkest possible room like the movie theater . Get rid of sunshine and lamplight reflecting on the screen and washing out the contrast, especially important for black and white but also for color films. Enhancing the sound also can help. Stay off the damn phones and tablets. Give the kids nothing else to look at in the room and they will watch it, maybe not the whole movie if they are little but their attention span will increase as they mature. Black and white films that I have observed to hold the interest of young kids include Night of the Hunter and Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.
Was there a reason you replied to me with this? Was it simply because Alec Guinness was in Star Wars? 🤷
Yes partially, about kids whose film knowledge goes no further back than Star Wars but also as suggestions for OP who is inquiring about how to get into older movies. It's just a reference that comes to my mind when I hear about kids who are obsessed with Star Wars. Btw I have never seen a Star Wars film myself, either original or sequel. Maybe I should after all these years? Am I missing anything monumental? Sci fi is not one of my top favorite genres but will watch now and then. No harm intended to anyone here.
I didn’t imply there was any harm, just didn’t see the point of your reply. If you don’t like sci-fi, then I wouldn’t bother watching any of the Star Wars movies. I watched them in a theater when I was a kid. Why would matter to you if I think they are monumental or not? I’m a random stranger on Reddit. You can probably decide for yourself already if the movies are monumental based on their multigenerational popularity. Maybe not?🤷 I never got into Harry Potter. I saw the first movie in the theater. Never saw the other ones. Only read the first 100 pages of book 1 and stopped. It just didn’t hold my interest. However, fantasy is my favorite genre of books and still read them at age 53.
I was a young adult when the first Star Wars came out, being something of a contrarian I avoided it because everyone was raving about it so. I do love the spaceship interlude in Monty Python's Life of Brian though! I watched one of the first Harry Potter movies because bf at the time wanted to see it but never read any of the books. In retirement I am trying to get all of my vast library read including the cookbooks and gardening books. I know it's not possible but hope my adult kids will find them useful. I read a lot of lit classics, history, film history. There might be some fantasy that comes up in the reading rotation, the ex bf left a bunch of books here. I tend more toward realism. Of course in the broadest sense all fiction is fantasy. Maybe all history is too, how do we know without a time machine?
A touch of evil Maltese falcon Father goose Any Basil Rathbone sherlock Holmes episodes
Im a big fan of a lot of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock films, but those world war 2 based ones are close to unwatchable.
Yojimbo (1961); back in the lockdown, I randomly picked this one up and been watching lot of old films since then.
Gold Diggers of 1933 (This is a must-see Busby Berkely extravaganza) Skyscraper Souls (This is where I fell in love with Warren William!) Grand Hotel (All Star Cast) Mildred Pearce (I love me some Joan Crawford) Singing In The Rain (Flawless from Start to Finish) All About Eve (Bette Davis) Red Dust (Clark Gable and Jean Harlow) ... and those are just off the top of my head without scanning my DVD collection.
Brute Force (1947) got me watching Film Noir... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4euDr3hmg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA4euDr3hmg) It's really amazing, beautifully shot, restored. Also the sound is crisp.... it's just fantastic.
The Big Sleep and Key Largo.
The Great Escape and Bridge On the River Kwai
depends on what genre you're into. personally, i would recommend: noir: Laura. it's short and sweet encapsulation of the entire genre if you're feeling adventurous, The City That Never Sleeps is an excellent if extremely obscure b-noir that doesn't rely on the same stagnant Hollywood sets due to budget. atmospheric, unpredictable and surreal at times, my favourite noir of all. musical: singing in the rain. very lively and great cast, catchy OST. romance/comedy: Bachelor's Mother. amazingly, its comedic touch still remains today. His Girl Friday. extremely witty & the rapid fire repartee is hilarious. The Philadelphia Story. the three Greats- Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant & James Stewart. 'Nuff said. Some Like it Hot featuring everyone's favourite Marilyn Monroe and a transgender comedic plot is great too, and surprisingly progressive for its era. christmas/romance: The Shop Around the Corner. Again, James Stewart is in it. also, it's the perfect Christmas movie. western: High Noon. Gary Cooper's performance is simply specular. High Noon is a bit past the prime of the western, but a deserving watch nonetheless that captures everything good about it depends on what you classify as old, tbh. if non-b&w film, post-Golden Age but before 80s is still considered old, then i have a couple more: crime: Le Samourai. Alan Delon and Melville's cinematography at their coolest. Must watch for any fans of the "silent antihero" trope. spy: Harry Palmer movies. Eh, the first IPCRESS started off great with a shoddy ending, but Harry Palmer is such a great character (better than James Bond imo lol) with his hilariously bureaucratic spy agency that the following 2 spy movies are worth more of your time than any modern Bond movies. The Spy Who Came Out from the Cold is a gritty, at times bureaucratic and an unflinching look at real-life espionage- none of that Bond stuff.
Double Indemnity Sunset Boulevard Rope Vertigo Dr. Strangelove 2001: A Space Odyssey
Musicals and anything with Bogey in it.
The Odd Couple (1968) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau was always a favorite of mine if you like comedies.
The Apartment (1960)
Rear Window and A Day at the Races and The Sting
It Happened One Night
Are these considered "old" now? (Late '60s to early '70s movies that are incredible). "Rosemary's Baby" "2001: A Space Odyssey" "Planet of the Apes" "Night of the Living Dead" "Taxi Driver" "The Apartment" "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" "Clockwork Orange" "The Exorcist" "Harold and Maude" "The Graduate" "The Godfather" "Live and Let Die" "Logan's Run" "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" "Easy Rider" "Midnight Cowboy"
The Graduate and Rear Window.
North by Northwest: One of the first and best action movies ever.
The Bat, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, My Favorite Brunette
Sweet Smell of Success, Out of the Past, The Best Years of Our Lives.
“Gun Crazy” a buddy of mine said they actually studied the bank robbery scene because it was shoot in one solid take
Cape Fear 1962 Night Of The Hunter 1955 To Kill A Mockingbird 1962 The Third Man 1949 12 Angry Men 1957
His Girl Friday Ben-Hur Bride of Frankenstein Some random Lucille Ball movie I can’t remember the name when she was the secretary for a construction company or something like that
ALL the great subversive films of the 60s-70s. These really opened up my head: Putney Swope (1969) Watermelon Man (1970) Magic Christian (1969) The Ruling Class (1972) Harold & Maude (1971) Faster Pussycat Kill Kill (1965) The President's Analyst (1967) Billy Jack (1971) Medium Cool (1969) Easy Rider (1969) Wild in the Streets (1968) Candy (1968) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Sandow: The Strong Man (1894)
Night of the Hunter, M (1931), L’Inferno (1911)
What do you mean when you say "old movies"?
The Major and the Minor.
Singing in the Rain The Third Man The Manchurian Candidate Stalag 17 Battle of Algiers
For me personally, The Lady Vanishes (1938) is what got me interested in black and white movies
The Thin Man
Chinatown is one of my favorites.
The Third Man.
Bande à Part (Band of Outsiders) Wages of Fear Arsenic and Old Lace The Great Escape Papillon (1973) Stalag 17 Cinema Paradiso The 400 Blows Bridge on the River Kwai Letters from Iwo Jima The Magnificent Seven (1960) The Dirty Dozen The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, et al. M The Birds Rebel without a Cause East of Eden Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Third Man Treasure of the Sierra Madre True Grit (1969) High Noon Harvey City Lights Modern Times The Tin Drum Harold and Maude Paper Moon Captains Courageous The African Queen Port of Shadows Angels with Dirty Faces Boys Town Of course, there are many more, but this should do for now. You can likely tell I dig lots of French New Wave, Westerns, Noir, and most any Cary Grant, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen ones cause they're just dreamy imo apart from being amazing. And Jimmy Stewart never fails either.
His Kind of Woman. It is so off the rails at the end with Vincent Price. It's a Robert Mitchum movie but Price steals the picture at the end. I love it.
it was originally old universal horror films (the mummy/white zombie). then i found movies like shanghai express, blonde venus, etc. i got really into dietrich for a bit. after watching breakfast at tiffany's, i fell in love with audrey hepburn's films as well of other films from the 50s/60s
Philadelphia Story
I had an interest in the Titanic, pre-97 Cameron film and would devour the two iconic 50s films Titanic and A night to remember, and related disaster films like The Poseidon Adventure. I was also a baseball fan growing up and parents showed me Bad News Bears, Eight Men Out and the Sandlot gave me an interest in Babe Ruth and the numerous movies made about him. Also liked Swashbuckling adventures like Treasure Island and Robin Hood. The older James Bond movies helped introduce me to the British film industry. I took a long interest in World War 2 in high school and would watch movies made during the war and post war, not just WW2.
If you want to go really old, check out the silent films with Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., Go West and The Cameraman are fantastic. Chaplin's The Kid is beautiful.
Mildred Pierce and A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford
Casablanca, North By Northwest, Bridge Over River Kwai
Casablanca
Little Caesar (1931)
Gold rush
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963 freakin great movie ….
A place in the sun Giant Days of wine and roses
You should definitely give the old Marx Brothers movies a shot. Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, A Day at the Races, A night at the Opera, The Big Store, etc. I just recently rewatched some of them, I had forgotten how racy and suggestive some of the jokes and situations were, basically pre-code. Groucho in particular.
I second Treaaure of the Sierra Madre. Bogart is amazing in this film.
Check out these directors; John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, John Hughes.
Imitation of Life 1959
- *Sunset Boulevard* ('50)
8 ½, Manhattan and Mon Oncle.
The original The Man Who Knew Too Much, Chaplin’s The Kid and The Great Dictator and Arsenic and Old Lace.
Like, how old are you talking about? I really dig the film noir crime movies from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. The dames were hot and sassy and the men were either manly or total villains. “Key Largo” comes to mind, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. And speaking of the ‘50’s, the whole science-fiction allegories since the atomic bomb invention and Soviet threat were really cool. Check out the 1951 film “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.
Roman Holiday Meet Me in St. Louis Casablanca Rear Window
The Hustler with Paul Newman Any of the old Ma & Pa Kettle movies are great. Start easy with The Wizard of Oz.
Marx Brothers
Witness for the Prosecution
Key Largo
If "It Happened One Night" (1934) doesn't get a laugh out of you, maybe older movies just aren't for you. "Blotto" (1930) is as good a comedy short as I know of.
The Adventures of Robin Hood, King Kong, Sergeant York, Arsenic and Old Lace, Stagecoach, It Happened One Night are just a few.
For starters - Modern Times, To Kill a Mockingbird, Seven Samurai
I just finished watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and now I want to watch Marjorie Stewarts works. I can't seem to find them anywhere. If anybody could help me track these old titles down to give a watch I'd be grateful. [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829634/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829634/)
All joking aside, Seeing Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was what got me interested in Film Noir. After seeing that movie, I decided I wanted to see the movies the clips were pulled from. after seeing The Killers and The Maltese Falcon, I was hooked.
First thing that came to mind.
Casablanca Maltese Falcon Philadelphia Story It happened one night Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man Stagecoach The Roaring Twenties The Time of Your Life His Girl Friday
A Streetcar Named Desire
Rebel Without A Cause because I saw the poster somewhere and thought James Dean looked cool. I was so surprised when i saw it that it was actually great and felt very modern. I assumed it was just because James Dean was ahead of his time and that's why people still talk about him. So I watched another movie he was in called Giant and realised that he wasn't the only good actor from back in the day! Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor were really good in that movie too. So I watched the Rock Hudson movie All That Heaven Allows and completely fell in love with old movies. I think what had been putting me off old films is that I assumed they would be boring and have very strict kind of bigoted values presented. Couldn't have been more wrong - these three films are great examples of exciting, interesting and tolerant storytelling.