Classic Films

[oceanflower]

I enjoy watching classic films much more than I do current ones. Does anyone else share my admiration for the classics? What are your favorites? Who are your favorite classic actors and actresses?

[H. Caulfeild]

I've always had a place in my heart for the silent movies, especially charlie chaplin and buster keaton. but i've always enjoyed errol flyn, yul brynner, judy garland, katherine hepburn. my favorite classics though have to be the jerry lewis films, and danny kaye, he was pretty cool...

[P Glew]

I like most classic films - although they are sometimes rather silly, there is nothing like a good old "film noir" where some ex-actress murders her husband for money etc...

Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford etc - even though I have seen it few times, Mildred Pierce is a good one!

But that's only when I'm in the mood. If I watch any type of classic film, its more often than not British little-known comedies or playlettes such as Abigail's Party, Nuts in May or Genevieve.

Phil

[Star_Anise]

Anything with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in it, for starters. I reckon my favourite would have to be Shall We Dance. The music! The dancing! The spectacle!

I love good old noir classics too, but couldn't pick a favourite.

And who can go past Casablanca?

[blp]

I love good old noir classics too, but couldn't pick a favourite.

I think I can: Kiss Me Deadly, the one with the stolen radioactive material and the sad poem by, I think, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the exploding beach house - a pulp movie that transcends its limits comprehensively to become a work of great art.

[oceanflower]

I like most classic films - although they are sometimes rather silly, there is nothing like a good old "film noir" where some ex-actress murders her husband for money etc...


My favorite noir films are:

Laura - Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews
Mildred Pierce - Joan Crawford
The Letter - Bette Davis
Rebecca - Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier
Double Indemnity - Barbara Stanwyk
The Postman Always Rings Twice - Lana Turner
Angel Face - Jean Simmons
The Night of the Hunter - Robert Mitchum
Citizen Kane- Orson Welles

[oceanflower]

I enjoy so many of the classic actors and actresses, but my favorites are :

Bette Davis
Audrey Hepburn
Gene Tierney
Barbara Stanwyk
Kathryn Hepburn
Joan Crawford

William Holden
James Stewart
Dana Andrews
James Cagney
Robert Mitchum
Burt Lancaster

[Scheherazade]

'Some Like It Hot'
'Singing in the Rain'
'An American in Paris'
'Breakfast At Tiffany's'

[blp]

Night of the Hunter
Baby Doll
The Big Sleep
Kiss Me Deadly
Dr Mabuse, the Gambler
La Regle du Jeu
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Citizen Kane
The Third Man
Man with a Movie Camera
Battleship Potemkin
Ordet
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
A Matter of Life and Death

[incka]

Dr Strangelove.

[H. Caulfeild]

Dr Strangelove.
heck yes! i don't find many people that like that movie but i think it's awesome...

[Goldfishies]

Casablance

[TariNumenesse]

I have soft spots for Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird and A Gentleman's Agreement particularly) and Clark Gable (Gone with the Wind and The Misfits). Also Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (in complete agreement with Star there!). I recently saw Rebecca, and enjoyed that too. Generally I will enjoy any old movie. I just love them.

The Invisible Man is also a great favourite.

[Winifred]

Favorite Movies

King of Hearts
Fantastic Planet
old musicals (Kismet, 7 Brides for & Brothers, Kiss Me Kate, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, etc. etc.)
Casablanca
The African Queen
Philadelphia Story
Robin Hood and The Thief of Baghdad (Douglas Fairbanks, Sr)
The Misfits
Alexander Nevsky (hopelessly heroic!!)
So many more…Sigh...

[oceanflower]

I enjoy so many of the classic actors and actresses, but my favorites are :

Bette Davis
Audrey Hepburn
Gene Tierney
Barbara Stanwyk
Kathryn Hepburn
Joan Crawford

William Holden
James Stewart
Dana Andrews
James Cagney
Robert Mitchum
Burt Lancaster

Some of my favorite classic films:

Laura - starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews
Mildred Pierce - starring Joan Crawford
The Letter - Bette Davis
Rebecca - Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier
Double Indemnity - Barbara Stanwyk
The Postman Always Rings Twice - Lana Turner
Angel Face - Jean Simmons
The Night of the Hunter - Robert Mitchum
Citizen Kane- Orson Welles
Humoresque - Joan Crawford
Sabrina - Audrey Hepburn
Roman Holilday - Audrey Hepburn
All About Eve - Bette Davis
Leave Her To Heaven - Gene Tierney
Brief Encounter - Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard
Sorry, Wrong Number - Barbara Stanwyk
The Philadelphia Story - Kathryn Hepburn and Cary Grant
Elmer Gantry - Burt Lancaster
White Heat - James Cagney

[Rachel]

I think I can: Kiss Me Deadly, the one with the stolen radioactive material and the sad poem by, I think, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the exploding beach house - a pulp movie that transcends its limits comprehensively to become a work of great art.

W


blp, haven't talked to you for a while, I had to write on Cassevetes all by myself. And by the way is your movie ready to view? I think about it and how wonderful it must be often.


I like :
Humphrey Bogart-Casa Blanca,Maltese Falcon
Lauren Bacall-Key Largo
marilyn Monroe some like it hot, how to marry a millionaire
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-anything, no matter how corny(did you know someone wrote about Fred after he applied for work, small, not handsome, can't dance!)
Mickey Rooney-Boy's Town
Gregory Peck-Keys to the Kingdom
Audrey Hepburn-How to steal a million
Peter O'Toole lawrence of Arabia
Jerry Lewis-Family Jewels
Richard Burton-The Robe
Merle Oberon-Wuthering Heights,the divorce of Madame x,the scarlet pimpernel

[Britomart]

I'm a big classic film fan. I ordered cable only entirely so I could watch Turner Classic Movies ;). There are way to many favorites to list. Let's see..

Some of the leading men I love to love:

Gregory Peck
Ronald Coleman
Bill Powell
Cary Grant
Fred Astaire
Leslie Howard
James Stuart
Buster Keaton
Douglous Fairbanks Senior (well, and junior too)
Henry Fonda
Humphrey Bogart

Some of the leading ladies I'd love to be like:

Katherine Hepburn
Ingrid Bergman
Audrey Hepburn
Myrna Loy
Mary Pickford
Olivia de Haviland
Bette Davis
Judy Garland
Merle Oberon
Lauren Bacall

The favorite film list could run forever. Pretty much anything directed by Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton or the Marx Brothers is bound to be great, likewise with anything starring Kate Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Bill Powell or involving Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. A few fairly randomly selected favorites include:

Roman Holiday
Lost Horizon
You Can't Take it With You
Twelve Angry Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Scarlett Pimpernell
Love Crazy
My Man Godfrey
One Way Passage
The Philadelphia Story
Laura
Spellbound
The Lion in Winter
A Patch of Blue
Casablanca
The Gaucho

Well...I could go on and on...

[zonato]

Dr Strangelove.


I'm watching this today. I've been meaning to watch it since last year, but just rented the movie two days ago.

[ionford]

Whenever this comes up I have a hard time defining "classic" (if it's just what I consider classic there are plenty of newer movies I would list, and plenty of old standards I would leave), but to avoid pointless controvercy I'll just go with anything made before I was born, in 1980.

Some favorites:

The Playhouse (I'll take a handful of Keaton's short films over any of his longer ones, and this tops the list)
Safety Last (watch it back to back with Jackie Chan's clocktower stunt in Project A, then followed by the coupling of Steamboat Bill, Jr. with Project A 2)
Animal Crackers (Captain Spalding's entrance and song)
Duck Soup (the mirror. 3 Grouchos)
Rashomon
Woman in the Dunes
Pitfall
Sullivan's Travels
The Seventh Seal
Mr. Arkadin (Welles as Poseidon, his toast to nature)
Falstaff (aka the Chimes at Midnight)
F for Fake
The Lady From Shanghai
Lawrence of Arabia
Vengeance is Mine
The Muppet Movie
Andrei Rublev
Aguirre
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Days of Heaven
The Battle of Kerzhenets
One, Two, Three
Brewster McCloud
Thieves Like Us
The Long Goodbye
Seven Beauties
The Butterfly Murders (not the best Tsui Hark film, but the only one before 1980)
The Man Who Would be King
2001
Chinatown
Rosemary's Baby
Knife in the Water

[Ayreon]

I'm a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin. When I first saw Modern Times at the age of eleven, I wasn't able to respect it as much as it needs to be respected. Then I saw it again a few years later and realised how generous it is. I started watching more his films and fell in love with them. I admit, not all of them are good and even the best ones have their flaws (is that even a word?) but he realised some very important points of film making that affected to the whole film history. I appreciate that.

[vierdreieins]

I'm about to see Metropolis. First sci-fi movie ever made. I'm excited. :)

[oceanflower]

I'm about to see Metropolis. First sci-fi movie ever made. I'm excited. :)

An excellent movie, especially considering when it was made.

[beth_m]

In my somewhat wayward opinion, most things Werner Herzog has been involved in should be considered in the classic mould, I think he's brilliant. I especially love Heart Of Glass, Fitzcarraldo and Aguire, Wrath Of God. Klaus Kinski (who was in the last two) is an amazing actor, too - slightly intense, shall we say!