So, if I were to tell the movie buffs to list me 5 essential old-school films....

[utriculus!]

What would they be?


I have never been that into film, mainly because my attention span was ruined by a childhood of instant gratification and impulse. I'm wrestling it back, and I find myself interested in checking out some older film.

Like, 1960 and earlier.

[IamFogHat]

Oh, before I saw you qualified it with pre 1960 I was going to say Dude, Where's my Car?

[torker]

Horse Feathers (1932)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Pinocchio (1940)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Paths of Glory (1957)

[FezPaul]

Winchester '73 (1950)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Watch it anyway.
Stagecoach (1939)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
12 Angry Men (1957)

[GreatAmericanZero]

Harold & Kumar 2, Meet the Spartans, Bangkok Dangerous, The Love Guru and Citizen Kane

[JDE]

My Man Godfrey
The Best Years of Our Lives
Roman Holiday
The Philadelphia Story
The Apartment

[keithy_19]

Citizen Kane, Citizen Kane, Citizen Kane, Angels in the Outfield, Citizen Kane

[TheMojoPin]

Double Indemnity
Ace in the Hole
Out of the Past
Night of the Hunter
M

[TheMojoPin]

I'm gonna cheat and also add High Noon.

[Doogie]

Im gonna go with:
Casablanca,
Rear Window,
Mister Roberts,
Gojira,
Seven Samarai.

[TheMojoPin]

Basically, you can't go wrong with any movie here...except Godzilla. It's fascinating to watch in terms of a country still being fucked up from being the only nuked nation on Earth, but it's still a really shitty film.

[Doogie]

I picked Gojira to show where the whole monster craze really started in Japan. That it wasnt going to be another King Kong, nor another Beast from 20,000 fathoms, but actually a story about a nuked nation.

Also I was lazy to look up movies and went to my DVD library and picked 5 from pre-1955

[TheMojoPin]

I picked Gojira to show where the whole monster craze really started in Japan. That it wasnt going to be another King Kong, nor another Beast from 20,000 fathoms, but actually a story about a nuked nation.

Also I was lazy to look up movies and went to my DVD library and picked 5 from pre-1955

It's sort of like watching a Rat Pack film...it's fun for about 20 minutes, then it gets so goddamn tedious.

Plus I was thinking someone working back into older films might want to start with stuff where they don't need to read subtitles. Ease into that. Do the American stuff and then plow into the Kurosawa.

[Rockvillejoe]

i wish i could contribute more succintly, but my parents were very thrifty. the only decent movies i saw were on nbc's saturday night at the movies. with the makeup style light bulbs in a square pattern framing the title. so for me, in realtime, the day the earth stood still was amazing, even though the ending sucked to me watching it as an 8 year old, 3 coins in a fountain, breakfast at tiffany's, my mother was an audrey hepburn fan so we watched everything with hepurn in it.

all 3 stooges, all the hells kitchen flicks with leo gorcey and huntz hall, all charlie chans with i think his name was warner oland, all sherlock holmes with basil rathbone, our gang, with alfalfa spanky and that group, anything with broderick crawford or peter lorre.

thanks for asking. it made me think about all of those films and watching them with my family. forgotten, fond memories.

[utriculus!]

Harold & Kumar 2, Meet the Spartans, Bangkok Dangerous, The Love Guru and Citizen Kane

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

[utriculus!]

i wish i could contribute more succintly, but my parents were very thrifty. the only decent movies i saw were on nbc's saturday night at the movies. with the makeup style light bulbs in a square pattern framing the title. so for me, in realtime, the day the earth stood still was amazing, even though the ending sucked to me watching it as an 8 year old, 3 coins in a fountain, breakfast at tiffany's, my mother was an audrey hepburn fan so we watched everything with hepurn in it.

all 3 stooges, all the hells kitchen flicks with leo gorcey and huntz hall, all charlie chans with i think his name was warner oland, all sherlock holmes with basil rathbone, our gang, with alfalfa spanky and that group, anything with broderick crawford or peter lorre.

thanks for asking. it made me think about all of those films and watching them with my family. forgotten, fond memories.

Your life's a movie!



Seriously though, cool post. Love seeing text from the heart accidentally slip through the annals of the internet into my brain.


Also- Thanks for the suggestions! I'll have an excuse to go out into the world as an added benefit. I doubt I'll find half of these online amidst the Iron Man bootlegs. I love an excuse for an adventure these days.

[SP1!]

Stalag 17 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/)
Seven Days in May (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058576/)
Night of the Hunter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048424/)
Casablanca (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/)
The Desperate Hours (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047985/)
Sunset Blvd (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043014/)

I would also add Chinatown (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/), just because that is a fucking badass movie. The Desperate Hours is the basis of all family in peril films, you will notice quite a few similarities in today's films and that one movie.

[HBox]

Dr. Strangelove
Metropolis
The Seven Samurai
12 Angry Men
The Grapes of Wrath

[patsopinion]

part of the thing with old school films is that they have been so thoughly ripped off or blatently stolen from, or even re-made that they you don't have to see them to know how the film will end or why its considered great


that being said

1.cane
2.casablanca
3. any stooges film
4. any chaplin (sp) film
5. maltese falcon

noteables
on the bonus features for 12 monkeys it has a film called La Jatte on which the movie was based, very fucking cool to compare that to the adaptation

i cant remember the name but film students are obsessed with a film where the "death" plays chess with some knight, damit i was a film major!

and you may want to skim over some french avant-gaurd films from the 1920's
id recommend one specifically but i wasn't really into them.


oh and it will really try your patience but "birth of a nation" is what all modern big set film is based on

[patsopinion]

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your welcome

[patsopinion]

your welcome

seriously ive seen this thing like 4 or 5 times now and its fucking awesome

[HBox]

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your welcome

This is what 12 Monkeys is based on.

[drjoek]

Angels with Dirty Faces Cagney
Strangers on a Train Hitchcock
Bridge on the River Kwai
The Big Sleep Bogart
To Catch a thief Grace Kelly
After 60 -before 80
The Graduate (1967)
Chinatown (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon(1975)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Taking of Pelham 123(1974)



Godfather I II obviously

[OGC]

Buster Keaton's - The General

[EliSnow]

I agree with a bunch of choices on the above.

Here's some more that haven't been said yet:

1. Duck Soup (you need some Marx Bros. on the list)
2. Some Like It Hot
3. The Third Man
4. On The Waterfront
5. Double Indemnity (quintessential film noir movie).

[boonanas]

One Eyed Jacks and Citizen Kane

[KingGeno]

Five is too low.

It's a Gift (1934) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025318/)
On The Waterfront (1954) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/)
Lawrence of Arabia (1964) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/)
Wizard of Oz (1939) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/)
The Bridge Over River Kwai (1957) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/)
Anything 3 Stooges, Marx Bros. or Laurel and Hardy
Citizen Kane (1941) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/)


So many more.

[GregoryJoseph]

Metropolis

Freaks

[JDE]

i cant remember the name but film students are obsessed with a film where the "death" plays chess with some knight, damit i was a film major!




The Seventh Seal is the film, one of Ingmar Bergman's finest.

[JDE]

A little cheating but here are 5 foreign films I would recommend.


Ran 1985 Japanese
Beauty and the Beast 1946 French
Forbidden Games 1952 French
The Lives of Others 2007 German
An Affair of Love 1999 French

Not old school since 3 are from the last 25 years, but all different types of films.

[yojimbo7248]

I don't think I saw these two mentioned:

Rashomon
Grand Illusion

[booster11373]

Gunga Din

[El Mudo]

I'm gonna cheat and also add High Noon.

Grace Kelly is so unbelievably HOT in that movie I would crawl across broken glass on my hands and knees just to sniff her panties


And I nominate this one

http://www.thequietman.org/imagenes/The%20Quiet%20Man.jpg

http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/images/the_quiet_man_irish_edition.jpg

As well as

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XTSZW2WZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

[JDE]

Grace Kelly is so unbelievably HOT in that movie I would crawl across broken glass on my hands and knees just to sniff her panties




She is even more gorgeous in Rear Window, with some of the outfits she wears.


Someone already mentioned Rear Window, it''s probably my favorite Hitchcock film.

[Thebazile78]

A lot of people are shocked when I tell them I saw The Seventh Seal because I thought Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey was hilarious.

Many folks have mentioned one of my "top-5" - Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre ... intrigue, bribery, Nazis, smugglers, bootleggers, gamblers and theives ... Play It, Sam.

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The General was just released on a new DVD this month. I read that this printing is supposed to give you a feel for what the film would have been like if you'd seen it in a movie theater. Buster Keaton was a genius in many ways, not only for his physical accomplishments but also for his engineering accomplishments. Many of his sight-gags are "quoted" in old Warner Brothers cartoons and, believe it or not, Jackie Chan movies.

(Incidentally, I am partial to Sherlock Jr and Steamboat Bill Jr from the Keaton "canon" ... but have yet to see The General ... oddly enough, one of my favorite films is the film-version of the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, in which Keaton has a cameo.)

The Gold Rush with/by Charlie Chaplin, starring his "Little Tramp" character, provides more sight gags that are "quoted" in those same WB cartoons and a lot of comedies to this day. Heck, fans of Johnny Depp in Benny and Joon might recognize this scene:

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The Great Dictator, another Chaplin film, is great as both comedy and social commentary ... much like the later Modern Times.

I love silent films. My brothers and I got into Chaplin films after seeing a "Wonderworks" mini-series biography of Charlie Chaplin years and years ago ... and we promptly rented every single one our local video store carried. We must've seen Dictator a hundred times. One of my favorite scenes from TGD is this one:

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As for Modern Times, it's very interesting to see a comment on "technology exhaustion" in the early scenes; here's one:

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I also love the Marx Brothers ... Brian mentioned Duck Soup (one of my favorites), but someone else also mentioned Horse Feathers ... and TCM usually shows A Night at the Opera if they do a Marx Bros. "two-fer." Here's one of my favorite sequences from Duck Soup:

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And that's just the comedies and lighter dramas.

I saw someone mention Stalag 17 (which I love and watch EVERY SINGLE TIME it's on TV; great ensemble cast, great lines, great film) and another person mentioned The Best Years of Our Lives (quite possibly THE single greatest movie ever made about the homecoming experience of a soldier) ... I am also partial to The Longest Day (OK, so it's 1962. But it's got both Red Buttons and John Wayne in it, as well as Sean Connery and Paul Anka ... how could you go wrong???) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (but that's 1970, but some of the Japanese segments were directed by Akira Kurosawa and I love Akira Kurosawa) ... sue me. I enjoy war films.

A couple of you mentioned The Day the Earth Stood Still. I have loved that film ever since my dad brought it home on VHS.

I've gotten to the point where I am always ecstatic when other people have also seen M and Metropolis ... two of my favorite movies. My friends have never seen them and more's the pity.

Here's the trailer from "M":

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And I have been fascinated by "Metropolis" for YEARS:

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Wow.

I am having a lot of trouble picking just 5!

I'll think about them some more and get back to you.

[epo]

Try these for fun:

39 Steps (1935)
Crossfire (1947)
The Third Man (1949)
Touch of Evil (1958)
400 Blows (1959)

[Thebazile78]

...


And I nominate this one

http://www.thequietman.org/imagenes/The%20Quiet%20Man.jpg

http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/images/the_quiet_man_irish_edition.jpg



MUDO! That is one my all-time most favorite films to watch. My dad and I can quote it back and forth to each other all day long.

This scene has my favorite line - "when I drink whisky, I drink whisky and when I drink water, I drink water" -

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[Pitdoc]

Duck Soup
Citizen Kane
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr Strangelove
Gap

[foodcourtdruide]

Some I didn't see:

Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Inherit the Wind (1960)

[utriculus!]

Holy god this thread is epic and will keep me entertained and interested for so long.

Such fucking quality posts. I love it.

Thanks to all of you, I need to get to watchin!

[AnnoyedGrunt]

In chronological order I'd suggest:

Nosferatu
The Killing
Throne of Blood
Touch of Evil
The Manchurian Candidate

[Dude!]

sunset boulevard
cat people
whatever happened to baby jane
the face behind the mask
dracula

[DonInNC]

On the Waterfront
Vertigo
Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without A Face)
The Asphalt Jungle
Streetcar Named Desire

[WampusCrandle]

1) Shadow of A Doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036342/)
2) The Searchers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/)
3) Rear Window (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/)
4) To Kill A Mockingbird (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/)
5) The Wizard Of Oz (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/)

[epo]

1) Shadow of A Doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036342/)
2) The Searchers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/)
3) Rear Window (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/)
4) To Kill A Mockingbird (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/)
5) The Wizard Of Oz (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/)

Love Shadow of a Doubt! It was Hitchcock's favorite movie of his career!

[WampusCrandle]

Love Shadow of a Doubt! It was Hitchcock's favorite movie of his career!

i have taken 3 courses and read tons of books on him. he is too damn interesting. i feel like this is one of his strongest, more daring films because it just rips the innocence of the average person, the all-American image is savagely ripped away, especially from a girl like Teresa Wright.

[JDE]

5 sports films


Pride of the Yankees
Hoosiers
The Hustler
Breaking Away
Body and Soul

[patsopinion]

sunset boulevard

On the Waterfront
Streetcar Named Desire

good picks