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Freaks is an amazing piece of film-making. Those pre-code oldies are the best.
I have many I could recommend, but just watched My Bodyguard (1980) on instant Netflix, after not having seen it since I was eight years old. Great, feel-good movie for those who haven't seen it, of a kid who gets bullied (by Matt Dillon, in his debut), then hires an overgrown outcast to be his protection. The old-school Chicago scenery is an added plus.
And that's what I enjoy most about watching older films now, is the background scenery...
I view the movies as if I'm a 'tourist time traveler' of sorts, and I like to capture background scenes or landscapes, as if I'm there with a camera...
Expecially the none 'set' stuff...as in the natural enviornment...like say where the actors are walking down a street, or through a airport or in a park...
When they do that, your able to catch how things really were during that era, the cars, hairstyles, eateries, clothing, uniforms, and even older company logos like Pepsi or Coke or Hostess ect ect...
Yes, the back ground scenery fasinates me as much as the plot or actors themselves do, in many of these older films...
Yes, the back ground scenery fasinates me as much as the plot or actors themselves do, in many of these older films...
One of my favorites to watch just for the background scenery is Vertigo. The long scenes where James Stewart is driving around pre-hippie (1958)San Francisco are fascinating to me.
I just saw the 1949 picture "Caught", on TCM. A very unusual picture, decades ahead of its time, not at all hokey. It starred a wonderful Barbara Bel Geddes with Robert Ryan and James Mason, but the show was really stolen by Frank Ferguson, who read his lines with 21-st Century cool. Ferguson never starred in a picture, but appeared as hundreds of characters in virtually every TV series in the 60s. One of a few pictures by the German Max Opuls, who came to American briefly to direct a few films for Goldwyn.
An all time oldie-but-goodie favorite of mine is "The Best Years Of Their Lives" with Frederic March and Myrna Loy, winner of Best Picture Oscar in 1946 - a wonderful movie, one of the best ever made.
Too lazy to scan this long thread. So has anyone mentioned the Spencer Tracy rendition of Dr. Jeckel & Mr. Hyde ? It co-starred the luscious Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.
IMO it was one of the best performances of his career. Filmed in B &W lent an even more sinister effect to the overall mood of the film. No gratuitous violence or gore was necessary to make this one of the finer films in motion picture history.
Paradise Road, with Glen Close. This is a true story of survival and the power of hope. This is what I watch when I feel like nothng is ever going to go right.
The Magestic. Jim Carrey proves he can do more than be an immature teenager on the screen. And for those who forgot the underlayer of the fifties its a reminder that we are sometimes our worse enemies.
Swing Kids... how music can make you the enemy of your society. The Swing kids were real. A very sobering look at how a society can change.
Finding Forrester Sean Connery at his best, and pure magic for those who love words
Just to get some good payback, Red Dawn. The old one. Run fast from the new one.
And the best Trek and trek fandom movie ever made, Galaxy Quest.
WOW! I thought I was the only one who ever heard of this and loves it as the critics KILLED IT! I show it to my students when they read The Wave and seem to love it too! AND isn't it weird that the two of the male leads turned into TV doctors??
PS. I loved Finding Forrester as well for Catcher in the Rye, but that one didn't go over as well with my students...
But to the OP, if you mean REALLY older movies, I would suggest Harvey with Jimmy Stewart and Arsenic and Old Lace with him as well! MY TOP two favs!
Last edited by Sagitarrius48; 01-24-2012 at 06:29 PM..
Reason: Added movies
One of my favorites to watch just for the background scenery is Vertigo. The long scenes where James Stewart is driving around pre-hippie (1958)San Francisco are fascinating to me.
At first Attack seems like just another old war flick, but it is unique and surprisingly good. This movie stars Eddie Albert as a cowardly US captain during WWII. The storyline is about the crisis that results from his command.
I just discovered that the 1937 Chinese classic "Street Angel" is in its entirety on YouTube, not subtitled, but it wont matter. Some beautiful songs by Zhau Xuan.
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