This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
Inspired by the Musical Theater thread I thought I'd start a thread about old movies. I grew up in house where musicals, and old black and white movies were celebrated and watched over and over again. I even have an appreciation for really cheesy noir films and horror movies.
My favorite older movies in no particualr order are as follows.
Auntie Mame: Staring Rosalind Russel who I adore. I love this movie, the book was great, the musical...not so much. The movie has great lines and you learn valuble lessons like: "Life is a Banquet and most poor succkers are straving to death." or that: That you alwasy stir, not shake, when making a gin martini because shaking bruises the gin. I suppose memory lends to attachements to certain films. Like having a lazy Sunday and watching Auntie Mame with my sister, and mom in my pajamas. Or sipping martinis with good friends as we watch the movie and quote the dialouge verbatum.
Arsenic and Old Lace: Staring Cary Grant...love me some Cary Grant. Because a movie about two little sweet old ladies who kindly kill off older gentlemen who have no family, so that they can 'be in a better place" is just priceless. Sometimes I ponder what a newer version might be like and then I remember that any remake would only ruin it.
His Girl Friday staring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell (is there a them here...maybe). It's a funny movie and just knowing that through it all those two really do deserve each other. I mean really.
My Man Godfrey staring William Powell and Carole Lombard. It's a comedy. It's really funny and you know there is just something about Carole Lombard's performace that is down right modern in it's approach.
I have other favorites, slightly more serious in topic like All About Eve, and Rebecca (all hail Alfred Hitchcock!) but I think the comedies are my favorite just for the wit in the dialouge and some of the physical comedy as well.
Ah the good old days....
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2 great ones!
Paper Moon
To Kill a Mockingbird (book also awesome!)
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Ah, it seems we grew up in the exact same household. My mother basically raised me on old movies (and musicals!)--I was shocked when we had a "movie day" in sixth or seventh grade and basically the entire class informed me that they had never seen a black and white movie before. (I was also the weirdo in grade school who, when asked about their favorite music, answered "Man of La Mancha!" Never lived that one down.)
And I'm going to have to completely agree with you on all counts, especially Auntie Mame and His Girl Friday. AWESOME!
I also really love Some Like It Hot, The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, The Lady Eve, Masculin Feminin, 400 Blows, Rules of the Game, +much much more. (Or if we wanna get really old, my favorite silent movie are Metropolis and the Passion of Joan of Arc.)
Last edited by Nessy (01-09-2007 09:02:43 PM)
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I want to see arsenic and old lace but I have only found it one place it was very expensive -.-
One of my teachers put us "A streetcar named desire"
Also in my house we have gone with the wind, and Sissy.
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No titles at the moment, but just to mention that every once in a while I'll leave Turner Classic Movies on for a while when any of the movies from Hollywood's 'Golden Age' (1930s-50s) are on. Those are movies that you knew were movies, and they're great to watch to see what they could do with a soundstage in those days. It always amazes me.
Actually, I've thought of a few now... most of these are probably well-known, but that's ok.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Fantasia (1940)
*It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
*Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
*White Christmas (1954)
The King & I (1956) -- I need to upgrade to the 50th Anniversary edition DVD in all of its anamorphic widescreen glory!
Pollyanna (1960)
Any of "The Road To..." movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are good too.
And I have to give a nod to my favorite movie of all-time (ever since I saw it on TV when I was probably not more than 8 - that's the mid 80s for you young folk here. ):
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
*(Yeah, Christmas movies were best made back in the day. )
Oh yeah... I almost forgot... the colorizing or pan-and-scanning of any movie are unforgivable crimes!
Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (01-09-2007 07:43:12 PM)
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Soylent Green...
nuff said
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Arsenic and Old Lace is probably my favourite film, ever. It runs on TMC pretty much always and they don't even cut much.
The original adaptation of The Time Machine is another favourite of mine. Metropolis too. I really love old science fiction.
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Metropolis is interesting. For a sci-fi black and white silent film it was pretty asstounding. It's really too bad that all of it isn't in tact anymore.
The colorization of black and white movies should be illegal. It's so horrid to watch.
In Stanford there is an old movie house that shows movies from the 30's-50's. They usaully have double features with a cartoon and there is also the guy that come out and plays the organ. I went with my parents and my grandma to see The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Wizard of Oz. It was neat. I always mean to go up and check oiut more of the older films on the big screen but I tend to get distracted. It's nice to know that the theater is around though.
I found Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD at Suncoast. It may be that right now it's going through an out of print period, but I'm sure they'll re-release it.
I have never been able to get behind It's a Wonderful Life. I always find it boring. I don't know why.
My mom and I can quote Miracle on 34th Street practically by heart, and White Christmas is awesome. I like Holiday Inn too.
Streetcar is good, except that ever since that one Simpson's episode whenever Maril Brando starts yelling Stella I want to sing, 'Stella, Stella, can't you hear me yella, Stella... Stella!"
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I went to a college in a little town in Pennsylvania called Indiana (yeah, PA likes to name towns after other states/planets). Indiana, PA was the home of Jimmy Stewart. We had Jimmy Stewart Boulevard, the Jimmy Stewart Museum, Jimmy Stewart Festival, and a statue of Jimmy Stewart in front of the courthouse. I was forced on one of my geology field trips to see the house where Jimmy Stewart lived and I've walked up the steps to Vinegar Hill.
I cannot stand to watch anything with Jimmy Stewart in it except Harvey. And even then it's pushing it.
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Hahaa Soylent Green.
Favorite old movies? Ummmm Witness For the Prosecution (the original), Murder on the Orient Express, Burn Witch Burn, Teenagers From Outer Space (!), Scrooge (lovies teh Albert Finney), 12 Angry Men, aaaaand The Name of the Rose.
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Geez! You guys are forgetting my favorites!
Harvey (dunno what you don't like about it angelic... although, I must admit that I don't like Mr. Stewart that much either...)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (I think that counts as a classic)
Dr. Strangelove
Gaslight (that was the only Hitchcock movie I liked... is that odd?)
Breakfast Club (I DON'T CARE IF IT'S NOT OLD! I THINK IT'S A CLASSIC ANYWAYS! I blow big raspberry at you.)
Some Like it Hot (I Marilyn Monroe! She's such a cutie!)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Stewarts accent really gets on my nerves about halfway into that movie, though)
ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING WITH AUDREY HEPBURN IN IT (she is amazing!)
The Lion in Winter (I'm not a big O'Toole fan, but this was a good movie)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (SHUT UP! IT IS TOO A CLASSIC!)
Oh, Shmee... Paper Moon isn't that old. It was filmed in the late 70s.
Also, I'm going to add I, Claudius into that bundle because though it isn't a movie, it is brilliant.
I'm almost 100% positive that I forgot something... oh well...
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hyacinth_black wrote:
Also, I'm going to add I, Claudius into that bundle because though it isn't a movie, it is brilliant.
Oh god, if this counts, it god damn wins. That series was absolutely incredible, and way ahead of its time with the taboo material presented.
I need to see The Lion in Winter... I like O'Toole. (He played old Casanova in a BBC production and was brilliant. Actually that series was brilliant. Does the BBC ever mess up? )
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Giovanna wrote:
hyacinth_black wrote:
Also, I'm going to add I, Claudius into that bundle because though it isn't a movie, it is brilliant.
Oh god, if this counts, it god damn wins. That series was absolutely incredible, and way ahead of its time with the taboo material presented.
I need to see The Lion in Winter... I like O'Toole. (He played old Casanova in a BBC production and was brilliant. Actually that series was brilliant. Does the BBC ever mess up? )
Derek Jacoby was brilliant in it, but my favorite was... gah... whats the name of the actress who played Livia(or whatever her name was)...
I also have a fetish for John Hurt. His voice is just so... so... GAH! I DUNNO WHAT IT IS BUT I LOVE IT!
John Hurt was an amazing Caligula.
Yessss... you should see Lion in Winter. Great film. I can tell that you'd like it.
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I, Claudius absolutely wins. I alwasy want to buy the box set and then epp and the cost. But one day...one day it shall be mine. You know if I had been a boy my parents were going to name me Derek Jacob after Derek Jacoby.
The Lion in Winter is absolutely one of my favorite movies ever. I don't have it on DVD yet and my VHS is getting on in years.
Audrey Hepburn is wonderful.
I forgot to add Giant. I love that movie.
For Peter O-Toole fans you can never go wrong with Lawerence of Arabia.
And Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn. She was wonderful when she was young...heck she was wonderful period.
I suppose we can count The Breakfast Club but if we count that then we have to count Amadeus. Love that movie.
Dr. Strange Love is... it's good. It's funny, but a bit bizarre, it is a Kubrick film though so...there you go.
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Alithea wrote:
Audrey Hepburn is wonderful.
Ah! I knew there was a whole category of films I was forgetting! I love love love Audrey Hepburn--I got a huge, amazing book on her for Christmas--and one of my top favorite old movies is definitely Sabrina.
Which reminds me of Humphrey Bogart (one true l<3ve) which reminds me that I forgot to add Casablanca which reminds me of Peter Lorrey which reminds me that I forgot to add M.
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Alithea wrote:
I suppose we can count The Breakfast Club but if we count that then we have to count Amadeus. Love that movie.
DEAL
Alithea wrote:
Dr. Strange Love is... it's good. It's funny, but a bit bizarre, it is a Kubrick film though so...there you go.
It is?
I didn't know that...
I liked the Clockwork Orange book. Not the movie. It forgot the essential last chapter.
Oh, and I also liked The Shining book better than the movie.
Kubrik has good movies, but the books are all better.
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I haven't seen the Clockwork Orange movie, but I did love the book.
As for older movies...
The Manchurian Candidate (the original one, duh)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (or any of the Dr. Phibes movies really)
Logan's Run (not yet an old movie, but no longer current either)
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I know it sounds scary but I keep waiting for someone to try and remake Logan's Run. They'd mess it up but still...also Logan's Run always makes me think about Cats the musical. I mean seriously think of it I must have been 10 or so when I first ran across Logan's Run and having seen the musical first well um... people who have seen the movie will know what I'm talking about.
I liked the original Sabrina, but I think I liked Roman Holiday better.
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I don't know what you mean, but I've never seen all of Cats, so...
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So spoilers...
At the end of Logan's Run they run into that old man and he quotes constantly from T.S. Elliot's Practical Cats, which Cats is based on.
What sort of geek points do I win for that?
Last edited by Alithea (01-11-2007 11:32:53 PM)
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Hmm... you get cookies. Because I didn't remember that scene until now.
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hyacinth_black wrote:
Rocky Horror Picture Show (SHUT UP! IT IS TOO A CLASSIC!)
I'm with you right there! Cult classics are great! Monty Python's good too.
My personal favorite old movies include:
A Streetcar Named Desire (Marlon Brando = yummy)
Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Boggart)
My Fair Lady (Yes, Audrey Hepburn again)
The Seven Year Itch (Marylin Monroe!)
Any of the old musicals
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Rae wrote:
My Fair Lady (Yes, Audrey Hepburn again)
My Fair Lady is one of my favorite movies. I attended a school production of it quite a while ago, and they did such an amazing job that I was actually a little disappointed when I saw the movie. The music in the movie is beautiful, and I find Eliza and Henry to be very entertaining characters.
Most of my favorite old movies actually fall under the musical category. I liked West Side Story, I thought that Carousel was pretty good, and I know that there are a few I'm forgetting that I have been trying to recall over the past few days. I wish that I had seen Cats preformed on Broadway before it ended, and even now I've yet to get my hands on the movie.
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I love Singin' in the Rain and all of the brightly colored glory of its hundred and three minutes.
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