# Anyone here never seen a black and white movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2015, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275 "2015-04-22T10:56:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275/61 "2015-04-24T08:01:55Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > It isn’t necessarily that those movies are racist or sexist. It’s just that there is no other option but White Male.) You have a point about lack of racial diversity, but there were plenty of movies with strong female characters in the black-and-white era. Here are some: All About Eve Mildred Pierce The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Bringing Up Baby Roman Holiday The African Queen His Girl Friday It Happened One Night The Lady Eve The Women Gone with the Wind La Strada The Little Foxes The Miracle Worker Mrs. Miniver Queen Christina A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Gilda The Lady from Shanghai Double Indemnity The Postman Always Rings Twice Sunset Boulevard Anna Karenina Camille Nights of Cabiria The Philadelphia Story Gaslight The Lady Vanishes Notorious Rebecca Shadow of a Doubt What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The movies then may have been almost all-white, but they weren’t anywhere close to all white-male. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275/62 "2015-04-24T19:20:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Not only do I love B&W movies, but I’m a fan of silent films as well. One of the funniest comedies I’ve ever seen is _Seven Chances_, with Buster Keaton. And one of the more moving and also depressing films was _Broken Blossoms_ with Lillian Gish. The latter is a film about a girl who is regularly beatn by her father. At the end of the film he has killed her, then he’s murdered by a guy who tried to help her, and the helper goes home and commits suicide. Rough show, a classic by DW Griffith. \*Broken Blossoms \*is one of the true treasures in film history. Everything about it is about as perfect as could be. It’s a shame that so many people are missing out on this masterpiece, due to their own prejudices about what a film should be. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275/63 "2015-04-25T03:01:05Z")
I’ve seen maybe a handful. Citizen Kane, Schindler’s List, It’s a Wonderful Life, The first parts of Pleasantville and the Wizard of Oz (if sepia counts for the latter), edit: and Bright Eyes. I’ve seen a lot more black-and-white TV. Zorro, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, Mister Ed, first seasons of Gilligan’s Island and the Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, the good episodes of the Andy Griffith Show, and so on. I guess I’ve caught a few silent pics, but I’d never remember what they were, and they’re all so short that I don’t really count them. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275/64 "2015-04-25T03:14:53Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I’d love to see a Tarzan movie that _ **really** _ followed the first two books. Raise your hand if you knew that Tarzan taught himself to read English, or that the first human language he spoke was French. :: raises hand :: Book Tarzan is a hyper-genius. Sherlock Holmes level, easily. I too would love a Tarzan movie that followed the books. In particular I’d like to see adapted the Jane-killed-by-Nazis story. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275/65 "2015-04-25T03:30:44Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Book Tarzan is a hyper-genius. Sherlock Holmes level, easily. Sherlock is slow-witted next to Tarzan. Tarzan taught himself to read and write English from a primer left by his parents when he was a child, and yet he had never learned to read, write, or speak in any human language at that time. His first spoken language was French, but he had already mastered English in the written form. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-never-seen-a-black-and-white-movie/718275.md?page=3)