I know that’s why I go to movies, to have things explained to me.
It also ends with several minutes of abstract visuals, made mechanically with oil and lighting gels or something, images that today look rather dull but we’re presumably hard to make and interesting at the time. (Or maybe not.)
Like much of the movie, they’re more impressive on a big screen.
It’s 40 minutes of apes. My memory had compressed that down to a few minutes because it’s 40 minutes of nothing happens, and when I rewatched it recently I was baffled at why the ape story wasn’t getting tied up. Of course, it was followed up with 30 slow moving minutes to tell us there’s a coverup on the Moon.
The movie is gorgeous and glacially, painfully, slow.
I might nominate The Producers (original version). Not for everyone’s taste, but a perfect comedy, perfectly cast, in my opinion.
I describe The Producers as a Mel Brooks movie for people who don’t like Mel Brooks movies.
Zero Mostel could do more with just his facial expressions than most actors with a page of dialog.
See “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.
I’ve only seen a few of those, so can’t comment on all of them…
South Pacific must’ve seen this 25 years ago minimum, remember very little apart from a couple of the songs which are catchy.
Mary Poppins saw this Xmas 2024 for the first time in maybe 30 years and enjoyed it a lot. It’s a very good film.
The Wizard of Oz a stone cold classic, still as good as ever
The Blues Brothers enjoyable with some great songs but pretty daft
Cabaret I really like this one but not so much for the songs, more for how successfully atmospheric it feels, with the 1930s Berlin setting, which is obviously historically very significant
I still prefer Singin in the Rain to the above but I’d say Wizard runs it close.
Zero Mostel was very expressive, yes. Maybe a little bit too expressive. He’s like a guy who’s a very good speaker but won’t shut up.
The Producers is a good film, but has two major problems: the first is the aforementioned Mostel constantly mugging at the camera, and the second is that it thinks that the fact that women over 60s have libidos is inherently funny, and keeps going back to that well.
(And the homophobia, of course).
To me, this is a feature, not a bug.
I saw 2001 on a big screen when I was about 9 and was bored to tears, but I also never forgot it. I grew up, saw it on TV, read the book, and came to appreciate it as a classic.
I had a chance to see it again on a big screen when I was about 30. Turned out to be the same theater; I even tried to sit in the same seat. I found some details in it that I’d never picked up before. That was one of the best movie experiences of my life.
I’m partial to Key Largo myself.
Bringing Up Baby
I love The Thin Man, and “Its a Mad, Mad, Mad World” altho that one only partly applies. Also Mr Hobbs takes a vacation.
(Incidentally, when they drive into the swamp, looking forbBirds, I could swear Jimmy Stewart says in a quiet, doleful voice “their bodies were later found”, but no quotes I have found verify this)
While not my all-time favorite, highly enjoyable, and I would readily agree that it is good, and never turn down a free show on a big screen.
Also, gets the award for best ad lib that made it to the final cut for Katharine Hepburn’s accidental break of her shoe, and the improv that follows (“I was born on the side of a hill!”) Points to Cary Grant for playing along and not cracking up.
For old comedies, I nominate “The Court Jester” (no willow-willow wailing!)
And who doesn’t like “The Quiet Man”?
The lead actor was a noted bigot and the #3 billed character openly supported terrorism.
Hah! I was thinking almost exactly the opposite: we have plenty of people on this board who insist that the sixties and seventies produced the best pop music of all time (coincidentally they were teenagers in one of these eras). And we have people in science fiction threads who only recommend books from the Heinlein/Asimov era (coincidentally that’s when they were teens and young adults).
The bias toward cultural artifacts produced during our youth is really strong, and it’s very tempting to externalize our appreciation for them to say that that’s when the best stuff was produced. I rarely hear people saying that, sure, the rock music from the sixties was good, but it’s been refined and improved since then. Why would we think the same thing has happened to movies?
Good Choice. Get it?
What does that have to do with the quality of the film?