It seems Woody Allen has made more use of B&W in his films than any other recent director.
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Was Shadow of the Vampire in black and white?
Sorry, no. Nifty color wallpaper under the opening credits, too.
Clerks - Kevin Smith’s first feature length film
Drive - Jefery Levy’s first feature length film
Following - Christopher Nolan’s first feature length film
My Best Friend’s Birthday - Quentin Tarantino’s first feature length film
She’s Gotta Have it - Spike Lee’s first feature length film
Stranger Than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch’s first feature length film
If you want to be taken seriously as an indie director, you’ve got to go Black & White your first time.
Another Woody Allen – The Purple Rose of Cairo
Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver
Although the films within those films are in B&W, those titles themselves are not.
Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man which gives us Johnny Depp in an interesting plaid suit, and Iggy Pop in a prairie dress and bonnet. Good times, weird flick… I think it makes a fabulous double feature with Ravenous but then again I’ve been told I’m a sicko by persons of reputable judgement… 
The dreary and overrated Raging Bull.
The Last Picture Show (1971)
When the subject of B&W films comes up, I always like to recall the bit The Big Picture (1989) in which Kevin Bacon plays a young filmmaker whose idealism is slowly chewed up and spit out by Hollywood. He’s telling a group of studio execs about his dream project, and adds that he wants to make it in B&W.
One of the execs claims it’s not possible, because modern projectors can’t show B&W film. It’s a very funny way to demonstrate the exec’s clueless (or lying) obstructionism.
(For non-technically minded Dopers, a film projector, just like a film camera, will project whatever film is put in it.)
Go Fish was made in black and white to save money.
Sin City…almost.
I’m not sure where the cutoff lies, but In Cold Blood (1967) was pretty late in the B&W game.
The first one that cam to my mind was Paths of Glory. (1957)
Begotten. About as weird as it gets, too.
:smack:
And had I actually learned to read, I would have seen it was mentioned in the OP itself.
Feature Production in the U.S.
Color / B & W
1940: 16 / 460
1945: 22/ 328
1950: 61 / 322
1951: 78 / 312
1952: 108 / 216
1953: 144 / 200
1954: 157 / 80
1955: 138 / 98
1956: 134 / 139
1957: 99 / 203
1958: 91 / 164
1959: 80 / 96
1960: 77 / 74
1961: 72 / 78
1962: 67 / 60
1963: 76 / 60
1964: 80 / 58
1965: 88 / 50
1966: 115 / 24
1967: 136 / 7
1968: 170 / 9
1969: 171 / 4
1970: 227 / 1
Thanks for the data, Walloon. Here’s a graph to make the trends clearer:
I hated, hated, hated that movie! Arrrgh, thanks ever so much for reminding me of those two hours of my life I’ll never, ever see again.
Swoon.