# Movies That Have NOT "Aged well"! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553 "2001-03-26T16:11:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![egkelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@egkelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egkelly)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/1 "2001-03-26T16:11:58Z")
Some movies (like “CASABLANCA”, or “CHINATOWN”) are acknowledged to be in a league of their own-as time passes, they have acquired reputations that sometimes are far beyond what the critics (of their days) thought of them. What about movies that have not aged well? We all know of our own favorite stinkers, but I am really interested in movies that were popular when released, but over time have begun to smell…badly! Take most of the late John Wayne’s non-western movies (which IMHO were pretty good)-I’m talking about movies like “THE GREEN BERETS”-this turd is just so phoney-of course its good for a few laughs-particularly where the sun sets in the S. China sea! My picks for this dubious honor: -“THE CID” –pretentious, boring garbage. -Most 1950’s SciFi “B” movies-only fit for ridicule! -The Roman costume epics of the 1960’s-like “THE ROBE”, “ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA” -ALL of the “BOWERY BOYS” shorts-they were terrible! -most of Bing Crosby’s “priest and nuns” dramas from the 40’s -all sequesls to “STARWARS”! So let me know-what movies have not stood the test of time? ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/2 "2001-03-26T16:27:52Z")
my nomination is if _The Harrod Experiment_ staring a young, scarf’ed Don Johnson, a young differently named Bruno Kirby, and Tippi Hendron (I think - anyhow, Melanie Griffith’s mom). just amazing. It’s note in history, of course, is that’s where Don and Melanie first met. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/3 "2001-03-26T16:54:11Z")
_It’s A Wonderful Life_ What tripe! Absurd, one-dimensional characters. Unlikely situations. Give me a break. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/4 "2001-03-26T17:08:00Z")
To me, the movies that age worst are those dealing with issues that were once controversial, but just aren’tm any more. 95% of Stanley Kramer’s movies fall into this category. MAYBE it took courage to make a movie about anti-semitism in the 1940s… but “Genteleman’s AGreement” is a mighty wimpy, dull, tepid movie. MAYBE it took courage to make a film about interracial love in 1967… but “Guess WHo’s COming to Dinner” seems both a yawner AND a wimpy cop-out today. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/5 "2001-03-26T17:15:40Z")
I think there is a difference between movies you wouldn’t have liked then anyway and movies that age badly because they are stuck in their own era. _It’s a Wonderful Life_ is a sappy feelgood story with carboard characters but then it always was. Compare it to [The Best Years of Our Lives](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0036868) made the same year. IMHO both movies have aged well but they were vastly different to begin with. Not everyone wanted the same thing from movies in postwar america. I don’t judge things harshly because they come from a certain time in a changing culture. I do judge harsly if the main cultural influences were fads and fashions. I hate _Top Gun_ more every time I see it but I think it’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/6 "2001-03-26T17:44:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\*my nomination is if _The Harrod Experiment_ staring a young, scarf’ed Don Johnson, a young differently named Bruno Kirby, and Tippi Hendron (I think - anyhow, Melanie Griffith’s mom). just amazing. It’s note in history, of course, is that’s where Don and Melanie first met. \*\* Yeah, from 1975. Bruno’s billed as Bruce, IIRC. And yep, Tippi Hedren is Melanie’s mom. Sounds like a cool movie, though; I do need to see it. Plot had to do with a completely sexually liberal college, where the coeds were encouraged to do what they wanted sexually. Oh, and I’m not so sure you can consider **It’s a Wonderful Life** to be _dated_, exactly. Not only is the movie still watched today, it’s watched a LOT! It’s on TV every year. If there’s anything that defines “standing the test of time,” it’s a movie that people still watch 60 years later. Like it or not, it’s ingrained in American culture, at least to a greater degree than many films of that era. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/7 "2001-03-26T18:41:22Z")
[Moderator Hat ON] I think this is more of an IMHO. So I’m moving it there. [Moderator Hat OFF] ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/8 "2001-03-26T19:28:22Z")
Evey comedy that I thought was absolutely hilarious when I was 12 through 16. Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds, Bachelor Party. Geez did I have bad taste back then. Well, some of the movies I thought were funny when I was young still have the power to make me laugh. Blazing Saddles, Airplane! Towering Inferno. They’re all still pretty funny. Towering Inferno was a comedy, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/9 "2001-03-26T19:33:11Z")
I hate to say this, but I think that several of the “ultra-reality” crime films have aged somewhat poorly, specifically _Serpico_, _The French Connection_, and _Bullitt_. They now have a somewhat unrealistic look to them. The indoor lighting is too bright and shiny, and every time I watch those films I need some time to adjust to it. I think it has a lot to do with the camera technology and film stock of the time. **Cervaise** can correct me on this if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that low-light color cameras and film came along until Stanley Kubrick forced their design for the filming of _Barry Lyndon_. Anyway, don’t get me wrong. I _love_ those films. If you want me to name one that I think has aged like a dead sewer rat, I’ll be happy to name _Birth of a_ (goddamned) _Nation_. I don’t care that it’s a groundbreaking work of genius and the first modern film. The subject matter is so revolting it makes me want to travel back through time and break off a broomstick in D. W. Griffith’s chump ass. Damn. I gotta go break something now. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/10 "2001-03-26T19:47:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > **Yeah, from 1975. Bruno’s billed as Bruce, IIRC. And yep, Tippi Hedren is Melanie’s mom. Sounds like a cool movie, though; I do need to see it. Plot had to do with a completely sexually liberal college, where the coeds were encouraged to do what they wanted sexually.** well, and that’s why IMHO, it doesn’t age well. The concept is that at this exclusive little college, the dean and his wife (Tippi) have assigned coed roomate situations, with the expectation that sexual experimentation will happen between the parties. Then, they have assorted other classes on deep stuff, where they do role playing, sit outside nekkid, swim nekkid, and sometimes interact with the local sexually frustrated townsfolk. Of course, this highly artificial setting is supposed to open them up mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and naturally sexually. They pair off sexy Don with a timid woman (I think this was her only movie role), and timid Kirby is paired off with a sex kitten (also never really heard from again). All sorts of deepness ensues. Almost as painful as listening to Jack Webb (as Joe Friday), ‘gettin’ down with’ the ‘hop heads’. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/11 "2001-03-26T22:32:57Z")
I was going to nominate Frank Tashlin’s THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT (1956), starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O’Brien…but the rock n’ roll performances by Little Richard, Gene Vincent, and the Platters make it a film classic by default. Sooooo…I’ll nominate all those OTHER smarmy sex comedies of the '50s and '60s that grossly objectified women, or certain parts of women, and that didn’t happen to have classic rock performances in them. You know the ones I mean…the ones where the women’s breasts walk by and all the men in the gray flannel suits and skinny ties immediately come in their pants. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/12 "2001-03-26T22:41:50Z")
**Sofa King:** Pretty close on _Barry Lyndon_’s lighting. See Kubrick discussing it [here](http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.bl.html) (about four-fifths down the page). As I recall, there’s a rather prominent credit specifically for Zeiss, which built the special lenses. Re the OP’s question: Lots of movies don’t hold up for long. Many have already been named, including _Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner_ and the like, which are stuck in an era. There are more subtle details in other movies, also, that strike us funny or odd today. Consider _The Thin Man_, which is a sparklingly witty comedy/mystery that still works for modern viewers despite how distracting it is that everybody in the movie drinks enough alcohol to marinate a bull elephant. Or look at _Blessed Event_, a movie I showed for my Movie Night group a few weeks ago. It’s about a gossip columnist around 1930 who increases readership by reporting pregnancies among the rich and famous. The movie is fast-paced, smart, and very funny, but the premise seems absurdly tame, almost from a parallel universe, given our incredibly invasive media culture. My wife and I also just watched _His Girl Friday_ this weekend; it’s a fantastic movie, but there’s still the odd clunker due to its 1940 date, such as Cary Grant’s admonition to “stick Hitler on the funny page.” It’s also interesting for the strangely dated behavioral quirks, some of which are quite subtle. Grant’s character, for example, gets called away from the table to take a call in a restaurant, whereas nowadays he’d just pull his cellular phone out of his pocket. Those are just minor distractions, though, and don’t ruin the movie. We should be looking at movies like **Sofa King** ’s excellent nominee _Birth of a Nation._ I completely agree: it’s hard to be objective about movies like this. When viewed in context, it’s obvious what a groundbreaker Griffith’s film really was. Absent that context, it’s little more than a hateful bit of scaremongering. How does one react to that? And ditto for _Triumph of the Will_ and similar work? Another example: One of the most influential films in history is _Potemkin._ Its staircase sequence has been ripped off more times than I’d care to count. Much of the movie is dated, and the propaganda elements stick out like thumbs, but the key sequences, especially the massacre, work incredibly well today considering their age. How do you judge that kind of movie? It doesn’t work as a whole, but its historical place is undeniable, and some of it, in fact, is just as cracklin’ good as when it was originally made. Actually, now that I think about it (sorry, I’m rambling), a more accurate question might be, which movies **do** hold up well? That would be a much shorter list, I think. While it’s easy to point to something like _Rollerball_ and say that its rather forceful media critique is obscured by the 70s-era haircuts and goofy production design, it’s much harder to find a movie more than twenty or thirty years old that still totally, completely, unquestionably works. That, I think, might be a better discussion (assuming, of course, it isn’t an inexcusable hijack). My first nominees: _Metropolis_ and Buster Keaton’s _The General._ ---
**Author:** ![le\_car](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@le\_car](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/le_car)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/13 "2001-03-26T23:03:13Z")
Great thread! To me one movie stands alone in this category. West Side Story - the dancing hoodlums are now laughable at best. At best it reminds you of watching the video for Beat It. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/14 "2001-03-26T23:06:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\*well, and that’s why IMHO, it doesn’t age well. The concept is that at this exclusive little college, the dean and his wife (Tippi) have assigned coed roomate situations, with the expectation that sexual experimentation will happen between the parties. \*\* Oh, I’m not disagreeing with you. I haven’t seen the movie, but if anything’s changed in 25 years, it’s sexual mores. I still wanna see it, though… it just sounds a little offbeat. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/15 "2001-03-26T23:26:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by egkelly \* > \*\*I’m talking about movies like “THE GREEN BERETS”-this turd is just so phoney-of course its good for a few laughs-particularly where the sun sets in the S. China sea! > \*\* Not to mention the pine trees in Vietnam…😕 ---
**Author:** ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/16 "2001-03-26T23:41:02Z")
To elaborate on a remark by Ukelele Ike… **Pillow Talk** and all the other Doris Day/Rock Hudson bedroom farces. Given the nature of Rock’s death, such bedroom farces were far more farce than most folks then knew. Another genre that aged even more poorly: the big Busby Berkeley productions. One movie from the late Sixties/early Seventies that aged very badly (but had a headstart): **Stand Up and Be Counted** , a low-budget “I-am-woman-hear-me-roar” magnus opus on Women’s Liberation. The wildly simplistic preachiness didn’t make much of a mark then; now it’s downright painful to watch. Same for **Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice** , about wife-swapping. The ending wimped out anyway, but back then apparently the titillation factor was high enough back then to keep people from ripping up the theater. Now? It’s a lame, lame concept. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/17 "2001-03-26T23:44:13Z")
There’s any number of Cary Grant era films that make the feminist in me cringe, but “Every Girl Should Be Married” made my head explode (just like when Lister has the space mumps). I can’t believe it was inoffensive in its own time. I would argue that if you see an old movie that is “all clichés” it might mean it was a very successful movie. I wasn’t impressed by _Gone with the Wind_ because I felt like I’d seen it all before. I even started laughing when Melanie ran across the field shouting Ashley’s name because it seemed so silly. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/18 "2001-03-26T23:47:59Z")
How about **I Was a Male War Bride**? Funny, but certainly dated… ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/19 "2001-03-27T00:33:54Z")
I can’t think of any movie in particular, but I do think of scenes that make me say “oh jeez” … depictions of day-to-da life that might have been commonplace in the 1950s, but which seem quite comical now. Examples include … - Married couples sleeping in separate beds. - Dressing in a three piece suit to attend a baseball game in August. - Slappin’ around a “dame.” - Racist depictions of blacks, for instance a shuckin’ and jivin’ shoeshine man. - Housewives cooking, cleanng or doing laundry while wearing evening gowns and pearls, a la “Leave it to Beaver.” Last, but not least … - That clipped, nasal “Hey there sonny boy, watch it with the rough stuff” accent that was apparently commonplace into the mid-1960s, when the United States suddenly disovered nasal spray or some other event happened that resulted in an en masse changing of the pupulation’s accent. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553/20 "2001-03-27T01:44:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Another genre that aged even more poorly: the big Busby Berkeley productions. I strongly disagree. Berkeley is as much magic now as it ever was, and the sexual innuendo is very modern, if more sophisticated than today. Take a look at “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” or “Honeymoon Hotel.” The most recent film I saw that fits into this category is Rogers and Hammerstein’s **Carousel**. It’s hard to have sympathy nowadays with a film that equates spousal abuse with love. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-not-aged-well/59553.md?page=2)