I watched the movie *Father Goose * starring the wonderful Cary Grant on AMC on Sunday morning. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time.
Another favorite immediately followed: Operation Petticoat. Cary Grant AND Tony Curtis!
The writing and the acting in both of these was amazing. 40 years or so after their theatrical release the charm and wit of the writing and acting was still evident to me.
What older movies do you just love?
I was just talking about this with a fellow office film buff. I watched “Pocketful of Miracles” this past weekend, and was literally in tears from laughing at Peter Falk as JoyBoy. Hilarious.
Father Goose is one of my faves, too - “This is the filthy beast!” 
VCNJ~
I could list dozens. Of course, my definition of “older” is pre-1960 (not that there aren’t dozens of movies from the 60s that i love). Here are a few:
Casablanca
Singin’ in the Rain
Duck Soup
City Lights
The General
The Wizard of Oz
Miracle on 34th Street
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
The 39 Steps
Footlight Parade
42nd Street
The Bank Dick
The Thin Man
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Stagecoach
I’ll stop now.
Two older movies I was just thinking about the other day (that aren’t pre-1960):
This Property is Condemned
Splendor in the Grass
Both are Natalie Wood. Both make me cry.
The Court Jester
The Quiet Man
Singin’ In The Rain
If the OP likes Grant & Curtis, then definitely check out Some Like It Hot where Curtis does a very funny Grant imitation (“Nobody talks like that!”)
Also check out Sweet Smell of Success for Curtis at his very best (Burt Lancaster, too).
They, plus Petticoat, were all made within 3 years of each other, definitely the peak of his career.
For some odd reason, many of my favorite movies are about chain gangs. Old movies are no exception – Sullivan’s Travels and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. I love how they show the prevailing values in the 30s-40s.
Compulsion with Orson Welles and Dean Stockwell is also a favorite, as are To Kill a Mockingbird and Hitchcock’s The Birds.
All the old Universal Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy, Invisible Man, and other horror films (especially *The Black Cat * with Karloff and Lugosi).
Just about anything with Rex Harrison, but especially The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I have loved that movie since I was a little girl.
And, I love the old Tracy & Hepburn movies. I think my favorite of those might be Desk Set.
Hand me anything by Hitchcock and I’m a happy girl
But, actually the list could go on and on. I think I like more older films than newer ones (not sure what that says about me 
).
I almost forgot one of my most favorite movies of all time Bell Book and Candle. It’s from 1958 so it just makes that pre-1960 cutoff.
Charade
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Sabrina
Cape Fear (the original with Gregory Peck)
The Scarlet and the Black
Doctor Zhivago
To Kill a Mockingbird
Roman Holiday
My Fair Lady
Almost all the movies my top20 list, last time I compiled it,* are “old” movies:
*The Passion of Joan of Arc *(1928)
*Europa '51 *(1952)
*Solyaris *(1972)
*Sunrise *(1927)
*Crowd, The *(1928)
*Tokyo Story *(1953)
*The Night of the Hunter *(1955)
*Ugetsu *(1953)
*Sullivan’s Travels *(1942)
*Once Upon a Time in the West *(1968)
*The Searchers *(1956)
*Singing Detective, The *(1986)
*The General *(1927)
*Barry Lyndon *(1975)
*Distant Voices, Still Lives *(1988)
*Showgirls *(1995)
*Dancer in the Dark *(2000)
*City Lights *(1931)
*Rio Bravo *(1959)
*Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia *(1974)
*I think it’s due for a revision.
I like a lot of the movies listed above. Add to them (unless I accidentally repeat):
Born Yesterday (The original version with Judy Holiday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford)
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (one of my all time favorite Bogart movies, with the wonderful performance by Walter Houston)
Solid Gold Cadillac (with Judy Holiday . . . almost anything with Judy Holiday is great as far as I am concerned)
Moby Dick (the “old” version with Gregory Peck as Ahab . . . what a performance!)
The Music Man (not the Disney travesty, but the original film version with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones . . . This picture still is a great big smile from beginning to end. I have no idea how many times I’ve seen it, but I always enjoy it.)
Inherit The Wind (the first version with Spencer Tracy and Frederick March)
Current films may have better special effects, but it’s hard to top the acting in films like those mentioned above.
I love old dramas and westerns. Musicals and comedies, not so much.
The ones I can watch over and over:
Shane
The Searchers
The Third Man
Casablanca
A Face in the Crowd
The Vikings (especially love the music)
To Kill A Mockingbird
Duel in the Sun, aka Lust in the Dust
Key Largo
King’s Row
The Magnificent Ambersons
Pretty much anything with Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Joseph Cotten, and Fredric March.
Not to hijack, but how can you stand watching chopped up movies on AMC?
As for great older movies, lord, too many to name. Just about anything with Bette Davis, “Mildred Pierce,” “The Women,” many of the old Crawford pictures, all of the Thin Man films, and I love just tuning into TCM at random and catching something like a Torchy Blaine flick or an old 55 minute B movie that no one’s ever heard of.
Across the Pacific (The Japanese have an American Browning machine gun and Bogie shoots down their airplane with it, saving the Panama Canal)
Key Largo (Jay Silverheels!)
The Maltese Falcon (Wilmer is later in a Star Trek episode)
The Big Sleep (At the Arts Center, folks clapped when Bogie shot Canino in the gut)
The Sand Pebbles
You named two of them in your OP. My dad (a ‘mustang’ who served for 20 years in the Navy) preferred Operation Petticoat. He loved the motorcycle-off-the-pier gag. I preferred Father Goose.
Keeping with the Naval theme: Mister Roberts (1955).
Films mentioned so far in this thread that I own:
[ul][li]Casablanca[/li][li]The Maltese Falcon[/li][li]The Court Jester[/li][li]To Kill A Mockingbird[/ul][/li]
Other faves:
[ul][li]Fail Safe[/li][li]Doctor Strangelove; or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb[/li][li]12 O’Clock High[/li][li]12 Angry Men[/li][li]The Caine Mutiny[/li][li]The Battle Of Britain[/li][li]The First Of The Few[/li][li]The Scarlet Pimpernel[/li][li]The Dam Busters[/li][li]To Catch A Theif[/ul][/li]I’m sure there will be others as the thread progresses…
Squeee! I just PVR’d “Father Goose” and I’m SO looking forward to it! Even moreso now. Thanks, jali.
We’re No Angels
The African Queen
Sabrina (with Bogie, Hepburn, and Holden)
Now, Voyager
King’s Row
Arsenic and Old Lace
Rio Grande
The Quiet Man
Freaks
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
To name a few. TCM is my default channel, because even if the movie itself is sort of “meh”, the clothes and hairstyles alone can keep me entertained for hours.
That’s one of my favorite movies!
“If you wasn’t a woman I’d kick you right in the stomache!”
“… Joey, go sock the weasel.”
Many of my favorites have already been listed. Three I don’t see are
Red River (1948)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)