# Stumbling Upon Old Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 15, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232 "2022-06-15T11:44:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/21 "2022-06-15T19:34:45Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I hang my head in shame: I still have not seen **Casablanca**. Claude Rains is one of my faves from that era and Bogey is OK and Bergman is lovely, but I’m under the impression it’s just TALK, TALK, TALK. Tell me I’m full of it – now’s yer chance. Casablanca is the greatest movie of all times. It’s got romance! It’s got humor! It’s got suspense! It’s got Nazis! What’s not to love? Haven’t watched it in a few years. For some reason, my wife has never been able to stay awake through the entire movie (I know, not a ringing endorsement). If you’re used to IN YOUR FACE movies of the last 30 years or so, yeah, you might not like it. The humor can be subtle. Not a lot of action. That being said, it does an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC job of setting the mood. “Of all the gin-joints in all the world, she has to walk into mine” - you get the depression in Rick. The scene with the music battle - you’re stirred by the playing of La Marseilles. Lots of witty rejoinders from Claude Raines, but if you’re expecting John McLane-level one-liners before the explosion, you ain’t gonna get it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/22 "2022-06-15T19:42:14Z")
Oh, and my recommendation for an old movie: [Harvey (1950)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) Staring Jimmy Stewart and a 6’8" invisible rabbit. “Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ - she always called me Elwood - ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.” OK, I will. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/23 "2022-06-15T19:56:28Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Oh, and my recommendation for an old movie: > > [Harvey (1950)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) > > Staring Jimmy Stewart and a 6’8" invisible rabbit. Fantastic little film. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/24 "2022-06-15T20:02:26Z")
“I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it.” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/25 "2022-06-15T20:16:36Z")
Not necessarily French but much of the cast (including those playing the Germans) were Europeans of various nationalities. I believe I learned that from Roger Ebert’s commentary track to the Blu-ray version. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/26 "2022-06-15T20:49:00Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > _House on Haunted Hill_ (1959) with Vincent Price. I just watched it last weekend for like the 50th time. It’s still a hoot. Elisha Cook, Jr., is perfect. Then I discovered the **Rifftrax** guys (ex-MST3K) have a version, so it’s gonna be 51 soon. > [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > if you’re expecting John McLane-level one-liners before the explosion Oh, God, no, _please!_ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/27 "2022-06-15T21:01:59Z")
I was late to the game with **The Big Lebowski**. I’d known of its existence, and many of the oft-quoted lines, and I also knew that it was right up my alley. But somehow, I’ve never seen it until about a year ago. Anyway, I think it’s brilliant, and I now rank it as my second-favorite comedy. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/28 "2022-06-15T21:58:25Z")
When I was a kid, my mom used to watch a lot of old movies. I couldn’t see the appeal. I thought I didn’t like old movies; turns out that I do, I just don’t like the same ones my mom does. I recommend: **My Man Godfrey** William Powell as a down-on-his-luck socialite who becomes butler to a crazy New York family. Carole Lombard is radiant as the daughter who falls for him. Has the funniest closing line in movie history (and yes, I’ve seen _Some Like it Hot_). **The Big Sleep** Humphrey Bogart as the cool, tough private eye, who’s always one step ahead of everyone; which is good because I still don’t know who did what to whom. It doesn’t matter. Bogart, Bacall, and the writing are all so good that the movie doesn’t need the whole “this is what happened” ending that you get in most detective films. **Le Trou** A black-and-white film that I stumbled across while channel surfing in Europe. I think it was in French with German subtitles. Couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but it’s a prison-break movie, so all the hiding and tunneling scenes still worked. I’ve seen it with English subtitles since then, and there were levels of personal and social messages that I missed the first time around. Don’t know for sure, but this may have started the whole genre of prison-break films. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/29 "2022-06-16T00:15:24Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > and I also knew that it was right up my alley. I see what you did there 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/30 "2022-06-16T12:29:50Z")
I’m a big fan of the least remembered of the Big 3 silent era comics, **Harold Lloyd** , _The King of Daredevil Comedy_. He excels in playing the classic underdog. I wasn’t familiar with his films until a few years ago, but I enjoy all that I’ve seen—the humor is addictive and timeless unless you were born without a funny bone. Lloyd performed most of his own stunts. One time he mistook a live bomb for a movie prop and blew off his right thumb and forefinger. He wore a prosthetic in subsequent films, that largely went unnoticed. The “clock scene” in 1923’s _Safety Last_ is of course his most iconic: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QEcTjhUN_7U/hqdefault.jpg "Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last"- 1923") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEcTjhUN_7U) But, most of his films are equally humorous and can be found on YouTube, including this funny clip from _Hot Water_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Yh3Ooj_njRM/hqdefault.jpg "Harold Lloyd Hot Water 1924") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh3Ooj_njRM) ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/31 "2022-06-16T12:40:30Z")
You’ve got to be kidding me. 😳 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/32 "2022-06-16T13:03:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > **The Big Sleep** Humphrey Bogart as the cool, tough private eye, who’s always one step ahead of everyone; which is good because I still don’t know who did what to whom. Neither did Raymond Chandler, apparently: > Famously Hawks even gathered his screenwriters, who included William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman, together to unpack the dense narrative web of Chandler’s novel before finally just wiring the author to ask what does it even mean?! The way Chandler tells it in his papers, the filmmakers asked him who exactly killed Owen Taylor, a chauffer whom audiences never met until he pops up as the second inexplicable murder victim in 10 minutes. > “They sent me a wire,” Chandler wrote. “Asking me, and dammit I didn’t know either!” > **[The Big Sleep: Proof That Plot Doesn’t Matter](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-big-sleep-proof-that-plot-doesn-t-matter/)** > > We still don't know what happened in Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's noir masterpiece The Big Sleep! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/33 "2022-06-16T13:24:03Z")
I’m not sure what you mean by stumbling on old movies. If you’re asking about my discovering obscure but great old movies that I didn’t watch because I wasn’t even born then or was too young to watch older movies, I would have trouble coming up with them. If you’re asking about films considered classics that I missed from the same period, it’s easy to come up with them. I watched few films until just after I graduated from college. Here’s a list of some classics that I didn’t watch until then and now like a lot: _The Adventures of Robin Hood_ (1938, U.S., dir. Michael Curtiz) _All Quiet on the Western Front_ (1930, U.S., dir. Lewis Milestone) _Amarcord_ (1974, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini) _Army of Shadows_ (1969, France/Italy, dir. Jean-Pierre Melville) _Camille_ (1937, U.S., dir. George Cukor) _Casablanca_ (1942, U.S., dir. Michael Curtiz) _Citizen Kane_ (1941, U.S., dir. Orson Welles) _Dr. Strangelove_ (1964, U.K., dir. Stanley Kubrick) _Duck Soup_ (1933, U.S., dir. Leo McCarey) _Freaks_ (1932, U.S., dir. Tod Browning) _The Great Dictator_ (1940, U.S., dir. Charles Chaplin) _It’s a Wonderful Life_ (1946, U.S., dir. Frank Capra) _King Kong_ (1933, U.S., dir. Merian C. Cooper) _La Jetée_ (1962, France, dir. Chris Marker) _La Strada_ (1954, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini) _M_ (1931, Germany, dir. Fritz Lang) _The Maltese Falcon_ (1941, U.S., dir. John Huston) _Modern Times_ (1936, U.S., dir. Charles Chaplin) _Psycho_ (1960, U.S., dir. Alfred Hitchcock) _Ride the High Country_ (1962, U.S., dir. Sam Peckinpah) _The Searchers_ (1956, U.S., dir. John Ford) _Seven Samurai_ (1954, Japan, dir. Akira Kurosawa) _Singin’ in the Rain_ (1952, U.S., dir. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen) _The Third Man_ (1949, U.K., dir. Carol Reed) _The Treasure of the Sierra Madre_ (1948, U.S., dir. John Huston) _Vertigo_ (1958, U.S., dir. Alfred Hitchcock) _The Wild Bunch_ (1969, U.S., dir. Sam Peckinpah) ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/34 "2022-06-16T13:27:49Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > ’m not sure what you mean by stumbling on old movies. I should have been more precise. By “old” I mean in your life time but good movies that are old enough (@10-30 years) that there should be no way you haven’t seen them before now, especially in the golden age of communication in which we now live. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/35 "2022-06-16T13:52:48Z")
Oops, that disqualifies Harold Lloyd then. I’m getting up in years, but not quite 100. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/36 "2022-06-16T13:53:45Z")
Yeah, I kind of figured that out for myself. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/37 "2022-06-16T14:19:42Z")
O.K., eight of the ones I list were released during my lifetime. Again, it’s not surprising that I didn’t see them until long after they were released despite that. I grew up on a farm. We had a TV, but they didn’t show very many older films back then, and I didn’t have time to watch older movies anyway. I couldn’t walk to a movie theater like people living in towns. Our family didn’t have the money to go to movies all together except for a half dozen or so times a year. All of the films I list came out before I graduated from college, but I didn’t see them until I became a big movie buff after graduating from college. Looking through my list of my favorite films again, I noticed several more that came out during the time I was an undergraduate. I no longer remember whether I watched them when they came out or years later when I was a movie buff trying to fill in all the classic movies I’d never seen. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/38 "2022-06-16T14:30:08Z")
Modern Girls (1986) Stumbled into this one from a Depeche Mode video for catchy synthpop song [But Not Tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJem7RuBpc). Found the movie on Tubi and watched the whole thing. It wasn’t a _great_ movie, but it was a really neat slice of life, made me nostalgic for 20-something clubbing life in 1980’s LA even though I’ve never been there. So very 80s. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/39 "2022-06-16T14:30:26Z")
A few days ago I happened upon _Destination Moon_ (1950) on TCM. I had never even heard of it before, much less seen it, and the little snippet I caught made it seem so laughable that I recorded it for later viewing. But when I came back to watch the whole thing I was quite surprised to learn that, despite some staggering implausibilties (e.g., they decide to take off earlier than planned, on 17 hours’ notice, with an essentially untrained crew), it was the first Hollywood feature to deal with space travel in a serious, scientific fashion. And it was based on a story, and co-written, by Robert Heinlein, a fact that TCM host Ben Mankiewicz inexplicably _didn’t even mention._ It was an odd mix of accurate physics and engineering with ludicrous (from a post-Apollo POV) implausibilties, but it was light years beyond anything seen before, like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. And it won an Oscar for Best Special Effects, thanks to in part to great matte paintings by [Chesley Bonestell](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Bonestell). Unfortunately, it’s no longer available at TCM, but if it ever comes back, it’s definitely worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232/40 "2022-06-16T14:45:19Z")
I meant to mention that it includes a scene in which one astronaut rescues another who has floated off the outside of the ship by using an oxygen tank as a reaction engine. ISTM that a similar rescue occurs in an Isaac Asimov story. Can any of our resident SF fans confirm this? Did Heinlein use it (also)? They are the two SF writers whose work I read most, but that was 40-50 years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stumbling-upon-old-movies/966232.md?page=3)