I have seen lots of movies, some good, some bad, some classic, and some not worthy of anything.
Reading, and various other media recently has made me decide that I’m going to start a club of classic movies. I figure that once maybe twice a month, a few friends will gather and partake in watching some of those classic movies that are always talked about but never seen. A friend, my fiancée and myself will start the club, and hopefully a few of my friends (co-workers and their friends) will join us and watch movies that we’ve never really taken the time to watch.
Two of these that I can think of are “The Maltese Falcon” and “Casablanca.” My friend has seen “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” but I haven’t.
My question to you is, ‘what movies should we view?’ They don’t have to be good movies, but I would like them to be ‘classic’ movies. By classic, I don’t necessarily mean ‘Ben Hur’ or any dramatic movie. I’m leaning more towards the ones that have impact on our society. Movies that pop up in our pop culture from time to time. That way we can appreciate the references. I’d prefer not to go with cheesy movies, like cheap horror flicks, but movies that have some sort of value in American society.
All they show are classic movies. They aren’t afraid of black-and-white, there’s no Dolby Surround, they have stereo speakers and a Wurlitzer organ played before each feature. Wednesday nights are silent movie nights.
They break up the showings by theme–currently it’s “British and Sherlock Holmes films”, but you can see some of their older themes. In fact, if you want a great list of true movie classics, look at their “Our Top 50” festival they had in the summer of 1999.
Sigh. No wonder everyone wants to buy a house near there.
Pretty much anything by Billy Wilder but in particular;
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[li]Stalag 17[/li][li]Sunset Boulevard[/li][li]Some like it hot[/li][li]Irma La Douce[/li][li]The Apartment[/li][li]The Fortune Cookie[/li][li]Double Indemnity (& that’ll be enough BW for now… )[/li][/ul]
Marty
Touch of Evil
The Sweet Smell of Success
In a Lonely Place
Les Enfants Du Paradis
Strangers on a Train
It Happened One Night
Roman Holiday
Blood Simple
Usual Suspects
Is that enough?
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, where a garage grease-monkey espies and follows the girl of his dreams, but the dialogue is sung, not spoken. A fine Euro-surrealist fantasy.
Rope…one of my favorite movies. The entire thing done in two or three rooms. You could cut the tension with a knife in this movie. And I believe it’s one of the only Hitchcock movies without a Hitchcock cameo. Also, my all-time favorite Jimmy Stewart role.
A dark comedy classic.
A cold war paranoia sendup with truly fine performances!
Sterling Hayden’s portrayal of Genl. Jack D. Ripper is one of my favorites!
I now have a list that will keep me busy for a while. Now I just have to get the group together.
I’m going to add a few movies I’ve always wanted to see, but haven’t really seen. I think I’ve seen all of ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ but never in one setting. Seems as though that’s on and I never catch it in the same place. Weird. I also want to see ‘Fistfull of Dollars’ just because I think the spaghetti westerns were where Clint was his greatest.
I appreciate all the input, and I’m glad that not all the movies are old, or all the movies are black and white or whatever, ya know. Ya’ll gave me quite a diverse list. I’ll let you know how it turns out, hopefully.
Oh, and Airblairxxx, next time I’m out Palo Alto way, I’ll make sure to stop by the Stanford Theater… Do they travel to places like Waco?
Well it all depends on what (and which performers) you LIKE. I can’t stand a good number of “classic” films. But I will step out on a limb and suggest some really superb comedies (some “screwball,” some not):
• Million Dollar Legs (1932). One of the screwiest of nonsensical comedies, ever.
• The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Midnight (1939), both Claudette Colbert comedies, as slick and sophisticated as they come.
• Dinner at Eight and Bombshell (both 1933) two of Jean Harlow’s best.
• Love Me Tonight (1932), featuring Jeannette MacDonald before MGM sewed her vagina shut.
• Three Cornered Moon (1932), Depression-era comedy with Claudette Colbert and the great Lyda Roberti.
If you’re looking for immortal classics, I can’t recommend Airplane! highly enough. And don’t call me Shirley.
Oh, and of course, Star Wars (the original), if you haven’t seen it yet. In my opinion, no movie has done more to shape the face of cinema than Star Wars has.
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