Something in the order of:
Lost Horizon
The Maltese Falcon
Singing in the Rain
Cool Hand Luke
The Godfather
Badlands
up to age 21. The first 3 I saw on TV - Lost Horizon when I was very young the other 2 in my teens.
I was waiting for a fellow Monster Kid!
Here is was Nightmare Theater on WTTV-4 (Bloomington, IN) hosted by Sammy Terry. Of course, with all the Universals were the Hammers and the AIP-Vincent Price ones. Then the “bottom-of-the-barrells” from Italy, Spain, Mexico- which had some rare gems.
Above all, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN reigned. Close after were Hammer’s Brides of Dracula and Vincent Price’s Masque of the Red Death. And the one foreign film in the bunch- Mario Bava’s Black Sunday starring Barbara Steele.
Outside the monster genre, but still in the realm of the fantastic, I might not have named this when I was a kid, but I’ve always had a special place in my heart for THE SEVEN FACES OF DR. LAO.
I got the DVD this summer and inflicted it on my 28-yr old jaded best friend (I’m 47). She tolerated it while I thoroughly enjoyed it, even while mocking the now-obvious holes. One of these days, I need to watch it back-to-back with SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (I was in college when that came out).
Wizard of Oz. Watched it to death as a little kid, then went through a period of being too cool for it as a teenager. I love it all over again now, and was disappointed to miss the hi-def theatre showings this summer–I went to the theatre with my mom only to find it sold out.
Disney’s Robin Hood was another biggie. I remember that I used to daydream about having adventures w/ Robin and the gang there in Sherwood Forest.
I think those were the big two, though Goonies, The Last Starfighter, and The Secret of NIMH all merit honorable mentions at least. (The Secret of NIMH remains one of my favorites to this day; I tend to get choked up watching it, 'cause I’m just a sap that way.)
For Auntie Pam, a blast from the past- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGZ4J4-XdU
And what I grew up on-
http://www.youtube.com/user/SammyTerryWTTV43
His real name is Bob Carter, he’s now 80 years old, and I saw him after many years on October of last year. He still does shows when his health permits. God bless him!
Sammy Terry made me the man I am today… and I never got around to punching him for it. (ba-da bing!)
Back to the Future
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
I saw these movies on my 7th birthday, when I was 8, and on my 12th birthday respectively.
I also loved a movie called The Wraith, which even as a kid I knew it might be one of the worst movies ever made, but it did have a really cool car and that went a long way when I was 9. It also had Sherilyn Fenn’s breasts (I’m pretty sure, it may have been side boob, I haven’t seen it in a while and the only copy I have is a shitty VHS recording)
The Great Race
Forbidden Planet
Mysterious Island
The Blob
Animated:
Gulliver’s Travels
Hoppity Goes To Town
Pinnochio
It’s Sophie Day at TNT: They’re showing all three Rings movies, as well as WOTW tonight @ 7pm. Don’t tell my daughter - she needs to practice her piano! 
Before 10, Back to the Future. My family actually used to rent the movie AND the VCR from the video store, and that was the tape we rented a ridiculous number of times.
Between 10 and 15, I really got on an old movie kick, and the tape I wore out was* Road to Morocco*.
Born in 1957.
“Mary Poppins” and “Alice in Wonderland” tied when I was little. I had the Alice soundtrack and played it and sang it every Saturday Morning.
As a young teen, I think it was “A Warm December” - a very sad, romantic story starring Sidney Poitier.
As an older teen “The Harder They Come” was important to me.
My favorite movie right now is “Snatch”.
Thanks for that! I’d forgotten about Claude – I remembered him as Igor but I must have been confusing him with the movie. Your show had color and an echo chamber – big budget compared to mine!
All the praise for the Disney’s Robin Hood – maybe I should get it for the grandkids.
That was my very favorite movie when I was a kid; I used to watch it every time it was on TV (it was in the pre-VCR, pre-HBO era – I’m freakin’ old – and the only movie theatre for 50 miles was the drive-in over in the next county and my parents were too cheap and too dull to take me; so movies on TV were practically the only ones I ever got to see). This, in spite of the fact that there were two parts of that flick that always made me cry, and probably still would.
I grew up before home video. When I was a kid, there were a few movies that my father would wake me up to watch with him, no matter the hour. If WUAB-43 was playing them at 3 a.m., then 3 a.m. would see us watching them. And if I didn’t feel like going to school the next day, then fuck it.
Casablanca
The African Queen
From Here to Eternity
The Night of the Hunter
Says a lot about my childhood, doesn’t it?
Same here.
Annie (1982), Mary Poppins, *Bedknobs and Broomsticks * – Guess I had a thing for musicals.
Pirates of Penzance. I knew exactly where it was located in a big movie rental place, far away from the kids/family section. Probably every other time we went I would wander off and return with the yellow plastic “VHS” tag* for it, pleading to my mother to get it.
*: Red was for Beta.
I didn’t see many movies growing up so “favorite movie” is kind of a stretch. But I was in high school when “Patton” came out and me and my friends loved it. During the intermission we repeated all the obscenities in it (still quite rare in 1970). When it was broadcast on television in December, 1972 I recorded it on audio on two 90 minute 8 track tapes (CBS even kept in most of the four letter words, daying it was essential to Patton’s character. The "shovel #### in Louisiana in the opening monologue got left out).
Jason and the Argonauts.
Heck, I still like it.
I’ll copy lissener:
Little kid: Labyrinth, The Little Mermaid, and The Chipmunk Adventure
Medium kid: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Secret of Roan Inish, and Clueless
Tweener: Newsies and The Pest
High School: Fight Club, Moulin Rouge, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch