Favorite Old Movies

I love old movies from the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s.  Many of them are real classics that are as wonderful today as they were when they were released.  Here is a list of some of my all-time favorites for anyone who wants to broaden their movie experience.  These movies have no hours of explosions, mass shootings or raw sex.  Events were subtler then.  Though people may have been less sophisticated they had their imagination to fill in the details.

Of course, any list has to include;

                Gone with the Wind—one of the all-time great movies.

                The Wizard of Oz--how can any one not like this movie?  Billie Burke and Margaret 
                Hamilton are enough reasons to love this movie.  Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Bert Lahr
                et al are just wonderful!
                Singing in the Rain—the best movie ever about the early days for talkies and one of the 
                best musicals ever!
                Casablanca-fabulous!
                Citizen Kane
                All About Eve—the best theater film ever made with an all-star cast and great
                performances.  Davis would have won her third Oscar if Anne Baxter would have
               accepted the nomination for Supporting Actress instead of insisting on one for Best Actress.

I have not included "The Sound of Music" which I don't like as a film any more than I liked the musical.  Over exposure is one reason.

I want to mention some less well known films that I think are just great!

          

Dinner at Eight (1933)—This film is an MGM all-star movie with the Barrymore brothers, Marie Dressler, Wallace Berry, Jean Harlow and the wonderful Billie Burke. It is about a socialite who is planning a dinner for an English couple.  She doesn’t realize that her husband’s company is in deep financial difficulties but dutifully invites some “lesser” people who can help him when he asks.   Dressler, Harlow and Burke steal the film.

The Women (1939)—this is the best version of Clare Booth Luce’s wonderful play. The cast includes just about every woman on the MGM lot and stars, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland, and Marjorie Main.  There is a Technicolor fashion show in the middle of the film.  There are several classic lines in the film.  The best one comes at the end.  Crawford is leaving and says, “There is a name for women like you, but it’s not polite outside of a kennel!”

A Tale of Two Cities (late 1930’s). This version stars Ronald Coleman and is the best version of the Dickens’ classic ever done.  Blanche Yorka as Madame DeFarge, Edna Mae Oliver and an excellent supporting cast still allow Coleman to shine brilliantly.

Marie Antoinette (1939)—All-star biography of the ill-fated Queen, stars Norma Shearer, Robert Morley, John Barrymore, Joseph Schildkraut , and Tyrone Power.  If any film should be colorized, it is this one.  Morley is wonderful as Louis Auguste and the camera loves Power as Count Axel von Fersten .

The Little Foxes—(1941)  Bette Davis at her best as Regina and some of the original Broadway cast recreat their roles.  Talullah Bankhead starred brilliantly on Broadway but Davis was a bigger name and she is brillian.  This is a film that Carol Burnett loved to spoof.

A Place in the Sun (1952)—Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift in their first film together.  Two of the most beautiful people star in a love story based on “An American Tragedy”.  Shelley Winters is also in it and Carol Burnett loved to parody this film, too.  Matt Bomer is trying to make a movie on Montgomery Clift and center the film on the making of his film

Now, Voyager (1942)—Bette Davis and Paul Heinreid, Claude Raines, Gladys Cooper star and Mary Wickes makes her film debut.  This shows sex, 1942 when Heinreid lights 2 cigarettes in his mouth and gives one to Davis!

Ninotchka (1939)—Garbo and Melvyn Douglas star in this film that was made into the musical “Silk Stockings”.  It is about a Russian Commisar who goes to Paris to investigate Comrades and falls for an American.

The Man who Came to Dinner (early 1940’s)  All-star version of a Kaufman and Hart play that is superb.  Monty Wooley is at his best and the rest of the cast includes Bette Davis, Anne Sheridan, Billie Burke, Reginald Gardner, Jimmy Durante, and Mary Wicks.

Gigi (1960)-It is a beautifully done musical. Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold steal it with their song of remembrance.

A Christmas Carol (1951) with Alastair Sims is the definitive version of the Dickens’s classic.  Sims is brilliant as Scrooge.  There are other versions with some good people but this one is the very best.  The musical version has Alec Guinness as Marley and Dame Edith Evans as the Spirit of Christmas Past with Albert Finney as Scrooge but the numbers are too long and boring.

The Maltese Falcon (1940’s)  Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade with Mary Astor as his love interest.  Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet add dimension and color to the film.

To Catch a Thief (1956) Hitchcock’s glorious film set in Monte Carlo with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant with Jesse Royce Landis and John Williams.  The costumes by Edith Head are spectacular and memorable!

Anastasia 1956—Ingrid Bergman won her second Oscar for this film about a supposed Romanov Grand Duchess.  Helen Hayes plays the Dowager Empress and Yul Brynner co-stars.

I Remember Mama (1947)  Irene Dunne stars with Barbara Bel Geddes in this film  It is not  overly sweet and the supporting cast is super—Oscar Holmoka, Eileen Corby, and Edgar Bergen.

The Bishop’s Wife (1940’s)  This is a Holiday fantasy that is just wonderful.  Loretta Young, David Niven and Cary Grant star with supporting help from Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lancaster, James Gleason, and Monty Wooley.  They tried a re-make called “The Preacher’s Wife” that was not successful despite Denzel Washington in the Cary Grant role.

A Letter to Three Wives (late 1940’s) This film won an Oscar forbest screen play.  It stars Ann Sothern, Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Paul Douglas, Kirk Douglas with Celeste Holm doing the voice over. 

The Letter (1940’s)  Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall star in this mystery with Gale Sondergard in a supporting role.  William Wyler directed this film.  Davis was still arguing with Wyler about a scene 30 years later.

The Caine Mutiny (1956) I think this is a good version of Herman Wouk’s book and has an all-star cast:  Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, and Jose Ferrer.  Bogart steals the film as Captain Philip Francis Queeg, the skipper against whom the crew mutinies.

Sunset Blvd (1950):  Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) the reclusive silent screen star thinks she will make a “return” in a silent film about Salome.  But it’s 1950!  William Holden and Eric von Stroheim co-star.  The Andrew Lloyd-Weber musical of Sunset Blvd is his best work because he started with the superb screenplay by Billy Wilder!

Pride and Prejudice (1941) This film is an MGM version with its “A” cast that includes Greer Garson (Elizabeth), Laurence Olivier (Darcy), Edmund Gwen and Mary Boland (The Bennets), Melville Cooper (Collins), and Edna May Oliver (Lady Catherine).  It is an excellent version.  There are at least 3 other versions of this Austin classic.  The A&E production with Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth and Colin Firth as Darcy is very good though I don’t like the actress playing Lady Catherine.  I think her choices in her portrayal are not good ones.

This list shows a couple of my favorite actresses—Normal Shearer, Bette Davis and Billie Burke.  Shearer was a big star in the 1930s but did not adapt as she grew a bit older.  Davis was the finest screen actress of her age and has been replaced by Meryl Streep who is the finest film actress of today.  Billie Burke was a wonderful character actress who brightened any film she was in.

 There are others who are not well represented but who never gave a bad performance and played a wide range of characters over long careers.  Ann Southern sang, danced, and acted her way through dozens of films over 30 years. Fred MacMurray is another who never gave a bad performance over his 30 years in films.  Then there are all the supporting people who are in hundreds of films playing a wide variety of roles.  They are too numerous to mention.  These people made up the Warner Brothers and MGM “A” companies in all types of films.  These are the actors whose faces are easily recognizable but whose names are less well known.

I’m sure I could come up with several more films if I take more time.  This is certainly a start and I can always add to the list later!