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TV, radio, film, Arts

Old movies

(70 Posts)
Jayh Mon 29-Aug-16 17:41:51

Old black and white movies are my guilty pleasure. I have just watched 'Now, Voyager' starring Bette Davies and even though I have seen it many times over the years it still reduces me to tears. Two people, much in love, who can't be together because of the strict moral code of the time. It wouldn't happen today.
I like these old movies for the social history as much as anything else. Anyone else a fan?

Babyboomer Tue 30-Aug-16 12:53:20

I just love Bette Davis movies. Nothing better for an evening or wet afternoon on your own, with a pot of coffee or a glass of something.

Glamdram Tue 30-Aug-16 13:14:40

Iv just bought Wuthering Heights from a well known supermarket for £3. Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier .....one of my favourite films.

They had other old movies on DVD there too

jamtart27 Tue 30-Aug-16 16:38:44

Woman in a dressing gown and old Christmas favourite which I watch a few times in the run up to Christmas bishops wife. Does anyone else have the talking pictures channel that's a must for fans of old films .

Jayh Tue 30-Aug-16 17:04:48

JT is the talking pictures channel on Sky?

Greyduster Tue 30-Aug-16 17:33:14

I tried to introduce my grandson (9) to westerns. We watched Fort Apache (probably not a good choice except that the Indians win!). He wandered off back to his Lego halfway through! Not as interesting as Star Wars or Harry Potter, apparently! I loved a good cowboy film when I was his age.

1974cookie Tue 30-Aug-16 17:37:49

What a lovely thread. It brings back so many memories of such wonderful films
Oh the joys of watching the old black and white Ealing comedies like 'Passport to Pimlico' with the truly wonderful Margaret Rutherford.
'The Man in the white suit'.
'The happiest days of our lives'
Oh so many of them.
Wonderful films with equally wonderful Actors and Actresses.
Happy Days?

1974cookie Tue 30-Aug-16 17:50:35

Does anyone remember a Wonderful film called Mandy?
The child actress was Mandy Miller, and it was about a deaf and dumb child.
Very, very moving.

Eloethan Tue 30-Aug-16 18:38:13

Yes - it was a lovely film.

Bluecat Tue 30-Aug-16 20:55:26

Oh, God, Cary Grant....so suave, so handsome, so charming. The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby, and so many more.

I don't think they can make screwball comedies these days - when they try, they just come over as heavy handed.

I loved Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and The Women, and was rather sad to read that she was a supporter of fascism. Rather disillusioning.

I have to admit that I love the Marx Brothers. I'm not a big flan of slapstick - I'm afraid I can't stand Norman Wisdom - but there is a lunatic element in the films of Groucho and co which just appeals to me.

But my favourite film of all, old or new, has to be Some Like It Hot. Jack Lemmon as Daphne was superb.

POGS Wed 31-Aug-16 10:12:42

Black and white movies are like good music, never too old to please.

They try to remake classics such as The Bishops wife with David Niven , Carry Grant and Loretta Young into The Preachers Wife with Denzil Washington and Whitney Houston but whilst it was charming not a patch on the original black and white film. I still prefer the originals such as Great Expectations, Scrooge, Hunchback of Notre Dam etc., even Les Miserable.

Carry Grant is my all time favourite handsome male and when George Clooney came into the series ER as doctor Doug Ross moons ago hubby said something like 'that's you sorted then'.

It's A Wonderful Life, Hobsons Choice, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Kind Hearts and Coronets so many.

Who can forget the wonderful film Schindlers List was mostly shot in black and white.

brunswick Wed 31-Aug-16 10:35:42

jayh - yes Talking Pictures is on Sky Channel 343. Its great, shows films from the 1930's, 40's, 50's and upwards. I love the ones from the 50's and 60's. Some of the story lines are terrible, but I like seeing the locations as nearly all of them are British, and to see the streets as they used to be, hardly any cars, and also recognising some locations.

Emerald888 Wed 31-Aug-16 10:52:33

You Tube has old films and TV shows. My husband watches Norman Wisdom and Will Hays films. He is only in his 50's!

Wurzelernie Wed 31-Aug-16 11:00:14

Moviemad, thank you for that website address - its good! I love old movies, probably the older the better. They had good stories, there was no gratuitous violence as there is in todays lot, the ''stars'' were real stars and looked it. Oh dear, Those were the days I remember particularly ''Dangerous Moonlight'' (Anton Walbrook playing the 'Warsaw Concerto' while the air raids went on overhead) 'Rebecca' and there's never been one to touch the Joan Fontaine version, ''Love Story'' - the Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger version, and 'Dear Octopus,' such a wonderful family story.

Jennieantliff Wed 31-Aug-16 11:13:48

The film I love is An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deboral Kerr, I never tire of it. AlsoThe Philadelphia Story.

kooklafan Wed 31-Aug-16 11:22:50

The original Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Dark Victory with Bette Davis. When the term Making Love meant a few whispered words and a stolen kiss or two and when a nightclub was a place you went for supper and a show smile

GrandmasueUK Wed 31-Aug-16 12:09:46

JT I have Talking Pictures channel. I love it. I tend to look through and record films for watching later. I do sometimes end up deleting them part way through, but there are some brilliant ones. I watched one last night with Mandy Miller in in - there have been two and I am hoping for 'Mandy' sometime soon. One of my all time favourites is 'Dead of Night'. That's been on a couple of times. Lots of 'B' comedy films. Sid James seems to be in lots of them - and he is usually called 'Sid'! I do watch out for Norman Wisdom, Alec Guiness and Margaret Rutherford as well.

A couple I've really enjoyed and never seen before, B&W film 'The Boys'- riveting and surprise ending I didn't see coming; and 'The Anniversary' with Bette Davis, a black comedy. She is deliciously nasty in it. Looking forward to seeing lots more.

JoJo58 Wed 31-Aug-16 12:20:04

Love old films, mine and hubby's guilty pleasure early saturday morning films on BBC2, some very old, but enjoyable to watch you can't beat a good old black and white, remembering watching them with my late dad.

Jayh Wed 31-Aug-16 12:56:44

Sigh! I am in seventh heaven. I have found the Talking Pictures Channel on Sky 343 and I don't know why I didn't know about it before. Thank you, Grans, for telling me about it.
There is a movie on called The Gay Dog starring Wilfred Pickles, Petula Clark and Megs Jenkins. How tempting is that?
I am going to record it for later. There is no end to my enthusiasm for corny, old tosh.
?

brunswick Wed 31-Aug-16 16:28:57

Jayh you'll love the corny old tosh!! but there is also a lot of good stuff. Like you I record everything, so if its rubbish, I just fast forward to all the bits I may like.

Blinko Wed 31-Aug-16 16:54:50

Rebecca
Goodbye Mr Chips
Random Harvest
Rancho Notorious
Destry Rides Again
The Ghost of Blairgowrie
The Thirty Nine Steps
The African Queen

All fabulous!

angie95 Wed 31-Aug-16 17:37:54

Black & white movies are great, they just don't make them like that anymore, which is a shame. ,

Jan1234 Wed 31-Aug-16 18:04:10

We must have been watching Now Voyager at the same time! Definitely one of my all-time favourites. "Why ask for the moon when we have the stars?" Beautiful line from a movie that never fails to reduce me to tears. I like to think his wife drifts off in her sleep very soon after the end of the movie and the three of them live happily ever after.

HootyMcOwlface Wed 31-Aug-16 18:08:42

Oo I love an old film, preferably a British one like an Ealing comedy or a war film. I remember watching Will Hay films on BBC2 years ago, and finding them hilarious, but they never come on now so I have just bought some on DVD from Amazon. Hope they are as good as I remember!

Moviemad Wed 31-Aug-16 18:36:02

Thanks to F77ms and JaYa for taking a look at my website on movies. Interesting to note that one writer above likes Brief Encounter which I have pulled to pieces in detail as one of the worst films ever made so it just shows how people differ. Nobody seems to have identified with the title of
www.takeoneinplease.com which surprises me --maybe forumites here are younger than I thought.

NanKate Wed 31-Aug-16 18:48:25

Some Like it Hot - funniest film I have ever seen
Anything with Katherine Hepburn
Sidney Poitier in Deadly Pursuit, great thriller
The film with Madame Arcarte (Margaret Rutherford) as the medium
Any Hitchcock film

The last modern film I liked was 'The Theory of Everything'