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What was the first film you ever saw in a cinema?

(130 Posts)
LadyHonoriaDedlock Sat 28-Jan-23 16:08:10

Mine was Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Ron Moody, Una Stubbs and others, at the Plaza in Birkenhead. I find this is the case with many of my age (not the Plaza necessarily) simply because the whole premise of travelling to Greece on a converted London double-decker at a time when cheap package holidays to the Med weren't yet a thing was such a welcome relief after that long, bitter winter of 62/63.

When I did my Masters in TV/Film Studies (yes, deal with it!) a couple of years as a mature student one of the younger ones asked if that was where the song came from. The song Summer Holiday seems to have been a potent icon right down the generations.

Chestnut Sun 29-Jan-23 00:22:16

Amazing how the death of Bambi's mother seemed to traumatise so many children. I think it was because we hadn't experienced an emotional loss like that before. We were very naïve especially those with no TV. Children now have seen it all before. My 4 year old granddaughter didn't seem traumatised at all.

Chestnut Sun 29-Jan-23 00:17:07

I was a big Hayley Mills fan because she was a couple of years older than me and I saw her as a big sister doing all these cool things I hadn't done yet. Whistle Down the Wind was just the best because I saw myself in her so much. And we were always looking for adventures, so finding Jesus in the barn was an amazing adventure.

Juliet27 Sun 29-Jan-23 00:15:44

Oklahoma

sharon103 Sun 29-Jan-23 00:08:50

Rosie51

sharon103

Rosie51

I don't know if it was my first film in the cinema but Whistle Down the Wind is the one that stands out in my memory.

Oh I love that film. My favourite of all time I think.
I've watch it years ago on the tele and we've got the dvd. All my family love it.

Even as a young child it made me cry. I've seen it once since and still choked up at the ending. The 3 children were fantastic in it, not just Hayley Mills.

Aww I know Rosie, those little girls came to see 'Jesus' and they'd missed him. I can picture it now.
A brilliant cast with a bit of eye candy. The gorgeous Alan Bates and such a lovely story.

SachaMac Sat 28-Jan-23 23:56:23

Mary Poppins was the first one I remember seeing.

Redhead56 Sat 28-Jan-23 23:51:50

When we were kids we used to go to the Woolton picture house to watch Saturday cinema in black and white. The first big movie I ever saw was The Greatest story ever told I think that was the title. It was a school trip to the Abbey cinema in Liverpool I thought it was totally boring.

Wyllow3 Sat 28-Jan-23 23:50:59

JaneJudge

We were never taken to the cinema

Neither were we.

But I remember the first film DH took my son to, it was the first "ghostbusters"

he was terrified for ages afterwards, it was not repeated!

Rosie51 Sat 28-Jan-23 23:41:06

sharon103

Rosie51

I don't know if it was my first film in the cinema but Whistle Down the Wind is the one that stands out in my memory.

Oh I love that film. My favourite of all time I think.
I've watch it years ago on the tele and we've got the dvd. All my family love it.

Even as a young child it made me cry. I've seen it once since and still choked up at the ending. The 3 children were fantastic in it, not just Hayley Mills.

Granmarderby10 Sat 28-Jan-23 23:10:58

Just to clarify I love the 1967 animated version but took some grandchildren to watch the most recent live action I think it was 2016 or 2018. Enjoyed both.

MayBee70 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:57:56

GagaJo

Jungle Book with my dad, in the Odeon cinema in Norwich. I loved it and still do, although my DGS was most unimpressed when I tried to watch it with him.

Is that the Sabu one?

Callistemon21 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:57:55

I think it must have been Mandy, with Mandy Miller in about 1952.

My brothers, who were older than me, used to go to Saturday morning cinema most weeks.
Later on in my teens I went with friends and saw Summer Holiday, Elvis films, oddly enough Norman Wisdom films and any Doctor films with Dirk Bogarde, whom we thought was the best looking man we'd ever seen. 🙂

Granmarderby10 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:37:17

Gagajo give the more recent live action version a go -we saw it at the cinema it went down well with ours then they went on to watch the “proper one” when they were both being aired on tv.
Just love “King of the Swingers” and appreciate the music even more now I’m older. It was top quality entertainment👌🏻

GagaJo Sat 28-Jan-23 22:25:04

Jungle Book with my dad, in the Odeon cinema in Norwich. I loved it and still do, although my DGS was most unimpressed when I tried to watch it with him.

Granmarderby10 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:23:19

I remember going to see The Beatles film Help with my much older brother.
I was very little, certainly pre infant school.
One of my sisters reckoned he probably only took me because no one else would go😁
Another I remember with another older sister was That Darned Cat which was the title song also😸

harold Sat 28-Jan-23 22:21:53

I was taken to the cinema by a neighbour as my brother was born that evening _ so I had to watch a black and white "whodunit" which I think was called "The Moss Rose" and had a character wielding a swordstick (I think).
Later on I remember "Bambi" and "Song of the South"

MayBee70 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:15:37

Although I grew up in the slums of Birmingham we had a wonderful cinema called The Palladium nearby and mum used to take me there. I can still remember the pink curtains that used to roll up before the film started. I can remember seeing an Elvis film and Tommy the Toreador. We saw The Sleeping Beauty and I thought Malificent was beautiful. But seeing How the West was Won at a new cinema with CinemaScope made me realise that some films have to be seen at a cinema. My favourite film as a child was The Jungle Book with Sabu but I must have seen that on the tv.

sharon103 Sat 28-Jan-23 22:07:09

Rosie51

I don't know if it was my first film in the cinema but Whistle Down the Wind is the one that stands out in my memory.

Oh I love that film. My favourite of all time I think.
I've watch it years ago on the tele and we've got the dvd. All my family love it.

Grandma70s Sat 28-Jan-23 21:59:40

There was something called the Children’s Film Foundation or similar, and they were the only films my mother thought suitable. They were shown in the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, so I suppose that’s not really a cinema. Oh, and I did see Fantasia, which was considered OK because it had classical music. Later I went to the Red Shoes, which obsessed me for a while. I was taken to theatre and ballet rather than films.

When I was about fourteen I went with a friend to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I thought it was awful, and said so, which did not endear me to that particular (ex-) friend.

Casdon Sat 28-Jan-23 21:48:04

Were Disney films shown at cinemas after their first release on a cycle, like every 5 years or similar? So many of us saw Bambi as our first film, but I’m guessing we are all different ages, so maybe it was shown every few years?

Rosie51 Sat 28-Jan-23 21:33:31

I don't know if it was my first film in the cinema but Whistle Down the Wind is the one that stands out in my memory.

sharon103 Sat 28-Jan-23 21:22:42

The Hundred and One Dalmatians. My elder sister took me when she came home from America to see us all.

Lucca Sat 28-Jan-23 21:18:22

Ben Hur with my dad in Newcastle

Sara1954 Sat 28-Jan-23 21:16:08

Pollyanna, with Hayley Mills

sodapop Sat 28-Jan-23 21:11:35

After the ABC Minors my first 'grown up' film was South Pacific as well. I've loved musicals ever since then.

dotpocka Sat 28-Jan-23 21:07:58

kissin' cousins -elvis/double bill,with the pawnbroker
mom would not letme watch the second one
drive-in so she made me sleepin the back of the car
1964 was strange
next week at the palace was mary poppin with my best friend