What old movies are you watching.

[R.D.]

There aren't many comedies over 50 years old that I really enjoy today. However, I think David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" is as fresh and funny today as it was in 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted but unappreciated bootmaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford in Lancashire. Hard-drinking widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. What follows is the very funny feel good story.

I think Alfred Hitchcock's Mr and Mrs. Smith is so funny. 1941 with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. I looked for this clip, I think it's hilarious. I only wish instead of the music it was the original sound track, but I guess the editing made it too difficult

Interesting. I assume the new Mr. and Mr. Smith (with Brad and Angelina) must be a remake of that movie! Wow! The things I'm learning here on this thread!

I don't think so, but I've never seen the other one

This one is about a couple who find out their marriage isn't actually legal and her deciding she wants to be wooed all over again, and he stubbornly just wants to carry on and simply "fix" the problem. So she kicks him out and starts dating forcing him to win her back.

 

[ChrisL]

There aren't many comedies over 50 years old that I really enjoy today. However, I think David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" is as fresh and funny today as it was in 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted but unappreciated bootmaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford in Lancashire. Hard-drinking widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. What follows is the very funny feel good story.

I think Alfred Hitchcock's Mr and Mrs. Smith is so funny. 1941 with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. I looked for this clip, I think it's hilarious. I only wish instead of the music it was the original sound track, but I guess the editing made it too difficult

Interesting. I assume the new Mr. and Mr. Smith (with Brad and Angelina) must be a remake of that movie! Wow! The things I'm learning here on this thread!

I don't think so, but I've never seen the other one

This one is about a couple who find out their marriage isn't actually legal and her deciding she wants to be wooed all over again, and he stubbornly just wants to carry on and simply "fix" the problem. So she kicks him out and starts dating forcing him to win her back.

Oh, that's a completely different movie then. Lol.

 

[Treeshepherd]

There aren't many comedies over 50 years old that I really enjoy today. However, I think David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" is as fresh and funny today as it was in 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted but unappreciated bootmaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford in Lancashire. Hard-drinking widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. What follows is the very funny feel good story.

I think Alfred Hitchcock's Mr and Mrs. Smith is so funny. 1941 with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. I looked for this clip, I think it's hilarious. I only wish instead of the music it was the original sound track, but I guess the editing made it too difficult

Interesting. I assume the new Mr. and Mr. Smith (with Brad and Angelina) must be a remake of that movie! Wow! The things I'm learning here on this thread!

A couple of years ago I got into reading Greek plays (Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, etc..) . These playwrights are over 2,000 years old. I was surprised and amazed at the themes I recognized in those pieces that are still being recycled in drama today.

"Examples of screwball comedy can be seen in Aristophanes’ Birds. Though the play in it’s entirety may not be considered a screwball comedy, there are certain elements they have in common. The wedding towards the end of Birds is like that of a wedding in a screwball comedy, where the couple is not necessarily compatible and they come from two differing classes. There are also similarities in how the gods are thought of as hungry Jerkoffalots, much like the rich class is portrayed in screwball comedy. Other examples include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Madeleine DelBusso" - Professor John Gruber-Miller

 

[Marianne]

December 7th (1943)

www.imdb.com
NR · 1hr 22min · War
IMDb 6.3/10

• December 7th is a propaganda film produced by the US Navy and directed by John Ford and Gregg Toland, about the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which sparked the Pacific War and American involvement in World War II.
• en.wikipedia.org

• Release year: 1943
• Directors: John Ford · Gregg Toland
• Screenwriter: Budd Schulberg
• Awards: Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject

 

[Marianne]

Boys Town (1938)

en.wikipedia.org
View attachment 35582
·
1hr 36min · Drama
IMDb 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes 89%

• Boys Town is a 1938 biographical drama film based on Father Edward J. Flanagan's work with a group of underprivileged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded and named "Boys Town". It stars Spencer Tracy as Father Edward J. Flanagan, …
  en.wikipedia.org

• Estimated budget: $772,000 USD
• Release date: Sep 08, 1938
• Director: Norman Taurog
• Story by: Dore Schary · Eleanore Griffin
• Awards: Academy Award for Best Actor · Academy Award for Best Story
• Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I prefer another 1938 film called Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagny. It has a similar plot, but is more morally ambiguous. Bogart is the pure bad guy. Cagney is a criminal with good in him. The priest (Pat O'Brien) is the good guy who can't save Cagney. The Dead End Kids are cooler than the kids in Boys Town, which is more of a moralistic tale with a happy ending if I remember correctly. I could be wrong about that.

The sets of Angels with Dirty Faces are excellent portrayals of the hood, with laundry hanging in the streets and no privacy anywhere.

Can't remember if I've seen it or not but some of the dead end kids eventually became the Bowery Boys so I may have and haven't seen it in years. With Cagney and Bogart it has to be good.

 

[Moonglow]

 

[Flopper]

There aren't many comedies over 50 years old that I really enjoy today. However, I think David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" is as fresh and funny today as it was in 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted but unappreciated bootmaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford in Lancashire. Hard-drinking widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. What follows is the very funny feel good story.

I think Alfred Hitchcock's Mr and Mrs. Smith is so funny. 1941 with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. I looked for this clip, I think it's hilarious. I only wish instead of the music it was the original sound track, but I guess the editing made it too difficult

Yep, I agree. It is was definite better than the Brad Pitt Angeline Jolie version.

 

[Flopper]

Boys Town (1938)

en.wikipedia.org
View attachment 35582
·
1hr 36min · Drama
IMDb 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes 89%

• Boys Town is a 1938 biographical drama film based on Father Edward J. Flanagan's work with a group of underprivileged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded and named "Boys Town". It stars Spencer Tracy as Father Edward J. Flanagan, …
  en.wikipedia.org

• Estimated budget: $772,000 USD
• Release date: Sep 08, 1938
• Director: Norman Taurog
• Story by: Dore Schary · Eleanore Griffin
• Awards: Academy Award for Best Actor · Academy Award for Best Story
• Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I prefer another 1938 film called Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagny. It has a similar plot, but is more morally ambiguous. Bogart is the pure bad guy. Cagney is a criminal with good in him. The priest (Pat O'Brien) is the good guy who can't save Cagney. The Dead End Kids are cooler than the kids in Boys Town, which is more of a moralistic tale with a happy ending if I remember correctly. I could be wrong about that.

The sets of Angels with Dirty Faces are excellent portrayals of the hood, with laundry hanging in the streets and no privacy anywhere.

I really liked Cagney. Bogart has done better.

 

[Flopper]

There aren't many comedies over 50 years old that I really enjoy today. However, I think David Lean's "Hobson's Choice" is as fresh and funny today as it was in 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted but unappreciated bootmaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford in Lancashire. Hard-drinking widower Hobson has three daughters. Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. What follows is the very funny feel good story.

I think Alfred Hitchcock's Mr and Mrs. Smith is so funny. 1941 with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. I looked for this clip, I think it's hilarious. I only wish instead of the music it was the original sound track, but I guess the editing made it too difficult

Interesting. I assume the new Mr. and Mr. Smith (with Brad and Angelina) must be a remake of that movie! Wow! The things I'm learning here on this thread!

A couple of years ago I got into reading Greek plays (Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, etc..) . These playwrights are over 2,000 years old. I was surprised and amazed at the themes I recognized in those pieces that are still being recycled in drama today.

"Examples of screwball comedy can be seen in Aristophanes’ Birds. Though the play in it’s entirety may not be considered a screwball comedy, there are certain elements they have in common. The wedding towards the end of Birds is like that of a wedding in a screwball comedy, where the couple is not necessarily compatible and they come from two differing classes. There are also similarities in how the gods are thought of as hungry Jerkoffalots, much like the rich class is portrayed in screwball comedy. Other examples include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Madeleine DelBusso" - Professor John Gruber-Miller

Yep, the stores change a bit, the setting, and the characters but the plot is much the same. Ever noticed the similarly between Star Trek and Wagon Train? Just substitute the Indians for alien. the wagon train for the Enterprise and you a have brave travelers venturing into the unknown with a morality lesson to be delivered in just one hour.

 

[Flopper]

My grand kids love it. I guess I'm just too old.

 

[MaryL]

"Suddenly"-With Frank Sinatra as an presidential assassin. Never expected to see ol' blue eyes in this role.

 

[Flopper]

"Suddenly"-With Frank Sinatra as an presidential assassin. Never expected to see ol' blue eyes in this role.

And Sinatra was a pretty good dramatic actor.

 

[Flopper]

Seven Days in May, a poilitical thriller directed by John Frankenheimer staring Burt Landcaster, Kirk Douglas Douglas, Fredick March, Ava Gardener, and Edmond O'brien. released in 1964. It's an overthrow of the government yarn by a right wing military general. Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you fall, it's and intriguing movie written by Rod Sterling (Twilight Zone).

President Kennedy, had read the novel and believed the scenario as described could actually occur in the United States. According to Frankenheimer in his director's commentary, production of the film received encouragement and assistance from Kennedy through White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, who conveyed to Frankenheimer, Kennedy's wish that the film be produced and that, although the Pentagon did not want the film made, the President would conveniently arrange to visit Hyannis Port for a weekend when the film needed to shoot outside the White House.

Anyway, it's a good film, nominated for several academy awards and well worth watching.

 

[R.D.]

John Frankenheimer and Frank Sinatra teamed up again in the Manchurian Candidate

 

[Flopper]

John Frankenheimer and Frank Sinatra teamed up again in the Manchurian Candidate

A classic of the political thriller genre. The 2004 adaption was also good.

 

[Politico]

I just watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Six inches of fucking black bars ruined it.

 

[Flopper]

I just watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Six inches of fucking black bars ruined it.

So many great movies and so little time

 

[NoNukes]

Clerks.

 

[Flopper]

Anything David Lean directed is above average, some are among the greatest films ever made. His films have won or been nominated for over 75 major awards.

His best include:
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago
Ryan's Daughter
A Passage to India

My favorite is Ryan's Daughter, a 1970 film set in 1916, tells the story of a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British officer during WWI, despite opposition from her nationalist neighbors. It stars Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, John Mills, Christopher Jones, Trevor Howard and LeoMcKern.

The music and photography are wonderful.

 

[Marianne]

A Night to Remember (1958)

en.wikipedia.org
NR · 2hr 3min · Drama
IMDb 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes 100%

• A Night to Remember is a 1958 British drama film adaptation of Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember, recounting the final night of the RMS Titanic. It was adapted by Eric Ambler, directed by Roy Ward Baker, and filmed in the United King…
  en.wikipedia.org

• Estimated budget: $1.68 million USD
• Release date: Dec 16, 1958
• Director: Roy Ward Baker
• Story by: Walter Lord
• Screenwriter: Eric Ambler
• Awards: Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film· Samuel Goldwyn International Award