On, of all places, an on-line bulletin board devoted to wine, someone started a thread asking about everyone's favorite old movie. It turns out that the poster's favorite film was from 1982! Since I had been shaving for close to twenty years by then, I didn't think that a film released in 1982 qualified as "old." I added a few films I thought were old, and others started chiming in with suggestions.
Surprisingly, these wine collectors were quite knowledgeable about old films and had remarkably good taste (at least I agreed with a great deal of the suggestions). For no especially good reason, I compiled a list of the suggestions, imposed an arbitrary cut off of 1969 and with some editing, made a list of 100 "old" films that I think are well worth watching. Because there were only 100 slots, some good films had to go. Although the Marx Brothers, Hitchcock, Chaplin, Harold Llyod and Buster Keaton are represented, the list could have easily included more films from each of them.
Here they are in chronological order:
1920 "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The"
1922 "Nosferatu"
1923 "Safely Last"
1924 "Girl Shy"
1924 "Greed"
1925 "Battleship Potemkin"
1925 "Gold Rush, The"
1927 "General, The"
1927 "Metropolis"
1928 "Beggars of Life"
1928 "Steamboat Bill, Jr."
1929 "Coconuts, The"
1929 "Un Chien Andelou"
1930 "All Quiet on the Western Front"
1931 "City Lights"
1931 "Front Page, The"
1931 "Little Caesar"
1931 "M"
1932 "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"
1932 "Trouble in Paradise"
1933 "King Kong"
1934 "It Happened One Night"
1935 "39 Steps, The"
1935 "Night at the Opera, A"
1936 "Modern Times"
1937 "Grand Illusion"
1937 "Lost Horizon"
1938 "Alexander Nevsky"
1938 "Bringing up Baby"
1938 "Olympiad"
1939 "Gone with the Wind"
1939 "Hunchback of Notre Dame, The"
1939 "Ninotshka"
1939 "Of Mice and Men"
1939 "Wizard of Oz"
1940 "Grapes of Wrath, The"
1940 "Great Dictator, The"
1940 "His Girl Friday"
1940 "Philadelphia Story, The"
1940 "Rebecca"
1941 "Citizen Kane"
1941 "How Green was my Valley"
1941 "Maltese Falcon, The"
1941 "Sullivans Travels"
1942 "Casablanca"
1944 "Double Indemnity"
1945 "Les Enfants du Paradise"
1945 "Lost Weekend, The"
1946 "Big Sleep, The"
1946 "Blue Dahlia, The"
1946 "It's a Wonderful Life"
1946 "La Belle et la Bete"
1948 "Bicycle Thief, The"
1948 "Red River"
1948 "Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The"
1949 "Kind Hearts and Coronets"
1949 "Third Man, The"
1950 "All About Eve"
1950 "Last Holiday"
1950 "Rashomon"
1950 "Sunset Blvd."
1951 "A Streetcar Named Desire"
1951 "African Queen"
1951 "Red Badge of Courage, The"
1952 "High Noon"
1952 "Singin' in the Rain"
1953 "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday"
1953 "Shane"
1953 "Stalag 17"
1953 "Wages of Fear, The"
1954 "La Strada"
1954 "On the Waterfront"
1954 "Seven Samurai"
1955 "Ladykillers, The"
1956 "Searchers, The"
1957 "12 Angry Men"
1957 "Bridge on the River Kwai"
1957 "Face in the Crowd, A"
1957 "Nights of Cabria"
1957 "Paths of Glory"
1957 "Sweet Smell of Success, The"
1957 "Witness for the Prosecution"
1958 "Touch of Evil"
1958 "Vertigo"
1959 "North by Northwest"
1959 "Some Like it Hot"
1960 "Apartment, The"
1960 "Psycho"
1961 "Hustler, The"
1961 "Yojimbo"
1962 "Lawrence of Arabia"
1962 "Longest Day, The"
1962 "To Kill A Mockingbird"
1963 "Great Escape, The"
1964 "Dr. Strangelove"
1964 "King and Country"
1964 "Man for All Seasons, A"
1965 "Shop on Main Street" (Obchod na korze)
1966 "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
1967 "Graduate, The"
Leave a comment