Film Recommendations Before 1970??

Hank_Jones

I've watched a lot of modern films lately, the majority of them being absolute shíte...

So, in my "wisdom" I have decided to watch older films and I am looking for recommendations from people.

Anything at all people, I'm open to any film suggestions at this stage.

Also, avoid Kevin Smith's Red State, it's the film that finally drove me to avoid newer films.

abouttobebanned

Ok, I'll start with the obvious one:

12 Angry Men

Liber8or

Some Like It Hot, Ben Hur, Spartacus, The Longest Day, Where Eagles Dare, Bridge Over the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen...

That's a start...

dark crystal

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is always worth a watch, as is Cool Hand Luke, both starring the great Paul Newman.

I would also reccommend Get Carter, The Italian Job and Zulu, all starring Michael Caine.

It really depends what kind of films you're into, though.

losthorizon

Whats going to happen here is that this is going to turn into a list thread and the thread will be shut so my advice would be to get a good film guide book that you trust. I would go for Halliwells (its not published anymore but you could pick it up on amazon). Dont buy one of the last few editions but go for say 2006 as after that it went downhill rapidly.

An excellent drama would be All about Eve. Film Noir - The Maltese Falcon and for its sheer beauty and story The Searchers.

The Universal Monster Movies arent bad either and the 1931 version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a must see.

johnny_ultimate

Reasons, people, reasons!

It's a very unspecific question, so here's ten unspecific choices:

Sunrise / Battleship Potemkin / Metropolis: Best to start at the start. I'm no expert in silent cinema, but I've had the pleasure to experience the three of these on the big screen over the last twelve months or so. Each is a very different beast, and have aged surprisingly well. Sure, technically they're dated in some regards, but silent cinema is like a whole different artform to 'talkies'. Beautiful films, all three!

Sunset Boulevard: The best movie about making movies. Well ahead of its time, Sunset Boulevard is a scathing satire of the early Hollywood studio system. Brilliantly directed by Billy Wilder, and wonderfully performed (the cameos from former silent stars are heartbreaking) there's nothing like this film.

Rashomon: Easily one of cinema's great achievements. A clever editing style means you're constantly questioning truth and reality. One of Kurosawa's many masterworks, and the clever structure is impressive to this day.

Jules et Jim: A playful, satirical gem from Francois Truffaut. New Wave films can be pretentious (at best) but JeJ toes the fine line between clever and too clever expertly.

Persona: My personal favourite film of all time, and Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece. Dark, powerful and stunningly filmed, Persona had a really profound effect on the way I watch film.

Tokyo Story: Ozu's epic family drama, and one of Japanese cinema's early masterworks. Emotionally engaging from beginning to end, and possibly the best film from a genius who is probably cinema's most intimate, people-friendly director.

Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two more Kurosawa films, and IMO his two most enjoyable. As close as you'll get to Eastern Westerns, Yojimbo was remade as A Fistful of Dollars... but as always the original is best (not to say AFoD is bad or anything!). Sanjuro initially seems more slapstick, but it all comes together in one of the greatest surprise endings of all time.

losthorizon

I have to say Sunrise is the most beautiful film I have ever seen (the first half). You wouldnt even miss the lack of dialogue. It would have been interesting to have seen how silents would have developed if the talkies had never appeared.

johnny_ultimate

losthorizon wrote: »

I have to say Sunrise is the most beautiful film I have ever seen (the first half). You wouldnt even miss the lack of dialogue. It would have been interesting to have seen how silents would have developed if the talkies had never appeared.

It really is, and it's surprisingly funny too!

Silent cinema was an artform cut off just as it was developing. What I've seen of it I've loved, and intend on finding more. But yeah it's a real shame it never really developed in parallel with 'talkies'. It simply fell out of fashion, withered and unceremoniously died

redeight

The Big Sleep. Got to be one of the best films ever made, the archetype of a thousand noir films.
Public Enemy. Great gangster movie starring Jimmy Cagney.
Pretty much any Hitchcock film. Rear Window, Spellbound, Psycho and Vertigo spring to mind.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly. The best western ever made ?
King Kong Fantastic prototype horror movie.

stealinhorses

Inherit the Wind (1960) - a fantastic adaptation of a controversial play. Gripping dialogue, you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time!
You will probably enjoy it a lot more if you're an atheist too.

Laser used to do a deal for 3 movies for 3 nights for a tenner (I think that was the deal anyway)
Over that time, I chose a film from the 70's, 60's, 50's or 40's. It was a great way in educating myself on some classic films.

My list:
40's:
Casablanca (1942).
Sweet Jesus what a film. If you haven't seen this before, take my advice and you'll really appreciate it. If you drink, have a whiskey or a nice wine to hand. If you smoke, make sure you have lots of cigarettes. I always feel the need to smoke more when I'm watching people smoke on film. If you have seen it, rewatch it with someone who hasn't seen it. It's great talking about it.
And this is most important. Turn out the lights. It really is one of the greatest pieces of cinema you'll ever see. Give it the dark it deserves.

The Third Man (1949)
Everyone goes on about Citizen Kane being the greatest film ever made, but in my opinion, I've always found it a tough watch. The Third Man on the other hand, is such an accessible, entertaining film. It tells the story of Holly Martins, a western pulp story writer who arrives in Vienna at the behest of his friend, Harry Lime (played so well by Orson Welles). Harry is nowhere to be found and it is up to Holly Martins to find him. It won the oscar that year for it's cinematography which is astoundingly beautiful. I must mention one of the most interesting parts of the film, (for me, I lived in Vienna for a year) was that it was all filmed on location. Vienna was bombed to bits after world war two and it gives a frightening idea of what life was like for some after WWII

Odd Man Out (1947)
Ok, this is a little less well known. I've put some honourable mentions below, but I love this film. For a start it's a noir set and filmed on location in Belfast. It's the story of a wounded nationalist leader (James Mason) trying to escape the police after a foiled attempted robbery. I could go on, but here is a fantastic review that I can't better: http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/2298/film-review-odd-man-out

Honourable mentions: The Great Dictator, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Postman Always Rings Twice, It's a Wonderful Life.

I'll move on to the 50's tomorrow, but that should do you for now!

nix

Kelly's Heroes - One of my fav movies of all time, set in WWII a bunch of soldiers stumble upon some intel that there is a bank deep behind enemy lines which is storing alot of gold bars, so they decide to assemble a small team and steal the gold from zee Germans, without telling anybody else of course, great cast too, Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland.

The day the earth stood still - Only watched this today on telly surprisingly enough, far better than the recent remake, which was a pile of crap and i dont know why they bother with remakes at all.

mikemac

Johnny Belinda
Superb film though very sad. Small community involving a deaf and dumb girl and her family, how she is attacked by a local but refused to give his name. And there is a confrontation later on

Made in forties or fifties I believe, don't bother with the remake with the actor who played John Boy Walton.

foxyboxer

Lawrence of Arabia. The epic movie. There's a reason why Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola remastered it in the early 90's.

+1 on Sunset Boulevard. Excellent movie. It's screenplay is a masterpiece.

Roar

redeight wrote: »

The Big Sleep. Got to be one of the best films ever made, the archetype of a thousand noir films.

this + 1 million

Such a fantastic movie, dripping with atmosphere, and an amazing performance by Bogart - his screen presence is incredible.

Other Bogey movies you should check out are Key Largo, The Maltese Falcon and obviously Casablanca, which is a film I could watch all day every day.

TheEscapist

A Matter of Life & Death. David Niven is absolutely perfect in this. Not really a spiritual person but this is so well made and enjoyable you can't help but be sucked in. Can't recommend this enough.

Paddy Samurai

Some good ones already mentioned, I have a fair few, but some of my favourites would be Cool hand Luke ( Paul Newman and George Kennedy ) a classic. Bullitt and The Sand pebbles with Steve McQueen. If you search under these two actors, you should find a load of great films. Ice Cold in Alex is a great movie .
Not sure if your into them but there was a lot of great westerns made pre-70s
The Wild bunch, The Scalp Hunters , The Gunfighter(Gregory peck) are among my favourites. If you get a chance check out “The Train” with Burt Lancaster, it’s a brilliant movie. The Spy who came in from the Cold(Richard Burton) and The Ipcress file (Michael Caine) are both worth a watch. Also Seven Samurai and The Battle for Algiers are must sees. The original Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum is better than the remake IMO.

phill106

The original planet of the apes movie (1968)

Nolanger

Preston Sturges - famous '40s director
Jacques Tati - French comic
Alfred Hitchcock - suspense
Charles Chaplin - genius
Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers - best dance pictures ever
Abbot & Costello - WW2 comedy
Marx Brothers - anarchic comedy
Ealing comedies - classy comedies
Roger Corman - B-movie master

losthorizon

TheEscapist wrote: »

A Matter of Life & Death. David Niven is absolutely perfect in this. Not really a spiritual person but this is so well made and enjoyable you can't help but be sucked in. Can't recommend this enough.

There was a thread recently about B&W and why would you use it. This film is a brilliant example of the use of Colour and B&W and not in the way you think. Its also a damn fine movie. Another great Powell & Pressuburger film and my fav is The Life and Death of Col. Blimp which displays all the pairs tricks and trademarks and again has great cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

bnt

I tend to mention older films in the TV thread. I have a particular fondness for screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story from the main period (1932-1944); as well as later examples such as Some Like It Hot. More recent comedies such as Raising Arizona and Miss Congeniality hark back to the screwball era, with Sandra Bullock clearly a fan of Katharine Hepburn. (A good thing, if you ask me.)

grohlisagod

Pretty much anything by Hitchcock, truly the master.

Couldn't agree more on Sunrise. A beautiful film. Up to now the only silent film I've seen but it was a joy to watch. It's worth watching a silent film if only to get experience an entirely different way of looking at cinema, away from the dialogue heavy scripts we get in modern cinema.

+1 on Persona also. Fascinating film. I really should watch more of Bergman's work.

quickbeam

I love older movies and would agree with a lot of the suggestions already made. Just a few points.

The Big Sleep was mentioned - this is certainly a stylish film noir but don't expect the story to make any sense (in fairness apparently the book on which it was based didn't either). Personally for a stylish Bogart/Bacall film I'd go with To Have And Have Not ... "You know you to whistle, don't you Steve ...."

You can't go far wrong with Hitchcock either, though some are better than others. My favourites would be Psycho, Dial M For Murder, Strangers On A Train, Rope, Lifeboat.

For comedy, the Marx Brothers are a hoot, espcially A Day At The Races, A Night At The Opera and Duck Soup.

Have a browse through the IMDB top 250 list too, you won't go far picking out the older films from there.

Finally, to those mentioning Sunrise, I'd never heard of it before but so many people mentioned it that I'm intrigued myself. I actually found it on YouTube in 9 parts - the first of which is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6t0DCtIOBA . I'll certainly be setting aside some time over the weekend to give this a go.

irishh_bob

Hank_Jones wrote: »

I've watched a lot of modern films lately, the majority of them being absolute shíte...

So, in my "wisdom" I have decided to watch older films and I am looking for recommendations from people.

Anything at all people, I'm open to any film suggestions at this stage.

Also, avoid Kevin Smith's Red State, it's the film that finally drove me to avoid newer films.

once upon a time in the west = 1968

krudler

irishh_bob wrote: »

once upon a time in the west = 1968

I was gonna suggest that lol, Henry Fonda as a badass, Charlie Fcuking Bronson, Claudia Cardinale looking amazing, one of the best opening sequences ever, great western.

for comedy, Marx Brothers win hands down, A Night at The Opera and Duck Soup are comedy classics.

still hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvugebaT6Q

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

anything starring david niven.. because he's david niven, obviously.

Renn

Bizarre and broad post but I'll suggest one director that deserves more love - Ernst Lubitsch. To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner (you'll also get your Stewart fix here), Ninotchka, Trouble in Paradise...

Anyway, I've a load of suggestions but that'll do for the moment.

foxyboxer

Oh yeah forgot, Midnight Cowboy.

e_e

Seven Samurai - Because apart from being one of the most entertaining and thrilling movies ever, it set the template for epic action movies over the next few decades.

e_e

...and no mentions of 2001 A Space Odyssey? So far ahead of its time that most big budget CGI movies have worse special effects.

grohlisagod

e_e wrote: »

...and no mentions of 2001 A Space Odyssey? So far ahead of its time that most big budget CGI movies have worse special effects.

I actually forgot that was before 1970! Fantastic, bizarre, visually and musically phenomenal film.

Nolanger

W.C. Fields - have his box set, great value and the quality is fine. Some really funny stuff.

tricky D

Some of the films already mentioned will permanently, but happily etch their soundtracks into your skull. My head is currently mixing The Third Man, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Battle for Algiers.

Also worth a look is Freaks which we'll probably not see the like of again.

I haven't seen it yet, but The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has been on my wishlist for a while. Can't say much about certain aspects of the genre as it would give the plot away.

There's also a load of lost world type of films if you're into that sort of thing: King Kong, 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, The Lost World, She, The Man Who Would Be King.

Another genre worth having a look at is the old Stop-Motion Animation/Live-Action films which have been largely usurped by CGI: lots of Ray Harryhausen films from '58 on (even beyond '70), Jack The Giant Killer (being remade iirc), Q: The Winged Serpent, The Seven Faces of Dr Lao (a fave of mine).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stop_motion_films#Stop-Motion.2FLive-Action_Features

Then there's a load of Hammer Films. Especially, if you've room for one more;), try to get your hands on Dead of Night, a real old style horror classic.

Lastly look at some of the old Cold War era Sci-Fi films, many of them B-movies, brimful with commie metaphors, aliens, distrust and paranoia.

Harrocks

War of the worlds original and The Forbidden Planet two classic sci-fi movies.

Cork boy 55

Paths of glory 1957 brillant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DHhTjiVlF4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paths_of_Glory

Laserface

not a huge fan of old films meself.. but highly recommend Metropolis [1927]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/

better special fx than transformers anyway

TheEscapist

losthorizon wrote: »

Another great Powell & Pressuburger film and my fav is The Life and Death of Col. Blimp which displays all the pairs tricks and trademarks and again has great cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

Big +1 for me. Thanks for the heads up losthorizon. Just watched this and it is absolutely brilliant, I need more Powell and Pressburger now. If these 2 films are anything to go by I won't be disappointed.

bnt

TheEscapist wrote: »

I need more Powell and Pressburger now. If these 2 films are anything to go by I won't be disappointed.

Two more for you, then: Black Narcissus (nuns go mad in the Himalayas) and The Red Shoes, (a ballerina goes mad under pressure). You may have heard of the latter, in the light of a more recent Oscar-winning film about a ballerina going mad ... I got in to a bit of an argument here over the casting of The Black Swan, since I still think Powell & Pressberger made the right choice in casting a real working ballerina in their film, rather than an actress.

Also worthy of consideration: Powell's Peeping Tom (1960). Way ahead of its time in all the wrong ways, it shocked audiences and Powell couldn't get work for years. Both Powell and the film were championed by Martin Scorsese and rehabilitated, and it's now a horror classic.

GAAman

Oceans Eleven Frank Sinatra in the lead role and the rat pack as his crew, need i say more?

I will! Really classy intelligent well put together film one of my top 5 of all time

13 Rue Madeleine I have to admit i am a big Cagney fan, i was going to list a few of his films but i thought to myself if i could recommend only one this would be it. A gripping ww2 spy thriller which see's Cagney as a spy trainer who has a mole in his midst. Go watch this now!!

The Maltese Falcon See the film that launched the gumshoe private detective persona. Bogart is Sam Spade, i actually wont say anything else go watch this after 13 Rue Madeleine!

Cork boy 55

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 black comedy is brillant.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5qqfsQGYus

Nolanger

Tennessee Williams: Cat on a hot tin roof, Roman spring of Mrs Stone, Sweet bird of youth, Streetcar named Desire

irishh_bob

GAAman wrote: »

Oceans Eleven Frank Sinatra in the lead role and the rat pack as his crew, need i say more?

I will! Really classy intelligent well put together film one of my top 5 of all time

13 Rue Madeleine I have to admit i am a big Cagney fan, i was going to list a few of his films but i thought to myself if i could recommend only one this would be it. A gripping ww2 spy thriller which see's Cagney as a spy trainer who has a mole in his midst. Go watch this now!!

The Maltese Falcon See the film that launched the gumshoe private detective persona. Bogart is Sam Spade, i actually wont say anything else go watch this after 13 Rue Madeleine!

the original oceans 13 is nothing but a rat pack vechile , only became known after soderbergh and clooney got together for the remake

Laserface

tricky D wrote: »

Another genre worth having a look at is the old Stop-Motion Animation/Live-Action films which have been largely usurped by CGI: lots of Ray Harryhausen films from '58 on (even beyond '70), Jack The Giant Killer (being remade iirc), Q: The Winged Serpent, The Seven Faces of Dr Lao (a fave of mine).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stop_motion_films#Stop-Motion.2FLive-Action_Features

kudos Tricky D.. some good recommendations there. i love the stop motion films of the 50s-70s era..
last year i had a huge crush on ray harryhausen and i thought i had watched it all.
i will be watching those films you mentioned very soon dr.lao looks unreal

DazMarz

White Heat (1949). Brilliant in so many ways, from the powerful acting, to the taut plot, to the brilliant conclusion. Jimmy Cagney gives arguably his best known performance as Cody Jarrett, the Oedipal armed robber who is as near to certifiably insane as one can be. He dotes upon his beloved "Ma" with near fanaticism. Jarrett robs and kills his way around California, before the Treasury Agents get involved and try to plant a mole in Jarrett's tight-knit organisation. Edmond O'Brien is excellent as Fallon, aka Vic Pardo, the Federal agent who risks his life to infiltrate Jarrett's mob. The most famous scene of the film has Jarrett roaring to the sky: "Made it, Ma! Top o' the world!!!"

Absolutely riveting stuff. 10/10, five *'s, excellent. Watch this film... NOW!

BlackBlade

pink panther movies (yes some in the 70s I know) Epic laugh, strikes back is a master piece
marks brothers
loral and hardy done some amazing stuff
Psycho 1960 nuff said
Lawrence of Arabia
Mutiny on the Bounty
2001 A Space Odyssey
Bullitt savage flick
easy rider
The Ten Commandments Charlton Heston, actually most films he done are crackers!

Isard

The Miracle Worker, 1962. A really powerful film, strong emotions, great performance, at least two Oscars. One of my favourite films ever

Nolanger

Agreed. One thing that's good about older movies is that the dramas are well done. The limitations work e.g. mono soundtrack, black and white, ensemble cast, older actors. Also, there are no modern-day Hollywood actresses as beautiful as Anne Bancroft.

pulled pubes

I'm not too sure about the year but I think pappillion is an excellent movie starring the king of cool Steve mc queen and Dustin Hoffman, also I think some op mentioned cool hand Luke an absolute classic and my 2nd fav movie of all time.

Nolanger

They don't make Korean war movies anymore: Pork Chop hill, War hunt, Fixed bayonets.

bnt

Nolanger wrote: »

They don't make Korean war movies anymore: Pork Chop hill, War hunt, Fixed bayonets.

Blame the Vietnam War: to US film-makers & audiences, the Vietnam War had everything the Korean "police action" had, plus some whole new aspects. It came in handy with MASH (1970), though: a critique of the Vietnam War set during the Korean War. (Highly recommended.)

Hank_Jones

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has already given suggestions in this thread.

Hadn't heard of a fair few of these films and I appreciate people taking the time to post.

I'd just like to add a few films to this list for anyone else who is interested.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre: One of the best films I have ever seen, my favourite Bogart performance, a joy to watch (the acting anyway).

The Killing: Don't think it has been mentioned already, a Kubrick classic, before he got overly Hollywood, a classic.

Breathless: For me, the best French New Wave film and most certainly in contention to be the best French film ever.