calling all movie buffs

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What old/classic movie should I rent and watch before I die?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Answers

Rebecca.
It's a Hitchcock film produced by David O. Selznick (ya know, the Gone with the Wind director). It won the Academy Award for best picture in 1940, I think. And it has Laurcence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in it.

I don't like many mystery/thrillers, but this one has some great wit in it. I quote Jack Flavell: I'd like to have your advice on how to live comfortably without working hard.

Hell yeah, buddy.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Arsenic and Old Lace, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pandora's Box.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000
Citizen Kane, Love In The Afternoon, Some Like It Hot.....

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000
Casablanca, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon. (gee, Tracey, like Bogie much?)

I second those who said Some Like It Hot, Arsenic and Old Lace, To Kill a Mockingbird and Rebecca.



-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

That's just off the top of my head. And, of course, you can't go wrong with Some Like I Hot, Citizen Kane, and Casablanca.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

Singing in the Rain.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000
Isn't a movie buff someone who watches films in the nude?

Anyway, go watch some Hitchcock. I swear by my Hitchcock collection. Casablanca, too.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

Oooh! I forgot one of my most favorites, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Oh Lord, the insanity that runs amuck in this thing is great. You really wonder who is the crazier bitch in real life: Joan Crawford of Bette Davis?
I know that great actresses can play off anything,and Bette Davis is just excellent at FREAK, while Joan Crawford plays someone so sweet and innocent, and I just can't shake the whole Mommie Dearest thing while I watch her in action in this.

It also has one of the most bizarre endings I have ever seen in a movie.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

The Philadelphia Story and All About Eve.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000
Sunset Boulevard!!!

And Citizen Kane and To Kill A Mockingbird.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

Great suggestions! I'll add "Auntie Mame" with Rosalind Russell, the best of the big shouldered broads, any of the "Thin Man" series with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000
Twentieth Century, a 1934 film starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. Everyone should see a John Barrymore film, and this is one of the best and funniest. Barrymore is the Broadway producer, Lombard is his Galatea, and the battle of egos between them is hilarious.

Nothing Sacred, 1937, starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March. Lombard is a Vermont girl allegedly dying from radium poisoning and all she wants is to see NYC before she goes. March is the reporter exploiting her story to further his career. Cynical and extremely funny. Dorothy Parker was supposedly one of the seven writers who worked on this script, although only Ben Hecht is credited.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Elizabeth Taylor was really something once upon a time.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000
Valley of the Dolls

Deliverance (I haven't seen this one yet, but there are so many references to it in TV, print and other movies that it must be seen to be in on the joke.)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000

Definitely Grapes of Wrath.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2000
Have you ever seen "The Bad Seed"? Superb over the top characters and so many lines to quote later....."I have the most beautiful mother...".

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2000
I know it's already there, but All About Eve is I think one of the best-written movie scripts to date. Fabulous, fun film.

Dark Victory is another great Bette Davis movie, though you have to be prepared to find yourself crying like a baby and wondering why, 'cause it is schmaltzy in a way that could only be achieved before 1950.

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2000

Tampopo. Hey, it's a classic in Japan!

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2000
All of those are great movies and really really worth watching but I have to go with Young Frankenstein. It's one of those pee-in-your- pants funny movies.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2000
definatly father goose - with cary grant. I sometimes tend to call my dad the filthy beast just because cary grant reminds me of him.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2000
Oh, word on Tampopo, Hilda. Such a sweet movie. It's warm, funny and endearing without being sappy or overly-sentimental.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000
Definitely agree on "The Thin Man" movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Also second the motion on Kurasawa.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

I have GOT to go to the video place. I think I'll get The Thin Man first because I've seen a picture of Myrna Loy (on Jette's site) and she is so, so beautiful in that old-style way that you hardly see anymore.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000
You can't go wrong, Gwen. Wm. Powell and M. Loy could toss little barbs back and forth that were so witty and sharp. Not like today's romantic comedies. Such dreck!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000
One word - Shaka Zulu. Use gats da sea dis one bowts my homnies.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000
The Devil and Miss Jones. Please note, I'm not recommending The Devil In Miss Jones, as I haven't seen that one. TDAMJ is about the owner of a department store tycoon who works as a clerk undercover to quash the formation of a union. It's really charming, funny without being mean-spirited.

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2000
You are SO right about Whatever Happened to Baby Jane! Hmm....One Flew Over the Coocoo's Nest is awesome...and nobody should die without seeing Halloween. Movies like that give me nightmares for weeks, but it's still one we all need to enjoy a sometime or another! The Shawshank Redemption...it's not exactly the feel-good movie of the century, but definately one worth seeing! After reading all the suggestions in here I have the sudden urge to run to the video store and find out what ya'll are talking about!

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000
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