Are you an old movie fan? What are your favorites? In general, do you prefer films from the thirties and forties and fifties to modern films? If so, why do you think that is -- is it the romanticism? (Even cynicism in old films seems romantic by today's standards.)

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

Answers

I love older movies. I think it's the romanticism of it. The draw of some of the stars, and the different humor.

I watch a lot of Carey Grant. My favorite of his has to be Indiscreet when all of his suave good humor just sort of gelled.

What else? The Thin Man series, Double Indemnity, Philadelphia Story, stuff directed by Stanley Donen.

But my sooper-dooper secret comfort movies are... Esther Williams vehicles. I'm a freak, I just know it.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

I used to have a thing for Elvis movies. I'm not proud.

I don't know why The Philadelphia Story was bugging me so much last night. I just wasn't in a Katherine Hepburn mood, I guess.

I do enjoy the romance of old movies, and I like the little thrill you get whenever something vaguely racy happens in a movie from the thirties. Mostly, though, I think I just like the clothes. (Except for those high-waisted, too-tight-in-the-ass pants the guys always wear in the old westerns. Those crack me up.)

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

I go in cycles on old movies -- I think I'm too rushed recently to really appreciate them. But then, I've watched about ten movies in the last year, anyway.

Hey, I went all day without having to read the phrase "vaginal fisting." That rocks.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

I love old movies - I'm having a hard time narrowing down genres because I enjoy everything from dark 'bad girl' flicks to overblown musicals. Every so often, I force my girls to watch - tell them it's part of their education.

What I'm enjoying most lately is how the older movies managed to pack a *lot* of risque undertones, but with subtlety and sophistication - the hot scenes are much, much hotter than the let it all hang out, "oops, obligatory nekkid scene interrupting the plot, time to go get a drink" stuff happening in every single movie out there lately. Not that I'm promoting censorship, but they sure did seem a lot more creative about it when they had to walk a finer line.

Maybe it's because with the older movies, the ones that are still watched are the ones that were good enough to survive, but overall older films seem to have much tighter editing, so that every scene is crafted to forward the plot instead of drifting off in pointless directions.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

I think the older films did two things right that you seldom see done right in movies of the last twenty years.

First, I agree with LyndaB that plots were much tighter, and the characters' motivations were more interesting. Diversity has disappeared from the characters, which is ironic given the casual racism of old flicks (the one thing that makes me uncomfortable with them). But even if one of the Wayans is the hero today, any major release uses the same twenty to thirty characters, at least for the leads: "hapless but lovable hunk," "spoiled rich woman out of her element," "good cop with authority issues," etc.

Second, violence was actually scary. Outside of slapstick movies, people who got punched in old movies also got hurt, and guns were treated like frightening objects. I can't even watch recent action films because characters get beaten in a way that, in real life, would leave them permanent invalids -- then in the next scene, often less than 24 hours later in the character's life, you see that same character climbing walls effortlessly. Also, in current films, morons stand fifteen feet apart, machine-gunning each other, and no one gets hurt. I hate it, and more impotantly, it robs the film of any seriousness it might otherwise have. Lethal Weapon is just a form of slapstick, while High Noon -- or The Big Sleep -- is a tragedy.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

Comparing old movies to new movies isn't exactly fair, since it usually means comparing the cream of the crop of oldies, maybe ten per year, to the full range of new movies, of which there were 8,096 in 1999. There are plenty of bad old movies...

Take "The Shop Around the Corner" and "You've Got Mail". On the face of it, one is a remake of the other, but anyone comparing 1940 to 1998 using only these two films would take MovieFone off their speed dial!

I like all the details that the best old movies have packed into them. Some scenes convey much more information than MTV-style cutting could ever do, and with style.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

Oh, yeah, there are definitely bad old movies. Two I can name right now: Funny Face (it has its moments, but overall, jeez louise), and An Affair to Remember. Maybe without the singing that one would have been okay, but I doubt it.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

My favorite old movie is The Women, I also love A Letter To Three Wives.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Omigod, that singing scene! That should be required viewing.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

You mean for torturing convicted terrorists, right? That's a fabulous idea. "Okay, you blew up that building and killed hundreds of innocent people. You have left us with no choice. At this time, Deborah Kerr will sing. Will the witnesses please don their earplugs?"

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

"It's Love I'm After", Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard. Silly, but fun. I like Leslie Howard, I admit it.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Just last Sunday I watched 'Rebel Without A Cause' with my fourteen- year-old son. He saw it for the first time, and stated right at the start that James Dean was probably "the coolest guy he'd ever seen".

Another generation bites the dust...

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2001

I love old movies. Especially ones like "12 Angry Men", where you feel as though you are watching a play not a movie and you feel you really know the characters and how they will react to any change in the situation. Or "Laura' where the movie is focused on a few strong actors. Black and white movies seem to intensify the action, not detract from it. You watch the characters and the action, not the color and the gore. I love Hitchcock movies especially.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

I'm not a particular fan of older movies, in that I don't consciously seek them out, but I do often enjoy the good ones when I happen across one.

What's sad to me is that these days its the special-effects extravaganzas that really rake in the money. I like those too when they're done well, but I'm not under the illusion that stunning visuals is any substitute for story and character.

Lately, I've enjoyed some newer films like "The End of the Affair" that focus on character motivations and compelling drama more than CGI monsters. And while that particular example does have some nudity, it doesn't depend on it to make its points.

I think it shows up most starkly in comedy. Older comedies relied on wit and character. The best of the newer ones do too, but it's far to easy to serve up some breasts, fart jokes and profane language and call it funny.

I also agree with Lynda on the risque elements. When you can show some bare skin, it's a no-brainer. In the days when you couldn't (and even now in movies aiming for a milder rating), everyone from the writer to the actors had to accomplish quite a bit more artistically to convey those things.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2001