My Top 25 Classic Films

[betweensunandmoon]

This list is probably horribly predictable, and it may change tomorrow or the day after that, but as of right now, here are my twenty-five favorite pre-1960s movies arranged in chronological order.

Captain Blood (1935)
G-Men (1935)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
The Dawn Patrol (1938)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Cover Girl (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Razor's Edge (1946)
Key Largo (1948)
Prince of Foxes (1948)
White Heat (1949)
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The Crimson Pirate (1952)
Scaramouche (1952)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
On The Waterfront (1954)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
Funny Face (1957)

Comments

[igenlode]

The Hornblower one is surprisingly not-bad for a Hollywood adaptation (and an omnibus of three novels put together at that!) "On the Waterfront" didn't do anything for me at all; I remember it as a big disappointment :-(

Have you seen any of the various versions of "Mutiny on the Bounty"?

What about Edward G. Robinson films: "Scarlet Street", "Double Indemnity", "The Sea Wolf", "Barbary Coast", "All My Sons"?

Leslie Howard: "Pygmalion", "The Scarlet Pimpernel", "The First of the Few"?

Burt Lancaster: "Elmer Gantry", "Separate Tables", "Vera Cruz", "The Flame and the Arrow", "Brute Force"

Errol Flynn: "They Died with Their Boots On", "The Sea Hawk", "The Charge of the Light Brigade"

No silent films at all?

[betweensunandmoon]

Have you seen any of the various versions of "Mutiny on the Bounty"?
I've seen the Clark Gable version; I hear the remake with Marlon Brando wasn't that good. :(

What about Edward G. Robinson films: "Scarlet Street", "Double Indemnity", "The Sea Wolf", "Barbary Coast", "All My Sons"?
Nope, just Little Caesar (because what gangster fan hasn't?) and Smart Money, which was pretty disappointing.

Leslie Howard: "Pygmalion", "The Scarlet Pimpernel", "The First of the Few"?
Saw The Scarlet Pimpernel, haven't seen the others.

Burt Lancaster: "Elmer Gantry", "Separate Tables", "Vera Cruz", "The Flame and the Arrow", "Brute Force"
Haven't seen any of those, though I have seen I Walk Alone and From Here to Eternity.

Errol Flynn: "They Died with Their Boots On", "The Sea Hawk", "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
Seen all of them! :D

No silent films at all?
I've seen a few silent films I quite liked (Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera, Conrad Veidt's The Man Who Laughs, Douglas Fairbanks's The Three Musketeers and The Black Pirate), but none that I really loved.

[igenlode]

I remember the Brando "Mutiny on the Bounty" as being a disappointment -- but then I remember the Brando "Island of Doctor Moreau" as being a disappointment, and pretty much anything else I've seen him in :-(
"Streetcar Named Desire" was all right, I suppose, but he's not supposed to be an attractive/admirable character in that and it's very much a supporting role. His isn't the part you remember.

I found the famous "From Here to Eternity" a bit disappointing as well, although Sinatra is unexpectedly good in his 'straight' role. I'd definitely recommend keeping an eye out for Burt Lancaster elsewhere. He did some pretty good gangster/noir films at the start of his career before anybody put him in swashbucklers, for one thing -- and have you seen his swansong role as the Phantom's father (yes, really!) in the Yeston/Kopit "Phantom"? It's a peach of a part, excellently played, and you'd never know he was to die so soon afterwards... :-(

I'd recommend looking out for Leslie Howard (probably easier to find on this side of the Atlantic) and Edward G. Robinson films as well; when I started watching old movies I didn't know anything about anyone, but I started noticing certain actors repeatedly, and ended up actively making a point of watching films with them in when they came on TV. Fandom, you might say ;-)

[betweensunandmoon]

I remember the Brando "Mutiny on the Bounty" as being a disappointment -- but then I remember the Brando "Island of Doctor Moreau" as being a disappointment, and pretty much anything else I've seen him in :-(

I'm sorry to hear that.

I found the famous "From Here to Eternity" a bit disappointing as well, although Sinatra is unexpectedly good in his 'straight' role.

I agree.

Yes, I heard Burt Lancaster played the Phantom's father, though I haven't seen the miniseries. He was quite good in I Walk Alone, though I found The Flame and the Arrow rather disappointing. I'll certainly keep an eye out for him, Leslie Howard, and Edward G. Robinson--they were all very talented. :)

I've pretty much sold my soul to Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power at this point, with a side of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Basil Rathbone. (My icon is Cagney and Bogart in The Roaring Twenties.)

When I started watching old movies I didn't know anything about anyone, but I started noticing certain actors repeatedly, and ended up actively making a point of watching films with them in when they came on TV. Fandom, you might say ;-)

Same here, although in the cases of Flynn, Power, and Rathbone, I'd be lying if I said sexual attraction wasn't a factor!

It's funny, because I remember wondering if I might be a lesbian before I unexpectedly encountered Power and Rathbone, and then Flynn. I'd already worked out that I was attracted to women, but while I was fine with the idea of having a boyfriend, I doubted that I could ever find a man attractive to the point of wanting to sleep with him. They proved me wrong. I still haven't forgiven them for it. :P

[igenlode]

Yes, I found "The Flame and the Arrow" disappointing, too; given the Burt Lancaster/Nick Cravat pairing I was hoping for a second "Crimson Pirate", but it really isn't nearly so good. Not sure why.

You find Basil Rathbone sexually attractive...?

I mean, I love characters who *look* intelligent (which is why I was a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch for years before he became famous; not so much now he has been declared officially 'sexy' and "Sherlock" has turned into a parody of itself), but I wouldn't say that William Hartnell, Peter Cushing, et al. were obvious heartthrobs. I just happen to like faces with strong cheekbones and deepset eyes (that resemble mine :-p)

[betweensunandmoon]

You find Basil Rathbone sexually attractive...?

Yes. :P

I don't know if it was so much the way he looked as the way he walked and talked; he always seemed calm and sophisticated and in control, even when playing a hot-headed character like Tybalt. Whatever it was, I found it sexy.

(which is why I was a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch for years before he became famous; not so much now he has been declared officially 'sexy' and "Sherlock" has turned into a parody of itself)

I've considered watching that show, but never got around to it. What happened?

I've never understood the term "heartthrob"; it sounds more like an indicator of a serious medical condition than an attractive man.

I just happen to like faces with strong cheekbones and deepset eyes (that resemble mine :-p)

Bet you're a handsome devil. :P

[igenlode]

I've considered watching that show, but never got around to it. What happened?

"Sherlock" started off as a brilliant modern update of Sherlock Holmes, with Watson as an army medical man just returned from Afghanistan (oh, the irony of history) who is writing up Holmes' cases for his blog, and Holmes as a tech wizard who annoys Lestrade by sending disparaging text messages to everyone in a press conference simultaneously (while Lestrade is addressing it), with Holmes solving actual cases composed of clever sidelong references to the canon stories: http://archive.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2010/10/22/sherlock_holmes_in_a_strange_and_brilliant_take_as_a_pbs_series/

Unfortunately I still think the first episode of the first series was the best of *any* of them (though perhaps that's nostalgia speaking)

The updated Moriarty and 'archenemy' strand never worked very well for me (I really can't see Moriarty as a giggling young psychopath), although the 'Reichenbach fall' was clever. (Moriarty comes up with a way to destroy Sherlock's reputation by making it look as if he has faked his cases, thus causing him to fall in the eyes of the press.)

And with the third series it started turning into over-the-top soap opera about Sherlock's family relationships and childhood traumas and deceptions in the Watson marriage -- by this point they were hardly featuring actual cases at all, so far as I remember. The final episode, featuring elaborate games being set up for Sherlock to solve by the evil genius little sister whose existence he had conveniently wiped from his memory, was just pretty silly. I'm not sure where on earth they can go from there, if ever they do a fifth series (increasingly unlikely now, I think, with everyone involved committed elsewhere), but not back to the uncomplicated and fiercely intellectual 'consulting detective' episodes of the beginning. It's not that those first episodes weren't emotionally involved, because they *were* ("A Study in Pink" is simultaneously hilarious, nail-biting, and deeply touching -- one of the few TV episodes where I've actually wanted to cheer at the screen). They just weren't all *about* 'Sherlock trying to cope with emotions' at the expense of his dignity and self-possession and the viewer's intelligence. Frankly, my suspicion is that the writers found coming up with actual crime mysteries too difficult and went for self-indulgent whizz-bang conspiracies instead...

I just happen to like faces with strong cheekbones and deepset eyes (that resemble mine :-p)

https://www.deviantart.com/igenlode/art/Self-portrait-with-moustache-401234324