What great movie have you seen recently that was more than 50 years old?

I just watched one the other day but I’m not sure of the name. An American family adopted an English refugee during the war and it was the struggle to Americanize him, and how the two boys got to become friends after a few trials. Black and white and really good.

Of course any Shirley Temple movies are awesome as well. Mom and I had popcorn and tea nights growing up, taught me to treasure them.

White Heat-Jimmy Cagney
The Defiant Ones- Sidney Poitier/Tony Curtis
Strangers on a Train-Hitchcock’s finest hour.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

My favorite movie in the world is Shane.
I have watched it over and over for years.

It was my dad’s favorite movie too. It must be pretty old.

“The Ten Commandments” over the Easter week-end. It plays every year.

I consider this the greatest collection of bad casting, bad writing and spectacular bad acting ever assembled on one studio sound stage.

Yul Brunner as Pharaoh, Anne Baxter as Mrs. Pharaoh, Edward G Robinson as a court advisor in Egypt with a glorious bronx accent and Charlton Heston as the ultimate Jew, Moses.

When Anne Baxter keens a lovelorn “Moses, Moses.” it is a supreme Cecil B DeMille moment.

One visual

And another

I love old films, always have. When I was a kid i’d run home from school to watch Harold Lloyd shorts, even at 10yrs old I could see his class.

101 Dalmations
Auntie Mame
Lady and the Tramp
and many, many more

The Great Dictator

Sullivan’s Travels.

12 Angry Men
Limelight
Casablanca

Psycho.

Details say “tell us about one you’ve seen recently.” The titles are a great start, but how about some supporting comments and descriptions? What’s special about them? What makes you watch such old movies, and what would you say to recommend them to others?

I just watched Rear Window for the fifth time. Never gets old.

edit: Yul Brynner.

Lett me add also the art of cheesy special effects raised to a higher power (an example of the fruity yet unclear language of the dialogue in The Ten Commandments.)

Compare and contrast the parting of the Red Sea scene in this movie with any of George Lucas’s special effects or my nine year-old nephew’s skills with Photoshop.

Double Indemnity

I watch a lot of Netflix from the first half of the 20th century. Just recently I saw The Magnificent Ambersons, with Agnes Moorehead pulling out all the stops. Whew! The closed-frame style of that picture caught my eye again and again. There’s an interesting monologue by Joseph Cotten in that 1942 picture (which takes place beginning in 1873) about how the coming of the automobile will completely change our way of life, both how we do peace and how we do war.

A couple of nights ago I watched one that’s been in my queue for a long time: The Burmese Harp, a 1956 Japanese picture directed by Kon Ichikawa. I gave it five stars. It’s a beautiful statement of one soldier’s response to the nightmare of war and a perspective worth seeing from the point of view of Japan such a short time after their defeat in the Second World War. The cinematography and the use of music are beautiful. I never knew before that the old, familiar tune “Home Sweet Home” (“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home”) was as well known in Japan as in England or the U.S.

“Dodsworth” (‘36) and “The Best Years of Our Lives” (‘46). Both are as vibrant as when they were made. And I could name many, many more.

I go for “oldies” all the time!

“Lawrence of Arabia” is in color, but meets your criteria. Incredible true story!

Ah yes, @Jeruba. I should also have named “Magnificent Ambersons.” It’s one of my top favorites for many, many reasons. I know lots of wonderful trivia about that one. Inspired by a film about Orson Welles I saw a few days ago, I downloaded Ambersons to my e-reader and am about 10 pages in.

I have two young grandsons and we love watching Disney movies and comedies. They are fun for every generation, and I have three generations living here.

I’d have to say Nosferatu, the silent black and white movie from 1922. Well I haven’t recently watched it, but I got this present for Christmas that’s a box set of 50 old horror movies, most black and white. And I already owned Nosferatu before that, although sadly that version has music playing during the whole thing…not that I don’t like Type O Negative, but it sort of ruins the experience…The version from this collection however, is untouched, and original.
This is one of my favorite old movies because it portrays the vampire as something you’re scared of, rather than something you want to be. I love modern vampires of course, but they’re not really monsters anymore. Lol.

But to properly answer, I recently saw The Screaming Skull from 1958. It includes this couple, and the guy had a wife before his current one. She died though, and now he believes her ghost is haunting the place. The movie might seem laughable today, and I admit, I laughed. But I loved it, it has the pure haunted house feel, and it cuts through the bullshit by giving you a simple story, a big ass estate, and a screaming skull that randomly pops out of nowhere and starts bothering people.
It’s awesome.

I believe I answered the question in full.

Just the other night I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956, on Netflix. The description, “A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.”
It’s the first classic movie I’ve watched in years (other than some Christmas ones we watch every year). It was actually pretty good for being so old. I didn’t find it scary in the least, nor did I expect to, but the acting and story were mostly well done. The ending was sort of disappointing to me. It just up and ended without the satisfaction of seeing what was actually done to solve the conflict. I have no idea who the actors were. Something I noticed was the super dramatic music and how loud it would get. It was over the top, I thought. However, since they didn’t have gory details (like they do these days), I’m sure the over-dramatic music was a big part of old movies.
The thing that surprised me the most? That there were water coolers back then! I had no idea they’ve been around that long.

I’d like to watch the original Psycho and Rear Window next, if I can find them on Netflix.

Great question @Jeruba! Your question has influenced me to watch more older movies. :)

I have Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Cool movie, and the ending freaked me the hell out. XD

Oops! Must have skim-read the part about including details. Sorry, here’s some:

12 Angry Men – watched it in college, but the teacher kept skipping parts. I thought it so interesting so I decided to watch it whole. If nobody’s seen it before it’s about a jury who need to decide if a boy is guilty of murdering his father. After just a few minutes nearly everyone says he’s guilty, but one man says they need to take time to assess the full details of the case instead of just casually sending the boy off to the electric chair. Very gripping, especially to say it’s all set in one little room.

Limelight – a beautiful movie, first watched it when I was 9 years old and found it so dull and boring and as a result refused to watch it for years. Watched it recently and absolutely fell in love with it. Beautiful and very moving story about a suicidal young ballet dancer who is saved and mentored by an aging comedian whose fame, talent and confidence is fading which has caused him to turn to alcoholism. Tragic and haunting and left me thinking about it for days.

Casablanca – one of those movies that everyone seems to have heard of and quotes, but I’d never seen it so I gave it a try. I’ll admit I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. The script was brilliant, the acting and timing was great but it just wasn’t the type of movie for me. I’ll admit it’s still a very good movie though.

Hornblower 1951 Gregory Peck still a really good film

“Rashomon” (1950), “The 7 Samurai” (1954), “Yojimbo” (1961) and “Sanjuro” (1963) are samurai classics of Japan star Mifune Toshiro. Hollywood movies “The Outrage” and “The Magnificent 7” copy first two movies I list. “Yojimbo” have several copies: “A Fistful Of Dollars” star Clint Eastwood, “The Warrior And The Sorceress” star David Carradine, “Last Man Standing” star Bruce Willis.