And the best Black and White movie ever is:

[ronmac]

"The Big Sleep" is on TCM Saturday night at 8:00 EST

[JKL2000]

I hated The Fearless Vampire Killers when I first saw it, but I since saw that many people regard it highly. Maybe I need to revisit it.

I of course know Sharon Tate for Valley of the Dolls, which is cheesy and unintentionally hilarious, the Showgirls of its day.

Speaking of B&W classics, I was thinking of one of my all-time top comedies, W. C. Fields’ It’s a Gift. First saw it when I was all of five years old. Now, all these years later, it still has the power to have me laughing out of control.

My vote for the funniest scene in all of cinema history:

The shot where the delivery man places the coconut on the window sill is some of the best foreshadowing ever!

[Staun]

Won't name one. But on my list, just noting they're not all old either:
Psycho
The Elephant Man
Schindler's List (barring one red coat)
IF...
Peeping Tom
The Asphalt Jungle
The Killing
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Modern Times
The Great Dictator
Knife in the Water
Diabolique
Dr. Strangelove
M
Paths of Glory
On the Waterfront

There are more....but these are some....

Rupert Hine took a shot at it but I think his was more parody.

[Staun]

You have to see this movie.

EDIT: And you're in luck. It's on twice over the next six weeks on TCM:

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/search/?...l+and+mr.+hyde

Broadcast times are not prime time. So, hopefully you can DVR or record it.

I'll gear up for it.

[Staun]

John Barrymore's 1920 version of Jekyl & Hyde is pretty cool, too.

Any fans of "Svengali"?

Pretty much anything Barrymore plays is good enough for me.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

[Staun]

Frederic March.

Notice the cool effect they have at the beginning of his transformation. They used special makeup that reacted to changes in the lighting. Very cool.

Looks like a young Christopher Reeve.

[Staun]

"The Big Sleep" is on TCM Saturday night at 8:00 EST

All right kids, take notes. There will be a test on Monday.

[Staun]

I hated The Fearless Vampire Killers when I first saw it, but I since saw that many people regard it highly. Maybe I need to revisit it.

I of course know Sharon Tate for Valley of the Dolls, which is cheesy and unintentionally hilarious, the Showgirls of its day.

Speaking of B&W classics, I was thinking of one of my all-time top comedies, W. C. Fields’ It’s a Gift. First saw it when I was all of five years old. Now, all these years later, it still has the power to have me laughing out of control.

My vote for the funniest scene in all of cinema history:

He and Mae were a great team. The way they could play off each other was perfect.

[ronmac]

These should be worth watching tonight.


Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941

Unseen Cinema 2: The Mechanized Eye (2011)

[nycsteve]

TCM played another Stopper last night , William Wyler's The Best Years Of Our Lives. 1946 , powerful portrayal of soldiers returning home from WWII . Many Oscars, well deserved. Fredrick March, Myna Loy , Viginia Mayo, Dana Andrews, and a huge supporting cast. Touching many emotional chords without being syrupy. Killer movie. Wyler was an interesting Hollywood filmmaker , with an extremely varied output , of really damn good films. Amoung the highlights, for me at least, The Letter, Mrs Miniver, Detective Story, Roman Holiday, Ben Hur, Dead End, The Desperate Hours, The Big Country. All top notch.
And befitting the thread , Best Years is in glorious BW.

[Staun]

TCM played another Stopper last night , William Wyler's The Best Years Of Our Lives. 1946 , powerful portrayal of soldiers returning home from WWII . Many Oscars, well deserved. Fredrick March, Myna Loy , Viginia Mayo, Dana Andrews, and a huge supporting cast. Touching many emotional chords without being syrupy. Killer movie. Wyler was an interesting Hollywood filmmaker , with an extremely varied output , of really damn good films. Amoung the highlights, for me at least, The Letter, Mrs Miniver, Detective Story, Roman Holiday, Ben Hur, Dead End, The Desperate Hours, The Big Country. All top notch.
And befitting the thread , Best Years is in glorious BW.

Detective Story is certainly a stopper. Star packed and emotion, you can feel it dripping off the screen. Raw as hell. The Letter was a perfect vehicle for Miss Davis. Not sure a lot of women could have pulled it off.

[ronmac]

"Bride of Frankenstein" on tonight on TCM at 8pm EST

That's one of the few I always watch.

[Jerjo]

I'm a late convert to that one but yeah, it's on my list now. We put it on the DVR last night. I should probably just have Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Mummy on DVD.

[davidblack]

Not a black and white one, but did you ever see Miike Takashi's take on it in his episode of Masters of Horrors?
It was pretty fun.

https://www.musicskanner.com/yamaha-...evel-trombone/

[Staun]

I have to be honest now, as a kid, all my friends liked Frankenstein, Wolfman the Mummy and the like. They were the rage but I seemed to go in another direction. Space, aliens and giant bugs were my thing. It was almost like you were either one or the other. The human monsters were older but I wanted new space ships and ray guns. Any comments here? Ronmac?

[ronmac]

I have to be honest now, as a kid, all my friends liked Frankenstein, Wolfman the Mummy and the like. They were the rage but I seemed to go in another direction. Space, aliens and giant bugs were my thing. It was almost like you were either one or the other. The human monsters were older but I wanted new space ships and ray guns. Any comments here? Ronmac?

Different eras, for sure. The classic horror flicks were generally from the 30s and early 40s. All the sci-fi stuff pretty much came after the nuclear age and Area 51 hit the news. In my later years, I definitely lean toward the horror, but watched all of them as a kid. I still love movies like "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." And, some of those post-A-bomb flicks, like "Them" are classics. And so are sci-fi gems like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "When Worlds Collide." There's still room for both genres in my taste.

[Staun]

Different eras, for sure. The classic horror flicks were generally from the 30s and early 40s. All the sci-fi stuff pretty much came after the nuclear age and Area 51 hit the news. In my later years, I definitely lean toward the horror, but watched all of them as a kid. I still love movies like "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." And, some of those post-A-bomb flicks, like "Them" are classics. And so are sci-fi gems like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "When Worlds Collide." There's still room for both genres in my taste.

No doubt, there is room for both. Can we add the genre, "scary movies?" House on Haunted Hill and The Haunting might fall into this category.

[ronmac]

House on Haunted Hill

One of my favorites! There's something to be said for those cheesy horror flicks from the 50s and 60s, even though they weren't in the same league as the original Universal classics.

[ronmac]

You have to see this movie.

EDIT: And you're in luck. It's on twice over the next six weeks on TCM:

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/search/?...l+and+mr.+hyde

Broadcast times are not prime time. So, hopefully you can DVR or record it.

FYI, this listing has changed to the Tracy version from '41. A major bummer.

[interbellum]

Speaking of French films, I can never get enough of this scene:

Just watched "A Weekend In Paris" (a rather nice movie, although I only bought it because director Roger Michell told that he had incorporated the music of Nick Drake into it, because he felt it fitted with the story).
In two scenes they actually try to duplicate this scene and especially in the last scene in a Paris café it worked quite nice.

[ronmac]

Programming alert!

24 hours of Hitchcock beginning Christmas night at 8:00 with "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest."

[JKL2000]

Programming alert!

24 hours of Hitchcock beginning Christmas night at 8:00 with "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest."

What channel?

[ronmac]

What channel?

oops. TCM, of course.

[JKL2000]

oops. TCM, of course.

Yeah, sorry - should have guessed that!

[ronmac]

Yeah, sorry - should have guessed that!

I should have included it.