Can you recommend an older movie or two for me to watch? Please see details.
Asked by
evegrimm (
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November 18th, 2009
Dear Fluther,
Next week, I will be headed home to family. Before I moved away, I would visit my grandma on Saturdays and we would eat dinner and watch a movie. I’d like to watch another movie with her (and possibly my mom), but have no idea what to choose. I have Netflix, so the problem is more that there is too much to pick from. I’d prefer an older movie to a newer.
We all like mysteries (like Agatha Christie, not creepy “thrillers”), and my mom prefers movies that aren’t too intense (the first Transformers was almost too much for her).
Here are some older movies that I liked: Charade, North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, Sabrina, Arsenic and Old Lace, Some Like it Hot and Murder on the Orient Express.
Can you recommend some older movies that we might enjoy?
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41 Answers
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Bells of St. Trinian’s, any of the Alec Guiness movies…
Double Indemnity is a great film noir classic. I’d definitely recommend that one. Another great older film is 12 Angry Men. That’s one of those movies that everyone should see at least once in their life. :-)
Rear Window
Anatomy of a Murder
Philadelphia Story and Auntie Mame are my favorite older movies. His Girl Friday, Holiday, and I Was a Male War Bride are also great Cary Grant classics. Netflix also has an AMAZING Ms. Marple and Hercules Peroit collection that my husband and I have worked our way through over the years.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Original one)
I bet your grandma remembers when Gone With the Wind came out. Would they like that? And Affair to Remember’ is probably my favorite movie. mmm, Carey Grant!
The Maltese Falcon
The 39 Steps
The Sting. Casablanca. Rashomon. Orson Welles’ Othello. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Rear Window.
@Dog loved that movie-great dark, booding, handsome man.
The movies that starred Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn (Adam’s Rib comes to mind.)
The African Queen is one of my favorites.
The Big Sleep with Bogart
O Brother Where Art Thou
Mirage
Indescrete
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Doctor Zhivago, Gone with the Wind,Pillow Talk, Waterloo Bridge. I know I will think of more and add to it! Lurve for Arsenic and Old Lace and Some Like it Hot!
Oh another one To Kill A Mockingbird
Anything by Akira Kurosawa, although there would be the subtitle problem. She might have trouble reading them if her eyes aren’t so great.
I also second Sunset Blvd. If anyone’s said Paper Moon then I also second that.
The old James Whale Frankenstein films are good. They’re more humorous than horrifying.
The Quiet Man. Not your typical John Wayne movie at all. :)
I second African Queen. An absolute classic.
An American in Paris. Gene Kelly’s dancing is fantastic as usual but the set design and colors are breathtaking.
Harold and Maude. A bit quirky and offbeat but another don’t-miss classic with a wonderful soundtrack by Cat Stevens. Remember what a great singer and musician he was in his day?
The Sound of Music.
The Producers. One of Mel Brooks greatest. “Springtime for Hitler”. Need I say more?
The Harvey Girls (Judy Garland, and Angela Lansbury) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Houseboat, Showboat, the Phildelphia Story, Africa Screams
“Reds” a movie that deserved the Oscar and didn’t get it. Warren Beatty/Diane Keaton.
Oldies:
I second “Adam’s Rib”...just delicious!
“Bringing Up Baby” with Cary Grant….and Hepburn…a hoot!
“Bells Are Ringing” with Judy Holliday..fun!
back to the future? it’s one of my favourites!
I forgot one Singing in the Rain
“All About Eve”
All my other favorites have been mentioned!
I saw kind hearts and coronets for the first time this past summer. If you want a black comedy, then definitely go with this one.
For laughs and some period humor, you might want to consider any or the Ma and Pa Kettle series.
From the movies you listed, Grandma sounds like my contemporary (born in the late 1940’s) the biggest blockbuster for us was Dr. Zhivago. If you are looking for the ultimate Miss Marple it is the series with Joan Hickson and they are very true to the books.
Movies from her youth
A Shot in the Dark
In the Heay of the Night
Sleuth
Klute
Greatest Christie movie
Murder on the Orient Express
And the ultimate
Laura
BBC’s Pride and Prejudice? :)
Some of my favorites…
Rear Window
The Women (very funny)
The African Queen
The Quiet Man
Arsenic and Old Lace
Tarzan The Ape Man
Harvey
Auntie Mame
Life is a banquet… and most poor suckers are starving to death!
Gone with the Wind came out in 1939 along with The Wizard of Oz and The Rules of the Game (Les règles du jeu, directed by Jean Renoir). A good year.
Fanny and Alexander (Ingemar Bergman) (Swedish)
The Bicycle Thief (Italian)
Tight Little Island
The Pink Panther Series (Peter Sellers at his funniest)
Early Woody Allen comedies (Annie Hall; Manhattan, Sleeper, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and her Sisters).
The Odd Couple
I just clicked on that link and got a “not found” page.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is good, but somewhat intense
Death of a Salesman is good
And as for non-classics, The Cube (the 1960’s version) is great… but very nontraditional and somewhat psychedelic. A nice, not-too-intense philosophical type story, if you can call it a story. (It’s here, by the way:) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6203080879952576646&ei=9Z9rS6fIIYG6qQO-jtGQBA&q=the+cube#
Gene Autry – The Phantom Kingdom is great… but somewhat maybe too action-oriented… and it’s long (cuz it was a serial).
Les Miserables is an amazing story and a great movie, whether you watch the 1935 or 1978 versions. The 1990’s version had an Americanized ending that was far different than the book-endings of the 1978 and 1935 versions. So skip the phony 90’s version, or see it last. The 1935 and 1978 versions are really great.
Failsafe, from 1964, is a great true-to-life type political drama, a great story with great acting.
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