10 CLASSIC FILM RECOMMENDATIONS YOU’LL ACTUALLY LIKE
People always say they want to see older movies, rent them, and usually end up falling asleep or turning it off before it’s even at the midpoint. Here are some classics I am pretty sure will keep you watching and as thoroughly entertained as any New Release on the walls or queues.
10. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)-Bette Davis was astounding as Margo Channing in this classic and gives a remarkable portrayal of an aging starlet being upstaged by a cunning newcomer. Anne Baxter also stars.
9. SHANE (1953)-Alan Ladd stars as a gunslinger looking for the quiet life, but finds out quickly that when you’re not looking for trouble, it will still look for you. The ending is one of the all time greats in cinematic history and will rarely leave a viewer with dry eyes. Jack Palance rocks in this!
8. NOW, VOYAGER (1942)-It’s a pretty contemporary story. A woman tortured by verbal abuse from her mother learns to stand on her own two feet with the help of a therapist. She later finds love on a cruise and befriends another young girl in crisis. It’s a great film with another stellar performance delivered by Bette Davis, truly one of cinema’s most immortal and beloved legends.
7. NOTORIOUS (1946)- Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman? Need I say more? Both star in this sexy, intricate tale of Nazi espionage directed by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. It has some great, tense moments and Grant is just the master of uber-Hollywood cool as T.R. Devlin.
6. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1952)- Humphrey Bogart’s best onscreen romance was NOT in the overrated CASABLANCA, but here with Katharine Hepburn as his leading lady. He plays a surly ship captain talked into a dangerous plot to sink a Nazi ship by a debutante/missionary played by Hepburn. The tagline is hilarious and grotesquely sexist 58 years later: The greatest adventure a man ever lived…with a woman!
5. THE THIN MAN (1934)-A great romance and action-packed whodunit about a crime-solving married couple, Nick and Nora (played wonderfully by William Powell and Myrna Loy respectively). It is absolutely hilarious even to this day and is one of the truly great gems from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
4. CITIZEN KANE (1941)-Many say it’s the greatest ever made and I do agree it’s one of the best, but it’s not in my Top 10. However, it’s very well written and holds its own with modern audiences to this day. It’s a story about young idealism eroded and corrupted by power…kind of a common theme for our generation as well as many since and even before Orson Welles’s masterpiece was released. Welles co-wrote, directed, and starred in the film, his debut feature, an impressive feat even 69 years later!
3. LA DOLCE VITA (1960)-Some foreign representation here from Italy’s finest, Federico Fellini. Marcello Mastrianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a struggling journalist who vies for the pulse of the Roman night life and chasing after movie stars while struggling with his own turbulent personal relationships. The Trevi Fountain scene is one of the most iconic images in cinematic history and Anita Ekberg is still gorgeous even by today’s standards.
2. THE BLOB (1958)-It’s a fun movie to just nestle in under some heavy blankets with a tub of popcorn or pizza or wings or all of them and watch with a lover. Sure, the dialogue is ridiculous (characters say what they feel), the effects are laughable, but this is the granddaddy of all 1950’s sci-fi creature features and Steve McQueen’s first movie. Even in the face of the deadly blob, his coolness never wanes.
1. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)-Gangsters. Romance. Taking a stand for what’s right. These are all thematic elements that make for the most popular films we have even today. Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint smolder on the screen in one of the classic onscreen couples in Elia Kazan’s masterpiece about dockworkers rising up against mob corruption. Karl Malden is wonderful as Father Barry and Brando shines as Terry Malloy. The ending is quite profound with a soaring score by Leonard Bernstein.
Honorable mentions:
HIGH NOON
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
THE THIRD MAN
TOUCH OF EVIL
THE WILD ONE
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
GIANT
THE APARTMENT
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S
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