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Original poster

Old yet glorious and obscure movies

367 replies

cafenoirbiscuit · 13/10/2017 20:59

I've always loved The Amazing Mr Blunden but am amazed so few people have heard of it.
Anyone else have old yet glorious and obscure movies they love?

OP posts:
bobthebuddha · 13/10/2017 22:31

Ooh, 39 Steps, yes! Watched it again recently and it seemed rather racier than I'd remembered.

And Jour de Fete too Smile

Anyone seen Went the Day Well?

Also anything with Dirk Bogarde Grin

Back in the day all this stuff used to be on Channel 4 & BBC in the afternoons and on Saturdays. I hoovered it all up. And LWT used to show silent cinema in the early '80s. London Live has B&W films on in the afternoons these days, but you don't really get them on terrestrial any more. God I feel old!

elQuintoConyo · 13/10/2017 22:31

Some great, great films getting mentioned.

I'll add:
This Happy Breed
Passport to Pimlico
Local Hero

LadyMetroland · 13/10/2017 22:29

Went The Day Well - fab wartime film about an English village that gets secretly infiltrated by Germans

ChinkChink · 13/10/2017 22:26

Oh Monsieur Hulot! Grin Thanks for reminding me. The tennis match in M Hulot's Holiday! Also enjoyed Jour de Fete.

Genevieve was great - anything with John Gregson is really - plus it has a bonus Joyce Grenfell.

Mention of Joyce reminds me of Alastair Sim, and a couple of his that may count as obscure: Green for Danger and An Inspector Calls.

Loving this thread.

CremeBrulee · 13/10/2017 22:25

Waterloo Bridge - my favourite movie of all time. I do so want to be Vivienne Leigh!

SignoraCarmignola · 13/10/2017 22:22

Though I've gone off IKWIG slightly since reading an article the other week about how good it was by Michael Gove, of all people. I'm glad I haven't seen that - I don't ever want to go off IKWIG.

The ones I always trot out on threads like this are:

Whisky Galore
The 39 Steps (Robert Donat version)
The Maltese Falcon
To Have and Have Not

I also have a great fondness for The Thin Man films - the early ones at least.

bobthebuddha · 13/10/2017 22:18

Another vote for Powell & Pressburger here - A Canterbury Tale for me.

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

Night of the Hunter

But my ABSOLUTE favourite is Genevieve. Love the bickering that couple do - it seems so out of step with standard film-making of the day. And Kay Kendall was just gorgeous...

elQuintoConyo · 13/10/2017 22:13

Murder By Death starting Peter Sellars, Maggie Smith, David Niven, Peter Falk - and a whole host of others. Nutty film.

I have also met people who have never seen Peter Sellars' The Party Shock

mumonashoestring · 13/10/2017 22:13

I was up ridiculously early one morning and happened across 'Ladies Who Do' - fabulous film, so funny and a proper uplifting gentle comedy

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_Who_Do

elQuintoConyo · 13/10/2017 22:10

YY Black Narcissus, fantastic film.

The Yellow Rolls Royce is very good - it shows the lives of all those who owned it.

Has anyone ever seen It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World? Gloriously loopy! "We're looking for the big W" Grin

allegretto · 13/10/2017 22:03

Atanarjuat - not that old but deserves to be better known.

MexicanBob · 13/10/2017 22:03

Morley

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 13/10/2017 22:03

Imitation of Life - probably all kinds of incorrect now, but it has the best funeral EVER.

MexicanBob · 13/10/2017 22:03

Law and Disorder. Michael Redgrave as the conman and Robert Mor;ey as the Judge. Brilliantly funny.

midsomermurderess · 13/10/2017 22:01

Not obscure but bonkersly glorious: Black Narcissus.

NellysKnickers · 13/10/2017 21:58

The Mystery At Castle House

NellysKnickers · 13/10/2017 21:56

The Gnome Mobile

AdaColeman · 13/10/2017 21:56

Shine ~ just wonderful!

IrenetheQuaint · 13/10/2017 21:53

"I Know Where I'm Going. I love all the Powell/Pressburger films, but perhaps this one especially."

Yes! Though I've gone off IKWIG slightly since reading an article the other week about how good it was by Michael Gove, of all people.

ChinkChink · 13/10/2017 21:53

The African Queen isn't obscure! Shock

Speaking of Diana Dors, she was a surprisingly good actress, particularly in Yield to the Night.

I've just remembered another great oldie that pops up sometimes on telly, The Seven Faces of Dr Lao. Look out for it.

allegretto · 13/10/2017 21:52

The Wicked Lady but only the 1940s version.

ChinkChink · 13/10/2017 21:48

I'm also a big fan of Powell & Pressburger films Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and IKWIG is one of their best. My favourite is A Matter of Life and Death.

I love old movies and the flavour they give of the time they were made.

Obscure wouldn't apply to my other favourite film maker, Alfred Hitchcock, nor to Ealing Films - eg Passport to Pimlico and The Ladykillers, but for today's audience perhaps the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marples might be regarded as such. Great fun and a great theme, though Agatha herself hated them.

for the theme
justdontevenfuckingstart · 13/10/2017 21:48

I have The Amazing Mr Blunden on dvd, wonderful film. I absolutely love it.

ChampagneSocialist1 · 13/10/2017 21:45

Splendour in the grass - Warren Betty and Natalie Wood in their prime

LittleHearts · 13/10/2017 21:44

Drop Dead Fred Smile