Classic films which lived up to the hype?

[BabyJellyShark]

I feel like watching some classic movies over the festive period. Which movies lived up to their reputation for you? I know it's subjective to an extent but I'd appreciate any suggestions.

I'm throwing in The Godfather and Casablanca. They're now two of my favourite ever movies.

TIA

Gentlemen prefer blondes. Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. All the presidents men.

Anything with Doris Day. Calam is always a winner!

Any Bette Davis film

I love The Great Escape. Sad but not grim.
All the Hitchcocks. I like Marnie and the Lady Vanishes.
Any Christmas Carol. They all have their charms
Bit violent but Green Street is fascinating. Nice to not have a schmaltzy American film for a bit.
But I love a bit of Top Gun too.

Shaun of the Dead 🤣

Withnail and I, brilliant!

West Side Story (the original 60s version, although I believe the Spielberg version is terrific too)
Cabaret
The Birds
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The China Syndrome

The Dark Mirror
I Want To Live

Father goose

YYY to The Third Man, and The Sting.

Silent Movie

The Producers

Lawrence of Arabia
Where Eagles Dare
North By Northwest
The English Patient
Betty Blue

Hobson's Choice (1954) - featuring John Mills and young Prunella Scales

Grease - I watch it every year. Amazing how you can pick up new things you never noticed previously, even when you've watched it dozens of times. It was a classic of it's era - so much more than a few catchy songs!

Rear Window.
All the President's Men
Twelve O' Clock High

All about as non Christmassy as possible. How about Groundhog Day?

I have a great weakness for The Towering Inferno. Nobody else in the family has any time for it, but I love it. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the same film! Mmmm.

Good to see I'm not alone in loving Where Eagles Dare too. Absolute hokum but brilliantly done. Young Clint Eastwood, mature Richard Burton, what a combo.

I've enjoyed most films I've seen Clint in, starting with the three spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, continuing with Dirty Harry, then the many excellent films he directed himself, so that's another rich seam.

Night of the Hunter. The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American film noir thriller directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. Very suspenseful, from what I can remember of it.

Yy to the Towering Inferno. Love everything about it. Nobody does 'I'm soooo exhausted and so sweaty but still could give you the rogering of your life' like Steve McQueen in that final scene.

Citizen Kane
Apocalypse Now
Kind Hearts and Coronets
North by Northwest
The Maltese Falcon

Green for danger

Oh wow, @newtb, I love that film!* *I've probably seen it half a dozen times. Trevor Howard, Megs Jenkins, Leo thingy (Genn?) and the glorious unsurpassable Alistair Sim. Marvellous.

If we're moving away from classic films to more obscure stuff, I will admit to a great fondness for John Mills. I'll watch almost anything with him in it. There's a film that pops up on our local TV station London Live called The Long Memory that I love, and another one called The October Man which is well worth watching if you get the chance.

(Another Alistair Sim film we watch to revel in the post-war location shots of bombsites etc - Hue and Cry. And a huge favourite of mine from childhood onwards - The Belles of St Trinian's. The many sequels were not very good, but the original is really good.)

@ChubbyBroccoli Hobson’s choice is one of my favourite films for that feel good factor. Maggie Hobson is such a great female character.

Can't believe how good day of the jacket still is.

Jackal not jacket!

Two films that everyone should imp are The Apartment and Waterloo Bridge