Classic films appreciation thread - come and join us!

[PrivateParkin]

Following on from the recent thread about favourite actors from old films, @FatBallsAndSunflowerSeeds had the fab idea of an old movies appreciation thread... So here it is! If you like old films and actors of any kind, come and join us.

old thread

We thought we'd look out for any classic films being shown on TV, post them on this thread and then discuss them afterwards... But if you want to post about any of your favourite old films and actors at any time, that would also be fab. Basically, this is just a place to chat about old films - please come and join us!

I'm off to check the TV schedules for any potential gems coming up - I will post again with anything that looks good.

Meantime, here's James Cagney tap dancing down the stairs in Yankee Doodle Dandy - happy bank holiday everyone
m.youtube.com/watch?v=xlvB4xk4LNQ

I love the novel Emma so I've always avoided the movies ppeat. I certainly didn't want to see Gwyneth Paltrow in an adaptation.

I read somewhere that stage actors sometimes have a tendency to over act in movies because it's such a different style of acting than being on the stage. On stage you have to exaggerate whereas on film you have to under play. Kenneth Brannagh certainly does! Though Laurence Olivier could never be accused of over acting in his films.

Happy birthday Frank Capra born otd in 1897. His is a great story, from selling newspapers on the streets of downtown LA for pennies, to becoming a 3-time winner of the best director Oscar, making some stone-cold classics along the way (including my fave film of all time, It's A Wonderful Life).

Here's the original movie theatre poster for It Happened One Night
Thanks for everything, Frank

Poor old cardboard-ish Larry yes I bet on stage he was completely fantastic. To be fair, the character of Maxim is a bit of a closed book, so maybe that's why he played it like that? Will definitely be looking out for cardboardy-ness when I watch it though!

One of the interesting conversations in Nothing Like A Dame was about naturalism in acting and whether dear old Larry was a bit of a ham! Part of it, I think, is that acting styles are subject to fashion, just like anything else.

I love It Happened One Night, but haven't seen it for decades.

I really want to see Nothing Like A Dame Monica - it sounds great. Funny that they should mention Larry!

It is great. And as it was filmed at Joan Plowright’s home and they’re discussing their lives they were bound to mention him, but they skirted round the question of whether (as even JP hinted) he was a difficult man.

Oh I didn't even realise she was in it!! I thought it was just Dames Judi, Maggie and Eileen I want to see it even more now, but it doesn't seem to be showing anywhere near us..

That's interesting Ventress I must admit that Larry was a terrible actor in the b&w film of Hamlet really bad! But he did improve on screen as he got older.

Then I thought that Viv Leigh couldn't act very well either, Gone with the Wind is NOT a film I can even sit through for 5 mins.!!! (prepares to be flamed) Clark Gable is divine in it though! But he's divine anyway!

Me neither *ppeat - not a fan of GWTW. For loads of reasons, including it being just so over the top and Scarlett O'Hara being so annoying! I've been to Margaret Mitchell's house in Atlanta - not Tara! I don't think it exists?! - but the house where she wrote GWTW and while v interesting and a huge part of Atlanta's history, it didn't encourage me to read the enormous book or watch the film again. I can take or leave Clarke Gable as well tbh. Sorry.

Yes Private I think it's the actual hype about the film itself, I expected something good, not a film starring someone who couldn't act, V.L.'s Southern accent was unbelievably erratic! And as you say not a particularly good plot. It also went on and and on and on…… The thing with Gable was that he did give her what she deserved and he could act a bit.!

Happy belated birthday Frank

I love It's a Wonderful Life and It Happened One Night but my favourites are Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Arsenic and Old Lace.

A Capra film I've never seen is "State of the Union" with Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn. I've read about it but just have never seen it. If any of you spot it on TV please let me know!

I don't think Larry was comfortable in Hollywood. Plus Viv's mental illness was becoming increasingly obvious and I think their personal life was going through a lot of stress as a result.

Vivien Leigh was gorgeous in GWTW though and I thought she really looked like the Scarlett O'Hara I saw in my head from the novel - impish and cunning; using her beauty to try and get what she thought she wanted. VL's accent was really dodgy though.

I think GWTW was an incredible film because of everything that went with it - the changing of directors and the sheer scope and scale of the film. The idea of putting the camera on rails to do the Atlanta street scene in one long single take was pioneering. An outrageously expensive and complex production. And all in glorious Technicolour!

I really want to see "Nothing Like a Dame" it sounds amazing.

DS and I are planning pizza and a movie this evening. I was thinking High Society or North by Northwest. But I'm not convinced so I'll have a trawl through Netflix later.

Yy love all the Capra films you mentioned Ventress - I watched Mr Smith the other night. I love it when the Boy Rangers ("You're putting a squirrel chaser in the United States Senate?" ) give him the briefcase. I haven't seen State of the Union either - definitely one to look out for.

Yes GWTW was a complete trail blazer and I can appreciate that but those big saga-type storylines just don't do it for me. I agree about how they filmed the burning of Atlanta, didn't they burn a load of old sets to create a huge fire? I'm thinking perhaps I should give it another go, maybe I was too young when I first saw it (about 11/12 maybe?) and I've never given it another chance since then really...

Yy Spencer Tracy, a wonderful actor he was in a brilliant film playing a stranger in town with one arm I think, can’t for the life of me think what it was called though, anyone recognise my rather strange discription?

Is this the Spencer Tracy film?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Day_at_Black_Rock

(I just googled 'Spencer Tracy one arm'! I think I might have seen it years ago as a child though.)

Re Olivier and Leigh, I don't think either of them would be seen as 'great' actors according to how acting is now - agree with Monica that acting styles have changed. However, I do like watching them both - I think they each had a 'presence' and there's something that draws you to look at them. There is something very seductive about old style glamour, which they were dripping with.

Agree also that I'm not particularly engaged by GWTW - seems overblown and the dodgy politics niggle. But her performance in Streetcar was amazing, and she's also great in one of my favourite films of all time, referenced near the beginning of the thread - Waterloo Bridge. Although some people would likely say that even that is corny - different times.

Oh yes Tracy and Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, one of the best films ever IMO. They were both a little too old in it which was a shame but it was a very moving film.

@HarolsSocalledBluetits yes that’s it thank you, I tried googling but couldn’t get any sensible suggestions, it’s a really good film very atmospheric.

I enjoy the documentaries about the making of GWTW far more than the movie to be honest Private.

I agree with Monica too, acting styles have certainly changed with the generations and with Harolds that L&V dripped glamour (great adjective ).

I didn't realise that Bad Day at Black Rock was Spencer Tracy. It was one of my gran's favourite movies but she loved westerns and so I just assumed it was a western. I am not a fan of westerns and so never watched it. Yet another film to add to my ever growing "must see" list!

Guess who's Coming to Dinner is wonderful ppeat. I haven't seen that in years either.

Certainly not a classic but what do you all think about The Shawshank Redemption? I think DP and I are the only two people on the planet who don't like this movie. On IMDB it has the highest rating of any movie ever. I don't get it. To me it's tedious, saccharine and has a plot twist advertised a mile away. If I want to watch Tim Robbins or Morgan Freeman there are plenty of better movies than this.

Yes dripping with glamour is a great description, something modern day actors are sadly lacking IMHO. Has anybody seen a fab blog on Tumblr called We Had Faces Then - just pages of fantastic photos of the stars of 20s-50s, well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

Happy birthday James Stewart, born otd in 1908.
After a degree in architecture from Princeton he almost did his post-grad, but there wasn't much doing for architects during the Great Depression, and anyway he preferred knocking around with Fonda, Sullavan and co in the Princeton players. Starred in a bunch of gorgeous black and white Hollywood classics, won a best actor Oscar, enlisted a couple of months later and went to war, where he won the Croix De Guerre and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Capra then talked him into making It's A Wonderful Life - Stewart had wanted to make a comedy on his return from the war.

I love the films he made with Hitchcock later in his career, and while I can take or leave most cowboy movies, I do think The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is massively underrated, a great film. Ah Jimmy! Sigh. I'll stop now.

But first, here's a photo of him flying model aeroplanes with Olivia de Havilland (as you do). They almost got married apparently... he proposed, but she thought he "wasn't ready for a wife" and then the war got in the way anyway. I suppose it would have been too good to be true...

Snap Ventress about Westerns. I enjoyed a few when they were new on telly like High Chapparal but OMG I don't know what the TCM film stations would do without them ,and war films, of course, they're both a huge yawn from me I'm afraid.

Give me a girlie film like Sweet Charity any day!! I watched Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson yesterday, a gorgeous film. Alan Rickman, etc. ….. fab.

Yes, I find most western or war films a huge yawn and can’t cope with anything with lots of gory deaths (Saving Private Ryan and that more recent Leonardo di Caprio thing where he’s trapped in the wilderness were two cases in point). Give me a period drama with bonnets any day!

That’s fascinating about James Stewart.

Ventress I don't mind The Shawshank Redemption but as you say, it's kind of puzzling that it's so well-loved... the highest rated film on IMDB?! I can think of loads of films that are better than that!

Oops sorry I messed up the time for Rebecca - it's 3.20 on Sat 27 May, repeated 9pm on 30 May. Not much else on TV this week that I could see - luckily I have loads of stuff recorded!

Ventress I watched Blithe Spirit last night with my DS and he loved it! Don't know if you've watched it with your DS or if he might like it?
dontcallmelen you were right, it did cheer me up!

Blithe Spirit has a rather weird plot but it's brilliantly acted and directed. Margaret Rutherford is superb in it! The seance scene is the best! I want to see it again now!!! I like films that take watching more than twice!

I watch The Ghost and Mrs Muir recently thanks to this thread. I enjoyed it a lot although the accents amused me. George Sanders was a brilliant oily rogue again.

I can take or leave Westerns - I like The Searchers as it has a bit more nuance. The portrayal of Native Americans in many is just awful.