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

And also this from the set of Robin Hood. I absolutely love this photo. I read something about it somewhere (?) that said the stress of playing the main part in a huge film was obviously taking its toll on Flynn by the look of this picture, but Basil by contrast was ultra relaxed

Fuckery

marvelling at the sheer beauty of Cary

Oh, yes, indeed!

Cary Grant was gorgeous wasn’t he? I could watch him all day.

May I recommend Indiscreet, with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman? Fabulous performances from both, and a really crisp and witty script. Added bonus of glorious retro evening wear, although interestingly the interior design of the apartment where most of it takes place wasn’t quite as appealing.

Currently on Now TV Movies if you have it. Probably Sky too as they’re the same family.

Ooh what a great thread.
I catch a few on Talking Pictures.
Dancing with Crime was good. Richard Attenborough (Dickie!) was a very good actor.
One of my favourite B&W films is Letter from an Unknown Woman with Louis Jourdain and I think Joan Fontaine.

The Browning Version is on tomorrow night on Talking Pictures. It's a very sad story, powerfully told. Michael Redgrave is amazing in it.

A shout-out for @Kewqueue who wanted to see They Were Sisters - it's on Talking Pictures again on the 14th of Jan at 14:35, if that's any help!

Dh and I were watching earlier and they played a trail for a real curiosity that's also going to be on in the next week or two: an adaptation of Neville Shute's No Highway in the Sky, with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. It's B & W, was made in 1951 and is basically British so has a bizarre cast (not just Glynis Johns and Jack Hawkins; also....Dora Bryan! Pete Murray!!) but looks well worth catching if only for the rarity value.

It does get good reviews on IMDB, though. Stewart is an aircraft engineer who realises, once he's aboard his flight, that if his own research is correct, the plane they're in will suffer a catastrophic failure. What to do?! Our hero must TAKE CHARGE!

I'll certainly be watching/recording Saturday the 19th at 16:00.

I love Cary Grant's dancing in Indiscreet. He's very agile, having been an acrobat in his youth

Can I just say how much I’m enjoying this thread, confined to barracks as I am with raging tonsilitis. I feel quite miserable and a bit of monochrome escapism is doing me a power of good. That and endless supplies of seedless grapes.🤒

I love the Browning Version, Halsall - I've set it for record just in case I get caught up in something.

I love Cary Grant's dancing in Indiscreet. He's very agile, having been an acrobat in his youth

I didn't know that Davros! This forum is an education, it really is.

And thanks for the recommendations, ladies

I picked up Vertigo and Sunset Boulevard in a charity shop yesterday of those count? I love old films but I haven't watched as many as I'd like so I'm hoping to make up for that this year.

Richard Attenborough is on bbc2 now

Then IN WHICH WE SERVE follows at 13.40

Yes, wasn't that how Cary Grant first travelled to America, as part of a circus troupe? I think I remember that from the Sky Arts programme on him. He was basically left alone as a child, wasn't he? I can't remember the full story now but I remember thinking how awful it all sounded and how brilliant that he'd managed to make such a career after all that.

Spieluhr yes I would say both of those films count as classics! I think watching more b&w films is a great New Year's resolution.

I've never seen Letter From an Unknown Woman - just looked it up and it sounds fantastic. I love Joan Fontaine. Will be keeping a look out for that one.

Private Yes, it was very sad. His mother just disappeared one day, and he was eventually told - very bluntly, without any sensitivity - that she'd died. He was very young, I seem to remember - about 8? He later joined the acrobatic troupe and when they went on tour in America, he decided to stay.

Then years later, once he'd become quite well-known, he got a letter breaking the news that his mother hadn't died; she'd been admitted to an asylum not far from their home in Bristol, and she was still alive. He then used to go back and see her often.

That documentary with all his home-movie footage - including his very elderly mother waving him goodbye at the railway station as he set off back to the US - was heartbreaking. He was clearly so affected by it. When they played the very last interview he gave, a phone one, the opening question was 'tell us about yourself', and the very first thing he said was 'well, I'm from Bristol'.

Oh Halsall I didn't know that about his last interview, or that he was reunited with his mother. How bittersweet.

Some (many) of these actors/actresses had unbelievable lives, other than their lives as actors I mean. I know we've discussed many of them on here before. But Cary must have one of the saddest - and yet most successful stories. What a life.

Letter from an Unknown Womanis on the Tube of You!

Was just looking up a synopsis and there it was.

Halsall - I'm on the point of tears here reading about Cary Grant and his poor mother.

People - and women in particular - could be committed for negligible reasons then - something as minor as post-natal depression, or anxiety (or disagreeing with a husband!).

Whether is was something serious or something small, she must have had a dreadful time. Asylums are even now, not pleasant places.

Think I remember reading that Charlie Chaplin had a similar upbringing, his mother in and out of asylums. IT was only joining Sid Carno's troupe that saved him and his brother. The past was definitely a different country.

Fred Karno. I think CG went to the USA with them too

I'm on the point of tears here reading about Cary Grant and his poor mother.

I felt that too Schaden. It’s truly appalling how families could be broken up in that way and the damage it did. Imagine being told your mother had gone on a long holiday and then just died?

Prince Philip’s mother was also carted off to an asylum. Apparently he had to find places to stay during the school holidays because he had no home of his own to go back to. Makes you want to hug your DC closer.

Got me Freds mixed up with my Syds.
Of course there was poor Frances Farmer -went through est and her career never recovered and she died in poverty.
Anyway-back to work tomorrow so no lounging on the sofa with Cary and co.
Just to keep us going-here's Gary looking toothsome.

Looking good, Gary. I love the high-waisted trousers.

Fun fact about the lovely Gary: his parents were English and they sent him back home for a few years because they wanted him to have an English education. He went to Dunstable Grammar School