Help me identify this film from the John Lewis advert?

[BOFster]

It's driving me crazy

Here's a link to the John Lewis advert- take a look at the old movie showing on the television at 1 minute in, please.

Everybody thinks it's from It's A Wonderful Life, the embrace you can see at 3:21 in this clip:

But it really really isn't.

Are classic old films like these available on netflix?

You never seem to get classic old films on ch 4 on a Sunday afternoon like you used to.

Gosh, I have found my people! I love Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers. I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers but I don't know what they were thinking of when they re-made the Ladykillers a few years ago.

Amongst my other UK b&w favourites are:

The Third Man
Brief Encounter
This Happy Breed
In Which We Serve
The Belles of St Trinian's (all the others are awful but this is the first and I have loved it since I was about seven years old)
Green for Danger
The Lavender Hill Mob
Passport to Pimlico
The Lady Vanishes (1930s version with Michael Redgrave)
Goodbye Mr Chips (1930s version with Robert Donat)
The 39 Steps (ditto)
Anything directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (not all b&w, of course - The Red Shoes is just wonderful and makes terrific use of colour)
Went The Day Well?
Brighton Rock
Odd One Out
Ice Cold in Alex
Just about any black and white war film made during the war or in the next few years

Old US b&w films I love include The Maltese Falcon, which is in my all-time top 10.

Some Like It Hot is definitely in Netflix.

Viva, we have Freeview and regularly check the Guide for the film schedule. Film4 puts quite a few on in the afternoons and there are also v. old films dotted about on obscure channels like Movies4Men (which I dare to watch even though I am not a man). We don't have Sky so I have no idea if you can get old films that way.

LoveFilm has lots of old films, or did years ago. We don't have a sub there now.

My favourite film, albeit in a 'so bad it's good' way towards the end

The Awful Truth, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne

When I was a kid, these films were always on tv. It was cheap tv (the 60s equivalent of the ubiquitious reality show) - the bbc would buy job lots from the Hollywood studios. My parents had always been big film buffs (they went to the cinema 3 times a week in the early years of their marriage) because of course until the end of war almost nobody had a tv. So we would watch (in their case re-watch) all these great movies all the time.

Until about 10 -15 years ago there were plenty on tv, including some silent movies, which is something else I became interested in (hence my user name - pandorasbox.com/ )

I've never heard of movies for men channel. Off to check that and film4 out. Thanks.

I had a brain wave, and wondered if they were in fact watching a previous JL advert- the never knowingly undersold one, which was half set in the past and half present day. But the ad is in colour, and they don't really snog. But apart from that...

..I can't give you anything but love..baby...

The very first Best Picture from 1927 is also on Netflix- Wings. Just before Talkies started, and out when the derring-do of pilots was at its peak (I think Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic that year), this is a chance to see the famous Clara Bow in a dramatic role.

Oh, SirNoel . Love that.

Ice Cold in Alex! My DSis has had a crush on John Mills since about the age of 10. I've used up my daily quota of pictures so I can't post one of him. He was very cute.

I immediately thought Barbara Stanwyck too, but I have no idea what the film is.

No harm in a bit of Paul Newman

Oh my word

Sorrel, I am also a big fan of Sir John Mills and also out of picture quota. Drat!

Talking of Barbara Stanwyck, I love film noir and Double Indemnity is one of the best in that genre. So is Laura, which somebody mentioned many posts ago.

I'm probably going to kick myself when I hear the answer, but what's EP?

DS (4.5) loves old things. Not as much as his new stuff, but he appreciates. He really adores old Bugs Bunny and the more classical music it has, the better!

DP allegedly doesn't like Gone with the Wind (which I've been watching lately), but he was a little entranced by it - won't admit it, but I saw the look in his eye. >smug-icon<

Did anybody watch that gorgeous documentary about cinema about a year ago? The one that was about cinema all over the world and the technological advances (for instance, the first ever crosscut, reverse perspective, etc). Stunning, and explains so much! I experience it myself when I'm watching, for instance, GWTW - our modern minds boggle that it takes anybody that long to clock Olivia de Havilland, or read a letter that explains some of the plot. Modern filmmakers (and cinema-goers) could get the information across in a fraction of the time. I think that documentary should be required for any young person/teenager, so they can see old films for what they are: little pieces of history.

That sounds fascinating. I wonder what it was called?

There's another good one for Noir lovers on Netflix: Sorry Wrong Number, with Barbra Stanwyk.

Oh, and His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Hearts' illustrious ancestor Rosalind Russell

Oh my goodness at that Paul Newman picture he was my aunts favourite, my mum was a Tony Curtis fangirl

Oh and my Gran was something like a second cousin to Esther Williams.

Sorrell and Mimsy - here ya go, have a treat:

...or a bit more Liz Taylor. I imagine she lived every minute of her real life as she appeared on screen and I bet she never handled a vacuum cleaner once in her life.

I think I mentioned it earlier, but YouTube can be great for old movies. Gilda is a fantastic bit of Noir, with the absolutely gorgeous Rita Hayworth doing that famous hair flick you see the prisoners go wild for in Shawshank.

It has also got the most hilariously camp subtext- god knows how that passed the censors by. Recommended.