Entertainment For Lively Minds
Old Movies - Help Required
Posted by Con Coleman on 22 December 2008 - 4:12pm.
Friends
I need to get a couple of DVDs for a retired relative who has recently become something of a film fanatic (too much time on her hands). She's only interested in films made before 1965, preferably in black and white and in English. I want to get her something relatively obscure but still watchable and suitable for a lady who has no truck with swearing or violence. She's got a lot of Ealing comedies and enjoys old Hitchcock. So to speak.
A strange brief I grant you, but the Worders have never let me down so far. All suggestions gratefully received.
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Powell and Pressburger
A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale and so on, and so on.
Seconded
Utterly brilliant. A good half dozen of the finest films ever made to their names. There's a wonderful box set, all of 27.98 of your English pounds on Amazon for 11 films, which is a joy from start to finish..
Thirded...
'A Matter of Life and Death' and 'Black Narcissus' are fabulous movies.
A 'yay' and a pat on the back from me
Powell and Pressburger were the masters and 'Black Narcissus' is my favourite film of all time.
On the other hand, please do not buy it for your relative if she can't take some melodramatic tension or is in any way scared of nuns.
Yes , yes yes
There is at present a wonderful boxed set of 11 dvd's and it ( sadly in my opinion ) does not include Peeping Tom but with The Red Shoes , a Matter of Life and Death , Black Narcissus and the magnificent Colonel Blimp is a treasure .
A Canterbury Tale
Slightly underrated within their canon, but completely wonderful. If you've seen it, just try explaining the plot to someone else - it's virtually impossible - yet as a film it makes complete sense.
Here's a goodie
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portrait-Jennie-Jennifer-Jones/dp/B000059RNN
Jacques Tourneurs' Night of the Demon.
Cracking good b&w "horror".
One of my all time faves.
About as scary as the muppets, to the modern eye.......
Agreed
fabulous film. Still scary even now Though. The demon is pretty cool as well
Take a gander
at the Internet Archive at www.archive.org
There is a wealth of legally downloadable stuff on there.
Preston Sturges
Genius classical Hollywood comedy in it's purest form from the late 30s/early 40s - Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, Palm beach Story, etc. Some of the most wonderfully entertaining films it's possible to see: Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert and on and on.
Again, there's a great box set of 7 of his films (only missing Miracle of Morgan's Creek). 17.99 on Amazon I see. Every home should have one.
This home does
And would like to also second this suggestion.
Sorry
get me on the subject of old films and I never shut up.
Another winner would be the David Lean Centenary Collection Box. This collects all his British films made in the 40s and 50s before he went epic and international. 10 films, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, In Which We Serve, etc. Very different to, and possibly even better than, his later crowd pleasers.
Terry Thomas
In "I'm all right Jack" and "Private's Progress" - quote "You're an absolute shower." Same actor plus Ian Carmichael and Alastair Sim in "School for Scoundrels".
Then there's all the realism dramas of the early sixties "Saturday night and Sunday morning", "This sporting life","The loneliness of the long distance runner". Yes, there's some sex, violence and swearing but very mild by today's standards.
In checking these I came across the BFI's site http://www.screenonline.org.uk/ which has an excellent searchable database and clips from the films.
Bell, Book
and Candle....
Ealing Drama Collection
There's a marvelloues Ealing Drama boxset out.
Contains:
Scott of the Antarctic
Nicholas Nickelby
Dead of Night
Went the Day Well?
Full of hats, pipes, side-partings and the Queen's English. Bliss.
Loved
Went the day well? A real drama that stands up well even today. Look out for a very young Thora Hird.
I was less impressed with Nicholas Nickleby but that's a hell of a story to shrink down to 90 minutes or however long it was.
Haven't seen the others but will look out for them.
Worth tracking them all down
Dead of Night is a series of linked ghost stories, each one with a different director in charge. Though I couldn't really tell.
Scott of the Antarctic is exactly what it says on the tin. Derring do and stoicism with added sto. What Sunday afternoons were made for before Eastender's bloody omnibuses. Rule Britannia!
What was the one about the ship going down, chokka with whisky?
With a young Gordon Hudson in it. Well, anyway, that one. Based, allegedly, on fact.
Follow it up with Days of Wine and Roses, to go from drink to dry in 2 moves.
I meant Gordon Jackson.
Hudson was his character in Upstairs Downstairs, a staple of my parents saturday nights. They liked Hudson so much, they followed hin to the Professionals, as Bodie and Doyles boss.
That would be Whisky Galore
which reminds me of another potential pressie....
The 'Definitive Ealing Collection', which is a bloody treasure trove, now being offloaded for 45 quid on both Amazon and HMV. I spent much more. 16 films in all. So many films, so little time. Wish I was retired like the lucky relative above.
Whiskey Galore
From the Compton Mackenzie novel. Got it on DVD just the other day. Gordon J looks about 12 in it.
Splendid movie - dull book
The aged has this one on DVD - the bit were GJ starts playing the pipes as an act of rebellion against his old mother freaks me out every time.
Tried reading the book recently while on holiday in the Outer Hebrides and - jings! - it was dull.
A couple of goodies but weepies
The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) - much imitated, never bettered and far more suitable than It's A Wonderful Life if you're feeling all Jimmy Stewarty and Christmassy.
Letter From An Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, 1948) - I haven't seen this in fourteen years, and just the once, but it made a real impression. If your relative likes old Hitchcock, she should be pleased to see Joan Fontaine in this one.
Bob Hope and 'The Road' movies
Does your relative enjoy the work of ex-colonials?
Bob Hope could be funny in his prime. 'The Paleface' is good. Most of the 'The Road to...' movies had some good patter which still can raise a smile.
Vulgar though. All those songs, music, dancing and smiling. Harrumph...
Bob Hope observation
Watching a "road to" movie recently, something niggled at me throughout about Bob Hope and it struck me later on. His performances are so similar to Matthew Perry's in Friends that it cannot be a coincidence. I am not having a go at Matthew Perry by the way, I just found it interesting.
As for the question, if comedy is the thing then I would try the Peter Ustinov-directed Vice Versa in 1948, starring child stars Petula Clark and Anthony Newley. There are moments of silliness in this film that rival the best of Python, especially the court scene.
Good observation
Also, apparently, Woody Allen's comedy mugging - in early movies like Sleeper - is based on Hope's craven coward persona.
You can see shades of it in Bananas and Love and Death too.
Another question.
The Bob Hope "horror" film, all undead and vampires? Very vague memories, watching it with my dad. Were bananas part of the plot?
If she is of stern stuff, how about a set of the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poes?
STOP PRESS: It came to me in the car, the Cat and the Canary. Knew it was yellow!
'Stalked by a wild crawling thing...'
There's a Bob Hope horror film: 'The Cat and the Canary' - it's one of the 'family gathers in creepy old house to attend the reading of the will' films and it's excellent. (£9.99 from Play)
No vampires though.
[edited to add - doh!]
Brief Encounter
Masterpiece.
if she has
satellite or cable she might enjoy some of the fare on TCM
http://TCMonline.co.uk/listings/
Laurel and Hardy
I'd plump for "Way Out West".
Not obscure, but one of life's great pleasures.
Big Box of Hitchcock - £18
Bargain.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitchcock-14-Disc-Box-Set/dp/B000BND224/ref=sr_1...
streaming classics
goggle seems to have some full length films to stream
here's went the day well
http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=matter+of+life+and+death&hl=en&e...
A few suggestions from me...
Casablanca
A Night at the Opera
Harvey
You said preferably English, but...
I was in Fopp at the weekend and saw that Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped was on sale for about £6 or £7.
It is in French, but it does have the virtue of having very little dialogue and the tension is nerve shredding. It is a true story as well and well worth the risk at that price (assuming you are in an area with a Fopp).
I know you said 'relatively obscure' ...
...so this doesn't really count - but I don't think anyone has mentioned 'The Third Man' so far, assuming your relative has already got to 'Citizen Kane'. Awe-inspiring. (And like much of Hitchcock, the subject matter has its disturbing elements, but the 'violence' is all in the atmosphere and not on-screen.)
And although I do like films that don't have titles starting 'The' and ending 'Man', I would also suggest she watches at least some of the Thin Man movies, with William Powell and Myrna Loy as husband and wife sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. Genuinely successful comedy thrillers, with a lot of chemistry between the two leads. I think the DVD boxset of the whole lot is still available. (Edit - ah yes, these are American, though. Oops.)
Two of my favourites - but American
Bringing up Baby (Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant being very funny)
Sweet Smell of Success (Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster being magnificently vile).
I thank you all...
Tons of brilliant suggestions, many of which were completely new to me. You are all wonderful people and many thanks to everyone who chipped in. There are quite a few in there that I'd be loath to part with but the Aunt will be happy.
My bank account takes a different view of the situation but as the Nodmeister once hollered, it's Christmas.
I might be too late but...
The Servant, with James Fox (pre-Performance) and Dirk Bogarde and Wendy Craig in a series of dolly-bird wigs (Wendy that is, not Dirk, at least, not on screen). Screenplay by H.Pinter, dir Joseph Losey. Cracking good film.
Can I get a witness
Witness for the Prosecution - Billy Wilder, late 50´s , BW with the magnificent Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power and the wonderful Elsa Lanchester. The best courtroom drama you´ll ever see.
Tunes of Glory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunes_of_Glory
My mother's favourite film (and Roy Hattersley's, according to his Word Of Mouth entry - he obviously knows his stuff). Alec Guinness at the top of his game as a brutal old-school major effectively controlling a Scots regiment in recent peacetime, matched by John Mills as the Oxbridge type bussed in to take over as commanding officer. Scotland has never been so unwelcoming to a sassenach. Oscar-nominated screenplay, reliable Ronald Neame direction, lovely Technicolour cinematography, Malcolm Arnold score. And Gordon Jackson. Amazing it's so little known.
Recommends
Most of you have already named my recommends.
School For Scoundrels, Brief Encounter, certainly the Ealing Box Set.
I'll add the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes Box Set, the war time ones were iffy, but it's a lovely set.