What Are Your Favorite Movies Made Before 1950?

Free Republic ^ | 12/12/09 | Randita

[BIGLOOK]

Yes, I’ve seen Brett’s performances and it’s right up there with Rathbone and Cushing. How Hollywood passed over veteran thespians like Ian McClelland or Patrick Stewart for the part of Holmes and chose Downy is beyond me.

[shield]

Here you can watch here: Arsenic and Old Lace -- 1944

[6323cd]

I didn't know about the rheumatic fever issue.

As far as their later films, "The Time of Their Lives" is probably the best.

[djf]

Thanks. Here on the west coast, just turned it on. Shoulda got a blank tape, but I didn’t.

IIRC, NBC usually shows it twice..

[Zman516]

Bataan(1943)

Back to Bataan(1945)

Flying Tigers(1943)

Sands Of Iwo Jima(1945)

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo(1944)

I love those old wartime movies. Especially those with John Wayne.

[wtc911]

See if you can find One Night in the Tropics. It was a real movie on its own before A&C were plugged into it. It starred Bob Cummings and Alan Jones, had two cute female leads and a couple of decent songs. The studio decided to try the boys out in film after their huge radio success. They were so good that they wrote and shot additional scenes after production and edited them in.

IMO, it is the only look we get at the "real" Abbott and Costello although Buck Privates comes close.

btw...for the best of Costello's pratfalls check out Who Done It? Chevy Chase dreams about being half as good as Lou in this one.

[6323cd]

Thanks, will make a point of getting them.

[PUGACHEV]

"Potemkin is one of those movies that was influential and left a lasting stamp on every film that came after—but the film itself is rather dull, IMO..."

I would have agreed with you until I saw Battleship Potemkin accompanied live by the National Symphony Orchestra, as it was intended to be seen. You couldn't move from your seat; and the last scene with the bow of the battleship plowing straight into the camera at the same time the orchestra reached a crescendo left everyone stunned for minutes after the film was over.

[BluesDuke]

After these were finished two things happened that killed the force of nature that was Lou Costello...he almost died from rheumatic fever and his two year old drowned in the backyard pool.

There was a third thing that killed that force of nature: finances. Lou Costello and Bud Abbott were inveterate gamblers and spenders and, when combined with head-up-their-ass business sense and a couple of unscrupulous business people in the middle of some of their affairs, they ran up such a bill with the IRS that only selling his shares of their later films and television show (Costello had full shares, Abbott---whose problems included a battle with the bottle tied to his need to control his epilepsy---did not, apparently) kept Costello from dying completely broke. Abbott, alas, wasn't to be spared that fate.

Which seems a rather ignominious end for the comic team who basically saved Universal Studios' asses with the success (at the box office, if not exactly as high comic art) of their films.

My personal view is that Abbott & Costello were far better on radio, the evidence of which is available at archive.org. With the right writing (which was a challenge, considering Lou Costello's pigheaded insistence on keeping his brother Pat as head writer, which guaranteed they wouldn't be doing too many new types of material they could well have handled at a high standard, and that some of radio's best comedy writers walked out on them almost as soon as they were hired by them), they could have been even better.

(Did you know: Reputedly, Abbott & Costello's radio contracts invariably required them to perform "Who's on First" as often as three times a season, making it a wonder that people didn't get sick of the routine before their radio careers ended.)

[nickcarraway]

It's hard for me to pick my favorite Sturges, but actually left out what may be my favorite, Palm Beach Story. But, I would have a hard time arguing that Hail the Conquering Hero, Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, The Great McGinty, or Christmas in July were substantially less good. (Christmas in July may be less well known, but it works for me) I think having seven comedies in a row that were so outstanding is probably unprecedented by any director.

[murphE]

Anything with Cary Grant...[sigh...swoon]

[nickcarraway]

The Third Man is one of those movies that gets better every time you watch it. I think I was least impressed the first time I saw it, and now it's unforgettable to me.

[Erasmus]

And Peggy Wood, in the subsequent TV series.

[nickcarraway]

You are right about that, he did all those athletics feats, even though one of his hands was blown of at a publicity shoot in 1919. It's almost impossible to believe he did Safety Last with only one full hand. Besides Safety Last, one of my favorites is the one where he writes books about being a ladies' man, while in real life he's a milquetoast who is scared of women.

[Erasmus]

We The Living (1942) - Rossano Brazzi & Alida Valli
The Third Man (1949) - Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, & Alida Valli

Maybe one reason why I like these films so much is that they both feature the incomparable Miss Valli.

The earlier one was made in Fascist Italy and disappeared for about 40 years after its initial showings, suppressed by the authorities when they realized the Ayn Rand story wasn’t just about Communism.

The latter one was of course made in postwar Vienna, to tremendous effect. Famously, the lead character, Welles’ Harry Lime, doesn’t appear until halfway through the film. The DVD release has among its special features a short film on the playing of zitherist Anton Karas.

[Erasmus]

Okay, we'll cut you some slack on those last two; they were probably filmed before 1950.

I was going to add The Day the Earth Stood Still, but that one really does miss the cut.

[Erasmus]

Anyone see Battleship Potemkin? 1925. Now that is a trip. Netflix has it.

Hmmm...might as well put in a plug for Aleksandr Nevsky.

I've enjoyed that incredibly strong and sometimes creepy orchestral suite that Prokofiev fashioned out of his film score, that I owe it to myself to hunt down the movie.

(The orchestral suite is available on CD in a Reiner/Chicago performance.)

[Forgiven_Sinner]

“Anyone see Battleship Potemkin? 1925. Now that is a trip. Netflix has it.”

Yes, I saw it on PBS, I think, in the 80’s. There was a scene with maggots in the food . . .

Other favorites: Frankenstein 1932
The Great Train Robbery 1908?
Birth of a Nation 1925?
Shirley Temple and Mr. Bojangles 1934?
Shirley Temple Heidi (1937?)

many many more . . .

[Erasmus]

I forgot to add that these films, along with the Ivan the Terrible series, were by Sergei Eisenstein.

[Erasmus]

America,America

I presume you mean Elia Kazan's movie about coming to America, based loosely, IIRC, on the experience of his uncle?

I saw that in '63 or '64 in a small-town art movie theater (if you can belive such a thing once existed!).