What Are Your Favorite Movies Made Before 1950?

Free Republic ^ | 12/12/09 | Randita

[B Knotts]

Also, for the less critically acclaimed type movies:

The Wolf Man - 1941
Destry Rides Again - 1939

I’m also a fan of some of the old gangster movies, but haven’t seen them in years.

[SmokingJoe]

“It Happened One Night is my moms favorite movie,Gable & Lombard, great movie”

Gable & Claudette Colbert actually. Seen it at least 5 times.
Loved Shane and Winchester `73 too.
But then anything with James Stewart in it is pure gold.
James Stewart, a great American, on and off the screen.
Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Van Heflin were great in Shane.
For my money, Van Heflin is one of the greatest (and most underrated acoters) of that era.

[Richard Kimball]

Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948. Hey mister, can you stake a fellow American to a meal?

Wizard of Oz, 1939.

[jaz.357]

Any Hope and Crosby film.

[Fiji Hill]

I especially enjoy musicals:

• Pigskin Parade (1936)
• Hollywood Revue of 1929
• The Big Broadcast (1932)
• The Big Broadcast of 1938
• Gold Diggers of 1933
• Gold Diggers of 1935
• Hollywood Hotel (1937)
• The King of Jazz (1930)
• Murder at the Vanities (1934)
• Fashions of 1934

[6323cd]

"The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937) with Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Madeleine Carroll, Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith... it doesn't get much better than that.

"My Man Godfrey" (1936) with William Powell and Carole Lombard.

"Swing Time" (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

"Bachelor Mother" (1939) with Ginger Rogers (again) and David Niven (again).

"Ninotchka" (1939) with Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.

"Ruggles of Red Gap" (1936) with Charles Laughton.

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland.

Just to name a few!

[B Knotts]

A Night at the Opera: 1936

How could I have forgotten that one? Probably one of my top 5 all-time favorites!

[patriot08]

.

I’m not an ‘old timer’, but I love old movies. They just don’t make wonderful old movies like they did back then.

May I suggest these wonderful Christmas movies:

It’s a Wonderful Life

White Christmas

The Bishop’s Wife

Christmas in Conneticut

Holiday Inn

Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version)

And the ‘not so old’
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

.

A few of my favorite old non-Christmas movies:

(Girls, you can’t go wrong with any Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland or Greer Garson movie)

Rebecca

Casa Blanca

Random Harvest

Meet Me In St Louis

Now Voyager

Mildred Pierce

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Sunset Blvd

Strangers on a Train

A Streetcar Named Desire

Mrs. Parkington

Mrs Minniver

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

The Old Maid

Dark Victory

Jezebel

The Little Foxes

In This Our Life

Mr. Skeffington

A Stolen Life

All About Eve

And the old ‘not so old’ movies:

Rosemary’s Baby
Jaws
E.T.

.

[Doogle]

1933

[Harold Shea]

Been a long time since I saw Gold Rush,that was an amazing
movie,no screen tricks back then

Loved Leslie Howards portrayal of the Pumpernickle

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is He in heaven...is he in Hell
That damned elusive Pimpernel

[SmokingJoe]

“The Prisoner of Zenda” (1937) with Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Madeleine Carroll, Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith... it doesn't get much better than that”

Excellent cast.
All great actors.
Raymond Massey, what a great actor. There really was no one like him.

[nickcarraway]

Foreign Correspondent
The Big Sleep
The Thin Man
My Man Godfrey
Bringing Up Baby
You Can’t Take It With You
Sullivan’s Travels
(Almost anything by Hitchcock, Hawks, Capra, and Sturges from that period)

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

All of the Harold Lloyd films, he was the greatest action
comedian.

[ScaniaBoy]

M’Lord, a fascinating poem, on my honour!

:-)

[joeystoy]

Are you kidding? How could I have forgotten My Man Godfrey, His Girl Friday, The Palm Beach Story, How Green Was My Valley, Stagecoach, Freaks, Captain Blood, Rebecca, The 39 Steps, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Lady Vanishes........

I hate to sound like an old fossil, but they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

[DuncanWaring]

1956.

Not quite a “Civil War Centennial”.

[Vaquero]

yes with Casablanca and King Kong both are in my top 20

I loathe Gone with the Wind...just hate it...

I am in my 60’s but my favorite movies are all from the 70’s or later

here in no particular order

1 flew over the cuckoo’s nest....

Tombstone,

the Shootist,

Unforgiven,

the Godfather (1 & 2)

Goodfellas..

Young Frankenstein.

[Fiji Hill]

I was 2 in 1950. Anyone remember the kids tv show in the early ‘50s, “Ding Dong School Bell”? I loved that show.

I was minus one in 1950. The kid's show that I remember best is "Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade," which was broadcast on weekdays over KTTV in Los Angeles. Most Baby Boomers who grew up in the Southland in the 1950's ought to remember his theme song, The Birthday Cake Polka.

[apocalypto]

Gone with the Wind
It's a Beautiful Life
So Red the Rose
Wizard of Oz

[LibFreeOrDie]

Musicals:
Meet Me In St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, State Fair
Busby Berkeley musicals
Fred and Ginger. Fred and Rita.

The Marx Brothers

The Thin Man series

Hope and Crosby’s Road series

Shirley Temple

All WW2 movies

Bios of scientists:
Story of Louis Pasteur (37)
Young Tom Edison and Edison The Man (40)
Madame Curie
Dr. Erlich’s Magic Bullet

Hitchcock’s Notorious (Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant -’46)

The Thief of Bagdad (40)

The Sea Hawk (40)

Hunchback of Notre Dame (39)

How Green Was My Valley (41)

Red River (48)

Open City (45)

Anything with Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Jimmy Cagney, Cary Grant.