I haven’t see “The Best Years of Our Lives” yet but I’ll make a point to get to it. Mostly I’ve been buying old movies just based on the actors and the description (I prefer mysteries). My method is just like going to new movies, but the chances of a fun movie are more likely, and the chance of a “perennial favorite” a real possibility. I can see where people like Bette Davis and John Barrymore would draw someone to the theater. They made every script sing.
Have you tried The Thin Man series?
I watch new movies when I can rent them for a few bucks, but I have been delving deeper and deeper into old movies. There is a lot of great stuff out there that makes many movies today seem shallow and infantile by comparison.
I love stuff like “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”, “The Caine Mutiny”, “Some Like it Hot”, etc.