Old movies you've only just seen?
Old movies you've only just seen?
#1Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 2:40pm
Thanks to Netflix, I've been seeing films I've been meaning to for years. Last night, I watched Ordinary People.
Best Picture worthy? Maybe not, but wonderful nonetheless.
I've always liked Tim Hutton as an actor, and this was his role of a lifetime. Twenty years old and Best Supporting Actor winner; just brilliant.
Mary Tyler Moore as an ice queen? Fascinating. She'll always be "Maaaaaar" to me, but her performance in this film made me see her in a whole new light.
Donald Sutherland surprised me with his touching, tortured performance. And Judd Hirsch was great, too...basically playing a Judd Hirsch role.
Yes, my movie reviews are only 27 years old. What of it?
#2re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:08pm
I just saw the original Sabrina for the first time a few weeks ago. Audrey was divine as usual, but I think Harrison Ford is hotter than Humphrey Bogart (who I found attractive in Casablanca but not this.)
That is my very shallow analysis.
SorryGrateful
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/10/05
#2re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:16pm
Oh, I do love Netflix.
I actually just saw A Place in the Sun. I was sort of indifferent to it. I thought the performances were really wonderful, but the plot just didn't hook me.
I should have The Night of the Hunter in my mailbox when I get home tonight. I LOVE Robert Mitchum. He's so utterly cool and menacing.
You promised me poems. ~Tricky
#3re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:18pmI recently saw High Society with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. I loved it!
#4re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:24pm
newgirl, in the almost 30 years since ORDINARY PEOPLE has come out there have been tons of films like it but when it was first released it really was one of the first of it's kind. I think it still holds up as one of the best dramas I've ever seen with Mary Tyler Moore proving beyond a shadow of a doubt she can do anything. To me this one fully deserves it's Best Picture title.
Updated On: 3/7/07 at 03:24 PM
#5re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:39pm
I did think of that while watching it. Sometimes, we see so many "copycats" that we forget how groundbreaking the originals are...
I keep thinking about it today which not many movies make me do these days.
I especially love the fact that it was released only 3 years after MTM went off the air. I'm sure many people thought they were going to a movie to see good ol' Mary Richards and she must have blown them away!
#6re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:51pm
I'm with you on ORDINARY PEOPLE--I find it like a big budget TV movie--a good TV movie, but a TV movie nonetheless. I (just me of course) don't find it groundbreaking in any way--it's a family drama directed in a straightforward style. If that's your thing, you'll love it.
I was surprised by how much I didn't like TO BE OR NOT TO BE (the original with Carole). I APPRECIATED the wit of the screenplay and thought Benny was pretty funny, but I think Carole is way better in GODFREY...hell, she's better in MR AND MRS SMITH!
I also finally got around to seeing THE CONFORMIST--wow...that's all i can say...wow....
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 5:22pm
I still have never seen:
It's A Wonderful Life
Mr Smith Goes To Washington
Poster Emeritus
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#9re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 5:27pmI saw The Children's Hour for the first time about two weeks ago.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#10re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 5:27pm
"I still have never seen:
It's A Wonderful Life
Mr Smith Goes To Washington"
I have to assume that since "It's A Wonderful Life" is on television, on almost every channel, during Christmas time, you have not seen the movie by choice.
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
Wildcard
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
#11re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 7:39pmI recently saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" on OnDemand and I thought it was a wonderful film. The style of the movie was so evocative that wouldn't have the same effect if filmed these days.
blueroses
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/18/04
#12re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 7:54pm
The Best Years of Our Lives.
Mr. Roxy--please treat yourself to a viewing of It's a Wonderful Life! 
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#13re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 10:15pm
I just saw Two For The Seesaw. Having only been exposed to it's musical incarnation, I was surprised to see how dark and raw the movie is.
I identified a bit too much with Gittel and her indicisiveness and her lack of self awareness. I remember being just like a puppy and going home with anyone who paid attention to me. Eventually I realized it wasn't what I wanted.
Updated On: 3/7/07 at 10:15 PM
#14re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 10:32pm
Well, it's been a while since I've seen any new "old" movies... but in the last year I saw "Liliom" (1934) for the first time with Charles Boyer. It was directed by Fritz Lang ("Metropolis") and it was very imaginative and fascinating. Much darker than its musical counterpart ("Carousel").
I also saw Jean Cocteau's "Blood of a Poet." It was tedious at times... but I couldn't stop thinking about it days later. I couldn't shake off the brilliant surrealist imagery. I highly recommend it, if you aren't looking for conventional narrative story-telling but love stark, visceral free-form films. It's hard to believe films like this were being made in 1930.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#15re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:00pm
sorrygrateful: Night of the Hunter is awesome. Mitchum is great, but it's all about Lillian Gish. Fabulous.
I just recently caught up with a couple of old Bette Davis films, The Letter and Mr. Skeffington. Great.
I killed the boss, you don't think they're gonna fire me over a thing like that!!!!
#16re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:02pm
Strike Me Pink, I loved it!
and Metropolis, the first time I've ever given a silent movie a chance. It was breath-taking.
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#17re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:04pm
Mr. Skeffington has a line that I'll never forget and I don't agree with.
"A woman is only beautiful when she is loved."
-Mr. Skeffington
#18re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:06pm
I think ORDINARY PEOPLE is wonderful. Mary Tyler Moore is brilliant.
I have never seen IMITATION OF LIFE.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
shesamarshmallow
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/06
#19re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:25pm
I just watched Four Daughters & The Heiress. Cute movies. I can't wait until school is over... I just don't have time for movies now. 
broadwayunderstudies.com - most underrated performers on broadway
#20re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/7/07 at 11:36pm
Netflix didn't introduce me to "Old Movies," my parents did. We used to go to the library as a family a couple of times a week and see what we could find that looked interesting or "new." I grew up with black and white and yes, sometimes silent movies. Netflix has allowed me to see even more movies. One of my recent favorites was "Kitty Foyle," the movie Ginger Rogers won an oscar for. It wasn't an amazing movie, but her performance was quite compelling. I even liked it enough to buy it. :) PS Mr Roxy, you should see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington! It's a wonderful movie.
Updated On: 3/8/07 at 11:36 PM
#21re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/8/07 at 12:12am
I saw Mr. Smith goes to Washington in 8th grade. Great movie.
Last year, I got introduce to Danny Kaye in The Courst Jester. Then I saw White Christmas for the first time, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Up In Arms, and The Inspector General, and saw Hans Christian Andersen for the second time. The first time I saw it, I was 10 (or younger) and I never knew it was Danny Kaye (swore it was Dick Van Dyke). Court Jester is still my favorite Danny Kaye movie though.
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.
-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
~Curtains~
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
#22re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/8/07 at 12:34am
Well, I'm taking a History of Film class that covers from 1930 to the early 60s and I hadn't seen any of the movies we have seen so far:
REDHEADED WOMAN (Starring Jean Harlowe, wonderful fascinating film!)
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM THE CHAIN GANG (Starring Paul Muni in an Oscar-nominated performance)
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
42ND STREET (I wasn't aware it was so different from the show)
CROSSFIRE
Next week we're doing ROSHOMON, I'm quite excited.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#23re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/8/07 at 12:52am
Oooh 42nd St! Ginger Rogers was in that one too! Sorry I'm a Ginger Rogers fan. 
Updated On: 3/8/07 at 12:52 AM
#24re: Old movies you've only just seen?
Posted: 3/8/07 at 1:01amOhhh she was hilarous as Anytime Annie (great name too!).
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
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