Movie Classic Films — Let's Discuss

[Dees 31]

G'day Big Footiers,
Apart from my devotion to AFL via the 'mighty' Dees, my main area of interest is old, classic films. I'm a film producer and screen writer plus I do a weekly film review of classic films on a radio station and I'm always intersested in what people class as their 'classic films', not necessarily old films but also 'stand-out' films that are a special example of their type, or genre. It's always interesting to gauge other people's ideas on what they think are classic films and why. I've got a personal film collection of over 600 films but I'm interested to know about more great films, I may have missed. Perhaps we can get a group together who likes talking about old, and new, great films. It's always subjective and I'd never bag anyone's choice of what they think is a great film. I'm just interested to know what you people think are really great films.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[Dan Moody]

I love any movies from the first half of last century, up to maybe the mid 60's. Especially the universal horror movies of the 30's & 40's. I have around 350 movies in my collection with quite a lot on VHS that I am transferring to DVD. A hidden gem that I watched early this year was Winchester 73 with James Stewart. I used to listen to a good movie show on triple r years ago that covered a lot of movies from the golden years.
Cue Asgardian who will probably be able to trump most here with movie knowledge.

 

[Dees 31]

G'day Ferris,
Yep, I'm quite a fan of the older horror pics, James Whale et al. You've got a good sized collection. That's great. I remember 'Winchester 73' from back when Channel 9 used to do all night movies, ah those were the days, but we didn't have VCRs then. What a pity. 'Winchester...' was a good western, although I'm not heavily into the western genre. I am a great fan of Jimmy Stewart. Anthony Mann directed 'Winchester...', a good director who did a few others with Stewart, 'The Glenn Miller Story', 'Strategic Air Command', that I can recall. Stewart was such a versatile actor. He was so good I can't pick a single favourite film of his, so I have three: "It's A Wonderful Life', 'Rear Window' and 'Harvey'. Three totally different picture styles and all made near perfect by James Stewart. "Harvey' just might pip the other two at the post. It's such a good film. Stewart also did it on stage, he loved the story so much. Anyway, Ferris, I'll keep a look out for 'Winchester 73'. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[mdc]

Dees 31, right you are about the Mann/Stewart tag-team. I would single out The Man from Laramie and The Naked Spur as two particularly fine films they made together; both films are terrific examples of the potential of the Western genre. Mann also made some wonderful noirs like Raw Deal and should rightfully be regarded as one of the best directors of the period. I'm not sure why he's so often forgotten.

Pressed for time atm, will return later with some lesser known great film recommendations.

 

[mantis]

Horror has alwats been my favourite genre, I loved the Hammer films, especially the ones with Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in them, they worked so well together. The majority of my DVD/Tapes are horror, I especially love B grade horror, like "It Alive" trilogy, "Venom" etc, great entertainment.

 

[SunKing]

Always been a big fan of old hollywood in particular things like The Marx Brothers comedies such as Animal Crackers and Monkey Business. But also a huge fan of the master of suspense Hitchcock primarily his movies starring Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart.

 

[Dees 31]

G'day Mantis,
Yes, the Hammer horror pics range from truly excellent to not so good. But Christopher Lee always gave good value no matter how hokey the plot or how low the budget. I literally bumped into Christopher Lee in Cannes in 1994. He was coming out of a Tabacs and, tall as he is I nearly knocked the old gentleman over. He apologised profusely for my clumsiness. He was a real gent. I was over there as a working journalist and he generously agreed to an interview. A couple of days later I spent an hour and a half with him and got a great piece for the paper. He was an extremely well-read, intelligent and naturally funny bloke. His one great regret in pictures was that no one ever gave him a shot at doing a comedy. Although he said he thought some of his lesser horror films were pretty funny all by themselves.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[Dees 31]

G'day SunKing,
Oh you're so right. Hitchcock is my favourite director of all time. I know that's a big statement, and I could rattle on for pages on why I think that but the short version is that Hitch was the first of the modern era directors who knew that films were all about visuals. Scripts, though important, were always of secondary concern to him. The vision is everything. Editing too. He knew how to supervise an editor and edit himself. His 'contract' with the viewer was far ahead of his time. He respected the audience like no other director of the time. Always giving them just enough information to make them comfortable with the progression of the plot, while not spoiling it or confusing them with red herrings. Technically, he was not surpassed by any director of his era. His understanding of the mechanics of film making was total. It is sad that both during his heyday and afterwards mainstream Hollywood did not take him seriously enough because of his subject matter. Hitch was always a 'god' in europe and was appreciated for his true talents way before the rest of the world 'rediscovered' him. Sure, I truly admire many other directors, some border on pure genius but, for me, Hitch was the first true, English language, interpreter of pure cinema.
My favourite is 'Rear Window', but many other of his films hold a special place in my pantheon of great film classics.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[Magpiespower]

There was a Hammer Horror/Christopher Lee double on 'Go!' at the weekend - Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Loved both these movies as a kid but...

Another director often criminally overlooked is Hal Ashby, who peaked in the 1970s with Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home and Being There.

That's a body of work behind perhaps only Coppola and Scorese in that era, which is really the Golden Age'' of American cinema.

Hitch was the first of the modern era directors who knew that films were all about visuals. Scripts, though important, were always of secondary concern to him.

Easy not to worry when you've got Ben Hecht, Ernest Lehmann and John Michael Hayes writing them...

 

[DEVO]

We have over 3000 films in DVD/VHS collection, a large percentage of these are European films from the late 50's to late 90's.
My wife's love of film grew from living in an apartment above her mothers restaurant opposite a small independent cinema in Toulouse. Every weekend she would watch a new release or the re-run of a past French and Italian classic. She would also sneak in late Friday or Saturday night to watch the b-grade European exploitation films that began making a comback in the late 80's.
My love of European cinema first began with the love of a particular actress (Claudia Cardinale) and then some of the classics I'd seen on SBS or found at the local video store, films such as Breathless, Belle De Jour, Tristana, The Leopard and 8 1/2 to name a few. Over the course of the last 20 or so years, I have developed a particular fondness for a number of era's, such as German Empressionism and New Objectivity, French New Wave, Italian pink neorealism and the Polish cinema of the 80's & 90's (Kieslowski is my all-time favourite director) plus the numerous horror genres like vampires, zombie, italian giallo and the b-grade weirdos.

As for the Hollywood films in our collection, most are linked to a particular actor, actress or director we like and not necessarily to any particular period or genre. Some of the stars we like include Louise Brooks, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, Grace Kelly, Audrey Heburn, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. As for Directors it's pretty hard to go past Alfred Hitchcock, he is one of my all-time favourites, but I also like Billy Wilder, Stanley Donen and mark Sandrich.

 

[Dees 31]

G'day DEVO,
Wow, that's some collection. And it's great to find a European film enthusiast. There are thousands of films from all over Europe that, sadly, I probably won't get to catch up with. When I was a film reviewer we were largely restricted to mainstream English-language films and that was a pity. I would like to be far more familiar with the trends and sub-genres of European films. One of the reasons I enjoy Cannes so much is the huge range of films shown there, outside the main competition. Some of the best European films I've ever seen were screened there and I saw most of them almost at random with little or no prior knowledge. I know who to ask when I need some expert advice on films from Europe. Sadly, the one art-house cinema here where I live does not have the opportunity to screen many foreign films. Thank heavens for SBS.
Thanks for the post.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[Dees 31]

G'day MagpiesPower,
Yes, the work of Hal Ashby is way underrated. 'The Last Detail' is in my top 50 films. A tremendous performance from Jack Nicholson, perhaps his best ever. There are traces of his character in 'The Last Detail' that are clearly evident in his approach to the R.P.McMurphy role in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.
Cheers,
Dees 31

 

[sandeano]

Like many people my interest in classic film was nurtured by watching them with my parents as a kid. Of course, back then FTA TV screened enough that you could receive an education in Hollywood and British cinema from home. As I got older I would stay up late to watch Ivan Hutchinson's late night offerings on Channel 7 and the dawn to dusk runs on Channel 9 (they would screen at least 3 films per night after midnight!). Good old Bill Collins on Channel 10 would also deliver the goods.

It is at the point these days where I watch very little that is new, simply because there is so much older stuff I need to catch up on. I have several thousand films in my collection, but I am also quite a nut on the history of cinema and cinemas. I have about 5000 film posters and related items, over 20000 journals and magazines and god knows how many books on the subject.

My main interest is British cinema (currently writing my PhD on an aspect of it) but I also have a fascination with various Hollywood modes from Film Noir to westerns and horror films.

Less to do with this topic is an ongoing interest in exploitation on which I've lectured a bit and presented some papers on.

But the overall thing is that the more I watch the more I NEED to watch and the older I get, I know I will never see everything I need to.

 

[skilts]

Like many people my interest in classic film was nurtured by watching them with my parents as a kid. Of course, back then FTA TV screened enough that you could receive an education in Hollywood and British cinema from home. As I got older I would stay up late to watch Ivan Hutchinson's late night offerings on Channel 7 and the dawn to dusk runs on Channel 9 (they would screen at least 3 films per night after midnight!). Good old Bill Collins on Channel 10 would also deliver the goods.

It is at the point these days where I watch very little that is new, simply because there is so much older stuff I need to catch up on. I have several thousand films in my collection, but I am also quite a nut on the history of cinema and cinemas. I have about 5000 film posters and related items, over 20000 journals and magazines and god knows how many books on the subject.

My main interest is British cinema (currently writing my PhD on an aspect of it) but I also have a fascination with various Hollywood modes from Film Noir to westerns and horror films.

Less to do with this topic is an ongoing interest in exploitation on which I've lectured a bit and presented some papers on.

But the overall thing is that the more I watch the more I NEED to watch and the older I get, I know I will never see everything I need to.

Ivan was one of nature's gentlemen. A sad loss.

Sandeano, it seems you've parlayed your interest into an academic pursuit. Good onya. It's a good thing to have more people writing seriously about film.

 

[mantis]

Ivan was great, he was suxh a fountain of information.

I know I shouldn't probably be mentioning this in the same post as Ivan, but being a Horror tragic, I used to love watching Deadly Ernest & Igor. I loved that show, though most nights after I watched it I'd have to sleep with my light on.

 

[skilts]

Ivan was great, he was suxh a fountain of information.

I know I shouldn't probably be mentioning this in the same post as Ivan, but being a Horror tragic, I used to love watching Deadly Ernest & Igor. I loved that show, though most nights after I watched it I'd have to sleep with my light on.

I'm betting Dees 31 knew Ivan. It would be interesting to get his take on the man.

 

[mantis]

I'm betting Dees 31 knew Ivan. It would be interesting to get his take on the man.

You're not being a sceptic now are you?

Back on topic, did you watch Deadly Ernest?

As for Jimmy Stewart, what is your favourite JS movie? Mine is Harvey, that is such a brilliant movie, way ahead of it's time. When I saw Donnie Darko, I had a flashback to Harvey.

 

[sandeano]

Cheers Skilts. I gave up steady emplyment in a field I kinda enjoyed but was not completely fulfilled with to study film. Currently it is paying its way, but it is nice to do something I love, even if better money could be made elsewhere.

As for Ivan, I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and yes, he was a true gentleman. A lovely chap to speak to, he always made time for chats at film festivals and the like and always showed an interest in the opinions and stories of others. It was a real tragedy when he died, a true loss.

Here's one for the trivia buffs - long before David and Margaret, Ivan and Jim Murphy hosted the "Two on the Aisle" TV series, an early precursor to "The Movie Show". A real treat for me as a kid was "Ivan's Late Night Nostalgia" series which ran on a late Friday night, on which Ivan would interview film people, musicians and other entertainers, screen old newsreels, serials and finish up with an old movie. Just a wonderful program. It is hard to articulate, but there was always something 'comforting' (I think that word fits best) having him around. TV misses him greatly.

 

[sandeano]

Regarding Jimmy Stewart, I remember when he passed away, among the most interesting of tributes was one by, of all people, Clint Eastwood who remarked that one thing Stewart could do better than most was portray raw anger on screen. When you think about it, I reckon Clint was right.

I have great fondness for Harvey aswell, but if I could only watch one Stewart film again it would probably have to be Bend of the River, one of the superb series of films he made with the great Anthony Mann as mentioned earlier by mdc.

 

[jacqui9]

I have a collection numbering over 1100 legitimate DVDs. I would say 95% of them are pre 1970s.

My passion for eclectic film started when I was 22. I grew up watching old British war films with my dad (who is the biggest influence on my interests).

Once I began studying Weimar and Nazi Germany,
my favourite 'genres' of film became Noir, German Expressionism (including German silent horror) and foreign silents. I love old Hollywood and prefer the more underrated noir actors such as John Garfield, Dana Andrews to the big name stars like Cary Grant, Joan Crawford etc...

Some of my favourite directors include; F.W Murnau, Fritz Lang, D.W Griffith, Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, William Wyler, Carl Th Dreyer, Samuel Fuller, Martin Ritt, Robert Rossen, Bob Wise among many others

Sadly, many silents and classic films are being neglected. However, there are a few distributors such as Criterion, Eureka Masters of Cinema and Kino still dedicated to the restoration of eclectic film. In fact, Eureka has an Lubitsch collection coming out in January.

My study of this type of film (and World War Two history incidently) is just for the pure love of it. I am not doing a Uni course.

 

[DEVO]

Sadly, many silents and classic films are being neglected. However, there are a few distributors such as Criterion, Eureka Masters of Cinema and Kino still dedicated to the restoration of eclectic film. In fact, Eureka has an Lubitsch collection coming out in January.

The Australian National Film and Sound Archive also do a very good job of restoring Australian silents, "The Sentemental Bloke" and "The Story of The Kelly Gang" were wonderful releases. The problem with being a fan of silents is very few of them survive because the film stock was so delicate and the studio's didn't consider libraries and managing their back catalogue untill the 50's and 60's.

One of the finest DVD releases I've come across is Criterion's "Pandora's Box" (Die Bucshe der Pandora). It's a 2 DVD set with the longest version of the film I've seen (131 minutes) and 4 musical scores, a number of wonderful documenteries on Louise Brooks and a book with two essays on Louise Brooks and G. W. Pabst.

 

[Magpiespower]

Hal Hartley might not have made any 'classics' as such, but I'm a huge fan.

Trust is the pick of the bunch.

Hard to see his stuff these days.

Of his last three films, only Fay Grimm has been released here.

On DVD...

 

[sandeano]

Hal Hartley might not have made any 'classics' as such, but I'm a huge fan.

Trust is the pick of the bunch.

Hard to see his stuff these days.

Of his last three films, only Fay Grimm has been released here.

On DVD...

I always have the feeling that Hartley's best films were when he had Adrienne Shelly as, if not his muse, then at least his leading lady. Tragically, that will never happen again.

The last Hartley film I saw was Book of Life, which I did like a lot.

 

[jacqui9]

The Australian National Film and Sound Archive also do a very good job of restoring Australian silents, "The Sentemental Bloke" and "The Story of The Kelly Gang" were wonderful releases. The problem with being a fan of silents is very few of them survive because the film stock was so delicate and the studio's didn't consider libraries and managing their back catalogue untill the 50's and 60's.

One of the finest DVD releases I've come across is Criterion's "Pandora's Box" (Die Bucshe der Pandora). It's a 2 DVD set with the longest version of the film I've seen (131 minutes) and 4 musical scores, a number of wonderful documenteries on Louise Brooks and a book with two essays on Louise Brooks and G. W. Pabst.

The National Film and Sound Archive is a place I would dearly love to visit. I own The Story of the Kelly Gang and actually sat down and listened to the commentary. Remarkable.

What shits me now is that studios like Warner Bros and Universal are now offering classic collectors a Video-on-Demand service. Old VHS masters are now simply burned onto DVD-Rs, a hefty price slapped on them and no international postage offered. I remember a time when I used to have three or four Fox or Warners boxsets arriving per month and maybe ten single releases, but this hasn't happened for over a year now. Pressed discs for classics are becoming a thing of the past sadly, which means studios won't be restoring many more of their classics. Everything is going Blu. Even Criterion are cutting back on their classic releases.

However, Eureka have picked up the bat for silents through their Masters of Cinema line. They restored Sunrise and gave it a Blu-ray release earlier this year. It is absolutely stunning. They are certainly heads above the rest in regards to the restoration of international silent films. Metropolis (rumoured to be receiving a Blu release next year), Spione, Tartuffe, Vampyr, Faust, Frau im Mond, L'Argent, Diary of a Lost Girl. Kino International are also still committed to silent film preservation.

I received the Dam Busters on Blu about a month ago and seriously, if you love British War films, it will blow you away.

 

[Dees 31]

Cheers Skilts. I gave up steady emplyment in a field I kinda enjoyed but was not completely fulfilled with to study film. Currently it is paying its way, but it is nice to do something I love, even if better money could be made elsewhere.

As for Ivan, I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and yes, he was a true gentleman. A lovely chap to speak to, he always made time for chats at film festivals and the like and always showed an interest in the opinions and stories of others. It was a real tragedy when he died, a true loss.

Here's one for the trivia buffs - long before David and Margaret, Ivan and Jim Murphy hosted the "Two on the Aisle" TV series, an early precursor to "The Movie Show". A real treat for me as a kid was "Ivan's Late Night Nostalgia" series which ran on a late Friday night, on which Ivan would interview film people, musicians and other entertainers, screen old newsreels, serials and finish up with an old movie. Just a wonderful program. It is hard to articulate, but there was always something 'comforting' (I think that word fits best) having him around. TV misses him greatly.

G'day Sandeano,
What a coincidence. As I was once a 'working' film critic, I had the great privelidge of counting the late and great Ivan Hutchinson as one of my good mates. Ivan was one of the most gentle, polite and thoroughly likeable people I've ever met. In a bitchy industry (film and TV) he never, not once, had a bad word to say about anyone (some of whom deserved derision). He was a hugely talented musician and composer. A great wit, and very well read, and also, like me, a former journalist. (That beats the 'all journos are scumbags' theory!)

Seriously, Ivan was a truly gifted film reviewer and critc. He started in film reviews, believe it or not, writing for the Catholic newspaper... being a pagan, I've forgotten what it was called.

Ivan, Keith Connolly and I would often be at a distributor's preview and poor old Keith would invariably fall asleep near the end, especially if it was not a great film, so he would always, sheepishly, ask Ivan and I about the film. Now we knew he'd been asleep (he snored) but Ivan and I used to go through this discussion about the film with him so that he would know what it was all about and so he could write his piece for the paper. I used to say to Ivan, "Let's give him a false ending to a film... he'll write about it, it will be a grand joke." Ivan, of course, wouldn't be in it... he was too much the gentleman. Only once did I see Ivan almost lose it. He and I were having a drink with Bill Collins after some film function. A 'film fan' came up to Bill and asked him for an autograph. Collins gave it and when the person left Bill derided the man for bothering him. Ivan, in an uncharacteristic outburst, told Collins he was being an arse and that if it wasn't for people like the autograph hunter he'd be a nobody schoolteacher from nowhere! I could have kissed Ivan because Bill truly deserved a dressing down.
Yes Vale Ivan. I was overseas when he passed away and I found out months later. It was one of the saddest days of my life. Ivan Hutchinson was a truly good man.

On another matter Sandeano, wow what a film collection, and you're a film scholar too. I'll be coming to YOU for film advice next time I get stuck on a review or article.
Cheers,
Dees 31