Ask night ask night! Thanks to you, my partner and I have started oldie movie nights--but we could use some direction! Do you have some movie recs that are not the obvious choices, but you think newbie classic movie watchers like ourselves should see?
here are some hot old movies that I think newbies will enjoy
the rage of paris (danielle darrieux, douglas fairbanks jr.)—this is a cute, deeply underrated romcom about an accidental conwoman, her judgmental best friend, a silly little waiter at a hotel and a bunch of rich guys. mood is cute and sweet
the talk of the town (ronald colman, jean arthur, cary grant)—longtime followers of the blog are rolling their eyes but THIS ONE IS GOOD. the less you know about it going in the better tbh, but uhh it's about what if you sublet your house to a hot judge and there was also a hot criminal hiding in the attic. and you yourself are hot. and there's borchst. trust me on this one please
key largo or the big sleep (lauren bacall, humphrey bogart)—I think the big sleep is the better of these two, but key largo is also a good example of a bogey & bacall noir (plus you get edward g. robinson!). the tension keeps ratcheting up, the two leads are so hot together, and the big sleep in particular is one of the best ensemble casts i've ever seen—a fully built seedy world of tricksters, femme fatales, gangsters, and fog.
flower drum song (nancy kwan, james shigeta, miyoshi umeki)—ok this one is bad! i'm just going to say it off the bat. i have so many complex emotions about it because the cast is killer, the production design is gorgeous, this is a classic 50s-60s big studio musical. writing is racist garbage written by white people and there is one egregious example of yellowface. but if you want to see a nearly all-asian cast absolutely knock it out of the park, I love suggesting this.
his girl friday (cary grant, rosalind russell)—rosalind wants to quit both her ex and the newspaper business; unfortunately she's maybe not over either as much as she thought. mood is snappy reporters yelling into telephones, lovers to enemies to lovers, arguments that read as foreplay. cw for an offscreen subplot that mentions the murder of a Black cop, and one racist slur.
sherlock jr. (buster keaton)—if you're new to silent films, I think Buster is a great way to start. this is maybe his best, but the general and the navigator are also technically good, though require heavy content warnings for being about the idealized confederacy (the general) and having a racist "island savages" section near the end (the navigator).
to be or not to be (carole lombard, jack benny)—a little story about resistance that makes me cry and laugh and cry. this takes place in poland during wwii so big tw for nazi imagery and mentions. (don’t worry. this movie fucking hates nazis.)
the mortal storm (james stewart, margaret sullavan, frank morgan)—this also made me cry. this movie will not be escapism at the present moment which also makes me cry. fuck nazis.
you can find many more recs here.
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
snowghoul
