Your 10 favourite films before 1970

[Johnny Canuck3]

Dr. Strangelove
Oliver!
Whisky Galore
The Man in the White Suit
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Great Escape
Zulu
The Longest Day
Bedazzled
Twelve Angry Men
It's a Wonderful Life
The Ladykillers
The Mouse that Roared
I'm Alright, Jack
Alfie
The Italian Job
The Early Bird ("Mr. Grimsdale!")

A good list: all that's missing is Our Man In Havana.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The Wizard of Oz
Some like it hot
Psycho
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory (original)
White Christmas
A Clockwork Orange
Ferris Buellers Day off
The Shining
One flew over the cuckoos nest
Whatever happened to baby jane?

6, 7, 8 and 9 are later than 1970

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

No one's mentioned The Birds...

 

[Meltingpot]

The Birds

That was a great one, but a bit ghoulish for me in places; I'm happy to have it on my list.

 

[Groucho]

No one's mentioned The Birds...

Oh, so I'm no-one now am I?


There are plans to remake The Birds. Although they could do a good job making a standard forgetable horror with updated special fx, they simply can't recreate a film like that. It is of its time and is great for that.


I'm glad to see mentions for Rebecca. Haxan still remains among the favourite films I still need to get my hands on.

 

[alef]

The 70s was a great decade for films, so missing quite a few of my favourites:

Sweet Smell of Success
Grapes of Wrath
Wizard of Oz
Mon Oncle (and most of Tati's films)
Sunset Blvd
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
Lawrence of Arabia
The Apartment
2001
Twelve Angry Men
On the Waterfront
The Hustler
The Killing
City Lights (and most of Chaplin)
Passport to Pimlico (and many of the Ealing comedies)
Duck Soup (and many of the Marx bros)

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Oh, so I'm no-one now am I?


There are plans to remake The Birds. Although they could do a good job making a standard forgetable horror with updated special fx, they simply can't recreate a film like that. It is of its time and is great for that.
.

Sorry; I didn't see.

I don't think you can remake the Birds, at least not in a way that will achieve the feel of the first.

Yes, you can create a million crows, just like you can create a million persians, but there's more to filmmaking than that.

 

[Groucho]

...
Mon Oncle (and most of Tati's films)
...

Tati was a genius.

 

[Leica]

Strike
Sunrise
Storm Over Asia
Queen Christina
Laura
Seven Samurai
Johnny Guitar
The Night of the Hunter
Rebel Without A Cause
Kiss Me Deadly
Imitation of Life
The Eclipse
The Leopard
Il Vangelo secondo Matteo
Alphaville
Persona*

PLUS everything ever made by Hitchcock, Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang and Nicholas Ray

*by the way, I think this film is the basis for David Lynch's Inland Empire

 

[Groucho]

...
Persona*
...

*by the way, I think this film is the basis for David Lynch's Inland Empire

Some good films there. I've not seen Persona. I want to now.

 

[Reno]

No one's mentioned The Birds...

I love The Birds, but restricted myself to one Hitchcock. About two thirds of his films would be on my my essential cinema list.

*by the way, I think this film is the basis for David Lynch's Inland Empire

...and for Robert Altman's Three Women

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

the wizard of oz
metropolis
any laurel and hardy
the ladykillers
psycho
The red shoes
The third man
Jason and the argonauts
Rosemary's baby
Marnie

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

and the wicker man as well.


eta: altho i've just been told that we're into 1973 so i better go to bed. nite .

 

[Reno]

and the wicker man as well.

One of my favourite films, but it's from trhe 70's.

It makes me happy to see you've got Marnie in your list though.

 

[Leica]

...and for Robert Altman's Three Women

I forgot to add The Cranes Are Flying to my list, one of the most beautiful movies ever. The male protagonist reminds me of you, Reno.

 

[Flashman]

Lots of mine already been mentioned but I'll add The Loved One and A Taste of Honey:

The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
The ally-ally-oh
The ally-ally-oh
Oh the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
On the last day of September





Kind Hearts and Coronets is my favourite filum ever.

 

[Reno]

I forgot to add The Cranes Are Flying to my list, one of the most beautiful movies ever. The male protagonist reminds me of you, Reno.

Never seen it. Must check it out now.

 

[Spandex]

Night of the Living Dead
Planet of the Apes
Double Indemnity
Key Largo
Cassablanca
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Our Man in Havana
Kind Hearts & Coronets
North by Northwest
Freaks
M

shit - that's eleven already; I could just keep going...

There seems to be wealth of oldies, I can't imagine folk in fifty years time looking back and going, "Men in Black", "Titanic", "Batman Returns" etc...

I think there's plenty of films from the 90s/00s that people will fondly remember in the future: Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Shindler's List, the LOTR films, City of God, loads of others (and yes, I know someone will think one or all of these are shit; that's beside the point). When we look back at older films, the forgettable shite has been forgotten and we concentrate on the good stuff, giving the impression that films were better back then.

 

[Chz]

I've not read the rest of the thread to keep my mind clear of influence...

The first things that come to mind:
Repulsion (*classic* Polanski, if only he kept that up)
The Third Man
North By Northwest
Anna Karenina
Duck Soup
Rear Window (should I just say that Hitchcock is a god here?)
The Birds (yup, apparently)
Metropolis
Casablanca (cheese, but such *GOOD* cheese)
The Wizard of Oz
Sound of Music
Some Like it Hot
Harvey
Dr. Strangelove

That's what comes immediately to mind. I'm sure if I read the thread in its entirety, I'd have at least 2 dozen more.
(Edited because I've said "Dr. Strangelove" at least 10x to this question and forgot it this time)