Movies & TV Discussions

For me Casablanca is the best. "Bogie" was at his best. The music was perfect for the plot. Is there anybody who doesn't love As Time Goes By? And those classic quotes. "Round up the usual subjects". "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." "Of all the gin mills in the world, she had to walk into this one". "Here's lookin at you kid". "You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it, Sam". These quotes are immediately recognizable and still frequently used. This movie launched hundreds of "Bogie" impressions.

Of course Gone With The Wind. Who can forget Rhett & Scarlett? I can close my eyes and hear and see "Frankly, I don't give a damn". It was unusual at the time because romance movies generally had a happy ending but you never knew for certain whether they could ever reunite.

A few more that I really like are Laura, A Letter To Three Wives, City Lights, All About Eve, Mildred Pierce and so many more.

I love classic movies. I can't name one favorite; there are too many I like. It also depends on my mood or whats on tv like on TCM.

Also I have favorites for certain times of year. Around Christmas I must see "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th St.".

Good to see Classic vintage movies getting attention...   City Lights, All About Eve, Third Man, Sons of the Desert,  The Red Shoes, Duck Soup, Nothing Sacred, To Have and Have Not and on and on they go.  

Love me some classic movies, even have a few on my shelf.  Marx Brothers, Casablanca, and one of my very favorites, Treasure of the Sierra Madre....

By now I can probably lip-sync the screenplay of Casablanca.  Superb!  But sometimes the classics seem to fail.  I watched "Citizen Kane" not too long ago and was very dissapointed.

gaelforce said…

I love classic movies. I watch a lot of black & white movies and movies from the 40s and 50s.

If you like this kind of movies, what ones did you really enjoy?

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The problem with terms such as "classic movies" is that they encompass lots of time periods, not just the B&W,  Golden Age of Hollywood, Big Studios era.

That having been said, my favorite "old movie"  would definitely be Casablanca.  It's perhaps to be expected since it has a bit of everything for everyone, but despite a couple of visual goofs, it works even 60 years after its release.

By the way, the line is "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

Thanks for the correct "of all the gin joints" line. And I was so proud of myself thinking I had all those lines right. Guess it must be time to watch Casablanca again. I'm looking forward to watching it again this weekend.

gaelforce said…

Thanks for the correct "of all the gin joints" line. And I was so proud of myself thinking I had all those lines right. Guess it must be time to watch Casablanca again. I'm looking forward to watching it again this weekend.

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Gael,

That line is perhaps the trickiest one of the ones you chose.  It's one of my personal favorites!

If you love Casablanca, may I recommend a good read? There's a good book titled As Time Goes By: A Novel of Casablanca, written by Michael Walsh. 

I am going to look for Michael Walsh's book. As Time Goes By: A Novel of Casablanca the next time I go to Barnes & Noble. If they don't have it, they can undoubtedly order it.

Thanks for the tip.

I didn't like Citizen Kane either. After all the buildup I thought it would be a lot better than it was.

Gael,

I guarantee that you'll like it.  I've re-read it several times since I bought it.  I even wrote a review of it a while back.  It (the novel) Is awesome!

I enjoy the "old movies". My favorite one of old time is Gone With The Wind. I could watch GWTW everyday. I also love Casablanca, My Fair Lady,... Seems the older I get the more I enjoy the Golden Age of movies.

Gone With The Wind. So many great scenes. Rhett seeing Scarlett for the first time. Rhett hearing Scarlett telling Ashley that she loved  him. Melanie, who seemed sort of simple at the beginning, being the strongest & bravest one of all. Rhett sweeping Scarlett up in his arms and carrying her up the stairs. (A lot of women, including me, fantasised about that for a long time. Bonnie dying.The great misunderstandings through the whole book between Rhett and Scarlett. Melanie dying and Scarlett realizing that Melanie loved her & always had. Scarlett realizing that she was losing someone very special & finally realizing Rhett had loved her from the  beginning. Then realizing that Ashley never loved her, He just lusted after her.  And then running home to Rhett full of hope only to find he had changed his mind. Rhett's cynical attitude and the famous line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". And Scarlett refusing to give up, ending the movie with "Tomorrow is another day".

I have the book and I read it at least once a year. The first time I  saw the movie it was in August, 40 years ago in a drive-in movie. I had been feeling miserable & my husband wanted to cheer me up. It was about 4 hours long,over 85 degrees & I couldn't get comfortable. I never took my eyes off the screen. I had read the book but I wasn't prepared for the visual beauty, the realism, the majical on screen  chemistry between Clark Gable & Vivian Leigh, the costumes and the perfect casting of every actor for his character from the leads right down to the extras.

Definitely a great movie. But there was just something about Casablanca.....I don't know whether it was the great lines, Bogie, the great one-liners, the filme noir aspect, the fact that we never knew who Ilsa would go with at the end, As Time Goes By or - did I mention Bogey??

On the other hand GWTW had a surprise ending. After Scarlett left Melanie's and went home to see Rhett, it looked like we were going to get the traditional happy ending. Not so.

Rick and Rhett had a lot in common. They were both cynical, perceptive & saw the world clearly. They didn't let what they wanted blind them to what reality was. And they were both incredibly sexy. (OK. That was superficial. But I'm among friends.)

Thank you so much for answering my question. I hope we see more of each other. If you have written any reviews I'd like to read them. And if you have posted any discussion topics that I may have missed, please let me know what they were.

Gee! I'm a new comer but I agree with gaelforce, Gone with the wind, and all of Shirley Temple movies. What a great child actress she was..

The old movies are great! They have actual plots and don't depend on special effects.

I too love "Casablanca" and anything with Bogie in it.

I'm new too. It's really good to find somebody else who loves classic movies. I signed up as a friend. Now I'm going to see if I can sign up to automatically recieve all your reviews.

You'll really like it here.

Casablanca director Michael Curtiz helmed several excellent movies.  A couple are coming to TCM.

ChrisJarmick said…

Casablanca director Michael Curtiz helmed several excellent movies.  A couple are coming to TCM.

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Didn't he direct Captain Blood, which starred Errol Flynn? 

Speaking of Flynn, another fave classic film of mine is 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood.

I'm a distant cousin of Errol Flynn. My great grandmother was born Annie Mae Flynn. She once wrote him a letter and he replied. The letter is supposedly hidden in the walls of her house along with a stash of money. I live there now but haven't found it.

I liked "The Big Sleep" and "Casablanca". And "Sahara" starring Bogart and a tank.

I really love "Lolita" with James Mason and Peter Sellers. Also "Dr. Strangelove".

A favorite years ago was "La Dolce Vita" with Marcello Mastrioni. I'm sure my spelling is wrong. I might buy that one on DVD.

I saw "Casablanca" at an old-style revival theatre years ago and when Claude Rains (corrected) said "Major Strausser has been shot - round up the usual suspects" the entire full house cheered wildly. The movie actually got a standing ovation, something I've never seen since.     

When my mom was a young flight attendant in the 1950s, she actually was on the same flight to Montego Bay (Jamaica) as Errol Flynn.  She told me he was a very polite and handsome guy and not a difficult passenger.

rustaddsflavor said…

I'm a distant cousin of Errol Flynn. My great grandmother was born Annie Mae Flynn. She once wrote him a letter and he replied. The letter is supposedly hidden in the walls of her house along with a stash of money. I live there now but haven't found it.

I liked "The Big Sleep" and "Casablanca". And "Sahara" starring Bogart and a tank.

I really love "Lolita" with James Mason and Peter Sellers. Also "Dr. Strangelove".

A favorite years ago was "La Dolce Vita" with Marcello Mastrioni. I'm sure my spelling is wrong. I might buy that one on DVD.

I saw "Casablanca" at an old-style revival theatre years ago and when Paul Heinreid said "Major Strausser has been shot - round up the usual suspects" the entire full house cheered wildly. The movie actually got a standing ovation, something I've never seen since.     

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I like Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. 

A standing ovation? Wow. I have never seen one of those in a movie theater.  I've heard loud cheers when Luke Skywalker fires the proton torpedoes into the Death Star's exhaust port and when Marion Ravenwood shoots Nazi soldiers from the Flying Wing (Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark), but I've never seen a standing ovation. Impressive. Most impressive.

I've heard he was actually pretty down to earth. A lot of stars back then were fairly spoiled and difficult. To me, a person's character comes first. Their acting credentials are way down the line.

Don't even get me started about rock stars. You don't like red jelly beans? Are you serious? 

The Unsuspected is the Curtiz film on tonight I believe on TCM with a great role for Casablanca's Claude Rains.

the Hungarian born Curtiz worked with Flynn severa times and I think both of their best works can be seen in Captain Blood (1935)  Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Dodge City 1939 Sea Hawk 1940  and Adventures of Robin Hood  to name a few.

He also did Mildred Pierce, the original Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)with that superb now restored hand colored sequence!!!,  The Walking Dead 1936 with Boris Karloff !!!

He did four or five films a year during the 30s and into the 40s, and about half of them are worth seeing still.

1938's Angels with Dirty Faces, 1939's Dodge City,

His work really tapered off in both quantitiy and guality in the mid 40s and into the 1950s.   

Was that Claude Reins?  Sorry, I thought it was Paul Heinreid. I'm not a movie trivia person by any means.

Just logged back in to google Claude Rains. I always thought his name was Paul Heinreid - now I know that was the actor who played the heroic husband.

Thanks for setting me straight. There is an old war movie with the same Casablanca cast about a French Resistance bomb squadron. It is kind of like watching Casablanca in a different movie. Can't remember the name but it's worth renting if you figure out the title. No Ingrid Bergman though.

1944's Passage to Marseilles  is the  movie you are thinking of and be sure to see the movie I like BETTER than Casablanca... To Have and Have Not  which was based on Hemmingway's worst book (which was also an uncredited inspiration for Casablanca).  

We watched two classic movies today starring Greer Garson: "Julia Misbehaves" and "The Law and the Lady".

I'm still can't get used to how old and classic  or old and good equals classic.   A good old movie isn't exciting or buzzworthy as classic, but classic used to mean one step under masterpiece for me.  Of course masterpiece is over-used as well.  We live in an age where hyperbole and over-selling everything is part of of our culture.

Julia Misbehaves is a delightful romantic comedy with Walter Pigeon and a young Elizabeth Taylor.  Law and the Lady from 1951 is okay, but it lacks the edge of the play not to mention the book.   Greer Garson is almost always good in the movies she she made.

You're right, Chris. Though I sometimes overuse the term classic when talking about movies from the Studio Era, I think that we Americans as a whole tend to water down the meaning of language by overusing such terms as "masterpiece," "greatest movie of all time" and "all-time classic."

Funny. Much of my dislike for hyperbole stems from seeing too many PR blurbs on movie tie-in book covers and posters. "The Greatest War Film of All Time!" was the one I remember the most from 1977's A Bridge Too Far.  It may have been one of the better-crafted films of the genre, certainly, and it is good if you can watch a film about an Allied defeat, but greatest of all time?

Bridge Too Far wasn't in the parking lot of building where great war movies are kept.

Yep, to get attention you have to be MORE than... and there's some smart people who find quieter niche's which I respect and am more apt to respond to.