The
Best Black and White Movies
OK,
kids (that's anybody under 40 who refuses to watch "crappy,
old, black and white movies"), listen up: Some of the
greatest films ever were photographed in black and white and
you are really missing out by ignoring them.
Yes,
some of them are decades old, but remember that Steven Spielberg's
Oscar-winning Schindler's List (1993) was also mostly filmed
in black and white, save for a short colour sequence about
Holocaust survivors at the end. It worked well in black and
white, evoking the horrors of the Second World War. Colour
would have cheapened the movie, in my view.
Colour
movie film dates back more than 70 years. However, while some
classic flicks of the 1930s and 1940s were filmed in colour
- The Adventures
of Robin Hood, Gone With the Wind and The
Wizard of Oz among them - the process was very expensive,
technically challenging and usually reserved for prestige
projects.
That
doesn't mean everything else was low-budget schlock. Far from
it. And in the case of, say, the Universal Studios horror
movies like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, the sinister
black and white shadow effects worked to the advantage of
these creepy classics.
Today's
digital remastering has restored many black and white films
to breathtaking clarity. You really should give some of them
a shot.
Here
are five black and white classics (all with extra features)
that I strongly recommend. Click on the image to get a great
price from Amazon.
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1.
Citizen
Kane:
Made way back in 1941, Citizen Kane is still making
headlines - the American Film Institute voted it the
best American movie of all time for 2007. Director Orson
Welles was at his 24-year-old creative peak, yet the
movie strangely foreshadowed his own decline as it told
the gripping story of the rise and fall of a media mogul.
Full
review.
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2.
Casablanca:
This is a magnificent 1943 cocktail of wartime intrigue
set in exotic Morocco. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
make one of the most memorable romantic couples, the
music is fabulous (As Time Goes By) and the screenplay
is stuffed with great lines - "We'll always have
Paris" and "Here's looking at you, kid"
among them.
Full
review.
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3.
Double Indemnity:
Rated the greatest film noir of all, Double Indemnity
is a 1944 crime flick that has an insurance salesman
(Fred MacMurray) falling for a sexy, but bored wife
(Barbara Stanwyck) who wants her old man to have a little
"accident". Deliciously daring morality tale
from the great writer/director Billy Wilder.
Full
review.
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4.
Sunset Boulevard: Another Billy Wilder gem,
this time from 1950, Sunset Boulevard is the story of
a forgotten star (Gloria Swanson) from the silent movie
era dreaming of a comeback in her crumbling Hollywood
mansion. A struggling young screenwriter (William Holden)
becomes her personal writer and lover. The best expose
on the rotten reality of Hollywood life.
Full
review.
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5.
The Hound Of The Baskervilles: Made in 1939,
this is the greatest Sherlock Holmes mystery of them
all, starring the peerless Basil Rathbone as Holmes
and Nigel Bruce as his trusted friend, Dr. John Watson.
The great detective investigates the legend of a hound
from hell stalking the fog-shrouded Dartmoor wilderness
in England and killing off members of the Baskerville
family. Creepy!
Full
review.
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