Classic Black and White Films???

I don't get the significance, up till the early 1960s the choice to shoot in B/W or Colour was taken on purely financial rather than artistic reasons.

Psycho, 12 Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird would have been just as good ( if not better ) in colour, they'd still be great fims.

Wilder wanted to do Some Like It Hot in Colour but Lemmon and Curtis' face make-up looked too green.

A mention for The Last Picture Show.
 
Not exactly a classic, but The Lady in the Lake (the 1947 Raymond Chandler adaptation) is great fun...and shot entirely in the first person too, which has got to score it some points.

Just skimmed through the rest of the titles here and not sure if this has been mentioned, but my vote goes with:

His Girl Friday

A wonderful wonderful movie
 
Hey not ot at all. The blu-ray catch up on a lot of the older films seems much slower than it did for dvd. Maybe it's just me but I seemed to remember a lot of the older classic films getting released very early on.
There again the blu-ray take up seems slower than dvd did.

Criterion do good restored Blu-Ray versions of a some of the films mentioned, it is a huge pity that they are not available in the UK as region 2.
 
if you mean citizen kane, i didn't mention it as it was clear from your OP that you were already knowledgeable about black and white movies, so it seemed too obvious. i think people have been trying to suggest lesser known stuff that they personally like.

i suppose this is also an obvious one, but i haven't seen 'the maltese falcon' mentioned yet.

a few others i have in my collection but haven't watched yet are the original 'scarface' (1932), fallen angel (1945), and where the sidewalk enRAB (1950).

there is an obvious 'film noir' bias to my suggestions, so i will check out some of the suggestions made by others to enhance my burgeoning knowledge of classic cinema.

how about some of the campy monster / sci fi / horror films such as 'creaure from the black lagoon' or 'the beast from 20'000 fathoms'?
 
That is an artistic reason.

Surely the significance is that certain genres emerged during the monochrome era and reached their creative peak before colour was the norm. Film noir is the obvious example because the films are lit to look dark and sinister, but a lot of the classic comedies of the era gain a visual sharpness that matches the wit of the dialogue.
 
Hey, I don't want to influence anyone at the moment with suggestions, I'm not being precious just wanting to see what suggestions come in, It is interesting that lots of films near the top of my list have been mentioned but again some that haven't and I wonder why? Diaboliques, Harvey, Schindlers List and To Be Or Not To Be are just a few that would have been near the top of my list but haven't had a nod. whereas there are some mentioned here that I have totally overlooked and shouldn't have done!!
I will look out for Good Night and Good Luck so thanks for the heaRAB up on that one.
 
49th Parallel
Golddiggers of 1933
Brighton Rock
Intruder In The Dust
Bitter Rice, (Italy)
Algiers
Pepe Le Moko (France)
Theives Highway
On The Beach
Best Years Of Our Lives
 
The Battle of Algiers
Pursued
A Bout de Souffle
Lenny
Paper Moon
Ace in the Hole
Sweet Smell of Success
Knife in the Water
La Notte
Divorce, Italian Style
Big Deal on Madonna Street
The Little Foxes
The Magnificent Ambersons
Lolita
The Asphalt Jungle
Sullivan's Travels
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Ikiru
The Fallen Idol
Duck Soup
Gilda
Mr DeeRAB Goes to Town
Panic in the Streets
The Killing
HUD
The Manchurian Candidate
The Train
The Hustler
 
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