Old Black and White Films

I love Hobson's Choice by David Lean, with a very young Prunella Scales. Most of my other favourites have been mentioned, Kind Hearts and Coronet, Passport to Pimlico and most Hitchcock films.
 
Yes, I think it was. My favourite macabre Hitchcock moment is in Strangers on a Train where you see the girl (his daughter in real life, wasn't she or a relative?) being killed in the reflection in her glasses that had been knocked off ... shudder.... The book's excellent too.
 
They have a certain something, an ambience that makes you feel warm inside like the the rich analogue tones of an old vinyl record. The acting is woody but it matters not.

They didn't rely on hype and effects just good basic story lines. Most of them portray times of old, where life was much slower and more relaxing. Where personal interactions with other people where all most people had.

There is something timeless and aluring about these films, they are so relaxing to watch :o

:D :D :D
 
I haven't seen a b&w film for years, I used to watch them with my Mum a lot when I was a child. I love The Bishop's Wife and Mrs Miniver - I've managed to find them on DVD for my Mum. I also liked the old Miss Marple films. :D
 
They were not always intended to be that way.


In its infancy the colorisation process was dreadful.

In the mid 80's the Laurel and Hardy films and Its A Wonderful Life became some of the first colorised material to hit video,and bloody awful it was.

Thanks to those abominations the entire industry was up in arms about it and the results were so poor that broadcast tv even stopped screening them,even ITV.

However ,in the last few years ,like remastering and restoration technology,colorisation has come on in leaps and bounRAB.

While there are an awful lot of B&W films that dont need colorising or would be ruined by colorising there is also a lot of B&W material that was only made without color for budgetary reasons and the creative team would love to have made them in color at the time.

Now its possible to present colorised material and its impossible to tell that it was not made in colour.
The first 2 seasons of Bewitched were made in B&W and to look at the colorised dvd's you would not know.

R1 had the ideal solution of releasing both B&W and color dvd's ,not so with R2 who only got color.

Just a couple of weeks back I got the new 2 disc edition of the Ray Harryhausen classic "20 Million Miles To Earth".

Aswell as copious extras the meat of the release is a disc with the film on where you can switch between the B&W original and a new colorised version using the Angle button.

Ray explains that due to a restricted budget it was not possible to make it in color but color was his preference.

He has sat down with the colorisation people and gone through it piece by piece instructing them on how the colorisation should be done.
Its his original vision and he is overjoyed to see it in color for the first time.

I believe they are doing his "Earth V The Flying saucers" next.

So dont be too harsh on colorising.
There's no doubt that if colorised it enables the return of countless films and tv shows to dvd and tv that would otherwise remain unseen.
And with the excellent results now possible there should be no complaints.

The dvd I mention is the ideal solution .B&W for the purists and the color option for others.

Obviously we dont want Citizen Kane ,Psycho (original) and many others colorised but the process should not be written off like it used to be
 
...just as an aside, as I know it's not B & W,

but I just have to mention Jason and the Argonauts. It was the first of his films I saw, as a kid - my mum took me to see it when it came out. I'd never seen anything like it. I know it seems a bit clunky now, in our CGI world, but at the time it was incredible. I was gobsmacked.
 
My Fave War Movie is 'The Longest Day' (B&W)
My Fave Ghost Movie is 'The Haunting' (B&W)
My Fave Comedy Movie is 'Some Like it Hot' (B&W)

Black & White movies are OK. Except for Casablanca which is just boring.
 
Anyone mentioned - The Beast With Five Fingers?

And they don't have to be thrillers, either - there's some good comedies: My Favourite Blonde/Brunette Bob Hope etc.
 
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