Old films - pre 1957

That's a really fun movie to watch, Walter Huston is good as the Devil.
A little dated but very enjoyable.
I too like a Matter of Life and Death a most excellent idea for a movie.

I collected all the B&W comedies in the mail a while back these were mainly ealing comedies, very good they should do more.

Kind hearts and coronets
The man in the white suit
Titfield thunderbolt
School for scoundrels
Passport to pimlico
all great stuff
 
I got my eBay Will Hay DVRAB and I've watched Where's That Fire?. They're homemade, burned from pretty poor quality video recordings by the look of it - but for
 
From Wikidedia:
"The cuckoo clock is often wrongly associated with Switzerland, as in the movie The Third Man."

A few more for my list -

M Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Jour de Fete (Jacgues Tati, 1949)
The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)
The Black Cat (Edgar Ulmer, 1934)
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Ladykillers (1955)
 
Hope you enjoy them!

Details of the screening of Oh Mr Porter this sunday are here So if anybody wants to see the inspiration for a good number of writers and comedians then why not go along!
 
Do you remember how bits of the 1924 silent film "Metropolis" were used by Queen in their "Radio Gaga" video?
I was wondering if any other bits of very old films have been used in any way like that since - music videos or adverts perhaps?
I am sure they must have been but I can't think of anything at the moment.
 
Many good clips where used in "Dead men don't wear plaid" with Steve Martin.

For commercials I would have to say the Beer commercials by Holsten Pils which a while back used lots of B&W clips.
Griff Rhys Jones starred against many well known actors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIDPuZQOvZc

The Beer drinking scene from Ice Cold in Alex was also used in another commercial by Carlsberg.
 
Well that's a useful bit of film trivia to know!:D

It's many years since I actually read the book but I don't remember the cuckoo-clock speech in it either.
Orson Wells should have done a bit of research first - before he wrote it.
 
Nice too see Will hay get a mention I recently bought the complete will hay collection on dvd.
Many magic moments
Oh Mister Porter is probably my favorite
 
When I was very little my Grandad used to sing a song called "Oh Mr. Porter" to me.

As I remember it started

"Oh Mr. Porter,
What shall I do?
I wanted to go to Birmingham (?)
But they put me off at Crewe."

WAS it "Birmingham" and did the song come from the film?
 
And, since Orson Wells has been mentioned, did he have anything to do with the film "War of the WorlRAB"?

I know he did a radio programme which totally panicked America because everyone thought it was for real - but what about the film?
 
I love the original Born Yesterday, from 1950 and in black and white. Judy Holliday's performence is flawless.

But it feels like such an underrated and even forgotten film now. :(
 
Complete? Does it include Where's That Fire? As far as I know, that's not available on DVD.

(I'll just have a google)

Edit.
Couldn't find it anywhere.
My favourites are, in order:
Ask A Policeman
Where's That Fire?
Oh Mr Porter
Windbag the Sailor
(These are the 4 classics! - nothing much between them)
Then
Convict 99
My Learned Friend
and then all the others...
 
The dvd set I bought contained

1 - Old Bones Of The River
2 - Windbag The Sailor
3 - Hey! Hey! USA
4 - OH, Mr. Porter
5 - My Learned Friend
6 - Convict 99
7 - Where There's A Will
8 - Good Morning Boys
9 - Where's That Fire
10 - Boys Will Be Boys
11 - Black Sheep Of Whitehall)
12 - The Ghost Of St, Michaels
13 - The Goose Steps Out
14 - Those Were The Days
15 - Ask A Policeman
16 - Radio Parade Of 1935
17 - The Big Blockade
18 - Dandy Dick
19 - Go To Blazes

The last 4 listed are special in that 16 and 18 are early works not the usual will hay style and 17 and 19 are short wartime propoganda movies.

I bought this set last year off ebay where they were marked as public domain.
He has been selling them for over a year now and ebay seem happy so I assume they are pukka.
 
Although he added it, I'm pretty sure Welles didn't write "the cuckoo clock" speech, he took it from an obscure European play. I saw a bit about it on "Brit Film Forever", which looked a brilliant series but I kept missing as it was on Saturday nights.

Another intersting bit of Third Man trivia- Although it is based on Greene's book, he only wrote the story out in prose form to work out the plot and it was never intended to be published.

I'm 99% sure Welles had nothing to do with the 50's Film adaptation of War of the WorlRAB. i read his biography years ago and can't remember anything about that.
 
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