Your Top Ten Golden Era Films?

[Clyde R.]

I was just thinking it might be fun to see what is on everybody's top ten list from the golden era. My list is just my favorite to watch movies, not necessarily my picks for "best." These are the ones I find myself watching over and over again. These are in no particular order. What's yours?

1. The Maltese Falcon
2. Vertigo
3. Out of the Past
4. The Third Man
5. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
6. Double Indemnity
7. The Big Sleep
8. Rebecca
9. From Here to Eternity
10. Sunset Boulevard

These are off the top of my head, I could easily make it the top twenty five!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

In no particular order:

-- The Great Dictator
-- Gone With the Wind
-- Pandora's Box
-- Le Chien Andalou
-- Triumph of the Will
-- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
-- The "Why We Fight" series
-- His Girl Friday
-- The Good Earth
-- Frankenstein

And the best movie of all time is ... "THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING"

 

[MudInYerEye]

NIGHTMARE ALLEY
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
THE BANK DICK
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN)
CITIZEN KANE
SUNSET BOULEVARD
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939 version)

 

[Orion]

Hey all. TheFedoraLounge is terrific, btw. Held me spellbound when I stumbled across it.

Anyhow,
1. North by Northwest (1959) - My favorite movie, bar none. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Hitchcock. Sublime.
2. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) - One of the funniest films ever.
3. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - Cary Grant, James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn. Another wow.
4. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - That's what America ought to be like.
5. You Can't Take It With You (1938)

And in no particular order...
My Man Godfrey, Casa Blanca, To Catch a Thief, Roman Holiday, To Kill a Mockingbird, High Noon, Sabrina, The African Queen, Meet John Doe, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Around the World in 80 Days, and on and on... Anything by Hitchcock or Frank Capra especially. I think I hit the highlights - pull five out of there to finish the list

The thing that bothers me is, all these wonderful movies...and in seven years of college (I'm getting overedumacated) I haven't been able to get anyone to watch any of them. *frustrated sigh*

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Wizard of Oz
The Third Man
The Maltese Falcon
Sunset Boulevard
Dead End
Bride of Frankenstein
From Here to Eternity
On the Waterfront

I will also add that To Kill a Mockingbird, and Godfathers I and II are on my tops list, as well as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Vertigo, though they are not Golden Era films. I also love David Lean films, i.e. Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. I have omitted Gone With the Wind, as I have some problems with it being an overblown soap opera, though I love some of the characters in it.

My favorite actor is/was Alec Guiness. Favorite actresses: Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn.

karol

 

[Feraud]

I love these threads.
In no particular order and the kind of films I can watch anytime..

Maltese Falcon
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Third Man
Out of the Past
Vertigo
Laura
His Girl Friday
Touch of Evil
The Killers
Asphalt Jungle
The Fallen Idol

 

[jake_fink]

WOW!!

What great lists so far. I'll take 'em all!

I'd replace The Bank Dick with It's a Gift, but only if I can only have one W C Fields, otherwise, keep both.

Same goes for The Great Dictator: Replace it with Modern Times if I can only have one Chaplin.

No Marx Brothers!?!? So, throw Duck Soup in the mix.

Noir is well represented, but let's get a B-noir in there. How about Detour.

Bride of Frankenstein makes the list, but there were a lot of great "horror" movies in the golden era. It's a tough choice for me, but I'm going with Freaks, since it is still a potent little shocker with a strong social message, and a great cast of charismatic show people. Or maybe White Zombie.

La Regle du Jeu is on my list, and so might be L'Atlante or Pepe le Moko, in other words, not all film is made in America. Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a great one, a kind of British Citizen Kane with the cartoonish military figure being explored and made less cartoonish instead of the cartoonish newspaper tycoon.

What!!? No musicals!?!?! I'll moot Goldiggers of '33 and 42nd Street. (I just spotted Wizard of Oz, so there was one.)

The orignal King Kong should be on there.

Maybe just outside the true golden era, but one of my favourite films of all time is The Sweet Smell of Success.


Anyway, so far, a great film syllabus.

 

[Zemke Fan]

My picks... counting down from 10...

10. It Happened One Night
09. The Philadelphia Story
08. Singing in the Rain
07. Adam's Rib
06. The Maltese Falcon
05. His Girl Friday
04. City Lights
03. Bringing Up Baby
02. Casablanca
01. The Wizard of Oz

Of course I may soon have to change my No. 1 since my eldest son seems intent on watching this approximately once a week.

ZF

 

[Novella]

In no particular order:

1. The Thin Man (The entire series is fantastic!)
2. His Girl Friday
3. The Shop Around the Corner
4. Sullivan's Travels
5. Dead End
6. To Have and Have Not
7. Swing Time
8. The Adventures of Robin Hood
9. The 39 Steps
10. Rebecca

I guess those are actually just my favorites that are out on DVD now. I love Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery movies from the early 1930s like The Divorcee, Riptide, War Nurse (I like Anita Page better in this one than in the more famous Broadway Melody) but sadly they're only on VHS or TCM.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

M
The Third Man
Rope
The Great Dictator
Batleship Potempkin
Angels with Dirty Faces
Harvey (golden era?)
Rear Window (goden era?)
Citizen Kane
Public Enemy

bk

 

[Clyde R.]

Great response, guys. I know a couple of choices on my list, and some of yours, are not properly "golden era" but hey... we're doing this for fun, right?
I've gotten some food for thought from the lists posted so far. Keep 'em coming.

 

[green papaya]

I like old war movies...

HALLS OF MONTEZUMA

IWO JIMA

GUADALCANAL DIARY

FIGHTING SEABEES

ENEMY BELOW

PT 109

THE GRAPES OF WRATH

OBJECTIVE BURMA

BATAAN

 

[decodoll]

It was really, really hard to cut the list down to just ten, but here goes...

It Happened One Night
Roman Holiday
The Major and the Minor
Laura
Bachelor Mother
Swing Time
Arsenic and Old Lace
Gone With the Wind
Topper
The Philadelphia Story

 

[jake_fink]

Yes, Swing Time. Great movie.... but what about The Gay Divorcee, which is also a good one.

Gunga Din is a lot of fun.

It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas time classic.... does that make it one of our favourites?

Serials aren't great art, but I like them. The Adventures of Captain Marvel... Daredevils of the Red Circle... The Mysterious Doctor Satan. All classics of the form.

 

[Twitch]

Sahara
Casablanca
King Kong
The Mummy
Frankenstein
Dracula
It's A Gift
Flying Tigers
The Wolfman
Tarzan the Ape Man

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I like old war movies...


THE GRAPES OF WRATH

Well, I guess THE GRAPES OF WRATH is a war movie of sorts ... if one can fight wars with Dust Bowls.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Which reminds me, I also like old John Ford movies. He had stock actors he worked with, i.e. John Wayne et al. I can't think if I have ever seen a Ford movie that did not have Ward Bond in it.

Grapes of Wrath was one of my favorites, too, as well as Beau Geste. I loved Gary Cooper in his old films, especially the westerns. Best westerns:

High Noon
Stagecoach
Shane
The Searchers
the Ford calavry movies -- Ft. Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, My Darling Clementine
West of the Pecos
... and I loved the Eastwood spagetti westerns, especially Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars more.

Some of those are not Golden Era, but those are my favorites.

karol

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Whoops, got Clementine mixed up with the 2nd Ford cavalry movie, which was Rio Grande. The Clementine film was about Jesse and Frank James, I believe.

karol

 

[MudInYerEye]

K.D.
I am shocked. staggered, and dismayed that HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY didn't make your best-of-Ford list.

 

[Lincsong]

So Many but;

1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
2. Arsenic and Old Lace
3. Song of the South
4. Yankee Doodle Dandy
5. Seven Year Itch
6. Stalag 17
7. Brother Rat
8. Knute Rockne All American
9. Best Years of Our Lives.
10. Sunset Strip