Your Favorite (and Least Known) Black and White Movie

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
21

I don’t know if it’s well known or not, but Freaks (1932).

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22

‘La Guerre des Boutons’ (War of the buttons) 1962. First saw this as a child.

Later as teenager ‘Roma città aperta’ (Rome open city) 1945, touched me deeply.

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23

It Happened One Night, The Thin Man and My Man Godfrey.

Well known ones I love are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rear Window and Roman Ho!iday.

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24

I don’t think my kids have ever seen it in B&W. They are 25 and 26.

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25

I was going to mention these great selections (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Jules et Jim), but since you beat me to it, I’ll add Eraserhead, City Lights, A Place in the Sun, Night and Fog, My Twentieth Century, L’Avventura (and subsequent Antonioni), and Hotel by the River as films where the B&W character is notable. Probably others will come back to me (anything with Hideko Takamine is a good bet). Great idea for a thread. B&W is certainly better on average than color.

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26

Another for The Thin Man. And Paul Simon sings “everything looks worse in black and white.”

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27

Not exactly. This is from the 1981 Concert in Central Park with Simon and Garfunkel, arguably the most famous live version of this great song (precisely at 1:56 into the video below):

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π - Darren Aronofsky

29

That’s a low bar. Most of these movies mentioned, or color movies from that century, will be unknown to Gen Z

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30

Arsenic and Old Lace. I can testify from personal experience that Cary Grant films (!!!) are indeed vastly unknown to today’s college generation. I was walking back from a recent showing of “Charade” at the Wesleyan film center and I literally heard one clearly impressed student say to the other “So, what other films has he done?”

But, thank you for “The Farmers Daughter” and “Vacation from Marriage”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one!

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31

And, I absolutely appreciate the international realm where b&w seemed to linger long after Technicolor had taken over Hollywood. My Fellini suggestion would be “The White Sheik” which I think is one of his lesser known works. Also, let’s hear it for the post-war Japanese filmmakers!

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32

Yes, you’re absolutely correct! Was too lazy to Google it to be sure I had it right. It is one of my favorite Cary Grant movies!

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33

And, as good an opportunity as any to introduce oneself to the Canadian-American actor, Raymond Massey. What a performance!

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34

Love Cary Grant…”Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House”. Just another fun one.

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35

I love Some Like it Hot!!!

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36

Unassailably true. However, I am finding as our kids get older, they are more willing to see these kinds of movies. I recently showed DD “The Manchurian Candidate,” (original) which she loved. She saw “Young Frankenstein” on a very long flight and liked it.

Now, if the OP title were changed to “Your LEAST Favorite B&W Movie”, the amazingly bad 1986 “Under the Cherry Moon” would be close to tops. It features Prince in both a starring role and as the director. This was an enormous box office bomb that won five Razzies. Since Prince was a mega-superstar by then, he was given carte blanche to do what he wanted, and he decided to make the movie in B&W. I understand it was originally filmed in color and then converted back to B&W to make it moodier.

That being said, the movie is noteworthy for at least two things: (a) it was the debut role for Kristin Scott Thomas, and (b) it features Prince’s amazing number 1 song “Kiss.”

37

“The Horn Blows at Midnight” starring Jack Benny as an angel.

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38

Marilyn is another example of an American actor whose success as an icon probably obscures the incredible skill that went into their film performances. A nice bookend to “Some Like It Hot” might be the incredibly moving, “The Misfits”.

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39

Hester Street (1975), with a relatively unknown (at the time) Carol Kane, who was nominated for an Oscar in the role.

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40

Ok, if we’re now talking about great B&W movies unknown to the “younger set,” here are mine, in no particular order and besides the ones I listed upthread:

  • Casablanca
  • Anything by Alfred Hitchcock
  • The Apartment
  • Harvey
  • It’s a Wonderful Life
  • Marty
  • Inherit the Wind
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Citizen Kane
  • Dr. Strangelove
  • A Hard Day’s Night
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