We’ve all watched classic old movies that are indisputably great, but aren’t much fun. These old movies easily stand the test of time.
Notorious (1947)
Alfred Hitchcock’s crackling thriller stars Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin, a U.S. agent with a very cool name who recruits the notorious Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman, magnetic) to do his dirty work. Then people start falling in love and things get spectacularly messy.
It’s notable for a complicated heroine whose virtue is in question by almost everyone in the movie, until the very end.
The coolest thing about her? She doesn’t care.
The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
This story of powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) and ruthless press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a joy for the setting alone — the scenes in and around Broadway in the 1950s.
Add to that a crackling, unpredictable plot involving Hunsecker’s little sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and a jazz guitarist and you have one of the most captivating showbiz stories ever made.
It makes today’s awful media landscape look almost civilized.
The Apartment (1960)
You’ll find yourself saying again and again through this wise, eyes-wide-open comedy: They made this in 1960? Its setup — a young clerk has to loan out his apartment to executives who use it for secret trysts with vulnerable women — is grim even by modern standards.
But you find yourself quickly rooting hard for the irresistible Shirley MacLaine and begrudgingly heroic Jack Lemmon. You don’t have to look hard to find a very modern metaphor here about refusing to take it from the man.
MacLaine, Lemmon, director Billy Wilder and screenwriter IAL Diamond reunited three years later for Irma la Douce, which revisited some of the themes of The Apartment.
Psycho (1960)
Psycho will rid you of any ideas that old movies are stodgy and dull. From the beginning, Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane is a good girl gone bad, stealing from her boozy boss to flee across the Arizona desert to the arms of her deadbeat boyfriend. It’s juicy as hell even before she meets the psycho of the title.
Yes, the expository ending is a letdown, but consider that Psycho came out when most people didn’t know what a psycho was. Psycho made sure they didn’t forget.
Singing in the Rain (1952)
This one’s in color, but don’t hold that against it.
If you just remember a bunch of plucky songs and perfect dance numbers, that’s fine. But Singing in the Rain is also a timeless sendup of Hollywood trend-chasing and vapidity. Lina Lamont’s clueless declaration, “I gave an exclusive to every newspaper in town!” is arguably even funnier in 2023, when seemingly every news story is both “breaking” and “exclusive.”
All About Eve (1950)
Bette Davis plays a Broadway star who won’t give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, a shrewd manipulator ready to take her place. It’s a dynamic we’ve seen a million times since, from The Devil Wears Prada to Showgirls, but no one’s done it better than All About Eve.
It also features an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe. And consider for a second how cool it is that the line, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!” came just a few years into commercial air travel becoming a thing.
The General (1926)
Buster Keaton’s character helping the Confederate Army hasn’t aged well. Everything else has. This outstanding silent film, a bit of a bomb in its time, still holds up because of its clockwork slapstick and endlessly ingenious mousetrap machinations. We promise you’ll laugh, in joy and relief.
Keaton, “the great stone face” throws his body into impossible violent yet comedic hazards without changing his expression — a skill he developed while being kicked and thrown across vaudeville stages by his father. (Okay, maybe that didn’t age so well, either.)
Casablanca (1942)
Casablanca is so propulsive, smart and funny that kids in 2023 are still making memes about it.
“I’m shocked, shocked” remains as funny as it was in 1942, and the dynamic between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman is one of the most captivating we’ve ever seen.
When people say they love old movies, this is the old movie they’re picturing. It’s perfect from beginning to end.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Easily the most fun movie ever made about insurance, this noir extravaganza sizzles off the screen in moments like the anklet scene — aka the “how fast was I going” scene — between Fred McMurray as an insurance man and Barbara Stanwyck as a scheming client.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1944)
If you ever long for the more innocent days of the past, watch this one to remind yourself they weren’t so innocent.
John Garfield makes being a drifter look like a good life choice when his character, Frank, wanders into a service station operated by the drop-dead beautiful Cora (Lana Turner). Sadly — there’s always a complication, isn’t there? — she runs it with her husband.
Frank and Cora work out a scheme that goes great… until it doesn’t.
Rear Window (1954)
Another Hitchcock classic.
This fascinating, fast-moving film is about our natural inclination to pry — whether online, or, back in the day, into our neighbor’s windows. Jimmy Stewart plays a news photographer sidelined by a broken leg who doesn’t appreciate what a seemingly perfect thing he has going with Lisa (a luminous Grace Kelly, above).
He ponders single life, represented by the ballet dancer Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy) and the sometimes grim compromises of co-habitation. It’s now available on the Criterion Channel.
Breathless (1960)
This Jean-Luc Godard classic works as a critique of film as a medium — the jump cuts expose the artificiality of everything, the almost abstract plot — or you can enjoy it as a completely unchallenging romp through Coolsville.
Breathless is one of those old movies that still feels hipper than anything today.
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Main image: Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. Warner Bros.