What are you watching?

[Klaatu]

LIterally name me one good movie from the 30s to 60s. I didn't even think movies existed back then.


ALSO, I really wanna watch Deadpool. Has anybody here watched Deadpool? Was it good?

I'm also gonna watch the Matrix with my family. I heard it was really good. OH and Logan too.

I usually take time to make jokes, be sarcastic, and spread humor. But a post like this doesn’t deserve that. There’s a reason it’s called the Golden Age of Hollywood, and there’s a reason it still matters.

Somewhere in the upper galleries of the Celestial Bijou, a projectionist just paused the reel and sighed.

“One good movie from the 30s to 60s.” Ma'am, that is impossible.

That stretch of time is not a cinematic void. It is the foundation. If you want one name, fine: Casablanca. Clean structure, razor dialogue, emotional restraint, moral tension. It still works because it was built properly. But stopping there would be criminal negligence.

The Wizard of Oz basically invented modern fantasy spectacle. It’s a Wonderful Life is still dissected for its character arc construction. The Third Man rewrote noir lighting. 12 Angry Men proved you can trap twelve men in a room and create pure tension with nothing but writing and blocking. Seven Samurai is the DNA of half the action films made afterward. Hitchcock’s run alone could fuel an entire semester of film study. Need I go on?

The 30s through 60s were cinema learning its grammar: how to move a camera with purpose, how to cut for emotion, how to build suspense without spoon-feeding the audience. And even before the 30s, the silent era was laying the blueprint. Filmmakers like Chaplin, Keaton, and Fritz Lang were proving that you could tell complex, emotional, even philosophical stories without a single spoken word. Editing techniques, visual storytelling, cross-cutting for tension, the very idea that film could manipulate time and perspective were being discovered and refined long before sound arrived. The Golden Age did not appear out of nowhere. It grew from foundations built in black and white silence. Without that era, there is no Matrix bullet time. No genre-savvy Deadpool. No brooding, elegiac Logan. Modern films are standing on scaffolding that those decades erected.

Dismissing that period is like looking at Minas Tirith and asking whether anyone knew how to stack stones before skyscrapers.

Deadpool is sharp and funny because it understands the superhero language it’s parodying. The Matrix works because it marries philosophy to choreography. Logan hits because it borrows from classic Western structure and tragedy. All of them owe debts backward.

Cinema did not begin when CGI got shiny. It began when someone pointed a camera and realized editing could manipulate time. The so-called Golden Age is when that realization turned into art.

Somewhere, Toshiro Mifune is glaring across a rain-soaked battlefield in dignified silence while Humphrey Bogart lights another cigarette and waits patiently for this thread to catch up.

Klaatu
Sub-Assistant to the Deputy Archivist of Forgotten Popcorn Recipes
Grand Marshal of the Tuesday-Only Constellation Parade
Keeper of the Slightly Misplaced Remote Control of Orion 🛰️

 

[Lobelia B. S-B]

Movies are a Hollywood invention to sell popcorn and fizzy drinks, films are generally slower paced and more thoughtful.

Ah. (sniff.) I see your distinction. Let's see what the vaunted AI says.

"While "film" and "movie" are often used interchangeably to describe motion pictures, they carry different connotations regarding art, commerce, and culture. A "film" is typically associated with artistic expression, cinema, and deeper, more serious themes, while a "movie" generally refers to a commercial, mainstream entertainment product meant for enjoyment."

A worthwhile pursuit of information, thank you Ciderwell. That said, what it really boils down to is Movies (better Films) previously meant something. Movies today are just made to usher in the Zombie apocalypse.

I get it now. And I can definitely agree with the distinction.

 

[Alexander Scamilton]

Are you serious?
Casablanca (1942) - constantly referred to as one of the greatest movies of all time
Spartacus (1960)
Forbidden Planet (1957)
Rear Window (1954)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Double Indemnity (1944)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Dracula (1931)
Fury (1936)
You Only Live Once (1937)
Rope (1948)
Dial M For Murder (1954)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Just to name an extreme few. I wouldn't have enough room to post all the "good movies" from the 30s to 60s. And unless you've actually taken the time to watch any of these, you really have no right to say they're not good just as I wouldn't have the right to say something isn't' good unless I've tried to consume it.

I agree.

I usually take time to make jokes, be sarcastic, and spread humor. But a post like this doesn’t deserve that. There’s a reason it’s called the Golden Age of Hollywood, and there’s a reason it still matters.

Somewhere in the upper galleries of the Celestial Bijou, a projectionist just paused the reel and sighed.

“One good movie from the 30s to 60s.” Ma'am, that is impossible.

That stretch of time is not a cinematic void. It is the foundation. If you want one name, fine: Casablanca. Clean structure, razor dialogue, emotional restraint, moral tension. It still works because it was built properly. But stopping there would be criminal negligence.

The Wizard of Oz basically invented modern fantasy spectacle. It’s a Wonderful Life is still dissected for its character arc construction. The Third Man rewrote noir lighting. 12 Angry Men proved you can trap twelve men in a room and create pure tension with nothing but writing and blocking. Seven Samurai is the DNA of half the action films made afterward. Hitchcock’s run alone could fuel an entire semester of film study. Need I go on?

The 30s through 60s were cinema learning its grammar: how to move a camera with purpose, how to cut for emotion, how to build suspense without spoon-feeding the audience. And even before the 30s, the silent era was laying the blueprint. Filmmakers like Chaplin, Keaton, and Fritz Lang were proving that you could tell complex, emotional, even philosophical stories without a single spoken word. Editing techniques, visual storytelling, cross-cutting for tension, the very idea that film could manipulate time and perspective were being discovered and refined long before sound arrived. The Golden Age did not appear out of nowhere. It grew from foundations built in black and white silence. Without that era, there is no Matrix bullet time. No genre-savvy Deadpool. No brooding, elegiac Logan. Modern films are standing on scaffolding that those decades erected.

Dismissing that period is like looking at Minas Tirith and asking whether anyone knew how to stack stones before skyscrapers.

Deadpool is sharp and funny because it understands the superhero language it’s parodying. The Matrix works because it marries philosophy to choreography. Logan hits because it borrows from classic Western structure and tragedy. All of them owe debts backward.

Cinema did not begin when CGI got shiny. It began when someone pointed a camera and realized editing could manipulate time. The so-called Golden Age is when that realization turned into art.

Somewhere, Toshiro Mifune is glaring across a rain-soaked battlefield in dignified silence while Humphrey Bogart lights another cigarette and waits patiently for this thread to catch up.

Klaatu
Sub-Assistant to the Deputy Archivist of Forgotten Popcorn Recipes
Grand Marshal of the Tuesday-Only Constellation Parade
Keeper of the Slightly Misplaced Remote Control of Orion 🛰️

Sweet Jesus.

OKAY, I admit, I might have been proven wrong. There are some great movies from the 30s and 60s ig. I haven't even watched any, but I don't wanna have to read another ten paragraph lecture, so im gonna say that there are probably some really old good movies and leave it at that. I am going to watch breakfast at tiffanys and its a wonderful life tho.
I had a good laugh tho. I found it funny how everyone got so pressed over my post. i apologize to everyone that got offended. Ive been having character development and i try not to judge too much. and i think im pretty good at it. This is very sincere. Or is it? I guess I'll leave that up to you.

 

[Deimos]

I love the classic Universal (and some Hammer) monster horror films from those decades! With the Pluto TV app, I can watch these movies on the Universal Monsters channel for free, usually on a weekly cycle....

And the list continues to grow. It's interesting getting to know the "big actors" of the era and seeing them in various roles, and to become more acquainted with these stories. I also love silent films as well, such as the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, the 1912 and 1920 versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Nosferatu from 1922. Being very much interested in acting myself, I love to study the physical movements and portrayals of the monsters and characters from the classics of the 1920's-40's. The style of acting from back then had a certain quality to it I don't find much in most modern movies these days.

You have to add to your list "Night of the Demon"... in the US it was released as "Curse of the Demon". The US version was also cut.
I can't tell you what was cut because as soon as I learned that I looked for the original British version "Night...".
I found the DVD on Amazon and it has both versions. Still haven't watched the US version... no need to.
Martin Scorsese listed his top 10 scariest movies... Night of the Demon was Number One.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

I’d also add The Devil Rides Out. A rare one where Christopher Lee is the good guy.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Now that I’m in the mood for an older movie, watching Out of the Past (1947) tonight

 

[Lobelia B. S-B]

I had a good laugh tho. I found it funny how everyone got so pressed over my post. i apologize to everyone that got offended

To be honest sir/ma'am, this old, grouchy hag sees it something like this.
You tend to come across as very 'blunt' and very opinionated when you say things. "This is the way it is." No wiggle-room, no comment like "I kind of see it this way," or use of questions like "were there movies back in the 30s to 60s?"

Instead we get "name one good movie from the 30s to 60s." A challenge. And it comes across like it doesn't matter what anyone says, you're itching for a fight.
If you lay out a challenge, when people respond, it doesn't mean people are 'offended' or 'pressed' as you put it. They're simply (especially in this case) aghast at the statement - and forceful in their response.

There's an old, old saying - I think it came from the Ents (though not the blabbermouth we have here.)
It goes: "Its not important we have something to say. It's important we say something you can have."
There's a world of difference in the two.

 

[Vorondil]

LIterally name me one good movie from the 30s to 60s.

White Heat.
13 Rue Madeleine.
Sahara.
The Longest Day.
African Queen.
El Cid.
Ben Hur.
Khartoum.
Lawrence of Arabia.
Flight of the Phoenix.
Zulu.
North West Frontier.
The Bridge Over The River Kwai.
Battle of Britain.
Reach for the Sky.

 

[Deimos]

Well, laddie or lassie or whatever.
Perhaps it might help if you were to be advised the oldest known thing classified as a "film" still having an availability, is the Roundhay Garden Scene, done in the UK on Octoer 14th, 1888. (sniff.)
So you've got a few more years to choose from, than from1970. Now. I know even 1970 is 'ancient history' to you, but I'd like to invite you there and backwards. You just might (sniff) learn something..

A sanguine thought, but don't hold your breath.

 

[Deimos]

i thought they like started in like 1970s 💀 - isn't too far from the truth. The seventies gave birth to the movie franchise, as Elthir pointed out with Star Wars. Old style movie makers lost their leverage with the studios and, no more Missouri Breaks, The Wild Bunch, The Long Goodbye, etc...etc...etc...<sigh>

Yep, but thank heavens for all the "Indies" and those film makers of similar pursuits.

 

[Deimos]

I love the classic Universal (and some Hammer) monster horror films from those decades! With the Pluto TV app, I can watch these movies on the Universal Monsters channel for free, usually on a weekly cycle.


And the list continues to grow. It's interesting getting to know the "big actors" of the era and seeing them in various roles, and to become more acquainted with these stories. I also love silent films as well, such as the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, the 1912 and 1920 versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Nosferatu from 1922. Being very much interested in acting myself, I love to study the physical movements and portrayals of the monsters and characters from the classics of the 1920's-40's. The style of acting from back then had a certain quality to it I don't find much in most modern movies these days.

You should add to your list:
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The Haunting (1963)

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

You should add to your list The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

I've tried, but whenever it's on in the loop of movies in the channel I've never been able to catch more than the ending of it. In the last couple days I have watched The Black Castle (1952) and Dead Man's Eyes (1944), though, and I realized I had forgotten to add Island of Lost Souls (1933), which I had seen at one point too.

@Erestor Arcamen, I remembered I have seen the first Hammer Dracula movie from 1958. It was on Svengoolie one night last year. It's just the rest of that series I have yet to see. They aren't on this Universal Monsters channel I've been watching, so they aren't as readily accessible as the others have been.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I've posted clips from "The Gang's All Here" (1943) before, but here's the full movie, featuring Busby Berkeley's typically fantastic -- and typically bizarre -- production numbers:

In Technicolor!

 

[Lobelia B. S-B]

The Bridge Over The River Kwai

I am surprised anyone has mentioned this (sniff). I thought it very well done.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) was also exceptional in its way, and has been said by some to be "the best flying movie ever made about naval aviation, and one of the very best war movies."

Of course - the 'some' were posters on (sniff) Reddit, so - well - as always, its best to make one's own judgements about stuff.
How?
Well, know about them, and then watch them would work maybe. (Sniff)

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

I’m sure Klaatu knows this one but Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), the remakes are garbage.

Same with War of the Worlds (1953) any remakes past that are orc feces

 

[Vorondil]

I thought it very well done.

As did I. It was horribly historically inaccurate, but if you can look past that, it's a great film.

Same with War of the Worlds (1953) any remakes past that are orc feces

I really must watch the 1953 version. I watched one of the modern remakes, and it was indeed, as you so poetically put it, orc faeces.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

As did I. It was horribly historically inaccurate, but if you can look past that, it's a great film.

I really must watch the 1953 version. I watched one of the modern remakes, and it was indeed, as you so poetically put it, orc faeces.

It always scared me as a kid but is a really good movie!

 

[Klaatu]

I agree.

Sweet Jesus.

OKAY, I admit, I might have been proven wrong. There are some great movies from the 30s and 60s ig. I haven't even watched any, but I don't wanna have to read another ten paragraph lecture, so im gonna say that there are probably some really old good movies and leave it at that. I am going to watch breakfast at tiffanys and its a wonderful life tho.
I had a good laugh tho. I found it funny how everyone got so pressed over my post. i apologize to everyone that got offended. Ive been having character development and i try not to judge too much. and i think im pretty good at it. This is very sincere. Or is it? I guess I'll leave that up to you.

Character development arc unlocked. Respect.

No ten paragraph lecture incoming. The projector has been gently powered down and the ushers have been told to stand at ease.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s and It’s a Wonderful Life are solid picks. Very different energies. One is stylish melancholy in pearls. The other emotionally dropkicks you and then hands you hot cocoa.

That is all anyone was really saying. Not bow before the altar of black and white. Just maybe do not declare the entire century a cinematic wasteland before sampling the buffet.

If you like them, great. If you do not, that is fine too. Curiosity is the only ticket price.

The Celestial Bijou will keep your seat warm.
—
Klaatu
Assistant Manager of Intergalactic Popcorn Quality Control
Certified Rain Soaked Trench Coat Enthusiast
Keeper of the Slightly Crooked Film Reel of Andromeda 🎬

 

[Deimos]

This ...an auction

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[Squint-eyed Southerner]