Some of Your Most Favorite Movies of All Time

[Mac_the_Nice]

One of mine, and not just because my favorite Jazz Age Flapper of all time, my Granny took me to it, as a boy . . .

 

[AndyM108]

Here's one of my favorites:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMWc4h77e2o

 

And an even better version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPG9GcykPIY

[Mac_the_Nice]

Here's one of my favorites:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMWc4h77e2o

 

And an even better version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPG9GcykPIY

Great stuff! Man alive, I'd almost forgot about those. Filmed in France, weren't they? Kurt Weill--what a composer. Way ahead of his time. Brecht? Too much of a Commie, for my taste, and rather a crappy writer if you ask me, but he sure got the right man & wife team for the music. I would like to see a better update of the Beggar's Opera. Ever read it? John Gay. His production was so popular in London that it nearly put Handel out of business. Only his composition of Messiah brought him up out of the doldrums John Gay had put him in.

[AndyM108]

Great stuff! Man alive, I'd almost forgot about those. Filmed in France, weren't they? Kurt Weill--what a composer. Way ahead of his time. Brecht? Too much of a Commie, for my taste, and rather a crappy writer if you ask me, but he sure got the right man & wife team for the music. I would like to see a better update of the Beggar's Opera. Ever read it? John Gay. His production was so popular in London that it nearly put Handel out of business. Only his composition of Messiah brought him up out of the doldrums John Gay had put him in.

 

Actually my favorite version of "Mack The Knife" is Gerald Price's, from the 1954 Theatre de Lys production.  It conveys the sinister undertones of the Macheath character, rather than popifying it like Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald.  Lenya's version is great, but since I don't understand German some of its effect is lost on me. I'd link to the Price version, but you have to sign into some website to be able to hear it; it's not on YouTube.

 

And yeah, to be charitable Brecht was kind of a dogmatic Stalinist, but he did write a few poems that ring true, one of which is.....

 

A Worker Reads History

 

Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.

Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet
was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War.
Who triumphed with him?

Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?

So many particulars.
So many questions.

 

[Sepiatone]

I didn't know "MACK THE KNIFE" was a MOVIE!

 

I thought the question WAS "Favorite movies"?

 

OK, I'll comply:

 

My list may not be as sophisticated as others might be, but you DID ask for MY favorites, right?

 

FLYING DEUCES

COCONUTS( MOST of the Marx Brothers flicks)

DINNER AT EIGHT

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

CITIZEN KANE

GRAPES OF WRATH

A SONG IS BORN

THE MALTESE FALCON

CASABLANCA

STAGECOACH

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY

RED RIVER

SHANE

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

ON THE WATERFRONT

THE WILD ONE

PRESSURE POINT

THE FUGITIVE KIND

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

LILLIES OF THE FIELD

SOLDIER IN THE RAIN

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

RIO BRAVO

THE JAYHAWKERS

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

THE BELLBOY

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

LITTLE BIG MAN

HEAD

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIFE

THE GODFATHER

 

WHEW!   THAT just scratches the surface!

 

 

Sepiatone

[AndyM108]

I didn't know "MACK THE KNIFE" was a MOVIE!

 

It's not, but it's central to Die 3-Groschen-Oper (The Threepenny Opera), the 1931 German movie that often plays on TCM.  The first link in my original reply was from that very film.

[Mac_the_Nice]

I didn't know "MACK THE KNIFE" was a MOVIE!

 

I thought the question WAS "Favorite movies"?

 

OK, I'll comply:

 

My list may not be as sophisticated as others might be, but you DID ask for MY favorites, right?

 

 

THE FUGITIVE KIND

 

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

LITTLE BIG MAN

 

WHEW!   THAT just scratches the surface!

 

 

Sepiatone

I selected my three favorites among your favorites.  As per your selection of The Fugitive Kind, I could stand high on a cliff like "Wind in His Hair" shaking my bow to shout, "I will always be your friend!" A bit over the top, I know, but that's just how I feel about that play, that film, even in all its various recensions.  Did you see the TV movie version with Vanessa under its later title of Orpheus Descending? She was okay, but who could top Joanne Woodward in that role as the free spirited beat chick in a jazzy Jaguar? That was Tennessee Williams' first play to be produced, right here in Missouri, even, while he was yet in college or just fresh out of it, up there in Columbia. Little Big Man?  What can anyone say other than--give me a minute, I'll try and think of something.

[Mac_the_Nice]

I didn't know "MACK THE KNIFE" was a MOVIE!

 

It's not, but it's central to Die 3-Groschen-Oper (The Threepenny Opera), the 1931 German movie that often plays on TCM.  The first link in my original reply was from that very film.

It was in German language, but for some reason, (political no doubt) it had to be filmed in France. The original Mack the Knife was Jewish and wound up at Theresienstadt -- don't recall whether he died there or was gassed at Auschwitz.

[darkblue]

I love 'Unforgiven' (1992).

 

As westerns go, it's a desert island choice.

 

No, wait - as MOVIES go, it's a desert island choice.

[Mac_the_Nice]

I love 'Unforgiven' (1992).

 

As westerns go, it's a desert island choice.

 

No, wait - as MOVIES go, it's a desert island choice.

Ever see the John Huston film, also a Western: The Unforgiven? Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Lilian Gish and Joseph Wiseman in a tremendously well acted role as the crazed old living ghost of a Confederate vet out jousting with the sagebrush on a Wyoming prairie.  The man made that character so utterly spooky and creepy and crazy, darn near had you cringing in your seat. This is the first movie I ever saw (first fun) in Cinemascope (or VistaVision).  I was seated with my Big Brother (Big Brothers Org.)  third row from the front, absolutely stunned, in thrall. And that score in newly installed motion picture stereo? Wow. What a night out at the movies.

[Gorch]

   I wish that I had seen "The Unforgiven" in the theater with stereophonic sound. I first caught it on Sunday Night at the Movies in the mid-sixties and while I loved Tiomkin's score, it sounded as if it had been recorded in someone's garage.

   Even on VHS, DVD and the original LP soundtrack, it sounded as if the music had wafted in from a neighboring theater.

   Audie Murphy though, really stands out as well as Joseph Wiseman.

[darkblue]

Yep, I saw 'The Unforgiven' when I was 12. I liked it.

 

My favorite character was played by John Saxon. I also think it's Audie Murphy's best movie.

 

"Anyone else see a burr in my sister's hair?"

[Mac_the_Nice]

   I wish that I had seen "The Unforgiven" in the theater with stereophonic sound. I first caught it on Sunday Night at the Movies in the mid-sixties and while I loved Tiomkin's score, it sounded as if it had been recorded in someone's garage.

   Even on VHS, DVD and the original LP soundtrack, it sounded as if the music had wafted in from a neighboring theater.

   Audie Murphy though, really stands out as well as Joseph Wiseman.

I know just what you mean about the odd tone quality of that score. But yes, in the theater the experience as I seem to recall it, is quite otherwise.  I think it did have--even there--that odd, sort of distant, treble-ish tone to it, but with the widescreen it just added tremendously to the sense of wide open spaces, of isolation on the prairie.

[Mac_the_Nice]

Yep, I saw 'The Unforgiven' when I was 12. I liked it.

 

My favorite character was played by John Saxon. I also think it's Audie Murphy's best movie.

 

"Anyone else see a burr in my sister's hair?"

Ah, yes. :-)

[fredbaetz]

Ever see the John Huston film, also a Western: The Unforgiven? Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Lilian Gish and Joseph Wiseman in a tremendously well acted role as the crazed old living ghost of a Confederate vet out jousting with the sagebrush on a Wyoming prairie.  The man made that character so utterly spooky and creepy and crazy, darn near had you cringing in your seat. This is the first movie I ever saw (first fun) in Cinemascope (or VistaVision).  I was seated with my Big Brother (Big Brothers Org.)  third row from the front, absolutely stunned, in thrall. And that score in newly installed motion picture stereo? Wow. What a night out at the movies.

"The Unforgiven" was a very good film.If you think about it, it's 'The Seachers" in reverse. An Indian girl is kidnapped and raised by whites. But it's no real surprise because "The Unforgiven" was penned by Alan Le May who also wrote "The Seachers"....

[Mac_the_Nice]

"The Unforgiven" was a very good film.If you think about it, it's 'The Seachers" in reverse. An Indian girl is kidnapped and raised by whites. But it's no real surprise because "The Unforgiven" was penned by Alan Le May who also wrote "The Seachers"....

I didn't know that. A powerful message that film carried. So, it was powerful. Left you stunned.

[Mac_the_Nice]

It's pretty hard to think of one movie that holds the number one place in a list of favorites, but oddly enough I do have one: one movie I hold such affection for that I have no problem trying to decide what is my most favorite movie of all time. There are others who agree, like one person posting either at Amazon or IMDb who says he's watched his DVD of this film 77 times. Patience please! 

I'll be naming it here, for all the good it'll do so far as recognition even among a bunch of movie buffs like us: This is an indie flick that entirely slipped under the radar, but for the notice of one totally clueless second string critic at the NY Times who viciously slammed it for what I can only suspect was to suit a political purpose: it's a movie set in the early 1930s about a lumberjack (Rip Torn) and his native American common law wife (Tantoo Cardinal) who harvest cedar boughs for the oil and sometimes cut down trees for a living in upper state Vermont. 

Most of the people who know of this film, got it via an airing on PBS, and despite its almost total lack of notoriety, it gets a 100% rating on the Rotten Tomatometer, which is suprising in consideration of the one glaring flaw this film does have: Michael J. Fox in a secondary role that could not have more unsuited to him. I read somewhere that he was taken on for that part only because he brought some sorely needed money at a point in pre-production when it was sink or swim. But if you go to IMDb and read through all the raves there, you'll find that the lovers of this movie are very graciously forgiving about that, as they go into paroxyms of enthusiasm over the performances of Tantoo Cardinal and Rip Torn. Especially are they over the moon about her, with every good reason. 

My very most favorite movie of all time is Jay Craven's fabulously shot adaption for the screen of Howard Mosher's novel, based on a true story, Where the Rivers Flow North. And the score created by a little known bluegrass string band, with such a homely name that I might wish it would slip my mind: "The Horseflies" is to die for. No trailer at YouTube. No surprise. But you can find it here . . . 

http://www.videodetective.com/movies/where-the-rivers-flow-north/5023

[speedracer5]

Here are some of my favorite movies, I'll consider my favorites the ones I will watch over and over again and they never get old.  I've noticed that there are those here on the forum who state that they don't like to watch a film more than once a year... I'm not like that, I'll watch a film twice in the same month if I feel like it.  Sometimes, I'm just in the mood to watch a particular film and I don't care if I've just watched it. 

 

Here are some of my favorites:

 

The Long Long Trailer (this film NEVER gets old)

Singin' in the Rain

Casablanca

Gilda

Gentleman Jim (I'll admit, a shirtless Flynn is a big draw to this film; but the storyline is good too)

The Adventures of Robin Hood

All About Eve

From Here to Eternity

The Sisters

Auntie Mame

Clue

Clueless

Pretty in Pink

The Karate Kid (1984)

The Lady From Shanghai

The Muppet Movie

Picnic

Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

Tangled

The Lego Movie

North By Northwest

To Catch a Thief

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Bridesmaids

The Birdcage

Uncertain Glory

Double Indemnity

The Thin Man

Mean Girls

Sabrina (1954)

Meet Me in St. Louis

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Funny Face

Sunset Boulevard

Some Like it Hot

Smokey and the Bandit

Dark Passage

 

I have so many favorites.  I just love movies and find myself loving so many films that I'm just discovering for the first time that my list grows every day (or at least often).  However, there are the times when I just want to watch a particular movie or actor and I have my fall backs.  Sometimes I think "I'm in the mood for an Audrey Hepburn movie," "I feel like taking an Errol break" (which frankly, is often.  Never get tired of looking at that man.); "I'm in the mood for Picnic." That's the great thing about movies.  They're almost a comfort food in a way; but without all the extra calories. 

 

[AndyM108]

From the obscure to the obvious....

 

Angi Vera (which stands alone)

 

Vertigo

Kapo

Pixote

Red Beard

High and Low

The Bad Sleep Well

It's a Wonderful Life

Goodfellas

The Killers

Out of the Past

Sleepers (De Niro, not Woody Allen's Sleeper)

Mystic River

The Housemaid

Reefer Madness

Boyfriends and Girlfriends

Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle

An Autumn Tale

Bay of Angels

Mississippi Mermaid

Diabolique

Touchez Pas au Grisbi

Rififi

Bombshell

Libeled Lady

Dead Reckoning

Gilda

Laura

The Battle of Algiers

So Big (Stanwyck version)

There Will Be Blood

The Wrestler

City of God

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Gangs of New York

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Search

Witness For the Prosecution

The Racket (1951 version)

Children of Paradise

Open City

Germany: Year Zero

Absence of Malice

Time Limit

Menace 2 Society

The Kid With a Bike

La Haine

My Fair Lady

A Star Is Born (Garland version)

42nd Street

Footlight Parade

Nothing But a Man

Kiss of Death

Nightmare Alley

The Light Touch

Short Cuts

Night on Earth

Jungle Fever

Raging Bull

A Bronx Tale

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Breaking Away

Come and See

Katyn

Glengarry Glen Ross

The Panic at Needle Park

Scarface (Pacino version)

Bicycle Thieves

Shoeshine

Red-Headed Woman

The Thin Man

Three Came Home

The Hucksters

Executive Suite

The Lady Eve

Bringing Up Baby

The Penalty

Greed

Pandora's Box

Diary of a Lost Girl

The Crowd

The Godless Girl

Call Her Savage

 

and about a million others.  God Bless TCM, and a tip of the hat to Netflix.

 

 

 

[manderstoke]

My favorites are:

 

Odd Man Our (all-time favorite)

Citizen Kane

Notorious

The Seventh Veil

The Man in Grey

Gilda

A Touch of Larceny

The Third Man

The Night Has Eyes

Witness

The Man Between

Julius Caesar

Jane Eyre (the version with Welles and Fontaine)

Kind Hearts and Coronets

 

I doubt that I'll ever tire of watching these movies.

[johnm001]

I love way too many movies to make a list.  I have a three-way tie for favorite film, mostly due to how many times I've seen each (in excess of 100), and continue to want to see them, again and again.

 

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) - the first film that became an obsession with me (there are many).  During its original 1960 release, I saw it 16 times.  Virtually countless times since then.

 

THE BIRDS (1963) - like nothing I had ever seen before (or since, really).  It was something of an event back when it originally played in theaters.  People actually ran out of the theater when Melanie headed up the stairs with the flashlight, at the end of the film.  It was the first time I saw that happen during a movie.  For me, though, I love the cast, the location and the lack of score.  Also, it is my favorite dialog movie.  I just love how the characters speak to one another.  If you took out every scene with birds attacking, it would remain a favorite.  They are completely incidental to my loving this film.

 

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) - the perfect screen musical.  A true cinema miracle.  A film that improves upoin its source material.  In my opinion, the only film version of a Broadway musical that does so.   Every second of its run time, it knows it's a film.  Breathtaking, both in scope and the performance of its leading lady, who along with Anne Bancroft in THE MIRACLE WORKER, gives the performance of the decade.  Seeing it on the enormous Todd-AO screen, changed my life.

[JamesJazGuitar]

Here are 20 of my favorites;  i.e. the movies I just love to watch with my favorites stars

The Petrified Forest

The Big Sleep

Only Angel Have Wings

My Man Godfrey

The Maltese Falcon

Holiday

The Glass Key

Torrid Zone

The Heiress

Double Indemnity

His Kind of Women

Out of The Past

Footlight Parade   

Captain Blood

It’s Love I’m After

His Girl Friday

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Adventure of Robin Hood

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Casablanca

 

 

[Renee234]

There are too many to list down, but here goes, a list of some of my very favorite movies:

1. The Godfather

2. Casablanca - loved the way Rick and Ilsa's war-torn romance was portrayed

3. Gone with the Wind

4. It's A Wonderful Life - this classic had surprisingly bombed when it was first released

5. The Silence of the Lambs - the only horror film eveer to have won the best picture award

6. The Sound of Music - evergreen in its own right, there can never be another one quite like it

7. When Harry Met Sally

8. Psycho - a thriller of a movie

9. Titanic - which rightfully went on to become the second largest grosser in history after Avatar

10. The Dark Knight

11. Mary Poppins

12. Cast Away

[SableGamine]

I love threads like this. I have SO many, that I've actually organized into categories. In the interest of time and space, here are my top favorites, in no particular order:

 

1.) Quo Vadis (1951)

2.) Carmen Jones (1954)

3.) Johnny Belinda (1948)

4.) To Sir With Love (1967)

5.) The Meteor Man (1993)

6.) Duel In The Sun (1946)

7.) The World, The Flesh, and the Devil (1959)

8.) Hide-Out (1934)

9.) The Moon Is Blue (1953)

10.) Malcolm X (1992)

11.) Fools Rush In (1997)

12.) Freaks (1932)

13.) The Baron of Arizona (1950)

14.) The Ten Commandments (1956)

15.) Waiting to Exhale (1995)

16.) The Story of Esther Costello (1957)

17.) The Prince of Egypt (1998)

18.) The Lion King (1994)

19.) Ben-Hur (1959)

20.) In This Our Life (1946)

21.) Lili (1953)

22.) The Gift of Love (1958)

23.) Hallelujah (1929)

24.) Claudine (1974)

25.) We Live Again (1934)

26.) The Princess and the Frog (2009)

27.) Susan Slept Here (1954)

28.) Bachelor Mother (1939)

29.) Beauty and the Beast (1991)

30.) 5ive (1951)

31.) Aladdin (1992)

32.) Bridge to the Sun (1961)

33.) A Raisin In the Sun (1961)

34.) Three On a Match (1932)

35.) Beauty and the Boss (1932)

36.) Man's Castle (1933)

37.) Satan Never Sleeps (1962)

38.) The Last Hunt (1954)

39.) Accent on Love (1941)

40.) Not As a Stranger (1955)

 

 

Whew!

[Bogie56]

My current top 12:

 

1.  Citizen Kane (1941)

2.  Dr. Strangelove (1964)

3.  Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

4.  On the waterfront (1954)

5.  Casablanca (1942)

6.  Paths of Glory (1957)

7.  Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

8. The Wild Bunch (1969)

9.  The Conformist (1970)

10.  Raging Bull (1980)

11.  The Seven Samurai (1954)

12.  The Godfather (1972)