Didn't you mean to call your list "My 20 Favorite Black-and-White Films?

You'd have a tough time defending #4, #11, #14, #16, #18, #19, #20, and #25 against the following list, and dozens of other movies:

"Double Indemnity," "Brief Encounter," "The Maltese Falcon," "The Wages of Fear," "All About Eve," "Nights of Cabiria," "High Noon," "Bride of Frankenstein," "Rashomon," "The Scarlett Empress," "Duck Soup," "Destry Rides Again," "Notorious!"... Need I go on?

Also: if you're going to hype "Metropolis" (which I, too would have done), and "Pandora's Box" (not even as good as "Diary of A Lost Girl," Brooks' companion piece), you might also warn that both films have been so mangled over the years, readers they may never see them as you or I did -- let alone as the director intended.

FussyFreddy

PS: Cheers on including "Dr. Strangelove." It always was one of the greatest movies ever made, and has distrurbingly improved with age.

But can you offer even one good reason "Citizen Kane" or "The Seven Samurai" would have been better in color?

(A lot of folks would ask the same of "Casablanca," especially given the disastrous results when Ted Turner colorized it. I never cared enough about the movie to give a hoot).

Well Fussyfreddy, if I had called my list "My Favorite" no one would have commented. Hell, I was beginning to think no one was going to comment anyway! Thanks!

I want argue my inclusions except briefly. I tried to include films from all genres, horror, sci-fi, drama, foreign, and tried to include films which seem to play better in black and white - were made for black and white. Outdoor epics were made for color, which is why I left off "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon" (which I don't consider even one of Kurosawa's three best films). I suppose check out "Ran" for an idea. I left off "Citizen Kane" because that mansion is just screaming to be in color. No reason to fret, I included "Touch of Evil" - one can never ignore Mr. Welles.

On to your choices:

"Double Indemnity" is certainly deserving, but found myself having to include only one Wilder film, and I consider "Sunset Blvd." superior. It would have made my top 30.

"Brief Encounter" is not even one of David Lean's three best films, and his work was always more at home in Technicolor ("Lawrence of Arabia").....

"The Maltese Falcon," while directed by John Huston, was so similar to "The Big Sleep," that I had to leave it off as I like Hawks' film a bit more. Huston's "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" would have made my top 30.

"The Wages of Fear" is absolutely deserving and can't argue with that.

"All About Eve" is more dialogue and brilliant acting than mood or sets. Great film, but could have easily played in color.

"Nights of Cabiria" is a fine film but would not have made my top 40.

"High Noon" I agonized over and am still in agony. It's a top 30, but found myself having to include only one Western, and had to include "My Darling Clementine" for two reasons - it's directed by John Ford, and I think it's a better film.

"Bride of Frankenstein" is another top 30 choice, and came very close to putting it on this list. But horror was already represented, and decided to include "Young Frankenstein" because it was a film where black and white was purposefully and masterfully used...

"The Scarlett Empress" and "Duck Soup" would not have even made my top 40.

I thought "Destry Rides Again" was in color. Am I wrong here? Or am I getting that mixed up with "Dodge City?" Either way, I can think of at least five westerns other than that one to include ("High Noon," "Stagecoach," "Red River," "Fort Apache," "the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance")

"Notorious" is a masterpiece, but "Spellbound" ranked higher on my list. Hitchcock's finest work ("Rear Window" and "Vertigo") was in color in my opinion. I consider "Psycho" only his third best film, and realized I could only include one of his black and white works.

I am impressed with your mentioning of "Diary of A Lost Girl," I think "Pandora's Box is superior, have always loved it, and am satisfied for the most part with my video copy. But a great mention never-the-less...

I love "Casablanca," but the success of that film had little to do with sets or direction. It was a lucky break with Bogart and Bergman burning up the screen. It could have just as easily been in color.

Some impressive mentions though and thanks!

Fine list, Chris, Although i myself would have put Manhattan at #1, probably on account of it being the Certified Duke De Mondo Best Film Ever. As for Citizen Kane in colour, i have to make like a communist and get all disagreeing. That lighting, those shadows, that could never have been replicated to any effect in colour. As to my own list, there's plenty on yours that would be on mine also, except i would have had Bride Of Frankenstien in the top 5. And where was "M"? Personally i think it was Lang's best film. I would also add The War Game, which is not only one of the best documantaries ever ITDO (In The Duke's Opinion), but also one of the best films ever. And what of Birth Of A Nation or Intolerance? We could go on and on, but Kudos to you for this fine selection, and however much i may personally love Citizen Kane, it was profoundly refreshing to see it relegated to a footnote here. Cheers.

Argh! I forgot about Strike, Battleship Potemptkin and October, a solid-gold trilogy of wonderment from our man in the proles, Eisenstien.

Chris, Your list is blandly unobjectionable up to the last statement. If there are three things I can thank God do not exists, it would be actual color versions of Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and The Seven Samurai. How in the world you came up with such an opinion astounds me. The B&W photography of Kane is vital to the success of that film, aned far more influential than that of any film you name.

Thanks Duke,

I love M but only wanted to include one Fritz Lang film (Metropolis).....I struggled with Brid of Frankenstein as much as I struggled with High Noon and Double Indemnity and suppose it had as much to do with which side of the bed I awoke on than anything else. Bride of Frankenstein is one of the great, great films of all time and should probably reconsider that exclusion.

The cult of DW Griffith has always left me a bit perplexed. I know he made incredible strides in moviemaking, but I sit through Birth of a Nation and blush, with disturbing themes and so on. Battleship Potemptkin I also considered but came to the conclusion this was NOT to be a greatest film ever made list, but a list of the greatest black and white films. I wanted to include films from different genres.

I am so sick of everyone pulling Citizen Kane out of their ass. Yes, we all know it's one of the great films in history, but decided to chuck a few of the obvious choices out the door. I genuinely believe Citizen Kane, the great Holy Grail of films for all cinema lovers residing on some fiery mountaintop next to God's Ten Commandments, would have been an improved film in color. Touch of Evil, a seedy B Movie in many ways, was made for black and white.....

As usual, your comments are appreciated Duke!

Rodney,

I never said Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Seven Samurai should be colorized. I think we all know what a disaster that was......I said they would have been better films had they been made in color, thus they did not make my list.

I made this list in response to a poster who claimed he did not watch black-and-white films because he thought them boring. Thus I made a list of personal favorites to serve as a starting point for anyone who has never seen a black-and-white film. These are films I feel most appropriately utilize black and white and I tried to cover all boundaries, and included some favorites that do not normally make lists of this type.

If it is bland, then I suppose I am a bland person. All Greatest Films lists include Citizen Kane, film lovers farting the greatness of Welles ad nauseam.......For this list to have truly been bland, I would have included the very three films you object to....

I appreciate your comments, as misguided as they are.....

No, Chris, you misunderstand me. I didn't mean you thought they should be colorized. I meant I thought it perfectly completely totally 100 percent insane that you thought they would be better in color at all. I simply fail to understand why in the world you think Sunset Boulevard or any of those films you name are great black and white films, and Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Seventh Samurai should have been shot in color. It makes no sense whatsoever. The black and white ambience is every bit as indelible in those three films as it is in the films you list, if not more so. The richness and depth of B&W photography that Gregg Toland achieved in Kane was vastly influential; in terms of depth of field and composition, it's a virtual textbook of what can be achieved using the format. This is something the cinematographers in Visions of Light (1992) point out over and again. People have admiringly joked ever since that this American film is the greatest German Expressionist film ever made. And do you really honestly think that a film like Casablanca could have been improved in color? How? Do you want to see the airport scene in anything but B&W? Or Mifune wage battle in Technicolor?

Rodney,

There is nothing more I would like to see than Toshiro wage battle in Technicolor. With the exception of Ikiru, Kurosawa's films were made for color......The battles would have been extraordinary.

Yes, Casablanca, to include the aiport scene, the gin joint scenes, Dooley Wilson playing the piano, would have been fascinating in color and the film would not have suffered for it.

Citizen Kane also would not have suffered significantly had it been filmed in color. Sure, Welles and company were mimicking the German Expressionist style and we all get a hardy chuckle out of that. Welles and Toland, they are a real lulu.....I would have liked to have seen Xanadu's expansive rooms in color, I would have liked to have seen Xanadu in color, I would have liked to have seen Kane's childhood in color, I would have liked to have seen the opera in color.....

I can't even remotely visualize Touch of Evil or even The Lady From Shanghai in color. I can Citizen Kane. Thus, I dropped it from the list like a bad habit.....

I know it's cheesy, but where is Some Like It Hot on the list?!

One of my favourite black and white films ever...!

(slopes back off to corner)

We'll just have to part company on this. You sound as if you yearn to see something glaringly repulsive. What I fail to understand is why you want to see the Casablanca airport in color -- why, for God's sake, WHY? -- but you apparently don't want to see Janet Leigh bleed in color or William Holden drown in color or Louise Brooks do her little erotic dance in color (think of the costumes!)

Why do people love black and white to begin with? Very simple. It creates a certain haunting, dream-like mood, and you simply cannot tell me that the mood of the three films under discussion would have in any way been sustained -- or improved -- with color; it would have turned them all into vulgar spectacles.

Also, I think you (and many others) grossly overrate
i Touch of Evil --
a set of great shots, no doubt, but that's all anyone ever remembers about it. The story itself is shallow, and doesn't really connect with the viewer emotionally quite the way either Kane or -- despite their problems -- Magnificent Ambersons or Lady from Shanghai do.

Juliette,

I would have included Wilder's Sunset Blvd and Double Indemnity long befoe Some Like it Hot. Not even sure Some Like it Hot would make my top 50.

Rodney,

It's all a matter of taste. I respect Citizen Kane and Magnificient Ambersons. I love Touch of Evil and Lady From Shanghai, and watch those films repeatedly.

I don't think anyone can dispute Citizen Kane as being one of the most important films ever made. Every Welles film has a devoted following. Citizen Kane's greatness absolutely is related to the strange angles and lighting, almost all of it Welles' doing......He told a story through editing, lighting and sets, in addition to utilizing Mankiewicz's screenplay contributions. It is the classic of all films.

But if trapped on a desert island with Veronica Lake and one video, I'm going to have sex with Lake (multiple times) and then pop in my copy of Touch of Evil and kick back and get a suntan....

Ah well, each to their own..

Chris, just remembered another couple of B&W masterpieces - Modern Times and The Gold Rush. Modern Times has the edge as far as The Duke is concerned, and a very sharp one at that, so best get an adult to supervise.

I've just heard that Ted Turner is going
to re-release "The Wizard Of Oz" later
on this year on DVD.The first 10 minutes
of the film have been colorized.

First 10 minutes of Oz colourised? what kind of stupid shit is that? Are the remaining hour and a half now black and white, then? This si nonsensical nonsense. Why don't the replace the soundtrack with Dark Side Of The Moon while they're at it, so as we can all join in on those online debates and go "oooh, the guitar starts just as Dorothy sneezes!"

Duke,In regards to the colorization of
"The Wizard Of Oz".'Twas only a joke.
I wouldn't put it past Ted Turner to do it though.

Duke,

Glad someone mentioned Charlie Chaplin. I prefer City Lights over Modern Times and Gold Rush, and that would be in top 30. Left off Chaplin because the beauty of his films is Chaplin himself, not really having much to do with angles, lighting, etc.....

lol....HW is a sly one. I'm all for colorizing the first half of Wizard of Oz and making the second half in B&W.....

Perhaps a list of the 20 greatest Color films that should be in B&W? No. 1 would be Gone With the Wind, followed by The Godfather and, of course, Cannibal Holocaust.....

Someone once asked Orson Welles for his 10 favorite films. He included 12:

1. City Lights
2. Greed
3. Intolerance
4. Nanook of the North
5. Shoeshine
6. Battleship Potemkin
7. The Baker's Wife
8. Grand Illusion
9. Stagecoach
10. Ninotchka
11. The Best Years of Our Lives
12. The Bicycle Thief

For what it's worth.....

I would add:

Cranes are Flying (Russia, 1957 or 58)

The Crowd (1928, King Vidor)

Two of the greatest films ever made, regardless of arbitrary color vs b/w categories.

I saw Modern Times last Friday evening at the theatre; the restored version that played last year at Cannes and to my eye a near-perfect restoration job. I didn't see a pockmark on it; no fades, no watery tones. I think it's my favorite Chaplin, with The Great Dictator; here again is the Little Tramp, stuck in Depression-era America, wandering into one pitfall after the next, always happily going wherever he's kicked, always bearing with guileless dignity each new indignity that comes his way. Of course, that's a little easier when you've got Paulette Goddard at your side, playing the "gamin" -- surely the leggiest over-aged orphan in cinema history. It's a critique of capitalism that is as scathing as it is sentimental, and -- as a basically silent film with title cards that also employed sound and spoken dialogue -- it's a fond farewell to an era of cinema. It's still hilariously funny, and eventhough I'm always the first one to say Keaton is better than Chaplin, and that the ending of City Lights is the corniest thing I've ever seen, I found myself overcome with renewed admiration. It has one brilliant sequence after the next: that Kafkaesque Feeding Machine is still just an absolute laugh riot.

Thanks Shark for the fully expected obscure listings. Since I have seen neither I will not comment, though would like to mention King Vidor's work, for the most part, rings with the crystal clear tune of breaking wind....Though I will not knock him too much as he was born in Texas, and he did give us Our Daily Bread.....

Rodney,
I loved The Great Dictator though have not seen it in a long time. I was lucky enough to see both Modern Times and City Lights for the first time at the theater, and am still amazed by how extraordinary those films are. Chaplin was a genius equal to Welles in many ways.

Of course i knew it was a joke! Ha! You imagine the duke would be duped by such nonsense. (cough)
Enough! I knew it was a joke you motherfuckers! You cannot play such a trick on me!
(ahem)
Actually you got me.
As to chaplin, Modern Times and Great Dictator are my faves, even though i mentioned Gold Rush above. Gold Rush is a better film than GD, just happen to prefer the latter. Crazy times, man.
The DVD release of the chaplin films recently has resulted in gorgeous, spotless prints as mentioned above.
And as for that cheeky Cannibal Holocaust reference...

I might as well add my two cents here.
My favorite B & W movies are as follow:
1 "Los Olvidados"
2 "Sunset Blvd."
3 "Pursued"
4 "M" (Fritz Lang version)
5 "Cabinet Of Dr Caligari"
6 "Down By Law"
7 "The Third Man"
8 "Baby Doll"
9 "Night Of The Hunter"
10 "Freaks"
11 "Out Of The Past"
12 "Yojimbo"
13 "High Noon"
14 "Ride The Pink Pony"
15 "A Touch Of Evil"
16 "His Kind Of Woman"
17 "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse"
18 "Red River"
19 "Kansas City Confidential"
20 "Kiss Of Death"
Anyone who deigns to see fit that any of
these movies need "colorizing",should be
laughed at,ignored or both.

i think any film with "pink" in the title should definatel be in colour

re: Saxton's list - marry me! No, wait...

Great list, man.

Los Olvidados! -- I once asked a hispanic friend to translate that title for me; he shuddered, looked at me like I was Lucifer, and said, "Oh man... oooh... oooh.."

Haven't seen Rashomonanywhere. Probably should be added.

Also Beauty and the Beast ~!!! (Cocteau)

PS: Chris - re. King Vidor: YOU BLASPHEME! anyway, check out "The Crowd" -- an astonishing silent film.

HW, an excellent list and hard to argue with.

Shark, inclusion of Beauty and the Beast is also a good choice. Rashomon we discussed earlier....everyone has their favorite Kurosawa....

Vidor's The Crowd is highly touted in some stuff I read yesterday, though don't believe I have ever seen it anywhere.....I think of Vidor, I think War and Peace and Duel in the Sun, neither of which I particularly liked. Saw Our Daily Bread I believe on PBS one night many years ago and it was fascinating......He seemed to spend a large part of his career directing silent films, with The Crowd evidently one of several highlights.....One learns something everyday...:)

I think the title of Luis Bunuel's comeback film, Los Olvidados, translates as "the forgotten ones."

Well, Chris, seems that questioning your praise of "Pandora's Box" merely opened one.

Now that we've all flamed out (or grudgingly praised!) each other's choices, I hope to draw out your stated motivation for beginning this thread: the resistance of young'uns to B&W movies.

I agree with Rodney's comment #11 about the dreamy power of black-and-white photography. Moreover, it encourages the viewer to suspend the disbelief that rules our full-color world. Therein lies some of the charm of "La Belle et La Bete"; some of the creepiness of "Night of the Living Dead"; and some of the larger-than-life grandeur of "Citizen Kane."

I'm tempted to conclude this is why modern audiences have no time for black-and-white movies.

Our saturated world of "reality" media makes it clearer than ever that truth is stranger than fiction (and implicitly, more entertaining). Fiction as we once knew it is fighting for relevance.

Then again, the success of "The Matrix" and the LOTR trilogy proves that modern audiences are as willing to switch off their cynicism, if the story kicks and the special effects are convincing.

Might it just be that black-and-white movies, born of technological limitations, are artistically obsolete and inevitably meaningless today?

I invite all comments...

RE - The "kids" and their reluctance towards the monochrome. I think maybe the thing here is more to do with marketing than just the fact that young uns dont want to see those greys all over the place. For example, Schindlers List. Black And White (with a touch of red, but only for a second), marketed like hell. Best film you ever seen + also worthy, says the telly, and lo and behold folks go and see it.
They say the same thing about subtitles. Kids don't wanna read the damn movies, they say. They go to libraries to read, and they go to the picture house to see Van Damme fuck up a terrorist.
What happens? Passion of the christ gets the bollocks marketed off it (and probably sold as a touching necklace memento) and the cinemas are filled with folks that are terrified of the words close captioned.
Lesson - if films are marketed right, folks will see them, be they black and white or tartan.

I dunno, Duke...

"Schindler's List," I recall, was a borderline blockbuster (about $100 m b/o in 1993/94). I doubt ANY kids saw it, except those dragged into the cineplexes by their parents, and the inevitable, innumerous Yale and Bryn Mawr types.

"Schindler's List" was an "adult movie" in the literal sense. So were "The Elephant Man," "Ed Wood," Woody Allen's experiments and a handful of other B/W features of the past quarter-century (exceptions include indies like Spike Lee's debut, "She's Gotta Have It," which were B/W because their directors lacked $$$).

Kids just don't get black-and-white movies. Many middle-aged grownups don't get black-and-white movies. Perhaps my previous note didn't adequately explain why. I'm not entirely sure myself, although I've suggested that I have a clue.

My ultimate point is that establishment movie criticism (including my point of view) may have to ditch its entrenched and increasingly sentimental critique of black-and-white photography as a general enhancement of cinema.

I'm 41, just old enough (because I was one of the aforesaid teenaged nerds who liked B/W) to have enrolled in those movies like a mutt in a garbage can. That doesn't make my paroxysms over Gregg Toland or Charles Lang any more defensible to a generation raised on color cinematography whose excellence is taken for granted.

More than half a century ago, Hollywood drove a spike through the heart of silent pictures with "Singin' In The Rain," whose implicit criticism of the era said more than any critic dared (until critics like Pauline Kael later deemed it the greatest movie musical of all time).

We may be near that inflection point for the black-and-white motion picture.

I don't know that it's neccessarily true that kids -- whoever they may be -- simply reject B&W out of hand, although of course many do. But I don't think it will ever go out of style, if only because color is so ubiquitous and B&W simply looks different and therein is part of its lasting appeal. I know I'm not the only one who stops, if only for a moment, when I'm channel-surfing and chance upon a B&W image. It's very arresting. That's why commercial-makers love it. I think it can almost be argued that it improves almost any movie shot in that format -- the movie may well look deeper and more poetic and dreamy and artful than it really is. I think it may appeal to filmmakers technically as well; I referenced a documentary above called "Visions of Light" -- in there a cinematographer, Allen Daviau I think, said he would jump at the channce to work in B&W; on the other hand, I read an interview some years back with Bertolucci's DP, Vittorio Storaro, who said he no interest in it at all because color offers so many more creative possibilities.

I think a lot of the kids' refusal to watch B&W may be related to what they were raised on. Growing up I used to watch Dick Van Dyke and Lucille Ball on TV, and can remember watching the old Universal horror films with my Dad. I was speaking to a poster in here who loved zombie films, but had never bothered to see Night of the Living Dead because he simply did not like B&W films. It stunned me. There will always be the few who watch a film, and then decide they want to see the best films have to offer, leading inevitably to B&W classics. It's like eventually reading Moby Dick or Paradise Lost. If one wants to understand the process, then one must view/read the classics. The artistic possibilities with B&W are numerous, and Storaro's comment is rather numbskulled. There is an equal amount of B&W still photography as there is color photography. But moviemaking is such a HUGE business, producers take the least amount of chances to guarantee, as much as possible, a financial success at the box office. There's not the same kind of money in still photography, thus more experimentation.

I think most talented directors would prefer to work in B&W ocassionally. But the business is such that unless a director has huge clout, B&W will not see the light of day. But are most of the films made today even appropriate for B&W? Do we really want to see Daredevil or Hulk in B&W? I also think it depends on the subject matter of the film as to whether or not it will be improved by B&W....

Chris, First off, I'd hold off on calling Storaro numbskilled -- he's widely regarded as the world's greatest cinematographer, based largely on how much he can do with color, and I think he was just speaking for himself. B&W isn't his preference, just as color wasn't, say, the first choice of Ansel Adams or Diane Arbus. His IMDB profile indicates he's worked with B&W at least once, so he probably comes by that opinion honestly. As to your other points, it's valid to say both that B&W is financially risky and that movies don't always call for it. But what's even more interesting to me is how B&W went from becoming the only game in town to an artistic choice to a sign to the unsophisticated that a movie is "old." As you know, movies were still shot in B&W long after the color process came into play, but I doubt in the 1950s and 1960s there was any kind of a stigma attached to it because people were used to seeing it on TV well into the decade. (Color TV didn't really take over until about 1966 or 1967.) Bergman, Bunuel, and Antonioni's greatest films -- arguably -- were shot in B&W. So was On the Waterfront, so was an old favorite I rented the other night Suddenly, Last Summer. So were a lot of movies, and I doubt it kept audiences away. When did it become daring or risky to shoot in B&W? I'm not old enough to say whether anyone in 1966 cared that much that Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was in B&W -- although I doubt it -- but I do recall very definitely that when Peter Bogdanovich shot The Last Picture Show (1971) using B&W in a major motion picture was seen as a brave artistic choice, and critics were quick to defend it by saying the movie wouldn't have been the same without it. Since then, B&W has always been seen as arty, like in Jim Jarmusch's early movies or Lynch's Eraserhead.

Rodney,

I am well aware as to who Storaro is and still think it a "NUMBSKULL" comment. Just because these guys are successful filmmakers does not make them Gods closed off to criticism. In addition, ALL Italian filmmakers should always be open to criticism because their country is the MOST overrated in the entire history of filmmaking mankind. I would also like to add Francis Ford Coppola to this list, the biggest bag of hot air in filmmaking history. Will someone please slap Francis in the face with a a huge sock filled with cold Ragu......*splat*

Thank you. Now Francis, shut the fuck up....

Anyway, I think most substantial cinematographers will fully admit the boundaries when making a B&W film are just as endless as the realm of Technicolor....To say otherwise is the result of one too many glasses of bad Merlot....

I didn't say he was closed off to criticism; I said he had chosen his format and it wasn't B&W. If other cinematographers want to explore the so-called boundless opportunities of the format, that's their game, not his. But this is all beside the point; I was hoping for something with a little more intellectual fiber than an anti-Italian rant.

lol......You wish for fiber Rodney, go try some Bland Flakes.....

Sorry. My mistake.

I agree.

Crime scene investigators will request black and white photos of the scene, because of a unique clarity of details. So there could actually be a real cause for black and white film enjoyment other than sentiment.

Interesting sheri. That's the first time I have heard that but it does make sense. Thanks!

Chris, I have been looking for a black and white film but have yet to find it. It is about a woman whose daughter and husband are held hostage and she is asked to steal money from a bank (I think) and delivery it. Along the way there is voice over of her thoughts. She runs late but reaches the place and presents the money. The boss leaves with the money and a psychopathic associate watches the lady. The husband and the child are kept in a hotel by a man and a woman. The husband sneaks out in the elevator shaft and plans to bring the police to the room while the child is asleep. The man who is watching them is a famous sitcom star.

Marcus,

Sounds like "Experiment in Terror," a 1962 film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Glenn Ford and Lee Remick....

Chris

"Destry Rides Again" was B&W.

Experiment in terror was close. I will watch that but that is not the movie. This movie is with a little girl and her father as hostages. The sitcom star is a grumpy guy that I believe might be from the Odd Couple but the name Walter Mathau does not seem to fit.

Destry Rides Again is not it.

Thanks.

"The Last Picture Show"--sorry if this has been mentioned, but I thought the b&w aptly evoked a mood and time that color would not have captured.

Jim Jarmusch's early 80's film Stranger Than Paradise, with a soundtrack that seems to consist solely of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell On You."

Marcus,

It's "Cry Terror," a 1958 film directed by Andrew Stone and starring James Mason and Inger Stevens. You were right about "The Odd Couple" connection - but it's actually Jack Klugman in the film. He plays a thug....

Chris

Thank you, that is it! I checked amazon.com and netflix and all I could find was a vhs version but there are not any copies available. If anyone knows where I can get one or has one, shout!

can anyone identify a B&W horror film that would have been pre 60's. It is set in an old castle, the man walks into a bedroom chamber and sees a girl brushing her long hair. He approaches her and she turns around to be an OLD woman. Very scary. I would love to see it again. Help, thanks.

remember this B&W horror? old dad buys lottery tickets-dies shortly after-once buried the son realize it was winning ticket & ticket is in the suit pocket dad was buried in-son's goes and digs grave-opens casket and the dead father has this horrible scary face-son screams and turns out he gets same face as dead father..i think the title was something like this--smile of death or even mask of death...not sure but would love to see that movie again. used to scare me silly as a teenager and everytime it came on tv i had to wake up my mom to watch with me because i was scared to be alone. Now my mom is gone and it's more as a great memory value to me....any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Mr. and/or Ms. Lauraine, it sounds like your movie might be "Mister Sardonicus".

Googled "obscure movies 'Ride the Pink Pony'" and ended up at this web page; in fact it is the only site that came up!

Problem is, I don't see anything on this page (other than an appreciation of really well made movies)that alludes to the movie I am seeking info on.

No one has mentioned Rebecca which is definitely more effective more scary in black and white from the first shot going down the drive to the entrances of Mrs Danvers. Has to be in my list of favourite films and not just for Laurence Olivier