What I like about old movies

VintageBetter

VintageBetter

Senior Member
They actually built sets in old movies. They don’t even bother with that now. They green screen & CGI everything.

I also appreciate the acting style of old movies too. Actors were allowed to and expected to emote. Today’s film acting style, facilitated by often extreme close-ups, is to often have the camera focus on the actor’s eyes and we’re supposed to be staring in their eyes alone to see the "truth of the moment".

I have long wondered why this is so today - I have come to the conclusion that so many actors have Botox now, even when they are in their 30s, which freezes your facial muscles, that directors have stopped expecting facial muscles to move around much.

I love the wrinkles I see in old movies. No wrinkles allowed in newer films, not even on men. It’s quite tragic. I saw “Key Largo” the other day - a darn fine film, even today. It was so nice to see actors acting with all their facial muscles and even wrinkles. The only wrinkle-free person in the film was a 23-year-old Lauren Bacall.

The acting style of today’s films and even theater, sometimes, reminds me of watching a staring contest. Did you ever do staring contests as kids? We did.

Oh well.
 

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Movie companies absolutely DO continue to build sets, film on location, and allow actors to emote.

Sure superhero movies employ plenty of CGI, but regular movies, not so much. Green screens have been around since the 1960s, and special effects??? Heck, Charlie Chaplin employed those.
 

I've gone through a phase, a few years back, of watching American and some British older B&Ws. Particularly mysteries or detective stories. With the American ones, the ones I generally liked were from the late 1940s into the early 1950s, partly because the lighting of even a true film noir ("dark film") had reached an admirable quality. Plots, scripts, and direction of the ones I liked were often good. In the better films, acting was good, too.

I could probably enjoy watching at least half of the ones I enjoyed again.
 
I do enjoy watching the older movies. Casablanca still remains my favorite movie. But I do have a problem watching the acting methods when I watch them. The actors often seem stiff and seem to speak and in exaggerated way. It's understandable since many of the actors learned their methods for the stage instead of movies. That seemed to change (at least to me) starting with movies produced in the 50's.

The one thing I do enjoy about the older movies is the cinematography of many of the older movies. Directors and cameramen often took risks and often times they succeeded. Some old black and white movies look just as beautiful as any movie produced in the past forty years.
 
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JBR said:
I've gone through a phase, a few years back, of watching American and some British older B&Ws. Particularly mysteries or detective stories. With the American ones, the ones I generally liked were from the late 1940s into the early 1950s, partly because the lighting of even a true film noir ("dark film") had reached an admirable quality. Plots, scripts, and direction of the ones I liked were often good. In the better films, acting was good, too.

I could probably enjoy watching at least half of the ones I enjoyed again.
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I generally do not like Film Noir as a genre - all the bad guys and gals and the shooting. Eh. But a few great classics fall into that category, Key Largo being one of them.
 
TennVet said:
My wife and I watched African Queen, both leading roll stars long gone now, but a great movie
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I remember the first time I finally saw The African Queen on TV. Today’s young people do not know that we had no VHS yet, so if a great film was going to be shown on TV it was “appointment television” - you had better make a note to be home that night and the local TV stations would promote the showing with commercials.

Anyway, so I made an appointment with myself to watch it that Friday night and I was simply amazed - what an amazing film! Bogie and Hepburn doing their acting darnedest, and all those exotic locations in Africa. Leeches, Nazis, disease, deus ex machina rain, tea totaller and a drinker.

I won’t spoil the plot, but anyone who has not seen The African Queen needs to see it this week!

I think that’s one thing that all great films do, or every pretty good films do - they TAKE us somewhere - to another time, place, another way of looking at the world and at people.
 
Old westerns. The bad guys were shot and all you saw was a small blood spot where they were shot.
The more realistic head shots now where the brains are blown out the back of the head IMO are more than I want to see.

Then there are the Spanish movies depicting shootouts where hundreds of rounds are shot & only a few are wounded.
 
Anyone who has hung around our little group knows I am a huge fan of films from the late 30's
up to late 50's.
Have a large library from these years and watch them when a mood strikes me.
(Criterion and Amazon love me, always something in my cart)

We are planning a trip to California and one of my 'first on list' of things to do is the new
Warner Brothers tour hosted by TCM.

Wife is afraid I'll jump out of the tour cart and run away to live somewhere in the 'Back-Lot'.
Said she would be REALLY worried if I wear my all time favorite Fedora and London Fog Trench Coat!
 
I love Film Noir, but let's not forget those great Musicals.
One of my favorites is 'Follow the Fleet' with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
A classic dance number from it. Just one Camera.

 
HoneyNut said:
Me too! I love seeing an old movie or TV show with grandparents that look like grandparents.
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What movie was it I saw recenly and some 50ish person was playing a 30-something’s mom, but she’d had so much work done and was so Botoxed no way did she look like a mom of a 30-something?

I don’t remember. It wasn’t a very good movie. But that’s what I mean - actors are not allowed to age anymore. She was not at all believable as the mom. She also acted like she was still 30.
 
Timewise 60+ said:

Vintage Better​

I like what you said and agree with it. My first love was, of course, 23-year-old Lauren Bacall. Her voice, her eyes, not to mention her body and to top all that off she could act! I still love watching her in movies...
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I watch Turner Classic Movies The movies made now days are mostly garbage. No great stars. Superhero crap. When I lived in New York City in the 70's and 80's, I went to the theater to see a film almost every week. I made sure that I saw the 4 movies nominated Best Picture. I haven't been to the theater in years.
 
VintageBetter said:
What movie was it I saw recenly and some 50ish person was playing a 30-something’s mom, but she’d had so much work done and was so Botoxed no way did she look like a mom of a 30-something?

I don’t remember. It wasn’t a very good movie. But that’s what I mean - actors are not allowed to age anymore. She was not at all believable as the mom. She also acted like she was still 30.
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You make a really great point! In our days actors did whatever they could to "look the part".

Now days, not so much...
 
The directing and movement is slower in old movies, easier to follow. More stagey. Movies avoid that stage-like
appearance in recent decades. If you think it is on location, theres a good chance it isn't. It is studio.
 
I don't like the old movies. The actors all seem to speak English very well. The old movies are also too well lighted. Following the action when you can see it is time consuming. The new movies filmed in abandoned mines let you enjoy a challenge. :devilish:
 

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