My buddy Cody saw my list of Movies to Watch During Quarantine and noticed some gaps in my viewing, mostly older movies. Here are his suggestions.

Dramas

  • The Third Man
  • Casablanca
  • The Searchers
  • Sullivan’s Travels
  • The Bridge on the River Kwai
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  • Becket
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • Scenes from a Marriage
  • Shame
  • A Face in the Crowd
  • 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (a kids’ movie, but one of my favorites)
  • The Seventh Seal
  • For a Few Dollars More
  • Double Indemnity
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (this is perhaps the most sentimental on the list, but its sentimentality is paired with a knowing cynicism. The sentimentality will likely win you over in the end, though)

Thrillers/Horror

  • Night of the Hunter
  • Vertigo
  • Targets
  • The Stranger
  • Rope
  • Mad Love
  • The Pit and the Pendulum
  • Island of Lost Souls
  • Wait Until Dark
  • Ministry of Fear
  • Cape Fear (1962)
  • Possession, starring Sam Neill

Comedies

  • Some Like It Hot
  • Horse Feathers
  • Take the Money and Run
  • Bringing Up Baby
  • Sabrina
  • Stalag 17
  • Sons of the Desert
  • Sherlock, Jr. (silent)
  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (musical)

Foreign

  • Seven Samurai
  • Kagemusha
  • Lone Wolf and Cub – about a disgraced samurai who becomes an assassin for hire and travels with his baby in a cart. Beautifully shot and made (despite the first few being made in the same year!) with insane fight scenes
  • I love the original Django movie, even though it’s a light rip off of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (as is A Fistful of Dollars).
  • The Exterminating Angel (by Bunuel, not the softcore porn) is great.
  • La Antena (silent)
  • Blancanieves (silent)
  • There’s a really fun Italian comedy called Big Deal on Madonna Street that Mel Brooks cites as one of his favorite comedies of all time.
  • There’s a German filmmaker named Fassbinder who did some excellent films, but his miniseries World on a Wire is super cool and weird, and was ripped off by The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, and Existenz, among others.
  • Metropolis (it’s a bit preachy, but a thing to behold) as well as
  • M, the story of a manhunt for a child killer.