Old movies both black and white and color films

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On the Beach with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astair; Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum!
 
The movie In Cold Blood was okay but the book was so much better.
pretty much the way it always is.
I was having a conversation with a guy from Germany and we were discussing movies and I mentioned how great the movie Das Boot was and he quietly said the same thing... and so I bought the book... damn is all I can say.... one great book.. probably 2nd best for me right after Sam Fuller's biography ... the third face... which someone good should make a mini-series from....
 
I'd rather watch an old movie in B&W than watch a crappy colorized version. Maybe the colorizing is better now but give me the original. Color movies usually are visually more appealing. I wonder at some point the kids will be saying they can't watch a 2D movie when 3D holographic movies are the norm. Probably 😉
Ted Turner's version of 30 Seconds Over Tokyo was a good example of this. The colors were way off and it just didn't feel right. Four or five Three Stooges shorts have been colorized and they are still funny but you expect those to be black and white.
 
Earlier this evening I was talking to someone in his early 30's at work. I told him I watched a couple of black and white film noir movies last night and he told me that he would never watch a black and white film.
He also did not believe that Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz were made in 1939 because he knows there were no color movies at that time. He claims that any movie in black and white is dull with no imagination.
I guess the world started when he came into it because nothing of any importance could have happened before he was born.
Generally speaking Hollywood's "Golden Era" that had the best directors and best actors (most of whom were immigrants) were made from 1900 to around 1950. Your friend is about as ignorant as they come as his statements were laughable. I doubt if he ever watched even one of the "Classics". Tell this Moron to watch "Casablanca" a black and white movie considered by many film critics as one of the best Hollywood Movies ever made and it was being written as they were shooting it making it all the more amazing. And many of the actors were immigrant Character Actors.

As a matter of fact some Movie Directors deliberately used black and white film after color became available to "set the mood" of the films when they wanted to make a film that was ominous or set the mood to convey poverty or hopelessness.

Pre-code Hollywood films (made before 1934) were starting to portray societal problems such as sexual harassment and even showed nudity. Some are considered the best work Hollywood ever put out.

Hollywood also used "Character Actors" because they relied on experienced professional actors for all the characters in a movie not just the Superstars. Today in order to save money and use slave labor the Directors use often new inexperienced actors even placing them in the "lead roles".

And of course I would bet my last penny in the bank your friend never watched any of the "classic" or even modern French made movies. France has made some hilarious comedy movies and other European countries have made classic films as well such as the German made Classic film "Nosferatu" that became a basis for many other horror movies that followed it including the latest version of "Nosferatu" which I have not seen yet.

Several years ago the French deliberately made a brand new movie in Black and White and it was a huge success as many of the younger generation had never even seen a black and white movie. It was yet another take off on the original "A Star is Born". The French Film was called "The Artist". The very end of the movie is switched over to color and the actors talk but with French accents since that is where the movie was made.

Fun Fact: Take a look at the pistol and rifle in the movie. They were not 1920 firearms but a Ruger M77 and a Smith & Wesson pistol made in the 70's.
 
"Wittness for the Prosecution".... 1957..... amazing story line with a triple surprise ending.... youthful idiots have no understanding of great acting, directors, producers, storyline......here is one place to view--->
 
"Wittness for the Prosecution".... 1957..... amazing story line with a triple surprise ending.... youthful idiots have no understanding of great acting, directors, producers,

People today want flash & splash. Special effects.

Compare an action packed block buster like one of the MI movies to North by Northwest.
 
A person likes what they like and I respect that though they are missing out. With a well presented story the fact it is in black and white is quickly forgotten. As a home theater guy with a scope screen I notice the small aspect ratios more than B&W, especially 4 x 3,even 16 x 9, but again once I am involved in the story it doesn't bother me.

Here are some Black and White Blu-ray's that I own, many of them in 4K. These are the ones I remember, there may be more.

Citizen Kane, Psycho, Notorious, (I own a full Blu-ray set of Hitchcock movies), Frankenstein (two Blu-ray sets of the top old horror movies - Universal Classic (4K UHD]), To Kill a Mockingbird, Casablanca, The Manchurian Candidate, The Grapes of Wrath, Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, A Streetcar Named Desire, It Happened One Night, From Here to Eternity,

It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, The Maltese Falcon, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, On the Waterfront, The Philadelphia Story, and some more recent for style purpose; Schindler's List, Raging Bull, Young Frankenstein, Roy Orbison Black & White Night.
 
Will black and white fit the vertical format of TikTok? If not, I refuse to watch it. Hey, wait a second. I am not Gen Z. Never mind. Haha.

Pretty much anything Film Noir works for me.
 

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