I agree with BonMorrison, who suggested The Night of the Hunter, one of the most brilliantly made films of all time.
Can't go wrong with Casablanca, arguably the most likeable film ever made.
As far as a first-time recommendation in this thread, I'd suggest one of Buster Keaton's films, either Sherlock Jr. or The General. Keaton isn't just the most talented physical comedian of all time, but brings a level of humanity that has aged so much better than the other silent stars, due to his understated nature. He also was a genius visionary pioneer, which is very evident in Sherlock Jr., which is short and sweet at 45 minutes, and is available on Netflix Instant and YouTube.
Haven't seen Double Indemnity mentioned yet. I think it's a pretty good film to start with if you're just getting into classics. Loved the dialogue in it.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Taxi Driver (1976)
American Graffiti (1973)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - hey, it's got John Wayne, Lee Marvin, and James Stewart - it can't lose
Ben Hur (1959)
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
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"...and ultimately it doesn't matter."
On the Waterfront (1954)
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Casablanca (1942)
Great Expectations (1946)
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 french film/silent)
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A lot of great recommendations. TCM has run a few of these in just the last few days. I re-watched Double Indemnity and Lawrence of Arabia this week.
A classic (to me) is one of those films that you will watch if you happen to run across it no matter how many times you've already seen it. I'll watch any of Bogart's films, especially The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Key Largo and The African Queen.
I'll watch any of Woody Allen's films. They're not for everyone but I like them. This also goes for the Marx Brothers.
Hitchcock? Yup. any of them, but favs are The Birds, Psycho and Lifeboat.
A few others that draw me in:
All About Eve, The Lion in Winter, M*A*S*H, Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man, It Happened One Night, All The President's Men, and of course Gone With the Wind and the Wizard of Oz.
Too many others to name...pick a genre and I'll do better.
A lot of great recommendations. TCM has run a few of these in just the last few days. I re-watched Double Indemnity and Lawrence of Arabia this week.
A classic (to me) is one of those films that you will watch if you happen to run across it no matter how many times you've already seen it. I'll watch any of Bogart's films, especially The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Key Largo and The African Queen.
I'll watch any of Woody Allen's films. They're not for everyone but I like them. This also goes for the Marx Brothers.
Hitchcock? Yup. any of them, but favs are The Birds, Psycho and Lifeboat.
A few others that draw me in:
All About Eve, The Lion in Winter, M*A*S*H, Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man, It Happened One Night, All The President's Men, and of course Gone With the Wind and the Wizard of Oz.
Too many others to name...pick a genre and I'll do better.
Clark Gable was Awesome as a rogue, I loved him with Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night.
both great movies--however--both films are told from the southern perspective and in many states are still banned
How could a state outright ban a DVD? Also, while Birth of a Nation was refused in several cities, I didn't think any overall bans were ever able to pass. I was able to buy it at Best Buy myself (took a cinema class and needed it) and it is available on their site.
Anyway, how about Cabaret, The Good the Bad & The Ugly, and The Great Dictator
Gone with the Wind is by the far one of the best movies I have ever seen.
It's epic in scale, and the love/hate story between Clark Gabel and Vivein Leigh's characters is perfectly done.
I don't know - when I finally sat down to watch that film after years of seeing bits of it here and there I felt like the story was rushed. Which makes sense seeing as how they condensed an epic novel into 3 1/2 hours of film.
Anyway, one more I consider a classic from the 70s is the Gene Wilder version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Great music, great fun. The kids all fit their roles well, and it takes a good deal of Roald Dahl's creepiness out of the story
One of the annoying things about Netflix is that they have tonnes and tonnes of movies (on the US version at least) but the quality of most of those is below. They have a shockingly bad ratio of good to bad movies considering the fact that they can actually pick to some extent which ones to show and the classic selection on there isn't very good. Here's a few online on YT/Vimeo (rest are on 1channel I'd assume but can't watch that on the TV without XBMC):
Found North By Northwest full on Vimeo (which is good because the blu-ray player has a Vimeo add-on): http://vimeo.com/59073289
12 Angry Men is absolutely excellent. For a film made in 1957 it holds up surprisingly well, other than being in black and white there really isn't anything in it that dates it.
Gonna try not to do repeats, lot of good ones already listed.
Some good 30's gangster films are Little Cesar and The Public Enemy.
Captain Blood & Robin Hood are good swashbuckling films from the 30's.
Mr.Smith Goes to Washington is a Jimmy Stewart classic from the 30s.
The Tarzan films from the 30s & 40s are fun.
Four Daughters and Joan of Paris are good dramas from the 40's.
Destination Tokyo, Cary Grant, was so accurate it had to get DoD approval before release because WWII was still going.
The Thing from Outer Space, the original black and white is good.
Go For Broke is a good underrated WWII film about the all Japanese unit that fought in Europe. They even used a lot of the unit as actors and extras in the film.
Father Goose/Operation Petticoat are two good Cary Grant films towards the end of his career but still funny.
If you like physical comedy, the Abbott and Costello films are good for laughs.
Guess who's coming to Dinner, the original with Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn is good; mid 60s if I remember correctly.
The Wind and the Lion is a good Connery film from the 70s with him as a Sultan.
The Apple Dumpling Gang/Pete's Dragon/Bedknobs & Broomsticks/The AbsentMinded Professor are all good kids films from the 60's and 70's.
Tried to give a little of everything. TMC's 31 days of Oscar which runs the whole of February is great for finding good old movies.
If you like physical comedy, the Abbott and Costello films are good for laughs.
The charm of Abbott and Costello is more about the word play, not about the physical comedy. You want physical comedy watch the Stooges. Though even they engaged liberally in puns.
For the best in classic comedy (talkie-era), can't go wrong with Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy.
From the era that followed Burns and Allen and Jack Benny were pretty funny.
Getting to the 60s, one of the funniest shows that doesn't get enough credit is The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. "One of these days I've gotta kill that boy." Dobie's sidekick, Maynard G. Krebs, was played by none other than Gilligan himself, Bob Denver.
