Meet Joe Black (technically a blind
rental)
Unusually deliberate (characters will sometimes pause before responding to a previous line) but I loved almost every second of it. Acting, dialogue, production design, cinematography - nearly everything about this movie is fantastic (though it includes one of the most seemingly pointless sex scenes I've ever seen).
Thirty Day Princess
We watched this just after the "Great Recession" really took hold; I've been a Sylvia Sidney fan ever since.
Manhattan Meldodrama
A fantastic melodrama; slow to start, but excellent. Clark Gable is amazing in this.
The Great Ziegfeld
Worth watching for the astoundingly staged
Follies sequences alone; I couldn't believe the scale of the production.
Love Crazy
A very cute romantic comedy that's expertly constructed and more expertly played by Loy, Powell, and the sadly overlooked Gail Patrick.
I Love You Again
Fun movie carried by the skill of its stars. The premise is a little odd, but it's almost entirely fun.
Wings in the Dark
A surprisingly interesting drama; Cary Grant is good as the clever but blind pilot, but Myrna Loy is better as the fellow pilot who would give anything to keep him from disappointment.
Singin' in the Rain
Somehow, I'd only seen brief clips of the famous dance scene in this, but the whole movie is good. Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly simultaneously steal the show despite already being the putative stars. My favorite scene is
the last.
Khabi Khushi Kabhie Gham
A great Bollywood movie about the importance of family, the irrelevance of class, and the pointlessness of pride. If you've seen the movie, you know why
this scene is amazing.
The title song is also great (if you like Bollywood dance scenes). Everyone should see this movie.
The Mark of Zorro
Probably still the best Zorro movie yet made, if neither the most fun (
Zorro, the Gay Blade) nor the most exciting (
The Mask of Zorro).
They Died with Their Boots On
A great, hugely entertaining movie, whether you like Custer or not. (My mother despises him more than almost any other historical figure, but she loved the film.) The strangest part of the movie is that some of the unlikeliest parts are those that are closest to the truth (the promotion sequence is nearly verbatim from Custer's memoirs, and the key counterattack near Gettysburg took place almost exactly as depicted). Wildly inaccurate in parts, but a very effective
adaptation distillation of the accepted history at the time. Casting Sidney Greenstreet as Winfield Scott was inspired.
Elizabeth and Essex
Elizabeth I seems to bring out the best in every actress; Bette Davis is no exception. She and Errol Flynn are excellent in a film that's every better-written as it goes on.
Captain Blood and
The Sea Hawk
I can barely separate these movies in my memory, but both are very well-made 1930s adventure films. (I think Captain Blood might have been better; its ending in particular is especially good.) To say that one is like the other is much more a compliment than a criticism, but they do blur together somewhat unfortunately.
They weren't entirely blind buys (I'd seen the films many times, but never in color), but the recently colorized versions of
Holiday Inn and
My Man Godfrey are astonishingly good. The color breathes new (and sometimes different) life into already excellent films. An unusual amount of care was put into these versions; the director of My Man Godfrey assisted the colorizing process for his film, and, IIRC, the wardrobe artist for Holiday Inn provided important color reference (the actual colors of some costumes in both films are occasionally very surprising). Both colorizations are definitely worth seeing.
