What are the Old Hollywood movies that you rewatch again and again?

[1sarina]

What are the Old Hollywood movies that you keep rewatching again and again? Whether they're comfortable or just because you really like their impact? I would like to hear from you!

I would say that mine are The Apartment and Some Like It Hot because the comedy is so on point, they feel cozy too. And one that does not feel cozy but that I like to rewatch nonetheless is Rear Window.

How about yours?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

For movies old enough you'd expect no one on screen to be alive, Wings and Casablanca.

Oldies which are coming up on the half century mark, Star Wars, Tora Tora Tora, A Bridge too Far.

Keep in mine when I started listening to radio the oldies statikns played 30 year old music from the 1950's. Going on that I may give honorable mention to Taps, Rocky, First Blood and the first Terminator.

[Toastkart]

What counts as Old Hollywood? Certainly Errol Flynn's version of Robin Hood is one I go back to on the regular. I revisit Tora! Tora! Tora! commemoratively.

Do Godzilla movies count? Despite their hoaky-ness, I go back to Showa era monster movies frequently.

All in all, though, I think I have more of an appreciation for older tv shows than older movies. Perry Mason, Hogan's Heroes, Star Trek: TOS, Gilligan's island, Happy Days, Get Smart, Mash, etc. were all frequently running on tv when I was a kid in the 80s and I usually watched them more frequently than most of the current (at the time) stuff except for the cartoons.

[Psyren]

Yeah I need a definition for "Old Hollywood" before I can really answer this. There are a lot of musicals from the golden age I tend to revisit like Wizard of Oz ("I understood that reference!") and then the silver age like My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins.

[Dire_Flumph]

I usually take "Old Hollywood" to mean the era of the studio system, which would have ended around the 50's or so. But there's not much that I revisit from that time. Watch, sure, there are plenty of great older films, but very little I find myself wanting to rewatch. My wife on the other hand has a huge collection of older musicals that are on regular rotation.

But given 1sarina's examples, I'm assuming it means up through, say the New Hollywood era up until the late 70's/early 80's where we entered more of the blockbuster era? (Maybe use Star Wars as a cutting off point?) If so, then there are some films I end up watching every few years or so. Strangelove, Once Upon a Time in the West (Not 100% sure that's considered Hollywood, but I love the film), 2001, the Godfather, the Great Escape, and probably a few more I'm forgetting all get rewatches every so often.

Open it up to movies that feature on Mystery Science Theater 3000 though, and I can add a lot more films from older eras that I rewatch a lot, but I assume that's counter to what he's asking.

[Scarlet Knight]

Greatest movie ever: "King Kong" with Fay Wray.

[Lurkmoar]

Any Humphrey Bogart flick is 100% watchable.

Casablanca and The Cairne Mutiny are fascinating, especially when contrasted against each other.

[Dienekes]

Mostly some old black and white comedies. Duck Soup, it ain't Halloween until Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, some of the Road To... movies, To Be Or Not To Be, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. That sort of thing.

Sometimes I'll put on a good old mystery like Maltese Falcon, Rear Window, Psycho, or Thin Man.

Very very rarely, I'll do dramas like Citizen Kane, Spartacus, El Cid, or Lawrence of Arabia. There usually has to be a reason why I'm putting one of these on, as opposed to just feeling like it with everything above.

[gomipile]

I very much enjoy watching The Shop Around the Corner. It's an adaptation of the same story You've Got Mail is based on, IIRC. I very much prefer it, between those two.

[VoxRationis]

I'm not sure about "again and again," but an old movie I enjoy very much is Easy Living, a screwball comedy in which the life of a down-on-her-luck woman is turned upside down by the generosity of a magnate seeking to spite his wife, an act which leads a variety of hangers-on to incorrectly assume that she is his mistress. A food fight in an automat and the near-collapse of the stock market ensue.

[t209]

The King and I, My Fair Lady, and Wizards of Oz.
First one is how I know the plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin ironically enough.

[Rodin]

I mostly don't re-watch old movies because there are so many that I haven't seen. When the mood does take me I always feel a need to watch something I've never seen before.

Right now I've been thinking I need to finally get around to watching the Godfather and maybe seek out some of the Hitchcock I haven't yet seen. I keep putting it off though. I rarely sit and watch TV for a full movie length period.

[DavidSh]

I'm another one who thinks of Old Hollywood as ending about 1950, with the demise of the studio system. I have a bunch of collections of movies from that period, and regularly rewatch "The Thin Man", "Murder, My Sweet", "Footlight Parade", and various Rogers/Astaire movies.

[Trafalgar]

The original "Manchurian Candidate". Angela Lansbury is great in that movie.

[Dragonus45]

I have a deep love for Humphrey Bogart and pretty much everything he ever did. That man is just so handsome and I have a particular love of Film Noir in general.

[Trafalgar]

Any Humphrey Bogart flick is 100% watchable.

Casablanca and The Cairne Mutiny are fascinating, especially when contrasted against each other.

Caine Mutiny is fantastic. I highly suggest watching "Mr. Roberts" after the "Caine Mutiny" to see James Cagney in a similar role.

[The Patterner]

As others have pointed out it depends on your definition of "Old Hollywood", but I'd say "The Sting" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".

Yes, I absolutly love Paul Newman and Robert Redford in movies together

[DigoDragon]

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Classic spaghetti western. :3

More recent old, Star Trek Wrath of Khan is one of the best Trek films created.

[Willie the Duck]

I usually take "Old Hollywood" to mean the era of the studio system, which would have ended around the 50's or so. But there's not much that I revisit from that time. Watch, sure, there are plenty of great older films, but very little I find myself wanting to rewatch. My wife on the other hand has a huge collection of older musicals that are on regular rotation.

But given 1sarina's examples, I'm assuming it means up through, say the New Hollywood era up until the late 70's/early 80's where we entered more of the blockbuster era? (Maybe use Star Wars as a cutting off point?)

Star Wars and Jaws are a good cutting off point. They changed the game, instigated concepts like blockbuster vs. small independent, etc. Studio system is another good metric. I tend to go with 'did this time period have plenty of black and white major releases?' so up to the early 60s, but it's always going to depend. Personally I have at least 3 bands -- things that were considered old when I started watching stuff (stuff that would have been called 'a classic' on its' first VHS release in the late 70s/early 80s), stuff that would have been considered relatively modern at that time (James Bond, Butch Caddy, etc.) but is now old, and stuff released in the past ~25 years.

Keep in mine when I started listening to radio the oldies statikns played 30 year old music from the 1950's.

Oh man! That touches upon a thing I have noticed about getting older -- it isn't that I feel like everyone should still be listening to Pearl Jam or REM at 13 anymore, I feel like everyone should still have to go to a pinewood lined rec room (with the house's backup TV which is 100 lbs and has no remote and some Macramé no one is ready to throw away yet) in the basement to listen to whatever they do listen to at 13, and to get there they should have to walk through their parents' (who were early boomers or older) living room with a radio playing the oldies station (50s and early 60s).

[KorvinStarmast]

Most Alfred Hitchcock movies.
Most Humphrey Bogart movies.

The triple crown of Spaghetti Westerns: GBU, FaFoD, FaFDM.

Most WC Fields movies
Most Marx Brothers movies.

That's old.

My son and I watched the original Blade Runner a few months ago, and while he found it good, his general comment was "Pacing could use some work"

And: I am not sure how many times I have watched Caddyshack. It's a lot.

[Scarlet Knight]

...More recent old, Star Trek Wrath of Khan is one of the best Trek films created.

That is a very low bar.

[Kriegspiel]

That is a very low bar.

Considering I feel the second best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest....

[DigoDragon]

That is a very low bar.

You just gotta skip every other movie to get the right experience. The order goes Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country, First Contact, and Galaxy Quest. XD

Considering I feel the second best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest....

I would count it as a Trek movie. ^^

[monomer]

Since I have small children they're not what I would normally choose, but I have seen Snow White (1937) and Cinderella (1950) way too many times.

[Kriegspiel]

You just gotta skip every other movie to get the right experience. The order goes Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country, First Contact, and Galaxy Quest. XD

I would count it as a Trek movie. ^^

Star Trek: The Motion Picture holds up better than it gets credit for.

It's certainly a better dive into "why do I exist" than Star Trek V

[Dire_Flumph]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture holds up better than it gets credit for.

Just got a brand new 4K transfer/update to the 2000 Director's Cut on Paramount+ a couple weeks back.

Thought I'd just watch through the opening with the Klingons and ended up watching the whole film again. I understand the problems people have with this movie, but I love it and the new transfer is spectacular.

[Trafalgar]

You just gotta skip every other movie to get the right experience. The order goes Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country, First Contact, and Galaxy Quest. XD

I know the whole "odd numbered Star Trek movies suck" thing exists but I will always include STIII: The Search for Spock on my list of favorite Star Trek movies. It has its problems but the wreck of the Enterprise is one of the most epic scenes in the series.

Every couple of years I watch STII, III, IV and VI in order and it makes a wonderful saga. I like to pretend they kept Saavik with the same actor around for the series and have Saavik replace the Valeris character in STVI. Saavik tries to start a war with the Klingons in ST VI because of what happened to David in STIII. And Valeris/Saavik's betrayal of Spock's Trust becomes more shocking because of the long relationship between the two.

[Bohandas]

I watch the old Universal monster movies every year around Halloween. Even though they don't really count as horror by today's standards

[DigoDragon]

Every Halloween my wife and I watch the original Ghostbusters. This past year my daughter actually took interest to watch it and she thought it was alright.

Every Christmas I watch Die Hard. XD

Star Trek: The Motion Picture holds up better than it gets credit for.

It's not a terrible film. It just fits a different mold than the expectation most of us have. It tries to be more philosophy like the movie 2001. And it does do that decently well. I need to see the new cut. I hear it gets better.

I know the whole "odd numbered Star Trek movies suck" thing exists but I will always include STIII: The Search for Spock on my list of favorite Star Trek movies. It has its problems but the wreck of the Enterprise is one of the most epic scenes in the series.

Also has Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon. That's always fun to watch.

[Glorthindel]

For Old movies, the only ones I could say I'd happily rewatch is the Maltese Falcon and the Third Man, for films I have rewatched so many times its bordering on a mental condition, its Ghostbusters; I don't want to guess how many times i have watched that over the years.