Wicked Wednesday – Favorite Old Movie

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It’s Wicked Wednesday, when we all weigh in on a topic.

Liz here, and I have to confess I’m totally caught up in the hype of the 30th anniversariesimages of The Breakfast Club and Back to the Future. Well, after I got over the idea that those movies are THAT OLD – sheesh. Seems like yesterday I was sitting on my parents’ living room floor watching Back to the Future on repeat….

Anyway, we’ve bought our tickets to see the remastered version of The Breakfast Club at the Garde Arts Center later this summer (so excited!). And it got me thinking to ask the rest of you Wickeds what movies make you feel especially nostalgic?

Dr-ZhivagoEdith: Sigh. Dr. Zhivago. I loved that movie and watched it many times.So dramatic, so bittersweet. That’s when I fell in love with Omar Sharif. Also, The Wizard of Oz, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and Bridges of Madison County (okay, I know I’m a lowbrow, but I love that movie). Sorry, Liz, but I’ve never see either of your faves!

Jessie: Liz, I also loved The Breakfast Club and all its kin like Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles. But as for older movies I love now the list includes What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Pulp Fiction, Romancing the Stone, The Shipping News and You’ve Got Mail.

Sherry: Oh, Liz and Jessie your “old” movie choices are making me feel, well, old. Shenandoah with Jimmy Stewart is one of my all time favs. I must have been in second or third grade when I saw it at the drive-in with my friend’s family. I cry every time I watch it. Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire — the clothes in it are so fabulous it’s worth watching just for that. And I’ll watch almost any movie with either Doris Day or Cary Grant in it. Newer “old” movies include The Blues Brothers and Billy Elliot. I’ve never seen The Breakfast Club all the way through but loved Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.

Edith: I also love The Blues Brothers and Billy Elliot, Sherry!

Julie: The nieces and I recently had a sleepover, and we watched the Indiana Jones movies. They remind me of summer. Most of my other “nostalgia” movies I remember because of the feeling they evoked. Key Largo, The Maltese Falcon, and Rear Window are also personal favorites. I’d love to see Jaws this summer…

Barb: Favorite old movies? The Philadelphia Story because Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart. The Solid Gold Cadillac, because Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas. I, too, love the John Hughes’ oeuvre, because those movies came out when my kids were infants and HBO was brand new and I spent many middle-of-the-nights watching them. Also, Four Weddings and a Funeral and When Harry Met Sally, both of which I have seen dozens of times.

Dear readers, what are your favorites?

Published by Cate Conte / Liz Mugavero

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in the Boston area with her rescue pals.

63 Thoughts

  3. Forgot… Back to the Future and all the Harry Potter movies. I have an adult favorite, too, but I forget. bbl

  4. One of my favorites is “Peggy Sue Got Married.” Peggy gets to experience high school again with the wisdom, poise, and sophistication she has gained as an adult. I also loved “Back to the Future,” which has a bit of the same theme. It particularly comes to mind now because I just attended a high school reunion. Then for pure fun, any Fred Astaire/Ginger Rodgers movie.

    2. Peggy Sue’s high school is the high school I graduated from several years after the movie came out.

  5. The Way We Were, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, and Enchanted April. The first I saw with my mom and sister and we bawled. The second I saw with my dad, who went to see the horses and not the pretty men. The third I saw with my writers group because the characters were really us!

  6. One of my favorite movies is The Sting, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Even if you don’t like the movie, watch it for the eye candy! For sheer silliness, the Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers (don’t watch the remakes–HORRIBLE!). Gettysburg, with Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, and Martin Sheen. And of course, Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

    If I can add a mini-series, definitely Band of Brothers.

  8. There are a ton of GREAT old movies I love, including An Affair to Remember mentioned by Carol Perry (we must be of a “certain age”). But as a mystery writer, one of my favorite movies that always brings me delight is a silly movie about an aspiring author. American Dreamer! I must have seen it twenty times or more and I still laugh.

  9. Casablanca (incredible script – think of how many brilliant lines are used all the time) – introduced my children to it when we lived in London. Some Like it Hot (Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon – hilarious) – watched it on a black and white television that we got from some friends when I was in 8th grade. Dr. Zhivago – saw it after reading the book in the movie theater with my mother. 2001 – A Space Odyssey – hearing Thus Spake Zarathustra always invokes seeing the opening scenes. Star Wars – saw the first one in Jacksonville, Fl; stood in line in Boston with Bill and Barbara to see the second one. Mary Poppins – saw it on a big screen in St. Joseph’s College auditorium where my father was a professor and promptly set out to learn all the songs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -the original one – the director/writers took great pity on those of us who were taking our children to see it – there are two levels to that movie and my son and his friends couldn’t understand why I was laughing at the wrong part. I totally relate to Barb’s list.

  10. I agree…some of these “old” choices make me feel ANCIENT! Maybe it’s because I have always watched old movies, (they were the only kind you could see on TV when I was a kid). You hit a couple of my favorites here with Shenandoah, The Philadelphia Story and An Affair To Remember.Gee, there are so many , but to go for really old movies that are among my favorite, I have to say “All About Eve”, which was on the top of movie lists for decades, but has completely disappeared from them.I have no idea why.It is adult and sophisticated, complex yet often funny. Anyone else know this one? Absolute top performances by all of the actors.Bette Davis, Anne Bancroft, Gary Merrill, Celeste Holmes, George Sanders and the debut movie of Marilyn Monroe.

    1. YES!!! On My favorite old movie list for sure. Loved Bette Davis’ performance, as well as the others. Even Marilyn Monroe’s small role. Glad someone else loves this movie as much as I do. ( :

  11. “Rope” with Jimmy Stuart and Farley Granger, for the plot and cinematography (which I normally don’t pay attention to, but this was shot in a “continuous” loop); and “Double Indemnity” with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, because it’s the only time MacMurray ever played a bad guy.

      1. I really did enjoy Strangers when I watched it. But I think I loved Rope so much since I hadn’t heard much of anything about it and it just blew me away. Seriously, it should be talked about much more than it is.

  12. What a fun topic! I’m a huge movie buff, so there are too many to list here. As to what makes me feel nostalgic, it’s the old, OLD movies. The ones that were already old when I first saw them, and even my mother, with whom I watched many of these when i was a child, considered old. The movies of Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Dick Powell, Ruby Keelor, Jimmy Stewart, and others. I have to include the musicals; the feature film remakes of Broadway shows, and the ones made especially for TV. All the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, Carousel, Oklahoma, South Pacific, etc. Anything where Howard Keel is singing (Kiss Me, Kate; Showboat), it’s that beautiful baritone voice! Now that I think about it, Gordon McCrae, who sang in some of the Rogers and Hammerstein movies, was also a fabulous baritone. And of course, the song and dance movies like Singing in the Rain, and anything Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, or Fred Astaire. Both The Wizard of Oz and West Side Story are still pretty unique and spectacular. Oh, and the “horse” movies, Black Beauty, Flicka, and National Velvet. I love Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, On the Waterfront and others. And then there is Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass, a movie that was bold and controversial for its time. I could go on, but I’ll stop now.

  14. Lots and lots. And I mean OLD. But the one that tops them all is Now Voyager.

      1. Oh, you have a treat in store. Hunker down with popcorn and hankies.

      2. OMG- it is fabulous!! It has been years since I saw it but if I recall my film history, it was one of the earlier tearjerkers that Bette Davis became known for. I remember being transfixed by it!!

  16. Boy, I feel so old! I remember rainy Saturday afternoons when we were allowed to watch TV – old black and white movies like Casablanca and my favorite The Killers (the 1946 one – with the first screen appearances of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner – she is the epitome of a dangerous dame!) And then I’m a total sucker for musicals – any musical – but it’s hard to top Singing in the Rain.
    And my most secret weakness – Esther Williams movies!

  17. I refuse to call movies that were out when I was in high school (i.e., yesterday) old movies. My favorite old movie is Casablanca. Hands down. All those 80s movies, they’re vintage, not old!

  18. My mom and I would laugh like crazy watching “I Love You to Death” with Kevin Kline and Tracy Uhlmann. Another family favorite is “Airplane!”. (And don’t call me Shirley! Haha!)

  19. Here’s where my DisNerd credentials are going to come out. I still love Peter Pan (despite how unPC it is), Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, Monsters Inc…. And you can’t go wrong with Snow White. Or any of the Herbie films, cheesy as they may be. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I could go on and on.

    An older non-Disney movie I love is It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. So much crazy fun.

    I’ll stop now before I start just copying the names of the movies on my shelves.

    1. My grandparents took my brother and me to see Mad, Mad World at Radio City. He was seven and laughed so hard he fell between the seat and the seat back and had to be pulled out. Of course, I chased him down 5th Avenue afterward, whacking him with my purse a la Ethel Merman.

    2. My husband loves Disney movies too, Mark. He loved to take our daughter to them (Beauty and the Beast is on of his favorites). When she was older I’d take her to action movies and he’d take her to animated movies.

  20. I’m a child of the 80s too and love all of the movies mentioned above–I’m a bit of a movie fanatic, also, having seen every movie nominated for an Academy Award for best picture/actor/actress since 1970 (and a lot more further back, but definitely since 1970). But when I think of my favorite “old” movies I have to go with Mildred Pierce (1945) and Rear Window (1954). My mom took me to see RW on the big screen when I was a kid and I was hooked–I had to get my hands on all of the Hitchcock films after that. Afterwards I wrote a paper on Hitchcock for school–which my teacher seemed to appreciate but at the same time confirmed everyone’s suspicion in sixth grade that I was in fact a nerdy weirdo…

    1. I remember watching The Birds when I was babysitting late one night. Hitchcock was a masterful film maker. I don’t think I’ve seen Mildred Pierce.

  21. I love Arthur with Dudley Moore and Liza Minelli. Cracks me up every time. Also, You’ve Got Mail; Without A Trace; The Holiday; Close Encounters; The Goodbye Girl; The Mirror Has Two Faces; All About Eve; The Shawshank Redemption; Jane Austen’s BBC adaptations….. OMG, I can go on and on!!

  23. To Kill a Mockingbird.
    (But lots more – like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind)

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