My Top Ten Beginners List

The Best Years of Our Lives

Casablanca

Winchester '73

   
   I’ve had a request from my great-niece AshLee to post a blog listing my “Top 10” choices for “beginners” who may be interested in watching classic films, but are unsure of where to start. This is like red meat for someone like me who is always trying to get people interested in these older movies.

    I have been working on a rather extensive compilation of titles from different genres and have come up with more than 90 films that I can heartily recommend. I have selected one or two from each category, and I will make sure you get the bigger list at a later date, AshLee.

    
 Here is my list*, including names of the leading actors and actresses, and a brief summary of the plot line. I have numbered these titles, but I am not really into ranking movies, so I consider all of these to be of equal merit:

1.   The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Frederick March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and Dana Andrews. Drama. Considered by many (including myself) to be the best film ever made, this is the story of three returning veterans of World War II , their adjustments to the realities of civilian life and the changes in circumstances, people, and themselves after four years of war. Top-flight dialogue, acting and directing. (Though I'm not into ranking, it's no accident that this tops my list)

2.   Casablanca (1942). Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. Romance. Compelling tale of lost love and personal redemption amid the turmoil of European refugees seeking transit to America from Vichy-French Morocco, and complicated by Nazi persecution. Not just a classic, but an American icon!

3.   Captains Courageous (1937). Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, and Mickey Rooney (at about age 14). Adventure. Exciting seafaring adventure story about a spoiled rich boy (Bartholomew), who falls overboard from an ocean liner and does some rapid growing-up after being rescued by the crew of a Gloucester fishing boat. Wonderful coming-of-age fable.

4. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas. Comedy. Cary Grant is hilarious as a harried ad executive, husband and father. Fed up with his cramped New York apartment, he buys an old farm in Connecticut and contracts to build a big house for his family. The problems and complications just keep coming and so do the laughs. 

5. Winchester ’73 (1950). James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Stephen McNally, Dan Duryea. Western. Taut, gritty, intelligent yarn about the odyssey to recover a stolen gun and settle an old score. Filmed almost in my backyard, near Tucson, it has all the elements of a top-notch western action movie, including Indians, outlaws, cavalry troops, dance-hall girls, and plenty of gunplay. (Look for future stars Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis in minor parts)

6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, MacDonald Carey, Henry Travers. Mystery-Suspense. The young daughter of an all-American middle class, small-town family is thrilled when her long-lost favorite uncle comes to visit, until she comes to suspect him of being a cold serial-killer. Many tense moments ensue. Of all his movies, Alfred Hitchcock liked this one best. So do  I. 

7. Stalag 17 (1953). William Holden, Peter Graves, Harvey Lembeck. War.  Bill Holden is a fast-talking hustler, suspected of being a snitch in a P.O.W. barracks for Air- corps sergeants during WWII. He’s determined to find and expose the real rat. Considering the subject matter, this is a good-looking, serious, though often funny prison-camp tale. (I remember going to this movie with my mom, one of the few we saw together that didn't have Doris Day in it.)

8. The Secret Garden (1949). Margaret O.Brien, Dean Stockwell, Herbert Marshall, Elsa Lanchester. Family. Made an orphan by a cholera epidemic in India, young Mary Lennox is sent to England to live with her brooding Uncle Craven, a  widower who resides in a large, mostly empty mansion. Herself an imperious, demanding child, Mary  begins to be changed  by encounters with a cheerful housemaid named Martha and her little brother, Dickon, who communes with the forest creatures, and an apparently crippled cousin named Colin, a boy more spoiled than herself. The discovery of a secret, hidden, walled garden and their attempt to restore it, lead the children to an appreciation of beauty and the secret of the uncle’s grief. Simply enchanting. 

9. The African Queen (1951).  Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley. Adventure/Romance. Set in Africa at the outset of World War I, the story revolves around the adventures and misadventures of Rose Sayer, the spinsterish sister of an English missionary( Morley), and Charlie Allnut, the alcoholic captain  of a decrepit river steamer called the African Queen.  Rose's brother dies as a result of depredations by the Germans and Charlie insists they both flee aboard his boat. Charlie wants to lie low while the Germans are around, but Rose has very different ideas, opting to take action in support of the war effort. Romance and danger await them as they journey downriver into the unknown. (By the way, I'm watching this movie as I write.)
     Memorable line: A besotted Charlie Allnut to Rose Sayer after she calls him a liar and a coward. “. . . I felt sorry for ya. . . .Well, I ain’t sorry no more, you crazy, psalm-singin’, skinny old maid!" 

10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, and Jean Hagen. Musical Comedy. Tuneful, sprightly, farcical look at the early days of “talking pictures”. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen are a silent movie couple, beloved by their fans, who can’t get along with each other. When sound comes in, it becomes obvious that Hagen’s voice is not suitable for dialogue, let alone singing. Debbie Reynolds is the ingénue with a silver voice who ends up dubbing Hagen’s lines and lyrics for the big new musical production while charming and captivating Gene  Kelly. Mishaps on the movie set, lively music, and laughter as well as Kelly’s iconic title dancing sequence and Donald O'Connor's comedic antics make this a delight to watch.

  * (I have all of these movies in my DVD library except for Numbers 8 & 10)   

           If you are a "beginner," or just someone who wants to explore these movies further, I also recommend that you check out the schedule of Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel, particularly on Saturdays when they have the segment called "The Essentials," co-hosted by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore. Each week they screen a film, considered "essential" to appreciating and understanding classic movies. This week, it is "To Have and Have Not," with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall ("You Know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow."). I'll be watching.

           I also suggest that you check the used bookstores that sell used DVDs. The one I like in Tucson has an extensive inventory of DVDs, and they have a "classic" section. I check them out, sometimes two or more times a month to see what has been added. I have found some real jewels that way.
          
           Anyway, I hope you make good use of the list, AshLee, and I'll get together with your Grandma on getting my big list to you guys.

       So long!