Too many to list. Casablanca, NOTLD, Psycho, Carnival of Souls I own ... But Seven Samurai, Manhattan, etc. I could list maybe 100 films...
I love Carnival of Souls. Very slow but beautiful. FYI I'm looking for older B&W flicks, so screw Clerks and the like. Tons of good stuff that I'm adding to my list. Who knows when I will get the time to watch them. I do have a vacation coming up. As for Nosferatu and other silent with color tint, I have always considered those B&W so I'm good with those suggestions.
As you've already seen THE THIRD MAN ,I will suggest TOUCH OF EVIL. John Huston's THE MATESE FALCON is great fun too.
Nice call on IN HARM'S WAY, just watched it again last week. That Otto Preminger film is underrated. Good call on THE LONGEST DAY too.
I haven't rewatched Carnival of Souls in a very long time, so I'm not leaning toward William Castle's House on Haunted Hill- but I really used to love Carnival of Souls. So I should rewatch it.
Let me tells you about my two favorite B&W films, Dave: Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944). I enjoy sequels that take a different route from the original, and TCotCP certainly does by dropping the 'horror' and replacing it with...magical realism, perhaps. Both are prime examples of gorgeous B&W films, but given that they are products of RKO Studios, and the original is directed by Jacques Tourneur, I bet you've seen 'em.
On the lighter side (since everyone else took most of my favorites), I do enjoy screwball comedies like THE AWFUL TRUTH, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE THIN MAN series (except for the last one, maybe), etc. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the body fluid-based humor of recent years.
I probably just need to rewatch the original Cat People but Curse was such a beautiful, lush, poignant sequel and completely face-lifted the story and made it so much more interesting. I hate to say but of the other Tourneur's I've seen, it's just Cat People which disappointed me and The Comedy of Terrors which I loved once but doesn't hold up to rewatches. Ha- I was born in '82 and mainstream comedy has been like that throughout the majority of my lifetime. It's weird how people forget how many decades comedy has been rooted in crassness. But, major points for mentioning His Girl Friday. Great film with banter and humor that holds up extremely well by today's better TV, at the very least.
Off the top of my head: Night of the Demon 12 Angry Men On the Waterfront The Apartment Bride of Frankenstein Black Sunday The Manchurian Candidate Night of the Hunter Them Touch of Evil The Seventh Victim Raging Bull The Haunting The Big Sleep Dr. Strangelove Young Frankenstein Carnival of Souls Duck Soup It Happened One Night The Thin Man And I know I am forgetting many, many more...
B&W or color has never been an issue for me, and I don't differentiate based on that criteria. I tend to despise modern editing rhythms, so I'd much rather hunker down with a B&W movie I've never seen than a typical modern movie. But, again, I'm more cognizant of style than color or the lack thereof. Those who discriminate against B&W films really need to check them out in high-definition. Contrast is everything when it comes to B&W photography because "color" is just different shades of gray. Many B&W movies look dramatically better in hi-def than their color counterparts because black is REALLY black and there are many, many more variations of gray. Universal's 1931 Dracula immediately springs to mind. All of its DVD presentations were washed-out and dull-looking. It looks striking on Blu-ray, and it's a much more atmospheric and involving film. Val Lewton's catalog really cries out for the hi-def treatment. I would love to see a hi-def box set that mirrors the DVD collection. Since Criterion licensed Cat People, I'm guessing that's not going to happen. Pity. I really want The Thing From Another World, too--and all of Universal's flicks from the 1930s. Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, and The Raven would look amazing. It saddens me that lots of people aren't interested in these movies because of the B&W photography.
I did not assume that's what this thread was about. Every B&W film enthusiast I've ever heard insists there are special qualities to B&W cinema that color doesn't have and I naturally also assumed they knew what they were talking about. It's alright for the 2 to be separate / different. They are, after all, just styles of film / photography.
you won't be disappointed. I picked up the region B UK Blu a few months ago, and its a great film. Great looking too. Night of the Hunter and Touch of Evil are masterpieces, no two ways about it. They're spectacular, and their use of B&W cinematography is beautiful. Other good ones already mentioned: The Haunting, Maltese Falcon, His Girl Friday, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Kiss Me Deadly. Also check out Double Indemnity, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Dark Corner, Kiss of Death, Key Largo, Little Caesar, and the Public Enemy. I cannot understand anyone who doesn't like B&W films. Just writing these titles out is making me want to go watch more!
Wow there are so many that I love from many genres. If it were just horror I would say Island of Lost Souls which is extremely atmospheric and surprisingly strong for a 1930s picture. I also would put the original King Kong in there as well as a handful of John Ford westerns such as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache. I also cannot forget Japanese cinema and would also include Yojimbo, The Seven Samurai and Rashomon.
I'm not a massive b&w fan, not that I hate the style but they usually don't appeal to me unless I'm recommended a title. I'll say King Kong is pretty amazing. I'm always fascinated how good the stop motion looks and what they were able to achieve back then. Psycho is also a great one. It still holds up brilliantly today. I'll also say the first two Frankenstein films really surprised me with the quality of the makeup and sets. Really great stuff. Didn't care much for Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead.
