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In Reply to: Watching old films posted by Victor Khomenko on February 18, 2004 at 10:00:29:
You notice the old clothes and cars, etc. for about the first two minutes. Then the movie grabs you by the short hairs and won't let go! It's a splendid film whose magnificence still shines some 70 years after its release.It's a Frank Capra film and bears all his trademarks. I'm a Capra fan and feel that most of his films are well worth watching. Sure, a few of his films can get more than a bit corny, but most are really fine films. But "It Happened One Night" is, IMHO, his masterpiece and one of the truly great films in the history of American cinema.
True art may look dated to some but it never gets old.
As for Chaplin/Keaton...well, I find Keaton's films more appealing than Chaplin's. Efforts like "Sherlock, Jr." are wonderful. His "The General" is one of the all-time great silents and is on my list of the greatest films ever made. I find Chaplin less appealing, but maybe that is because Keaton's character was so damned appealing that anyone else suffers by comparison. Certainly there are some really great Chaplin films - many, in fact.
Are they dated? Sure. I don't really care.
I would rather watch a great film by Preston Sturges, George Stevens, Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Welles, Lang, John Ford, Elia Kazan, Capra, Cukor, Zinneman, et al., than most new movies. It is true that "they don't make 'em like that any more."
Follow Ups:
This movie is a really good example of what i think Victor was talking about.I totally get off on this movie's "oldness". The whole road aspect with the bus and motels and hitchhiking in the early 30s is absolutely fascinating to me. It was such an interesting transitional time, Americans were finding a new way to satisfy their urge to wander and explore with cheap cars and new roads. The movie is a valuable time capsule because all that stuff is now gone.
Yet the story of the spoiled heiress and the gruff guy chasing her is timeless. People can still relate to it today because these types of people still exist. The pick-up-artist on the bus- we all know that guy, right? The script kept them doing completely believable things. So, even though the movie is dated, it's still a timeless story and this is what makes it a great film.
That is the one I always enjoy (I had mentioned it before), and you put your finger on that "corny" problem - that alone makes many films dated in no time at all.
With the only difference that I would prefer Chaplin to Keaton, it is 100% my view.
I for one prefer Keaton. His roles were more varied and his acrobatic stunts still amaze. Both "The General" and "Sherlock, Jr. are in my top 20 films of all time.
Right on. That's why it won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
often goes to what I consider just a "good" film and far from "best." Sometimes I looks at Oscar history and think the voters must have been smoking something illegal to have voted the way they did.But they sometime get it right and they were never so right as when "It Happened One Night" won the award.
You are OH so right. The truly best picture wins only every few years.
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