Most underrated classics?

[Hannibal21]

Lots of pre-1970 movies have been crtically acclaimed and gotten a lot of attention, for example: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, etc. What are some of the great movies around those decades that you think haven't gotten the attention they deserved?

I would say.....

The Night of the Iguana
Waterloo Bridge
The Little Foxes
Notorious
The Heiress
Meet John Doe
Out of the Past
Two for the Seesaw
Laura
Touch of Evil
Strangers on a Train
Wait Until Dark
Stella Dallas

I'll name more later........

[Luckystar007]

Jane Eyre (1944) - Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine
Strangers on a Train
Pollyanna

[Trinity]

Originally posted by Hannibal21
Lots of pre-1970 movies have been crtically acclaimed and gotten a lot of attention, for example: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, etc. What are some of the great movies around those decades that you think haven't gotten the attention they deserved?

I would say.....

The Night of the Iguana
Waterloo Bridge
The Little Foxes
Notorious
The Heiress
Meet John Doe
Out of the Past
Two for the Seesaw
Laura
Touch of Evil
Strangers on a Train
Wait Until Dark
Stella Dallas

I'll name more later........

The Heiress is the underrated classic, imo. I'm not sure about Notorious though - it seems to be pretty popular. Not as well known as Casablanca or GWTW for sure, but still lots of people have seen it and love it.

I also agree with Luckystar's choice of the 1944 version of Jane Eyre, and I'd add:

Letter from an Unknown Woman
The Thin Man
Dark Victory
That Hamilton Woman
To Each His Own

[Damned Martian]

MOST UNDERRATED CLASSIC: JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (9.5/10, in my top30)

RUNNER-UPS: Forbidden Planet, Sleuth, Arsenic and Old Lace, Marnie (9/10, in my top60), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Touch of Evil (8.5/10, in my top120), Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Bicicle Thief, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dumbo, Meet John Doe, Key Largo (8/10, in my top240)

[blankpage]

The African Queen
Strangers on a Train
Notorious
Rebecca
To Have and Have Not
It Happened One Night

[Sad man]

Well, I don't remember the year it got released really.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

But it's very underrated. Almost no one ever heard of it. Except fot you Hannibal ;).

[Trinity]

Originally posted by Sad man
Well, I don't remember the year it got released really.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
It's 1958. A few others:

High Sierra
Fallen Angel
Ninotchka
Jezebel
Goodbye Mr. Chips
All This, And Heaven Too
Mrs. Miniver
Anastasia
Splendor in the Grass
Marnie

[blankpage]

Wow, 1958 was a GREAT (GREAT) year for films.

[Briare Rabbit]

Yankee Doodle Dandy. Apart from AFI and Ebert, I never hear this one brought up when is comes to the classics.

[Damned Martian]

Originally posted by Sad man
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

But it's very underrated. Almost no one ever heard of it. Except fot you Hannibal ;). You must be kidding! It's one of the most famous films of both Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor!! Even more famous than A Streetcar Named Desire, which nowadays is remembered basically just by the t-shirted Marlon Brando as sexual icon, and the "STELLAAAAAA" shout.

Well, maybe in Argentina it's different.

[Trinity]

Originally posted by damned martian
You must be kidding! It's one of the most famous films of both Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor!! Even more famous than A Streetcar Named Desire, which nowadays is remembered basically just by the t-shirted Marlon Brando as sexual icon, and the "STELLAAAAAA" shout.
Ummm... I don't think so. "Streetcar" is definitely the better known of the two. But you're right, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is also a very well known film.

Maybe you just haven't been talking to the right people, Sad Man.

[Sad man]

Originally posted by damned martian
You must be kidding! It's one of the most famous films of both Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor!! Even more famous than A Streetcar Named Desire, which nowadays is remembered basically just by the t-shirted Marlon Brando as sexual icon, and the "STELLAAAAAA" shout.

Well, maybe in Argentina it's different.

Well, almost no one on the boards knew it. Or at least nobody told me they did. And here in Argentina, only really old people have seen it.

BTW: Thanks Trinity. :)

[Sad man]

Originally posted by Trinity
Ummm... I don't think so. "Streetcar" is definitely the better known of the two. But you're right, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is also a very well known film.

Maybe you just haven't been talking to the right people, Sad Man.

Yeah, maybe.

But I think "Streetcar" is more famous though.

[Damned Martian]

It doesn't heppen that way here in Spain. Cat is very well known and Streetcar, though known, is more obscure and definitely less shown on TV.


BTW, I should erase some films from my list: Arsenic and Old Lace (after all, it's on imdb's top250), The Bicicle Thief (being that it's foreigner, it can be considered famous and it's very praised by everyone) and Dumbo (it's very famous, and considered a classic and one of Disney's best)

[Annie Hall]

Rope is my pick.

[sanshodayu]

The following shamefully failed to make the AFI'S (mediocre and ignorant) list of 100 American films.

Sunrise (Murnau, 1927). Arguably the greatest American film, bar none. Voted in the all-time top 10 in 4 major international polls this millennium, yet most Americans are unaware of it!

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948)- exquisite poignant Viennese romantic confection.

Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955). Unique genre mix (film noir/horror/drama/kid's fairy tale) and lyrical masterpiece.

The Band Wagon (Minnelli, 1953). An Astaire musical to place alongside Singin in the Rain.

To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch, 1942). Simply brilliant wartime comedy.

From the U.K; The Thief of Bagdad (1940)- tremendously colourful and entertaining fantasy adventure.

Of "foreign films", then Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and other sublime Mizoguchi masterpieces has been terribly neglected in the West. Might as well ignore Shakespeare.

[Jon Lyrik]

Originally posted by Hannibal21
Lots of pre-1970 movies have been crtically acclaimed and gotten a lot of attention, for example: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, etc. What are some of the great movies around those decades that you think haven't gotten the attention they deserved?

I would say.....

The Night of the Iguana
Waterloo Bridge
The Little Foxes
Notorious
The Heiress
Meet John Doe
Out of the Past
Two for the Seesaw
Laura
Touch of Evil
Strangers on a Train
Wait Until Dark
Stella Dallas

I'll name more later........

What are Touch of Evil, Laura, Strangers on a Train, and Notorious doing on there? Those are very famous films.

[bankholdup]

Safety Last! (1923)

I never hear this one get talked about on the boards. Perhaps I praise the movie too much, but it's an essential to the silent era. One of the funniest flicks I have ever seen. Get ahold of it if you can.

[zeppelin]

What about Sherlock, Jr.? Not that it is completely overlooked or anything, but it seems to be overshadowed by some of Keaton's other films, namely The General.

[blurofserenity]

The name of the thread is kind of misleading. I mean if they're considered classics then they're not really underrated are they?

[sanshodayu]

I take it to mean great older films that aren't widely known or properly appreciated. Hidden treasures awaiting general discovery.

[Lynn Minmei]

Well, it's not a Pre-1970 film (It was made in 1984) but I think that ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is both underrated and a classic. It's a gangster film/character study that's absolutely right up there next to The Godfather. Ennio Morricone's score, Sergio Leone's directing, Brilliant acting, a great story, superb editing, and many other reasons are why you should go and watch this film. If only the studio hadn't screwed Leone over, this movie would've won Best Picture at the Oscars. I guarantee it. And that's only one way that the movie is so bittersweet.

[Hannibal21]

She Done Him Wrong
The Snake Pit
On the Beach
Morocco
The Barefoot Contessa
Sweet Smell of Success
The Petrified Forest

I should probably cross out Touch of Evil, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, and Laura off my list, since they are well known around lots of people, but I hardly hear anybody talk about them. I also like the inclusion of Jane Eyre (the 1944 version), a great adaptation from a GREAT book, I've been a fan of it for a long time.

The Million Dollar Pound Note with Gregory Peck is also worth mentioning; it's one of my mom's favorites as well as dad's but aside from arto_j, I don't think I have heard anybody talk about it (on the boards or in the real world).

And also the original Cape Fear with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, that one is vastly superior to the remake IMO. It's much more suspenseful and eerie. In fact, I think both Peck and Mitchum have several underrated films on the filmography.

[Hannibal21]

Originally posted by blankpage
The African Queen
It Happened One Night

I can see where you're coming from with those choices. But neither are really "underrated", both are in the AFI's top 100 (The African Queen is in the top 20) and one have won all the 5 major awards (best picture, actor, director, actress, script), and they both are much popular compared to some of the films that have been mentioned in this thread. But compared to some of the ultimate "great" classics like Citizen Kane and Casablanca, they are definitely overshadowed by them. :)

[charliebobo]

Originally posted by Hannibal21
The Million Dollar Pound Note with Gregory Peck is also worth mentioning; it's one of my mom's favorites as well as dad's but aside from arto_j, I don't think I have heard anybody talk about it (on the boards or in the real world).

I've seen it... it's a nice little movie.

[Hannibal21]

Originally posted by charliebobo
I've seen it... it's a nice little movie.

Good for you, Charlie! :)

[Ripper1888]

In The Heat Of The Night
The Fortune Cookie
Animal Crackers
M



thats all I can think of for now.

[Annie Hall]

Originally posted by bankholdup
Safety Last! (1923)

I never hear this one get talked about on the boards. Perhaps I praise the movie too much, but it's an essential to the silent era. One of the funniest flicks I have ever seen. Get ahold of it if you can.

I think a great reason that this isn't as well known, is Harold Lloyd's considerable legal difficulties that he put over his films. It was impossible to find them for a long time, and they've just recently really been pushed into the limelight.

[therealjohng]

Strangers on a Train is an amazing movie.