Regarding Old Movies (especially one on TCM)

[Phil C]

I saw a great movie on TCM called the 49th Parallel which was based on a true event in 1940 about a German Plane Pilot who was a POW in Canada but escaped and almost made it to the USA (which was neutral at that time). He one almost made it and got right accross from Niagra Falls and was hiding on a train but just before it took off a Canadian official just happened to look and notice him and he was caught and brought back to prison where he stayed until the war was over and he returned to Germany. The movie had a group of German sailers who were stranged when their submarine was disabled and they tried to reach the USA. The movie was a propaganda case to get the USA to enter the war and many of the cast members who were British worked at a fraction of their salary to help this effort. It was made in 1941 but was not released in the USA until 1942 but we were already in the War by then. It was nominated for an academy award as best picture. Eric Portman as the leader of the Germans is very good in his role. It also starred Lawrence Olivier, Leslie Howard of Gone with the Wind, and Raymond Massey. The movie had it's faults but was well made and very good entertaining even though one can see the suble propaganda tones. It does a great job even though the last five minutes is somewhat rediculous which I won't disclose because I don't want to ruin it for you. A good movie indeed which I am sure TCM will show soon and I will post it for you where you can see it. This movie didn't win the oscar but was nominated and the USA movie title at the time called it The Invaders.

[Phil C]

One thing about old movies made before the 1960s was a Hollywood rule that all criminals had to be brought to justice whether by death or being brought into custody. In other words right must prevail. Even if you had a likeable villain like Humphrey Bogart and would have liked for him to escape it could not be so. The good guys always had to win in the end and the bad guys brought to justice. This began to change in the 60s somewhat. Bogart got away with it one time in an old movie that I can't remember the title to when he got away to South America with the girl. It turned out that he was innocent of the crime though and had killed the real villain in a shootout. But the police didn't know it so he fled the country. Usually Hollywood would have the police find out his innocence and things were wonderful then.

[pirate44]

Originally posted by Phil C
One thing about old movies made before the 1960s was a Hollywood rule that all criminals had to be brought to justice whether by death or being brought into custody. In other words right must prevail.
ive heard something about the morality law. thats why in the original 1961 version of Ocean's 11 the bad guys (potrayed as heros) wound up empty handed.

[Phil C]

One more thing that occurs in many old movies and television programs and even a lot of times today is the villain makes the same mistake over and over again. He gets the hero in his power but he doesn't kill him right away but instead ties him up or locks him up to torture him before he decides to kill him off. Of course by then the hero by some manner or other gets loose and turnes the tables and defeats the villain. This is one basic scrip in many tv shows and movies.

[Phil C]

Originally posted by pirate44
ive heard something about the morality law. thats why in the original 1961 version of Ocean's 11 the bad guys (potrayed as heros) wound up empty handed.


That is true 44 but Hollywood was starting to get more lax at that time. If it had been made about two or three years earlier they would have also have had to have been brought into custody.

[pirate44]

then there wouldnt be that great final scene with the guys walking in front of The Sands Hotel sign. that was my favorite part with Smokey singin the last verse to E-O-Eleven.:)

[Bullaholic]

Just about every successful "classic" movie in each genre has followed a tested and proven recipe for box office success, Phil:

It has to have a hero. (Ex: Luke Skywalker in Star Wars)
It has to have a heroine: (Princess Leia)
It has to have a romance: (Princess Leia and Han Solo)
It has to have a villain: (Darth Vader)
It has to have the good guys: (The Jedi Knights)
It has to have the bad guys: (The Empire)
The good guys have to beat the bad guys.

[pirate44]

i guess the movie i mentioned above was one of the exceptions. it practically was missing every ingredient you listed and was the biggest moneymaker for Warner Bros. to that point

[PhiI C]

A lot of movies were made in black and white and are great movies. Even though they could have been made in color and they would have been great it was cheaper to make them in black and white.

[PhiI C]

Another thing about old movies is that movie credits were done at the first of the movie and not at the end like many movies of today. And only the main credits were given. When the movie ended you knew it was over because it would say The End and that was when it stopped except for a few times when it would give the cast and the roles they played. It would usually only take about one to two minutes to show the credits at the start of the movie too.