The Black and White Time Machine

One of the things that Charlie Dodge and I discovered that we had in common during the New Market Rebels' season besides wonderful wives, a love of baseball, and the ability to manufacture excellent reasons to take a day off from teaching, is a love of old movies.  One night after a Rebels' game we watched Alibi Ike, which Charlie had DVRed.  This 1935 baseball movie stars Joe E. Brown and, of all people, Olivia de Havilland.  We not only enjoyed the light-hearted comedy, we also enjoyed seeing the old baseball footage, the old cars, the old telephones--in short, we enjoyed seeing anything in the background that isn't seen any more.

I recently watched Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Mickey Rooney.  That's quite a line up of talent for a movie most people have never heard of.  This film marked the first time that Powell and Loy appeared together on screen.  Manhattan Melodrama also has the distinction of being the film that John Dillinger watched before exiting the Biograph Theater in Chicago at which point he was gunned down by Federal agents.

The debonair, but self-effacing William Powell and the beautiful Myrna Loy star in The Thin Man series, movies that both Charlie and I enjoy.  The original trailer for Another Thin Man appears below.  The second in the series, it co-stars a very young James Stewart.  Look for the deluxe ice box (or maybe it's a deluxe refrigerator--I can't tell) towards the end of the clip.

So many of these old movies actually feature people talking to one another, often saying witty things.  This is opposed to many modern movies in which the characters are witless and blow each other up.  Watch an old movie and take in the detail and the dialogue and you will find that you have spent a pleasant evening in the company of interesting characters.

I personally recommend most anything with the Marx Brothers, or You Can't Take It With You, with Jimmy Stewart, or any of The Thin Man movies as a good place to start your time travel.

Of course, I once had a student who told me he couldn't understand what was happening in A Tale of Two Cities because the film was in black and white.  Hopefully, the McDonald's instructional video on assembling Big Macs is in color.  In any case, I know that my faithful readers are a rather sophisticated bunch, or at least literate, and therefore, I know that you will enjoy these old films.

Comments

[Anna Kipps]

You Can't Take it With You is an awesome movie! Anything with Jimmy Stewart is good though, I think. We recently watched The Stratton Story, which was a baseball movie he starred in. Not too bad. :)

[Austin]

It's nice to know that someone half my age likes Jimmy Stewart. Both my daughters love these old movies. The Thin Man is a favorite of Becky's.