List: Black and white films

by likeorhate

•  The Birth of a Nation

  The Birth of a Nation (premiered with the title The Clansman) is a 1915 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film was based on Thomas Dixon's The Clansman, a novel and play. The Birth of a Nation was the highest-grossing film of its day, and is noted for its innovative camera techniques and narrative achievements.

  

  37.3%
  

  26.7%
  

  36.0%
  
•  Citizen Kane

  Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. The film is widely considered the greatest of all time and is particularly praised for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film. The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories; it won for Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles. It was released by RKO Pictures.

  

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•  Destry Rides Again

  Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western directed by George Marshall, starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr. and Una Merkel. The original Max Brand novel was translated into an "oater" with the town of Bottleneck set on a Hollywood sound stage.

  

  26.4%
  

  38.9%
  

  34.7%
  
•  Dr. Strangelove

  Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (commonly known as Dr. Strangelove) is a 1964 black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens and Tracy Reed. Loosely based on Peter George's Cold War thriller novel Red Alert (aka Two Hours to Doom), Dr. Strangelove satirized the nuclear scare.

  

  27.8%
  

  44.4%
  

  27.8%
  
•  Young and Innocent

  Young and Innocent is a 1937 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney and John Longden. It is very loosely based on Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles (1936).

  

  41.7%
  

  41.7%
  

  16.7%
  
•  The American Prisoner

  The American Prisoner is a novel written by Eden Phillpotts, published in America in 1904 and adapted into a film in 1929. The story concerns an English woman who lives at Fox Tor farm, and an American captured during the American Revolutionary War and held at the prison at Princetown on Dartmoor. The heroine's father, Maurice Malherb, is based on Thomas Windeatt. In the novel Malherb is a miscreant who destroys Childe's tomb and beats his servant.

  

  33.3%
  

  33.3%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Godzilla (1954 film)

  Godzilla is a successful landmark 1954 Japanese Kaiju science fiction film directed and co-written by Ishiro Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, produced and distributed by Toho Company Ltd. In 1956, a heavily edited version was released in the U.S. as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. The original Japanese version is now available in the country under the title Gojira. It was the first of many "giant monster" movies to be produced in Japan, many of which also feature Godzilla.

  

  71.4%
  

  28.6%
  

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•  King Kong (1933 film)

  King Kong is a 1933 American film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling gorilla-like creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and opened in New York City's Radio City Music Hall on March 2, 1933 to good reviews.

  

  16.7%
  

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  83.3%
  
•  Nanook of the North

  Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic is a silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic. The film is considered the first feature-length documentary, though Flaherty has been criticized for staging several sequences and thereby distorting the reality of his subjects' lives.

  

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•  Paths of Glory

  Paths of Glory is a war film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb.

  

  50.0%
  

  16.7%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Psycho (1960 film)

  Psycho is a 1960 American thriller/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The novel was based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane, who is in hiding at a motel after embezzling from her employer, and the motel's owner, Norman Bates, and the aftermath of their encounter.

  

  28.6%
  

  28.6%
  

  42.9%
  
•  Raging Bull

  Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir '. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite exceeded the boundaries of the prizefight ring, and destroyed his relationship with his wife and family.

  

  42.9%
  

  28.6%
  

  28.6%
  
•  Triumph of the Will

  Triumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler, interspersed with footage of massed party members. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles.

  

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•  Night of the Living Dead

  Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 independent black-and-white zombie film directed by George A. Romero. Ben and Barbra are the protagonists of a story about the mysterious reanimation of the recently dead, and their efforts, along with five other people, to survive the night while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.

  

  33.3%
  

  66.7%
  

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•  Wild Strawberries (film)

  Wild Strawberries is a 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past. The original Swedish title is Smultronstället, which literally means "the wild strawberry patch", but idiomatically means an underrated gem of a place (often with personal or sentimental value). The cast includes Victor Sjöström in his final screen performance, as well as Bergman regulars Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand. Max von Sydow also appears in a small role.

  

  20.0%
  

  20.0%
  

  60.0%
  
•  All About Eve

  All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve," by Mary Orr. The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star. Anne Baxter plays Eve Harrington, a willingly helpful young fan who insinuates herself into Channing's life, ultimately threatening Channing's career and her personal relationships.

  

  6.8%
  

  40.9%
  

  52.3%
  
•  Crossfire (film)

  Crossfire is a film noir drama film which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film features Robert Mitchum, Robert Young, Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame.

  

  25.0%
  

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  25.0%
  
•  The Best Years of Our Lives

  The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from World War II. Samuel Goldwyn was motivated to produce the film after his wife Frances read an August 7, 1944 article in Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by war veterans returning to civilian life.

  

  37.5%
  

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  62.5%
  
•  On the Waterfront

  On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. It was based on a series of articles written in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson. The film received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director.

  

  23.5%
  

  17.6%
  

  58.8%
  
•  Marty

  Marty is a 1955 film directed by Delbert Mann, starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The film enjoyed international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and becoming the second American film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Marty and The Lost Weekend are the only two films to win both organizations' grand prizes.

  

  22.2%
  

  55.6%
  

  22.2%
  
•  Chang (film)

  Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness is a documentary film about a poor farmer in Siam and his daily struggle for survival in the jungle. The two directors of Chang, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, had previously worked together on Grass and later collaborated on the blockbuster film King Kong.

  

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•  The Apartment

  The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and was an equal commercial and critical hit, grossing $25 million at the box office. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Picture.

  

  62.5%
  

  37.5%
  

  0.0%
  
•  The Life of Emile Zola

  The Life of Emile Zola is a 1937 American biographical film of famous French author Émile Zola. It depicts his friendship with noted painter Paul Cézanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement in the Dreyfus affair. The film had its premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles and was a great success both critically and financially; contemporary reviews cited it as the best biographical film made up to that time.

  

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  25.0%
  

  25.0%
  
•  San Francisco (film)

  San Francisco is a 1936 drama-adventure film directed by Woody Van Dyke, based on the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film, which was the top grossing movie of that year, stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy. The then very popular singing of MacDonald helped make this film a hit, coming on the heels of her other 1936 blockbuster, Rose Marie. The Internet Movie Database reports that famous silent film directors D. W.

  

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•  The Great Ziegfeld

  The Great Ziegfeld is a musical film produced by MGM. A fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin. Berlin's work was featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, 1919, and 1920.

  

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  60.0%