what is the oldest movie you have watched?  

This Christmas I sat down and watched It's a Wonderful Life for the very first time. I'm not sure of the year it was made, but it must be old as it is in black and white instead of colour.

A while ago, back in middle school, as an elective, I took classic movies as a class. I thought it would be fun. I thought wrong. I love movies but some things are best left in the past. Now there were good ones like "Casablanca" which I, like almost every woman who has ever watched it, loved. Then we watched "War of the Worlds." It was horrible. Honestly it was almost impossible for my 14 year old mind to suffer through it. Coming from a generation of special effects and the beginnings of CG, it was just something that was almost impossible for me to look at seriously. Now as an adult, I have a new appreciation for that type of movie though. With all our technology, it is so easy to make those things seem believable. But just imagine having only some lights, some motors and smoke! How hard it must be to make something remotely believably futuristic. In a time when cell phones would have been a miracle marvel to the producers, they managed to make something that people looked at in awe and wonder and thought, "wow that's what the future looks like." It makes me wonder what people are going to say about movies like Avatar 60 years from now. Are they going to look at them and say "well they did the best with what they had but their technology was limited and this was what they ended up with." Isn't that a funny thought?

"mrs minerva" i think as i am sure it was made during the second world war.

Hi chimee, well I love the old black and white films but didn't really like the ones before they became talkies. Some of my favourite really old ones were with Greta Garbo, a great beauty in her day, and possibly Queen Christina or Camille may have been her oldest films. Camile is one of the ultimate all time weepies.

Hi chiumee... i can't tell how old these films are but i really like Gone With the Wind and Sound of Music. I like watching these movies over and over. And these movies are already colored. I think the only black and white i have is Casablanca.

The oldest movie I have watched was Nosferatu the first Vampire movie. It was made in 1922. Watched it for a film class on the history of film.

I love classic movies! A lot can be learned from them. For me the oldest film I watched was Pandora's Box (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018737/) , starring the absolutely stunning Louise Brooks. That film was made in 1929 but wasn't released until 1930. I also agree with another responder about Greta Garbo and Queen Christina. Amazing, amazing woman! She's one of the few who was able to make the transition into "talkies" and survive, even though she had a very thick accent. Her beauty and mystique made up for it. It was a huge deal when she made "Anna Christie". All the advertising of the time proclaimed, "Garbo talks!". What I like so much about the older films, in black & white, is the dialogue. It was smart, snappy and extremely intelligent. A wonderful example of a classic film that has been recently remade by Hollywood would be "The Women" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032143/) that had some of the greatest actresses of the day including Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer. The recent Hollywood version flopped in comparison. If you want to watch some great old movies, anything with Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo would be good to start with. What fascinates me too about the older films is the fact that they didn't have the technology for stunts and special effects that movies have today. Most men did their own stunts. Charlie Chaplin was a master at that. Errol Flynn too. The majority of those films were made on "sets" as well in comparison to location shooting that is done today. There was a lot of attention to detail that just gets missed sometimes these days. It didn't take them months to make a movie, usually just weeks. A lot of the subjects too were relevant and often political. Things sure have changed! Just yesterday I watched a black & white film called "Holiday" starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. So much fun!

I do not remember any specific movies. However, I vaguely recall watching some films from around the 1930s in school. They might have been older, put on a projector. So that was an interesting experience. Actually, come to think of it, a long time ago, I remember seeing part of a silent film on television. So that would have to be older but I cannot remember much more than that.

I have seen some black and white silent movies, one I saw in France when I visited a friend. She lived at at studenthome then, and they had a showing with live music and wine :-) I think it was from the twenties, but I don't remember the name or what it was about. It wasn't very long though, but I think it was quite funny.

The oldest movie I have watched was 12 Angry men. It is a really excellent movie and you can google more about the synopsis and what not as I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it. Basically is about 12 men who were picked as jurors to oversee this case. The version I have seen is in black and white. Another one I liked also is Imitation of Life which is about a young woman who struggles with the fact she is black when physically she can pass for white. It is another great movie.