Nostalgia, glamour, comfort — these are just three aspects of classic movies that have kept fans coming back for more over the years. Whether it’s Audrey Hepburn’s timeless style in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Maureen O’Hara’s devotion to family in How Green Was My Valley or Gene Kelly’s legendary footwork in An American in Paris, classic movies truly allow fans to get lost in the saccharine beauty of a forgotten world. We have compiled a list of some classic movies from the 40s, 50s 60s and 70s that we believe will inspire you. You can click through for all of them…
CASABLANCA: This WWII era romance staring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1944 — but it is the beautiful score, exotic scenery and melancholic love story that has transcended decades. Listen to Bogart’s famous line, “Here’s looking for you child”, in this black-and-white film.
SOME LIKEIT HOT: Can’t decide which movie you want? For a little bit of action, humor, and romance, this Marilyn Monroe film is the perfect choice. Original release in 1959. The movie tells the story of two men playing music and trying to cover their identity while running with Marilyn and her all-girl group.
BREAKFAST at Tiffany’s: This book adaptation tells Truman Capote’s story about love and loss during 1960s New York City. Audrey Hepburn became Hollywood royalty thanks to the movie. Holly Golightly, who traveled through the Big Apple from Sing Sing 5th Avenue and 5th Avenue in search of inspiration for the little-black dress, cemented Audrey Hepburn’s celebrity status. If you love cityscapes, and the inexplicably charming main character of this 1960 romcom, you will enjoy it.
WEST IDE STORY: Now is the perfect time to catch West Side Story. This musical was written by Arthur Laurents (Leonard Bernstein), and Stephen Sondheim back in 1957. The musical, which was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, is set on the Upper West Side of New York City. It follows Tony and Maria’s lives as they deal with racism and gangs. After a successful run on Broadway and several other theaters across America, the show was released to much acclaim as a movie in 1961 starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN: This romantic comedy will make you smile, no matter how many times it has been viewed. Considered by many critics to be one of the greatest musicals ever made, Singin’ in the Rain follows Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds as their characters sing and dance their way through 1920s Hollywood and the silent film era. You’ll have a great time and the song will stay with you for many days.
HITCHCOCK’S 1963 horror-thriller about sudden bird attacks focuses on working at home. But, after seeing Hitchcock’s film, it is possible to be content staying indoors. In the film, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) witnesses strange bird activity in different scenarios until the feathered creatures make their way into her home. Hitchcock is widely known as one of history’s most important directors. He used some questionable techniques to make his films, including tying live birds to his lead lady. Tippi spoke about filming the legendary scene which led her to take a week off of filming to heal physically and mentally in her memoir years later stating: ‘I heard Hitchcock yell, “Action!” and right on cue, the handlers began hurling those live birds at me. It was cruel, ugly, and relentless.
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT: One of the American Film Institute’s best movies of all time, this early 1934 screwball comedy follows a coddled socialite’s (Claudette Colbert) attempts to free herself from her father’s governance and in the process, falls in love with a rogue reporter (Clark Gable). The film won the five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. It also received the Best Adapted Screenplay award. The feat has only since been matched by two other films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Silence of the Lambs.
HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY: Equally delightful as it is tragic, How Green Was My Valley follows a young Angharad (Maureen O’Hara) and the Morgans, a hard-working Welsh mining family, during the late Victorian era when some country towns depended entirely on the husbands, fathers and brothers working in coal mines, despite dangerous working conditions. A stark reminder that family and friends are the most important things in life, the movie (which scooped up four Academy Awards in 1941) has since been preserved by the Academy Film Archive and the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
FUNNY FACE. We may not be in a position to travel to Europe at the moment, but we can still live through Dick Avery (Fred Astaire), and Jo Stockton(Audrey Hepburn), who were famously able to travel to France with their 1957 romantic comedy to produce a breathtaking fashion editorial that featured Paris’ best-known attractions. Through many trials, tribulations and exquisite musical scenes written by George and Ira Gershwin, Astaire finally convinces Hepburn (a former shy bookstore employee) that she is not only the model Quality Magazine has been searching for, but the love interest Astaire has been looking for his whole life.
HIS GIRL Friday: What happens to a newspaper editor who is losing his former star reporter and wife? Some serious comedy, nimble dialogue and plenty of surprises — and that’s exactly what you get in His Girl Friday, which follows editor Cary Grant and reporter Rosalind Russell’s final reporting endeavor together before she re-marries and settles down to start a family with another man. Today, the film is cited as an archetype of the screwball comedy genre and has since inspired many more film and stage productions.
ROMAN HOLIDAY: Down-to-earth princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) is tired of her daily duties and instead decides to explore Rome during an Italian tour. A sedative a doctor prescribed her, however, makes the young princess fall asleep on a park bench, where she is found by the chivalrous American reporter, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) who takes her to his apartment for safety. When Bradley realizes who he’s been spending time with, he promises his editor an exclusive with the princess — until he unexpectedly begins to fall in love. Roman Holiday, a delightfully refreshing film will leave you beaming from ear-to-ear.
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: If historical dramas are more your scene, look no further than this epic drama which has since been named the third greatest British film of all time by the British Film Institute and the best British film of all time in a 2004 Sunday Telegraph poll of Britain’s leading filmmakers. The motion picture is so amazing. Based on the life of T. E. Lawrence, an archaeologist, army officer, diplomat and writer, the film brings Lawrence’s humanity to the forefront from his internal struggles with the violence of war to his eye-opening experiences in the WWI era Ottoman Empire — and the friends he makes there.
THE WIZARD OF OZ: From fabulous technicolor to the film’s fantastic music (including the now immortal tune Somewhere Over The Rainbow) this 1939 MGM production has made its mark on history and the hearts of decades of fans — even though it failed to make a profit when originally released by the studio in 1939. The movie is based upon L. Frank Baum’s imaginative children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The story follows Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland, as she tries find her way back to Kansas, making new friends, and enemies along the journey. According to the Library of Congress, the family favorite film is one of the most watched films in movie history and was thus selected by the government agency as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the National Film Registry.
ON THE WATERFRONT: Ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth-greatest American movie of all time in 1997, this crime drama earned instant acclaim when it was released in 1954 with Marlon Brando starring as an imperfect hero who gets involved with mobsters before changing course and testifying in court to help a grieving sister. Even today, the film has a 98 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critical consensus that claims ‘Marlon Brando redefined the possibilities of acting for film and helped permanently alter the cinematic landscape,’ through his work.
LAURA: A 1944 American movie noir, LAURA follows Manhattan detective Mark McPherson as he investigates Laura Hunt, a highly-successful advertising executive. A classic whodunit, the detective questions Laura’s friends, including her trusted maid, the newspaper columnist who claims to have been Laura’s ‘mentor’ and her playboy fiancé. The young, beautiful New Yorker was murdered. The classic will reveal the truth.
THE GODFATHER: The ultimate mob drama and perhaps one of the greatest films of all time, Francis Ford Coppola and his all star-cast, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan and Diane Keaton bring the hidden world of the Italian mafia to light in this instant classic. Inspired by real-life mob boss Frank Costello, the drama follows Don Vito Corleone, his reluctant son and the family ‘business’ through many twists, turns and life lessons – including the famous instruction: ‘Leave the gun – take the cannoli.’
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS: Inspired by George Gershwin’s 1928 orchestral composition, Gene Kelly stars in this movie adaptation as Jerry Mulligan, an ex-soldier who stays in Paris to become a painter after the war and unexpectedly meets the lovely Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron). A truly romantic film complete with orchestral triumphs and serious chemistry, critics have praised the masterpiece for decades, with the New York Times once claiming the closing dance number was ‘one of the finest ever put upon the screen’ and Variety firmly stating the film was ‘one of the most imaginative musical confections turned out by Hollywood in years’.
LA DOLCE VIITA: This stunning movie, which is also known as “sweet life” in English, depicts the story of a journalist who moves to Rome looking for a better life. He wanders around the most prestigious and glamorous society events in Italy while finding remnants from the war and its tragedies appearing in surprising places. Despite the film’s length (it runs for nearly three hours), the 1960 film has stood the test of time and still holds a gleaming Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus that states,’ La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of — or perhaps because of — its sprawling length.’
MEET ME in ST. LOUIS: This MGM Technicolor musical stars Judy Garland. It depicts four sisters’ lives from the beginning of the 1900s, through the seasons winter, spring and summer, as well as fall. The film is responsible for many of the timeless songs that we love and still remember, including Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. The Trolley Song. You can turn it on and sing along, while you imagine yourself in the 1904 World’s Fair.
THE MUSIC MAN: Ahead of the new Broadway adaption of the classic film starring Hugh Jackman as Harold Hill, take a step back in time with the original 1962 cast of singing Iowans including librarian Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones), Winthrop (Ronny Howard) and the music man himself, Harold (Robert Preston). When it premiered, the movie was one of most highly acclaimed of the year. One critic even said: “Call this a triumph or perhaps a masterpiece of corn, small-town nostalgia, and American love for a parade.”
REBECCA: Based on the novel by Dame Daphne du Maurier, this 1940 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the woman who becomes his second wife plagued by memories of de Winter’s first wife, Rebecca. The goosebump inducing flick won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1940 — making it the only Hitchcock film to win the award.
ALL ABOUT EVE: When aging superstar Margo Channing (Bette Davis) takes budding actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) under her wing, she never expects the young girl will turn on her — but in classic old Hollywood style, not everything is at is seems. In 1950, the movie won 23 awards and received 18 nominations, with the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
12 ANGRY MENS: This Henry Fonda production is a court drama about a divided jury that deliberates on a murder case. As personal and professional issues come to light, Fonda and the rest of the jury must decide whether an inner-city teen is guilty or innocent of the accused crime — with a guilty verdict meaning death for the 18-year-old. Bringing timeless questions of morality and values to light, the spectacular film was named the second-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute in 2014, 57 years after the original release.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: A delightful family flick, this stage to screen movie follows Julie Andrew’s Maria from Nonnberg Abbey (a Benedictine monastery) to the home of widower Captain Von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer. Von Trapp employs Maria to be his governess in order to care for his seven children. But the women becomes an integral part the family as the children grow up, the war escalates, and Vienna is taken over by the Nazis. It is a beautiful musical and will help you remember that you are capable of overcoming any situation with just a bit of support from friends.
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER: Considered one of the most romantic films of all time – and the inspiration behind the modern day Sleepless in Seattle – this CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color flick follows Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr’s characters on a cruise from Europe to New York City and the affair that ensues — each promising to meet again on top of the Empire State Building six months later. To see the ending, you’ll have to view this famous movie!
HOW TO STEAL A MILLION: Come for Audrey Hepburn’s groovy fashion looks (all designed by Givenchy) in this 1960s film and stay for the titillating heist that involves Audrey (Nicole), Hugh Griffith (Charles Bonnet), Peter O’Toole (Simon Dermott) and the forged masterpieces the trio pass off as prized sculptures. The hilarious comedy is set with Paris in the background.
C.C., an insurance worker, lives in THE APARTMENT. It’s a mix of romance and drama. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) regrets lending his Upper East Side apartment to his boss Fred MacMurray when he finds out the man is having an affair with Baxter’s crush, the elevator girl. With major Mad Men vibes, Baxter must soon decide between keeping his boss happy (and advancing his career) and the girl he loves — a must watch for anyone in the mood for some serious drama.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: Set in Downtown New Orleans, this southern gothic film based on Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name follows southern belle, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) from small-town Mississippi to the New Orlean’s apartment her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter) shares with her husband Stanley (Marlon Brando). Blanche’s amorous disposition, however, gets her in trouble — and causes problems in her sister’s already tumultuous marriage. The role was largely unknown prior to the film’s release. It made Marlon Brando star and established both Brando and Leigh in Hollywood as Hollywood royalty.