favorite Black & White films (in part because they're B&W)

[Rooster_Ties]

OK, I just stumbled on this...

link: Our 8 Favorite Movies That Are In Black And White Even Though Color Was Available

Which also gives me an excuse to start this thread, AND to ask this question...

Does anybody remember an art-house movie from about 12-15 years ago, in Black & White, about a pair of twins who were separated at birth, one having a rather poor ($) working-class upbringing, and the other having an uber-rich, multi-millionaire type upbringing. And if my vague memory is right, when the poor twin discovers the rich twin (after they’re both adults), the poor twin sets out to murder his rich brother -- and then take his place (after all, they are twins, and identical twins at that), impersonating him.

OK, so far, so good. Thing is, the actors who play the roles of the twins (who are 'identical' remember), one of the actors is White, and the other is Black (and I'm talkin' a "Miles Davis" shade of black, at that). Other characters in the movie who discover that they're brothers are "astounded at the resemblance" -- even though one of the actors is lily white, and the other back as night.

Can anyone here remember such a movie (it may have been British), or does someone with better Google-fu want to take a crack at it??

It was SUCH a cool movie (and so incredibly well shot), I'd love to try and rent it sometime -- if it's ever been reissued on DVD.

Edited August 19, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[catesta]

Young Frankenstein

[Hot Ptah]

The Pawnbroker

The Manchurian Candidate (the 1960s version, with Frank Sinatra)

Psycho

Edited August 19, 2008 by Hot Ptah

[Alexander]

"Citizen Kane"

"Les Enfants du Paradis"

"The Seventh Seal"

"Wild Strawberries"

"Psycho"

"Inherit the Wind"

Among many others...

[Neal Pomea]

The Hill (also no music) -- an underrated 1965 movie about cruelty in a British military prison in North Africa

Paper Moon (good period music)

Edited August 19, 2008 by It Should be You

[rdavenport]

Saturday Night And Sunday Morning

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

[Jazzmoose]

Paper Moon (good period music)

Love it!

[Quincy]

Since color has been available only (off the top of my head):

Dr. Strangelove

Manhattan

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Eraserhead

[Rooster_Ties]

Does anybody remember an art-house movie from about 12-15 years ago...

OK, so far, so good. Thing is, the actors who play the roles of the twins (who are 'identical' remember), one of the actors is White, and the other is Black (and I'm talkin' a "Miles Davis" shade of black, at that). Other characters in the movie who discover that they're brothers are "astounded at the resemblance" -- even though one of the actors is lily white, and the other back as night.

Ah, my Google-fu is getting better. I didn't get all the details right, but here's the NTY review of the movie I was thinking of...

Suture (1994)

[blajay]

I liked The Last Picture Show

[Van Basten II]

Ed Wood is a favourite of mine.

[Rooster_Ties]

[Van Basten II]

Wings of desire deserves mention so does Vivement dimanche (aka Confidentially yours)

Edited August 19, 2008 by Van Basten II

[GA Russell]

The 400 Blows

[Chuck Nessa]

In keeping with the jazz theme of this board, Shadows. I probably saw it 5 times the week it showed up my freshman year.

[Chuck Nessa]

The 400 Blows

Wouldn't have picked you as the porn type.

[kinuta]

There are so many b&w films to choose from it's impossible to say. Ones that look especially splendid to me are Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Lolita, Elevator To The Gallows , The Killers and the recent Criterion of This Sporting Life.

For a b&w film shot in the colour film era, The Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There takes some beating

[Brownian Motion]

The Americanization of Emily

The Bicycle Thief

The Grapes of Wrath

The Best Years of Our Lives

[DTMX]

Seconds (1966), directed by John Frankenheimer, music by Jerry Goldsmith, and totally awesome! If you like Twilight Zone-type stories this is the one you've been waiting for. See it before Hollywood remakes it with Adam Sandler - or Rob Schneider.

[paul secor]

Shoot the Piano Player

Jules and Jim

Edited August 19, 2008 by paul secor

[Van Basten II]

The 400 Blows

Wouldn't have picked you as the porn type.

Gotta say it's it's the worst ever translation of a french movie title.

[jazzbo]

Dr. Strangelove

Sin City (well, it has some color)

[mikelz777]

Twelve Angry Men

<<A Night At The Opera

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Edited August 19, 2008 by mikelz777

[seeline]

Difficult question...

Notorious (Hitchcock), for the cinematography alone. I've seen it on the big screen, and have to hand it to whoever did the camera work and editing.

[BruceH]

"Since color became available"? Color has been "available" since the 1930's...so what are we talking about here?

"The color era"? What is this? Color movies became common in Hollywood in the 1950's. But then there was a brief period of producing prestige pictures in B&W in the first half of the 1960's because they figured the films would look better on TV (which was then overwhelmingly B&W) because Hollywood had finally admitted that the TV aftermarket was where it's bread was buttered. When TV programs started being shot and broadcast in color, in the mid-60's, Hollywood dropped B&W like a hot potato and never looked back.

Nevertheless....

The Third Man, The Seven Samurai, Children of Paradise, Trouble In Paradise, Ikiru, My Man Godfrey, His Girl Friday, The Maltese Falcon, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Grand Illusion, Notorious, The Lady Vanishes, It Happened One Night, Out of the Past, Force of Evil, Laura, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Sweet Smell of Success, The Ox-Bow Incident, Crime Wave, etc. etc. etc..........................................(many more)............

Edited August 20, 2008 by BruceH