Favorite B&W movies

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Holiday

Do you mean Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant Holiday?  If you do, I'll love you forever. 

I mean that exact one.  I loved it all the more because it was a total surprise - I knew that Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn were good together, but Holiday has a level of genuine emotion in it that isn't really in Bringing up Baby and I think it's just funnier than Philadelphia Story.

Plus an MST3K connection....brother Ted is a young Lew Ayres - the Professor who needs his medicine from Stranded In Space.

Stage Door is a great movie too.  I love Ginger Rogers.

Much better than Morning Glory, I think.

BTW, a couple I forgot to mention in my list above....

Jezebel (Bette Davis' answer to GWTW)
A Patch of Blue
Mildred Pierce (yeah, it's a soap opera but a good one)
All the Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films.

I'd better stop now

EDIT........Hey, I hit a milestone and now I'm "The FBI Pays Me to Surf"......and my duck got bigger!   

[GalvaTRION]

In defense of the topic- sure, half of all movies are black and white, but what that ultimately means is- "what are your favorite old movies." Also, it means that the movies mentioned in this topic aren't going to be Jaws, Fight Club, The Empire Strikes Back, Spider-Man, etc. Black and white movies means that you're going to get more thoughtful answers than a plain old "favorite movies" topic.

That said. Movies already mentioned:

Dr. Strangelove- if you don't like this movie, you just have no soul. If you really like movies and haven't seen it, you absolutely must.
The thing- For a mostly run-of-the-mill monster flick, there are a large number of surprisingly freaky and effective shots. James Arness FTW.
Young Frankenstein- One of the funniest movies ever made.
Gojira- The original is so damn effective.
Arsenic and Old Lace- Barely on my list. Those old ladies tickle me, but I'm not much for screwball comedy.
Duck Soup, Night at the Opera, Monkey Business- Marx Brothers were comedic geniuses on a level not one comedian can ever hope to attain.
The Day the Earth Stood Still- Such an awesome, awesome sci fi. Gort, while completely unrealistic, is totally effing awesome.
12 Angry men- Amazingly effective considering it's limitations- you feel like you're in the room right with them, completely emotionally invested.
The Maltese Falcon- No one beats Bogey. One of the great, quintessential noir films.
Casablanca- Not usually the kind of movie I like, but... it's just so well made, that you can't help but be mesmirized by the performances. A perfect movie.
Citizen Kane- mesmirizing.
Night of the Living Dead- I tend to dislike horror films, but damn if this isn't a great movie- unjustly saddled with an underground stigma. This movie deserves high praise- not just from geeks, but from the mainstream. (*shrug*) It took almost 40 years for Gojira to be recognized for its artistic merit, this'll get there.
Ed Wood- The only good Johnny Depp movie, AND the only good Tim Burton movie. Yeah. I said it.
Yojimbo- The quintessential samurai movie. The first one I ever saw, and still leagues better than any other movie based on it's story.
The Creature From the Black Lagoon- One of the most effective movie creatures of all time. Beautifully created.
King Kong- Another one of the most effective movie creatures of all time- God, I love this movie so much. When I finally got the DVD, I watched it 5 times over the course of a week. You feel for the monster, and fuck all of ya- I get a lump in my throat. I feel the tears comin'.
MIghty Joe Young- Underrated film, excellent stop motion. When I was a kid, I actually preferred this movie over Kong.




And on to unmentioned:

A Touch of Evil- my favorite Orson Welles movie... heck, my favorite black and white movie, period. Yes, Charleton Heston as a Mexican/studio interference and all. I have no idea how a movie this harsh got made back in the mid 50s.
Rashomon- hilarious. Really, really sad and really, really funny at the same time. A beautiful tragedy, with some absolutely amazing camera work.
Horsefeathers- Marx bros. strike again.
Metropolis- Staggering. Literally staggering.
The Man who Shot Liberty Valence- Print the legend, indeed.
A Day at the Races- Marxes, again.
Sunset Boulevard- Great freaking movie.
The Big Sleep- Bogey can't be stopped.

Aaaaand that's all I can think of. There's more, I'm sure, but... I'm kinda surprised how many B&W movies I really, REALLY like...

[BEERxTaco]

Freaks

One of my all-time faves! Todd Browning, woohoo!

couldn't put Ed Wood on my list even though I own it and do like the film to a point.  I just know how much they screwed around with the facts to make it a real favorite)

You mean it's not a documentary??? 

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Metropolis- Staggering. Literally staggering.

I didn't mention that one because (except for a few hand-painted Technicolor scenes in The Phantom of the Opera all Silents were B&W....

So I figured leave the Silents for a really esoteric thread.

couldn't put Ed Wood on my list even though I own it and do like the film to a point.  I just know how much they screwed around with the facts to make it a real favorite)

You mean it's not a documentary??? 

Nobody is saying it had to be a documentary.  But the lives of Wood and Lugosi were interesting enough that they didn' t have to change things.

They never once mention that Lugosi was married to one woman, divorced and remarried in the time this movie takes place.  Or that this first wife had helped him wean himself off of methadone (which he'd become addicted to while trying to end his morphine habit). which would have been interesting.  But if you were to take this movie as gospel, he didn't seem to have a friend in the world.

And why insult our intelligence by saying that Lugosi was the one in the wading pool with the rubber octopus?  We've all seen Bride of the Monster....that was never Lugosi.

I mean, it's not like "Nightmare of Ecstasy" was lacking in detail.....

[mrbasehart]

I really loved Living in Oblivion, though I suppose that has colour parts in it too. 

[Rufus T]

These are just a few and they are in no particular order.

12 Angry Men
Casablanca
All of the Marx Brothers movies except for Love Happy
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
It Happend One Night
Harvey
Good Night and Good Luck
Inherit the Wind
Eraserhead
It's A Wonderful Life
The Philadelphia Story