• M (1931)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
• The Third Man (1949)
• Twelve Angry Men (1955)
• The Wages of Fear (1955)

All of these recommendations are great. I’m always pleased to see so many cinemaphiles. I like lists, and have found many of my favorites from them.

Ebert’s Great Movies List is perfect.

The Criterion Closet Picks, see the greats talk about the greats.

The Janus Collection has a lifetime of stuff.

I’m a huge fan of the Marx Brothers. All their movies are in black and white. Their best movies (in my opinion) are:

• Horse Feathers
• Monkey Business
• Duck Soup
• A Night at the Opera

Abbott and Costello had some good movies too. Here are my suggestions:

• Meet the Invisible Man
• Meet the Killer
• Hold that Ghost
• Meet the Mummy

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope made a few “Road To…” movies together, but the one I like the most is Road to Morocco.

My suggestion: once you have your movie list, divide it by year so you can also see the development of film. Like you have the silent films, then there’s a little spurt of musicals when sound becomes available, that kind of thing. You can also see how historical events are reflected in the movies, either by escaping or engaging in what’s going on.

And even if no one recommends them here, throw in a few of the films that redefined film, genres or cinematography - if you watch a bunch of early movies first, you can really see how films like Metropolis or Citizen Cane affected the films that came after them, but you’re only really going to notice it if you’re watching your film list chronologically.

M by Friz Lang.

His first sound film. First film starring Peter Lorre.

Someone is murdering children, throwing the town upside down. The police begin cracking down on all criminal enterprises, and the criminals, working with the beggars, vow to catch the killer themselves.

If you like samurai films…any of the zatoichi adventures would be excellent.

Research

First film

Some like it hot.

Casablanca

The Maltese Falcon

It’s a Wonderful Life

Harvey

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Gaslight! You can learn the origin of the internet’s favorite passive aggressive accusation

Ikiru
Casablanca
The African Queen (edit: my memory sucks and this is not in black and white, but it’s a good movie)
Night of the Living Dead
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Okay I’m going to recommend some highly watchable classics from different countries:

Seven Samurai (Kurusawa)

The Seventh Seal (Bergman)

Psycho (Hitchcock)

The Third Man (Reed)

La Dolce Vita (Fellini)

The Exterminating Angel (Buñuel)

Whisky Galore (Mackendrick)

Les Enfants du Paradis (Carne)

Alphaville (Goddard)

The Circle (Panahi)

Though it was made in black and white as an artistic choice and not from the lack of availability of color film, I highly recommend Young Frankenstein.

The original Godzilla film is a good time, if flawed

The 39 Steps - my very favorite Hitchcock movie. I know, others will say they prefer North by Northwest or Rear Windows or even The Birds, but I just find The 39 Steps completely captivating and charming at the same time. It’s an old war-time story of spycraft and adventure that still holds up, although the cultural reference are pretty stale at this point.