Thanks Adrian, here goes
. First I have to say there are times when I don't know why a favourite film is a favourite, besides you can over analyse something to death.......... The only definite crossover point with modelling were the old aurora horror models, in fact, the first thing I ever sculpted was a Boris Karloff Monster in plasticiene. Anyway to get started (and seriously doubting I can keep my list down to 10 per category), the HoRRors
Dracula Lugosi
Frankenstein Karloff
The Mummy Karloff
Ditto for the Hammer versions, also two of the more unusual ones was Night of the Daemon and Eye of the Devil, no real monsters but supremely creepy which brings us to anything written by Nigel Kneale (and if anyone dares to take on "The Stone Tape", don't watch it at night)
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Speaking of Nigel Kneale brings me to British Films in General but commedies in particular (BTW, I forgot "Dead of Night" from Horrors). Let's start with
Anything by the marvellous Norman Wisdom, all of the Ealings, the early Carry On's however, in the specific category of British Comedy, there is one stand alone film, a piece so full of malicious road rage, physical brutality, treachery,wild Jazz music and stupendously fast cars that ............. Allright allright it's Genevieve
. That about rounds this one up apart from the two Tony Hancock movies
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The trouble with categories is where do you cross over? I could now go for war or thrillers, so I'll start with War
One great afternoon, in a local fleapit cinema, my Grandma took me to see the wonderful double bill of Reach for the Sky and The Dambusters, now, there are some films that match these two, but for me there will never be any to beat them!!!!!!!!!!
But just to name some of the others:
A Matter of Life and Death
Colonel Blimp
First of the Few (as with some others, particularly for the music).
the Way Ahead
49th Parallel
12 o'clock High
Guadalcanal Diary (I'm not totally parochial)
and of course Battle of Britain (especially the Battle in the Air sequence, again the music)
Tora, Tora, Tora!
Now for the Crime and thrillers. This Category is fairly well sown up by the Americans (there's no arguing with James Cagney, Alan Ladd, Humphrey Bogart and Clint Eastwood and who would dare), but notable among the British are the Yellow Balloon, the Long Arm, Gideon's Day and Father Brown.
Moving on to Westerns......... How do you define them? there are John Wayne's that are Great Westerns and there are John Wayne's that are John Wayne events. The first include Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the Searchers, fort Apache etc. then there's El Dorado, True Grit and Big Jake etc. John Wayne is a sub-category all by himself
For the rest there are;
How the West Was Won (magnificent and sad at the same time)
Dances with Wolves
the Gunfighter
(another cross over) Paint Your Wagon, my Dad cried with laughter at that one
.
Tombstone
Across the Wide Missouri
and the great Australian western "Quigley Down Under"
Not to forget the contemporary(ish) westerns
Hud and Lonely are the Brave
There are some Musicals in my list:
Oliver
Scrooge
Oh! What a Lovely War
Jesus Christ Superstar
and the HILARIOUS A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum
Now that my typing fingers are worn away to stubs, I'd better wrap up (Yes I know, you wish I had several hours ago
) But just a few Swashbucklers........ ANYthing Errol Flynn (can anybody believe they had James Cagney down to play Robin Hood?????????)
Anything with an AHHHhaaarrrrrgh Jim Lad in it
Any Shakespear Plays but particularly Olivier's Henry V
Charge of the Light Brigade
A Tale of Two Cities (Bogarde and Coleman)
For love and hate at the same time, Cromwell (love Alec Guiness, hate Richard Harris{charging around nicking everyone else's best lines})
Anything Arthurian.
Doubtless I've missed out many great movies and bored everybody rigid but I will not end without a special mention of Alistair Sim.
Best wishes, Gary.
PS. For obvious reasons Walkabout
