Enjoyable Films in Black and White
by t-xy | created - 29 Feb 2016 | updated - 08 Jul 2018 | PublicNote: this is not a list of the greatest films in black and white. These are all films that are enjoyable and entertaining.
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1. Paper Moon (1973)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
Votes: 52,393 | Gross: $30.93M
2. Divorce Italian Style (1961)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife.
Director: Pietro Germi | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Leopoldo Trieste
Votes: 14,167
3. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,934
4. The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)
107 min | Comedy
A determined priest and a Communist mayor develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Fernandel, Gino Cervi, Vera Talchi, Franco Interlenghi
Votes: 4,842
5. Harvey (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane - but he may be wiser than anyone knows.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Votes: 58,211
6. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 66,031
7. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,794
8. Duck Soup (1933)
Not Rated | 69 min | Comedy, Musical
Rufus T. Firefly is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
Votes: 62,711
9. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 237,175 | Gross: $0.29M
10. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,211
11. Roman Holiday (1953)
Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Romance
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power
Votes: 147,524
12. The Green Man (1956)
Not Rated | 80 min | Comedy, Crime
An assassin is annoyed by a vacuum cleaner salesman determined to stop him.
Directors: Robert Day, Basil Dearden | Stars: Alastair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas, Jill Adams
Votes: 2,321
13. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime
A distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood
Votes: 39,687
14. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass
Votes: 15,532
15. Murder at the Gallop (1963)
Approved | 81 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
When a wealthy old man appears to have been "frightened to death" by a cat, Miss Jane Marple suspects one of his four relatives, all heirs to his estate, of his murder.
Director: George Pollock | Stars: Margaret Rutherford, Stringer Davis, Robert Morley, Flora Robson
Votes: 6,798
16. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker
Votes: 18,794
17. Our Man in Havana (1959)
Not Rated | 111 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jim Wormold, who is a vacuum cleaner salesman, participates as an Agent in the British Secret Service. But he soon realizes that his plans by lying are going to get him into trouble.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 6,094
18. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,709 | Gross: $0.45M
19. Ninotchka (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Romance
A stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 22,874 | Gross: $1.19M
20. The Punch Bowl (1944)
97 min | Comedy, Family
A successful writer, home-schooled in his youth, masquerades as a student at a secondary school to experience all the fun and pranks he missed out on.
Director: Helmut Weiss | Stars: Heinz Rühmann, Karin Himboldt, Hilde Sessak, Erich Ponto
Votes: 6,609
21. Zorba the Greek (1964)
Not Rated | 142 min | Comedy, Drama
An uptight English writer travelling to Crete, on a matter of business, finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Director: Michael Cacoyannis | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova
Votes: 24,094
22. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 517,579 | Gross: $0.28M
23. Modern Times (1936)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford
Votes: 259,211 | Gross: $0.16M
24. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,156 | Gross: $4.36M
25. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 63,106 | Gross: $0.30M
26. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,495 | Gross: $1.02M
27. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,488 | Gross: $2.11M
28. Sabrina (1954)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A playboy becomes interested in the daughter of his family's chauffeur, but it's his more serious brother who would be the better man for her.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Walter Hampden
Votes: 70,275
29. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,095 | Gross: $9.45M
30. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 498,746
31. Adam's Rib (1949)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Votes: 22,906
32. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,514 | Gross: $44.67M
33. The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
Not Rated | 73 min | Comedy, Horror
A clumsy young man working at an impoverished flower shop discovers that the strange plant he has been nurturing has an insatiable appetite for blood, forcing him to kill to feed it.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller
Votes: 19,544 | Gross: $1.40M
34. Ten Little Indians (1965)
Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Ten people are invited to a luxury mountaintop mansion, only to find that an unseen person is killing them one by one. Could one of them be the killer?
Director: George Pollock | Stars: Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian, Leo Genn
Votes: 5,287
35. Murder She Said (1961)
Unrated | 87 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
When Miss Jane Marple reports witnessing a murder through the window of a passing train, the police dismiss her as a dotty spinster when no trace of the crime can be found.
Director: George Pollock | Stars: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice
Votes: 8,561
36. Il compagno Don Camillo (1965)
93 min | Comedy
Priest Don Camillo blackmails his friendly rival Peppone into letting him join a Communist delegation visiting the Soviet Union.
Director: Luigi Comencini | Stars: Fernandel, Gino Cervi, Leda Gloria, Gianni Garko
Votes: 1,980
37. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,577 | Gross: $2.22M
38. The Party (I) (2017)
R | 71 min | Comedy, Drama
Janet hosts a party to celebrate her new promotion, but once the guests arrive, it becomes clear that not everything will be going down as smoothly as the red wine.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Timothy Spall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz
Votes: 20,976 | Gross: $0.75M
39. Cold War (2018)
R | 89 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza
Votes: 61,876 | Gross: $4.57M
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